Difference between revisions of "User:Woozle/Facebook/2011-10-07 OccupySesameStreet"
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(→Woozle Staddon: more dialogue; complete for now) |
(→Woozle Staddon: more (10/10 a.m.)) |
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===Woozle Staddon=== | ===Woozle Staddon=== | ||
Shawn Farwell: got a source for that? | Shawn Farwell: got a source for that? | ||
| + | ===Adriano D'Alessandro=== | ||
| + | As the price of fuel goes up, the price of out sourcing will also go up (unless shipping over seas is supported by a cheap and renewable energy source)and eventually jobs will return to the homeland. So use up as much gas as possible, it's going to create more jobs. ;) | ||
| + | ===Shawn Farwell=== | ||
| + | I'll see what I can find, but gems like that never stick around the web very long. | ||
| + | ===Shawn Farwell=== | ||
| + | @Woozle - Couldn't find exactly what I was referring to. May have been one specific case. Looks like they averaged $100,000 per year w/benefits and get 48% of that in retirement. Collective bargaining be good to them. On the other hand, the garbage collectors union in Wisconsin doesn't do near as well. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703408604576164290717724956.html | ||
| + | ===Gil Birman=== | ||
| + | @Woozle, in response to your last reply to my comment, one reason wealth redistribution doesn't work is because the specific accumulation of wealth is actually important to a productive economy. Simply putting money into someone's hands does not mean that that person will be just as productive as another person with the same amount of money. Another way to look at it: money represents scarce resources. The actual money itself doesn't matter as much as what it can buy. Different people will do different things with scarce resources, but in a healthy economy those people who can provide the most value for the rest of society will control the most resources. In contrast, an unhealthy economy is based on the mis-allocation of resources. Free trade is the mechanism that society uses to decide who's product or service is providing the best value for the rest of society. Every time you buy something on the free market you are "voting" with your dollars that the salesman is best utilizing scarce resources for your benefit. You want democracy? Capitalism is pure democracy. Those people who provide the most benefit for society will end up with the most money. That is, unless there exists a monopoly corporation ("government") which uses force to thwart the free market and create winners based on political affiliations. In a non-free market with such a monopoly corporation you should expect entrepreneurs to spend less time actually producing goods and services people are willing to buy at ever-decreasing prices (because of competition), and more time lobbying the monopoly corporation to use their monopoly on force to eliminate their competition and siphon stolen money (taxes) directly or indirectly to the corporations. | ||
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| + | I think that on a very basic level, your view of economics assumes that the law of scarcity does not exist. I wish that were the case but it's not. | ||
| + | ===Woozle Staddon=== | ||
| + | "The average Milwaukee public-school teacher salary is $56,500, but with benefits the total package is $100,005, according to the manager of financial planning for Milwaukee public schools." - WSJ article | ||
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| + | "Compensation" includes things like retirement -- so don't count it twice -- and medical care, which many people (including myself) think should be free -- or at the very least a negligible expense. | ||
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| + | $56k sounds about right for someone to whom we are entrusting the next generation. Sounds like Wisconsin is... er, *was*, until Scott Walker and his thugs came along... doing something right. | ||
| + | ===Marilyn Honsaker=== | ||
| + | What happens to wealth distribution when the wealthy run out of money???? | ||
| + | ===Woozle Staddon=== | ||
| + | ?Marilyn Honsaker: then they're poor, and you distribute wealth back to them! :-) ...but seriously, no, wealth redistribution is about leveling the playing field a bit -- it's *not* about indefinitely taking away money from one group and gi...See More | ||
| + | ===Heather Raffa=== | ||
| + | If you're born poor, it's a lot more difficult to become rich than if you're born to a rich family. Don't tell me that our 'station' in life has nothing to do with your personal success. Although there are those born poor who are so talented that they break out of the poverty they were born into and some who are rich squander their money until they are broke, these are the exceptions, not the rule. | ||