As if that was all he did for this great country.
He also started two wars and sold us to the Communists.
And there was the little matter of torture.
I say hang ‘em.
A billion dollars is minimum wage for over sixty thousand years. No one has ever done anything in an entire lifetime to earn a billion dollars. If you made that much, you overcharged your customers & underpaid your employees. Capitalism is value for value, just making money is counterfeiting.
The funny part is saying that ruining an economy and making a billion dollars aren’t that different. If only Forbes were so honest. ChukLitl is right, there’s no way to make a Billion Dollars honestly. All the Billionaires you know are screwing somebody to get it.
Frankly we should be celebrating the destroyers of the economy. The economy is usually a code word meaning : screw you guys. Productivity means more work for less pay. When the economy is up normal people are paying for it. When the economy is down, we could be actually prospering if we weren’t so beholden to the ideology of the free market. Not having a factory job means you can do better things with YOUR time. Your time is value. Renting it to another is not actually the best thing to do with it. We have more time to put more work into real life improving activities in our own communities instead of exporting our time for a quick buck.
Obviously I’m being simplistic but we need to reject the idea that only a big corporation can give us meaningful and valuable work. Work for yourself and those around you instead!
Billionaires have what you cannot imagine and what you long for. It is comforting and easy to lump them all together.
Plenty of them are criminals who get away with theft. Lop their heads off I say.
Plenty of them did indeed earn their riches. Not with blood and sweat but with their minds and capital. They provide jobs and housing. Some even pay well and reward good work. Someone like the Oracle of Omaha buys failing companies saving their employees. He speaks and the markets of the world tremble and shift.
Without investors, many neighborhoods would indefinitely be blighted by vacant houses and crime.
So you can’t earn a billion dollars on a wage or salary. You do it by taking risks and providing more than just your labor for others.
¿Rational? Not. Their minds created a Ponzi economy. Sorry to go Darwinian, but “too big to fail” is anti-capitalist. They screwed up & need to go down. “They provide” underpaid jobs & overpriced housing. “Some” isn’t good enough. “Some” save companies. Most outsource. Who really cares aboiut labor & environmental realities in Indonesia.
Deprive ordinary people of their basic human rights, but give them the “freedom” to complain about it all they want – that’s the evil genius of the American capitalist system.
The American “Revolution” wasn’t a real revolution – just a bunch of rich people bitching about paying taxes. Sound familiar?
RationalEmpiricist,
I recommend, The Divine Right of Capital by Kelly (2001)
Over the past 30 years, the hard, tangible, on-the-street-business economy has had a net loss. Even big businesses have bought back more of their own stock than they have sold in public offerings.
All the profit in the financial sector is less and less about investing in businesses, and more and more about successful gambling on trading and gaming stocks, bonds, derivatives, etc. The financial sector is pulling in about 40% of ALL corporate profits, by extracting wealth from the people who DO invest in real on the street businesses.
Predictable. You reiterate my point for me. Simplistic.
All the people on Wall Street were the bad guys, then the federal government, now all Muslims. On to the next boogeyman.
Don’t put words into my mouth; I am a true capitalist. I never said I was in favor of saving failed explotative corporations. They were supposed to fail and never should have been allowed to grow so big. Capitalism is about fair competition.
Just because I won’t stay silent when good people are lumped in with avaricious criminals must mean I am as bad as the worst of them.
I suppose I will have to prove otherwise. Seize BP and nationalize it. Heavily tax the fossil fuel industry. Federal money for solar panels all over the country. Reclaim our tax money from banking executive bonuses. Actually regulate big agriculture so they stop poisoning and killing us. End all “deepwater” drilling until the industry proves it can clean up a spill effectively and plug an oil geyser. Try punishing companies who hire illegal aliens.
Rational Empiricist,
I presented information about the SYSTEM, and put no words in your mouth. I called no subgroup the badguys or the bogeyman.
You returned insults (“predictable,” “simplistic”); defensive “I never saids..” “I won’t stay silent.”; and then a straw man exaggeration (“I suppose…”)
Where’s the rational and empirical? Where is a willingness to take a hard look at the way we practice capitalism in this country and get a handle on the issues that are destroying both our economy and the nation?
Remember when we were scandalized that bad signer with good images were getting all the attention for nothing?
Remember when we were scandalized that socialites with no talent at anything only needed to do a sex tape just to become famous even though they didn’t diserved it?
vhammon, I was only referring to ChukLitl, so I apologize for not being specific. I share his sentiments, but he keeps corralling all wealthy people into an evil category. I’ll take a look at the book you mentioned. It sounds interesting.
I meant to show with “I suppose” that I am not beholden to the powerful. I actually support the ideas I wrote.
Charles Brobst Premium Member over 13 years ago
As if that was all he did for this great country. He also started two wars and sold us to the Communists. And there was the little matter of torture. I say hang ‘em.
sirrom567 over 13 years ago
I wonder why Ted chose to make the framed Forbes cover so small and partially hidden by the bookcase.
