Disqus Doodlings - no, capitalism requires cooperation - LOTS of it. Part 2 of ?? - Granite Grok

Disqus Doodlings – no, capitalism requires cooperation – LOTS of it. Part 2 of ??

Yeah, this Treehugger post on Einstein hating capitalism is gonna be a gold mine for blogging fodder.  Even as I write this, the neo-socialist-enviros are pushing back on the Freedom to transact voluntarily (e.g. Capitalism).  Another pick at the pot by Brian who, along with most there, hates the idea of the fruits of Capitalism: income inequality.  Now, to most readers here at GraniteGrok, the thoughts upon hearing the phrase “income inequality” go something like this:

  • Good for him – he’s rich. He started his own company, worked hard, hit the jackpot. The American Dream – he can now do what he wants.
  • He’s rich – that doesn’t make me any poorer, does it?
  • I wanna be rich some day as well – what’s wrong with that?

We have no problem with those three things.  Treehuggers do – income inequality is EVIL! EVIL, I say!  Example from Brian:

Brian:

Capitalism is great if you are the CEO of Amazon, like Jeff Bezos, who makes 270 million dollars a day and is worth 150 billion dollars. However most people live in poverty, and capitalism is a nightmare, and the late Elbert Einstein was 100% right. Albert Einstein was ahead of his time.

Ho-hum; yeah, go live in Venezuela where the income inequality (‘cepting those at the top who’ve made BILLIONS off of government corruption – did you know that at one point, Hugo Chavez’s daughter was the richest person in Venezuela?  But I digress) is about nil.  There’s no inequality where the population is starving due to no food and no money to pay for it. Once again, I couldn’t help myself”

Yeah, daggone all those people who keep sending him their money voluntarily in buying the products and services he sells. Throw them all into jail, those 1% supporters with their dollars (/sarc)!

So, if you were to take ALL of his money away from him and give it to everyone in the world, that would be around $20 / person. Once. Yep, that’ll cure poverty.

Hey, how many people did feudalism, socialism, and communism raise out of poverty?

And then this came out of nowhere – “wage slavery”?  I know what it means but it certainly is right out of the Marxist class warfare dictionary.  I presumed he is a “living wage” sorta guy, for whatever “living wage” seems to be nowadays – like everything else, the Left is forever changing our language’s definitions but that’s for a different post.

Sage Thinker [Seriously, dude, you pick THAT as a screen name with this line of thought  -Skip}:

No man it’s a system of wage slavery.
You’re knee deep in the propaganda soup, graintegrok

I really do wonder how people come up with that – I just don’t understand the underlying philosophy other than to think “this is how they think the rich “steal” from others in order to make themselves feel better about themselves by blaming others?

You are free to work for anyone you wish to, provided you have the skills, the time, and the motivation to want to work for a particular company. If you don’t like the wages, go elsewhere or improve your skills and get a better job. I’ve done that a number of times – each time, obtaining more and higher level skills yielded a better paying gig and more self-satisfaction. I got to travel the country (and to a smaller extent, the world). Don’t tell me that I was just “lucky” – I worked my butt off and was looking for and was prepared when opportunities arrived.

Or better still, create your own job – start a company. I’m now starting my second company. Scary, risky – but a lot of fun. The economic risk involved is great – I could lose it all. However, the reward is there as well if it works out – and far better compensation overall than if I worked for someone else. I’ve signed a paycheck from both sides – once out of development mode, I’ll be much happier signing the front of the check than the back.

If you believe it is only “wage slavery”, you need to get a better outlook on things – or, to use your own words from a different standpoint – YOU’VE fallen for the wrong propaganda. You are what you make of yourself. If you consign yourself to an outlook of “wage slavery”, you’ll live a rather miserable life hating every working minute.

It’s all in how you look at it.

BTW, to my original point – if you took all of Bezos money away ($150 Billion / 7 billion people), and got the $21 that everyone on the planet would get, would that get you out of “wage slavery”? And it only would be a one time shot.

He’s got a lot of money – but he hasn’t stolen it from anyone. If people don’t like working for him, go elsewhere – the US economy is doing as well as it ever has and this time, even blue collar wages are rising. Here in NH, the unemployment rate is lower than it has been since 1988.

So, how many people DID feudalism, socialism, and communism raise out of poverty, Sage Thinker? Versus capitalism?

I’m still waiting for answer to that.  Will follow up later.

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