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Speaking of socialists

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  • S Stan Shannon

    Richard A. Abbott wrote:

    The economy is complex. It has to be, but checks and balances have their place alongside some degree of control from Statutory authorities. If these deals are upright and honest then problems will be minimized but when you have toxic assets being sold on as a "good investment", then people, organisations and countries need to be protected from such, thus the need for transparency, good practices, and necessary Statutory legislation for enforce such. Plus a good dose of common-sense knowing that there doesn't exist a bottomless pit of credit and overexposure to debt is a problem that isn't going to go away any time soon after you sign the credit card slip.

    Government merely needs to enforce a few basic laws, but otherwise let those who make bad business decisions suffer the consequincies for it. The fewer, and more basic they are, the better. The market itself maintains its own sure and inescapable system of justice. Capitalistic system are characterized by completely natural cycles of boom and busts. Those cycles need to be left alone by government and allowed to play themselves out naturally. The only reason for the current mess is government attempts to manage the economy in such a way that it minimizes any possibility of anyone getting hurt ever. There exists no formula by which any government can make an economy function better than it does when left to its own natural mechanisms. All government action can do is mess up the works entirely.

    Chaining ourselves to the moral high ground does not make us good guys. Aside from making us easy targets, it merely makes us idiotic prisoners of our own self loathing.

    L Offline
    L Offline
    Lost User
    wrote on last edited by
    #15

    When the Bank of England says 'did not understand crisis'[^] then something is very wrong with the system - namely - how is was functioning. As such, "let those who make bad business decisions suffer the consequincies for it" clearly is not a policy that is working right. Those who made the bad business decisions are essentially still there and those paying the consequences are ordinary folk who now have additional millstones around their neck thanks to Governments having to bail-out those who have perpetrated this "fraud" Sorry Stan, but I believe you are wrong in your defence of unregulated financials.

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    • O Oakman

      Richard A. Abbott wrote:

      Morality of potential fraudulent activities?

      Nope. The guys I know well enough to talk with are true believers like Stan. They think there's something holy about a totally unregulated capitalistic system - especially if it's world-wide, thus destroying the standard of living in this country. I have no idea whether Bernanke, Paulson, et all were bright enough to understand the fraud they were perpertrating on the USA or just ideologues enough to think that the more redistribution of wealth from the many to the few was actually a good idea.

      Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface

      S Offline
      S Offline
      Stan Shannon
      wrote on last edited by
      #16

      Oakman wrote:

      destroying the standard of living in this country.

      One of two things are going to inevitably happen. Either we are going to be drug down to the rest of the world's standard of living, or the rest of the world is going to rise up to our standard of living. There is no other possible long range scenario. The latter can only happen if the entire world adopts a free market, free trade economic system. Any effort to manage the process by anyone, the notion that one nation can exist in some kind of an independent economic bubble or that some sort of tightly controlled centralized authority has any hope of mananaging something as granular and complex as the international economy, will result inevitably in the former.

      Chaining ourselves to the moral high ground does not make us good guys. Aside from making us easy targets, it merely makes us idiotic prisoners of our own self loathing.

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      • L Lost User

        When the Bank of England says 'did not understand crisis'[^] then something is very wrong with the system - namely - how is was functioning. As such, "let those who make bad business decisions suffer the consequincies for it" clearly is not a policy that is working right. Those who made the bad business decisions are essentially still there and those paying the consequences are ordinary folk who now have additional millstones around their neck thanks to Governments having to bail-out those who have perpetrated this "fraud" Sorry Stan, but I believe you are wrong in your defence of unregulated financials.

        S Offline
        S Offline
        Stan Shannon
        wrote on last edited by
        #17

        Richard A. Abbott wrote:

        Sorry Stan, but I believe you are wrong in your defence of unregulated financials.

        I'm not saying unregulated, I'm saying minimal regulation. There should be laws governing finance just as there are laws governing every other sector of human activity. But government should not regulate or manage business itself. It should clearly define concepts such as 'fraud' and enforce laws pertaining to those concepts.

        Chaining ourselves to the moral high ground does not make us good guys. Aside from making us easy targets, it merely makes us idiotic prisoners of our own self loathing.

