WTF NWO
Economy 101- Fail

“An economics professor at Texas Tech said he had never failed a single student before but had, once, failed an entire class. That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said ok, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism. All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A. After the first test the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. But, as the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too; so they studied little. The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around the average was an F. The scores never increased as bickering, blame, and name calling all resulted in hard feelings as no one would study any longer for the benefit of anyone else. All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because under capitalism when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great; but when the government levels the playing field and takes more of reward away; no one will try or want to succeed as much as before. Could not be any simpler than that.” -evilteabagger

Every time the Evilteabagger opens his mouth, you can literally smell the you know what!

First of all, it’s tempting to just say that making the analogy of an economics class to that of the economy as a whole is just absurd and well… like comparing apples to the economy.

But let’s just go with his analogy for a minute. Because in a very unintentional way Mr. Evil shows us how his theories are like hot air balloons. They appear solid and massive, but as soon as the supply of hot air runs out, or if someone were to poke a hole in it, the balloon will shrink and fall to the ground.

Mr. “Professor” fails an entire class for trying to prove how Socialism might be a good idea. Instead of using logic and reason to prove them wrong, he demonstrates how the class is powerless over his authority. Basically by demonstrating how one corrupt person change the intent of a well meaning majority.

The professor employs a carrot and or stick incentive model. Which is ironic because he’s using the tools of capitalism to control the outcome of a socialistic experiment. Do well as a group and the whole class passes. Do poorly as a group and the whole class fails.

First- I would argue there there truly is no benefit or incentive. A person with the mental capacity to pass on his own wouldn’t even bother signing on to such a ridiculous experiment. If someone could document the actual class and who this professor is, I’d like to know. I doubt this is little more than a silly story spun up by a third grader to prove his point. Not to mention how unethical this experiment is. That is, if it’s true.

Second- It really only has punishment at it’s core. No one really argues that everyone should have the same as the next person. Just that things should be more fair. What if instead of grades that the clever professor/tyrant/capitalist had the power to distribute let’s say water on an island where there is none. This I would argue is much more of an incentive. And if the class as an average failed, than the whole class would not get any water. But if they all did their jobs correctly as a whole than no worries, everyone gets water. We can take this analogy further and say that the professor hires the biggest boys in the group, and pays them with water, to ensure that no one else  takes any water. And on top of that the professor singles out the prettiest girls to enjoy his company and his water just because he just likes them. Well this pretty much ensures that everyone else will do as they are told. What’s the alternative? A fight to the death? Perhaps, but I think most level headed people would do almost anything to avoid that kind of scenario. And I’m pretty sure that as a whole the test would be satisfactorily accomplished. Sure there would be some students who couldn’t keep up, that’s just nature, we are not all capable of the same things, but the consequences will ensure that the rest of the group will pick up the slack. This is a classic divide and conquer mechanism at the heart of capitalism.

Third- Of course socialism cannot survive in a capitalistic construct. That really isn’t what socialism is about. So let’s say that the class, without a leader to make up his own arbitrary rules, decided to divide the water equally without regard to some despotic leader’s notions of fairness, or regard for the stupid meaningless test itself. Than I would argue that fairness would rule the day. Unless of course someone decides to conspire to take control over the water and to have his bidding done in order for anyone else to get any water. Than he would be the new professor, same as the old professor. Which is exactly what capitalism is. It’s the authority of the powerful, dictating the rules of survival. Don’t like it? Tough luck, your fired, because he’s the boss. So instead of passing some stupid test, now you have to clean his house, polish his trophies or any other meaningless arbitrary task. And this leader would say something like: “Without me none of you would have any water, and none of you would have anything to do, so this is the best way to keep social order, otherwise we’d all be wasting time on the beach, or fighting over the water. FALSE! We would share. It’s in our nature to be kind. But when barred from doing the right thing, by threat of hired enforcers of the system, (cops, banks, tax collectors, schools, corporations) than yes we are all gonna scramble and do what we gotta do to just to get the water and survive. To be kind is in most of our natures. And it only takes one clever, greedy little tool/authority figure, to fuck it all up for the rest of us.

Thank you Mr EVIL, You are the best spokesperson for socialism I’ve ever met.

P.S. Socialism is at the heart of every religion and spiritual belief, and capitalism is Godless. Peace out!

“The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out
of other people’s money.”-Margaret Thatcher

-You Still Sleeping

Yes! A very clever mind fuck. When She said “you run out of other peoples money”, she really meant her; meaning her and her employer’s money, as in profits, derived from our hard labor.We work for money, therefore we work for them. But without them, we could be working for ourselves and our communities.
Confessions Of An Economics Professor And Government Tool.
How to run a COINTELPRO operation on a Social Media   Platform
evilteabagger:

