Not really. Savings is production for which you have not received material compensation (but rather you have received a placeholder, in the form of money--which by itself is worthless as in you can't eat it, can't build a house out of it, etc, but it can be exchanged for those types of things).
If you make something, there will always be someone who wants to consume it. But if all that person has is a little leaf that has "1 dollar" written on it, well, that's not really what you want in exchange for what you have made, is it?
Basically, anyone can consume, which is an act of destruction. It takes talent and hard work to produce, which is an act of creation. When there is more creation than destruction, things are great, but when there is more destruction than creation...you get Detroit.
Where does the money come from? Does it come out of the barrels of their guns? Does it magically appear when they sabotage the workplace, or when they picket?
No, it comes from the capital that was invested by those evil capitalists who, once being workers themselves, saved up their money, and rose through the ranks.
If the fruits of a person's labor only sell for a dollar an hour, you won't be able to pay that person more than fifty cents an hour, no matter how much you protest. Higher wages, and the associated benefits are only possible through the use of machinery that improves productivity, allowing the worker to produce goods that are worth 2 dollars an hour, then five, then ten, then twenty, then a hundred. Of course, the rest of the money has to go to pay other workers who are not on the line--accountants, maintenance workers, clerks, etc, and of course to profit. Now, you can strike and demand a greater portion of that profit, but the problem is, if you get it, then there isn't any money for capital improvement. Productivity is frozen in place until some foreign outfit comes in and usurps the whole market with their lower cost, higher quality products. Their workers wind up getting paid somewhat less, as the savings is passed on to the customer, rather than to the worker, but that is fine, since it means that the workers prices have gone down as well.
Next time you drive through Detroit, think to yourself, "This is the city that Unions built." Then hit the gas and get the fuck out before you get carjacked.
Then he isn't running a business idealistically, he is running it optimally. This is what happens in a free market. If he is able to make more profit by doing so, he can expand his business and help more people. If he artificially limits his profits, then he is hurting everyone that he has to turn away because he doesn't have enough capital to help them.
In a society based on free exchange, it is impossible to do any harm by any behavior in business (outside of violence and violent coercion). If the boss is an asshole, the employees will leave, forcing Mr. Bossman to take on the cost of hiring and training new help. If he's nice and charismatic, then he won't have to deal with those costs, and his workers will stick around and become better and better at their jobs, netting him more money.
Everyone gets a vote. I have voted in companies that I have stock in. They can also work together to form blocs that overrule the "big boys".
When you say "the shareholders can go fuck themselves", you are screwing a lot of people out of their savings.
So basically, YOU can go fuck yourself. You want to steal something? Play some baseball and steal a base. You can keep right the fuck away from my savings.
There are lots of factories. Go next door, if you hear the wages are higher, or that they have better working conditions. Eventually, such action pushes the employers to increase their wages and their working conditions. This happens naturally. The only reason for workers unions is to prevent literal enslavement.
Food and shelter are provided for them, so ALL of their money can go into savings. This means that they will be able to improve their lot in life. Denying them that will drive them back to the farms, where conditions are much worse (logically, if the farms were great, they would never have left).
So compassionate are you, who denies the poor the chance to advance themselves. People like you got the minimum wage installed, denying innumerable minorities in this country starting jobs. This is why we are WORSE OFF now than we were before the Civil Rights movement. Thanks guys.
Tariffs will only send those poor people back to the farm, where they earn 1/8th what they earn in the factories, and work longer hours under harsher conditions.
Economic progress doesn't fall out of the sky. It comes about as a result of savings. These "poor factory workers" are building the foundations for their and their children's future. Productivity doesn't pour out of the barrel of a gun, as liberals seem to believe. It comes from capital investment, which makes a given worker so productive that they are able to command a higher wage, shorter hours, and better working conditions. These things come naturally, not as the result of any given government thug walking in and saying, "increase your pay 4 fold or I'll shoot you".
You've got it backwards. It's the savings that those workers produce that allows them to buy more which causes the cost of living to go up. Increasing capital investment also makes each worker more productive, meaning they will get paid more to do less work (with machines doing most of the work).
