Value
How does business happen? Value.
You have a product, service, idea, that others VALUE, and you will make income.
Its that damned simple.
So, what’s so wrong with Capitalism? You give, you receive, and if the product or service is lacking, the life of said business will soon evolve or expire. Others offer same or better and Competition ‘improves the breed’. As long as there is competition, things will improve. Remove that, and it all stagnates and regresses or in the longer term, rot from the inside.
What I love about TRUE capitalism is how it follows rules just like evolution does. Environment determines course and growth, and yes, both can be manipulated, but in the long run, the rules will prevail.
What we are seeing now is backlash from ‘natural rules’ against years (decades?) Of manipulation. Economists call these times “corrections”, and I find that term quite fitting. Yup! It’s likely gonna be a painful ride and as long as the corrections are allowed to happen, eveything will improve in the long run. The ‘other option’ is to allow full control by outside influences but that means surrendering ALL of your choices about how you earn, receive, and use your lucre.
No thanks, that, to me, rings of slavery.
Slight lean into the turn here,,,,
I was belittled by an ‘educator’ on.my use of the term ‘Socialism ‘. He swore that we have a freely capitalist country, the freest on the planet.
Umkay!!! Sure. Sell me that bridge outside of Phoenix, the one that used to reside over the Thames in London. (Google it, I ain’t kiddin’)
I don’t think I need to go to extremes in showing examples of where he is wrong, but what we do have is, IS Socialism Lite. One third of our country (may be a bit more now) works for Government or some form of enforcement arm for G. Another quarter are on some form of welfare or Social security. Blue collar is a very small percentage with small business sharing rougly a similar rate. Large business has downsized and outsourced to maximize margins, and investors are mixed throughout all of the above. Roughly 1/3-2/5thss support the remainder; how is this NOT socialism?
Oh, maybe its their use of a dictionary published in 2019, while I use one that was first written in 1790,
And that’s another reason we will see a correction. Trying to hide the truth by manipulation of meanings has similar consequences for backlash. One will be monetary, the other in social reality.
I get it, I really do. I understand the Siren’s song of Socialism. Hell, everything is a business model, Right? What’s not to like about getting a better return of investment for mediocrity. We have an entire group of people in this country that make serious bank on it. I call them politicians.
But I digress…
I’ll give you a short example of what free market ideals can do using an analog comparison
Insurance. (And Heinlein fans already know where this one is headed, LOL)
Say ya want health insurance or Life insurance in a truly free market (no regulations and no guarantees) who do you talk to?
The Bookies. The guys that set the odds at the gaming tables, sporting events etc. That is all insurance really is, some one setting the odds, taking the anty, and taking the chance of losing. If you want a better ‘rate’ you sample several bookies and make your choice. It may cost you (think Lloyds of London costs. And guess what, that is Exactly how Lloyds operates. They’ll give you odds on your flippin VOICE and sell you a package.) But you have your ‘insurance. The disreputable ones won’t last a month and the honest ones will charge and payout as they should. As for taking them to court (have you tried that with ‘modern’ insurance agencies?) Well, in a free market world, there would be no real courts system in place, but you could hire arbitration. Both sides would cover the hire, and pledge to honor the decision no matter how it fell out. The dishonest would try to ‘settle out of court’ to keep things hush-hush. (Gee, sounds DAMNED familiar, doesn’t it?)
Provide Value, be honest, be accountable,
Things we see everyday, but oh so rarely from those on high now.
At a cusp
I’m not sure what that cusp is, and with how chaotic this year has been, what with being fed lies to encourage tyranical rule, total breakdown of societal norms, intentional breakdown of ‘rule of law’ by those sworn to protect such; even the best prognosticators are scratching their heads this year.(apologies for the all the links there, if you check only one, that first one is the one to NOT skip.)