There’s a lot here so we have to a lot to discuss. Here goes.
Your first question is just blatantly false. There are no known pure   free markets in the world. Absolutely none. This is one of the first   things talked about in Econ 101. If you took Econ 101 you would know   that the only economic systems operating in the world today are known as   mixed economies, all varying in freedom. Some are command economies   like North Korea and others tend to be more laissez-faire (Note: Not   100% lassiez-faire as they do not exist) like America or cities like   Hong Kong. As I’ve said time and time and time and time again, the   more economically free, the more prosperous the country. This is   applicable to higher   wages, greater access to better healthcare, longer life expectancy,   greater overall happiness, greater rights for women and other   minorities, etc. etc. etc. For empirical data and evidence backing   this up I suggest watching the following videos:
Are   Markets Empowering or Exploitative?
Economic   Freedom and a Better Life
Libertarian   Cosmopolitanism
Inequality,   Consumption and Happiness
Those last two are about an hour long each but they’re honestly   my favorite videos in the world. Steve Horwitz is a genius and his   seminars need to be seen by more people.
Nice try Mr. Evila. You   said: “There are no known pure free markets in the world. Absolutely   none.” Then you go on to defend free market ideas by posting some links   to some videos. But in the the first minute of watching the first video   there is a blatant lie, or to be fair, more like a half truth really.   The “professor” professes that: “The more a country engages in free   trade the greater the per-capita income is.” -But he fails to mention   that only one persons income needs to go up for the average to go up.   Typical confusing misinformation but whatever. I realize a lot of people  can’t  think critically about such things, but I’m pretty sure you  understand the  joke about economic “science”… that it is a joke. And  if this is what  They teach you in Economics 101 than I guess we’re all  fucked.
b. If one uses the framework of the WTO as an   understanding of what “free market” means and how the WTO, World Bank, IMF and all other crony Central Banks “encourage” free trade and free   markets, than yes, virtually the whole world is operating under a free   market system. Not literally of course, because as you said, nothing is   free.
Next claim: 85% of the world is living in dire poverty. According to Wikipedia, 1.7   billion people are currently living in poverty. 1.7 billion divided by   the world’s 6.7 billion people comes out to 24%. That’s a little shy of   your 85% mark, but don’t worry there’s cause for rejoice! Of those   people living in dire poverty, you’ll notice the most impoverished have   the most intrusive government! Also known as the least economically   free. Take the Democratic Republic of the Congo for instance with a   poverty rate of an astronomically high 71.3%. According to the Index of Economic   Freedom the Democratic Republic of the Congo is ranked 172 out of   179 on the economic freedom scale. Conversely, Morocco is only rated a   93 on economic freedom (Which is still bad) yet they only have 19%   living in poverty.
c. What does economic freedom mean when there is no   freedom or no economy. And you should know that all tyrants have Swiss   bank accounts.
d. I think Wikipedia is using the per-capita formula,   where one person can, by Their books singlehandedly raise the average wage. “Simple” math, yes. But misleading,   deliberately of course. Here are some honest figures… 

At least  80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day.Source 1


More than 80 percent of the  world’s population lives in  countries  where income differentials are  widening.Source 2


The poorest 40  percent of the world’s population  accounts for 5  percent of global  income. The richest 20 percent  accounts for  three-quarters of world  income.Source 3

You can find out more for yourself HERE
That is only half the picture. In a video I linked to above they talk   go into detail comparing the impoverished of one country and comparing   it to the impoverished of another, more economically free country. They   note that the bottom % quintiles posses similar amounts of wealth, but   those in a more economically freer country still receive higher wages   and better access to healthcare. The richest people in North Korea   (excluding those within the political system/military) are worse off   than the poorest people in America.
-This is such a lie I  cannot even imagine where you got  this “statistic.”
Another false claim. Poverty in America is at   14.3%
-More ENRON ACCOUNTING unemployment   alone is at 10%
I hope this helped address your concerns with free markets Anon 1. On   to Anon 2!
That’s an often repeated chant from those advocating for a more   intrusive state, that deregulation is what caused the fiscal crisis. But   this is just simply not the case at all. No one thing led to the  market  crash in late 2007. But of the factors the most pervasive were   definitely the Community Reinvestment Act which forced lenders to lend   to low income families or face civil lawsuits and the Federal Reserve   keeping interest rates artificially low to encourage borrowing at   unsustainable rates. When this bubble kept getting bigger and bigger   with more people borrowing money that they could never pay back in a   million years the system was doomed to collapse. The recession is the   markets way of correcting the mistakes made during the boom. The   government intrusion of the 90s and early 2000s is what led to the   housing crash and the government’s continued intrusion after the bust is   what has prolonged the economic downturn. The   stimulus failed miserably, the bailouts cost taxpayers millions of   dollars that could have otherwise been spent in the economy (not to   mention it salvaged automobile companies that did not pass the market   test of supplying what consumers demanded) as well as gave those awesome   bank execs nice bonuses for the holiday season. These mistakes that   Bush and Obama made in during this recession were also attempted and also failed   during the Great Depression.
e. No one forced the banks to lend money to the poor.   Banks made hefty fees on high interest loans to the poor, packaged those   same toxic assets, got their crony ratings companies to rate them AAA,   made more money selling CDOs, made more money by inventing and selling   ethereal investment vehicles like Credit Default Swaps, traded those  and  made more money, then bet against them to make even more money.  Didn’t  they teach you that in Economics 101? And if your not   completely unaware,  then you know that the money/profits didn’t  disappear. It all went to somebody’s silk lined pocket and we filled  those pockets again via the bailout. Now that’s what I  call a double  dip. I could go on but why bother. You are not here to  educate but  rather misinform and confuse.
Think of the business cycle as a night of drinking. You go out and   drink with your friends and have a good time. This is the boom in   progress, prosperity is high and life is good. Wages are up, inflation   is more or less down, unemployment is down and all around everyone’s   happy. Then the morning after comes; the bust. You can try to fend off   the hangover with more drinking, in this case spending, on behalf of the   government (which gets the money it spends from taxes) but you can’t   keep drinking forever. Eventually you run out of alcohol and you only   exacerbate the effects of the hangover. The market is self correcting,   as long as you leave the government out of the equation. When the Fed   steps in to drop interest rates to try and stimulate consumption it only   devalues the dollar causing prices to rise which is detrimental to an   already stunted economy. No, deregulation does not and did not cause  the  financial crisis. In fact, before government even got involved in   recessions and depressions they only averaged about 18 months.
f. This is classic circular logic. The Fed initiated the   Drinking Binge via cheap money (you like that). The Government steps  Out  of the way (you like that). Banks and Corporations get richer than  ever  (you like that). Shit hits the fan for average folks and you say  you  don’t like that. What did you expect? A group of people made  trillions  of dollars. You don’t like that?
You seem to think the Top US government Officials, the   Federal Reserve and major Corporations act independently and   have their own sets of agendas. But people make money when the market   is going up as well as on the way down. This is Their real agenda. They   wanted to bankrupt us! 
The greater the rise of the market the greater the   profit, and for those in the know, the greater the fall the greater the   profit. They don’t tell that to pensioners, 401kers, mutualfunders, or   average investors. They are discouraged from and heavily penalized for   selling assets and securities, and do not have the leverage to offset   losses. Not to mention that the average investor doesn’t know what’s   going to happen to the markets. Like insiders with insider information. Information that all market makers are privy to. Why? Because they are   the market. 
I do not support caps on wealth because the government does not have   the ethical or moral authority to arbitrarily decide when someone has   enough money. If a company is satisfying the demands of consumers then   it is atrocious to think that they must cease their work or to step in   bar them from receiving compensation. Wealth only accumulates with the   assistance of government regulations. Monopolies cannot exist without   government decree or protectionist policies. While the rich do hold a   higher percentage of income than ever before in history, that is only a   snapshot of the entire picture. Steve Horwitz talks about it in these   two videos (Are the Rich   Getting Richer? and Consumption,   Happiness and Inequality).
g. But the Government seems to have the right to make it   easier for corporations to pilfer everything. After which they cry   broke, and then get bailed out. (after making the money) 
And you seem to think that economists are like Saints and   their word is Gospel. The truth is they are like mouthpieces for the   establishment. And where are the voices of knowledge and reason before   the crashes. They are on the sidelines to be quoted when it suits you. I   don’t see you quoting Bernanke or Greenspan or Geitner.
h. The bailout was an inside job. The money didn’t   disappear, it went to the BANKSTERS. And guess what? They still make   money and will make even more after the bailout and will make even more   after they buy up all our assets for pennies on the dollar. 
You are totally within your rights in believing that I am a part of   some conspiracy that involves me divulging false information in the   hopes of protecting the free market bastion that is Barack Obama. It’s   wrong but you can keep believing it. Barack Obama is in no way shape or   form a capitalist. From his stimulus, to his “investments” talk, to his   Healthcare legislation, to his Wall Street reform, to his “at a  certain  point I do think you’ve made enough money”. Obama is a corporatist, which  is what I’m sure you think capitalist means. Obama uses the  power of  the presidential office to benefit corporate interest just  like every  other elected official in this country. This is an important  argument in  favor of free markets as the total divorce of state and  market will  never allow corporate interest to affect legislation at the  expense of  the consumer.
-Corporatist, Capitalist, just pure semantics, devoid of  meaning when you look at the facts. You can call Obama a Socialist and  it wouldn’t make a difference as far as what his actions say.
This is a lot of information to receive so I’ll be patient in waiting   for your response. If anyone thinks I missed anything please let me   know! I love these questions and helping to spread the cause of economic   liberty.
Here’s more reading and videos you can do to better understand the   market cycle and government’s role in economic turmoil:
Austrian Business Cycle: A Brief   Introduction
Parallels Between   the Great Depression and Today
Does Stimulus   Spending Work?

