May 16, 2012
-
REALLY? RE: Occupy Wall Street
About two weeks back I posted this image on my blog:
And some of the reactions I got were… well, baffling to me (these are all direct quotes):
- Since when do Americans demonize success and wealth?
- No one is stopping you from starting your own business and becoming wealthy.
- How about we all just work harder if we want more money?
- Want more money? Work harder… It’s not science, it’s logic.
The problem with these statements is that our system is not set so that people with no capitol can just break into the market. In fact, our system is the reason the phrase “It takes money to make money” exists. Working harder is obviously not the answer. I know someone working two jobs, going to school full time and raising a kid on her own, and she struggles to make basic fringe expenses like a movie night for her daughter. It’s most certainly not that she’s not working hard enough. And while we’re at it, do we truly think that the average CEO has started working 725% harder than his/her average employee? Assuming the average employee works 40 hours a week, that CEO better be working 290 hours a week, or about 12 days per week. That’s not happening.
Capitalism is the concept of getting all the money you can. Without regulation, you do that as fast as you can, however you can. That’s why we need regulation on this type of thing.
Comments (16)
I love that quote lol
It’s reasons like this that I give up on expecting people to be saved. People are dumb and just repeat talking points they hear on the news because they don’t understand shit for fuck and need thoughts fed to them. You can show them the data and they can’t incorporate it in their world view. The GOP loves dip shits because they’re sheep, ready to support them in mass, incapable of realizing they’re on the wrong side of the issue. Just look at “Obamacare.” If you poll republicans about the components of Obamacare and they LOVE it. Yet if you poll them on their feelings of Obamacare qua “Obamacare” and they HATE it. Why? Because FOX news told them so. It’s a socialist takeover that helps change health care to be exactly what they want it to be, but call it Obamacare and they need to impeach that foreigner that stole the presidency.
You nailed it!
I always see folks say “we need regulation.” But what regulation, exactly, that doesn’t infringe upon the liberty that makes America, America? You said it best when you did mention that it takes capital to make money. Do you think that can be changed, or that it would be just easier and better to limit what folks can make?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a capitalist, but I still think CEOs are making way too much. It’s not good for stocks, it’s not good for employees, it’s not good for the price of the product/service they are offering. Is it even possible to regulate income AND sustain liberty?
Right, Pakistan and Ivory Coast. Income inequality is known to correlate with drug use, crime, incarceration, life expectancy, infant mortality, … and the list goes on. We can’t get much less equal. A United Nations report suggests (sorry, don’t have the link) that when the GINI coefficient goes too high, a revolution is inevitable.
@grim_truth - [But what regulation, exactly, that doesn't infringe upon the liberty that makes America, America?]
The kind of regulations set on banks after the Great Depression, which started being slowly ripped apart in the 1980s. We were still pretty fucking AMERICA during that time (if I recall correctly, we created a super-soldier who kicked Hitler’s mustache into the back of his head… or maybe I’m mixing history with Captain America comics…)
@GodlessLiberal - It’s debatable, though. While we were still America, were we still free? There are many economists who feel those regulations hindered growth. But how would banking regulations limit CEO wealth and pay? Which regulations specifically would make it more possible for start-up companies to succeed? (companies started by common people, not already rich folks)
The regulations that were dismantled and replaced in the ’80s actually made it so more folks could get loans. Of course, it was the wrong people getting loans that caused the crash, but almost anyone who wanted a loan could get one. Isn’t it rather costs that are keeping folks from being able to successfully create businesses that can compete with the big boys? How can a mom & pop hardware store compete with Home Depot? They just can’t compete with costs. Personally, I prefer small business as the service always seems better, and is worth the cost, to me at least.
Would it be more prudent to address why it’s so hard for you or I to start a good company, or to address the ludicrous pay of CEOs?
