Topic: It's the economy, stupid! (Read 69131 times)

SCD · « **Reply #360 on:** May 06, 2009, 02:13:26 PM »

That and they're one of the most racist democracies on the face of the planet. Very Xenophobic.

patito · « **Reply #361 on:** May 06, 2009, 03:50:24 PM »

I thought the goal to strive for was to become Sweden not Switzerland.

Fredward · « **Reply #362 on:** May 06, 2009, 04:29:59 PM »

Yes, but Catloaf is a dumb. Switzerland is the tiny mountain one with all of the world's money and all the entrances into it dynamited. Sweden is the one with IKEA and socialism and meatballs.

Mongrel · « **Reply #363 on:** May 06, 2009, 07:09:40 PM »

AND ~~GAY BATHOUSES~~ SAUNAS.

OH GOD SAUNAS FOR EVERYONE.

Fredward · « **Reply #364 on:** May 06, 2009, 08:34:45 PM »

No, that's Finland. You guys need to brush up on your European stereotypes.

Kayma · « **Reply #365 on:** May 06, 2009, 08:56:06 PM »

Which one has the chocolate?

Norondor · « **Reply #366 on:** May 06, 2009, 09:05:32 PM »

THEY ALL HAVE CHOCOLATE

Niku · « **Reply #367 on:** May 06, 2009, 09:21:48 PM »

THEN WE MUST HAVE THEM ALL

Kazz · « **Reply #368 on:** May 07, 2009, 12:27:13 AM »

I'm going to be in Zurich in less than 72 hours.

It's true but I can not actually comprehend it.

Arc · « **Reply #369 on:** May 07, 2009, 12:40:46 AM »

UR FACE is gonna be in Zurich in less than 72 hours.

wait

Brentai · « **Reply #370 on:** May 07, 2009, 01:10:27 AM »

Zack isn't taking an airplane to Romania, Arc is just gonna kick his ass all the way there.

Fredward · « **Reply #371 on:** May 07, 2009, 03:03:18 PM »

Quote from: Arc on May 07, 2009, 12:40:46 AM

Zurich

Quote from: Crash on May 07, 2009, 01:10:27 AM

Romania

am I seriously the only one here who knows about countries in europe

Niku · « **Reply #372 on:** May 07, 2009, 03:05:26 PM »

like russia

Brentai · « **Reply #373 on:** May 07, 2009, 03:26:16 PM »

Quote from: Lady Duke on May 04, 2009, 12:33:27 PM

I'm commandeering assault Frog's computer for the duration of his trip to Romania. Expect #ff hassling from me on the 8th-20th or some crap.

I'm assuming Zurich is a stopover.

Which in this scenario means Kazz is going to bounce once on the way over.

Ocksi · « **Reply #374 on:** May 07, 2009, 05:25:45 PM »

As a note, Robert Gates wants compulsory military service.

JDigital · « **Reply #375 on:** May 08, 2009, 11:59:15 AM »

Quote from: Constantine on May 06, 2009, 05:45:00 AM

The idea is that the more we tax them the less productive they'll be or something. As explained by the Laffer Curve, a popular staple of supply-side economics. Basically if we suddenly start taxing them on this money they were hiding, they'll have less money to be able to pay for capital and labor. Then the business will lose productivity and the government will lose taxes and workers will get fired and so forth. Nothing in that scenario about the people at the top taking home less pay, but they worked hard to not be productive so the only sane solution is to fire a bunch of bottom rung workers rather than take a pay cut.

Did I mention how the entire point of supply-side economics seems to be based on making rich dudes even richer?

A good businessman will keep the tax savings unless it's more profitable to put the money back into his business. Supply-side makes the rich richer either way; whether this is at public expense is perhaps debatable, but the public assumes all the risk while the businessman always profits. It's no wonder it's popular among rich people.

This got me thinking about an article on Bob Cringely's site commending an Indian twenty-something millionaire who owned a string of e-book sites, the dodgy sort that hype an e-book using rambling marketing text, copious amounts of yellow highlight and probably-fake testimonials, and charge $80 for the PDF. The comments were remarkably polarized and at first I couldn't understand why.

Then I realized that it depends who you identify with: the buyer, or the seller. Readers who coveted the seller's financial success were sympathetic to the seller because they wish it was them making all that money. Readers sympathetic to the buyers thought it was a scam, because they imagined that they would hate to pay over the odds for a flashily-hyped product.

Perhaps this is the same mentality behind the Tea Party. Middle classes turned out to protest a tax that only applied to much wealthier people, because they wish they were those rich people.

Doom · « **Reply #376 on:** May 08, 2009, 07:00:05 PM »

Source of the commonplace stupidity among middle class people that they can never act against rich people because once they are rich they will have hurt themselves.

This is how the average American thinks.

Brentai · « **Reply #377 on:** May 08, 2009, 07:01:42 PM »

Quote

Horatio Alger, Jr. (13 January 1832 - 18 July 1899) was an American author of young boys’ stories. Alger wrote over 100 books for young working class males, beginning with "Ragged Dick,"

FUCK I can't read any further. I know there's more to read... but... ha ha.

EDIT: Okay, no, seriously, here is ex-fucking-xactly what is wrong with Reagan-and-post-nomics.

Quote

German CEOs only make 15 times more than their employees; Swedish CEOs get 13 times as much. However, the gap in the U.S. is considerably greater. The ratio of CEO to average worker pay was steady until 1979 at 35 times more than an average worker. In 2003, CEOs earned 143 times more than their workers and in 2005, CEOs made 262 times the amount of the average employee.

Holy

.

That means for every dollar I make, my boss gets 262 dollars. Meanwhile, I would be happy with just 262 dollars.

Meanwhile, all the large companies in the US are failing. Hey everybody, let's figure out how to cut overhead spending. We'll start with layoffs.

(PS wanna do some math? Calculate the average rate of expansion of the gap between the upper and middle/lower classes per year. Show your work.)

Royal☭ · « **Reply #378 on:** May 08, 2009, 07:48:04 PM »

Your data is also old. CEOs now make close to 339 times what you make. I personally blame Milton Friedman and his monetarist views. There is this kind of economic singularity when the supply-siders took over where CEO pay skyrockets, average worker pay stagnates, and the middle class begins to shrink.

Doom · « **Reply #379 on:** May 08, 2009, 07:53:39 PM »

Fire a bunch of dudes, pocket the difference, force the survivors to work harder and stall out their benefits while decrying unions as inherently evil.

I guess this is why things like the Tea Party frustrate the hell out of me: RICH PEOPLE ARE NOT YOUR FRIENDS BECAUSE THEY HAVE DEMONSTRATED AS MUCH COUNTLESS TIMES.

News:

Author Topic: It's the economy, stupid! (Read 69131 times)