[CA renter]

[quote=livinincali][quote=CA renter]
This is a huge pet peeve of mine. Lost in the capitalist propaganda of “risk and rewards” is the fact that most rich people take very few personal risks. More privatization of the profits and socialization of the losses…and it will always be this way until people start to wake up (which is finally starting to happen, but it’s a very slow process).[/quote]

It totally depends on how you got rich. The innovators of the world Jobs, Gates, etc probably deserve to have gotten rich. They all took significant risks. The problem is that eventually these people move on from their companies and you end up with Wharton grads running them. Most of these Grads don’t have the innovative skills of those they replaced so they start thinking in the short term and what’s good for the share price. Eventually most of them tend to run the company into the ground, but in the process they get rich. How many companies are still around from 50 years ago, 100 years ago? Not many.

Essentially you want to somehow prevent the well connected from going to Wharton and get the C-Level job because they don’t deserve to be rich in your mind. I don’t see how you can actually accomplish this though.[/quote]

Correct. This is why I’ve always differentiated between founding CEOs and “professional” CEOs (and other executive positions).

But it’s not just a matter of corporate management. The financial industry is one of the biggest problems in this country, IMO. They set themselves up to skim a portion of almost every legitimate transaction out there, yet they do very little to benefit society or the economy. We could easily set up a public bank that could facilitate transactions and even make loans to people and businesses for a fraction of the cost.

“According to the latest data from the Commerce Department, the financial sector now accounts for 8.4 percent of the United States’ Gross Domestic Product, “eclipsing the peak it hit in 2006.” In the 1950s, the financial sector accounted for less than 3 percent of GDP. Meanwhile, financial firms are once again making more than 30 percent of all corporate profits in the U.S.”

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/12/14/389487/financial-sector-gdp-recession/

and this…

http://tcf.org/blog/detail/graph-how-the-financial-sector-consumed-americas-economic-growth

[CA renter]

[quote=outtamojo]Be like the Donald:
“Basically I’ve used the laws of the country to my advantage and to other people’s advantage just as Leon Black has, Carl Icahn, Henry Kravis has, just as many, many others on top of the business world have.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2011/04/29/fourth-times-a-charm-how-donald-trump-made-bankruptcy-work-for-him/
The premise has always been you deserve to be rewarded for risking your capital but where is the risk?

Workers of the world unite![/quote]

This is a huge pet peeve of mine. Lost in the capitalist propaganda of “risk and rewards” is the fact that most rich people take very few personal risks. More privatization of the profits and socialization of the losses…and it will always be this way until people start to wake up (which is finally starting to happen, but it’s a very slow process).

[CA renter]

You know you’ve been proven wrong regarding these issues, troll.

[CA renter]

[quote=scaredyclassic][quote=njtosd][quote=scaredyclassic] Otherwise, vote for the peace and freedom partay.[/quote]

Re: Peace – I guess that would be the Republicans . . Here’s some interesting data (haven’t looked at it very closely, but interesting):

.https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061003172851AAZgpzV

Freedom – do you mean freedom from the government or other citizens?[/quote]

i refuse to conceded that we have more than one political party.[/quote]

Agree with scaredy on this. Politics, especially as it relates to elections and public/official political parties, is nothing more than a dog and pony show put on to make people feel like they have some power over the system. They do not. Every candidate, especially those who are running for powerful positions, is usually hand-picked and fully vetted and approved by people who are NOT elected and who do not answer to us. An odd one (who truly represents “the people”) might slip in every once in awhile, but for the most part, the powerful positions are tightly controlled.

[CA renter]

[quote=spdrun]Germany, Czech Republic (anywhere in EU works well for me legally). If not that, then I’d try somewhere in South America or New Zealand.[/quote]

Have you done much research on these countries, and have you learned their languages?

My maternal family is Austrian, and I have long considered moving there since it might be easier to get citizenship and I’d already have a social/family network, but taking the leap is a big deal. What would push you over the edge? What sort of residency status would you aim for?

[CA renter]

It’s easy to say you’ll throw caution to the wind when you are childless. So very different once you hold that vulnerable, gorgeous life in your arms.

[CA renter]

[quote=scaredyclassic]

someone once said having kids is like living with your heart walking around outside your body.

scary stufff[/quote]

That is so well put. It changes you’re entire perspective…makes you a completely different person. Very scary stuff.

[CA renter]

[quote=spdrun]I hope to be out of this excuse for a country for good by the time I have kids. Far healthier for children to grow up in a country that doesn’t have irrational fears rammed down its collective gullet by for-profit media scum that seize on every abnormal situation as if it were the norm.

Much prefer places where kids walking to school at 8, and traveling on their own at age 16 are the norm, rather than being considered child abuse. And where parents don’t feel pressured to stop living just because they pop a sprog or two.

And where my family’s health care will be covered by the collective, rather than putting us in danger of bankruptcy if it’s needed. Basically, with a good welfare state, one doesn’t have to worry as much about their kids starving if the worst happens, so they don’t need to wrap themselves in bubble-wrap as much.[/quote]

Where would you like to go? Honest question here, as I generally feel the way you do about the direction of the U.S., but have heard from friends and relatives abroad that these other countries are on the same general trajectory, even if they’re a bit behind us.

