I've never understood the concept of 'economy.' I mean, humans created the concept of money...and stock markets...and commodities...and debt...and consumerism. Why are so many a slave to something of our own creation? Currency, economy, etc. are all ideas, created by human beings - why are we ruled by it? It has always boggled my mind how the intangible affects the tangible world. It makes no sense on a philosophical level, and yet our human-created 'economy' is very real.
Because of automated foreclosure procedures and receiverships that summarily liquidate and disband companies that employ and create. We have wasteful legal and risk averse protections that just kick in and are blind to residual value.
It is disgusting, but it is time for the next generation to swoop in and gobble up these cheap assets and take over the wheel. Unfortunately they didn't get the preparation because their education funding was cut, and they were raised on nintendo and twinkies.
The incorrect assumption that i think you make is that the people at the helm love us. They don´t. In fact, if you study globalism and eugenics and the illuminati carefully, you will find that those in control know exactly what they are doing and why.
Unsustainable living...With the population exploding....We cant sustain this way of life,...Mass production of animals and crops must end,alot of people are sick from it...,,its not working!!.It takes 30 ears of corn now to equal the nutritional value of 15 ears a few years ago.. Thanks Monsanto!!..Most everything you buy ends up in a landfill in a short time..(lets go to wal mart!!)....most people are stupid...and they love it!!
If you are worried about the economy, maybe you should take a look at the Federal Reserve. It is supposedly the job of the FED to thwart recessions and depressions and control monetary policy. Ever heard of supply and demand. The more money they print, the less it is worth. Currency devaluation is the reason we are where we are today, but it is easy to blame the rich guy you are jealous of huh?
Govt takes in $1 from taxes, spends $1.40, borrows .40 to make up the difference. Govt does this for 60 years until the 1970s when it decides to take in $1.20 from taxes, spend $2, borrow .40 still, and print the other .40. Now more money, great right? Not so fast. Supply and demand. That original $1 is now only worth 70 cent. Multiply the devaluation of currency by 40 years with natural inflation and here we are. Rich richer, poor poorer and you blame free markets instead of big government.
Yeah, he’s gone loony on us...talking crap is a good sign that someone has gone a bit mad...why the fuck would anyone forward this crap? He really has gone nuts...
He just made this video to get some attention...he lost the plot a bit I think...He’s passed his best, he peaked while doing the climate stuff...which btw is not made by humans...
Just watch some videos on YouTube about the economy and you will soon understand, it’s not complicated at all.
As you well know, our monetary system is based on cyclical consumption. Simply stated, when Americans stop purchasing frivolously, our society grids to a halt.
The gap will continue to widen between the wealthy and the poor and the "middle class" will disappear. This is built into the system after the Federal Reserve began back around 1913. Our currency literally has no value except for what we give it as it's not backed by gold or anything else since 1933.
@TAMPADOC64 You are a idiot. This is why democracies don't work^. They assume that the voter is rational and to a degree intelligent.
What caused the financial crisis was a form of capitalism. In fact in case you didn't know the vast majority of nations are capitalist (all G20 nations are capitalist). Socialism as economic system hardly exists anywhere and even elements of socialism (in economics) aren't sporadic.
@TAMPADOC64 When corporations greatly influence the decision of you're government, thats part capitalism.Basically, its about free market, ownership yadda yadda. And yes, if you don't think you're isn't influenced by big business, you're dreaming pal!China is communism, communism!Big difference between that and capitalsim.You have a corruput fed, a private company owning and producing you're money (WTF?), you have people living exetremely excessively, and a country with a huge debt.
@gameyguru What you've identified is exactly what occurs in Socialist countries as well as Communist countries. Socialism and Communism can't survive without Capitalist in some form. The problem isn't capitalism: the problem is that any government that is too powerful becomes corrupt. China has been allowing Capitalism for quite a few years now; maybe you should get up to date on current events! Chinese people can open businesses, hire employees and sell products.
@TAMPADOC64 well its highly beneficial to have a government. Which is supposed to be a body of people, acting out in a responsible effedctive manner for the people. Government isn't the problem. you've said it twice now. Corruption is the problem!! And corruption exists beyond government. It exists in everyday business and people, in constant competion to grind against eachother and get as much as they can. It is just more appparentnt and easier to point a finger at government
@gameyguru I'll say it again, anytime government becomes too powerful, it becomes corrupt. Our government has gotten too big, too powerful and too out of control. There is nothing wrong with competition, there will always be those who cheat the system. All of it pales in comparison to the corruption that government contributes to. The housing crisis, oil crisis, banking crisis, economic crisis were ALL caused by government interference. If govt. didn't meddle, none of it ever would have happened
i agree with some points you are making. Competition will always exist, and the same with people cheating the system. Its an innate quality we have to pretty much screw eachother over (doesn't mean it can't change). Cause really, why is it allright for the little guys to cheat their way but the big guys can't? Its not really. But if a government inevitably becomes corrupt when to 'big' , too powerful, wouldn't that concept apply to big business? what about a one world government?
@gameyguru The problem with one world govt at this juncture is this: most of the world is ruled by corrupt govts, far more corrupt the our own. Look at the UN; the human rights counsel is run by people that think women should be stoned to death if they get raped. Officials that are going into third world nations to molest children, and supporting the fake AGW movement to redistribute wealth from successful countries to their own pockets.
I think the rest of the world needs to grow up first.
self corrected. But in stead the banks complained that they would go bankrupt if the government didn't loan them money. The govt. started using the term "Too Big To Fail", a total falsehood and contrary to the principles of Capitalism. They then loaned the banks billions (actually more then a trillion) which the banks used to keep the property they acquired to sell later at a profit.
the results: The banks got rich, the people lost their investments all because of government interference.
@TAMPADOC64 Banks knew they were giving loans to people who couldn't afford them, but they didn't care. Why? It was no longer their problem as they would have sold the mortgage to a investment bank and got their money back with interest. If the government regulated the economy a little more and forced the banks to give loans to people with the means to pay the loan than the 2008 financial crisis would have been less severe for the average American.
@RZMaslic "If the government regulated the economy a little more and forced the banks to give loans to people with the means to pay the loan" The Government was FORCING them to make the bad loans! Don't you get it?
Selling the loans discount to the investment banks was the way the banks eliminated their liability.
If the government hadn't FORCED banks to do sub-prime loans the 2008 crisis NEVER WOULD HAVE HAPPENED!
Now people who bought homes with balloon notes who needed to refinance their home had a seriously up-side-down loan (owed far more then worth) and no one would give them a loan. They too were forced to abandon their homes. This put millions of more homes on the market further lowering the value of homes.
This is where the govt. screwed us the second time.
The Bail Out!
If the government had left things alone, the banks would have been forced to negotiate mortgages and the market would
@TAMPADOC64 If the government regulated the economy this wouldnt have happened. Watch Inside Job it has a good section on explaining how mortgage loans work in the US today. Bankers got rich because of a lack of intervention in the economy and not the other way around! The US financial system is highly unregulated and since 2008 it has remained that way. It is a catastrophe waiting to happen.
@TAMPADOC64 you're government did screw up, but they are in the pocket of the bankers. Just watch a political debate once. These guys are puppets, regurgitating whatever they have to, and depending on the crowd its not always the same policy. you need a government that is of the people for the people. till then, it'll just get worse
@gameyguru Funny how that works, government imposes harsh regulations, and then suddenly the companies are in cahoots with the government. I don't know how much simpler I can say this, the more power government has, the more corrupt it becomes. Capitalism isn't the problem, government is the problem.
So the banks used newly created loop holes (also Created by Clinton Admin) to sell off the debt.
In 2008 gas prices suddenly rose to $4.12. Suddenly many of the people who had purchased sub-prime loans had a choice, buy gas or pay their mortgage. They bought gas!
As many of these mortgages foreclosed, the subprime home owners went to public housing and abandoned their homes. With millions of homes suddenly on the market, this caused home values to fall dramatically.
artificially inflated housing prices creating a bubble. To further this problem; people who normally would have been buying the less expensive homes had to buy more expensive homes plus pay higher prices for those homes. This continued through all levels of home buyers forcing people to use risky loans (such as balloon or interest only, often short term loans to secure a purchase.
The banks knew this was dangerous and were looking for ways to get rid of this dangerous debt.
Fortunately this law had not teeth (means to enforce it) so nothing happened
In the late 90s, Bill Clinton passed a bill that gave teeth to this law. The bill basically gave private organizations the ability to stop banks from mergers, investments, acquisitions etc. on their say so if they didn't do enough loans in depressed areas. Now banks were forced to give loans to people who don't pay their bills.
Millions of such mortgages were created which (laws of supply and demand) ..Cont.
OK, Mr.Wanderingmind, I'll give you a 9th grade explanation that even you can understand (OK, 4th grade).
In the seventies Jimmie Carter decided that everyone should be allowed to buy a house regardless of whether or not they could afford it or if they demonstrated the responsibility to pay for it (that's called credit) he created a law called The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) which said that banks had to issue the same number of loans in all geographic areas.
What is wrong with the economy? Part of the problem is our reliance on cheap energy, which in our industrial economy means oil. When the cost of energy was cheaper, we could have a win-win situation. We now a zero-sum game, and those who succeed become rich, and the rest are just the 99%. Dr. James Hamilton has linked price spikes to recessions.
Also, in America, non-skilled jobs are in the process of being exported to other countries or getting automated away. Can we teach those skills?
And I also agree with another commenter below that we have essentially lost the main ingredient of Democracy because of a media, (Especially ONE network), that constantly misinforms it's viewers. In 2003 Liberals & any liberal media who tried to inform the public about the LIES we were constantly told by the regular media-they were called "un-American", Liars, and "violent radicals". Yet EVERYTHING they claimed has turned out to be TRUE!!
Let me clarify something-I MEANT that the Repub RESPONSE to non-existent over-taxing,, & BOTH party's overspending-is addressed by cutting taxes even more, (WHERE's the jobs?), & MORE Corporate Welfare. "Free Trade disaster was instituted by BOTH parties.
