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Chris Rock: Bring The Pain Of Economic Ignorance
Submitted by James E Miller via Mises Canada,
Late in his life, Murray Rothbard had a law that stated: “people tend to specialize in what they are worst at.” While the aphorism is definitely true about some specialists, more often than not the reverse is accurate. Artists have terrible opinions on politics. Managers of nonprofit organizations are fiscally irresponsible. Politicians don’t understand the profit incentive. Academics haven’t a clue about pricing or marketing.
American comedian Chris Rock is another violator Rothbard’s law. His flair for offensive but incisive comedy is well known. But his knowledge in other fields is lacking, and in some cases utterly misinformed. In a recent interview with Frank Rich of New York Magazine, the stand-up joke spitter has it all wrong when it comes to economics. No surprise there; the entertainment industry, despite raking in billions every year, is the brain trust of economic ignorance.
Mr. Rock’s main target of animus are those just like him: rich, well-off individuals. He tells Rich, “If poor people knew how rich rich people are, there would be riots in the streets.” Evidence for this assertion? Rock cites the “Virginia Airlines first-class lounge,” which offers expert mixologists (fancy for “bartender”) and free food. Apparently alcohol and sustenance priced into a plane ticket equate to robber barons pampered in luxury before jetsetting across the globe.
The idea that poor or working-class folks are itching on the sidelines, waiting to riot over what little crumbs are tossed to them from rapacious capitalists is an idea based in fantasy. Rarely does the proletariat secretly wish to overthrow their alleged oppressors. Instead, the middle and lower class yearn to enter the higher echelons of the income brackets. They are too busy working to bother with the ontology of class conflict and the end of history. The distraction acts as a blessing. Violent revolutions by the underclass often result in terrible things: the guillotine, the Bolsheviks, military coups, and senseless violence.
That Rock thinks his fellow Americans who make under six-figure salaries are brimming with hatred for the rich tells more about his out-of-touchness with the average guy than his closeness. This speaks to the larger issue of his own epistemology and the pompous way in which he undermines the views of voters. When asked why Americans “seem to want a Bush or a Clinton” in the White House, Rock replies that it’s “hard for me to figure out people voting against their own self-interests.”
Talk about fatal conceit. Rock may fancy himself a step above average intelligence and a keen observer of human affairs – which his comedy, at times, seems to corroborate – but his obvious disdain for those who vote conservative is supercillious to the highest degree. How does he know what the best interest is for everyone? How does he understand the motives behind every vote cast?
Chris Rock may be able to crack a joke but he isn’t a mind reader. He suffers from the same kind of vain arrogance so common in Hollywood celebrities. He doesn’t know what’s in the heart of the working guy who goes to the ballot box. The limelight provides attention; not intelligence.
A large part of the interview is focused on Rock’s children, and his difficulty balancing work life with family life. This a noble struggle, and one that many celebrities face. Yet later in the interview, Rock says that it’s “unfair that you can inherit money that you didn’t work for.” He also likens inheritance to racial intolerance passed down through generations – which, to be fair, can result in people being treated unfairly.
The idea that inheritance is some kind of metaphysical evil is thoroughly Marxist. The third plank of the Communist Manifesto is to abolish all rights of inheritance. Of course, if such a dictate were to be implemented, that would spell the end of capital accumulation and rising standards. It would bring about the ruination of Western civilization. While inheritance may seem unfair, it’s a crucial part of elevating time preferences and saving for the future.
Advanced production that breeds material abundance can only be accomplished through deferring consumption. That means putting away money for the future, including the next generation. Capital is the lifeblood of any economy. Without saving and investment, there is no consumption. As Garet Garrett wrote in his magnificent essay “The Revolution Was,” “If you put a ten-dollar bill under the rug instead of spending it, that is capital formation. It represents ten dollars’ worth of something that might have been immediately consumed, but wasn’t.” The millionaires and billionaires who decry passing your life’s work onto your children are damning their offspring to a life of material disadvantage.
In the hedonistic environment of the Hollywood Hills, it makes sense to spend now and ignore the future. It’s doubtful, however, that movie stars and directors actually spend all their income while they are alive. I imagine many of them sock away their savings for their children – including Chris Rock. So really, is there anything more conceited than a self-loathing millionaire?
What Chris Rock lacks in economic knowledge, he makes up for in pointed commentary about the deleterious effects of political correctness among young adults. Rock refuses to play college campuses because of the “special snowflake” mentality that so many students have adopted. He also condemns the practice of shaming comedians for offensive jokes to the point of career ruination. As a social observer, Rock comes off as fairly conservative. That makes it all the more disappointing he tut-tuts the virtue of prudence and self-preservation.
