Re The American Dream & the Fraudulent Free Market ...

[DonQuixotedeKaw]

Very impressive!

Some trivia to add to the bonfire; every Walmart that has a deli, has a half hour period of time, where they sell their prepared foods at the end of the day. The remainder is bagged up and dumpstered. Between 100 and 500 pounds of good food, destroyed daily, and made inaccessible, because it's too much bother to sell at an even greater discount, or give it away to local food banks, when people are broke & hungry.

Honestly, I should catch more $7 chickens, when they are $2.50.

[Cimbolic]

Thank you for your comment, DonQdeK.

That's an amazing amount of food !

[ShaundalynChic]

In Texas, all of the major grocery stores did the same wasteful thing. Fearing lawsuits if they gave away day old bread & near expiration date foods. Finally one man, H. E. Butts, a very religious man, who owned the HEB food store chain decided to risk it. He contacted the Food Bank, and started giving all their discontinued food to the needy. That shamed Krogers, Randalls, Albertsons, into doing the same. They didn't want the ridicule of being the ones who didn't. That was a few decades ago.

[Pentazoid111]

Funny how George carlin said that "you have to be a sleep to believe it" seeing that he used to be a working class american and now he is(was) a milti-millionaire;

[Cimbolic]

Good point!

I can't remember which aspect he was criticizing. There are lots of vids of him. If I stumble across the vid again, I'll send it to you by PM.

[tmotofga]

I usually agree with you but here the rubber does not meet the road. That does not mean we still can't be friends. Smile. Have a good day Nick.

[Cimbolic]

Hi tmot,

That's fine, tmot. :)

I'm always open to modifying my opinion if reality dictates otherwise.

[Tishuku]

the free market is the best economic that we have :S beyond that if the earth need a global intervention like international works unions that we dont have (ONU Spanish, is the only seemly good international intervention that we have :S).

[Cimbolic]

Hi Tishuku,

I'm not familiar with ONU. I'll look into it. Thanks, Tishuku!

[JoonasFinland]

Wow, Cimbolic! It's great that you are expressing some political and economical ideas. I have used to hearing all that extential philosophy (which is great also) from you. Great video! I have always kind of had that disgust towards greed that capitalism is based on... Could such negative thing as greed be considered as the basis of human rights and freedom? I sure as hell don't think so. And what is so great about small government anyways?

[Cimbolic]

Hi Joonas!

I'm glad you like the video.

Your questoions are right on target, Joonas!

[Cimbolic]

It's so fair they can't argue with it !!!

[Cimbolic]

True.

But many of the ones I argue with were college students. I think they are beginning to realize that the "american dream" is empty or slipping away, and they are trying to grab for it desperately.

I don't know, it's a mystery to me.

Like Eric.

They are privileged in this society.

So why do they feel so disenfranchised?

Part of it must be brainwashing as you say.

[upabittoolate]

You;re correct about all but 1 thing. The motivation to export jobs is not only a function of cheaper labor. Instead of giving you direct answer to the question "well what ARE the other motivations?", I'll simply ask to recall the accent you heard when you last called for tech support.

Why is that? Because Americans are ill-prepared for the high tech, next gen jobs. Americans are not ready to do the jobs.

(cont)

[upabittoolate]

(cont)

Times were, that "Bell" was the largest company in the country. Nowadays it's WalMart. Times were that our kids had a healthy diet of math & science when they went to school; even if they weren't scientists or mathematicians straight out of high school, they had basic skills. There were standards. Now, we have high school graduates that can't write complete sentences of handle simple fractions. How the hell can they understand binary language sans modular math in their backgrounds?

[Cimbolic]

I agree. I missed this completely !

We're unprepared.

They say that America does not "produce" anymore. But I think we are producing a lot of information, mostly digital now. And if we do not have the skills to handle that production (manipulate the data etc), then all those jobs will necessarily go somewehre else where people have the skills.

I'm completely biased towards mathematics. It's really sad to see its demise in the educational system.

[upabittoolate]

You're biased? I'm a high school math teacher at a charter school. The charter requirements are THREE HOURS PER WEEK!! I can't tell you how that pisses me off.

