Pope tells super rich, bankers to find some ethics

[Yorkshire pud]

I never thought I'd see the day when PB and Qunt were at each others throats! 

[PB the Deplorable]

I can see that my parable has gotten under your skin...

Not really.  I just tire of people taking a few incidents and anecdotes and extrapolating them onto the whole rest of the business community.  Because their next step is usually to suggest bigger government and more socialism as the solution to the straw man they built.

... Free Market Capitalism was NOT conceived by The Founders to satisfy unbridled greed at the cost of customers, workers, and the community. I am not going to write an essay here on what The Founders truly believed about Free Market Capitalism because, it would take 500,000-words, and the information is already out there...

They were more interested in Liberty as applied to governance.  Adam Smith's 'The Wealth of Nations' explaining how markets actually work wasn't published until 1776.  Until then the world was on the 'mercantilist' system, the idea that a nations wealth consisted of the gold and silver piled up in the kings castle. 

The founders were more interested in opportunity, private property, keeping what one earned instead of forking it over to government.  They weren't economists, but were def on the right track with these ideas. 

Of course they wouldn't recognize our bloated dictatorial government, the crony capitalist system between Wall St, the Banks, and the Fortune 500 on one hand and the politicians on the other.  They would probably say they weren't surprised, and wonder why there hasn't been a revolt.

They argued amongst themselves about a Central Bank, decided not to have one, yet now we have one.  The Fed is un-Constitutional - one of the roles of Congress is to 'coin money' (which means regulating it, setting monetary policy, and all the rest), not hand that power over to a Central Bank.

... Factually, we are NOT living in a system of Free Market Capitalism as conceived by The Founders, period. We are living in a system of financial fraud and oppression, that is being justified by labeling it Free Market Capitalsim...

There are a handful of practices I'd eliminate, a few things I'd try to implement given the chance. I tend to blame the politicians more than the businesses because without them selling us out Wall St wouldn't be able to get away with what they do.

Yes, we get ripped off by Wall St and the Banks, but it doesn't affect us as much as people insist.  We still have pretty good lives.  We aren't impoverished.  We do what we want and go where we want.  The local economy - small businesses, our jobs, and so on aren't much caught up in the Wall St/DC shenanigans.


But to be honest, none of this amounts to a hill of beans compared to the National Debt.  Just the outstanding bonds are what, $18 Trillion.  Then add the unfunded liabilities - Social Security, Medicare, Federal Pensions.  And now ObamaCare shortfalls.  We're probably up over $100 Trillion.  And the State debt.  And Counties, municipalities, water, fire, school, park, etc districts.  We're not getting out of this without a disaster.

[onan]

You know, if Forrest Gump walks into your Venture Capital office with a briefcase containing 20-million dollars, it is NOT ok to scam him out of it with promises you KNOW are bullshit, just cause he's stupid.

Probably for the first time, we agree.

[Little Hater]

Or is it just another in the never-ending cycle of Ponzi schemes wherein 70-yr old retired folks loose every penny they invested while scumbags buy a 12th private jet?

I'm having trouble imagining a bigger and more despicable Ponzi scheme than the two-thousand-year-old one that asks its members to donate money they can't afford so that the operators can drench their offices in gold and that requires the marks to worship its leaders, allegedly all in return for a payoff of a non-existent 'eternal life'.

[NowhereInTime]

I never thought I'd see the day when PB and Qunt were at each others throats! 

In each other's throats, yes, but at?

[Yorkshire pud]

I'm having trouble imagining a bigger and more despicable Ponzi scheme than the two-thousand-year-old one that asks its members to donate money they can't afford so that the operators can drench their offices in gold and that requires the marks to worship its leaders, allegedly all in return for a payoff of a non-existent 'eternal life'.

Quite.

[Quick Karl]

Probably for the first time, we agree.

BS. You know I am right about everything, you're just afraid to admit it.

[Unquenchable Angst]

http://henrymakow.com/2014/06/Edward-Bernays-and-the-Engineering-of-Consent%20.html


what is called capitalism today has nothing to do with what Adam Smith saw as capitalism. It is corporate socialism now and precisely what Eisenhower called the Military-Industrial complex.

[Quick Karl]

http://henrymakow.com/2014/06/Edward-Bernays-and-the-Engineering-of-Consent%20.html


what is called capitalism today has nothing to do with what Adam Smith saw as capitalism. It is corporate socialism now and precisely what Eisenhower called the Military-Industrial complex.

HEAR HEAR! Hear, all ye good people, hear what this brilliant and eloquent speaker has to say!

Would that we had leaders like Eisenhower and Truman again -- oh well, it's nice to dream...

Eisenhower and Truman - when Republicans and Democrats were still real Americans and cared more about The Country than "their wallets and their party".

[someguy]

this whole forum is just quick karl and paperboy jacking each other off

[Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost]

Eisenhower and Truman - when Republicans and Democrats were still real Americans and cared more about The Country than "their wallets and their party".

And day-glo unicorns filled the sky.

[albrecht]

http://henrymakow.com/2014/06/Edward-Bernays-and-the-Engineering-of-Consent%20.html


what is called capitalism today has nothing to do with what Adam Smith saw as capitalism. It is corporate socialism now and precisely what Eisenhower called the Military-Industrial complex.

If you compare the history of the US railroads you will see the difference. You have some lines, like the Great Northern Railway, that was built with private funds and deals (more real capitalism) and then you have most of the others that used government land grants, back-room deals, government financing, eminent domains, and even slave (or near slave) labor (fake or crony capitalism.)