3 ms·

Starting with 3: Why should the citizens of a country be in favor of an economic policy that screws them in return for making the richest .001% of the populati

Starting with 3: Why should the citizens of a country be in favor of an economic policy that screws them in return for making the richest .001% of the population richer, and raising the standard of living for foreigners living in a mud huts to being slaves in a factory? This was apparent all along, but the people voicing these concerns were ignored or marginalized by the one sided economic voices in the media... So to part 2: The problem is that the economists you hear on the news telling you what needs to be done are wrong worse than 50% of the time (austerity, free trade with countries that don't have equivalent economies, you name it). In the US after Trump (who I mostly disagree with) started calling out Carrier for closing a US factory to offshore the production, I heard a couple economists taking about how if carrier didn't move all their production offshore no one would be able to afford an AC unit. To which, I was frankly shocked. central AC units, which are mostly assembled from 3rd party components, many of which are already made in china/etc (unless you get lucky with a us built emerson/copeland compressor) are extremely high margin businesses. The assembly costs in the US are a tiny fraction of the installed price of a AC unit (which are dominated by your local AC installer). Worse, prices rarely decline when production is off-shored, rather the savings tend to go back to the execs and majority share holders. Or worse, are used to buy or block smaller more efficient competitors. So, for a news organization to not vet this before allowing some doomsday economist to come on and talk about how the price of AC units are going to spike if carrier isn't allowed to fire a bunch of $20/hour employees in favor of a bunch of $5/hour ones, while playing tax games with the profits (aka book the majority of the profits outside of the US to avoid taxes) is just insane. Heck carrier has a gross profit margin of > 50% (its higher than Apple!). Bottom line, I think pretty much everyone I know is now trained to disbelieve anything heard on the news from a self proclaimed economist.

thewarrior 10y ago
I'm from India and I think most people would prefer having a stable job in a factory to starving in a mud hut. And yes , the citizens of a country should not be in favour of a policy that transfers the lions share of the gains to the 0.01 %. But overall , a liberal global order has been a good thing. I blame the greed of the elites for (potentially) killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
- dba7dba 10y ago
  > I blame the greed of the elites for (potentially) killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. Greed is a powerful addiction. The elites won't stop trying to concentrate more and more wealth at the top, even when they know it will increase the chance of something like Brexit actually happening (which cut their wealth, at least temporarily, considerably). Addition is powerful because it's addictive.
  - ohthehugemanate 10y ago
    Not sure if you're aware, but WE are the global elite. If you earn more than $34k per year, you are in the global top 1%. So next time you negotiate your salary, or try to make more bonus at the end of the year, I want you to think about your addiction to greed. You just want to concentrate more and more wealth at the top, even when you know it will increase the chance of something like Brexit. Clearly that's your motivator. If that doesn't work for you, try coming up with a more realistic model or how wealth actually moves, and what motivates people. Parables about the seven deadly sins make for entertaining and convincing story telling, but are not good models for reality.
    - dba7dba 10y ago
      First, many many people make $34k/year in US. But do they feel like they can control their life and destiny? I doubt it. And yes let's say I make $100,000/year. Would I or most others be happy with it? Surprisingly, no. They probably want to make a little more to get a boat, or even a bigger saving for their children.
    - StillBored 10y ago
      The absolute amount a person is only loosely correlated with their standard of living. Especially when the amount of free time they have/etc is factored in. Even in the US, 34K a year is a living wage in some parts of the country while in others its extremely hard to survive. Beside the obvious cost of living expenses for house, transportation, food, there is also the question of, how your making the 34k a year. If you can earn it in less than 40 hours a week you have time to supplement your income growing a garden, fixing your own car, or spending time tutoring your children. OTOH, if it takes 80 hours a week to earn that then you pretty much have to pay people to take care of all the little things you could be doing yourself.
aianus 10y ago
> extremely high margin businesses > rather the savings tend to go back to the execs and majority share holders. If so, start your own AC company and undercut them since there's so much margin. As for me, I don't believe it for a second.

thewarrior 10y ago

I'm from India and I think most people would prefer having a stable job in a factory to starving in a mud hut. And yes , the citizens of a country should not be in favour of a policy that transfers the lions share of the gains to the 0.01 %. But overall , a liberal global order has been a good thing. I blame the greed of the elites for (potentially) killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.

dba7dba 10y ago
> I blame the greed of the elites for (potentially) killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. Greed is a powerful addiction. The elites won't stop trying to concentrate more and more wealth at the top, even when they know it will increase the chance of something like Brexit actually happening (which cut their wealth, at least temporarily, considerably). Addition is powerful because it's addictive.
- ohthehugemanate 10y ago
  Not sure if you're aware, but WE are the global elite. If you earn more than $34k per year, you are in the global top 1%. So next time you negotiate your salary, or try to make more bonus at the end of the year, I want you to think about your addiction to greed. You just want to concentrate more and more wealth at the top, even when you know it will increase the chance of something like Brexit. Clearly that's your motivator. If that doesn't work for you, try coming up with a more realistic model or how wealth actually moves, and what motivates people. Parables about the seven deadly sins make for entertaining and convincing story telling, but are not good models for reality.
  - dba7dba 10y ago
    First, many many people make $34k/year in US. But do they feel like they can control their life and destiny? I doubt it. And yes let's say I make $100,000/year. Would I or most others be happy with it? Surprisingly, no. They probably want to make a little more to get a boat, or even a bigger saving for their children.
  - StillBored 10y ago
    The absolute amount a person is only loosely correlated with their standard of living. Especially when the amount of free time they have/etc is factored in. Even in the US, 34K a year is a living wage in some parts of the country while in others its extremely hard to survive. Beside the obvious cost of living expenses for house, transportation, food, there is also the question of, how your making the 34k a year. If you can earn it in less than 40 hours a week you have time to supplement your income growing a garden, fixing your own car, or spending time tutoring your children. OTOH, if it takes 80 hours a week to earn that then you pretty much have to pay people to take care of all the little things you could be doing yourself.

aianus 10y ago

> extremely high margin businesses > rather the savings tend to go back to the execs and majority share holders. If so, start your own AC company and undercut them since there's so much margin. As for me, I don't believe it for a second.