Free Market Fundamentalist Ideology is based on a Logical Fallacy.

Further to that, govt is ultimately the authority under which corporate personhood exists at all. In a free/unregulated market, if someone tried to sell a product in the name of a 'person' that was known to only exist on paper, everyone would be screaming 'scam!' and the market would reject such a comical farce. Its considered 'legitimate' only because the bureaucracy of govt makes it so.

 

LMAOROG

 

Corporate greed is what will destroy Capitalism

Capitalism can't survive without plenty of jobs and greedy Corporations want cheaper and cheaper labor

 

GARBAGE, borrowing means printing money leading to inflation. End of story.

 

But private banks have lent far more money into existence for private borrowers seeking to take advantage of low interest rates to acquire assets than government has borrowed. See how that works?

 

We're about $20T more in debt than 3 years ago. So you're saying Americans have borrowed more than that. Well the govt adds zero value to everything, they just shuffle money around screwing up the system. Shuffling money to your lobbyists and friends never helped the economy.

 

I've never understood how some don't seem to understand the above.
At any rate, that was very well said, American.

 

How much in debt for junk designed to become obsolete? That is not creating wealth it is just keeping the peons on the treadmill.

 

Capitalism works great for motivated, energetic, ambitious people. Achievers can thrive and blossom with the unlimited opportunities of free market capitalism. Its real tough on lazy bum losers though.

 

Unlimited planned obsolescence while we ignore consumer depreciation. How many automobiles have Americans trashed since WWII? There were 200,000,000 cars in the US in 1994. Lots of opportunities to listen to corporations talk bullshit. I worked for IBM, never saw the word 'benchmark' on any IBM documentation. But technology forced change on IBM not capitalism.

The people who claim to be fans of capitalism attribute the accomplishments of technology to capitalism. Light bulbs have to be invented before investors can finance a light bulb factory. And then deliberately shorten the life spans of the bulbs.

 

You got all the answers don't you. Not so much.

 

Is there something stopping you from pointing out my errors?

I noticed the issue of economists ignoring the depreciation of durable consumer goods in 1976. I read the book, The Screwing of the Average Man by David Hapgood, and concluded that there was something wrong with what I was taught about economics in college. I still had my Samuelson's Economics textbook so I decided that I was going to figure out what it was if I had to read the book cover to cover.

So I would come home from work and read 15 or 20 pages. Eventually I got to:

NNP = GNP - Depreciation

They used GNP instead of GDP in those days.

That was a pretty simple equation so I had no problem. But at the time I was a hi-fi technician for a major stereo chain and I saw consumers buy crappy equipment every day and saw the garbage thrown away every few months.

So about 10 pages beyond NNP it occurred to me to wonder about consumer depreciation. But once you notice something it becomes impossible to not see it. It becomes a bigger deal over time. Almost nobody was talking about Global Warming or microplastic in the water back then.

http://blog.lostsoulscorp.com/articles/economic-wargames/

 

I'm not a car. I'm not a light bulb. I'm just a guy from a middle income background who started as a $78/mo (after taxes) Army Private in 1970 that has since traveled the world, raised three kids (and paid or their college), is happily married to SUPERWIFE, and is comfortably retired in a beautiful home. Capitalism may be tough on lightbulbs and cars... but its been wonderful to a hard working guy like me... and great for my family.

 

Did capitalism invent the technology that enabled you to travel all over the world?

 

You betcha. The Wright Brothers sure did what they did to become rich and famous... and it worked!

 

And Tesla? Faraday? Einstein? Von Neumann?

I don't remember the name of the guy who invented insulin.

What did John D. Rockefeller invent?

 

Tesla invented the induction motor... which is why electric cars, which use such motors, are named after him. He set out on his own, competing against Edison. He lost and died penniless.
Faraday invented a bunch of electromechanical devices and even electrolysis. He received a life appointment to the British Royal Institution, a respected as well as a lucrative position..
Einstein invented numerous mathematical tools that were used to produce all sorts of things, including the atomic bomb. These tools include but are not limited to: Relativity, Entwurf Theory, Physical Cosmology, Energy Momentum Pseudotension, the Adiabatic Principle, and Unified Field Theory. He discovered "Stimulated Emission" which is the basis of how lasers work. He also invented the first working concept for a refrigerator... an idea he later sold to Electrolux which made a whole industry of the product. The government rewarded him well for is work on the Nuclear Pile at the University of Chicago and the atomic bomb.
Von Neumann had an extensive and lucrative career generating mathematical tools, much like a carpenter needs tools, so do mathematicians. Among these are the Von Meumann Paradox, Proof Theory, Ergodic Theory, Measure Theory, Operator Algebras, Lattice Theory, and Quantum Mechanics.
Rockefeller essentially created the American oil industry in too many ways to list completely. He linked drillers and real estate agents, transportation assets and financing... and so much more. At one time he was the richest man in America.
GOD invented insulin. It is produced in the pancreas. Artificial insulin was jointly produced by four individuals who fought over the patent but eventually agreed to let it be held by the University of Toronto, where it remains today.

 

Unfortunately, the Wright airplane patent stifled development of American aeronautics for a generation. By the time of WW I, Britain, France, Germany and Italy were all ahead of the USA in aircraft technology. The same thing had happened more than a century before with the Watt steam engine patent: it stifled development of British steam technology, allowing Germany and the USA to race ahead. Capitalism is better than socialism, but when it grants private citizens and corporations property in privileges like land titles, bank licenses and IP monopolies, it harms the general interest.

 

There is no doubt capitalism is great for the privileged.

 

God? OK!

 

Not even when its designed to support capitalism?

 

I once worked for Boeing helicopters in Pennsylvania. Boeing actually started as a mom and pop upholstery shop. The government needed massive amounts of fabric for their early airplanes, which used a lot of fabric on wings and more. They got a HUGE contracts and that started them in the airplane industry.
What the heck does land titles have to do With technology or bank licenses? Apples and space shuttles.

 

Capitalism is great for everyone. Ask the common kid that grew up to be Tom Edison. Or the starving tech named Alexander Graham Bell. Or heck, ask ME. I started out as a $78/mo (after taxes) Army Private and now own a beautiful home with a jacuzzi on the deck, paid for cars, and three great kids, all of whom have college degrees I could afford to pay for.

 

The people who do not own land have to come up with the money to pay for it. So they must work to come up with the money.

The difference between Manifest Destiny and Lebensraum is that the 7th cavalry didn't have tanks and gas chambers in 1880.

 

The Thomas Edison who lied to everyone about AC and invented the Electric Chair as a psychological operation?