DATE: 02/13/2008 16:32:49 / MOOD: angry

I’m so mad at something I can’t just beat with a baseball bat. It’s called, EVERYBODY I KNOW IS BARELY GETTING BY. Yes, I know a lot of people.

 

I ask my friends how much they make at their jobs. Not much at all. Does this mean I am only associating with the “lower class”? gasp… Why does mention the lower class seem to invoke so much fear into people? Is there really a “class war”? Last I checked, nobody cared about anybody but their own lives. America is full of opportunities for education, career climbing jobs, credit, mortgages, blah blah. Good stuff that you hope one day you will get a piece of! Good stuff that I just assumed was out there for everybody to grab if they chose to grab it.

 

But I’m wrong.

 

Okay okay, so this is where you say “point the finger away from yourself”  or “stand up and take responsibility”. And I say this. YOU ARE WRONG. That shitty fast food job you have now? Well in your adult life you won’t be making more than twice that amount unless you become extremely lucky or have special privileges.

 

80 percent of all American households(2 incomes) make less than 100,000 per year. 20 percent make less than 11,000 and the next 20 make under 30,000.

 

But the homeowners make money right? Nope. You can get an adjustable rate mortgage for a little more than an apartment(800-1200 per month). The term home owner is misleading. If you just “bought” a 200K house technically you are in debt. If you don’t pay that debt, you sure will find out who really owns your home!

 

Now I speak on the subject of “just getting by”.

 

Jobs that were union, full benefits, full time jobs 40 years ago are now part time, minimum wage, no benefit jobs. It’s hard to get a full time job for a damn good reason. It’s cheaper for the companies to hire part timers and pay them minimum wage as opposed to full time employees. This is BULLSHIT.

 

The minimum wage? It’s 5.15 per hour in the US. THIS IS BULLSHIT

 

It’s 2008 now. The “living wage” on average is 19.00 per hour. Imagine that! The living wage is the amount required to lift a family of four out of the federal poverty line. The CT minimum wage is 7.65. Is this because it is expensive to live here or because the labor board is strong? Answer: Choice A. Our living wage would be around 25.00 per hour. Heck, that’s how much my college educated brother makes! After years of college he makes just enough money to stay above the poverty line. THAT IS BULLSHIT.

 

Enough of this! Where is this money? Answer: The pockets of filthy rich CEO’s and Top Managers. Yes folks, these “individuals” made millions all by themselves! Or did they? The fact is, these people made it on the backs of their employees. They rip off their employees to a degree that’s unfathomable. And they are rewarded with being on the cover of fortune magazine? WHAT THE FUCK! These idiots take advantage of people in ways we cannot even imagine. Imagine hundreds of these idiots running around shortchanging the American public. Yes, folks, inequality is the name of the game. Seriously, once you have made 100 million dollars, what more do you need? Your own space program? It’s so ridiculous that the government REWARDS them for HIDING their money in assets. While the lower class(who don’t own shit) get taxed to hell!(on houses and cars that belong to the bank!)

 

You want me to get angrier? OK!

 

2 words

 

HEALTH CARE.

 

65 percent of all personal US bankruptcy are caused by the most popular event.  “outstanding medical bills” We are the only country in the modern world with privatized health care. Imagine the lives ruined by a fucking hospital! Insurance companies drop you for no reason. Coverage is limited. It ruins your credit. Ahh now I’m so angry I’m going to fucking own on counterstrike.

 

Next up: overdraft bank fees(do we not have the technology to prevent and account from going over 0? Oh yes, we do, but god damn Bank of America wants that 35 bucks!). Credit debt(let’s make up interest rates, woohoo spin the wheel! FREE MONEY!). The drug WAR. The Iraq WAR. The War on Terror. ooooh

 

 

Now I’m angry!

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DATE: 01/20/2008 17:00:23 / MOOD: happy

Society is better off when people pursue self interests:Philanthropy is generated by self interest. A charitable donor feels he and the people he helps are better off.

If I were to trade you a dollar for a CD, I am doing it because I value the CD more than my dollar at the time. You can be sure the dollar has more value to you than the CD(or you wouldn't trade it). Both are made better off.