Look up the Santa Claus 2 theory ie: Repub spiel about "Dems outrageous taxing & spending"-to "expand the free market"-they then instituted "free trade", (NOT Free!), corporate socialism, & drastically lower taxes on the wealthy, while increasing sales/gas/etc affecting middle & upper classes.
@MikePres91 Zeitgeist actually incredibly misleading using half truths, self sourcing, and many times just make up the facts when their narrative doesn't fit.
If you want a starter course in all the problems with zeitgeist. I'm totally on board with reforming the capitalistic system, but if you don't make sure you have your facts straight and are using reliable sources then it hurts the argument for everyone.
The greed of the rich is ok with ppl because they think they may be rich someday too and they do not plan to take on anything with their imaginary money but more shopping The 2011 harvest will be bad and we are in neck deep at this point.
Buy food if you want to eat.
Stop making the rich richer,everything they have is because ppl think they must have that which they can live without.Those 40 mpg cars don't help much when gas keeps going up.
I have nothing left and don't get a check from anyone.I also can't find a job.I have parked the car and use almost no gas.I do not buy any extras at all.I feel like we are becoming a third world country.No one seems to care about anything except that they can't buy more stuff.I would like to eat.What is wrong with having enough?Why can't we be satiated?It is our own fault.
All you people spend so much time and energy taking the blame off your backs! Im not buying it! If you (and the people in power) spent your time finding solutions, problem solving, MARCHING even u could make a change for the better, but eveyone is so focused on whos to blame. WHO GIVES A $#it?!!!! Ur not even looking at the problems, your just pointing fingers, but if u ever look when you point, u have 3 fingers pointing back at U! Think! Wake UP!!! But stop adding to the problems and sove some!
ok, Its not about, whos to blame, its not about whos actually at fault either. It is about solutions! Im so sick of hearing, "its people who borrowed too much money." or "its capitolism" Why do I hear alot of finger pointing yet no solutions?! Spend some time in thinking how to FIX the problem instead of "blog" about whos fault it is. How bout we stop printing $ to make the worth of a $ go up? or Make the rich people hoarding the $ circulate it? or Produce our own products and food, not import?!
Socialism bailsout capitalism. Tax cuts are spending. Republicans cut 40,000 government jobs than they start bitching at Obama about Unemployment. Bring it on neo- cons I can shit on all your fake numbers and ridiculous hypocrisy. Tea party got hijacked. This right wing revolution is very dangerous. Stop hating start thinking. The president is black get over it.
Capitalism is freedom. "The Rich" are not evil people worthy of our hatred; "The Poor" are not good people worthy of our wealth. Pitting class against class doesn't work. It never has; It never will. We must focus on the moral character of individuals and hold them to higher standards. Wonderingmind attacks capitalism but doesn't attack Communism -- "whatever that is"? Communism steals liberty. Its long, bloody history is staring us all in the face. Yet W.M. can't see it. Amazing.
Its simple, you either have or you dont, they make the economics so difficult for anyone to truely understand it, so they can manipulate it, watch Michael Moores Captilism: A Love Story, that helped me understand alot
worthless. And people who thought worthless financial devices were worth something, lost the means of production. Instead of allowing them to just lose everything, we took a massive amount of money from the working folks and gave it to them. That, isn't capitalism but state sponsored theft. The system wasn't built by the capitalists, it was built by bureaucrats in government. Blame them, not the people who built the greatest economy the world has ever known. Capitalism is for free people.
See there is something you fail to grasp. If you borrow money, eventually you are required to pay that money back. Capitalism is the ownership of the means of production by the individual and not the state. Some people confuse owning a house with a means of production. The capital for the house is the means of production that a consumer borrows from a capitalist. When they borrowed more than they could pay back, they were foreclosed on. The loans were packaged into financial items, they became
See there is something you fail to grasp. If you borrow money, eventually you are required to pay that money back. Capitalism is the ownership of the means of production by the individual and not the state. Some people confuse owning a house with a means of production. The capital for the house is the means of production that a consumer borrows from a capitalist. When they borrowed more than they could pay back, they were foreclosed on. The loans were packaged into financial items, they became
Your first wrong point was that the people havent changed. They have. Becase many were stupid and borrowed too much money (SOME PEOPLE) and no one thought to check if they could pay it. Meanwhile some did just fine and saved money in the banks (their pillow was allready full). When the banks realised that they lost SOO much money. Many went into bankrupt and many of the people lost their money. I hope this was simple enough
What's so wrong with the economy? it means that the people on top cant steel any more, and soon they might use "aliens" and "ufos" to keep everyone in order, and i suggest youto watch the documentary movie "zeitgeist moving forward" here on youtube. It contains pure information why everything is like that.
I love how you try talking to US like WE'RE the children, when actually, it's YOU who will continue to make childishly fallacious arguments from now until the end of time (no matter how many people call you on your B.S.). At any rate, I'm not 5-years-old, so you can take off the hat and stop making silly face like you're talking to a 2-year-old.
Your premise is completely ridiculous. Not all the "physical stuff" "is the same". Mis-allocation of resources WASTES those resources (DESTROYS capital). If you don't know why I'm bringing up "mis-allocation of resources", then perhaps you shouldn't speak on subjects you claim to be ignorant about.
Yeah... maybe you should try studying economics. You're simply wrong about there being no destruction of capital. If you were paying any attention at all, you'd know that America's manufacturing infrastructure has greatly diminished. OBVIOUSLY, we're being ripped off. However, if you bothered to study some economics, you'd know that the very process that is ripping us all off, is ALSO destroying ACTUAL capital/wealth. It's not ALL being transferred. It is ALSO being destroyed.
The easiest way to explain this is with an analogy. A builder is building a house with blueprints that assume he has many more bricks than he actually has, except the builder is prevented from knowing this. So he continues to build, and bases his standard on living on what he expects the value of the finished product to be. Then halfway through he realises he is almost out of bricks and has to change everything to make due, resulting in much lower quality than what could have been possible.
i think the problem is the bankers as they have enslaved almost every person on this planet.The pharmaceutical companies by making allot of people ill and i agree with most of the comments on here as we are living inside there box and 95% of people cant even see it
The problem is that corporations run the government instead of "the people." Check out Noam Chomsky, he has some lectures and interviews here on YouTube . He is
an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and social activist.
I get the feeling that Greg has already done his own research and just wanted to start a friendly conversation. :)
I would recommend attorney Ellen Hodgson Brown's book Web of Debt for anyone just beginning to investigate the Money Cartel, and I would also recommend The Money Masters from Bill Still, which you can watch right here on YT. Still's video may not be as 'trendy' or hip as the Zeitgeist series these days, but the Money Masters taught me a lot about the creation of money. Good Luck.
Look at economics like you would the 11 year solar cycle. Electromagnetic energy and eddy currents build up in bands across the sun to a critical point of collapse and then it starts again.
The energy of society is money. Wealth built up to a critical point of collapse. The heights we reached in 2007 were achieved through an imbalance of equity. The greed of a few through everything out of whack until the economy couldn't support itself anymore. The difference now is the lie was exposed.
"Nothing will be able to conceal what's going to be apparent to the financial world, on its face, no later than July. And that's when the wheels will come off completely. When we see a 4-5,000 point drop in the Dow, which will be inevitable as global GDP suffers under the loss of Japanese input, and as the financial system goes heywire....I really do not think we will be living in anything like...the civilization we have known by this Fall."
Search Michael Ruppert - Economic Collapse Summer 2011
The short answer answer is rather than barter goods and services we exchange money. Money represents debt instead of value in our monetary system. When large portions of the economy default on debt (the housing crisis) the money supply shrinks quickly. When the money supply shrinks quickly prices drop. When prices drop profits and investments drop. When profits and investment drop company's downsize and close and securities lose value and crash. Understand?
When you find your theories do not reflect the reality CHECK YOUR ASSUMPTIONS. We do not live under free market capitalism, so blaming our current problems on it is a non starter. We are enjoying an evil brew of crony capitalism mixed with fascism and socialism.
You studied science before teaching it. Are you really seeking to learn something here, or are you trying to influence opinion?
@frgtmygld Now now, your both right because your trying to think about the problem, but both of your level of accuracy is off by a few milimeters.
The economy is just a human intelectualisation of the ecosystem. You still have a food chian and predators. Any political system is intended to benefit one faction over another, therefore it is biased.
Add to that the fact that when capitalism and communism grow big enough, they invert into versions of eachother.
The most important thing in a capitalistic system is by far the access to information. If what you called the masses had access to accurate information about the state of things, this crysis would have been stopped right where it started.
rofl, ok watch the zeitgeist: moving forward but pleaseeeee dont take the last hour too seriously...the first hour and 20 minutes is pretty good though.
@stuntbaby63 Really? What if the best way for a corporation to make a profit is at your expense? Will you fight them in court? Do you have more money they do? Do you take it to the media and have them slap you with a spurious libel suit, because that is what their lawyers get paid to do? I wouldn't disagree with your principles if coporations had the same limited size and scope as they did when the founders wrote the Constitution. Yet, they are now bloated too.
All money is debt. By people making less debt we are drying up the money supply. This means that more people have less. What is more is that only the principal is created when we create money. Where is the interest supposed to come from. Well that is why every country in the world is in debt. And once you understand the exponential function like Greg here. You will see that we are in for some exciting times. Some free advice. Start a vegetable garden!
the media says we are in a recession, and continues to make a big deal about it even though (as you pointed out) everything remains pretty much the same. what happens then? people panic sell stock, are less frivolous with their spending. the media comes out with all these bad stats that no one knew before.
its like walking into a room full of sad people when your happy, your mood will change
So kids, first everyone had what we like to call money. They worked, got paid, saved a little, and so on. When the economy got hot, like 2007, people with a lot of this money stuff expect a big return on it. If they give it to someone, they wanted a lot more back. That's cool, easy to do when the economy's hot.
Turned out, the people who were giving those big returns, they were totally faking it. Using up more and more of the money to do stuff like build mansions in deserts where nobody lived.
eventually mankind will co-operate without money but at the moment we are too selfish, immature, uncaring and greedy so the current system is the best of a bad lot.
