Originally posted by King KandyIt's all based on assets in the end, it's really a representation of what a country is producing.
Gold is basically the definition of artificial value... why not base our currency on something meaningful?
Free market is the answer that should have happened. It would have been tough for a while, but would have slowly fixed itself, instead of blowing money on businesses and jobs that don't make profit.
Originally posted by Tha C-Master
Free market is the answer that should have happened. It would have been tough for a while, but would have slowly fixed itself
Well it would have crashed devastatingly and then rebuilt. The evil government (OOGHA-BOOGAH!) alternative is to slump rather than crash and then slowly recover.
I know, I know, it doesn't let enough poor people starve to death for your tastes. I just can't seem to care.
Originally posted by Tha C-Master
instead of blowing money on businesses and jobs that don't make profit.
Like which ones? Outside the financial sector US corporate profits are at all time highs and banks are already starting to pay back the money that was lent to them.
Originally posted by Tha C-Master
It's all based on assets in the end, it's really a representation of what a country is producing.Free market is the answer that should have happened. It would have been tough for a while, but would have slowly fixed itself, instead of blowing money on businesses and jobs that don't make profit.
What makes you think it would have fixed itself?
Who knows, maybe still would be better, it is all just a faster way of barter.
That's the cycle it goes into. Boom and bust. Many of the most powerful businesses are built in down times.
Originally posted by Symmetric ChaosPeople in America starving to death? Hardly. Basic foods and necessities aside, giving money to areas that don't produce is simply draining the energy out of something that could produce. It has to come from somewhere. A recession/depression is necessary after the "booming" market we had. Nothing new?
Well it would have crashed devastatingly and then rebuilt. The evil government (OOGHA-BOOGAH!) alternative is to slump rather than crash and then slowly recover.I know, I know, it doesn't let enough poor people starve to death for your tastes. I just can't seem to care.
Like which ones? Outside the financial sector US corporate profits are at all time highs and banks are already starting to pay back the money that was lent to them.
Paying back money with money that has been printed rapidly? It has lost it's value.
I was talking about bailing out failing businesses and things like that? If they were run ineffectively then they should expire. Other competition would soak up the remains.
Originally posted by Tha C-Master
Who knows, maybe still would be better, it is all just a faster way of barter.That's the cycle it goes into. Boom and bust. Many of the most powerful businesses are built in down times.
Regardless of what we all may think, the US dollar is quickly approaching rock bottom. Foreign countries are aware of this, especially China. If you think otherwise, ask yourself: why is China lending less money to the US? How about other foreign countries? And why are other foreign nations - including China - striving to participate in commerce and trade without the US dollar?
The answer is simple, but it carries tremendous consequences. The US dollar is backed by NOTHING, except DEBT.
The US dollar is NOT backed by a healthy manufacturing base, nor is it backed by precious metals - like gold and silver. To keep the US economy afloat - bypassing a default on US debt - the government simply prints and prints money out of thin air. This "printing of money" may have positive short term effects, but it is only kicking the can down the road. For economists and math majors - or even those with common sense - the graph is NEGATIVE in REAL growth.
The US dollar is losing purchasing power. This is why foreign governments and China are stepping in. They want to save their investments, and China is tired of inflating their currency (just to maintain cheap US exports), when they could simply allow their currency to gain value and sell goods to their population of 1.4 billion!
China is tired of the nonsense, and when the gig is up - after the US prints many more billions and trillions of dollars (out of thin air) to keep an artificial economy afloat, and when foreign goverments turn their backs on the US, the US as a Nation will be hammered to the ground. This is a mathematical/economic fact.
This equates to almost nil coverage in universal health care, medicare, medicaid, social security and retirement. This also means, that the majority of Americans will not be able to buy food or even gasoline for their cars. And personal savings will be wiped out! Their US dollars are hyperinflated, hence, worth nothing. Scary? You damn right, and it could become a reality within this decade if things don't change soon - primarily government spending in the form of entitlement programs, which is well above our GDP and tax receipts. [About 90 trillion dollars. Our governments largest expenditure.]