ChukLitl Premium Member over 13 years ago
A billion dollars is minimum wage for over sixty thousand years. No one has ever done anything in an entire lifetime to earn a billion dollars. If you made that much, you overcharged your customers & underpaid your employees. Capitalism is value for value, just making money is counterfeiting.
bikerusl over 13 years ago
The funny part is saying that ruining an economy and making a billion dollars aren’t that different. If only Forbes were so honest. ChukLitl is right, there’s no way to make a Billion Dollars honestly. All the Billionaires you know are screwing somebody to get it.
Frankly we should be celebrating the destroyers of the economy. The economy is usually a code word meaning : screw you guys. Productivity means more work for less pay. When the economy is up normal people are paying for it. When the economy is down, we could be actually prospering if we weren’t so beholden to the ideology of the free market. Not having a factory job means you can do better things with YOUR time. Your time is value. Renting it to another is not actually the best thing to do with it. We have more time to put more work into real life improving activities in our own communities instead of exporting our time for a quick buck.
Obviously I’m being simplistic but we need to reject the idea that only a big corporation can give us meaningful and valuable work. Work for yourself and those around you instead!
RationalEmpiricist over 13 years ago
How simplistic and typical.
Billionaires have what you cannot imagine and what you long for. It is comforting and easy to lump them all together.
Plenty of them are criminals who get away with theft. Lop their heads off I say.
Plenty of them did indeed earn their riches. Not with blood and sweat but with their minds and capital. They provide jobs and housing. Some even pay well and reward good work. Someone like the Oracle of Omaha buys failing companies saving their employees. He speaks and the markets of the world tremble and shift.
Without investors, many neighborhoods would indefinitely be blighted by vacant houses and crime.
So you can’t earn a billion dollars on a wage or salary. You do it by taking risks and providing more than just your labor for others.
At least, that’s the right way to do it.
ChukLitl Premium Member over 13 years ago
¿Rational? Not. Their minds created a Ponzi economy. Sorry to go Darwinian, but “too big to fail” is anti-capitalist. They screwed up & need to go down. “They provide” underpaid jobs & overpriced housing. “Some” isn’t good enough. “Some” save companies. Most outsource. Who really cares aboiut labor & environmental realities in Indonesia.
WarBush over 13 years ago
Carboost you’re not doing yourself and anyone a favor with your “take’em out” rants. Enough already!
wmclay over 13 years ago
“Behind every great fortune is a great crime.” - Honore De Balzac (1799-1850)
sirrom567 over 13 years ago
Deprive ordinary people of their basic human rights, but give them the “freedom” to complain about it all they want – that’s the evil genius of the American capitalist system.
The American “Revolution” wasn’t a real revolution – just a bunch of rich people bitching about paying taxes. Sound familiar?
vhammon over 13 years ago
RationalEmpiricist, I recommend, The Divine Right of Capital by Kelly (2001)
Over the past 30 years, the hard, tangible, on-the-street-business economy has had a net loss. Even big businesses have bought back more of their own stock than they have sold in public offerings.
All the profit in the financial sector is less and less about investing in businesses, and more and more about successful gambling on trading and gaming stocks, bonds, derivatives, etc. The financial sector is pulling in about 40% of ALL corporate profits, by extracting wealth from the people who DO invest in real on the street businesses.
RationalEmpiricist over 13 years ago
…
Predictable. You reiterate my point for me. Simplistic.
All the people on Wall Street were the bad guys, then the federal government, now all Muslims. On to the next boogeyman.
Don’t put words into my mouth; I am a true capitalist. I never said I was in favor of saving failed explotative corporations. They were supposed to fail and never should have been allowed to grow so big. Capitalism is about fair competition.
Just because I won’t stay silent when good people are lumped in with avaricious criminals must mean I am as bad as the worst of them.
I suppose I will have to prove otherwise. Seize BP and nationalize it. Heavily tax the fossil fuel industry. Federal money for solar panels all over the country. Reclaim our tax money from banking executive bonuses. Actually regulate big agriculture so they stop poisoning and killing us. End all “deepwater” drilling until the industry proves it can clean up a spill effectively and plug an oil geyser. Try punishing companies who hire illegal aliens.
sirrom567 over 13 years ago
Join the EU!
vhammon over 13 years ago
Rational Empiricist, I presented information about the SYSTEM, and put no words in your mouth. I called no subgroup the badguys or the bogeyman.
You returned insults (“predictable,” “simplistic”); defensive “I never saids..” “I won’t stay silent.”; and then a straw man exaggeration (“I suppose…”)
Where’s the rational and empirical? Where is a willingness to take a hard look at the way we practice capitalism in this country and get a handle on the issues that are destroying both our economy and the nation?
CorosiveFrog Premium Member over 13 years ago
Remember when we were scandalized that bad signer with good images were getting all the attention for nothing?
Remember when we were scandalized that socialites with no talent at anything only needed to do a sex tape just to become famous even though they didn’t diserved it?
Now it’s sunken to this.
RationalEmpiricist over 13 years ago
vhammon, I was only referring to ChukLitl, so I apologize for not being specific. I share his sentiments, but he keeps corralling all wealthy people into an evil category. I’ll take a look at the book you mentioned. It sounds interesting.
I meant to show with “I suppose” that I am not beholden to the powerful. I actually support the ideas I wrote.
Charles Brobst Premium Member over 13 years ago
Republicans sit on hundreds of House bills that could be fixing the economy.