When altruism, compassion, understanding, tolerance and maturity become standard human traits we will no longer need money as a tool for devision.
fedrale reserve uped intrest rates on houses so loans could not be paided back. then everyone lost there house and the housing market and banking market with a massive over production of houses and too many unpaid loans to count cause of fedrale reserve intrest. then you can see how banking tie in to other investing bussnies and normal people. then housing market wich employees about 10 million goes down and people get laid off. i argue about your scense of rich though.
@ThePresD our socialist/"liberal"(socialist in a nicer word") goverment makes rich pay for low wealth lazies on welfare so it hurts the rich taxes!!!!! I HATE LIBERALS!!!!
Irresponsible use of debt causes much of this problem. Debt allows an excess use of resources for a period of time and then there suddenly a hard stop. (Like how you can blow up a balloon for a while and eventually it can't take it anymore.) This growth and collapse are the result of the oscillations caused by this irresponsible use of credit without the possibility of payback.
For one I don't have a job! So like.. I can't pay my bills, so like I don't have any money to buy Starbucks or Dr. Visits, cause .. no health care anymore..
So .. Like I get where you are coming from.. but .. like the (R) rich bastards "fixed" congress back when Reagan was in office duing the 1980's check out the Fairness Doctrine and the equal time amendment which BOTH were recinded by RR.
I'm tired of the way Leftists demonize "the rich". I'm tired of the way they tie all of the worlds ills to capitalism (i.e. human liberty). I'm tired of the way they dismiss communism -- "whatever THAT is" -- as a non-threat. The drugs that this guy feels everyone is entitled to are created and produced by rich people who are invested in making "evil" profits that they will need to produce newer and better drugs that will save the lives of the rich and poor alike. Class envy is for morons.
@stuntbaby63 But drugs are sold in a patent protection system (ie a racket) which turns a market into a monopoly. Support for this is bought from politicians through bribes, donations and cronyism - a system designed by the rich for the rich. You say "that's good - we get new innovative drugs from this". But what we get now is mainly designed to reduce symptoms (not cure so we buy more) and the price is not based on cost, but demand. I do want innovation to be rewarded. Time for a new system!
@misterstogy wrote, "Time for a new system." I agree with that. I would never argue against making a more effective, efficient and moral health care system. But when you move "Left", public policy ends up being shaped by emotions -- envy, jealousy, revenge, feelings of entitlement and victimhood etc. The focus is placed on equality. They think 1000 dead people, equally rich and poor is better than 50 dead people, mostly poor. Their ignorance of human nature distorts their world view.
@stuntbaby63 While I agree with you that "envy, jealousy, revenge, feelings of entitlement and victimhood etc" have no place in public policy, I think you find that they run right across the political spectrum. There are good people on the left and right who are both interested in good public policy - we get this when they spend more time on making good policy and less time on petty politicking. I don't trust corporations to look after my interests any more than I trust governments to do so.
@misterstogy wrote, "I don't trust corporations to look after my interests any more than I trust governments to do so." The world I want to conserve -- i.e. the one created at America's founding -- challenges YOU to look after your OWN interests. Corporations exist to make money. That's it. Your interests are best served if they are free to either succeed or fail in their mission. But when bloated gov't gets involved, the whole dynamic changes and everything bows to the needs of the State.
@stuntbaby63 I might be capable of that, and you might well be too - but only to some extent. As consumers of services and products made and provided by companies, we just cannot know enough about everything to make logical choices. There have to be limits on corporation power - here's an example: 100 years ago there were almost no regulations about how food could be sold. It's only because people put pressure on governments that we now have food safety laws. (continued)
@misterstogy Some more: What about car design? Controls on the amount of fish trawlers can take (only one greedy company needs to overfish to damage a fish stock)? How about drug companies peddling rubbish medicines? Or workers who have to work in dangerous situations?
If corporations are the only power that decides, we all lose - I don't agree that my interests are best served. I want balance of power between governments and corporations. And this is where democracy is so important.
@misterstogy wrote, "There have to be limits on corporation power." There ARE limits. Corporations can't throw you in jail. Corporations can't force you to give them your money. They answer to people who freely own their own lives and wealth. There have to be limits on GOV'T power. Obama runs GM. He makes cars with steering wheels that fall off! He can break free market rules. He can game the system to hurt his competition. He can make policy to force us to buy cars we don't want.
@stuntbaby63 "There ARE limits." Yup, and this is a good thing. Just like I said. "They answer to people who freely own their own lives and wealth." Yes, and reasonable (and unreasonable demands that governments put upon them). As far as Obama running GM, I would like to see the end of that too. But what would you have done? The choice was to let it collapse, or a government takeover. I doubt though, that he can actually force you or anyone else to buy a car. Govt departments might though.
@misterstogy wrote, "what would you have done?" I would have let the companies fail. It would've been painful, for sure. But it would've also created wonderful opportunities for folks who truly know the auto industry. Lessons would have been learned and blessings revealed. Nothing focuses the mind like failure. Remember the urgency? The panic? All lies...just a scam to justify a gov't takeover. I would have kept the public and private sectors far apart and let liberty do its thing.
@misterstogy wrote, " I doubt...he can actually force you or anyone else to buy a car." He can do so by taking away all our options. He can pass laws, give tax breaks, and punish competition. He can use his bully pulpit to make GM cars the "right" cars. A guy complained about high gas prices. Obama said he "can get a great deal" on a GM car if he trades in his gasguzzler. The "Climate Change" scam changes our human liberty (i.e. CO2) into a global threat that Gov't must then constrain.
Not so different to Japan - TEPCO, which abused its power, bought politicians and has now destroyed a largish chunk of Japan, now faces a government takeover because there is no way it can afford 130 billion or so in damages, meaning that the taxpayers or those effected will have to pay. Buy out or bail out - either way it's the same. Corporations have failed to provide a safe, effective service.This is why we need a balance of both.
@misterstogy I live in Japan. Trust me. The media is playing up this disaster for all its worth for political reasons...just like Obama played up the gulf oil spill to exert power over private drilling companies. A largish chunk of Japan? Hardly. Yes. It's bad. But it's not as bad as the media would have you believe. And don't demonize TEPCO. The cheap and plentiful energy that they have produced for this country has kept it from becoming another N. Korea. Don't demonize good people.
That's why we have mixed capitalism, regulation with capitalism. We have standards for safety and efficiency so everything runs smoothly. It's when we have things like Wall Street running amok is when things start collapsing. Pure capitalism is a nightmare.
@guydudeasian I'd say regulation ought to be part of capitalism to ensure markets stay free (which means no shifting of costs on externalities, like humans, animals and the planet).
My idea is that we calculate and measure our well being by"growing"economy(GDP etc.)which is wrong. Nothing can grow for ever. But now this type of measure is deep in our minds, and when it is growing everybody has a high hopes, and then buy more, which helps to grow more, which is wrong. Why is it normal for a county budget to have a deficit? It shouldnt be this way. I build my family budget to save something for the future. So we should build our economy on the idea, how to economize not spend
Economic theory is just that; theories. In practice supply and demand do not control the market place and "free market" practices are a misnomer. 'Experts' are any person prepared to contradict what they said yesterday, today; without fear of retribution. If we lived in a democratic free market economy I would be able to buy Cocaine from a pharmicist. I would pay sales tax and be free to consume it in any way I see fit. Or better still it could be given away with breakfast cereal or......
On thought sir...Dumbasses that think that if they add more to the economy (INFLATION) then maybe they will get more money out of it all! Just my thought. (Sorry for the swearing, normaly I am very calm and collected...just not today.)
Of all the comments being made, I'm still not seeing any that adequately answers his question differently than he already has. The "rich" or as I call them "those in power" have successfully made all other classes "buy" into their ideology, both figuratively and literally. The other classes are just as much at fault for buying into it since it is their own greed that allowed them to. That is to say it was the false promise that they could be just like those in power.
study the angelides report folks the corruption is exposed. the answer is what worked last time and all times..... glass steagall for starters and a massive shift away from wall street and toward real production
OK i am a ninth grader and I'm in a economics class. Well my blunt sour answer is . Oil. Energy. Money. Our defect is in the billions. Due to more import of oil, To make energy.
Lets say we go back to making a simple row and column chart. 3 by 3.
for the rows money oil and energy / for the columns stay the same, change, stop
and do two of them one for consequence then one for gain.
Essentially capital flows into homebuilding were increased because investors were getting into the act, providing more money, i.e. nutrients to that sector. The originating banks used to be stuck with home loans for the lenth of the loans, and were limited by the amount of capital they could lend out.
With the advent of mortgage backed securities, they could suddenly sell the loans (assets on their books) and free up capital for new loans, injecting money into the system.
One has to remember that economies are complex systems that seek certain equilibriums. They also tend to have momentum created by self-reinforcing cycles.
Not entirely unlike the global climate. ;^)
I tend to think of the economy to be somewhat similar to a biological ecosystem, with various ecological niches that are filled by businesses.
A certain set of circumstances was created that provided a lot of nutrients to one particular niche, i.e. homebuilding.
Zeitgeist: Moving Forward could help clear up some of your questions, it is a great film with excellent information. Maybe you can watch it and review it? Great points made in your video!
Man, don't take it like a dogmatic action you must take. But as some have suggested here, watch Zeitgeist: Addendum, and Zeitgeist: Moving Forward, and give us your thought. They delve deep into the structure of why the monetary system doesn't work. And a honest solution is presented called the Resource Based Economy.
Yes, we would all love for you to review zeitgeist moving forward. You seem coherent enough to understand that the problems we face today need out of the box solutions.
Good Question. The problem I think is that we still use money. You should do a quick review of The Zeitgeist movies. Moving forward pretty much sums it up. You should try doing something on The Venus Project as well.
The problem with the economy is the same that it has always been--that we do not have direct access to resources. The resources that necessitate life come with a price tag. So Greg, do watch "Zeitgeist: Moving Forward" and do a public review on it. It will be massively rewarding to your audience and to you as well.
People have infinite desires and the world has limited resources.
The best way to signal the limit resources is through prices.
where ever there is a resource that is soley owned by a government agency they sell it too cheaply and leads to shortages and miss use of resources. Helium is an excellent example of this.