Surprisingly, Rock demonstrates an understanding of the market process and how the drive for profit has the happy consequence of squashing prejudices. Frank Rich calls comedy a “ruthless marketplace,” to which Rock replies, “It makes people hire people that they would never hire otherwise.” That’s certainly true. Markets demand social cooperation. They also allocate resources in an effective manner. If only Mr. Rock would take the lessons of the marketplace and apply it elsewhere. Perhaps then he could make more sense of the dismal science, and purge the leftist notions about income equality and inheritance that fog his judgment. Until then, I guess we can enjoy the laughs.
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Speaking of which, the National HOCKEY League is talking about expanding to Las Vegas. Arena construction is in the planning stages
Are they sure they can spare the water to make the ice?
Indeed. The golf courses and fountains were there first. I wonder what those folks think about this?
What am I talking about? It's the same people.
Meanwhile, for everyone else....conserve, conserve, conserve. (This message brought to you by the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce)
"I'm not saying what OJ did was right...but I can understand him!"
-Rock
Motherfucker is funny though, despite his economic ignorance.
"You know my secret to how I stay so young looking? Money. I just rub it all over my body. A rich 50 is like a broke 35!"
"We need to do what the president says, because he is our boss"- rock
Yeah that pretty much ruined what respect i had for him.
Check the battery in your sarcasm detector...it appears to be dead.
Wtf r u talking about? Dood was not being funny when he said that. He meant every word of it. Dont believe me then check for yourself. I was just paraphrasing. Wat he said was actually much much worse
He tells Rich, “If poor people knew how rich rich people are, there would be riots in the streets.”
Talk about a pedantic article mises...guy is not being literal. Got all flustered over Rock taking easy shots at conservatives voting against their self-interests? So what. It be true folkz and everyone knows it.
Makes sense for rich people to vote conservative (AKA STATUS QUO WEALTH PRESERVATION) and poor people vote liberal (FREE EDUCATION TO - IF EXTREMELY LUCKY - GET INTO THE RICH PEOPLE CATEGORY) this ain't rocket science.
In 'merica voting either party is likely against any possible self-interest (unless you're bribing the people you're votin' for) but poor people voting repub is ESPECIALLY dumbass. So.. rock is right, get over it.
And 6 figures isn't rich at all.
"The idea that inheritance is some kind of metaphysical evil is thoroughly Marxist"
"A power to dispose of estates for ever is manifestly absurd. The earth and the fulness of it belongs to every generation, and the preceding one can have no right to bind it up from posterity. Such extension of property is quite unnatural.
Thomas Jefferson
Jefferson....fuckin marxist. i KNEW it!
Jefferson (and his "ilk" ;) were the hardest of hard core Libertarians, almost Spartan in their notions that each generation of men would (ideally) be self-made and suffused with the virtue arising from that pursuit.
With Thomas Jefferson taking the lead in the Virginia legislature in 1777, every Revolutionary state government abolished the laws of primogeniture and entail that had served to perpetuate the concentration of inherited property. Jefferson cited Adam Smith, the hero of free market capitalists everywhere, as the source of his conviction that (as Smith wrote, and Jefferson closely echoed in his own words), "A power to dispose of estates for ever is manifestly absurd. The earth and the fulness of it belongs to every generation, and the preceding one can have no right to bind it up from posterity. Such extension of property is quite unnatural." Smith said: "There is no point more difficult to account for than the right we conceive men to have to dispose of their goods after death."
The states left no doubt that in taking this step they were giving expression to a basic and widely shared philosophical belief that equality of citizenship was impossible in a nation where inequality of wealth remained the rule. North Carolina's 1784 statute explained that by keeping large estates together for succeeding generations, the old system had served "only to raise the wealth and importance of particular families and individuals, giving them an unequal and undue influence in a republic" and promoting "contention and injustice." Abolishing aristocratic forms of inheritance would by contrast "tend to promote that equality of property which is of the spirit and principle of a genuine republic."
Others wanted to go much further; Thomas Paine, like Smith and Jefferson, made much of the idea that landed property itself was an affront to the natural right of each generation to the usufruct of the earth, and proposed a "ground rent" — in fact an inheritance tax — on property at the time it is conveyed at death, with the money so collected to be distributed to all citizens at age 21, "as a compensation in part, for the loss of his or her natural inheritance, by the introduction of the system of landed property."
Even stalwart members of the latter-day Republican Party, the representatives of business and inherited wealth, often emphatically embraced these tenets of economic equality in a democracy. I've mentioned Herbert Hoover's disdain for the "idle rich" and his strong support for breaking up large fortunes. Theodore Roosevelt, who was the first president to propose a steeply graduated tax on inheritances, was another: he declared that the transmission of large wealth to young men "does not do them any real service and is of great and genuine detriment to the community at large.''
http://www.economist.com/blogs/lexington/2010/10/estate_tax_and_founding...
Obama's plantation nigga Chris Rock say: “When we talk about race relations in America or racial progress, it’s all nonsense, there are no race relations. White people were crazy. Now they’re not as crazy. White people need to own their actions. Not even their actions. The actions of your dad. Yeah, it’s unfair that you can get judged by something you didn’t do, but it’s also unfair that you can inherit money that you didn’t work for.”