One question. Did Economics 101 teach you anything about   pyramid schemes?

Confessions Of An Economics Professor And Government Tool.

How to run a COINTELPRO operation on a Social Media Platform

evilteabagger:

There’s a lot here so we have to a lot to discuss. Here goes.

Your first question is just blatantly false. There are no known pure free markets in the world. Absolutely none. This is one of the first things talked about in Econ 101. If you took Econ 101 you would know that the only economic systems operating in the world today are known as mixed economies, all varying in freedom. Some are command economies like North Korea and others tend to be more laissez-faire (Note: Not 100% lassiez-faire as they do not exist) like America or cities like Hong Kong. As I’ve said time and time and time and time again, the more economically free, the more prosperous the country. This is applicable to higher wages, greater access to better healthcare, longer life expectancy, greater overall happiness, greater rights for women and other minorities, etc. etc. etc. For empirical data and evidence backing this up I suggest watching the following videos:

Those last two are about an hour long each but they’re honestly my favorite videos in the world. Steve Horwitz is a genius and his seminars need to be seen by more people.

Nice try Mr. Evil
a. You said: “There are no known pure free markets in the world. Absolutely none.” Then you go on to defend free market ideas by posting some links to some videos. But in the the first minute of watching the first video there is a blatant lie, or to be fair, more like a half truth really. The “professor” professes that: “The more a country engages in free trade the greater the per-capita income is.” -But he fails to mention that only one persons income needs to go up for the average to go up. Typical confusing misinformation but whatever. I realize a lot of people can’t think critically about such things, but I’m pretty sure you understand the joke about economic “science”… that it is a joke. And if this is what They teach you in Economics 101 than I guess we’re all fucked.

b. If one uses the framework of the WTO as an understanding of what “free market” means and how the WTO, World Bank, IMF and all other crony Central Banks “encourage” free trade and free markets, than yes, virtually the whole world is operating under a free market system. Not literally of course, because as you said, nothing is free.