The problem with the economy is not economics but enterprises. No manner of economic intervention will put an end to this recession. The problem has been created in corporate America, & that is where it has to be solved. It's the enterprises that play the game of business, while the economists keep score. Too many corporate leaders have trashed their enterprises, taking w/ them America’s sense of enterprise. The scorekeepers cant fix that.
It seems the economy hasn't been primarily linked to any physical resources for a while: No gold standard for the dollar; most price hikes in petrol for the past few years have been due to speculation, not supply-and-demand; and the biggest contributor to the economic downfall was a breaking down of a system that combines credit & derivities: economic factors that really only exist on paper. We have moved from a physical economy to a metaphysical/theoretical economy.
@petesauber I don't think the problem is capitalism, nor do I think communism would do any better. It seems to be a fundamental societal problem: money is not hard currency anymore, it's soft plastic. Buying something with credit may or may not allow you to live beyond your means, but what it certainly does is put your money, (interest, fees, penalties) into the hands of people who don't work for it.
The very first thing this guy needs to do is to sit down and get some basic knowledge of the federal reserve, and the fractional reserve banking system. Then he needs to find out how our government finances everything it does.
I just hope he isn't advocating the end of capitalism to his students like he is to us just because he doesn't understand how it works.
are economy is based on credit. It is not a good thing for the masses/ individuals to base there entire budgets on credit, like credit cards. Now it's nearly impossible to get any credit, or a loan, yet our society is still dependent on that credit system.
If that is true then no one(the masses) has any cash or savings to stimulate or the economy, because we are unable to demand the supply.
Until there is reform with regard to campaign finance we as "the masses" will have to settle for a thinner and thinner slice of the pie. Think tanks, networks (fox), and lobbists cost money. It IS the same pie. Your doing a great job. Keep it up.
Debt based money system. That's how central banks around the world get away with printing money out of thin air. Interest charged on debt money keeps the cycle going, since the only way to get new money to pay off the old money is through new loans.It's an absurd system that was created when most of the world was financially ignorant, designed to make the rich, richer. Of course in a capitalist system, capitalist's are going to be the ones getting richer off of the backs of workers production.
Its easy to blame capitalism until you realize that capitalism is not what we have in this country. We have corporate fascism, large corporations lobby the oversized govt to destroy competition. Capitalism wasn't created by the wealthy to gain more wealth. Capitalism is freedom, is voluntary. I'm one who agrees that the current system is flawed, and even evil, but communism/socialism(taking away what little economic freedom we have left) is not and never will be the answer.
'nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed'.
From this principle maybe the transformation of the resource and their utilization managed to reduce what the masses have and increase the riches possession.
If we take in consideration that in nature, with some time everything will tend to reach a point of equilibrium. We cannot force it... I think.
For the standard of living to maintain itself, real income (inflation adjusted) has to be stable. However, wages have been increasing slower than prices since 1980.
To add to this, the unemployment rate doubled in the last few years. Millions of people lost their jobs, which definitely has an impact of the standard of living. Those who kept their jobs have stagnating salaries but increasing expenses.
@TheBigKiller Zeitgeist ignores the problem with Supply and Demand.
A human has infinite wants and desires, We live in a world of scarcity with finite resources.
Venus project assumes that humans wants can be completely met I say otherwise.
Monetary system is the best way to signal to others that there is scarcity by simply things being more expensive. By doing that things are conserved, recycled, reused to get the most worth out of the product.
@KurzLuppii The Movement strives for abundance. With the use of technology scarcity can be eliminated. Desires are not infinite as most 'Free' Market advocates claim, they are generated. I don't think you completely understand the monetary notion, nor do you understand The Venus Project. Most of your assumptions are just generated out of lack of information. I went from being a Libertarian, to then being some sort of Anarchist Free Market advocate, to then supporting The Venus Project.
Technology will continue to make things more efficient. Scarcity can not be eliminated.
Though it could be argued that standard of living can increase through technological advances, though the free market already does that. And it continues to progress to higher standard of living for everyone.
I came from Venus to Libertarian/Anarchist.
So there is no central planing in the Venus Project? I keep hearing about a super Computer that handles everything...
@KurzLuppii Food scarcity can be eliminated, go read some articles about it, the rest can also be eliminated by managing the resources. The 'super computer' won't tell you what to do if that what you're problem is, it's just going to measure. What do you define as central planning? Yes, the free market has done some great things, but it continues to hinder our technological progress; it's an outdated system.
@KurzLuppii Short answer, the people do by using the scientific method. This question has been answered thoroughly numerous times. That's why the films tells people to visit the global website at the end, all of this information can't be implemented into just one 2 hour film. Nobody will take away your freedom in this system.
I've never understood the concept of 'economy.' I mean, humans created the concept of money...and stock markets...and commodities...and debt...and consumerism. Why are so many a slave to something of our own creation? Currency, economy, etc. are all ideas, created by human beings - why are we ruled by it? It has always boggled my mind how the intangible affects the tangible world. It makes no sense on a philosophical level, and yet our human-created 'economy' is very real.
artsysimone 1 week ago
Because of automated foreclosure procedures and receiverships that summarily liquidate and disband companies that employ and create. We have wasteful legal and risk averse protections that just kick in and are blind to residual value.
It is disgusting, but it is time for the next generation to swoop in and gobble up these cheap assets and take over the wheel. Unfortunately they didn't get the preparation because their education funding was cut, and they were raised on nintendo and twinkies.
cruciferousvegetable 4 weeks ago
The incorrect assumption that i think you make is that the people at the helm love us. They don´t. In fact, if you study globalism and eugenics and the illuminati carefully, you will find that those in control know exactly what they are doing and why.
adriancrane99 4 weeks ago
Unsustainable living...With the population exploding....We cant sustain this way of life,...Mass production of animals and crops must end,alot of people are sick from it...,,its not working!!.It takes 30 ears of corn now to equal the nutritional value of 15 ears a few years ago.. Thanks Monsanto!!..Most everything you buy ends up in a landfill in a short time..(lets go to wal mart!!)....most people are stupid...and they love it!!
Stoneforter 1 month ago 3
If you are worried about the economy, maybe you should take a look at the Federal Reserve. It is supposedly the job of the FED to thwart recessions and depressions and control monetary policy. Ever heard of supply and demand. The more money they print, the less it is worth. Currency devaluation is the reason we are where we are today, but it is easy to blame the rich guy you are jealous of huh?
sladeltd1 1 month ago
Govt takes in $1 from taxes, spends $1.40, borrows .40 to make up the difference. Govt does this for 60 years until the 1970s when it decides to take in $1.20 from taxes, spend $2, borrow .40 still, and print the other .40. Now more money, great right? Not so fast. Supply and demand. That original $1 is now only worth 70 cent. Multiply the devaluation of currency by 40 years with natural inflation and here we are. Rich richer, poor poorer and you blame free markets instead of big government.
sladeltd1 1 month ago
Yeah, he’s gone loony on us...talking crap is a good sign that someone has gone a bit mad...why the fuck would anyone forward this crap? He really has gone nuts...
ammachi3 1 month ago
He just made this video to get some attention...he lost the plot a bit I think...He’s passed his best, he peaked while doing the climate stuff...which btw is not made by humans...
Just watch some videos on YouTube about the economy and you will soon understand, it’s not complicated at all.
ammachi3 1 month ago
I love your demeanor my friend!
As you well know, our monetary system is based on cyclical consumption. Simply stated, when Americans stop purchasing frivolously, our society grids to a halt.
The gap will continue to widen between the wealthy and the poor and the "middle class" will disappear. This is built into the system after the Federal Reserve began back around 1913. Our currency literally has no value except for what we give it as it's not backed by gold or anything else since 1933.
Peace
cecilcooperrocks 1 month ago
So as you're attacking Capitalism and defending Socialism it proves one of two things:
A) You're really truly ignorant of what happened
B) You understood what happened and you don't care about the truth but rather wish to spread socialism with lies and falsehoods.
C) You're a mindless tool of Socialism and only do what you're told
Regardless; it wasn't Capitalism that caused this, it was Socialism!
TAMPADOC64 1 month ago
@TAMPADOC64 You are a idiot. This is why democracies don't work^. They assume that the voter is rational and to a degree intelligent.
What caused the financial crisis was a form of capitalism. In fact in case you didn't know the vast majority of nations are capitalist (all G20 nations are capitalist). Socialism as economic system hardly exists anywhere and even elements of socialism (in economics) aren't sporadic.
RZMaslic 1 month ago
@RZMaslic Look in the mirror! IDIOT!
First: We don't live in a democracy! We live in a Republic!
Second: What caused the crisis was govt. regulation! If you're lacking the intelligence to understand that please keep your comments to yourself.
The Fed. govt. REQUIRED banks to make sub-prime loans.
Are you stupid enough to loan money to someone who never pays loans back?
The banks were forced to.
Perhaps you should study the G20 nations before making further comment.
China is capitalist!
TAMPADOC64 1 month ago
@TAMPADOC64 When corporations greatly influence the decision of you're government, thats part capitalism.Basically, its about free market, ownership yadda yadda. And yes, if you don't think you're isn't influenced by big business, you're dreaming pal!China is communism, communism!Big difference between that and capitalsim.You have a corruput fed, a private company owning and producing you're money (WTF?), you have people living exetremely excessively, and a country with a huge debt.
gameyguru 1 month ago
@gameyguru What you've identified is exactly what occurs in Socialist countries as well as Communist countries. Socialism and Communism can't survive without Capitalist in some form. The problem isn't capitalism: the problem is that any government that is too powerful becomes corrupt. China has been allowing Capitalism for quite a few years now; maybe you should get up to date on current events! Chinese people can open businesses, hire employees and sell products.
Know what that is called?