Dumb azz nigga Chris Rock had nothing but praise for Obama whom he once said was “our boss” and the “dad of the country.”
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Hollywood/2014/12/01/Rock-white-people
With the dire water situation there, the Zamboni scrapings will be sold to the highest bidder.
Chris Rock is just another stupid nigger whose found a way to fleece people by being "edgy". His idea of the truth is whatever promotes his agenda of hating whitey and hating America. He does it out of spite, not because of any particular insights or intelligence. Send him back to Africa. Let's see him make a living there.
whose =/= who's
It would be really interesting if every US child was brought up ultra libertarian, so they understood ownership of their future in their bones.
Then back off a little so you don't have wars on minimum wage laws (which is what Mises would do if unshackled).
This early training would do a lot toward freeing up the generational FSA we are so good at creating...
Power in the hands of a small group of intellectual "elites" to confiscate and control it is adsurd.
"A power to dispose of estates for ever is manifestly absurd.... "
careful there, as far as I understand Jefferson it was not about inheritance, it was about setting up trusts for... ever
My understanding is that Jefferson was against one generation setting up schemes for all of the later generations to follow. the difference is profound. just have a look at the so called "trust babies".
Correct.
Jefferson, Paine, Smith etal recognized the deleterious effect on society of tying up vast parcels of land, thus keeping it away from aquisition and individual occupancy/ownership by future generations. That is to say, basically against a new feudal system without the cool looking helmets and fancy titles of lord & baron...lol.
They were not against the right of inheritance and they were not nascent Marxists.
Like today, it troubled them that one family(s) (given generational time, along with the laws & armies of the state behind them and the will to do it) could wind up owning everything legally.
But its an age old conundrum, we also don't want the state owning it all in perpetuity either (communism), holding it apart for its and its apparatchiks use, as that would just be black knight feudalism, disguised as the white knight ;-)
I've always wondered why I rarely if ever hear any discussion on the difference between OWNERSHIP and POSSESSION.
If you were limited to how much land you could physically work, there wouldn't be the concentration. Businesses could be co-ops (if start-up incentive is needed, use a patent like system-when the creator dies, the employees inherit).
They had/have (started breaking it up in the 90s) a system like this in Mexico called ejodos (something like public land). You can live and work (for generations) on the same land, but if you leave it for 2 years anyone else can come in and take over.
I never gave this much thought, but it seems at least worthy of discussion.
I've heard Chris Rock make some pretty ignorant statements including yesterday on NPR.
It's amazing that he can talk in a single interview about racism in America holding back black people and also about all of the things he has done including his new career as a director, visiting the white house and about his kids travelling the world.
He spoke of having a neighbor who is only a dentist but is white so can afford to live in his neighborhood without being exceptional. For Chris Rock to live there, he had to achieve greatness.
He spoke about going to school in the 70's and the experience of being bussed to more affluent neighborhoods.
I experienced the flip side of that.
My grandparents worked their way out poverty and my parents put themselves through college to achieve a better life in the suburbs.
In the 1970's their kids, me included, were put on busses to go to school back in the projects.
Great social engineering. Thanks Chris. I already paid my dues & owe you nothing.
Spot on.
I was bussed and socially engineered as well. I wouldn't trade that "education" for anything, from fighting off the adults coming over the barbed wire fence of the school attacking us kids to breaking some kids jaw who attempted to jack my lunch money.
I hope they like the way I turned out ;-)
I think pookie needs another hit on the crack pipe, quick call Scotty
?
A white hater dependent on other white haters for justification.
The only humor, is the existence.
did mr rock work for sony in hollywierd? if so his info alias, pay, and hmm how much ol chris parted with his money for the poor..I am sure his income is somehow protected from tax man, you know he is owed repatriations for pre civil war times..it's only fair.
Then that bastard owes ME for the damage his ancestors did to mine (Barbary Pirates). He also owes us (current day) for all the assistance coming out of our pockets for Africa. I could go on but he won't pay anyway.
I used to like Chris Rock but he is a racist who loves Obama.
Downvote for EVER liking a this unfunny, low IQ, racist, but upvote for the last four words.
dis guy so raciss, i'm offended bout des blaq folkz puttin down deh white man!! white mens iz so oppressed in 'merica!! WAHHH it's sooo hrd for uzzz wahhhh wahhhh boooo evry1 so mean to whitey!!
James_Cole need to take his dumb ass white self to Ferguson so da blaq folkz can play da knock out game an beat him down.
Well IF indeed it is a stupid white liberal, it would actually enjoy a beatdown from the useless savages it worships.
The names Cunt. James Cunt that is.
Dupe
Speaking of economic ignorance, what about the media fueling this idea of a bourbon shortage?
http://tinyurl.com/pouz9gc
Oh, you mean Chris (Rocks for brains)?