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        • O Oakman

          Stan Shannon wrote:

          Capitalistic system are characterized by completely natural cycles of boom and busts. Those cycles need to be left alone by government and allowed to play themselves out naturally.

          Then we need a better system. Q.E.D.

          Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface

          S Offline
          S Offline
          Stan Shannon
          wrote on last edited by
          #18

          Oakman wrote:

          Then we need a better system.

          And God should have created a more perfect planet, but he didn't.

          Chaining ourselves to the moral high ground does not make us good guys. Aside from making us easy targets, it merely makes us idiotic prisoners of our own self loathing.

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          • O Oakman

            Richard A. Abbott wrote:

            Stan is a very small cog in a very big wheel.

            I'm not even sure he can be classified as a cog at all. The guys I'm thinking of were certainly further up the food chain than he'll ever hope to be and I would call them very small cogs.

            Richard A. Abbott wrote:

            Thus my comment to Stan below

            'Twas well said and well reasoned. Of course, Stan will never understand it, because he refuses to try.

            Richard A. Abbott wrote:

            The balance sheets and so forth told them. I rather think they knew exactly what they were doing.

            I don't want to believe you, mostly because I suspect you are right. Certainly it has come to light that a number of people did know and spoke up about what was going on, only to be silenced by the poqwers-that-be.

            Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface

            L Offline
            L Offline
            Lost User
            wrote on last edited by
            #19

            Oakman wrote:

            silenced by the poqwers-that-be

            Money talks, or is it the threat of a visit from a Hitman - after all, "accidents" do happen

            Oakman wrote:

            Of course, Stan will never understand it, because he refuses to try

            No doubt in my mind that Stan will take some persuasion. [joke]Hitman anybody :laugh: [/joke]

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            • S Stan Shannon

              Oakman wrote:

              destroying the standard of living in this country.

              One of two things are going to inevitably happen. Either we are going to be drug down to the rest of the world's standard of living, or the rest of the world is going to rise up to our standard of living. There is no other possible long range scenario. The latter can only happen if the entire world adopts a free market, free trade economic system. Any effort to manage the process by anyone, the notion that one nation can exist in some kind of an independent economic bubble or that some sort of tightly controlled centralized authority has any hope of mananaging something as granular and complex as the international economy, will result inevitably in the former.

              Chaining ourselves to the moral high ground does not make us good guys. Aside from making us easy targets, it merely makes us idiotic prisoners of our own self loathing.

              O Offline
              O Offline
              Oakman
              wrote on last edited by
              #20

              Do you cut and paste things you wrote earlier or is there a site called capitalismfordunces.com that you get your answers from? Either way, desperately repeating the same mantra when reading the WSJ gives the lie to everything you write, seems, imho, to be a waste of your time.

              Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface

              S 1 Reply Last reply
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              • S Stan Shannon

                Oakman wrote:

                Then we need a better system.

                And God should have created a more perfect planet, but he didn't.

                Chaining ourselves to the moral high ground does not make us good guys. Aside from making us easy targets, it merely makes us idiotic prisoners of our own self loathing.

                O Offline
                O Offline
                Oakman
                wrote on last edited by
                #21

                Stan Shannon wrote:

                And God should have created a more perfect planet, but he didn't.

                God may or may not have invented the Earth, but, though I hate to destroy your illusions, God did not invent capitalism.

                Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface

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                • S Stan Shannon

                  Richard A. Abbott wrote:

                  Sorry Stan, but I believe you are wrong in your defence of unregulated financials.

                  I'm not saying unregulated, I'm saying minimal regulation. There should be laws governing finance just as there are laws governing every other sector of human activity. But government should not regulate or manage business itself. It should clearly define concepts such as 'fraud' and enforce laws pertaining to those concepts.

                  Chaining ourselves to the moral high ground does not make us good guys. Aside from making us easy targets, it merely makes us idiotic prisoners of our own self loathing.

                  O Offline
                  O Offline
                  Oakman
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #22

                  Stan Shannon wrote:

                  I'm saying minimal regulation.