TAMPADOC64 1 month ago
@TAMPADOC64 well its highly beneficial to have a government. Which is supposed to be a body of people, acting out in a responsible effedctive manner for the people. Government isn't the problem. you've said it twice now. Corruption is the problem!! And corruption exists beyond government. It exists in everyday business and people, in constant competion to grind against eachother and get as much as they can. It is just more appparentnt and easier to point a finger at government
gameyguru 1 month ago
@gameyguru I'll say it again, anytime government becomes too powerful, it becomes corrupt. Our government has gotten too big, too powerful and too out of control. There is nothing wrong with competition, there will always be those who cheat the system. All of it pales in comparison to the corruption that government contributes to. The housing crisis, oil crisis, banking crisis, economic crisis were ALL caused by government interference. If govt. didn't meddle, none of it ever would have happened
TAMPADOC64 1 month ago
i agree with some points you are making. Competition will always exist, and the same with people cheating the system. Its an innate quality we have to pretty much screw eachother over (doesn't mean it can't change). Cause really, why is it allright for the little guys to cheat their way but the big guys can't? Its not really. But if a government inevitably becomes corrupt when to 'big' , too powerful, wouldn't that concept apply to big business? what about a one world government?
gameyguru 1 month ago
@gameyguru The problem with one world govt at this juncture is this: most of the world is ruled by corrupt govts, far more corrupt the our own. Look at the UN; the human rights counsel is run by people that think women should be stoned to death if they get raped. Officials that are going into third world nations to molest children, and supporting the fake AGW movement to redistribute wealth from successful countries to their own pockets.
I think the rest of the world needs to grow up first.
TAMPADOC64 1 month ago
@TAMPADOC64 I'm curious as to what you define as 'Socialism' and 'Capitalism'.
RZMaslic 1 month ago
self corrected. But in stead the banks complained that they would go bankrupt if the government didn't loan them money. The govt. started using the term "Too Big To Fail", a total falsehood and contrary to the principles of Capitalism. They then loaned the banks billions (actually more then a trillion) which the banks used to keep the property they acquired to sell later at a profit.
the results: The banks got rich, the people lost their investments all because of government interference.
Cont
TAMPADOC64 1 month ago
@TAMPADOC64 Banks knew they were giving loans to people who couldn't afford them, but they didn't care. Why? It was no longer their problem as they would have sold the mortgage to a investment bank and got their money back with interest. If the government regulated the economy a little more and forced the banks to give loans to people with the means to pay the loan than the 2008 financial crisis would have been less severe for the average American.
RZMaslic 1 month ago
This has been flagged as spam show
@RZMaslic "If the government regulated the economy a little more and forced the banks to give loans to people with the means to pay the loan" The Government was FORCING them to make the bad loans! Don't you get it?
Selling the loans discount to the investment banks was the way the banks eliminated their liability.
If the government hadn't FORCED banks to do sub-prime loans the 2008 crisis NEVER WOULD HAVE HAPPENED!
You really don't understand any of this do you?
TAMPADOC64 1 month ago
Now people who bought homes with balloon notes who needed to refinance their home had a seriously up-side-down loan (owed far more then worth) and no one would give them a loan. They too were forced to abandon their homes. This put millions of more homes on the market further lowering the value of homes.
This is where the govt. screwed us the second time.
The Bail Out!
If the government had left things alone, the banks would have been forced to negotiate mortgages and the market would
Cont.
TAMPADOC64 1 month ago
@TAMPADOC64 If the government regulated the economy this wouldnt have happened. Watch Inside Job it has a good section on explaining how mortgage loans work in the US today. Bankers got rich because of a lack of intervention in the economy and not the other way around! The US financial system is highly unregulated and since 2008 it has remained that way. It is a catastrophe waiting to happen.
RZMaslic 1 month ago
@RZMaslic "If the government regulated the economy this wouldnt have happened."
Huh? Are you a spit drooling moron? The government CAUSED this!
Unregulated since 2008? You are CLUELESS!
What do you THINK happened in 2008 (other then us electing a moron to POTUS)
BTW: The bankers got rich from the bail out! Another shining example of the government screwing things up!
TAMPADOC64 1 month ago
@TAMPADOC64 you're government did screw up, but they are in the pocket of the bankers. Just watch a political debate once. These guys are puppets, regurgitating whatever they have to, and depending on the crowd its not always the same policy. you need a government that is of the people for the people. till then, it'll just get worse
gameyguru 1 month ago
@gameyguru Funny how that works, government imposes harsh regulations, and then suddenly the companies are in cahoots with the government. I don't know how much simpler I can say this, the more power government has, the more corrupt it becomes. Capitalism isn't the problem, government is the problem.
TAMPADOC64 1 month ago
So the banks used newly created loop holes (also Created by Clinton Admin) to sell off the debt.
In 2008 gas prices suddenly rose to $4.12. Suddenly many of the people who had purchased sub-prime loans had a choice, buy gas or pay their mortgage. They bought gas!
As many of these mortgages foreclosed, the subprime home owners went to public housing and abandoned their homes. With millions of homes suddenly on the market, this caused home values to fall dramatically.
Cont.
TAMPADOC64 1 month ago
artificially inflated housing prices creating a bubble. To further this problem; people who normally would have been buying the less expensive homes had to buy more expensive homes plus pay higher prices for those homes. This continued through all levels of home buyers forcing people to use risky loans (such as balloon or interest only, often short term loans to secure a purchase.
The banks knew this was dangerous and were looking for ways to get rid of this dangerous debt.
Cont.
TAMPADOC64 1 month ago
Fortunately this law had not teeth (means to enforce it) so nothing happened
In the late 90s, Bill Clinton passed a bill that gave teeth to this law. The bill basically gave private organizations the ability to stop banks from mergers, investments, acquisitions etc. on their say so if they didn't do enough loans in depressed areas. Now banks were forced to give loans to people who don't pay their bills.
Millions of such mortgages were created which (laws of supply and demand) ..Cont.
TAMPADOC64 1 month ago
OK, Mr.Wanderingmind, I'll give you a 9th grade explanation that even you can understand (OK, 4th grade).
In the seventies Jimmie Carter decided that everyone should be allowed to buy a house regardless of whether or not they could afford it or if they demonstrated the responsibility to pay for it (that's called credit) he created a law called The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) which said that banks had to issue the same number of loans in all geographic areas.
Cont.
TAMPADOC64 1 month ago
What is wrong with the economy? Part of the problem is our reliance on cheap energy, which in our industrial economy means oil. When the cost of energy was cheaper, we could have a win-win situation. We now a zero-sum game, and those who succeed become rich, and the rest are just the 99%. Dr. James Hamilton has linked price spikes to recessions.
Also, in America, non-skilled jobs are in the process of being exported to other countries or getting automated away. Can we teach those skills?
mollytherealdeal 3 months ago
And I also agree with another commenter below that we have essentially lost the main ingredient of Democracy because of a media, (Especially ONE network), that constantly misinforms it's viewers. In 2003 Liberals & any liberal media who tried to inform the public about the LIES we were constantly told by the regular media-they were called "un-American", Liars, and "violent radicals". Yet EVERYTHING they claimed has turned out to be TRUE!!
SoloPocono 4 months ago
Let me clarify something-I MEANT that the Repub RESPONSE to non-existent over-taxing,, & BOTH party's overspending-is addressed by cutting taxes even more, (WHERE's the jobs?), & MORE Corporate Welfare. "Free Trade disaster was instituted by BOTH parties.
SoloPocono 4 months ago
Look up the Santa Claus 2 theory ie: Repub spiel about "Dems outrageous taxing & spending"-to "expand the free market"-they then instituted "free trade", (NOT Free!), corporate socialism, & drastically lower taxes on the wealthy, while increasing sales/gas/etc affecting middle & upper classes.
SoloPocono 4 months ago
Only one thing. Bush tax cuts for the super rich.
InsomniacPostman 6 months ago
watch the 2nd and 3rd movie of Zeitgeist ("Addendum" & "Moving Forward"), you'll understand it all.
i won't spam you with links, you can easily find them on Google Videos.
MikePres91 7 months ago
@MikePres91 Zeitgeist actually incredibly misleading using half truths, self sourcing, and many times just make up the facts when their narrative doesn't fit.
conspiracies.skepticproject(dot)com/articles/zeitgeist-addendum/
If you want a starter course in all the problems with zeitgeist. I'm totally on board with reforming the capitalistic system, but if you don't make sure you have your facts straight and are using reliable sources then it hurts the argument for everyone.
Makosis 7 months ago
If you are dumb enough to buy CO2 credits, you should not complain about urine taxes either.
Get used to it: Global plutocracy!
judomagyar 7 months ago
The greed of the rich is ok with ppl because they think they may be rich someday too and they do not plan to take on anything with their imaginary money but more shopping The 2011 harvest will be bad and we are in neck deep at this point.
Buy food if you want to eat.
Stop making the rich richer,everything they have is because ppl think they must have that which they can live without.Those 40 mpg cars don't help much when gas keeps going up.
FarawayCherokee 7 months ago
I have nothing left and don't get a check from anyone.I also can't find a job.I have parked the car and use almost no gas.I do not buy any extras at all.I feel like we are becoming a third world country.No one seems to care about anything except that they can't buy more stuff.I would like to eat.What is wrong with having enough?Why can't we be satiated?It is our own fault.
