Thank you, Captain Obvious!
Trickle-down economics didn't trickle down?!? Where is my fainting couch?
But Reagan said a rising tide lifts all yachts.
Is it possible that he lied to us?
Wait a minute. If the wealthy elite aren't investing in productive enterprises, what are they doing with the mountains of cash being thrown at them from the Federal Reserve and repeated rounds of tax cuts?
Oh, right! Capitalism isn't about what is best for everyone. It's not even about what is best for the general economy.
It's only about self-interest, and that means the largest profits. Even when the largest profits come in the form unproductive rentier activities.
But massive profits are always good, right? That's what they teach in every economics class.
So you can just ignore this next quote.
"The rate of profit does not, like rent and wages, rise with the prosperity, and fall with the declension, of the society. On the contrary, it is naturally low in rich, and high in poor countries, and it is always highest in the countries which are going fastest to ruin."
- some pinko-commie named Adam Smith, in a socialist book called Wealth Of Nations
Boy that Adam Smith must have been some long-haired hippie that needed to be punched. Talking trash about capitalists like this:
“People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.”
- more hippie-dippy stuff from Adam Smith
Comments
Sort of 'trickle-down'
link
"You will own nothing and be happy about it!'
I spoke to a woman at a storage place and she said that hers was full because people who used to live in large homes are now renting smaller apartments and don’t have room for all their stuff. When I learned about the created by congress eviction crisis I saw that coming. Middle class folks would rent the newly empty apartments after either losing their homes or just not able to afford them anymore. So where will all the evicted people live now? I don’t know, but many cities have declared living on the streets illegal so maybe some will live in prison or have to live with friends and family which during an epidemic will just see the infections go up and more people will have to declare bankruptcy and then good luck getting someone to rent to them again because of their eviction records and possibly bankruptcy too. Now just imagine that congress supported the working class half as well as they did the parasite class. Not hard to imagine, but that takes you into fantasy land.
The parasites have rigged the economy against us for so long and with lots of support from the free market dummies. It’s not a free market when you pay congress to make it work for you now is it?
Jayapal has been calling for rents to be canceled. But she and her husband didn’t cancel it for people that they were renting to. Talib has been tweeting about access to Medicare instead of promoting her own bill for MFA. AOC has been quiet on my Twit feed. Anyone know if she’s been yada yaddaing?
Reagan didn’t lie you know…
Many yacht owners got bigger yachts after congress transferred trillions to them which should be permanent after 100's of 1,000's small businesses were closed during the ‘epidemic'. See? No lie.
Stock buybacks and increased payouts to shareholders. But during this epidemic they got PPP loans even though they were sitting on all those profits and should have had to take out loans to keep them afloat. But then…. I’ll stop here cuz I could go on forever about the theft from us.
Hey y’all hear what Bezos is up to now?
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
"free" markets
There is no such thing as a "free market". Either government regulates markets to insure a level playing field, or the biggest and most powerful players regulate the market to maximize their own profits at everyone else's cost. Laissez-faire markets inevitably fall into the second case, as do markets regulated by corrupt public authorities as you point out.
The vision of the free-market dummies is a pipe dream. And I'm not sure I ever want to smoke that pipe; it is neither mellow, rich, nor ripe!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Good to see you again
I hope things are going well for you? Or better at least.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.
~Hannah Arendt
And in other news,
water still inexplicably insists upon being wet.
Film at 11. And now, how about them Red Sox?
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Makes you wonder...
...HOW did we get from Adam Smith to THIS?
Why is his name even invoked???
The real kick-in-the-pants, for me, is that Smith's career-launching observation was, 'y'know what? If schools want good teachers, maybe they should pay them more....'
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
I can tell you why
The answer is obvious when you think about it:
The Lion's Share of people who praise capitalism and say that they love Adam Smith have never actually read his books.
And in a similar, but directly opposite rule, the people who say that they hate,hate,hate socialism and Karl Marx have also never actually read his books.
Because I have actually read Wealth of Nations and Das Kapital, I've been in the position to test these two theories, and in 99% of the cases these rules are proven correct.
These rules can also be stretched out in most cases to include:
Most people that hate socialism can't correctly define it.
Most people that love capitalism can't correctly define it.
no shit, gjohnsit
It is just incredible that in my life, decades have passed where I have made an attempt to describe these various economic theories.
They didn't read the books.
I have MANY friends and acquaintances that believe every word on the economy St. Ronnie ever preached.
Great essay, friend!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
That part I get...
...but how did Adam Smith ever become a mascot for an ideology he clearly would've opposed in the first place?
AFAIK, it's not like Jesus or George Washington, where at least there's an institutional pedigree claiming linear descent, or even Ayn Rand who at least was very clear on which "-ism" she preferred (despite panning every politician and party she lived to see claim fandom); Adam Smith was just one of many people who wrote political books, and predated the coining of the "-isms".
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
Smith's work is treated a little more seriously in Chinese
economic education. Finally read Wealth of Nations after it being referenced by multiple Chinese lectures and interviews done for an English audience.
Adam Smith in China (2007 article)
Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.
On the silver-lined edge...
...they finally ADMIT it.
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
The money never leaves wall street to get to the people
The velocity figures tell the story. More money for the wealthy and increasing inequality...
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/v/velocity.asp
compared to currency creation
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Smith on Competition; Stockman on the Trojan Horse
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Adam Smith:
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David Stockman:
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I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.