                  What are your thoughts about "a little bit pregnant?" How about a treatise on "almost a virgin?"

                  Stan Shannon wrote:

                  But government should not regulate or manage business itself.

                  Why not? As long as it it done by representatives of the peepul? You trust these self-same reprepresentatives to manage everyone's bedroom activity - why not their boardroom activity? Seems to me more people get fucked in the boardroom than in the bedroom . .

                  Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface

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                  • L Lost User

                    Oakman wrote:

                    silenced by the poqwers-that-be

                    Money talks, or is it the threat of a visit from a Hitman - after all, "accidents" do happen

                    Oakman wrote:

                    Of course, Stan will never understand it, because he refuses to try

                    No doubt in my mind that Stan will take some persuasion. [joke]Hitman anybody :laugh: [/joke]

                    O Offline
                    O Offline
                    Oakman
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #23

                    Richard A. Abbott wrote:

                    No doubt in my mind that Stan will take some persuasion

                    You want I should talk to me brudder, Vito the Bonecrusher from New Joisey?

                    Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface

                    L 1 Reply Last reply
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                    • O Oakman

                      Richard A. Abbott wrote:

                      No doubt in my mind that Stan will take some persuasion

                      You want I should talk to me brudder, Vito the Bonecrusher from New Joisey?

                      Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface

                      L Offline
                      L Offline
                      Lost User
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #24

                      Would it be tax deductible?

                      O 1 Reply Last reply
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                      • O Oakman

                        Stan Shannon wrote:

                        And God should have created a more perfect planet, but he didn't.

                        God may or may not have invented the Earth, but, though I hate to destroy your illusions, God did not invent capitalism.

                        Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface

                        L Offline
                        L Offline
                        Lost User
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #25

                        Oakman wrote:

                        God did not invent capitalism

                        Have you told Ilion that :~ You'll upset him :laugh:

                        O 1 Reply Last reply
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                        • S Stan Shannon

                          Richard A. Abbott wrote:

                          Sorry Stan, but I believe you are wrong in your defence of unregulated financials.

                          I'm not saying unregulated, I'm saying minimal regulation. There should be laws governing finance just as there are laws governing every other sector of human activity. But government should not regulate or manage business itself. It should clearly define concepts such as 'fraud' and enforce laws pertaining to those concepts.

                          Chaining ourselves to the moral high ground does not make us good guys. Aside from making us easy targets, it merely makes us idiotic prisoners of our own self loathing.

                          L Offline
                          L Offline
                          Lost User
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #26

                          Stan Shannon wrote:

                          But government should not regulate or manage business itself.

                          You want business to police itself. That's like asking prisoners to police themselves. Its an answer but, in my opinion, a non-working answer.

                          S 1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • L Lost User

                            Would it be tax deductible?

                            O Offline
                            O Offline
                            Oakman
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #27

                            Richard A. Abbott wrote:

                            Would it be tax deductible

                            Vito isn't big on giving receipts.

                            Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface

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                            • 7 73Zeppelin

                              The Reckoning[^] In the past decade, China has invested upward of $1 trillion, mostly earnings from manufacturing exports, into American government bonds and government-backed mortgage debt. That has lowered interest rates and helped fuel a historic consumption binge and housing bubble in the United States. China, some economists say, lulled American consumers, and their leaders, into complacency about their spendthrift ways. Perhaps, Stan, this time it was the Marxists.

                              O Offline
                              O Offline
                              Oakman
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #28

                              See what you started?

                              Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface

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                              • L Lost User

                                Oakman wrote:

                                God did not invent capitalism

                                Have you told Ilion that :~ You'll upset him :laugh:

                                O Offline
                                O Offline
                                Oakman
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #29

                                Richard A. Abbott wrote:

                                You'll upset him

                                OMG you think so? I won't be able to sleep tonight. :sigh:

                                Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface

                                1 Reply Last reply
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                                • L Lost User

                                  Stan Shannon wrote:

                                  But government should not regulate or manage business itself.

                                  You want business to police itself. That's like asking prisoners to police themselves. Its an answer but, in my opinion, a non-working answer.