Next claim: 85% of the world is living in dire poverty. According to Wikipedia, 1.7 billion people are currently living in poverty. 1.7 billion divided by the world’s 6.7 billion people comes out to 24%. That’s a little shy of your 85% mark, but don’t worry there’s cause for rejoice! Of those people living in dire poverty, you’ll notice the most impoverished have the most intrusive government! Also known as the least economically free. Take the Democratic Republic of the Congo for instance with a poverty rate of an astronomically high 71.3%. According to the Index of Economic Freedom the Democratic Republic of the Congo is ranked 172 out of 179 on the economic freedom scale. Conversely, Morocco is only rated a 93 on economic freedom (Which is still bad) yet they only have 19% living in poverty.

c. What does economic freedom mean when there is no freedom or no economy. And you should know that all tyrants have Swiss bank accounts.

d. I think Wikipedia is using the per-capita formula, where one person can, by Their books singlehandedly raise the average wage. “Simple” math, yes. But misleading, deliberately of course. Here are some honest figures…

  1. At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day.Source 1

  2. More than 80 percent of the world’s population lives in countries where income differentials are widening.Source 2

  3. The poorest 40 percent of the world’s population accounts for 5 percent of global income. The richest 20 percent accounts for three-quarters of world income.Source 3

You can find out more for yourself HERE

That is only half the picture. In a video I linked to above they talk go into detail comparing the impoverished of one country and comparing it to the impoverished of another, more economically free country. They note that the bottom % quintiles posses similar amounts of wealth, but those in a more economically freer country still receive higher wages and better access to healthcare. The richest people in North Korea (excluding those within the political system/military) are worse off than the poorest people in America.

-This is such a lie I cannot even imagine where you got this “statistic.”

Another false claim. Poverty in America is at 14.3%

-More ENRON ACCOUNTING unemployment alone is at 10%

I hope this helped address your concerns with free markets Anon 1. On to Anon 2!

That’s an often repeated chant from those advocating for a more intrusive state, that deregulation is what caused the fiscal crisis. But this is just simply not the case at all. No one thing led to the market crash in late 2007. But of the factors the most pervasive were definitely the Community Reinvestment Act which forced lenders to lend to low income families or face civil lawsuits and the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates artificially low to encourage borrowing at unsustainable rates. When this bubble kept getting bigger and bigger with more people borrowing money that they could never pay back in a million years the system was doomed to collapse. The recession is the markets way of correcting the mistakes made during the boom. The government intrusion of the 90s and early 2000s is what led to the housing crash and the government’s continued intrusion after the bust is what has prolonged the economic downturn. The stimulus failed miserably, the bailouts cost taxpayers millions of dollars that could have otherwise been spent in the economy (not to mention it salvaged automobile companies that did not pass the market test of supplying what consumers demanded) as well as gave those awesome bank execs nice bonuses for the holiday season. These mistakes that Bush and Obama made in during this recession were also attempted and also failed during the Great Depression.

e. No one forced the banks to lend money to the poor. Banks made hefty fees on high interest loans to the poor, packaged those same toxic assets, got their crony ratings companies to rate them AAA, made more money selling CDOs, made more money by inventing and selling ethereal investment vehicles like Credit Default Swaps, traded those and made more money, then bet against them to make even more money. Didn’t they teach you that in Economics 101? And if your not  completely unaware, then you know that the money/profits didn’t disappear. It all went to somebody’s silk lined pocket and we filled those pockets again via the bailout. Now that’s what I call a double dip. I could go on but why bother. You are not here to educate but rather misinform and confuse.

Think of the business cycle as a night of drinking. You go out and drink with your friends and have a good time. This is the boom in progress, prosperity is high and life is good. Wages are up, inflation is more or less down, unemployment is down and all around everyone’s happy. Then the morning after comes; the bust. You can try to fend off the hangover with more drinking, in this case spending, on behalf of the government (which gets the money it spends from taxes) but you can’t keep drinking forever. Eventually you run out of alcohol and you only exacerbate the effects of the hangover. The market is self correcting, as long as you leave the government out of the equation. When the Fed steps in to drop interest rates to try and stimulate consumption it only devalues the dollar causing prices to rise which is detrimental to an already stunted economy. No, deregulation does not and did not cause the financial crisis. In fact, before government even got involved in recessions and depressions they only averaged about 18 months.

f. This is classic circular logic. The Fed initiated the Drinking Binge via cheap money (you like that). The Government steps Out of the way (you like that). Banks and Corporations get richer than ever (you like that). Shit hits the fan for average folks and you say you don’t like that. What did you expect? A group of people made trillions of dollars. You don’t like that?

You seem to think the Top US government Officials, the Federal Reserve and major Corporations act independently and have their own sets of agendas. But people make money when the market is going up as well as on the way down. This is Their real agenda. They wanted to bankrupt us!

The greater the rise of the market the greater the profit, and for those in the know, the greater the fall the greater the profit. They don’t tell that to pensioners, 401kers, mutualfunders, or average investors. They are discouraged from and heavily penalized for selling assets and securities, and do not have the leverage to offset losses. Not to mention that the average investor doesn’t know what’s going to happen to the markets. Like insiders with insider information. Information that all market makers are privy to. Why? Because they are the market.

I do not support caps on wealth because the government does not have the ethical or moral authority to arbitrarily decide when someone has enough money. If a company is satisfying the demands of consumers then it is atrocious to think that they must cease their work or to step in bar them from receiving compensation. Wealth only accumulates with the assistance of government regulations. Monopolies cannot exist without government decree or protectionist policies. While the rich do hold a higher percentage of income than ever before in history, that is only a snapshot of the entire picture. Steve Horwitz talks about it in these two videos (Are the Rich Getting Richer? and Consumption, Happiness and Inequality).

g. But the Government seems to have the right to make it easier for corporations to pilfer everything. After which they cry broke, and then get bailed out. (after making the money)

And you seem to think that economists are like Saints and their word is Gospel. The truth is they are like mouthpieces for the establishment. And where are the voices of knowledge and reason before the crashes. They are on the sidelines to be quoted when it suits you. I don’t see you quoting Bernanke or Greenspan or Geitner.

h. The bailout was an inside job. The money didn’t disappear, it went to the BANKSTERS. And guess what? They still make money and will make even more after the bailout and will make even more after they buy up all our assets for pennies on the dollar.