FarawayCherokee 7 months ago
All you people spend so much time and energy taking the blame off your backs! Im not buying it! If you (and the people in power) spent your time finding solutions, problem solving, MARCHING even u could make a change for the better, but eveyone is so focused on whos to blame. WHO GIVES A $#it?!!!! Ur not even looking at the problems, your just pointing fingers, but if u ever look when you point, u have 3 fingers pointing back at U! Think! Wake UP!!! But stop adding to the problems and sove some!
kcallesen 7 months ago
ok, Its not about, whos to blame, its not about whos actually at fault either. It is about solutions! Im so sick of hearing, "its people who borrowed too much money." or "its capitolism" Why do I hear alot of finger pointing yet no solutions?! Spend some time in thinking how to FIX the problem instead of "blog" about whos fault it is. How bout we stop printing $ to make the worth of a $ go up? or Make the rich people hoarding the $ circulate it? or Produce our own products and food, not import?!
kcallesen 7 months ago
Should've unsubscribed long ago. It's plain to see that you spend more time researching your next funny hat than researching your next post.
mooseythejuiceman 7 months ago
Socialism bailsout capitalism. Tax cuts are spending. Republicans cut 40,000 government jobs than they start bitching at Obama about Unemployment. Bring it on neo- cons I can shit on all your fake numbers and ridiculous hypocrisy. Tea party got hijacked. This right wing revolution is very dangerous. Stop hating start thinking. The president is black get over it.
ianhowe007 8 months ago
Capitalism is freedom. "The Rich" are not evil people worthy of our hatred; "The Poor" are not good people worthy of our wealth. Pitting class against class doesn't work. It never has; It never will. We must focus on the moral character of individuals and hold them to higher standards. Wonderingmind attacks capitalism but doesn't attack Communism -- "whatever that is"? Communism steals liberty. Its long, bloody history is staring us all in the face. Yet W.M. can't see it. Amazing.
stuntbaby63 8 months ago
Its simple, you either have or you dont, they make the economics so difficult for anyone to truely understand it, so they can manipulate it, watch Michael Moores Captilism: A Love Story, that helped me understand alot
closcsprings 8 months ago
Its about money. Not ppl. Money money money. That the problem ..
kloveless82 8 months ago
worthless. And people who thought worthless financial devices were worth something, lost the means of production. Instead of allowing them to just lose everything, we took a massive amount of money from the working folks and gave it to them. That, isn't capitalism but state sponsored theft. The system wasn't built by the capitalists, it was built by bureaucrats in government. Blame them, not the people who built the greatest economy the world has ever known. Capitalism is for free people.
hanson807 8 months ago
See there is something you fail to grasp. If you borrow money, eventually you are required to pay that money back. Capitalism is the ownership of the means of production by the individual and not the state. Some people confuse owning a house with a means of production. The capital for the house is the means of production that a consumer borrows from a capitalist. When they borrowed more than they could pay back, they were foreclosed on. The loans were packaged into financial items, they became
hanson807 8 months ago
See there is something you fail to grasp. If you borrow money, eventually you are required to pay that money back. Capitalism is the ownership of the means of production by the individual and not the state. Some people confuse owning a house with a means of production. The capital for the house is the means of production that a consumer borrows from a capitalist. When they borrowed more than they could pay back, they were foreclosed on. The loans were packaged into financial items, they became
hanson807 8 months ago
To answer your question,
Your first wrong point was that the people havent changed. They have. Becase many were stupid and borrowed too much money (SOME PEOPLE) and no one thought to check if they could pay it. Meanwhile some did just fine and saved money in the banks (their pillow was allready full). When the banks realised that they lost SOO much money. Many went into bankrupt and many of the people lost their money. I hope this was simple enough
supremeuniverseruler 8 months ago
What's so wrong with the economy? it means that the people on top cant steel any more, and soon they might use "aliens" and "ufos" to keep everyone in order, and i suggest youto watch the documentary movie "zeitgeist moving forward" here on youtube. It contains pure information why everything is like that.
stamstuff 8 months ago
Just watch the film 'Inside Job'.
These recessions are implemented to allow the tax payer to pay for regime change. Cant fund Imperialism thru the fed alone.
The only solace i can take is that this man actually has to live with himself. god help him
YEeeeeeSSSS 9 months ago
I love how you try talking to US like WE'RE the children, when actually, it's YOU who will continue to make childishly fallacious arguments from now until the end of time (no matter how many people call you on your B.S.). At any rate, I'm not 5-years-old, so you can take off the hat and stop making silly face like you're talking to a 2-year-old.
D4Shawn 9 months ago
Your premise is completely ridiculous. Not all the "physical stuff" "is the same". Mis-allocation of resources WASTES those resources (DESTROYS capital). If you don't know why I'm bringing up "mis-allocation of resources", then perhaps you shouldn't speak on subjects you claim to be ignorant about.
D4Shawn 9 months ago
Yeah... maybe you should try studying economics. You're simply wrong about there being no destruction of capital. If you were paying any attention at all, you'd know that America's manufacturing infrastructure has greatly diminished. OBVIOUSLY, we're being ripped off. However, if you bothered to study some economics, you'd know that the very process that is ripping us all off, is ALSO destroying ACTUAL capital/wealth. It's not ALL being transferred. It is ALSO being destroyed.
D4Shawn 9 months ago
The easiest way to explain this is with an analogy. A builder is building a house with blueprints that assume he has many more bricks than he actually has, except the builder is prevented from knowing this. So he continues to build, and bases his standard on living on what he expects the value of the finished product to be. Then halfway through he realises he is almost out of bricks and has to change everything to make due, resulting in much lower quality than what could have been possible.
Houshalter 9 months ago
i think the problem is the bankers as they have enslaved almost every person on this planet.The pharmaceutical companies by making allot of people ill and i agree with most of the comments on here as we are living inside there box and 95% of people cant even see it
1111shadey 9 months ago
The problem is that corporations run the government instead of "the people." Check out Noam Chomsky, he has some lectures and interviews here on YouTube . He is
an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and social activist.
gedwar36 10 months ago
I get the feeling that Greg has already done his own research and just wanted to start a friendly conversation. :)
I would recommend attorney Ellen Hodgson Brown's book Web of Debt for anyone just beginning to investigate the Money Cartel, and I would also recommend The Money Masters from Bill Still, which you can watch right here on YT. Still's video may not be as 'trendy' or hip as the Zeitgeist series these days, but the Money Masters taught me a lot about the creation of money. Good Luck.
Sinnsonido 10 months ago
Look at economics like you would the 11 year solar cycle. Electromagnetic energy and eddy currents build up in bands across the sun to a critical point of collapse and then it starts again.
The energy of society is money. Wealth built up to a critical point of collapse. The heights we reached in 2007 were achieved through an imbalance of equity. The greed of a few through everything out of whack until the economy couldn't support itself anymore. The difference now is the lie was exposed.
shadeydave 10 months ago
Really want to know what's wrong? Really want to go down into the rabbit hole?
/watch?v=_dmPchuXIXQ
watch?v=lBZne09Gf5A
watch?v=SjUrib_Gh0Y
TheWingflyer 10 months ago
"Nothing will be able to conceal what's going to be apparent to the financial world, on its face, no later than July. And that's when the wheels will come off completely. When we see a 4-5,000 point drop in the Dow, which will be inevitable as global GDP suffers under the loss of Japanese input, and as the financial system goes heywire....I really do not think we will be living in anything like...the civilization we have known by this Fall."
Search Michael Ruppert - Economic Collapse Summer 2011
Sinnsonido 10 months ago
The short answer answer is rather than barter goods and services we exchange money. Money represents debt instead of value in our monetary system. When large portions of the economy default on debt (the housing crisis) the money supply shrinks quickly. When the money supply shrinks quickly prices drop. When prices drop profits and investments drop. When profits and investment drop company's downsize and close and securities lose value and crash. Understand?
poonjabinator 10 months ago
When you find your theories do not reflect the reality CHECK YOUR ASSUMPTIONS. We do not live under free market capitalism, so blaming our current problems on it is a non starter. We are enjoying an evil brew of crony capitalism mixed with fascism and socialism.
You studied science before teaching it. Are you really seeking to learn something here, or are you trying to influence opinion?
frgtmygld 10 months ago 7
@frgtmygld Now now, your both right because your trying to think about the problem, but both of your level of accuracy is off by a few milimeters.
The economy is just a human intelectualisation of the ecosystem. You still have a food chian and predators. Any political system is intended to benefit one faction over another, therefore it is biased.
Add to that the fact that when capitalism and communism grow big enough, they invert into versions of eachother.
Elephantintheroom01 7 months ago
The most important thing in a capitalistic system is by far the access to information. If what you called the masses had access to accurate information about the state of things, this crysis would have been stopped right where it started.
elninohaginho 10 months ago
Watch Inside Job!
Bakereful 10 months ago
I may just send you a personal message to your account, to see if that works, (If that is okay with you, I mean)
anthrosaurian 10 months ago
I do have a post that should clear up your inquiry about the difference, but no matter how I put it, YouTube isn't letting me post it here.
anthrosaurian 10 months ago
rofl, ok watch the zeitgeist: moving forward but pleaseeeee dont take the last hour too seriously...the first hour and 20 minutes is pretty good though.
MrBigEnchilada 10 months ago
@MrBigEnchilada Why should Greg not take the last hour seriously? What's your argument for that statement?
mescoot 10 months ago
Please, look up this guy for better understanding of economics:
Yoram Bauman, Ph.D.
standupeconomist. com/category/blog/climate/
Ten Principles of Economics, 10th Anniversary Edition
/watch?v=7u6Os0TDR6o
jffryh 10 months ago
@stuntbaby63 Really? What if the best way for a corporation to make a profit is at your expense? Will you fight them in court? Do you have more money they do? Do you take it to the media and have them slap you with a spurious libel suit, because that is what their lawyers get paid to do? I wouldn't disagree with your principles if coporations had the same limited size and scope as they did when the founders wrote the Constitution. Yet, they are now bloated too.
platoscaveman 11 months ago
All money is debt. By people making less debt we are drying up the money supply. This means that more people have less. What is more is that only the principal is created when we create money. Where is the interest supposed to come from. Well that is why every country in the world is in debt. And once you understand the exponential function like Greg here. You will see that we are in for some exciting times. Some free advice. Start a vegetable garden!
hennomarais 11 months ago
what changed? peoples mindset.
how? the media.
why? destabilization to enforce more control
the media says we are in a recession, and continues to make a big deal about it even though (as you pointed out) everything remains pretty much the same. what happens then? people panic sell stock, are less frivolous with their spending. the media comes out with all these bad stats that no one knew before.
its like walking into a room full of sad people when your happy, your mood will change
DrLsw 11 months ago
It's simple: we need both!
We need good capitalism to protect us from poor government.
and...
We need good government to protect us from bad capitalism
misterstogy 11 months ago
Basing a wannabe infinite economy on finite resources DOES NOT
WORK and never has, period.
Joker6149 11 months ago
So kids, first everyone had what we like to call money. They worked, got paid, saved a little, and so on. When the economy got hot, like 2007, people with a lot of this money stuff expect a big return on it. If they give it to someone, they wanted a lot more back. That's cool, easy to do when the economy's hot.