[CA renter]

[quote=FlyerInHi]I’m not Jewish but I consider myself an honorary Jew.

I think that key word here is “educated.” The same statement applies to academics, Asian Americans, tech employees in Silicon Valley, educated clusters such as RTP/Raleigh-Durham, university towns such as Austin, Bloomington, Ann Arbor, Princeton.., populations in coastal urban centers, etc…[/quote]

I had started to post something about the Jewish intellectual tradition the other day, but decided against it because I thought it would be too controversial. But, since you’ve put it out there…I agree.

As far as political leanings being an inborn trait, I would agree, but think it’s more about empathy than it is about the desire to keep things as they are, though that’s part of the issue, as well. It requires a ton of empathy to have consideration for those beneath you on the power/wealth/status scale, and to want them to move up to where you are, or higher, on that scale. IMO, people who are more empathetic tend to be more liberal, and those who are more less empathetic/jealous of their status in life (true jealousy, as distinct from envy) tend to lean more conservative.

While jealousy and the desire to attain a dominant position and to remain on top are perfectly natural human emotions (and probably necessary for survival, especially in more primitive times), the extent of this empathy/lack of empathy for others is likely at the root of our political/sociological differences.

And I believe that it takes a certain intellectual perspective to be able to truly appreciate another person’s lot in life — especially if it’s very different from one’s own — and to have empathy for them…leading to a true desire to see them attain a higher socio-economic/power status that might feel more “threatening” to those already at the top.

[CA renter]

[quote=spdrun]

As far as crash safety, they’re nimble little cars. I’d rather avoid a crash than survive one. And besides, I ride motorcycles, so I’m not a fearful little kathoey.[/quote]

Just wait until you have kids…

[CA renter]

[quote=FlyerInHi][quote=spdrun]

It never ceases to amaze me that these days, more Americans are interested in seeing other people fail then they are interested in seeing people succeed… Talk about the total Schadenfreude mentality that if I can’t have it better, then neither can you…

Envy-fluenza strikes again..

Wrong: I wish Elon Musk with Tesla, Lockheed with their fusion reactor project, and Sunpower with their high efficiency solar panels all of the luck in the world. Same to anyone building hydro power projects where they make sense and producers of modern fission reactor tech.

I just happen to think that the frack industry, as has existed for the last 5-10 years is an insanely asinine idea. And that oil as energy should have been left in the last century.[/quote]

I agree with you spd, but I take a different tack. Theoretically, not fracking for oil today doesn’t mean that we are wasting resources. We would be saving it for future use while Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela deplete their oil reserves in the present. We would have very strong future competitive advantage.

[/quote]

This is what I’ve always questioned as well. Wouldn’t it be more prudent for us to save everything for the time when petroleum products had mostly been depleted in the rest of the world, leaving us with the most highly-valued assets. Of course, that would likely lead to resource wars, the likes of which we haven’t seen to this date.

Just seems counterintuitive to be doing all of this drilling/fracking at this time.

And could not agree more about the need for other types of energy sources. We should have kicked the oil & gas industry to the curb back in the 70s instead of letting them drive our economic and political policies over these past few decades. As we all know, this is why we’ve spent so much money, and lost so many lives, in these wasteful wars. What many people don’t know is that we’ve been doing this since WWI (and before).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesopotamian_campaign

Time to move on. If we could have spent those resources on R&D instead of wars, I wonder how much better (or worse?) off we would be by now.

[CA renter]

[quote=flu][quote=spdrun]Hopefully, this is just the beginning. We need oil stocks to do down another 50% and massive layoffs in the frack industry in the US. Better the Saudis poison their own environment than we do.

Meanwhile, we should be working on mandating alternate energy technologies, so when Saudi oil does run out (and kick that third-rate country back to the Stone Age), we’ll be set without needing to poison ourselves.[/quote]

It never ceases to amaze me that these days, more Americans are interested in seeing other people fail then they are interested in seeing people succeed… Talk about the total Schadenfreude mentality that if I can’t have it better, then neither can you…

Envy-fluenza strikes again..[/quote]

Like many people’s stance on public sector/union workers?

[CA renter]

Good post, zk. That’s pretty much how I see it. We might have some choice, but that’s within a larger framework over which we have no control. Not sure that qualifies as free will.

[CA renter]

[quote=scaredyclassic][quote=Blogstar]I have always like a kind of healthy hippie kitchen arrangement with lots of seeds ,grains beans, and other food stuffs in little jars all over the place and fruit ripening here and there.
Maybe some live herbs to pinch off, a braid of garlic nailed to the wall. Pot racks with stained pots hanging all over the place. Maybe a pan for some crepes still on the stove. Not too tidy at all but not dirty. Well a little dust here and there some smudges on the fridge is O.K. It would be a shame to sanitize a place like this. I bet the would have a vegetable garden outside.[/quote]

thats kind of what we have…[/quote]

Well, that explains why we all have such different opinions about the amount of (and value of) work a housewife does! 🙂

[CA renter]

I’ve already shown you evidence of those two things. Can’t help it if you have reading comprehension issues.

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