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Major League Baseball Star's Pay Stub Goes Viral
05-23-2015, 06:42 PM
The housing thing is ridiculous. And this illustrates Basil's point about old-fart boomers having control over city and town councils and pretty much shutting out anyone who they do not approve of. In my small New England town, good luck finding an apartment to rent that is under $1000. And virtually all the apartment complexes are located in the bad part of town, far away from the rich fucks and their Trader Joes. And there is nothing special about this town either: no decent clubs, no interesting things to do. Just miles and miles of cookie cutter houses and shopping centres. We actually had a dance club that opened up a few years ago. It was shut down a year later and they gave the reason as their lease expired, but everyone knows it is because the fat fuck boomers didn't like having something young people enjoyed and forced the owners to pack their shit and leave.
When I talk to people and ask why housing price here are so out of control they all answer in unison: "We have good schools". Ok, whatever.
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Major League Baseball Star's Pay Stub Goes Viral
05-23-2015, 10:59 PM
It's easy to describe scenarios where banks (even an investment bank) provide real value to the economy and also to society.
Time-value of money:
Person needs a car to drive to work, but needs to work to pay for the car. Bank lends the person the money to pay for the car, person uses the car to make money and pay back the bank. Simple lending. Banks aren't needed for lending, you say? OK fine, but now you are nitpicking semantics.
Liquidity:
Production (eg grain) is variable year to year. Sometimes the farmer produces more than demand. Sometimes he produces less. When a farmer produces more than the normal demand. He can either hold the grain himself (which costs space and perhaps money) and wait for a period of scarcity (which may not happen before the grain is lost) to sell it for a profit; or he can offload that risk to an investor who will assume the risks and pay for storage. When (or if) grain becomes scarce, the investor will then cash out for a profit. Offloading risk is attractive to a farmer, whose business benefits from having a stable, predictable income. Meanwhile, the investor's whole business involves managing and mitigating risk, and holding onto grain indefinitely until the market conditions are ripe is quite natural. Society benefits because the price of grain remains relatively stable.
Again, is it possible to accomplish this without a bank? OK maybe, but if you're really arguing the subtle and complicated point of which financial services are important to the economy and how society should handle them, perhaps it would make sense for the case to include more than a gif of kramer laughing and a condescending accusation that your opponent doesn't know his history. (Ironically, in the process, making a generalization just as carelessly worded as the claim that banks are "vital")
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Major League Baseball Star's Pay Stub Goes Viral
05-23-2015, 11:03 PM
I'm shaking my head at a lot of the comments here. It just seems like a lot of anecdotal stuff, loaded with hyperbole, that a quick google search would dissuade you of. First no one, even adjusted for today's dollars were trillionaires. Rockefeller's adjusted worth was ~$340B. And most of these people, once you get to that point want to leave a legacy and a ton of the money get's donated to public causes anyways. Essentially serving the same purpose as taxes. Second the worth of the world is ~$200T, so not sure where the Rothchild's having double that comes in.
Third, the rich people pay in both absolute, and percentage wise more tax than everyone else. Something like 2/3rds of the population in the west take more out of the system than they contribute, is that fair?
Who are all these rich fucks you speak of? Given that the average household income in the US is like 50k, and "6 figures is nothing for a single guy" than how the fuck are the other 90% below that and who have families getting by? 6 figures easily puts you in the top 10-20%, and when you say 'make the rich pay' I assume you mean the people just a hair above where you're currently sitting.
While I have my own thoughts on fractional reserve banking and the fed, I also see a value the banking system provides. Europe came to the forefront over 1000 years without banks? Would that be the stagnant dark ages between when Rome fell through the Renaissance? An excellent book and documentary is "The Ascent of Money" which talks a lot about this very thing, but to say there's no value is again nonsense. The money lending provided by the Jews and the Medici's were instrumental in making society grow.
I always laugh when people say the Asians are driving up the prices of homes in Canada. Why did the US have that huge crash then? I'd think Asians would much rather go there? Especially now given that the average US house is like half the price of a Canadian one? Or maybe it's a conspiracy with all the old people. They have secret meetings how they can stick it to young people.
Wealth taxes are stupid. That just encourages people to but depreciating assets instead of income producing ones since they're going to be worth less in a year anyways. Then, the people with money instead of investing in oil refineries (a good thing if you like have lots of oil available to buy) will just buy liquor and rims instead. Less oil on the market raises the price, and hurts everyone just a little bit. Would regular people also pay a wealth tax? A portion of the retirement fund gone each year just because? Or is like all well thought out financial policy where it only affects the arbitrarily defined 'rich'?
The issue in my opinion is much simpler. It all goes back to human nature. Housing prices in Canada are spiraling out of control because people see huge price growth, and they pour in regardless of costs or logic because they want a slice. Simple greed causing a self perpetuating ponzi scheme. People lack the wherewithal to look at things objectively, rather look at things in the light that helps them/conforms to their biases, and which would just as easily be flipped if on the other side.
I remember one study where people were asked what they thought the average income was or at what income you're a 1%er. In both cases they were grossly over estimated and I see that here. People have it pretty good in the west (material-wise) but call it jealousy or keeping up with Jones's or whatever they don't see it. Everyone loves to play the victim and think how hard they have it, loves to think what they've overcome. Far easier to bitch about the rich when you make 100K if you're convinced you're only low average.
A slight aside, I asked a bar owner friend once what the deal was with 'mandatory 18% tip on parties of 8 or more', because to me it seemed unfair to force a tip. He explained that the reason for that was something called 'groupmath'. Large groups often split the bill, and on shared dishes, people always underestimate what they ate, underestimate their share of the bill, and overestimate what portion that their contribution represents. Everyone think's they're paying their share + good tip, when in fact, barely the bill is covered. Then the staff get stiffed. Country wide taxes are the ultimate example of group math. Mr 75k says "Why should I have to pay for all the bums while the rich pay nothing!" when in fact he's not even paying to cover himself.
Anyways, apologies for the rant, bottom line is the system ain't perfect, but I think it's one of the best out there, and you're alive at one of the safest, most prosperous times in human history, so relax.
Neat pic though, my dad actually found a hockey pay stub of some player when he was at a hotel in St. Louis in the early 90s. As a 9 year old that quantity of money blew my mind.