"Caravan"... What To Do?

[KEW]

I know, but I also know people who don't like it at all and I read a lot of comments that see any Capitalism as bad. I don't know if it's because they dislike competition of any kind or are just jealous about others having a lot of money. I agree with them in the fact that greed is rampant and on other points, though.

I don't know if my comments are one of the ones you are referring to, but as with almost everything, moderation is desirable. Absolute Capitalism is what gave us a "charge what the market will bear" approach to pricing which leads to getting a monopoly on a product then increasing the price, which is commonly being done by the Pharma industry (EpiPens and Insulin are both classic examples). I remember when a philosophy of "a fair price for a fair job/product" was a common philosophy of business. In many circles today (including top Business Schools),that is considered an ignorant approach, but it seemed to work pretty well. I think "what the market will bear" is not bad in a direct context, but the implied "if you can manipulate the market to increase demand, you can increase profit without additional effort" makes it problematic for the overall good of our society.
I think it is understood that this is legal, but not ethical. The Pharmacy companies do it where ever they can, but go to great lengths to try and keep it under the radar of society at large (of course it helps that they are greasing the palms of the lawmakers).
My point is that pure Capitalism is financially a very good system, but to be able to sustain for the long haul, concerns other than maximizing profit should be considered.
If you are a fan of Star Trek, consider that the Ferengi embody pure Capitalism without the constraint of human decency!
I am truly not anti-Capitalism, it is a very effective system for not only financial success for a country, but it also is very effective at driving innovation. However, I think it is imperative that we include a dose of humanity to keep Capitalism in check.

 

[lovinthehd]

Republicans may not have been nice, but they didn't smear anyone like the Dems did to Kavanaugh.

.

8 years of Obama ridicule and the dems were "smearing" Kavanagh unlike the usually nice repubs? That's funny!

 

[John Parks]

8 years of Obama ridicule and the dems were "smearing" Kavanagh unlike the usually nice repubs? That's funny!

And eight years of Bush ridicule and on and on...

 

[lovinthehd]

And eight years of Bush ridicule and on and on...

You can go back to McCarthyism, too. Or Tricky lord helmet's original campaign smear of the woman running against him as a lesbian....and probably before that. But Kavanagh, the less than ideal candidate for a SCOTUS seat, got smeared. Got it. You repub snowflakes are weird.

 

[John Parks]

You can go back to McCarthyism, too. Or Tricky lord helmet's original campaign smear of the woman running against him as a lesbian....and probably before that. But Kavanagh, the less than ideal candidate for a SCOTUS seat, got smeared. Got it. You repub snowflakes are weird.

And what makes you assume I am a republican?

 

[shadyJ]

If you are a fan of Star Trek, consider that the Ferengi embody pure Capitalism without the constraint of human decency!

I think humans do a great job of embodying capitalism without the constraint of human decency. Ferengi are not needed to symbolize that ugliness in human nature.

 

[gene]

I think humans do a great job of embodying capitalism without the constraint of human decency. Ferengi are not needed to symbolize that ugliness in human nature.

The Ferengi never committed mass genocide against their own people. They actually considered 21 century humans as savage

 

[mtrycrafts]

Theyre all part of the problem. Doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, pharmaceuticals. All greedy bastards!
...

I am curious who is not greedy out there.

 

[GO-NAD!]

I once heard a phrase that rang quite true to me - "The worst thing about capitalism, is capitalists; the worst thing about socialism, is socialists". In other words, it's the "true believers" who gloss over each systems' shortcomings, to the detriment of society.

 

[highfigh]

The Ferengi never committed mass genocide against their own people. They actually considered 21 century humans as savage

I wonder how they would see humans before the 20th century.

 

[highfigh]

I don't know if my comments are one of the ones you are referring to, but as with almost everything, moderation is desirable. Absolute Capitalism is what gave us a "charge what the market will bear" approach to pricing which leads to getting a monopoly on a product then increasing the price, which is commonly being done by the Pharma industry (EpiPens and Insulin are both classic examples). I remember when a philosophy of "a fair price for a fair job/product" was a common philosophy of business. In many circles today (including top Business Schools),that is considered an ignorant approach, but it seemed to work pretty well. I think "what the market will bear" is not bad in a direct context, but the implied "if you can manipulate the market to increase demand, you can increase profit without additional effort" makes it problematic for the overall good of our society.
I think it is understood that this is legal, but not ethical. The Pharmacy companies do it where ever they can, but go to great lengths to try and keep it under the radar of society at large (of course it helps that they are greasing the palms of the lawmakers).
My point is that pure Capitalism is financially a very good system, but to be able to sustain for the long haul, concerns other than maximizing profit should be considered.
If you are a fan of Star Trek, consider that the Ferengi embody pure Capitalism without the constraint of human decency!
I am truly not anti-Capitalism, it is a very effective system for not only financial success for a country, but it also is very effective at driving innovation. However, I think it is imperative that we include a dose of humanity to keep Capitalism in check.

Moderation would be great if we could agree on the definition of 'moderate'.

I remember the various theories from my econ class and most of it made sense and not long before that, we got a lesson about ATT being considered a monopoly. Unfortunately, it wasn't long before the glut of MBAs began and it has been nothing but greed, money grubbing, hoarding cash and trying to stockpile as much.....oh, but I repeat myself.

The old Supply/Demand theories were great but only without artificially reducing supply at critical times, in order to raise prices. Easy enough to do by storing the excess for a while or reducing production, often at the expense of workers paychecks through layoffs. The competitive aspect of Capitalism is what makes it great and terrible, at the same time- it brings out the worst in people far too often.

 

[highfigh]

I am curious who is not greedy out there.