Check out his recent openning monolugue on SNL:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8UtV2bER-U
"The 'Freedom Tower'? How about 'the never goin' in there' tower."
I don't care if he knows fucko about economics.
"I don't care if he knows fucko about economics."
Ditto here. And also with Bono.
I enjoy Chris Rock's stuff a lot and love U2, and if I didn't turn off the thinking, I'd never have much fun.
I sure with they, the artists, would shut up about things they know nothing about.
An American, not US subject.
Well, considering that the information has already been destroyed, I'd say the "freedumb tower" is going to be quite safe from any sort of "terrist" "attack"
The dude is a mouth piece for the democratic party whose job is to keep the ignorant blacks in the liberal plantations we call the slums. He does his job well.
Shit, and here I thought he was a comedian.
"Ill have those (people) voting Democrat for 200 years" just to stir shit up, post from earlier: The oldest millenial (34) has been able to vote in 4 presidential elections... and what were the choices? Obama/Romney, Obama/McCain, Bush/Kerry, Bush/Gore. Holy shit, that sure would have made a difference had the millenials voted for the other team! Meanwhile, the oldest baby boomer has been able to vote in 12 presidential elections. Let's take a look at your options there: Lyndon Johnson vs Barry Goldwater... a chance to elect a guy who was a true conservative, small govt advocate and libertarian. Nope, Johnson wins by a fucking blowout, good one boomers. Nixon vs McGovern, a chance to elect a man who was as anti Vietnam war as you can get, pro agriculture at home, and what do you guys do? Put Nixon back in office with 520 electoral votes, well done. Carter/Ford, a chance to keep in the White House one of the few influential people who called out the CIA on the assasination of Kennedy, nope... lets put Carter in. Two chances to put Ross Perot in the Oval Office... yawn... this is getting tiring and depressing reminiscing just how bad boomers fucked this country up... im done.
You are under the quaint impression that the boomers had a choice.
Seems to me the CIA*/MIC won every election since... Lincoln, and maybe even before that...
*Obviously the CIA wasn't around before Eisenhower but... you get the picture.
Uhm.... they did have choices. They made the wrong ones. That was the entire point of my post.
They were called the OSS.
And before that the ONI.
In '64 the oldest boomers were only 18 and could not vote then.
Mark that one up to "the greatest generation".
Ah, forgot about that whole 21 year old voting age, my bad
And now the voting age should be 26--seeing as how 18-25 is too immature to get their own insurance.
#BuckFarack
Yeah, boombers get a bad rap because they didn't instantly change the world handed to them when they came of age to have any effect whatsoever.
I am watching intently to see how generations X and Y and the millenials turn the tide by winning the war on net neutrality. That is their fight and I'm anxious for them to show us boombers how's it done.
No more bitching about boomers - it's your turn. You're up.
"I am the democrats worse nightmare. A thinking blackman." Charles Ramsey in Dead Giveaway.
The entertainment industry is the only place the 1% can get away with being filthy rich. It's gonna be Bread and Circus till the very end baby.
Rock story covered here as well:
http://tinyurl.com/l95299f
Mises can always be counted on to defend the interests of the wealthy elite.
I'm pretty sure all CB heads lack any economic sense as well. So I nominate Chris Rock to head the CB. Also, Jon Corzine should be Secretary of Treasury.
Few people really think about the economy to any great degree or even try to understand it. The study of economics is often baffling and confusing. Many economic theories exist but many are full of holes and conundrums. Much of how people react to a policy may have to do with timing and perception instead of reality. Economics is full of loops that feed back upon themselves and unexpected pitfalls based on expectations.
All this can become quite abstract. Economist often predict events that never tend to unfold as expected or planned. Many of the "modern monetary theories" in use today have not been proven over time, but reflect an attitude that we can control economic cycles better than in the past. The basis of the economy we have today is unsustainable and because it has been able to exist for so long does not mean it can continue. The fact the system muddles through does not guarantee that we will not suffer financial harm as individuals.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/03/few-people-really-understand-economy.html
I think theire trying to say I cant breed!
Niggas love to not know
Ignorance is a badge of honor in American black culture. 50 years after obtaining equal rights they celebrate the type of ignorance that enslaved them. Idiots.
Ignorance is a badge of honor in white culture too. See any hillbilly, and their anti "book learnin'" How's that genius white role model larry the cable guy doing?
Larry's worth more than the combined net worth of everyone who reads ZH.
If you think he's a stupid redneck, you would be wrong. To wit, in his own words:
"Everyone concentrates on the problems we’re having in our country: Think about this: 1. Cows 2. The Constitution 3. The Ten Commandments
COWS – Is it just me, or does anyone else find it amazing that during the mad cow epidemic our government could track a single cow, born in Canada almost three years ago, right to the stall where she slept in the state of Washington? And, they tracked her calves to their stalls. But they are unable to locate 11 million illegal aliens wandering around our country. Maybe we should give each of them a cow.