                                  S Offline
                                  S Offline
                                  Stan Shannon
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #30

                                  Richard A. Abbott wrote:

                                  You want business to police itself.

                                  I never said that. I said business decisions should be business decisions and not influenced in any way at all by political considerations. The government's only legitimate envolvment is when those decisions cross the line into actual criminal activity - thats policing. What you seem to want is not policing, it is fascism - that is, the corporation serving the interests of the state rather than its own business interests.

                                  Chaining ourselves to the moral high ground does not make us good guys. Aside from making us easy targets, it merely makes us idiotic prisoners of our own self loathing.

                                  O 1 Reply Last reply
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                                  • O Oakman

                                    Stan Shannon wrote:

                                    I'm saying minimal regulation.

                                    What are your thoughts about "a little bit pregnant?" How about a treatise on "almost a virgin?"

                                    Stan Shannon wrote:

                                    But government should not regulate or manage business itself.

                                    Why not? As long as it it done by representatives of the peepul? You trust these self-same reprepresentatives to manage everyone's bedroom activity - why not their boardroom activity? Seems to me more people get fucked in the boardroom than in the bedroom . .

                                    Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface

                                    S Offline
                                    S Offline
                                    Stan Shannon
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #31

                                    Oakman wrote:

                                    Why not? As long as it it done by representatives of the peepul? You trust these self-same reprepresentatives to manage everyone's bedroom activity - why not their boardroom activity? Seems to me more people get f***ed in the boardroom than in the bedroom . .

                                    You have everything just ass backwards, Jon. Society is inherently stable when economics is free and personal behavior is subject of rules and regulations.

                                    Chaining ourselves to the moral high ground does not make us good guys. Aside from making us easy targets, it merely makes us idiotic prisoners of our own self loathing.

                                    O 1 Reply Last reply
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                                    • O Oakman

                                      Stan Shannon wrote:

                                      And God should have created a more perfect planet, but he didn't.

                                      God may or may not have invented the Earth, but, though I hate to destroy your illusions, God did not invent capitalism.

                                      Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface

                                      S Offline
                                      S Offline
                                      Stan Shannon
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #32

                                      Oakman wrote:

                                      God did not invent capitalism.

                                      No, but just as with the natural world, it works best when left alone. You simply cannot improve upon it. It is as good as it gets.

                                      Chaining ourselves to the moral high ground does not make us good guys. Aside from making us easy targets, it merely makes us idiotic prisoners of our own self loathing.

                                      O 1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • 7 73Zeppelin

                                        The Reckoning[^] In the past decade, China has invested upward of $1 trillion, mostly earnings from manufacturing exports, into American government bonds and government-backed mortgage debt. That has lowered interest rates and helped fuel a historic consumption binge and housing bubble in the United States. China, some economists say, lulled American consumers, and their leaders, into complacency about their spendthrift ways. Perhaps, Stan, this time it was the Marxists.

                                        J Offline
                                        J Offline
                                        JimmyRopes
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #33

                                        73Zeppelin wrote:

                                        Perhaps, Stan, this time it was the Marxists.

                                        More accurately the Maoists.

                                        Simply Elegant Designs JimmyRopes Designs
                                        Think inside the box! ProActive Secure Systems
                                        I'm on-line therefore I am. JimmyRopes

                                        O 1 Reply Last reply
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                                        • O Oakman

                                          Do you cut and paste things you wrote earlier or is there a site called capitalismfordunces.com that you get your answers from? Either way, desperately repeating the same mantra when reading the WSJ gives the lie to everything you write, seems, imho, to be a waste of your time.

                                          Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface

                                          S Offline
                                          S Offline
                                          Stan Shannon
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #34

                                          Everything I write is completely valid, Jon. There is no way to isolate the American economy from the rest of the world. It is impossible. There is no way to do it. No one is wise enough to achieve it. Either we are all going to live in free market splendor or we are going to wallow in collectivist squalor. There are no other options.

                                          Chaining ourselves to the moral high ground does not make us good guys. Aside from making us easy targets, it merely makes us idiotic prisoners of our own self loathing.

                                          O 1 Reply Last reply
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