You are totally within your rights in believing that I am a part of some conspiracy that involves me divulging false information in the hopes of protecting the free market bastion that is Barack Obama. It’s wrong but you can keep believing it. Barack Obama is in no way shape or form a capitalist. From his stimulus, to his “investments” talk, to his Healthcare legislation, to his Wall Street reform, to his “at a certain point I do think you’ve made enough money”. Obama is a corporatist, which is what I’m sure you think capitalist means. Obama uses the power of the presidential office to benefit corporate interest just like every other elected official in this country. This is an important argument in favor of free markets as the total divorce of state and market will never allow corporate interest to affect legislation at the expense of the consumer.

-Corporatist, Capitalist, just pure semantics, devoid of meaning when you look at the facts. You can call Obama a Socialist and it wouldn’t make a difference as far as what his actions say.

This is a lot of information to receive so I’ll be patient in waiting for your response. If anyone thinks I missed anything please let me know! I love these questions and helping to spread the cause of economic liberty.

Here’s more reading and videos you can do to better understand the market cycle and government’s role in economic turmoil:

One question. Did Economics 101 teach you anything about pyramid schemes?

Confessions Of An Economics Professor And Government Tool.
How to run a COINTELPRO operation on a Social Media  Platform
evilteabagger:

There’s a lot here so we have to a lot to discuss. Here goes.
Your first question is just blatantly false. There are no known pure  free markets in the world. Absolutely none. This is one of the first  things talked about in Econ 101. If you took Econ 101 you would know  that the only economic systems operating in the world today are known as  mixed economies, all varying in freedom. Some are command economies  like North Korea and others tend to be more laissez-faire (Note: Not  100% lassiez-faire as they do not exist) like America or cities like  Hong Kong. As I’ve said time and time and time and time again, the  more economically free, the more prosperous the country. This is  applicable to higher  wages, greater access to better healthcare, longer life expectancy,  greater overall happiness, greater rights for women and other  minorities, etc. etc. etc. For empirical data and evidence backing  this up I suggest watching the following videos:
Are  Markets Empowering or Exploitative?
Economic  Freedom and a Better Life
Libertarian  Cosmopolitanism
Inequality,  Consumption and Happiness
Those last two are about an hour long each but they’re honestly  my favorite videos in the world. Steve Horwitz is a genius and his  seminars need to be seen by more people.
Nice try Mr. Evila. You  said: “There are no known pure free markets in the world. Absolutely  none.” Then you go on to defend free market ideas by posting some links  to some videos. But in the the first minute of watching the first video  there is a blatant lie, or to be fair, more like a half truth really.  The “professor” professes that: “The more a country engages in free  trade the greater the per-capita income is.” -But he fails to mention  that only one persons income needs to go up for the average to go up.  Typical confusing misinformation but whatever. I realize a lot of people can’t  think critically about such things, but I’m pretty sure you understand the  joke about economic “science”… that it is a joke. And if this is what  They teach you in Economics 101 than I guess we’re all fucked.
b. If one uses the framework of the WTO as an  understanding of what “free market” means and how the WTO, World Bank, IMF and all other crony Central Banks “encourage” free trade and free  markets, than yes, virtually the whole world is operating under a free  market system. Not literally of course, because as you said, nothing is  free.
Next claim: 85% of the world is living in dire poverty. According to Wikipedia, 1.7  billion people are currently living in poverty. 1.7 billion divided by  the world’s 6.7 billion people comes out to 24%. That’s a little shy of  your 85% mark, but don’t worry there’s cause for rejoice! Of those  people living in dire poverty, you’ll notice the most impoverished have  the most intrusive government! Also known as the least economically  free. Take the Democratic Republic of the Congo for instance with a  poverty rate of an astronomically high 71.3%. According to the Index of Economic  Freedom the Democratic Republic of the Congo is ranked 172 out of  179 on the economic freedom scale. Conversely, Morocco is only rated a  93 on economic freedom (Which is still bad) yet they only have 19%  living in poverty.
c. What does economic freedom mean when there is no  freedom or no economy. And you should know that all tyrants have Swiss  bank accounts.
d. I think Wikipedia is using the per-capita formula,  where one person can, by Their books singlehandedly raise the average wage. “Simple” math, yes. But misleading,  deliberately of course. Here are some honest figures… 

At least  80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day.Source 1


More than 80 percent of the  world’s population lives in countries  where income differentials are  widening.Source 2


The poorest 40  percent of the world’s population accounts for 5  percent of global  income. The richest 20 percent accounts for  three-quarters of world  income.Source 3