THE CONSTITUTION – They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq…why don’t we just give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it has worked for over 200 years, and we’re not using it anymore.
THE 10 COMMANDMENTS – The real reason that we can’t have the Ten Commandments posted in a courthouse is this — you cannot post ‘Thou Shalt Not Steal’ ‘Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery’ and ‘Thou Shall Not Lie’ in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians, it creates a hostile work environment."
That dumb redneck has never had a crooked manager steal all his money. He's never had some conniving gold-digging bitch of a wife take it all in a divorce. He's never gotten the IRS on his ass Willie Nelson-style. We should all be as stupid as this po redneck.
Takin' that a bit too seriously, thar?
Of course he is just poking fun at the STEREOTYPE of the Redneck.
Hell even Larry the Cable Guy does that.
My Physics Advisor was a Missouri Redneck. He was a damned smart man.
Just because I am a Long Haired Country Boy does not mean that I think that the redneck is poor or dumb. In my book they are rather downright respectable...er...most of them...'til they are loaded with too much of that "Liquid Courage".
So don't get your undies tied in a knot 'round yer balls.
Lighten it up a little...cowboy.
All I know is that most all of the funny and/or intelligent comics are dead.
What about George Carlin?
He died on June 22, 2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Carlin
Shoulda used the /s tag.
RIP George - you will be remembered forever.
People who don't know, just YouTube "George Carlin" for an edumication.
Ron White
Jus' 'cause we talk slow don't mean we're stupid.
(Owen Wilson)
He's doing pretty well pretending to be a hick. The real hicks, for example everybody in Louie Gohmert's district, are just as you describe.
Some hicks are much richer than slicks.
I would rather know the hicks whom can get my jalopy running over a slick that will steal from me blind every day 'til Tuesday.
Those hicks are going to end up running this World, or what is left of it, after the slicks starve off because they cannot feed themselves post crash..
You think about those Yayhoos making left turns for three hours straight at breakneck speeds on a surface that has the traction of ICE...Now they are rich and they are hicks. NASCAR.
YOUR underestimation of the abilities of other people combined with your arrogance is a receipe for YOUR own personal disaster post collapse.
If you want to see ignorance in action, look no farther than the Texas school system. And that wasn't arranged by black people...
Yes, because this all happened by chance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_zD3NxSsD8
Why just the other day a Honda C45 transmission spontaneously began to form out of an iron oxide deposit in my back yard.
No. The dumbest whites are college white boys and girls plus alumni who cheer the thugs on. The whites go into debt for life at college while the thugs get a free ride. The even dumber whites are fantasy sports game fans.
Making people laugh?
Never have understood black logic. These people have undergone severe racism and discrimination for years. I do believe that blacks, as a group, have been oppressed in many ways in this country. But instead of banding together to fight the root of the problem, they join a gang to kill other black people. When they do turn their aggression outside their neighborhood, it's directed towards some random innocent white guy. It frustrates me to see them burning down buildings and trashing stuff in their own neighborhoods. It's like punching yourself in the face because someone stole your car. What they're too stupid to realize is that if they formed a responsible group to truly fight the source of their oppression, most white people would be their allies.
They vote for their own oppression. Banding together won't matter until they figure that out.
And when they do figure it out, they become dull of lead (a la Matin Luther King).
"These people have undergone severe racism and discrimination for years...."
##########
Absolute bullshit.
On the contrary, for DECADES sullen, arrogant blacks have been given a free pass, a leg up, and enjoy an enormous protective and propagandizing double standard from the government, the media and pop "culture".
To the extent that they continue to fail abysmally, and across the board, is COMPLETELY on them.
Clearly your grasp on US history is frail. You apparently forgot that once upon a time black people were slaves with no rights. Then for decades they were harassed and murdered by the KKK and other groups. Then they were segregated against and kept in certain neighbor(hoods) in most towns. Sure, they have had all the rights of a white man for the last several decades but to say that racism against blacks is "absolute bullshit" is just plain ignorant.
Which has absolutely NOTHING to do with this current group of entitled, thieving parasites.
Clearly your grasp of the length of the historical timeline, and the ability to make context-relevant conclusions considering the conditions extant over the past 50+ years, is "frail".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDxgJq4toYo
Personal responsability.
Yeah, manacles and chains had nothing to do with it I'm sure.
Spare me. Whites were slaves too. It was called the fuedal system.
Of course they were. I never said they weren't. They were the first slaves in the British colonies on North America. But what was their excuse?
The slaves in Africa were kidnapped by whites, they were kidnapped by their own countrymen, they were conquered by different tribes and forced into servitude. There were sundry other ways as well but I think you will be hard pressed to find any historical evidence of a slave who was originally taken without FORCE, and made a slave simply because of his or her undevelopeded faculties, which was the original point of the person I replied to.