Some people are actually grateful and accepting for what they have, even if it's not a lot. Those people aren't greedy. Given the chance, they very well could be if they had a lot more. The ones that suck are the those who are jealous and envious of other peoples' money and possessions.

 

[highfigh]

You can go back to McCarthyism, too. Or Tricky lord helmet's original campaign smear of the woman running against him as a lesbian....and probably before that. But Kavanagh, the less than ideal candidate for a SCOTUS seat, got smeared. Got it. You repub snowflakes are weird.

Being called 'lesbian' is far less damaging than accusing someone of being a sexual predator and when the whole thing was a fabrication, unlike Slick Willy's cases, it should be viewed/investigated as a criminal offense. It's certainly worth a civil suit, if the offended party is willing to go that way but being less of a candidate is no reason to do that- a candidate should stand or fall on their own merits, or lack thereof. Finding that someone was a Communist or worse, a Communist spy, was one of the worst things that someone could happen to someone at that time but I agree- a lot of it was a witch hunt and it ruined many peoples' lives.

 

[Steve81]

I am curious who is not greedy out there.

This guy at least:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-mensch-of-malden-mills/

The fire that broke out at Malden Mills in the winter of 1995 was the largest fire Massachusetts had seen for a century. No one was killed. But the town was devastated. Malden Mills was one of the few large employers in a town that was already in desperate straits.
"The only thing that went through my mind was, how can I possibly recreate it," says owner Aaron Feuerstein, the third generation of his family to run the mill.

"I was proud of the family business and I wanted to keep that alive, and I wanted that to survive. But I also felt the responsibility for all my employees, to take care of them, to give them jobs."

He made a decision - one that others in the textile industry found hard to believe. Feuerstein decided to rebuild right there in Lawrence - not to move down South or overseas as much of the industry had done in search of cheap labor.

He also made another shocking decision. For the next 60 days, all employees would be paid their full salaries.

"I think it was a wise business decision, but that isn't why I did it. I did it because it was the right thing to do," says Feuerstein.

Some might have said the proper business decision was to take the $300 million in insurance and retire.

"And what would I do with it? Eat more? Buy another suit? Retire and die," asks Feuerstein. "No, that did not go into my mind."

They used him as an example when I was in college of how to be halfway ethical.

 

[bikemig]

This is in some ways a made up issue. We could deal with it by making a deal in Washington: tighter border security in exchange for some sort of relief for the dreamers. There is a majority in Congress for this. You don't need the US military, you do need more judges and the like who can process cases. If you want to build a beautiful wall to make Trumpy happy, fine. Just remember Mexico isn't paying for it, we are.

But the man in charge prefers this as an issue to excite his base and it is working. Whatever else happens, the security and economic future of the nation is not at risk because desperately poor people living in countries that are falling apart want to leave those nations.

This is a problem for the legal system, not for the military.

 

[highfigh]

Do you think we should all pay for firemen? Should the more you make determine how many fighters show up to your house? Should we have a cheap plan that requires cops only bring one bullet to your house when chasing away bad guys?

Why should rich people have better medical than poor? We all deserve to right to survive dont we?

We were paying 800 a month for insurance until my wife landed a state job. That was nore than 2 car payments combined! Unless you work for a small company that doesnt offer health ins i dont think you have any idea how out of whack it actually is right now.

We DO pay for firemen- through property tax, municiple fees and when they fight a major structure fire, through insurance. That's called a

You know that thing called the 'Affordable Care Act'? A friend of mine was on Wisconsin's Badger Care system, which was for people who don't make a ton of money and the premium was fair for him. Once the ACA changed the game, he no longer qualified and his premium skyrocketed to more than his mortgage payment. That's 'affordable'?

I have a small business- I know EXACTLY how out of whack it is. Did you know that your employers match your FICA contributions? Did you know that the self-employment tax is our contribution to FICA, at the friendly rate of 15.3% and this is on top of any taxable profit or income tax we pay? Then, there are the admin costs we pay that most people never consider but they want us to match Amazon's prices, right?

 

[highfigh]

This guy at least:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-mensch-of-malden-mills/



They used him as an example when I was in college of how to be halfway ethical.

Halfway?

 

[Steve81]

Halfway?

I'd give him full marks if it was a complete success story, but unfortunately it wasn't.

 

[KEW]

Moderation would be great if we could agree on the definition of 'moderate'.

Actually my main point is that - Capitalism, if left completely unchecked, is not a great system! Seems we agree on that. Certainly the devil is in the details and that makes it hard to reach solutions.

I remember the various theories from my econ class and most of it made sense and not long before that, we got a lesson about ATT being considered a monopoly. Unfortunately, it wasn't long before the glut of MBAs began and it has been nothing but greed, money grubbing, hoarding cash and trying to stockpile as much.....oh, but I repeat myself.

The old Supply/Demand theories were great but only without artificially reducing supply at critical times, in order to raise prices. Easy enough to do by storing the excess for a while or reducing production, often at the expense of workers paychecks through layoffs. The competitive aspect of Capitalism is what makes it great and terrible, at the same time- it brings out the worst in people far too often.

People generally behave differently if they know someone is watching over their shoulder, so there is something to be said for transparency, but I don't think that could ever work out well in competitive businesses.

 

[highfigh]

Actually my main point is that - Capitalism, if left completely unchecked, is not a great system! Seems we agree on that. Certainly the devil is in the details and that makes it hard to reach solutions.



People generally behave differently if they know someone is watching over their shoulder, so there is something to be said for transparency, but I don't think that could ever work out well in competitive businesses.

I see a loss of conscience in people- they seem to have completely lost the ability to consider the effects of their actions.