Why Wall Street's Imploding, and Main Street's Improving

[demonstrationclass8]

what a turd-faced whore.

[demonstrationclass8]

no numbers, no substance, just made up trash. fuck this asshole from the new yorker.

[skjachin]

wtf happened to fora yo?, first it was all free, then they started a class system makin people pay for shit, assholes

[Griefscar]

This man is greatly out of touch with reality. Many of his claims are demonstrably false, and even suggest the speaker is completely deluded. Most products of today carry no where near the value of similar items 20-30 years ago, due to planned obsolescence, inferior build quality, and nearly non-existent warranties.

I agree that ForaTV should be embarrassed to promote a speaker who espouses these absurd views, and supports them with such vacuous arguments.

[Griefscar]

@Griefscar

I'll further comment that his suggestion that customers "have more choices than ever before" is ridiculous on its face. Oligopolies and even monopolies rule over the majority of markets these days, and either explicit 'back door' agreements to control and rule markets to eliminate any real competition, or simple 'follow the leader' mentality that is so common place these days, absolutely destroys what he is postulating on the topic.

[PatPowers1995]

Not an impressive outing for fora TV. His arguments were insubstantive, and poorly constructed as well.

[ttowntvcom]

Great, the web of life is being destroyed, billions are in poverty, but you can buy a better toaster.

[SZalewski]

What's with all the whining about this video? Fora isn't here to cater to one side of any argument. Complaining about them posting a video you disagree with is just childish. Even if it is stupid, we should always be learning about what the other side thinks, and what their arguments are that led them to those conclusions. You should be thanking Fora for giving you the opportunity to see what the "other side" thinks.

[F4RTFAC3]

Scrap the title, it makes no sense... What this guy's saying is correct, but it's just common sense. It's not like we need prude with a Phd telling us this.

[PSK11489]

What are people so upset about? It doesn't seem that what he says is wrong, even if it's not particularly substantive. He says that the price of technology has continued to decrease over time. Duh.

Or did they just read the title? That's Fora's random addition - always ignore the title.

[huskerbird1]

last week I dumped TPM, this week flora t.v. gets the ax. What garbage.

[johammbass]

Fora is a complete piece of shit. Unsubscribing

[QuantumGh0st]

"Zeitgeist Movement"

[Walhei960]

WHERE WERE ALL THE EXPERTS IN 2006? WHAT WERE THESE PEOPLE DOING THEN? HINDSIGHT IS ALWAYS 20/20. THEY WERE NOT SO SMART BACK THEN. ALL THE EXPERTS WERE MAKING MONEY ABD ENJOYING IT!

[poosta7]

Having taught in China and spending this summer in Russia I believe that the unindicted felons on wall street are much much more dangerous to the future of the USA than any outside dangers ... Its inside shills for the 1% like this guy who is obviously a fan of ayn rand .... his main point is that the Chinese are making better products that we now import.

[TheTruePooka]

Repair statistics are down partly because we've become an economy where product is disposable. It is cheaper to replace than repair many products.

[redhotsuperfan1]

O_o da fack was that about?

[Cabronosidad]

This prick takes over 5 minutes to say nothing at all. So "there's an explosion of information for consumers to draw on"? So what, if all the products are manufactured in Asia & the west is reduced to merely becoming consumers?

I'm unsubscribing from Fora - it's a heap of shit nowadays.

[edenscancer]

Nothing to see here ladies and gentlemen, don't mind the man behind the curtain, just avert your eyes and keep shopping.

[edenscancer]

i actually clicked off this after watching it, and then clicked back onto it to dislike it.

[edenscancer]

This guy is a fucking moron. he uses a wide vocabulary involving multiple hot-words and says absolutely nothing with any of them. Also, ALL correlations he draws can be attributed to different causes and effects just as easily and more effectively.

[pixygiggles]

The repair rates are low because it has become cheaper to replace rather than repair! Every year I have to rebuild my computer because the fail rate is so high on the parts. I buy most of my clothing from Goodwill because I know those used clothes are going to last me longer than the brand new crap being sold in regular stores. If the United States ever starts building anything again, I hope we bring back the expectation of quality over quantity because I just haven't seen that in years!

[PWgrizwald]

The Venus Project dot com has a solution. I'm just saying. Or spamming. Either one. Spread the word (after you analyze and critique it of course). ONE.