Of course once the slave reached America, and was sold, indoctrination began, and there are ample cases where through generations of conditioning and being molded by the environment, the slave was made to love his master.
As for the beloved white slaves, well...some were kidnapped as well from all over Europe. They were also (as some of the first slaves in the colonies) forced into servitude by the English courts. Others bound themselves or more often their children into indentured servitude or apprenticeship. Still others were forced by colonial laws into servitude simply for being poor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJQX3yA6Ie8
keepin it real
He was right about one thing at least. If you want to hide your money, put it in your books. Because _____ ___ ____.
(You know this one.)
****** Don't Read?
What did I win?
Can't Read, actually.
You've won a million dollars. If you'll just send me $20,000 to cover the bank processing and transfer fees, I'll wire it directly into an account of your choice.
NOBODY READS BOOKS.
THREE WORDS...YOU KNOW?
Just keepin it real
"Violent revolutions by the underclass often result in terrible things: the guillotine..."
Ummm that certainly depends on who's head goes in the guillotine... I'd say right now are thousands of people that the world would be better off without
Chris Rock is funny? Who knew?
Grumpy Cat made 120million in two years. What would Rothbard say to that?
Number 6 says it is the US Empire's version of Caligula's horse. But I ain't no econ PhD.
hilarious. Miller getting all Austrian over a HS dropout (whose worth more than all of us combined)
Hillarious if not so pathetic.
People are noticing that those at the top of the ladder of success are pulling it up after them. Most of them don't think they can do anything about it, and they're just trying to do what they can to survive so they prefer not to think about it too much. But if it gets much more flagrant, and it will after the next crash, things will get ugly. It's interesting how when the wealthy point out that the game is rigged, Mises folks applaud. But when the poor and powerless complain about the same things, the Mises folks call them Commies. When what is sauce for the gander is not sauce for the goose, a closer look is recommended. The Mises folks are just looking to preserve their own advantages. They have some fairly common-sense good ideas, but a lot of what they're pushing is just retroactive self-justification.
Indeed. "Rarely does the proletariat secretly wish to overthrow their alleged oppressors. Instead, the middle and lower class yearn to enter the higher echelons of the income brackets." This has been the Republican message, and formula for electoral success for decades. "Vote Republican, and you too can be rich," they tell us. Recently, however, it has become apparent that they are, and have been, pulling up the ladder after them, as you state. Those not in the club now believe they will never be admitted, and have less regard for the concerns of the club members as a result.
You obviously didn't understand Mises then.
He openly stated that this was natural, I should be concerned for my own well-being, not yours.
Well, he was wrong.
Because me worrying about your well being does what for me exactly? That's right, let that settle in your tiny brain and simmer on it for a while.
Because, tiny brain or not, it's not that simple. I like to use the flight attendant's statement as a personal creed, "Secure your own mask before assisting others," but that doesn't mean I shouldn't assist others at all. Enough, in many cases, is indeed enough. And when I can see that I'm doing pretty well, but an increasing group of people, approaching critical mass, is doing very poorly and losing ground, I can see a crisis is coming. At that point, concern for your (and their) well-being becomes concern for my own well-being. I don't live in a vacuum. If I'm doing well and nobody else is, I'm heading for a fall. That's my problem with the more libertarian strain of thought. We are social animals. We create societies and live in them. When the societies fail, it's bad for us. Therefore to be concerned about the well-being of others actually is a form of self-interest. I'll reiterate that my first concern does need to be for my own interests. If I neglect my own interests, I'm in no position to worry about others, and about society in general. First things first. But if our society collapses all my well-laid plans are up in smoke and my lifestyle suffers, so I very much do have concerns beyond the strictly personal.
Rock, like so many other entertainers today, is an over privileged asshole. He thinks because he has made some money by getting drunks to laugh, he must be smart.
I find it enchanting that such people exist, but I can't believe anyone takes what they say seriously.
These Mises Institue columns are laughably infantile.
Actually, I just read that Chris Rock interview yesterday and he also had this to say, which I would have thought a Mises Institute lackey would have loved:
"Frank Rich: What has Obama done wrong?
Chris Rock: When Obama first got elected, he should have let it all just drop.
Frank Rich: Let what drop?
Chris Rock: Just let the country flatline. Let the auto industry die. Don’t bail anybody out. In sports, that’s what any new GM does. They make sure that the catastrophe is on the old management and then they clean up. They don’t try to save old management’s mistakes.
I remember thinking that, or that Obama should just drop out of the race when W fell asleep at the wheel. Let McCain wallow in their own shit. But no, he had to promise (lie) that he would save the world, then turn around and double down.
Fucking retarded.
"...their shit..." ?!?
####
Ridiculous comment.
The Communists who still call themselves Democrats, OWN this current fiscal and societal disaster MUCH more than left-leaning centrists like Bush and McCain.
Well, it certainly isn't "my shit", and Obama, as a first term senator who railed against W's "shit", was still a relative outsider when he was elected.