Free Markets do require some regulation:

Voluntary transactions do work for the common good as long as no parties have the system rigged in their favor. In order for the market to work for the common good, the government must fight monopolies, oligopolies, and any other collusion. You need a market where firms compete viciously against eachother to give consumers what they want at lowest possible cost.

 

Economic growth depends on Innovation:

At any given moment, there is a fixed amount of wealth to be distributed amongst all people. As living standards rise, this pie needs to be bigger. In the short run you can work harder or use up resources faster. But the only way for sustained growth is to invent more efficient technologies that allow people to produce ever more from the limited supply of labor and physic resources.

Freedom and Democracy is the best form of government for a free market to exist.

Very good moral and ethical reasons exist for favoring freedom and democracy. But the bottom line: the promotion of free development and exchange of ideas amongst citizens of democratic countries have caused them to have the greatest innovation and fastest economic growth.

Education raises living standards:

Educated people produce more as workers. They also get paid more. The most important thing they do? Produce innovative technologies. Sustained economic growth and higher living standards are only possible in an educated society. The science and engineering sectors particularly.

Intillectual property rights promotes innovation:

People need incentives to encourage them to take risks. Leaving a secure job in order to start a business or develop an idea is extremely risky. Patents and copyrights guarantee you will be the only one making money off of your hard work. Without this assurance, fewer people would be taking the risks necessary to discover innovative living-standard-raising technologies.

Weak Property Rights Causes Environmental Problems.

It's funny to hear anarchists love the earth and hate the idea of land management. People always need to do some polluting. You might not like those SUV's but nobody complains about fire trucks and ambulances. The overall benefit of these firetrucks outweighs the environmental costs, but not the SUVs.

Societies goal isn't to ban pollution entirely(it would be nice). It is to make sure that the benefits exceed the cost for whatever pollution is generated. By giving property rights to human beings to control everything on earth, you force people to take into account not only their personal costs of generating pollution, but the costs that their actions impose upon others.

 

Nobody owns the air. You don't have to pay for the right to pollute it. Consequently, there is way too much polluting.

 

You can't just throw your trash anywhere because the land is owned by somebody. Depending on where you dump your trash you have to pay for permits or get fines(even arrested). Because you have to pay garbage hauling fees to throwout trash, most companies are discouraged from generating wasteful amounts of it.(try throwing out 2 tons of trash, you'll see what happens)

All environmental problems stem from poorly defined or nonexistent property rights that allow polluters to ignore the cost they impose upon others. Always favor the creation and enforcement of property rights systems that force people and firms to be held accountable.

International Trade(when done fairly) is a good thing:

Why do economists hate the IMF? Because they rig the system in certain country's favor. Cough. Cough. Lobbyists!

The hard facts on why the IMF needs to be disbanded and NAFTA isn't a bad thing. Opening your country to new trade means opening your country to new ideas and new innovations. Competition from foreign competitors causes local business to innovate to match the best offerings from companies around the world. The richest and most dynamic societies on the world have been free trade societies. Countries that close themselves off become stagnant and left behind. We think of FREE TRADE. Companies compete fairly across borders. When we think of WORLD TRADE, companies get the system rigged in their favor depending on their home country and lobbyists. Government subsidies and trade restrictions must be condemned.

 

Right wing politicians from the middle east value their heritage and culture more so than the advancement of humanity. They see free trade as a "pollution" of their culture with "american ideals". They are completely wrong as american culture is a mish-mash culture itself. They only hold dear their traditions and fundamentalism. They violently defend it.

 

Public Goods cannot be made by Free Enterprise:

Private firms can provide public goods if they break even doing so. To break even whatever the firm is providing has to be excludable, meaning only the buyer can receive the service. Goods and services non-excludable are open to the public and called Public Goods. Private firms can't make money off of police stations, firetrucks, running the military, lighthouses, fireworks displays, and some public utilities.(street sweeping, snow plowing, etc.)

 

The government must use it's power of taxation to fund these services.

 

Preventing inflation is easy:

The oddest fact I ever heard was from Milton Friedman. High rates of inflation are always caused by the government increasing money supply. It's been proven time and time again.

 

I will post a blog on what's wrong with many popular ideas as well soon...

 An interesting link that breaks down macro-economics quite well:  http://www.dallasfed.org/educate/everyday/ev5.html

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