I digress. I came to that conclusion after having reflected on a conversation I had with a bus driver. It was a brother that saw me reading a Derek Bell book. We got to rapping & it turns out that the cat had a degree in engineering & the economy forced him out of retirement. Anyway, he pointed out this to me: (cont)

[Cimbolic]

Three hours per week ???????????????

That would drive me crazy!

The curriculum is really really doing a disservice to the students.

Not economically only; they're missing out on all the beauty and mystery of it.

[Cimbolic]

By the way, I have a playlist of mandelbrot descents on my channel page.

Also an interesting video called "The Calculus and God", a response to a Muslim video directed to atheists.

[upabittoolate]

Your "Calculus & God" video was HEAVY. I'm glad I found your channel. Peace.

[upabittoolate]

The degree of disservice is beyond my 500 character range of explanation. Honestly, it's like a shepherd at a stock yard. I'm supposed to be there protecting them but ultimately, I'm just keeping watch until they get to the slaughtergrounds.  I've had to take a serious look at my career choice. I can't, in good conscience, keep half-educating kids. I can't allow them to be arrogant in their ignorance. At the same time, I can't remain sane while my work gets undone by the parents.

[Cimbolic]

It's got to be really frustrating. Being a math teacher is a great thing. I had great math teachers. I'll always remember them. But they were allowed to teach us.

Do you think it would be the same situation in other schools? It would be great if you could find the right place to teach and didn't have to cope with the cognitive dissonance caused by your present job.

[Cimbolic]

I could tell you great stories about the math teachers I had in high school. I used to leave class with my jaw hanging open, I was so amazed at what they showed me.

[upabittoolate]

You have no idea how frustrating it is. I'm a fairly young man but I find myself reminiscing.

[Cimbolic]

That's ok. It means you're still young.

You've still got a memory to reminisce with!

:)

You just need a school where they'll let you really teach. Then it will be ok.

[upabittoolate]

I've always had a very keen memory. In addition, I haven't had kids of my own so I can afford to only remember the life I've lived because it's been alone for the most part.

You're right, I need a school that's not afraid of some real, ballistic teaching. Whatever happened to the notion of "stand & deliver"? Whatever happened to being accountable for the work you do (& don't do)? AAAAAARRRRGH!!

[Cimbolic]

Yup, AAARRRGGGH!

We'll make it through.

I'm sure there's a school that has a stronger math curriculum and realizes how critical the skills are in the "information age".

[upabittoolate]

(cont)

He pointed out the fact that up until recently (more like 15yrs ago), the country's largest company was Bell. Nowadays it's Walmart. That's the level of our American workforce; that's the caliber of high school graduates. In many ways, I don't blame big biz because that's what they do: make money; at all costs. It's intuitive to use the most efficient labor produce products or provide services.

[Cimbolic]

Yes, this is very interesting and very sad.

Bell labs invented the computer mouse, I think. Extremely innovative.

So, we'll have to do a short film called: "Retail is our future"

If it weren't such a tragedy, it would be a comedy.

[Cimbolic]

Yes !!

This was one of my points to them. Many felt that since business were "private property" the owners should be allowed to place "White Only" signs on their shops and deny access.

I told them that a market is not "free" unless everybody has free and equal access.

They dodged my point completely.

It all comes down to EQUAL OPPORTUNITY.

Everyone must have equal opportunity.

And exploitation must be minimized.

The system should provide an incentive for innovation/creativity.

[Cimbolic]

And not crush the innovation out of people by working them to death and giving them no opportunity or hope.

[Cimbolic]

Thanks, Jason.

I've just argued with more libertarians and anarcho-capitalists than you, that's all !

They drove me crazy. i finally disabled comments on my last video to them. One said he thought child labor should be legal.

Another said that since everybody owed themselves (that's the root of private property for many of them), that it should be legal for everyone to VOLUNTEER to become a slave. And THEREFORE, slavery should be legal again !!!!!!!!!!

[Cimbolic]

I meant "owned" not "owed".

[freethinkerbell]

begin 1900's Russia had a absolute free marked, we have seen what happened with that country.

[Cimbolic]

I think they went from complete serfdom to total free market in just a few short decades.

[liberatingtruth]

Yes, masterful!

[Cimbolic]

Thanks, kind EYE.