Then he doubled down. Now he's just as bad, or worse.
Rock is right. Obama needed to let the old policies fail completely. Then he coulda still been speachifying about "Bush's fault" instead of mumbling about "patience".
And this is a good note for whoever is next. Rage against status quo, but after the election, do something about it, don't double down.
Red wing, blue wing, same turkey. The flight plan doesn't change = slavery for most folks.
Most of the Mises.org articles are dumbed down quite drastically.
Wow, hes actually kinda right on that one though. Does anyone think bailing out any of these shitty ass American car makers was a GOOD idea?
Apparently the guy you're replying to does.
"people tend to specialize in what they are worst at." Especially bloggers.
"That Rock thinks his fellow Americans who make under six-figure salaries are brimming with hatred for the rich tells more about his out-of-touchness with the average guy than his closeness." As a case in point, who do we trust more regarding the views of the "average guy"? Chris Rock, or some dude from the Von Mises whatever?
von means the. So perhaps one of us needs to learn something. It's obviously you. Trust is for children, adults verify.
If it were important to learn something about Mises anything, whatever, I would learn it. Since it is not important, I do not waste time. Also, by the way, "von" does not mean "the". It means "of" or "from". Please feel free to verify that.
LOL!
"V"on mean's "of" or "from", "v"on means "the". Austrian titles 101. If it's not capitalized, you are merelying stating which family you are from. If it's capitalized, you actually hold the title yourself.
Yes, I can tell you only learn what is worth learning. Rather what someone else tell's you is worth learning.
Your first mistake was taking Chris Rock seriously.
Ahh, just admit it and move on, Miller. Chris Rock is smarter than you-
Don't get me wrong, I love black people... but I hates me some niggers.
He has the courage to state outright that which makes your pc blood crawl. You failed to make a single case, despite your verbosity, that Chris is less informed than your entire institute.
So you have point to make here, or just more hate to throw around?
"Rarely does the proletariat secretly wish to overthrow their alleged oppressors."
Right, like history has zero examples of that happening. What a moronic article...
Never heard of him.
I wonder if he knows Q99X2.
What fucking silver spoon wrote this article?
..." Artists have terrible opinions on politics."
i stopped to think if ever i have heard a statement
as devoid of integrity, consideration or intellect and
i wound up here.
Bulworth (movie) quote
"Black people and white people have more in common than rich people and poor people."
Chris Rock is painfully unfunny. Pointing out the foibles of da nigga peoples is just sad and pathetic.
Hows bouts he trows da benjamins outs da window a his limo down in south central an sees how funnin he bees.
Excellent post.
Your comment has contributed nothing to the discussion.
I love when pieces of shit, like yourself, try to speak as if you're black.
Now, that's true comedy.
So you feel offended?
Chris Rock pokes fun at the STEREOTYPE of "da nigga" as Larry the Cable Guy and Jeff Foxworthy pokes fun at the STEREOTYPE of "Rednecks".
If you feel offended then you need examine your own attitudes. Personally I find the the STEREOTYPES are rather humorous as while they do not represent reality they are poking fun at the STEREOTYPES rather than insulting anybody.
They are MOCKING the STEREOTYPES demonstrating that the STEREOTYPES are RIDICULOUS...and worthy of ridicule.
Take your own advice Tom, he was making a joke.
Saving and invetsment? Capital markets? What the fuck are you talking about!?!?!?
What markets? Where am I going to get % on my savings? Where will my capital not be pissed away?
Nowhere!!! Yet another article pretending that there is rule-of-law somewhere in the U.S.S.A. and that it hasn't been turned into a kleptoligarchy with all the worst aspects of Socialism, Facism, Communism, and Crony-Capitalism.
BULLSHIT! Storm the Bastille!!!
I would have green-arrowed you, but "crony-capitalism" is a propagandizing term of the Idiot Left.
It is just Cronyism, plain and simple.
I use "crony capitalism" for the conservatives who pretend that Boeing, Rand, and McDonnel-Douglas have anything to do with capitalism; not to mention all of Wall Street, but point taken. +1
Understood.
Thanks.
I wasn't aware Chris Rock said anything, in this interview, that was not spot on?
Who wrote this?
One of Mitt Romney's kids?
The Mises Institute, while their ideas are valid, don't seem to be willing to admit that there is no capitalism whatsoever.
They rail against the Keynesian insanity, yet seem to believe that simply saying "capitalism" is somehow going to right the ship when there is no such thing extant upon Wall Street or in Washington or the dark hearts of all the rats running about.
Cronyism, paper money, the rape of the middle class, the socialism of the free shit army and the facism of the M.I.C. backed bankster/corporate/insurer kleptoligarchy marches on while the communism of the ACA and the Supine Court rips to shreds any rights the individual may have had left.
This is a debt serfdom plantation that is an amalgamation of every evil aspect of every form of government/religion/thought ever conceived upon the face of the Earth!