You can find out more for yourself HERE
That is only half the picture. In a video I linked to above they talk  go into detail comparing the impoverished of one country and comparing  it to the impoverished of another, more economically free country. They  note that the bottom % quintiles posses similar amounts of wealth, but  those in a more economically freer country still receive higher wages  and better access to healthcare. The richest people in North Korea  (excluding those within the political system/military) are worse off  than the poorest people in America.
-This is such a lie I  cannot even imagine where you got this “statistic.”
Another false claim. Poverty in America is at  14.3%
-More ENRON ACCOUNTING unemployment  alone is at 10%
I hope this helped address your concerns with free markets Anon 1. On  to Anon 2!
That’s an often repeated chant from those advocating for a more  intrusive state, that deregulation is what caused the fiscal crisis. But  this is just simply not the case at all. No one thing led to the market  crash in late 2007. But of the factors the most pervasive were  definitely the Community Reinvestment Act which forced lenders to lend  to low income families or face civil lawsuits and the Federal Reserve  keeping interest rates artificially low to encourage borrowing at  unsustainable rates. When this bubble kept getting bigger and bigger  with more people borrowing money that they could never pay back in a  million years the system was doomed to collapse. The recession is the  markets way of correcting the mistakes made during the boom. The  government intrusion of the 90s and early 2000s is what led to the  housing crash and the government’s continued intrusion after the bust is  what has prolonged the economic downturn. The  stimulus failed miserably, the bailouts cost taxpayers millions of  dollars that could have otherwise been spent in the economy (not to  mention it salvaged automobile companies that did not pass the market  test of supplying what consumers demanded) as well as gave those awesome  bank execs nice bonuses for the holiday season. These mistakes that  Bush and Obama made in during this recession were also attempted and also failed  during the Great Depression.
e. No one forced the banks to lend money to the poor.  Banks made hefty fees on high interest loans to the poor, packaged those  same toxic assets, got their crony ratings companies to rate them AAA,  made more money selling CDOs, made more money by inventing and selling  ethereal investment vehicles like Credit Default Swaps, traded those and  made more money, then bet against them to make even more money. Didn’t  they teach you that in Economics 101? And if your not  completely unaware,  then you know that the money/profits didn’t disappear. It all went to somebody’s silk lined pocket and we filled those pockets again via the bailout. Now that’s what I  call a double dip. I could go on but why bother. You are not here to  educate but rather misinform and confuse.
Think of the business cycle as a night of drinking. You go out and  drink with your friends and have a good time. This is the boom in  progress, prosperity is high and life is good. Wages are up, inflation  is more or less down, unemployment is down and all around everyone’s  happy. Then the morning after comes; the bust. You can try to fend off  the hangover with more drinking, in this case spending, on behalf of the  government (which gets the money it spends from taxes) but you can’t  keep drinking forever. Eventually you run out of alcohol and you only  exacerbate the effects of the hangover. The market is self correcting,  as long as you leave the government out of the equation. When the Fed  steps in to drop interest rates to try and stimulate consumption it only  devalues the dollar causing prices to rise which is detrimental to an  already stunted economy. No, deregulation does not and did not cause the  financial crisis. In fact, before government even got involved in  recessions and depressions they only averaged about 18 months.
f. This is classic circular logic. The Fed initiated the  Drinking Binge via cheap money (you like that). The Government steps Out  of the way (you like that). Banks and Corporations get richer than ever  (you like that). Shit hits the fan for average folks and you say you  don’t like that. What did you expect? A group of people made trillions  of dollars. You don’t like that?
You seem to think the Top US government Officials, the  Federal Reserve and major Corporations act independently and  have their own sets of agendas. But people make money when the market  is going up as well as on the way down. This is Their real agenda. They  wanted to bankrupt us! 
The greater the rise of the market the greater the  profit, and for those in the know, the greater the fall the greater the  profit. They don’t tell that to pensioners, 401kers, mutualfunders, or  average investors. They are discouraged from and heavily penalized for  selling assets and securities, and do not have the leverage to offset  losses. Not to mention that the average investor doesn’t know what’s  going to happen to the markets. Like insiders with insider information. Information that all market makers are privy to. Why? Because they are  the market. 
I do not support caps on wealth because the government does not have  the ethical or moral authority to arbitrarily decide when someone has  enough money. If a company is satisfying the demands of consumers then  it is atrocious to think that they must cease their work or to step in  bar them from receiving compensation. Wealth only accumulates with the  assistance of government regulations. Monopolies cannot exist without  government decree or protectionist policies. While the rich do hold a  higher percentage of income than ever before in history, that is only a  snapshot of the entire picture. Steve Horwitz talks about it in these  two videos (Are the Rich  Getting Richer? and Consumption,  Happiness and Inequality).
g. But the Government seems to have the right to make it  easier for corporations to pilfer everything. After which they cry  broke, and then get bailed out. (after making the money) 
And you seem to think that economists are like Saints and  their word is Gospel. The truth is they are like mouthpieces for the  establishment. And where are the voices of knowledge and reason before  the crashes. They are on the sidelines to be quoted when it suits you. I  don’t see you quoting Bernanke or Greenspan or Geitner.
h. The bailout was an inside job. The money didn’t  disappear, it went to the BANKSTERS. And guess what? They still make  money and will make even more after the bailout and will make even more  after they buy up all our assets for pennies on the dollar. 
You are totally within your rights in believing that I am a part of  some conspiracy that involves me divulging false information in the  hopes of protecting the free market bastion that is Barack Obama. It’s  wrong but you can keep believing it. Barack Obama is in no way shape or  form a capitalist. From his stimulus, to his “investments” talk, to his  Healthcare legislation, to his Wall Street reform, to his “at a certain  point I do think you’ve made enough money”. Obama is a corporatist, which  is what I’m sure you think capitalist means. Obama uses the power of  the presidential office to benefit corporate interest just like every  other elected official in this country. This is an important argument in  favor of free markets as the total divorce of state and market will  never allow corporate interest to affect legislation at the expense of  the consumer.
-Corporatist, Capitalist, just pure semantics, devoid of meaning when you look at the facts. You can call Obama a Socialist and it wouldn’t make a difference as far as what his actions say.
This is a lot of information to receive so I’ll be patient in waiting  for your response. If anyone thinks I missed anything please let me  know! I love these questions and helping to spread the cause of economic  liberty.
Here’s more reading and videos you can do to better understand the  market cycle and government’s role in economic turmoil:
Austrian Business Cycle: A Brief  Introduction
Parallels Between  the Great Depression and Today
Does Stimulus  Spending Work?

One question. Did Economics 101 teach you anything about  pyramid schemes?

Confessions Of An Economics Professor And Government Tool.

How to run a COINTELPRO operation on a Social Media Platform

evilteabagger:

There’s a lot here so we have to a lot to discuss. Here goes.