The world doesn't progress due to consumption, it progresses due to production. Anyone can consume, and in infinite amounts. It takes hard work to produce. In the west, we have forgotten this simple fact, and it has caused our downfall. Most don't see it, as they are keeping their eyes clenched shut and their ears covered, but even then the blinding flash and the thunderous roar of the crashing economy simply can't be ignored. Fake government numbers and cheerleading media talking heads lie. The truth is that without production, any people, no matter how rich they once were, are destined to decline into poverty.
DO you think that sick days, health benefits, and western working hours came from the sky? No, they came about thanks to capital investment. China is developing their capital structure. Within ten to twenty years, they will be on par with the West at it's peak (we will likely have regressed, due to taxes and regulation causing capital flight--this is already happening so don't lie to yourself and pretend that we are somehow fundamentally superior).
Labor laws don't help nations to develop. They slow their development by denying people the ability to work hard and save. Their savings is where the capital comes from. If they aren't allowed to work hard and for longer hours, they won't be able to save, the capital will never materialize, and their lives will never get better.
Goodies don't come from the barrel of government guns. They come from hard work and investment. Government guns bring only destruction, as we are becoming increasingly aware is the case.
What does he do when he finds someone stealing from him? What does he do when people don't have enough money to pay for his goods?
The scale slides. He's a "heartless bastard" to some extent. You can't give away everything and expect to stay in business. He has to turn SOMEONE away.
Like big government? Like infinite executive power? Wait until the other party gets into office and starts doing things you don't like, and you find yourself powerless to stop them because you signed away all your rights while you were in the majority.
Tyranny of the majority is in full effect. Enjoy your dystopian future. I'm moving to China, the land of opportunity!
The primary US export is inflation. Singapore and China are close to not wanting any more.
The majority of the "service" economy is centered around the export of inflation. Most of the rest is government, or people who are designated to deal with government. Only about 1 in 5 or 1 in 10 workers is actually productive.
This can only be accomplished with the application of capital to make those workers more efficient, thus allowing for higher wages. Government mandate is not enough, nor has it ever been, despite what the Unionists would like you to think.
Right. A meal in a fine French restaurant in Manhattan costs the same as a po-boy from a fast food joint in Louisiana, so that's how it should be in China too.
And we used to win, before we drove up the costs for our manufacturers to the point that they all fled the country. Now the capital that used to be here, adding multipliers to US worker efforts are in China and other countries, making them more productive. Their salaries are rising because of it (they've doubled since the 90's, IIRC). They are becoming a rich nation, while we devolve into a glorified banana republic. It's not their fault, it's ours.
Which proves that both parties are merely separate wings of the larger Fascist Party that took over Washington with the 1-2 punch of Hoover and FDR. The rocket engine propelling our economy was shut off by those guys, and we stopped rising in the late 70's. Now we are going into our final descent, right back into the serfdom from which our forefathers escaped centuries ago.
You do realize that "services" don't really make anything, right? And you do realize that we need things to live, right? And you also realize that now other countries make the things we need, right? You also realize that those countries don't need our services?
Those "Industrial revolution levels" of economics are what CREATED the middle class. If we returned to them, we would still have a growing middle class (China has those values, and their middle class is growing like crazy--it's bigger than ours now nominally). Instead, we have a "service" economy that doesn't make anything useful, and as a result we have a middle class that is going into terminal decline.
You think productive societies collapse when they don't have anyone to give them worthless paper in exchange for their labor? I guess that means that the US collapsed after WWII was over and the Europeans weren't able to afford the goods we produced OH WAIT.
1/3rd of a light year. The brown dwarf is about 2.5 times further than the nearest bright star, Alpha Centauri. Definitely not inside of the solar system, but well within our cosmic neighborhood.
Slashdot Mirror
Not really. Savings is production for which you have not received material compensation (but rather you have received a placeholder, in the form of money--which by itself is worthless as in you can't eat it, can't build a house out of it, etc, but it can be exchanged for those types of things).