Turned out, the people who were giving those big returns, they were totally faking it. Using up more and more of the money to do stuff like build mansions in deserts where nobody lived.
tussockyt 11 months ago
eventually mankind will co-operate without money but at the moment we are too selfish, immature, uncaring and greedy so the current system is the best of a bad lot.
When altruism, compassion, understanding, tolerance and maturity become standard human traits we will no longer need money as a tool for devision.
21433H 11 months ago
fedrale reserve uped intrest rates on houses so loans could not be paided back. then everyone lost there house and the housing market and banking market with a massive over production of houses and too many unpaid loans to count cause of fedrale reserve intrest. then you can see how banking tie in to other investing bussnies and normal people. then housing market wich employees about 10 million goes down and people get laid off. i argue about your scense of rich though.
ThePresD 11 months ago
@ThePresD our socialist/"liberal"(socialist in a nicer word") goverment makes rich pay for low wealth lazies on welfare so it hurts the rich taxes!!!!! I HATE LIBERALS!!!!
ThePresD 11 months ago
Irresponsible use of debt causes much of this problem. Debt allows an excess use of resources for a period of time and then there suddenly a hard stop. (Like how you can blow up a balloon for a while and eventually it can't take it anymore.) This growth and collapse are the result of the oscillations caused by this irresponsible use of credit without the possibility of payback.
KYCoffey 11 months ago
For one I don't have a job! So like.. I can't pay my bills, so like I don't have any money to buy Starbucks or Dr. Visits, cause .. no health care anymore..
So .. Like I get where you are coming from.. but .. like the (R) rich bastards "fixed" congress back when Reagan was in office duing the 1980's check out the Fairness Doctrine and the equal time amendment which BOTH were recinded by RR.
gwheyduke 11 months ago
Capitalism relates to economics as religion relates to science
ratje67 11 months ago
I'm tired of the way Leftists demonize "the rich". I'm tired of the way they tie all of the worlds ills to capitalism (i.e. human liberty). I'm tired of the way they dismiss communism -- "whatever THAT is" -- as a non-threat. The drugs that this guy feels everyone is entitled to are created and produced by rich people who are invested in making "evil" profits that they will need to produce newer and better drugs that will save the lives of the rich and poor alike. Class envy is for morons.
stuntbaby63 11 months ago
@stuntbaby63 But drugs are sold in a patent protection system (ie a racket) which turns a market into a monopoly. Support for this is bought from politicians through bribes, donations and cronyism - a system designed by the rich for the rich. You say "that's good - we get new innovative drugs from this". But what we get now is mainly designed to reduce symptoms (not cure so we buy more) and the price is not based on cost, but demand. I do want innovation to be rewarded. Time for a new system!
misterstogy 11 months ago
@misterstogy wrote, "Time for a new system." I agree with that. I would never argue against making a more effective, efficient and moral health care system. But when you move "Left", public policy ends up being shaped by emotions -- envy, jealousy, revenge, feelings of entitlement and victimhood etc. The focus is placed on equality. They think 1000 dead people, equally rich and poor is better than 50 dead people, mostly poor. Their ignorance of human nature distorts their world view.
stuntbaby63 11 months ago
@stuntbaby63 While I agree with you that "envy, jealousy, revenge, feelings of entitlement and victimhood etc" have no place in public policy, I think you find that they run right across the political spectrum. There are good people on the left and right who are both interested in good public policy - we get this when they spend more time on making good policy and less time on petty politicking. I don't trust corporations to look after my interests any more than I trust governments to do so.
misterstogy 11 months ago
@misterstogy wrote, "I don't trust corporations to look after my interests any more than I trust governments to do so." The world I want to conserve -- i.e. the one created at America's founding -- challenges YOU to look after your OWN interests. Corporations exist to make money. That's it. Your interests are best served if they are free to either succeed or fail in their mission. But when bloated gov't gets involved, the whole dynamic changes and everything bows to the needs of the State.
stuntbaby63 11 months ago
@stuntbaby63 I might be capable of that, and you might well be too - but only to some extent. As consumers of services and products made and provided by companies, we just cannot know enough about everything to make logical choices. There have to be limits on corporation power - here's an example: 100 years ago there were almost no regulations about how food could be sold. It's only because people put pressure on governments that we now have food safety laws. (continued)
misterstogy 10 months ago
@misterstogy Some more: What about car design? Controls on the amount of fish trawlers can take (only one greedy company needs to overfish to damage a fish stock)? How about drug companies peddling rubbish medicines? Or workers who have to work in dangerous situations?
If corporations are the only power that decides, we all lose - I don't agree that my interests are best served. I want balance of power between governments and corporations. And this is where democracy is so important.
misterstogy 10 months ago
@misterstogy wrote, "There have to be limits on corporation power." There ARE limits. Corporations can't throw you in jail. Corporations can't force you to give them your money. They answer to people who freely own their own lives and wealth. There have to be limits on GOV'T power. Obama runs GM. He makes cars with steering wheels that fall off! He can break free market rules. He can game the system to hurt his competition. He can make policy to force us to buy cars we don't want.
stuntbaby63 10 months ago
@stuntbaby63 "There ARE limits." Yup, and this is a good thing. Just like I said. "They answer to people who freely own their own lives and wealth." Yes, and reasonable (and unreasonable demands that governments put upon them). As far as Obama running GM, I would like to see the end of that too. But what would you have done? The choice was to let it collapse, or a government takeover. I doubt though, that he can actually force you or anyone else to buy a car. Govt departments might though.
misterstogy 10 months ago
@misterstogy wrote, "what would you have done?" I would have let the companies fail. It would've been painful, for sure. But it would've also created wonderful opportunities for folks who truly know the auto industry. Lessons would have been learned and blessings revealed. Nothing focuses the mind like failure. Remember the urgency? The panic? All lies...just a scam to justify a gov't takeover. I would have kept the public and private sectors far apart and let liberty do its thing.
stuntbaby63 10 months ago
@misterstogy wrote, " I doubt...he can actually force you or anyone else to buy a car." He can do so by taking away all our options. He can pass laws, give tax breaks, and punish competition. He can use his bully pulpit to make GM cars the "right" cars. A guy complained about high gas prices. Obama said he "can get a great deal" on a GM car if he trades in his gasguzzler. The "Climate Change" scam changes our human liberty (i.e. CO2) into a global threat that Gov't must then constrain.
stuntbaby63 10 months ago
Not so different to Japan - TEPCO, which abused its power, bought politicians and has now destroyed a largish chunk of Japan, now faces a government takeover because there is no way it can afford 130 billion or so in damages, meaning that the taxpayers or those effected will have to pay. Buy out or bail out - either way it's the same. Corporations have failed to provide a safe, effective service.This is why we need a balance of both.
misterstogy 10 months ago
@misterstogy I live in Japan. Trust me. The media is playing up this disaster for all its worth for political reasons...just like Obama played up the gulf oil spill to exert power over private drilling companies. A largish chunk of Japan? Hardly. Yes. It's bad. But it's not as bad as the media would have you believe. And don't demonize TEPCO. The cheap and plentiful energy that they have produced for this country has kept it from becoming another N. Korea. Don't demonize good people.
stuntbaby63 10 months ago
I should have written, "The media ARE playing up this disaster for all its worth for political reasons."
stuntbaby63 10 months ago
It is simple: The thing is that we print money that really are not worth anything...
Think about the implications of that!
StaticApnea 11 months ago
We don't have the same factories. Much of our manufacturing is now overseas.
linkswich 11 months ago
That's why we have mixed capitalism, regulation with capitalism. We have standards for safety and efficiency so everything runs smoothly. It's when we have things like Wall Street running amok is when things start collapsing. Pure capitalism is a nightmare.
guydudeasian 11 months ago
@guydudeasian I'd say regulation ought to be part of capitalism to ensure markets stay free (which means no shifting of costs on externalities, like humans, animals and the planet).
BaileysBeads 11 months ago
I'm a socialist now :)
Cosmunity 11 months ago
@Cosmunity funny its socialism that in part caused this mess.
KurzLuppii 11 months ago
To know that follow LaRouchePAC
Cosmunity 11 months ago
it's capitalism...it's the worse system, it crashes easily
and please don't call the socialists wing nuts
KlopOHgc 11 months ago
@KlopOHgc No its Facism, Socialism, Fiat currency that crashes the system.
Capitalism and Free trade are the best way to improve society as a whole.
KurzLuppii 11 months ago
My idea is that we calculate and measure our well being by"growing"economy(GDP etc.)which is wrong. Nothing can grow for ever. But now this type of measure is deep in our minds, and when it is growing everybody has a high hopes, and then buy more, which helps to grow more, which is wrong. Why is it normal for a county budget to have a deficit? It shouldnt be this way. I build my family budget to save something for the future. So we should build our economy on the idea, how to economize not spend
ininfluenza 11 months ago
Economic theory is just that; theories. In practice supply and demand do not control the market place and "free market" practices are a misnomer. 'Experts' are any person prepared to contradict what they said yesterday, today; without fear of retribution. If we lived in a democratic free market economy I would be able to buy Cocaine from a pharmicist. I would pay sales tax and be free to consume it in any way I see fit. Or better still it could be given away with breakfast cereal or......
theMacvarish 11 months ago
/watch?v=f8RsO1iKNAE
Widetotem 11 months ago
just another sign of the times,Birth Pangs.
indman101 11 months ago
On thought sir...Dumbasses that think that if they add more to the economy (INFLATION) then maybe they will get more money out of it all! Just my thought. (Sorry for the swearing, normaly I am very calm and collected...just not today.)
EmmaHecate 11 months ago
Of all the comments being made, I'm still not seeing any that adequately answers his question differently than he already has. The "rich" or as I call them "those in power" have successfully made all other classes "buy" into their ideology, both figuratively and literally. The other classes are just as much at fault for buying into it since it is their own greed that allowed them to. That is to say it was the false promise that they could be just like those in power.
kookidoo 11 months ago
study the angelides report folks the corruption is exposed. the answer is what worked last time and all times..... glass steagall for starters and a massive shift away from wall street and toward real production
bodyheals 11 months ago
OK i am a ninth grader and I'm in a economics class. Well my blunt sour answer is . Oil. Energy. Money. Our defect is in the billions. Due to more import of oil, To make energy.