Your first question is just blatantly false. There are no known pure free markets in the world. Absolutely none. This is one of the first things talked about in Econ 101. If you took Econ 101 you would know that the only economic systems operating in the world today are known as mixed economies, all varying in freedom. Some are command economies like North Korea and others tend to be more laissez-faire (Note: Not 100% lassiez-faire as they do not exist) like America or cities like Hong Kong. As I’ve said time and time and time and time again, the more economically free, the more prosperous the country. This is applicable to higher wages, greater access to better healthcare, longer life expectancy, greater overall happiness, greater rights for women and other minorities, etc. etc. etc. For empirical data and evidence backing this up I suggest watching the following videos:

Those last two are about an hour long each but they’re honestly my favorite videos in the world. Steve Horwitz is a genius and his seminars need to be seen by more people.

Nice try Mr. Evil
a. You said: “There are no known pure free markets in the world. Absolutely none.” Then you go on to defend free market ideas by posting some links to some videos. But in the the first minute of watching the first video there is a blatant lie, or to be fair, more like a half truth really. The “professor” professes that: “The more a country engages in free trade the greater the per-capita income is.” -But he fails to mention that only one persons income needs to go up for the average to go up. Typical confusing misinformation but whatever. I realize a lot of people can’t think critically about such things, but I’m pretty sure you understand the joke about economic “science”… that it is a joke. And if this is what They teach you in Economics 101 than I guess we’re all fucked.

b. If one uses the framework of the WTO as an understanding of what “free market” means and how the WTO, World Bank, IMF and all other crony Central Banks “encourage” free trade and free markets, than yes, virtually the whole world is operating under a free market system. Not literally of course, because as you said, nothing is free.

Next claim: 85% of the world is living in dire poverty. According to Wikipedia, 1.7 billion people are currently living in poverty. 1.7 billion divided by the world’s 6.7 billion people comes out to 24%. That’s a little shy of your 85% mark, but don’t worry there’s cause for rejoice! Of those people living in dire poverty, you’ll notice the most impoverished have the most intrusive government! Also known as the least economically free. Take the Democratic Republic of the Congo for instance with a poverty rate of an astronomically high 71.3%. According to the Index of Economic Freedom the Democratic Republic of the Congo is ranked 172 out of 179 on the economic freedom scale. Conversely, Morocco is only rated a 93 on economic freedom (Which is still bad) yet they only have 19% living in poverty.

c. What does economic freedom mean when there is no freedom or no economy. And you should know that all tyrants have Swiss bank accounts.

d. I think Wikipedia is using the per-capita formula, where one person can, by Their books singlehandedly raise the average wage. “Simple” math, yes. But misleading, deliberately of course. Here are some honest figures…

  1. At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day.Source 1

  2. More than 80 percent of the world’s population lives in countries where income differentials are widening.Source 2

  3. The poorest 40 percent of the world’s population accounts for 5 percent of global income. The richest 20 percent accounts for three-quarters of world income.Source 3

You can find out more for yourself HERE

That is only half the picture. In a video I linked to above they talk go into detail comparing the impoverished of one country and comparing it to the impoverished of another, more economically free country. They note that the bottom % quintiles posses similar amounts of wealth, but those in a more economically freer country still receive higher wages and better access to healthcare. The richest people in North Korea (excluding those within the political system/military) are worse off than the poorest people in America.

-This is such a lie I cannot even imagine where you got this “statistic.”

Another false claim. Poverty in America is at 14.3%

-More ENRON ACCOUNTING unemployment alone is at 10%

I hope this helped address your concerns with free markets Anon 1. On to Anon 2!

That’s an often repeated chant from those advocating for a more intrusive state, that deregulation is what caused the fiscal crisis. But this is just simply not the case at all. No one thing led to the market crash in late 2007. But of the factors the most pervasive were definitely the Community Reinvestment Act which forced lenders to lend to low income families or face civil lawsuits and the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates artificially low to encourage borrowing at unsustainable rates. When this bubble kept getting bigger and bigger with more people borrowing money that they could never pay back in a million years the system was doomed to collapse. The recession is the markets way of correcting the mistakes made during the boom. The government intrusion of the 90s and early 2000s is what led to the housing crash and the government’s continued intrusion after the bust is what has prolonged the economic downturn. The stimulus failed miserably, the bailouts cost taxpayers millions of dollars that could have otherwise been spent in the economy (not to mention it salvaged automobile companies that did not pass the market test of supplying what consumers demanded) as well as gave those awesome bank execs nice bonuses for the holiday season. These mistakes that Bush and Obama made in during this recession were also attempted and also failed during the Great Depression.

e. No one forced the banks to lend money to the poor. Banks made hefty fees on high interest loans to the poor, packaged those same toxic assets, got their crony ratings companies to rate them AAA, made more money selling CDOs, made more money by inventing and selling ethereal investment vehicles like Credit Default Swaps, traded those and made more money, then bet against them to make even more money. Didn’t they teach you that in Economics 101? And if your not  completely unaware, then you know that the money/profits didn’t disappear. It all went to somebody’s silk lined pocket and we filled those pockets again via the bailout. Now that’s what I call a double dip. I could go on but why bother. You are not here to educate but rather misinform and confuse.

Think of the business cycle as a night of drinking. You go out and drink with your friends and have a good time. This is the boom in progress, prosperity is high and life is good. Wages are up, inflation is more or less down, unemployment is down and all around everyone’s happy. Then the morning after comes; the bust. You can try to fend off the hangover with more drinking, in this case spending, on behalf of the government (which gets the money it spends from taxes) but you can’t keep drinking forever. Eventually you run out of alcohol and you only exacerbate the effects of the hangover. The market is self correcting, as long as you leave the government out of the equation. When the Fed steps in to drop interest rates to try and stimulate consumption it only devalues the dollar causing prices to rise which is detrimental to an already stunted economy. No, deregulation does not and did not cause the financial crisis. In fact, before government even got involved in recessions and depressions they only averaged about 18 months.

f. This is classic circular logic. The Fed initiated the Drinking Binge via cheap money (you like that). The Government steps Out of the way (you like that). Banks and Corporations get richer than ever (you like that). Shit hits the fan for average folks and you say you don’t like that. What did you expect? A group of people made trillions of dollars. You don’t like that?