Prices are doing the upward swing, employment is still down (and I see some places are having a hella time filling the rolls, not because they haven’t the need, but because they can’t compete with what some people are getting in unemployment bennies). Heck, a friend has been posting need on FB for three weeks offering 12-1400/wk and can’t get anyone to jump. (I would if it weren’t so damned far away from me. But having a house in a down market makes moving not possible no matter how nice the pay. And I have no desire to drive 5hrs a day 5-6 days a week. Or to live in a cheap hotel through the week for it. Did that shit while working sound. I’m older now, thats a young persons scene.)Selection time coming up and I’ve said it and I am seeing more saying it: this one is going to be for all the marbles. One side wants what looks like something straight out of the original MadMax. The other wants “normalcy” returned (broad brush used in both cases. There are factions within factions here on all sides, but generally speaking,,,,)You know what I want to see? I’d like to see HONESTY. I’d like to see the media held responsible for fear mongering and downplaying truth. I’d like to see politicians held accountable for all the crap that is so obvious to us on the street, but because thier buddies are running the investigation, they get away with ‘purt much anything. I’d like to see an honest serious and unbiased investigation into all this pedophilia crap thats slowly being uncovered (and if Biden wins will be completely swept away as if nothing ever happened. Betcha!!!)But what I want is irrelevant. I’m just one little fish swimming in a tidal puddle. That tides coming back in though, and when it swallows my puddle, there are gonna be bigger hungrier fish just waiting for tidbits like me.This world is gonna get ugly for all the little fish, very soon.https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/66/b6/b1/clownfish-hiding-in-anenome.jpgJust keep prepping: if ya hadnt been, gitbuzy. An extra $10 week in canned goods ain’t gonna kill ya now and may save your butt later.Learn to keep your trap shut, about everything, especially about what you have or have not.🤐🤐🤐🤐🤐🤐🤐🤐🤐🤐🤐🤐🤐🤐🤐🤐On a positive note though, I have a strong feeling that we will soon see a comeback of what some would call ‘Conservative Values’. I see so many around me getting anxious about the trepidations of Government and flat hatred of the doings of unofficial three letter groups and ilk. Its not the message, its the application, that is getting notice, and that application is what has awoken the silent majority. When said majority goes loud, well,,,Choose wisely.
Change is never permanent
He knows that changes are not permanent, but change is. Tom Sawyer by Rush.
The only true prediction is that shits gonna change. How is where things get murky.
The book I was reading (The Rational Optimist) was published in 2010. The author kept bringing up climatechangeglobalwarmingnexticeage hoopla throughout it, but towards the end showed how it didn’t really make a dent in his perspective. What struck me was how quickly thoughts have shifted from one paradigm to another in such a short span of time.
Yeah, I’m a global warming/climate change denier, and proud of it. But thats not the point here, its about how shifty ‘collective thought ‘ is. More so since the advent of the internet. Even more so since the near ubiquitous use of smartphones.
This is also in no small part due to news sources, the above items are only vehicles. It shows me that programming is even easier once you put the source closer to the person. The flip side of the programming is that having the source closer to the person also allows for them to have counter-programming available.
But not always.
One example I’ve personally seen is in a friend of mine. No net, no TV, no smartphone (oh yes, this is a real person, I’m not making this up.) Whose only news source is NPR. You can probably imagine how specific his opinions on world events are since he does not recieve any counter-viewpoints through ‘reliable sources’: my points don’t count because he knows me. Its funny how that works; he accepts as word of god, the opinions from people he has never, will never meet, over someone he sees everyday and works with and knows.
“Why would they lie?” He’ll ask. “People would call ’em out if they were lying”. To which point I say “people do call ’em iu, but you don’t hear that because you don’t see/hear/read those sources.” Its not 100%, but more information access should help a person form better opinions.
Not.
Most people don’t want to think for themselves and the newsie types and their controllers are well aware of that fact.
Another item I have heard frequently is how there is a growing concern that a majority of people have zero savings and live paycheck to paycheck. They talk about it but never offer any solutions. What burns me about is ‘the problem’, as they put it isn’t a problem, but a symptom. I was there where they are talking just a couple of months ago. Zero savings, one check away from catastrophe. The problem, as I see it, is education or lack thereof. I didn’t understand how fluid money is and the reason for that was I had been taught wrong. Those questions I had made me learn. Maybe too late in life to leverage them properly, but I am seeing improvements now. I have money set aside, and its not hurting my day to day.
That just goes to show, that even with a plethora of information available, its not the information, but questions that matter. If you arent asking the right questions, the answers don’t mean anything.
So how do you know what questions to ask? That’s the real trick. My answer is ‘just keep questioning everything!’. Don’t settle until your answers answer themselves. No one can ‘know it all’, that prospect is just way too big, but a body can know enough, if what they know answers the questions of their days. I despise specialization, but it does have its merits in many cases. The main reason I despise it is in scope: a specialist has a narrow scope on the world and there are times when a broader scope will provide solutions unable to be seen by said specialist. Points of Merit: a Doctor specializing in Cancer Research. Points of Failure: a Poitical Scientist specializing in Socialism. One of those benefits humanity, the other is a parasite.
Dio's Workshop 