Lets say we go back to making a simple row and column chart. 3 by 3.
for the rows money oil and energy / for the columns stay the same, change, stop
and do two of them one for consequence then one for gain.
softiebleep 11 months ago
Atlas Shrugged
SodiumCyanide 11 months ago
I'll get back to finishing this thought at some point, gotta get going.
bluepooh72 11 months ago
Essentially capital flows into homebuilding were increased because investors were getting into the act, providing more money, i.e. nutrients to that sector. The originating banks used to be stuck with home loans for the lenth of the loans, and were limited by the amount of capital they could lend out.
With the advent of mortgage backed securities, they could suddenly sell the loans (assets on their books) and free up capital for new loans, injecting money into the system.
bluepooh72 11 months ago
@bluepooh72 Though remember that money creation is part of the reason why we had the crash.
KurzLuppii 11 months ago
One has to remember that economies are complex systems that seek certain equilibriums. They also tend to have momentum created by self-reinforcing cycles.
Not entirely unlike the global climate. ;^)
I tend to think of the economy to be somewhat similar to a biological ecosystem, with various ecological niches that are filled by businesses.
A certain set of circumstances was created that provided a lot of nutrients to one particular niche, i.e. homebuilding.
bluepooh72 11 months ago
I also recommend watching Zeitgeist Addendum or Zeitgeist: Moving Forward.
Goertzen88 11 months ago
Hey Greg, please do a review on Zeitgeist: Addendum & Zeitgeist: Moving Forward! You would be very interested in it!
MrMidnightShine 11 months ago
Zeitgeist: Moving Forward could help clear up some of your questions, it is a great film with excellent information. Maybe you can watch it and review it? Great points made in your video!
unubermensch 11 months ago
Man, don't take it like a dogmatic action you must take. But as some have suggested here, watch Zeitgeist: Addendum, and Zeitgeist: Moving Forward, and give us your thought. They delve deep into the structure of why the monetary system doesn't work. And a honest solution is presented called the Resource Based Economy.
gasto5 11 months ago
Yes, we would all love for you to review zeitgeist moving forward. You seem coherent enough to understand that the problems we face today need out of the box solutions.
33smojo 11 months ago 5
GREG,,, ALOT OF PEOPLE WOULD LIKE YOUR OPINION ON ZEITGEIST MOVING FORWARD.
LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK GREG
amaxi3 11 months ago 2
Good Question. The problem I think is that we still use money. You should do a quick review of The Zeitgeist movies. Moving forward pretty much sums it up. You should try doing something on The Venus Project as well.
jimmy90249 11 months ago 2
The problem with the economy is the same that it has always been--that we do not have direct access to resources. The resources that necessitate life come with a price tag. So Greg, do watch "Zeitgeist: Moving Forward" and do a public review on it. It will be massively rewarding to your audience and to you as well.
VenusFreedom777 11 months ago 19
@VenusFreedom777
People have infinite desires and the world has limited resources.
The best way to signal the limit resources is through prices.
where ever there is a resource that is soley owned by a government agency they sell it too cheaply and leads to shortages and miss use of resources. Helium is an excellent example of this.
KurzLuppii 11 months ago
@VenusFreedom777 The zeitgeist movement is a cult, just the riculous revival of a philosophy that killed millions of people in the last century.
"direct access to resources" WTF is that supposed to mean? How would direct access to coal mines and forests raise anyones standard of living?
Houshalter 9 months ago
We actually DON'T have the same resources, look up Peak Oil!
Cheers! :)
VolcanicPenguin 11 months ago
GREED....
ANDREASRIAL 11 months ago
@ANDREASRIAL everyone is greedy... So your argument if there was one fails.
KurzLuppii 11 months ago
The problem with the economy is not economics but enterprises. No manner of economic intervention will put an end to this recession. The problem has been created in corporate America, & that is where it has to be solved. It's the enterprises that play the game of business, while the economists keep score. Too many corporate leaders have trashed their enterprises, taking w/ them America’s sense of enterprise. The scorekeepers cant fix that.
linkswich 11 months ago
It's called inflation.
cbankord 11 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Please do a video review of "Zeitgeist: Moving Forward"
acclowyat 11 months ago
It seems the economy hasn't been primarily linked to any physical resources for a while: No gold standard for the dollar; most price hikes in petrol for the past few years have been due to speculation, not supply-and-demand; and the biggest contributor to the economic downfall was a breaking down of a system that combines credit & derivities: economic factors that really only exist on paper. We have moved from a physical economy to a metaphysical/theoretical economy.
petesauber 11 months ago
@petesauber I don't think the problem is capitalism, nor do I think communism would do any better. It seems to be a fundamental societal problem: money is not hard currency anymore, it's soft plastic. Buying something with credit may or may not allow you to live beyond your means, but what it certainly does is put your money, (interest, fees, penalties) into the hands of people who don't work for it.
petesauber 11 months ago
What?! Money has a dwindling relationship to actual use-value? IMPOSSIBRU!
begrackled 11 months ago
Please reveiw movie called "Loose Change"
A movie about the capatilistic system and how many of the world crisises and acts of terorism are linked together.
austinanderson78 11 months ago
@austinanderson78 No Government is the problem. Not capitalism.
KurzLuppii 11 months ago
The very first thing this guy needs to do is to sit down and get some basic knowledge of the federal reserve, and the fractional reserve banking system. Then he needs to find out how our government finances everything it does.
I just hope he isn't advocating the end of capitalism to his students like he is to us just because he doesn't understand how it works.
snarfels 11 months ago
are economy is based on credit. It is not a good thing for the masses/ individuals to base there entire budgets on credit, like credit cards. Now it's nearly impossible to get any credit, or a loan, yet our society is still dependent on that credit system.
If that is true then no one(the masses) has any cash or savings to stimulate or the economy, because we are unable to demand the supply.
bzglass 11 months ago 2
@bzglass Well to correct what you said a system based on debt is wrong.
A Gold system for example is a credit based system.
KurzLuppii 11 months ago
Can you cover the zeigeist movements second and third parts?
lafec3 11 months ago
Until there is reform with regard to campaign finance we as "the masses" will have to settle for a thinner and thinner slice of the pie. Think tanks, networks (fox), and lobbists cost money. It IS the same pie. Your doing a great job. Keep it up.
gu3bill64 11 months ago
Debt based money system. That's how central banks around the world get away with printing money out of thin air. Interest charged on debt money keeps the cycle going, since the only way to get new money to pay off the old money is through new loans.It's an absurd system that was created when most of the world was financially ignorant, designed to make the rich, richer. Of course in a capitalist system, capitalist's are going to be the ones getting richer off of the backs of workers production.
steeldragonx 11 months ago
The BANKS have cut the money supply, which our economy depends on.
ilsy74 11 months ago
Its easy to blame capitalism until you realize that capitalism is not what we have in this country. We have corporate fascism, large corporations lobby the oversized govt to destroy competition. Capitalism wasn't created by the wealthy to gain more wealth. Capitalism is freedom, is voluntary. I'm one who agrees that the current system is flawed, and even evil, but communism/socialism(taking away what little economic freedom we have left) is not and never will be the answer.
TheReceptionBand 11 months ago
Hello.
There was a scientist I think who said :
'nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed'.
From this principle maybe the transformation of the resource and their utilization managed to reduce what the masses have and increase the riches possession.
If we take in consideration that in nature, with some time everything will tend to reach a point of equilibrium. We cannot force it... I think.
djulioegleziaz 11 months ago
Greg,
For the standard of living to maintain itself, real income (inflation adjusted) has to be stable. However, wages have been increasing slower than prices since 1980.
To add to this, the unemployment rate doubled in the last few years. Millions of people lost their jobs, which definitely has an impact of the standard of living. Those who kept their jobs have stagnating salaries but increasing expenses.
DickMcPenis 11 months ago
Zeitgeist!
TheBigKiller 11 months ago
@TheBigKiller I suggest you forget that filth as did I years ago.
KurzLuppii 11 months ago
@KurzLuppii Forget Zeitgeist: The Movie, but if you disregard the Movement, state some logical reasons.
TheBigKiller 11 months ago
@TheBigKiller Zeitgeist ignores the problem with Supply and Demand.
A human has infinite wants and desires, We live in a world of scarcity with finite resources.
Venus project assumes that humans wants can be completely met I say otherwise.
Monetary system is the best way to signal to others that there is scarcity by simply things being more expensive. By doing that things are conserved, recycled, reused to get the most worth out of the product.
Plus its impossible to centrally plan a society.
KurzLuppii 11 months ago
@KurzLuppii The Movement strives for abundance. With the use of technology scarcity can be eliminated. Desires are not infinite as most 'Free' Market advocates claim, they are generated. I don't think you completely understand the monetary notion, nor do you understand The Venus Project. Most of your assumptions are just generated out of lack of information. I went from being a Libertarian, to then being some sort of Anarchist Free Market advocate, to then supporting The Venus Project.
TheBigKiller 11 months ago
@TheBigKiller
Technology will continue to make things more efficient. Scarcity can not be eliminated.
Though it could be argued that standard of living can increase through technological advances, though the free market already does that. And it continues to progress to higher standard of living for everyone.
I came from Venus to Libertarian/Anarchist.
So there is no central planing in the Venus Project? I keep hearing about a super Computer that handles everything...
KurzLuppii 11 months ago
@KurzLuppii Food scarcity can be eliminated, go read some articles about it, the rest can also be eliminated by managing the resources. The 'super computer' won't tell you what to do if that what you're problem is, it's just going to measure. What do you define as central planning? Yes, the free market has done some great things, but it continues to hinder our technological progress; it's an outdated system.
TheBigKiller 11 months ago
@TheBigKiller
So who makes the decisions?
KurzLuppii 11 months ago
@KurzLuppii Short answer, the people do by using the scientific method. This question has been answered thoroughly numerous times. That's why the films tells people to visit the global website at the end, all of this information can't be implemented into just one 2 hour film. Nobody will take away your freedom in this system.
TheBigKiller 11 months ago