While I disagree with some of your proposed causes of our shitty situation....
Sadly, I can't disagree with your conclusion.
What is this? A slightly out of context statement of a black comedian's views, followed by a lot of personal conjecture? Uhhmmm, why do you care what Chris Rock thinks about the economy?
This guy's just pissed that Chris Rock, a black man, no less, knows how the rich live.
What's hilarious is it isn't folks flying first class on Virgin that are the actual problem.
It's the piece of shit Walton heirs who have done nothing but amassed wealth north of $150 billion, but I digress.
With attitudes like yours I cannot blame the Walton heirs.
Personally I would not invest into this entitlement mentality population either. There are no laws on the books that allows for taxation of pools of wealth. They may tax revenues.
But dead money is not subject to Government Confiscation through taxes so the Federal Reserve has cleverly designed it to be stolen away by Monetary Inflation.
If I had $150 Billion I would buy up as much Physical Gold as I possibly could and bury it.
You do not deserve one thin dime of their wealth.
What makes you think that you are entitled to it?
The Walton's wealth, inherited because of accident of birth, nudges us one step closer to old Europe. But, right, give me your bullshit ayn rand logic.
I don't want any of their money.
You're kind of close with your burying gold thing.
Instead, I'd rather see it physically destroyed.
No one should be able to pass on the kind of influence to heirs that $150 billion can. No one.
So I propose when Bill Gates dies, we take 99.5% of his estate and set it ablaze. Pretty sure his kids can live off half a a billion.
What right do you have to their wealth you ignorant, racist, thieving Marxist?
Arrogant and ignorant.
Typical.
Oh right, Bircher.
I don't think you should be able to pass on $150 billion.
Call me a Marxist. Fucking moron, I own my own business.
And, yeah, of all the people on here, I'm the racist? Hahaha
You think Marxism is delusional? Go read any of Rand's insane delusions.
They're both fucking morons.
Yet, here you are proposing one of the central tenets of Marxist ideology.
Whatsoever is done with that wealth and that coincidental power which goes with it, GIVEN AS A GIFT TO ANOTHER, does not belong to you.
Just because someone else gives you a gift does not make the gift any less yours.
You own the gift regardless of whether or not you have earned it or "deserve" it.
An inheritance is a gift, a bequeathment of someone else's lifetime labor, for your own personal benefit.
As you choose to want your Government to violate other people's property rights then it makes you no better than a common thief.
Not only is that you have an Entitlement Mentality but it is actually far worse as you have a Drug Addict Mentality.
On that note...I have worked with many. What is your drug of choice?
What the fuck are you talking about?
Your lack of reading comprehension is frightening.
You obviously didn't get the point of what I said.
So as if I was talking to a small child, let me clarify for you.
The tenor of what I said is simply that continued amassing of wealth in the hands of a few families will make us like old Europe. You know, kind of like Teddy Roosevelt thought (fucking pinko commie fag). I have zero problem with Gates having money. If you see no problem with the next 50 generations of the Gates' family living off of old Bill then your head is so far up Ayn Rand's disgusting ass to even breathe. But, yes, continue with your pathetically inane "taxation is theft" bullshit. You Ayn Rand people don't seem to get that (although noble in theory) a small government will ALWAYS being taken over by the rich elite when there are limited rules. Why? Because they acquire too much power and change your quixotic rules of the game. Every damn time.
Secondly, I do not have an entitlement mentality.
Seriously, can you even read?
I DONT WANT ANY OF THEIR FUCKING MONEY. See my posts above.
Chris Rock is a low-rent nigger.
He's always one step away from a chimp out.
The Mises Institute know less than Rock does about economics and Rock doesn't know shit.
Speaking of ignorance and general stupidity, this for the win...
http://dailycurrant.com/2014/11/26/ferguson-protester-accidentally-burns...
His statements to the press are equally priceless.
The above story is completely false, but you have to admit it is superb satire.
No wonder this piece of shit is for gun control. He's afraid of how it could impact him if regular people have access to guns. Of course he's okay if his security team has plenty of guns just like the midget Phoenician dual-citizen in NYC. Just as long as the downtrodden masses are helpless and can never seek retribution. But he's still okay if you laugh with him. Just not at him
He has his, I'm just one of the boys from the hood, Oprahesque jive talk down pat. But when it comes right down to it his color doesn't matter. Just like any good straw boss puppet for the el-eat he's sold his soul to satan. And in return he's a wealthy elitist globalist mouthpiece that thinks he knows what best for everyone and wants to tell you how to run your life and control you to keep you down. Which is one reason why ugly old 6 snaggle toes and him get along so well
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SqDocHFJ8k
Ugh...I followed the link. Made me ill. Just added to my list of those I can't stomach watching anymore. Pathetic.
+10!
Coincidentally, the finance and banking industry is full of bad jokes. Very bad ones.