[appatel]

Idiot keep talking.

Get your face out of your ass.

[indusdolphin]

This guy is associated with The New Yorker? ha.

[psynema]

Luxury goods vs. NECESSITY goods...not really a good argument for the economy. Like George Carlin said - shrinking choices in energy, medicine, banking, but you can get 30 different types of ice cream and bagels. Cheap consumer luxuries sure are cheaper but not college, not housing, etc

[dawn0293]

Gotta love the wisdom: "They might not be able to build a tv set but they can tell if one is working or not" Wow! What a fucking profound observation.... Why is this bozo allowed up on this stage again?!

[fuzzjunky]

wow i've never seen someone use so many words and say absolutely nothing of value

[TruthJockey]

He's definitely not buying the same disposable electronics we are...and why'd he bore us with 5 minutes of B/S without even referencing MOORE'S LAW?

[juanmora19910209]

he can think w/e he wants but people like him shudn't be allowed to get up in front of people & talk...

[csjbo1990]

lol @ title

[The34gl3]

Inexorable rise in quality? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

[SOLROSENBERG2]

"products are better quality now" ???!!??

We've outsourced manufacturing and the costs have gone down but so has the quality...dramatically so.

[freesk8]

He's just arguing that in this one area: electronic product quality, reliability and functionality, people are much better off today than they were ten years ago. But he is not saying that unemployment is better or that wages are higher or that medical benefits are better. He is arguing that due to competition, it is tougher to be a distributor these days. Margins are lower for retailers. This is good for consumers. Overall, he is right about this.

[radroatch]

@freesk8 The resurgence in price of nonessential goods only started to go down after large rises is due to essential goods making a larger portion of spend comparative to wages

Products are made only to last for a industry standard periods to ready for the next wave of goods

Out sourcing jobs has a vast increase in companies net gains, these goods can be produced by workers with no real rights and they're under a different less valuable currency and a poorer economy where livable wage is less

[unamaxify]

you can't buy a tv with a bad picture or a stereo with bad sound ?

You need need glasses and a hearing aid, you can still buy plenty substandard crap.

Keep in mind the quality standard for a satisfactory product increases with time.

Also the top of the line products are more expensive than they used to be 30 years ago.

Still the average quality improved, but i attribute that to technological & scientific advances in engineering these things, not to better product management.

[alternativeinfo]

This guy is either brainwashed, or brainwashing.

[thekswervedirt]

What garbage. Peoples' lives are not improved due to cheaper tvs. Cars in the 70s were easier to work on and tons cheaper. This guy fails. He needs to talk about fuel, housing, electricity and food if he wants to be relevant.

[VvDOPAMEANvV]

Oh I get it. He's talking about 1% of consumers, 1% of products. Now it makes sense, :P

[idonegotold]

Thumbs up if you have a DVD player!

[idonegotold]

New cars were $3000-5K in the1970's, and a lot of them were built better than they are now.

[Ramsez]

so what planet is this guy from?

[290aua]

Hmm I don't agree with most things said here, I do agree on providing value for a product to thrive in bizzness.

[putittogether]

Fora TV is now officially a joke.

[godfree2canada]

"products are better quality now"

oh really?

look at : monitors, cars, tvs, audio systems, underwear ...

built to break down not last.

Staff writer or shill writer, you decide?

[GtheMVP]

@godfree2canada Products like the ones you mentioned are far better and cheaper, certainly not perfect though.

A monitor can be built to last, but then again, no one would be able to mass produce them/afford them.

I buy calvin klein underwear, and they've outlasted all of my joe boxers, but that's to be expected because they cost $20 a pair.

[jag10]

Obviously has no idea what Main Street looks like, outside of Greenwich Connecticut or Aspen Colorado.

[QPWimblik]

It's getting harder to get hold of the initial capital to do anything now though because computers follow trends and if the trend goes down then computers profit well and turn to rely on downturn because they can bet on them better than slower upturns.

How can anyone but the top with computers connected directly next door to the markets ever profit again from the markets accept on long term dividends.

[BroBroDude]

the fact that it's harder in some ways than it used to be to rip people off doesn't even imply that people are getting ripped off less, let alone that things in general are getting better for the ripped off at the expense of those ripping them off

worst talk i've seen in months and maybe the worst title ever