| General > General Technical Chat |
| I have the feeling that the whole trade war starts from a pile of nonsense. |
| << < (65/145) > >> |
| Simon:
And of course you can argue that the benefits paid to workers are not benefits for the worker but their employer that can now pay them less and make more profit while only paying 20% of that in tax so their keep 80% of the savings. |
| CatalinaWOW:
It isn't a zero sum game. Wealth is created, things like new farmland in the Netherlands, buildings that last more than one lifetime and the like. As a result people today are in some sense far wealthier than they were in the past. In developed societies virtually everyone has indoor plumbing and climate controlled living conditions, things that didn't used to be available to even the fabulously wealthy. But it has some similarities to a zero sum game since total wealth changes slowly, and large short term gains by one group mean taking it away from another. The real problem is that it is really, really complex. And our understanding of economics might be compared to Faraday's understanding of electromagnetic theory. We have some strong empirical relationships, but no theory of everything. This complexity and ignorance is made clear with the example of woman joining the work force. A simplistic view is that income (and perceived wealth) will double. But various factors (like the hidden cost of child care, housework and food preparation that wasn't acknowledged when woman only worked in the home, and the real but maybe not admitted costs of working like clothing and another car) make that change far, far smaller. Add new necessities like cell phones, computers and the like along with health care and education costs rising at rates far higher than general inflation and the whole benefit just evaporates. |
| Miti:
--- Quote from: soldar on June 02, 2019, 02:56:09 pm --- --- Quote from: Miti on June 02, 2019, 02:34:41 pm --- Why do you think we keep people poorly educated and indoctrinated? That makes them gullible. ;D --- End quote --- Who is this "we" that keeps the people poorly educated? Because it seems to me the people themselves do a pretty good job of that by themselves. Most people are lazy thinkers who prefer cheap entertainment and garbage TV than study and improving themselves. Nobody is stopping them but themselves. --- End quote --- "We" the western education system. Just go on youtube and see people on the street asked where the Panama canal is. I read a very interesting thing somewhere and I quote: "Hard times create strong people, strong people create good times, good times create dumb people, dumb people create hard times." And the cycle goes forever. |
| bd139:
Rubbish. Let's not confuse general knowledge with the ability to create, construct, design and improve. The Western education system produces a hell of a lot of people who can do the latter. I know a few people who know where the Panama canal is and the precise dimensions and a million other facts yet would fatally stab themselves somewhere with a butter knife trying to assemble a simple flat-pack furniture item. There's always dumbasses. There's always intelligent people. The fight. Unfortunately intelligence doesn't mean that the people are good. That's where it falls down. |
| Simon:
--- Quote from: CatalinaWOW on June 02, 2019, 05:29:23 pm --- But it has some similarities to a zero sum game since total wealth changes slowly, and large short term gains by one group mean taking it away from another. The real problem is that it is really, really complex. And our understanding of economics might be compared to Faraday's understanding of electromagnetic theory. We have some strong empirical relationships, but no theory of everything. --- End quote --- Yes your right. However you value stuff what counts is inequality. We have individuals that have a ridicolous amounts of money. it has got to the point were after your on a few million the amount no longer matters to you personally it's just a badge and gives you a ranking in the worlds wealthy. Every time i hear the name jeff besos it is immediately precedded or followed by "richest man in the world". He makes news simply because he is n.1. But if he had half the money would he actually be any worse off? would any of them? These people can't even spend the interest their money makes fast enough. The rich and politicians are very good at blaming the poor. This drives what we call the middle and lower middle class that will go with the hate because they fear so much loosing that little foothold and putting them back into the working class because this class thing is bollocks. All class means is "we don't like to talk about money so we call how much you have/earn, class". If we can't actually talk about money we can't sort the social and economic problems out. i have to laugh when i hear about how hard the better paid work. How hard you work has nothing to do with how well paid you are. |
| Navigation |
| Message Index |
| Next page |
| Previous page |