If you make something, there will always be someone who wants to consume it. But if all that person has is a little leaf that has "1 dollar" written on it, well, that's not really what you want in exchange for what you have made, is it?
For deeper understanding, read this comic book.
Basically, anyone can consume, which is an act of destruction. It takes talent and hard work to produce, which is an act of creation. When there is more creation than destruction, things are great, but when there is more destruction than creation...you get Detroit.
Where does the money come from? Does it come out of the barrels of their guns? Does it magically appear when they sabotage the workplace, or when they picket?
No, it comes from the capital that was invested by those evil capitalists who, once being workers themselves, saved up their money, and rose through the ranks.
If the fruits of a person's labor only sell for a dollar an hour, you won't be able to pay that person more than fifty cents an hour, no matter how much you protest. Higher wages, and the associated benefits are only possible through the use of machinery that improves productivity, allowing the worker to produce goods that are worth 2 dollars an hour, then five, then ten, then twenty, then a hundred. Of course, the rest of the money has to go to pay other workers who are not on the line--accountants, maintenance workers, clerks, etc, and of course to profit. Now, you can strike and demand a greater portion of that profit, but the problem is, if you get it, then there isn't any money for capital improvement. Productivity is frozen in place until some foreign outfit comes in and usurps the whole market with their lower cost, higher quality products. Their workers wind up getting paid somewhat less, as the savings is passed on to the customer, rather than to the worker, but that is fine, since it means that the workers prices have gone down as well.
Next time you drive through Detroit, think to yourself, "This is the city that Unions built." Then hit the gas and get the fuck out before you get carjacked.
Then he isn't running a business idealistically, he is running it optimally. This is what happens in a free market. If he is able to make more profit by doing so, he can expand his business and help more people. If he artificially limits his profits, then he is hurting everyone that he has to turn away because he doesn't have enough capital to help them.
In a society based on free exchange, it is impossible to do any harm by any behavior in business (outside of violence and violent coercion). If the boss is an asshole, the employees will leave, forcing Mr. Bossman to take on the cost of hiring and training new help. If he's nice and charismatic, then he won't have to deal with those costs, and his workers will stick around and become better and better at their jobs, netting him more money.
Everyone gets a vote. I have voted in companies that I have stock in. They can also work together to form blocs that overrule the "big boys".
When you say "the shareholders can go fuck themselves", you are screwing a lot of people out of their savings.
So basically, YOU can go fuck yourself. You want to steal something? Play some baseball and steal a base. You can keep right the fuck away from my savings.
There are lots of factories. Go next door, if you hear the wages are higher, or that they have better working conditions. Eventually, such action pushes the employers to increase their wages and their working conditions. This happens naturally. The only reason for workers unions is to prevent literal enslavement.
Food and shelter are provided for them, so ALL of their money can go into savings. This means that they will be able to improve their lot in life. Denying them that will drive them back to the farms, where conditions are much worse (logically, if the farms were great, they would never have left).
So compassionate are you, who denies the poor the chance to advance themselves. People like you got the minimum wage installed, denying innumerable minorities in this country starting jobs. This is why we are WORSE OFF now than we were before the Civil Rights movement. Thanks guys.
You would rather they starved? That is the choice.
Tariffs will only send those poor people back to the farm, where they earn 1/8th what they earn in the factories, and work longer hours under harsher conditions.
Economic progress doesn't fall out of the sky. It comes about as a result of savings. These "poor factory workers" are building the foundations for their and their children's future. Productivity doesn't pour out of the barrel of a gun, as liberals seem to believe. It comes from capital investment, which makes a given worker so productive that they are able to command a higher wage, shorter hours, and better working conditions. These things come naturally, not as the result of any given government thug walking in and saying, "increase your pay 4 fold or I'll shoot you".
You've got it backwards. It's the savings that those workers produce that allows them to buy more which causes the cost of living to go up. Increasing capital investment also makes each worker more productive, meaning they will get paid more to do less work (with machines doing most of the work).