You need to understand that politicians created all this impending nonsense, not you and I. The downward spiral of the US economy - to include US jobs - has been seeping into America some 30 - 40 years ago.
Now, we are merely weeping what we sowed. It's really, really hard to maintain a positive attitude (for me), because the US government is in so much debt, all it can do it continue to print money (out of thin air).
All this does is devalues the US dollar while our Federal debt increases by the billions and trillions (with nothing to back it up). No real assets - not even precious metals. This is not rocket science, people.
American is finished, and it's truly, truly a shame; buy precious metals while you can, however. Hyperinflation is a stone through away. Sheesh... read the darn news already. May God bless you all. And... good luck.
I think we haven't figured out a sound economic model yet, and as a result suffer from the flaws in the system. Much like how for millenia, many treatments of doctors actually harmed the patient. However, I think we will undergo an economic revolution much like we did in medical science, eventually.
Originally posted by ushomefree
What in the world are you talking about? Quit using choice words that have zero meaning in a conversation (just to sound smart). Explain yourself, instead. What are you talking about?
both "free-market capitalism" and "communism" are fantastic theories of social and economic organization that make claims about how humans will behave in a given economy.
however, because the assumptions of human behaviour in both of these systems are flawed, the theories themselves are flawed. In both, generally, it is assumed that somehow human nature will move away from the collusion of the powerful with those who operate the economy, or that people wont act for their immediate self interest against their long term interests. Psychologists have shown for the past 2-3 decades (with little interest from economists unfortunatly) how most of the underlying principles economic theories are based upon are flawed in fundamental ways. People just don't behave in a way that makes either a totally free market or a totally controlled market the best option.
At the very least, neither system is set up in a way that its ideas are going to be meaningful in the current economic context. State control for the sake of state control is no better or worse than is free market for the sake of the free market. Both are ideologically and emotionally based ideas, not based in the empirical understanding that we have of how people behave.
Sorry if what I say makes me look smart. I do try to do better than posting pictures that cry out for people to see how limited my ideology is, I can see why that would be intimidating.
Originally posted by inimalist👆
both "free-market capitalism" and "communism" are fantastic theories of social and economic organization that make claims about how humans will behave in a given economy.however, because the assumptions of human behaviour in both of these systems are flawed, the theories themselves are flawed. In both, generally, it is assumed that somehow human nature will move away from the collusion of the powerful with those who operate the economy, or that people wont act for their immediate self interest against their long term interests. Psychologists have shown for the past 2-3 decades (with little interest from economists unfortunatly) how most of the underlying principles economic theories are based upon are flawed in fundamental ways. People just don't behave in a way that makes either a totally free market or a totally controlled market the best option.
Sorry if what I say makes me look smart.What's wrong with being internally consistent?
Originally posted by Mindship
👆
As a rule, humans are emotional, short-term thinkers who occassionally can be rational; not rational beings who occassionally get emotional.
exactly, right
but the problem with most economic theories, is they assume some sort of rationality behind human behaviour. Every theory of social organization has fallen apart through history because it assumes these sort of core axioms that drive how we behave, and you can see the limitations of all of the "-isms" when we finally do get them as policy by governments.
I'm not sure if you have acess to any journals, but there is one, Political Psychology that I like to look through from time to time. Not a lot of neuro based stuff, but it tends to find those really sort of cynical results about the way people act politically or what have you. You might enjoy it.
Originally posted by inimalistI do enjoy cynicism...almost as much as I enjoy having to horizontally scroll over half a page to read anything on it.
I'm not sure if you have acess to any journals, but there is one, Political Psychology that I like to look through from time to time. Not a lot of neuro based stuff, but it tends to find those really sort of cynical results about the way people act politically or what have you. You might enjoy it.