And that statement is as useful as saying "A green sky would lead to plants growing poorly."
We do not, and never have had, a completely unregulated free market. What we do have in the US, and in all other free countries, is a fundamentally free market. This means people are free to choose to work in the field they please, and that prices, products, etc are generally set by free market principles. The result is the most efficient, least corrupt economy humans have yet been able to create.
Trying to spin it doesn't change the reality. The free market works. That does not mean it is a be-all, end-all, that does not mean that regulation is not useful and necessary. It does mean that so far, we've got nothing better, regardless of if you like that fact or not.
You can't know that the free market works, since we've never had a free market, as you claim.
Or, you could take the reality that there was a completely free market before governments got organized, and apparently people hated it enough to organize governments.
But if we've established that corruption happens in proportion to power, and free markets encourage the growth of extremely powerful entities, free markets lead to corruption. Maybe we should pick an economic system that discourages power concentration instead.
Out of curiosity, can you point to any specific individual who wants to have it both ways, or is the problem that both sides are composed of a small number of rational people, and a lot of screaming loons?
I know they have some serious water supply problems in Africa... so... thoughts on just how hard it would be to tow this thing there? What are the challenges beyond boat power and grappling such a large yet fragile mass? How much would melt by the time it arrived?
A scam is where you lure fools in and separate them from their money without giving them anything of value. The market has done that a few million times now. It does other things too, so it's not JUST a scam.
Yeah but detroit has been in decline for far longer than the housing bubble. If you thought detroit was a good investment market, you probably got what you deserved.
And OTOH, if you bought up a lot of cheap stuff in detroit, you may be in for a big win with ford/gm/chevrolet surging.
Real estate was and is a great investment, even at the top of the bubble. If you bought a house (outright, for investment, not financed), even at the peak of the market, you can rent it out right now, and have a nice and steady income stream. Demand for rentals is THROUGH THE ROOF right now due to the downturn.
Seems pretty clearly to be operating on the imaginary level. Yes, you can often trade things with imagined value for things with real value. But imagine it like a game of musical chairs. When the music stops (no further trades are possible), would you rather have a house, or a superman comic?
Yes, there is real value in things that directly affect your survival: food, clothing, shelter, health care. Pretty much everything else is operating on a more imaginary level.
stocks are tantamount to gambling by people who are just far too greedy in the first place
WTF? Excuse me for wanting to have a decent retirement and not having to work until my dying day or depend on social security to keep food on the table. The stock market is integral to the retirement plans of almost everyone who is not putting all their hope into social security (or is independently wealthy). Whether your retirement is coming from a 401k, IRA. pension, etc, chances are you are highly invested in the stock market for retirement.
But that's a proven risky retirement plan. It's a huge gamble to make with your quality of life during the years when you will have the greatest need to be comfortable. Retirement money in the stock market is just crazy. You should invest in assets with more guaranteed returns.
On the contrary. The introduction of animation allowed storytellers to portray more realistically the content they were trying to convey to the audience. It was a huge step forward in realism for fantasy stories.
That's clearly untrue... the capabilities of the new generation of 3d are significantly different from those of the previous generation, and aren't yet everything they could be even now.
Your claim would be the equivalent of saying adding brown to black and white movies if it failed would prove that color was a failure.
Inconsistent performances. Lousy special effects. Terrible production values.
While I do get your point (which I take to be that theatre is in fact 'real'), if you've been to any theatre, you know that they are far from being able to present the kind of reality that a movie can, and if you stretch the definition that far, you may as well accept that a movie is also real based on that definition.
And on the aside, I do in fact patronize the theatre. It's just a very different kind of entertainment.
Right, fundamentally, there is no ownership. Someone can always organize a larger or more powerful gang and come take it. At some point, this frequently escalates to nations going to war in order to do some taking.
So, really, there is no ownership. It's a fantasy created by transient national stability.
Ownership exists independent of government, and is enforced by force, not by pieces of paper. I own what I can defend from taking. A government allows me to pool resources with other like minded individuals to cooperatively defend our assets. The pieces of paper documenting ownership are nothing more than a paper trail used by the government to try to avoid internal frauding of the system.
You prevent them yourselves by subsidizing prices in any competitors area until that competitor is out of business, then jack the prices up to outrageous levels until you've recovered your losses.
Slashdot Mirror
And that statement is as useful as saying "A green sky would lead to plants growing poorly."
We do not, and never have had, a completely unregulated free market. What we do have in the US, and in all other free countries, is a fundamentally free market. This means people are free to choose to work in the field they please, and that prices, products, etc are generally set by free market principles. The result is the most efficient, least corrupt economy humans have yet been able to create.
