Published by Scotties Playtime
I am an older gay guy in a long-term wonderful relationship. My spouse and I are in our 36th year together. I love politics and news. I enjoy civil discussions and have no taboo subjects. My pronouns are he / him / his and my email is Scottiestoybox@gmail.com
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That is a classic capitalist take. And so short-sighted. Money and profits should not be everything. People and quality of life should take precedence. But capitalists do not agree.
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Hi Susan. I often refer to the surveys of countries with the most happy or satisfied public and they are always countries where the government puts the needs of the public before the wishes of businesses. Countries like the Scandinavian ones. Countries where people count, they have quality of life. Their life is more than desperately working to survive. But of course the wealthy do not agree. To them who never will have a worry about housing, food, clothing, whose all needs are met, the US is a great place. Yet they all have homes in the places that would regulate their wealthy and tax them more because it is happier and more friendly. Hugs. Scottie
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My husband has just returned from japan. Certainly not a perfect society, but there is such an emphasis on doing things for the good of the people. it is inspiring.
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Hi Susan. Welcome home to your husband, and here is wishing you both some good reunion time. I always felt my time overseas in other countries as a young man in the military help shape my progressive views. Far too many people never leave the state they were born in and the wealthy try to indoctrinate that we should never look at what other countries are doing because we are #1 in all things and every country should do what we do. It keeps the public from realizing how badly they have been screwed. Hugs. Scottie
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i met a man in a nursing home in 1982 who had never left his home state of wisconsin. blew me away. we had a cross-cultural stint in australia before our kids were born which completely changed my life. thank you for your good wishes. we are indeed having a wonderful reunion.
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You know, once upon a time, capitalists believed that people ought to make enough money doing their jobs to be able to buy some of what they produced. I think I recall that Henry Ford even said something to that effect. That all changed during Reagan, from what I’ve seen (though I know it’s swung back and forth over time,) and definitely from within my own experience. I mean, I remember Nixon doing the wage-price freeze well before that, and it was during Nixon that penny candy started costing a nickel, too, though it got a little bigger. But the business of selling shares of a company and cutting wages and workers (thereby production and sales) started up again and in earnest during the 80s, continuing pretty much until recently when people decided they’re either going to make a living or quit, and are also rejoining unions. It doesn’t seem that much upper management has figured out that more profits come from selling what they make, not only shares of a company.
I don’t know if it’s getting cured, or just swinging back in working people’s favor a little bit. Whichever; if tfg goes back in, or if Republicans manage to get majorities in the legislature, that’ll be over, too. sigh
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Hi Ali. The truth is your history is not quite accurate. Sorry. Before Henry Ford was the robber barons of the gilded age. That was the time before the New Deal when government had no power to regulate businesses. Wealthy business owners could do what they wanted. Workers were desperate for work because they were starving so took jobs that made them work 12 or more hours a day for 7 days a week, in very unsafe conditions. There also were no child labor laws. Something red states under republican rule are trying hard to roll back. It was an extremely dark time in the US. But that is what the very wealthy want desperately to return the US to, and what is worse is they know they have to do it here because other wealthy countries prohibit by law. Hugs. Scottie
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Well, I didn’t include every little bit about Henry Ford! He was also a German nazi supporter, and I didn’t include that, either. But, he did make the statement that his workers needed to make enough to be able to buy what they produced, which is truly just sensible from any viewpoint. I’m not saying he was a living wage fan, either. But seriously; actual capitalism depends upon production of stuff for which there is demand, and the ability of people to purchase those things with the money they earn or receive for their living. That’s why it’s always written now that US capitalism is on steroids.
I have not been a supporter of capitalism pretty much since I’ve had to make my own living as a woman in a man’s world, and the older I get, the more unfair things get for people who just want to live.
We’re still on the same side, Scottie. I use the Henry Ford comment to point out how people have corroded the very system they claim to support.
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Hi Ali. Oh yes and he was also not a nice person to those he felt below him. He was what we might call today … a total asshole jerk.
But you are also correct in that he understood the principle that to sell a good someone has to be able to buy it. You are totally correct on that. It was something his fellow robber barons did not understand, they felt people would find a way to buy their goods or figured there were enough that could to keep their wealth coming in. Plus the truth is that at a certain level, the money works for you so you don’t have to make more, your investments do.
Yes you are correct. I often tell people the economy is the flow of money from one person to the next. I work and get paid, I go to the store and buy stuff, someone has to be paid to make that stuff, they go to other stores and buy more stuff. When the system breaks down is what we have today in our country … the public has no money to spend on anything not necessary to survive. So things don’t need to be built. That is why other advanced wealthy countries who have higher wages like Canada and the Scandinavian countries have a higher standard of living. Yes the US has the highest GPD but that is not because we have the highest standard of living, ours is poor, but because we are so numerous and our large businesses are so interconnected. Our money exchanges are more between businesses than between people, the shareholders use their money to make more money by buying more stock. It doesn’t help the public, the people, but on paper it looks great for keep the country wealthy. Remember we are not on the gold standard, it is the wealth of the highest people that counts toward the US wealth rating.
I understand not being on the side of unrestrained capitalism even when I can not fully understand being a working woman in a mans world. Again other advanced countries understand that unrestrained capitalism destroys / kills it self. It is the greed that kills the goose that lays the golden egg. One a day and the right feed, you have a healthy goose. Forcing the goose to lay more than it can while reducing its feed kills it.
Ali we are always on the same side and friends even if we disagree on points sometimes. It is OK to disagree. It is OK to have different opinions. Hugs. Scottie
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