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Forum Post: Econ 0

Posted 9 years ago on Dec. 11, 2014, 10:39 a.m. EST by agkaiser (2516) from Fredericksburg, TX
This content is user submitted and not an official statement

Conservatives and libertarians conflate personal achievement of social dominance that allows them to gather wealth that can only be created with the cooperation of others with their individual hard work. The reality is that their “work” consists of getting others to do the real work for them. Their idea of freedom is the liberty to coerce, by main force or threat of starvation or any other extortive process their excessive ownership of property allows, the rest of us to be ruled by the necessity to seek employment by them. Whether we have a choice of masters in the state of virtual slavery, which is the only real thing they've produced, is irrelevant. They will argue that we're free to do as they do, if we have the strength and intelligence. That canard is sufficient to daunt most objections to their tyranny. I guess most people never really think about the honesty of that assertion. The first to betray the community we all depend on by gathering wealth for itself is in a position to increase the difficulty for those who follow. After a time the simple statistical mathematics that rule the distribution of wealth forbids any but a small percentage of the population to acquire it.

Conservation of Economy:

g = goods produced

H = goods hoarded

C = goods consumed

g – H – C = 0

If 10% of the population own 80% of everything then 9 out of ten of us can have, on average only one fifth of what the other one in ten on average has. That's a mathematical certainty that rules the economy and belies the assertion that we too can be rich if we're strong enough, smart enough and work hard enough. If you've paid attention to what's happened on the Planet Earth since 1970 it should be obvious that not everyone can be rich no matter how big the pie. In fact most of us are getting poorer as each year passes.

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[-] 7 points by agkaiser (2516) from Fredericksburg, TX 9 years ago

Finance is the most destructive non industry [not real work] of all!

“Concentration of wealth is harmful to Human culture and a threat to our survival. It's perhaps the greatest threat that civilization has always faced.” With that unambiguous introduction, Dr. Economicus begins to reveal the destructive nature of abstract economy. “Consider this analogy: In a hypothetical casino card game the house takes 5% of every pot. If 10% of the money at the table is on average played on each hand, then the house takes 0.5% of the money in the game on each rake. After 200 hands, 100% of the money that is on average at the table has been taken by the house. The only way the game may continue is to have new money come to it. The winners, of course, smell the new blood and even anticipate it greedily. And the biggest winner over a time is always the house. Until the free market ideologues took over, the biggest difference between a casino bank and finance was that the gaming house took a bigger cut of the handle.

“The media have played up the CDS and futures gambling aspect of derivatives, in what they call 'Casino Capitalism.' This distracts from the better casino analogy where the principal players are the house that always wins. The fundamental function of the big hedge funds, banks, brokerages, private equity firms [formerly venture capitalists] investors and insurance companies is to take a cut of almost every transaction and enterprise through interest on finance and profit on investment, banking, debt and credit card fees, etc. Even if some of them did lose a little on the derivatives frenzy and didn't pass on their losses - to we, the people, their victims, the all time losers - by virtue of the bailout, the biggest just got bigger and only the suckers and small fry got hurt badly or wiped out.”

excerpted from "How Does That Work? A View From the Bottom"

https://www.createspace.com/3852916

[-] 5 points by factsrfun (8310) from Phoenix, AZ 9 years ago

There are forces at play now reflective of how extreme our condition has become. The police shootings, and state torture which I sum up as #toocruel2rule are symptoms of The Disease of Conceit the disease makes people insane with delusions of grandeur. As the rich become insanely rich the power they wield will reflect the insanity.

[-] 3 points by donOld (134) 9 years ago

Actually, it's far worse than that. Consider 100 assets, distributed to 100 people...

10 people own 80 assets, an average of 8 each

90 people own 20 assets, an average of .2 each

the average difference in ownership is 36 times, not 5

[-] 3 points by agkaiser (2516) from Fredericksburg, TX 9 years ago

When I used to talk of a 100 apple economy for 100 people I said if 10 people had 80 apples then there's 2/9 apples for each of the rest of us. . . I was hasty in my mental math the other day. Thanks for cleaning the mess. I hope my blunder didn't divert attention from the danger that overconcentration of wealth is to the human race. . . .

Note well the the inevitability that compound earnings on investment must concentrate wealth at an ever increasing rate. The limit as the rich approach total [virtually infinite] acquisition is economic collapse and starvation for the human race.

[-] 2 points by donOld (134) 9 years ago

p.s. love the effort (and ethical logic) you have put into your web site. You obviously both think, and care, deeply.

[-] 0 points by factsrfun (8310) from Phoenix, AZ 9 years ago

too bad your actions act to increase the disparity

[-] 0 points by factsrfun (8310) from Phoenix, AZ 9 years ago

Until the nation is prepared to take on the champions of the rich, the GOP, nothing will happen to change this. People must set aside their egos and be ready to do the dirty work work of politics if they wish to enact change.