The world doesn't progress due to consumption, it progresses due to production. Anyone can consume, and in infinite amounts. It takes hard work to produce. In the west, we have forgotten this simple fact, and it has caused our downfall. Most don't see it, as they are keeping their eyes clenched shut and their ears covered, but even then the blinding flash and the thunderous roar of the crashing economy simply can't be ignored. Fake government numbers and cheerleading media talking heads lie. The truth is that without production, any people, no matter how rich they once were, are destined to decline into poverty.
DO you think that sick days, health benefits, and western working hours came from the sky? No, they came about thanks to capital investment. China is developing their capital structure. Within ten to twenty years, they will be on par with the West at it's peak (we will likely have regressed, due to taxes and regulation causing capital flight--this is already happening so don't lie to yourself and pretend that we are somehow fundamentally superior).
Labor laws don't help nations to develop. They slow their development by denying people the ability to work hard and save. Their savings is where the capital comes from. If they aren't allowed to work hard and for longer hours, they won't be able to save, the capital will never materialize, and their lives will never get better.
Goodies don't come from the barrel of government guns. They come from hard work and investment. Government guns bring only destruction, as we are becoming increasingly aware is the case.
Right, because there is only one factory in China, and only one line of work that is available to all people.
Sigh.
What does he do when he finds someone stealing from him? What does he do when people don't have enough money to pay for his goods?
The scale slides. He's a "heartless bastard" to some extent. You can't give away everything and expect to stay in business. He has to turn SOMEONE away.
Like your mother and father, and your neighbors?
Regular people own stocks too.
I'm impatient with this story already!
You COULD do both. Should they happen to see you, they will see you in the wrong spot, and you can take them all out in quick succession no problem.
Like big government? Like infinite executive power? Wait until the other party gets into office and starts doing things you don't like, and you find yourself powerless to stop them because you signed away all your rights while you were in the majority.
Tyranny of the majority is in full effect. Enjoy your dystopian future. I'm moving to China, the land of opportunity!
Guess what? The market IS broken.
The primary US export is inflation. Singapore and China are close to not wanting any more.
The majority of the "service" economy is centered around the export of inflation. Most of the rest is government, or people who are designated to deal with government. Only about 1 in 5 or 1 in 10 workers is actually productive.
This can only be accomplished with the application of capital to make those workers more efficient, thus allowing for higher wages. Government mandate is not enough, nor has it ever been, despite what the Unionists would like you to think.
Right. A meal in a fine French restaurant in Manhattan costs the same as a po-boy from a fast food joint in Louisiana, so that's how it should be in China too.
And we used to win, before we drove up the costs for our manufacturers to the point that they all fled the country. Now the capital that used to be here, adding multipliers to US worker efforts are in China and other countries, making them more productive. Their salaries are rising because of it (they've doubled since the 90's, IIRC). They are becoming a rich nation, while we devolve into a glorified banana republic. It's not their fault, it's ours.
Which proves that both parties are merely separate wings of the larger Fascist Party that took over Washington with the 1-2 punch of Hoover and FDR. The rocket engine propelling our economy was shut off by those guys, and we stopped rising in the late 70's. Now we are going into our final descent, right back into the serfdom from which our forefathers escaped centuries ago.
You do realize that "services" don't really make anything, right? And you do realize that we need things to live, right? And you also realize that now other countries make the things we need, right? You also realize that those countries don't need our services?
Those "Industrial revolution levels" of economics are what CREATED the middle class. If we returned to them, we would still have a growing middle class (China has those values, and their middle class is growing like crazy--it's bigger than ours now nominally). Instead, we have a "service" economy that doesn't make anything useful, and as a result we have a middle class that is going into terminal decline.
You think productive societies collapse when they don't have anyone to give them worthless paper in exchange for their labor? I guess that means that the US collapsed after WWII was over and the Europeans weren't able to afford the goods we produced OH WAIT.
Successful countries?
1/3rd of a light year. The brown dwarf is about 2.5 times further than the nearest bright star, Alpha Centauri. Definitely not inside of the solar system, but well within our cosmic neighborhood.
You think we can send a probe an average of 1/10th C, including acceleration and slowdown?
How EXACTLY does a gut bacterium get it's genes into the seed line of a species?