I was a CEO about 30 years ago. I was a CEO of a service company that operated in parts of New England, NY, NJ, and Estern PA. We did a volume of over $60 million then, which is probably equivalent to abot 600 to 700 milion in today’s dollars. I did not own any of the company – it was a privately owned subsidiary of a foreign company and I was a “hired gun.” Was I paid a reasonable salary” I thought so, but it was nothing like the salaries today. Would I have worked harder if I were paid more? I don’t see how – I was working about as hard as I could. Would I have worked “smarter?” No way, more money wouldn’t have made me any smarter! Did I know everything that was going on in the company? No way, it was too big. I set the policies, hired executives, played a role in Capital decisions, and watched expendiures and revenues of each decision. Did luck play any part in my success? I worked very hard, I have a high IQ, but I was also very lucky. What did I learn -” supply side” economics is a buch of crap. We hired and bought new equipment to meet demand. When there was little demand and we had a surplus of cash, we either bought a competitor with the idea of producing with less labor or bought labor-saving equipment. We NEVER increased labor just because we had a surplus of capital.
FUCK THOSE OCCUPIER PROTESTERS ON THE CORNER WHO TAKE UP PARKING TO MY FAVORITE SUSHI JOINT.
And that’s the only thing I know about this movement.
But really, FUCK THEM.
They used poor people to drain the system. I could not hold a dollar if i wanted to. Why would you give me a house? I am an economy whore. Another trap, another treat. To make it equal, target the people on welfare until they demand wages to survive the system. That is how it got this bad in my opinion.
I’m all for socialism, always have been … but is it really the job of protesters to change the system. If they do then they’re kind of ruining the point of democracy which is that everyone together makes decisions, rather than a small group.
Because this particular group is the “underdog” of the situation people aren’t really seeing them for what they are.
I love Bill Maher.
And I hate the excuse people give of, “Well, you’re/they’re just lazy/jealous.”
Bill should know. He is pretty rich.
@grim_truth - Regulations like, oh, I don’t know, you can’t gamble with other people’s money? You can’t lie to people? The interest rate you charge has to be fair and openly disclosed?
Regulations like you can’t hide your money in the Caymans? You actually have to pay the same taxes as everyone else?
Regulations like you can’t place bets against your own customers?
Are those the kind of regulations you think would take away what it means to be American? (If so, I don’t think I want to be American anymore; apparently “American” means you lie, and steal, and gamble with other people’s money!)
These are the kinds of regulations that people are seriously talking about. No one is saying “you can’t make money”. No one is saying “you can’t start a business”. Caps would be placed not on CEO pay—but on the CEO/employee ratio, so that if you want to make more money, you’ve got to pay your employees more too; you can’t just keep it all for yourself.
These are common-sense regulations that very well could increase economic growth.
In fact, it’s more than that. No only do regulations not undermine markets:
Regulations are what makes it a market in the first place.
Without regulations, you can lie, you can cheat, you can steal. No one can buy and sell fairly or honestly, because the whole system is chaos and deceit. This is pretty much what our financial system has become (albeit not quite). The only way you get a market—instead of a war—is when you have regulations that protect people from lying, cheating, and stealing.
Mitt Romney told everyone that if they want to start their own business they should just borrow money from their parents.
My sister has epilepsy. Her Kepra is 900 dollars a month. Because of what my dad earns, he gets taxed heavily and pays for people he doesn’t even know. He cannot get a discount for a drug that safe gaurds my sisters life. He also pays for my other sister’s living. She is retarded. Why should my dad pay for people he doesn’t know just so they can complain about not having enough? Any lack of sleep any stressor can and has caused a grandmaul seizure. Her last seizure she went right into a brick wall at the neighbors then slammed on the pavement and got a bad concusion. What makes you entitled to the money that protects her? What have you done and why should you get it? The argument about free contraception is stupid. Rush Limbaugh is a moron and should have never said those things. However, I don’t support the idea. If you want to have sex get condoms. If you don’t want to buy them have the other person get them. It’s as simple as that, and there are also other methods. I also doubt Obama will help the gay community. Which is another reason I dislike him. Something does need to happen about that they are entitled to marry and love and hold whoever they want with passion and pride.
WebRepOverall ratingThis site has no rating(not enough votes)I think this is the best blog I have been through all this day.our clients