I thought democracy was invented in ancient Greece...? Divorcing the ideas of democracy and capitalism (or the tangential idea of measuring national monetary wealth) seems like a good idea to me, if only to wrestle with smaller dragons. I mean, you can have poor democracies, right? And you can have rich totalitarian states? There are examples of both around right now...I think we are in the process of bombing one, which leads to - what is it that produces a vast national wealth? Who handles it? Who shares in it? Who is excluded from it? Is wealth the end in itself, or a means to an end, and is democracy an end or a means?
Interesting thread that is relevant to this thread is here http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=224212 It is entitled "The rich are waging class warfare on the poor". My first post quote may be relevant to the discussion. In regards to the budget debate a friend has a wonderful suggestion. Why don't we setup a battle to the finish similar to star trek. The winner takes all. (This seemed to work well in the old European days when there was a gridlock decision.) Get the two most vocal supporters (or any volunteers acting for them) in a cage match. I suspect that with the voter frustration out there, this might be welcomed as a reasonable suggestion. Of course, I am just joking. In the old days, they used to use swords, but now they can use opinion polls, politically correct language, speeches, surveys, statistics or any other such thing until one says uncle. Me may be witnessing the beginning of the death of the entitlement age that ends democracies.
I came across an interesting read on the new deal today at http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2011/07/new-deal-for-america.html Why are some in the media selling the August 2 2011 date as a default and almost the end of the world when the only question is whether the debt rating will be downgraded if no agreement is reached? The US can sell assets just like any family who loses their credit card. Life goes on. Who is is the media serving with such a silly bias? Shouldn't they be serving the truth?
A video "Are you all completely crazy?" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SGyVNippvA&feature=player_embedded I can here the frustration in his voice!
What is next after social (ism) democracy fails? Who would trade if there were a tax on the winners to pay the losses of the winners? Does such a game even make sense? Why trade then? Riots in the UK are a symptom of the realization that the dream of moving from lower class to upper class is mostly just that - a dream. An article on the subject: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/guest-post-why-modern-democracy-idiots
Mr Joe Average in the USA is buying himself a gun. Gun sales are rocketing. Statistics show he is 22 times more likely to injure himself or a family member than an intruder. Make mine a rocket launcher bub
Things to do to handle coming riots 1. Get local groups armed with baseball bats and helmets to organise themselves into a defence force of local shops, buildings etc 2. Give paint ball guns with indelible dye to riot police. Anyone splattered can be picked up later 3. Make a punishment to fit the crime like:- a)shackle all the offenders togethor naked and force them to walk through town + a fine b) bring back the public stocks
Another article http://www.zerohedge.com/news/guest...-share-economy-and-crisis-advanced-capitalism Inflation seems to be rampant based on shrinking food packaging sizes and the cost of gasoline. Perhaps some world countries should merge and layoff government officials to try and save some money. Money printing seems to have a side effect of toppling middle east governments!
there's a big difference between infalation and expensive oil. When crude goes up everything gets expensive, but that's not inlation. The fed can't do anything to combat higher crude. Do you think raising rates will solve that problem?