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Notes for the Free Market Slavery thing.

Started by The Good Reverend Roger, March 04, 2013, 09:24:21 PM

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The Good Reverend Roger

March 04, 2013, 09:24:21 PM
In no particular order:

If you worry about things like illegal immigrants and poor people getting medical care more than you worry about Bankers fucking you in the sinus cavities, then you're the sort of retard the Free Market™ is looking for.  Your sense of outrage isn't your own, it's been issued to you, and you accepted it.  Well done.

If you make less than $350,000/year, then the Bush-era "tax cuts" COST you money, as every OTHER tax had to go up to cover the income tax reduction.

In that vein, tax cuts have NEVER increased revenue, because all the investment is done overseas, as slaves are cheaper.  If you lower income taxes without significantly raising capital gains taxes, then bend over, because you have a surprise coming.

Austerity has NEVER worked.  It didn't work in Britain after WWII, it isn't working in Europe right now, and the sequester will demonstrate that it doesn't work here, either.  What austerity DOES do is line the pockets of the few at the expense of the many (Germany, for example, is making out like a mad bandit, while every other nation in Europe is essentially burning down).  For an economy to function, money has to keep moving at the working class level.  Poor people as a group buy more things than rich people as a group.  One Bentley doesn't employ as many people in its manufacture as 10 Fords.  It's pretty simple stuff.

Blaming the government for our ills is about the same as blaming the overseers for the master's policy on the treatment of slaves...They're guilty, but they aren't the prime movers.  Just saying.  In addition, the ONLY thing between you and outright slavery is that massive, hidebound bureacracy that everyone keeps bitching about.  Without the inertia it provides, there is NOTHING between you and the tines of the pitchforks being carried by companies like Goldman-Sachs and British Petroleum.

More to follow.



" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

The Good Reverend Roger

#1
March 04, 2013, 09:34:41 PM
Also, on austerity:  Our entire economic system is based on expansion.  Much like the Roman empire, it's "expand or die".  Austerity, by definition, means that no expansion is expected.  No expansion means less jobs, which means more austerity.  It is, as RAW referred to it, the politics of lowered expectations.

Contrast this with the New Deal, which cheerfully ignored things like debt, and reduced unemployment from 22% in 1933 (the nadir of the great depression) to 10% in 1938.  Increased taxation and spending meant increased revenue, both for the rich and the poor.

It also meant higher wages, which raises the bottom line.  But as long as the gap between the bottom line and the top line increase, then the bosses are better off, too...Unfortunately, we've learned since then to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Anna Mae Bollocks

#2
March 04, 2013, 09:38:19 PM
Great Depression II here we come, only last time they had soup lines?
Scantily-Clad Inspector of Gigantic and Unnecessary Cashews, Texas Division

The Good Reverend Roger

#3
March 04, 2013, 09:52:19 PM
Quote from: Pope Partum Depression on March 04, 2013, 09:38:19 PM
Great Depression II here we come, only last time they had soup lines?

Well, just think of it as an exercise in determining how far people can be pushed.

My guess is, a long fucking way.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

The Good Reverend Roger

#4
March 05, 2013, 05:55:25 PM
Corporations exist to make a profit for their shareholders.  Their shareholders, way down at the bottom, are those people with 401Ks and IRAs and Mutual Funds.  So when a CEO decides to do short-sighted things, it's because everyone wants to make 12%+ returns on their investments.  If the CEO doesn't comply, he's out on his ass.  If he outsources to slaves in Myanmar or just fucks his employees here at home, he gets a generous bonus.  This raises three questions:

1.  What kind of CEO is attracted to and/or survives that system?

2.  What kind of decision do you think said CEO is going to make?

3.  What the hell were you expecting?

FACT:  Free Market Slavery isn't just something done TO you.  You are also complicit.

" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

The Good Reverend Roger

#5
March 05, 2013, 05:57:39 PM
The above also implies that capitalism itself is fatally flawed, and can only lead to prosperity when heavily regulated (see: USA, circa 1948-1977).  Also note that the failure in the 70s wasn't based on the market strategy, but rather a combination of the bar tab for Vietnam and also an energy embargo.  That failure, however, has been used as the excuse for every horrible decision made since.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

The Good Reverend Roger

#6
March 05, 2013, 06:00:40 PM Last Edit: March 05, 2013, 09:11:59 PM by The Good Reverend Roger
Bear in mind that today, we are both running up a huge bar tab from Iraq and Afghanistan, AND we're employing a shitty market strategy.

This brings up one other point:  We were told that the war in Iraq would "pay for itself".  The only way THAT can happen is by nation-state banditry, which did in fact occur.  This is OBVIOUS, and the American public LIKED the idea.  But I have to ask: what made the American public think they'd get any of the benefits of said banditry?
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Anna Mae Bollocks

#7
March 05, 2013, 08:11:45 PM
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on March 05, 2013, 06:00:40 PM
Bear in mind that today, we are both running up a huge bar tab from Iraq and Afghanistan, AND we're employing a shitty market strategy.

This brings up one other point:  We were told that the war in Iraq would "pay for itself".  The only way THAT can happen is by nation-state banditry, which did in fact occur.  This is OBVIOUS, and the American public LIKED the idea.  But I have to ask: what made the American public think they'd get any of the benefits of said banditry.

The Reaganchrist Trickle Down Theory.
Scantily-Clad Inspector of Gigantic and Unnecessary Cashews, Texas Division

The Good Reverend Roger

#8
March 05, 2013, 08:45:55 PM
On deliberately inflicted workplace misery:

"A slave with a bad master wants a good master; a slave with a good master wants to be free."
- Robert E Lee
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

The Good Reverend Roger

#9
March 05, 2013, 08:52:10 PM
"What, to a slave, is the 4th of July?"
- Fredrick Douglass

Words to live by.  More on this shortly.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

The Good Reverend Roger

#10
March 05, 2013, 09:08:02 PM Last Edit: March 05, 2013, 09:09:42 PM by The Good Reverend Roger
So, question:  How much patriotism is owed by a person who is treated as a slave, or a serf, or a complete non-entity?  I would argue that a free person thus treated by his nation owes his or her nation nothing but scorn.

To argue that you owe fidelity to a nation "because you're free" is a sick joke in today's world.  No person is more a slave than that miserable one who believes he is free while he is actively being enslaved.

To any who would demand proof of this slavery, I invite you to cast scorn at any politician outside of a laughably-called "free speech zone".  Or merely to investigate the means and conditions by which you make your living and your way though life.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

LMNO

#11
March 05, 2013, 09:09:27 PM
I'm afraid I concur.

The Good Reverend Roger

#12
March 05, 2013, 09:10:22 PM
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on March 05, 2013, 09:09:27 PM
I'm afraid I concur.

I've spent most of the day reading Lysander Spooner, Fredrick Douglass, and - oddly enough - Robert E Lee.
" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

#13
March 05, 2013, 11:41:30 PM
This is superb. I will have things to say on this, later.
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."

Bebek Sincap Ratatosk

#14
March 06, 2013, 01:57:26 PM
This is very much in line with my view on the subject. Spooner makes some fantastic arguments that slavery by chain and slavery by law are different in name only. International travel has really opened my eyes to the "freedom" I was used to and the "freedom" people in other countries are used to. None of us are really free, but the US sure doesn't earn the title "Land of the Free" over and above most other nations. Its just propaganda at this point.

- I don't see race. I just see cars going around in a circle.

"Back in my day, crazy meant something. Now everyone is crazy" - Charlie Manson
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