You seem to think the Top US government Officials, the Federal Reserve and major Corporations act independently and have their own sets of agendas. But people make money when the market is going up as well as on the way down. This is Their real agenda. They wanted to bankrupt us!

The greater the rise of the market the greater the profit, and for those in the know, the greater the fall the greater the profit. They don’t tell that to pensioners, 401kers, mutualfunders, or average investors. They are discouraged from and heavily penalized for selling assets and securities, and do not have the leverage to offset losses. Not to mention that the average investor doesn’t know what’s going to happen to the markets. Like insiders with insider information. Information that all market makers are privy to. Why? Because they are the market.

I do not support caps on wealth because the government does not have the ethical or moral authority to arbitrarily decide when someone has enough money. If a company is satisfying the demands of consumers then it is atrocious to think that they must cease their work or to step in bar them from receiving compensation. Wealth only accumulates with the assistance of government regulations. Monopolies cannot exist without government decree or protectionist policies. While the rich do hold a higher percentage of income than ever before in history, that is only a snapshot of the entire picture. Steve Horwitz talks about it in these two videos (Are the Rich Getting Richer? and Consumption, Happiness and Inequality).

g. But the Government seems to have the right to make it easier for corporations to pilfer everything. After which they cry broke, and then get bailed out. (after making the money)

And you seem to think that economists are like Saints and their word is Gospel. The truth is they are like mouthpieces for the establishment. And where are the voices of knowledge and reason before the crashes. They are on the sidelines to be quoted when it suits you. I don’t see you quoting Bernanke or Greenspan or Geitner.

h. The bailout was an inside job. The money didn’t disappear, it went to the BANKSTERS. And guess what? They still make money and will make even more after the bailout and will make even more after they buy up all our assets for pennies on the dollar.

You are totally within your rights in believing that I am a part of some conspiracy that involves me divulging false information in the hopes of protecting the free market bastion that is Barack Obama. It’s wrong but you can keep believing it. Barack Obama is in no way shape or form a capitalist. From his stimulus, to his “investments” talk, to his Healthcare legislation, to his Wall Street reform, to his “at a certain point I do think you’ve made enough money”. Obama is a corporatist, which is what I’m sure you think capitalist means. Obama uses the power of the presidential office to benefit corporate interest just like every other elected official in this country. This is an important argument in favor of free markets as the total divorce of state and market will never allow corporate interest to affect legislation at the expense of the consumer.

-Corporatist, Capitalist, just pure semantics, devoid of meaning when you look at the facts. You can call Obama a Socialist and it wouldn’t make a difference as far as what his actions say.

This is a lot of information to receive so I’ll be patient in waiting for your response. If anyone thinks I missed anything please let me know! I love these questions and helping to spread the cause of economic liberty.

Here’s more reading and videos you can do to better understand the market cycle and government’s role in economic turmoil:

One question. Did Economics 101 teach you anything about pyramid schemes?

Innocent people are dying everyday because of lack of clean water, malnutrition, and standing up for their freedom and what they believe in, while others are living like kings but are still upset about their lifes. Life isn’t fair. When you say “FML” or whine about the stupidest things ever (even though you have a phone, parents,water,clean clothes,a place to sleep) just remember all the other people in the world that have NOTHING at all, (no shelter, no family,no clean water, NOTHING) and shut the fuck up. Because to them, your life is heaven.

weliveinacorruptedworld:

Some people are just so greedy and nothing fills their eyes, they just keep on wanting more.

z3r0-lost-hour:

Fight the New World Order with Global Non Compliance

It is time for the people of the world to stop and realise that the divisions that supposedly exists amongst us are an illusion. There is no division. Its time for everyone to understand the truth of this. Its time to approach the world and each other in a state of love rather than a state of fear. Its time for you to tap into the source and realize your own potential and its time for us all to collectively stand together and address the root cause of the problem. And all of you need to spread this information, its very important that you do.
It needs to be clearly understood by people everywhere that the elite only have the power over the people that the people themselves grant to them, so stop giving it to them. Stop doing what the TV tells you to do and stop complying with the system. Understand that there truly is no division among the people of the world no matter who they are or where they are from. We are all people and we are all one. It is through the constantly promoted illusion of division that the system is able to function but in order for it to do so, it needs public compliance. Stop complying and you will shut the system down.

The money system is the head of the snake.

Cut the head off the snake and the rest of it will whither and die.

The time for talk is over and the time has come for action. It is now time for the people of the world to stop complying with the system.

Everyone.

Stop complying with it and you will shut it down. And the best form of non compliance is love. Approach every issue with love. Rather than obediently following orders given to you by a commanding officer, and rather than doing what is right for you personally. Do what is actually right. And if a leader wants to send you to war, say no sir, I wont murder other peoples children for you any more. You’ll have to go and do it yourself. You will be called coward by the military but such is not the case. It is much easier to fight for principles than to live up to them and it takes a far braver man to stand up for what is right and spit in the face of authority than it does to blindly follow orders due to fear of the consequences.
Understand that we are all one and the key to real change and unity in this world lies with love.

There need be No violence, no guns, no banners, no slogans, no group think, just a united act of global non compliance. Non compliance for any thing in conflict with the directives out lined in the universal declaration of human rights would be a good start. Simply stop giving these people the power to control you. Understand that the only power they have is the power the people themselves grant to them. Understand that injustice towards one is injustice towards all. Injustice against him, is injustice against you and there should be no grey area in you mind in regard to that. Everyone needs to stop going along with it. And it needs to be done immediately. Its time to cut the head off the snake.

The Revolution is not coming.

The Revolution is now.

z3r0-lost-hour:

ILLUMINATI a myth ? Full improved updated Documentary