Trying to spin it doesn't change the reality. The free market works. That does not mean it is a be-all, end-all, that does not mean that regulation is not useful and necessary. It does mean that so far, we've got nothing better, regardless of if you like that fact or not.
You can't know that the free market works, since we've never had a free market, as you claim.
Or, you could take the reality that there was a completely free market before governments got organized, and apparently people hated it enough to organize governments.
But if we've established that corruption happens in proportion to power, and free markets encourage the growth of extremely powerful entities, free markets lead to corruption. Maybe we should pick an economic system that discourages power concentration instead.
So if you 'let business be' to the maximum, you don't have intellectual property ownership. Or property ownership. Or ... capital?
Out of curiosity, can you point to any specific individual who wants to have it both ways, or is the problem that both sides are composed of a small number of rational people, and a lot of screaming loons?
I know they have some serious water supply problems in Africa ... so ... thoughts on just how hard it would be to tow this thing there? What are the challenges beyond boat power and grappling such a large yet fragile mass? How much would melt by the time it arrived?
My summer was chilly. Record cold temperatures all through the sf bay area of California.
It would only be statistically unlikely if you believe that 'natural' cycles have as large an impact as all of human industry.
A scam is where you lure fools in and separate them from their money without giving them anything of value. The market has done that a few million times now. It does other things too, so it's not JUST a scam.
Yeah but detroit has been in decline for far longer than the housing bubble. If you thought detroit was a good investment market, you probably got what you deserved.
And OTOH, if you bought up a lot of cheap stuff in detroit, you may be in for a big win with ford/gm/chevrolet surging.
Real estate was and is a great investment, even at the top of the bubble. If you bought a house (outright, for investment, not financed), even at the peak of the market, you can rent it out right now, and have a nice and steady income stream. Demand for rentals is THROUGH THE ROOF right now due to the downturn.
Seems pretty clearly to be operating on the imaginary level. Yes, you can often trade things with imagined value for things with real value. But imagine it like a game of musical chairs. When the music stops (no further trades are possible), would you rather have a house, or a superman comic?
Yes, there is real value in things that directly affect your survival: food, clothing, shelter, health care. Pretty much everything else is operating on a more imaginary level.
stocks are tantamount to gambling by people who are just far too greedy in the first place
WTF? Excuse me for wanting to have a decent retirement and not having to work until my dying day or depend on social security to keep food on the table. The stock market is integral to the retirement plans of almost everyone who is not putting all their hope into social security (or is independently wealthy). Whether your retirement is coming from a 401k, IRA. pension, etc, chances are you are highly invested in the stock market for retirement.
But that's a proven risky retirement plan. It's a huge gamble to make with your quality of life during the years when you will have the greatest need to be comfortable.
Retirement money in the stock market is just crazy. You should invest in assets with more guaranteed returns.
On the contrary. The introduction of animation allowed storytellers to portray more realistically the content they were trying to convey to the audience. It was a huge step forward in realism for fantasy stories.
That's clearly untrue ... the capabilities of the new generation of 3d are significantly different from those of the previous generation, and aren't yet everything they could be even now.
Your claim would be the equivalent of saying adding brown to black and white movies if it failed would prove that color was a failure.
That was my original point. Ownership exists only so long as you have the ability to enforce it.
Well, theatre has some issues to resolve:
Inconsistent performances.
Lousy special effects.
Terrible production values.
While I do get your point (which I take to be that theatre is in fact 'real'), if you've been to any theatre, you know that they are far from being able to present the kind of reality that a movie can, and if you stretch the definition that far, you may as well accept that a movie is also real based on that definition.
And on the aside, I do in fact patronize the theatre. It's just a very different kind of entertainment.
In case anyone needs a refresher course in goggles:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juFZh92MUOY
Take your color cinematography with you.
Seriously, 3d is closer to reality. Every step closer to reality has been found to be an improvement in the capabilities of storytellers.
Where would Schindler's list have been without the pink jacket?
Let me know when you can no longer buy a 3.5" disk at fry's. Look forward to hearing from you.
You mean sugar cane toad fillets, right?
Whoah! You're right! Thanks, I'm relieved!
Right, fundamentally, there is no ownership. Someone can always organize a larger or more powerful gang and come take it. At some point, this frequently escalates to nations going to war in order to do some taking.
So, really, there is no ownership. It's a fantasy created by transient national stability.
Ownership exists independent of government, and is enforced by force, not by pieces of paper. I own what I can defend from taking.
A government allows me to pool resources with other like minded individuals to cooperatively defend our assets.
The pieces of paper documenting ownership are nothing more than a paper trail used by the government to try to avoid internal frauding of the system.
You prevent them yourselves by subsidizing prices in any competitors area until that competitor is out of business, then jack the prices up to outrageous levels until you've recovered your losses.