Pretty much what the title says.
h/t Jon
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The true lemonparty dot org cast.
I've never heard of the lemon party before. Just let me Google them an-OH MY GOD....
A rhetoric question: If I work my butt off to earn some wealth then why should it trickle down to someone else who fails to earn it?
"Don't trickle down my neck and tell me it's raining!"
> "If I work my butt off to earn some wealth then why should it trickle down to someone else who fails to earn it? "
You might find Peter Schiffi's book "How and economy grows and why it crashes" interesting.
The answer is because of price deflation. For example if it costs $100,000 to build a new house, but you work your butt off making a factory to build "pre-fab" houses that cost only $50,000, that means that those who did not work their asses off only have to spend half as much as they would before. It's call "progress lifts everyone".
The reason why this doesn't work in today's world is because the bankers think price deflation is a bad thing, so they promise a 2% inflation in order to maintain "stable prices" (they are in effect sucking up all of the increased productivity through the use of monetary debasement).
I think the suicide bomber was actually sufficient for Friday Humor..
You find Humor in such a serious potential terrorist act?!?! What if the FBI wasn't there to encourage and provide him with fake munitions? It could have been much worse had the FBI heros not been involved to bring this nut job down where he belongs in prison for the rest of his natural life.
Natural life? When are they going to start creating after life prison for the really bad eggs? Or is that what we're using hell for these days? Serious question!
@ PrintingPress....
Get off your knees Boy....
And wipe off your sticky chin,it looks dirty and whoreish
I just have to figure out why last night I saw a DVD player at WalMart selling for $19.95. That's just a bit more than half an ounce of silver, or a small fleck of gold. In fact, there might even be more gold in the DVD player than the DVD player costs. I might have to buy them all up and melt them down just to get the raw materials out! Gresham's Law? :)
Brady.. the reason to double tap.
My only regret is that I have but only one up arrow to give flacon.
Outstanding.
why bother with DVD players? toxic fumes from chinese plastic will probably give you lung cancer.
Try 1946 - 2012 Jefferson Nickels
Metal Composition:75% copper, 25% nickel.......$0.0556509 is the melt value for the 1946-2012 nickel on February 17, 2012.
http://www.coinflation.com/coins/1946-2007-Jefferson-Nickel-Value.html
WTF were you doing at a Walmart?
gold plating is down to 20 atoms thick. and only at the conectors to the chip. your looking at less then one cent.
Long way to go to catch a visa overstay?
Yeah and had they not been there to provide him with anything, he may have been a non-nut job productive citizen. Silly FBI'zzles.
In retrospect, aren't the FBI'zzles the cell leaders here? Who are the extremists? Riddle me that you printingpress nut job.
All da jerkz what gave ya red arrows have reading comprehension issues! :>D
Am I the only one who finds it sad that 40 people failed miserably to comprehend the sarcasm in what they read from someone named PrintingPress?
Well,two of us got it anyway......
I gave it a red because it's fucking tired sarcasm in a country gone full retard.
Ronald Reagan's record of "conservitive" spending.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Historicals
Table 1-3
Reagan fooled millions of Republicans to this day who think he believed in his speeches. Reagan is an example of a stooge up there giving a speech and the uneducated, ignorant masses gobbling it up while the elites fuck them in the ass.
To this day he is worshiped as a fiscal conservative, nothing could be further from the truth. Jimmy Carter was more of a fiscal conservative than Reagan was.
No Reagan tax cuts, no technological revolution.
Spin till your head falls off and delude/pretend to yourself otherwise.
getting fukked in the ass hard existing in the top .00000001% of all time humanity
Trickle down is and always will be a complete failure, the obese, car and home owning US underclass labelled as "poverty stricken" is more an indication that stupid rules than any statement about trickling.
The US system sucks ass and had nothing to do with improving the lives of every man, woman and child on the planet!
the big centralized government agenda preys on weakness and feelings of inferiority in the population by:
that would be you and the other obviously needs medication, I have a link that says I am the victim of a fascist oppressive wretched existence-oh but I live like royalty does elsewhere 1%ers around here.
I feel the trickle down effect every day that I put gas in my car.
How much does a banker make off of gas when they buy super tankers of Oil and hold it offshore.
It makes the heart warm to know that Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, and now the Koch Brothers are the middle men that are making 20 to 40 censt off of every gallon I buy.
I don't believe this is doing God's work.
Don't forget Barack Hussein Obama's role, bombing every country he can to not only use up VAST amounts of oil, but to also simultaneously raise the price of oil for his Wall Street masters.
For the record federal tax receipts increased 69% under Reagan, spending increased 76%. His tax hikes were focused onto he middle class, Social Security from 13% to 15%, small business Social Security from 9% to 15%, SS receipts up 98% under Reagan, and numerous smaller taxes that impacted the middle class.
I am all for cutting the top tax rate to 28% but could the mother fucker do the same for the little guy?
Could he cut the federal government budget instead of talking shit to the ignorant masses?
Could he cut regulations instead of piling on more and talking shit to the uneducated masses?
He was a fucking clown for the inner circle jerk going on at the Federal Reserve, Wall Street, and Washington.
Not much different than Obama today, only difference was Reagan had the baby boomers working their ass off making a living, Obama has a bunch of imported 5th grade educated Mexicans he has to rely on.
The theory: Supply-Side tax cuts will make "The Job Makers" richer, therefore they'll re-invest more and expand their supply-side capacity and create more jobs. This sets up a virtuous cycle as more jobs and income raises demand and feeds back to the supply-side as consumer spending increases, encouraging more production and expansion.
The reality: Supply-side tax cuts resulted in more money bening plowed into passive investment and personal wealth items: capital gains are cheaper than business income. Making money in the "paper economy" became more profitable than the "real economy". When capital accumultes beyond a certain critical mass it Never gets depployed back into the real economy. It goes into jewelry, art, yachts made in Germany, foreign sports cars, property in the South of France, Tuscan inns, fine wines, dresses made in paris, shoes made in Florence, Asian electronics, and even drugs from all parts of the world. Parking money in every foreign bank, making sure your broker/dealer rips off smaller clients to your benefit (because he gets millons off you). Building giant mansions.
Here were the fatal policy flaws that simply added fuel to the fire and ensured that supply-side tax cuts never were re-invested in the economy: offshoring facilitated by the "deal" with China, capital gains and dividend tax cuts, favorable treatment for financial sector firms (Hedgie Tax Cut), favorable treatment for LBO firms and vulture capitalism, repeal of Glass-Steagle and tax increases for the little guy in 1986: repeal of the consumer loan interest and student loan interest deductions, a flatter more regressive bracket system and other hidden tax increases.
Glass-Steagall was a 1933 payback to J.P. Morgan from the Democrats/Rockefeller in retaliation for the 1890 Sherman antitrust act.
Nothing but a political payback. Less than 5% of the bank in the housing crisis were affected by the 1999 repeal.
My only regret is that I have but only one up arrow to give Caveat Emptor.
Outstanding.
How much of a market did those "5% of banks" control, sparky?
Must have missed the supply side:
Double workforce buy adding women.
Watered down education to nothingness providing your citizenry little unique or valuable skills.
and that is just appetizers.
as if outsourcing was invented the last 10yrs and somehow the debt problem is a taxation issue.
Now see here my good man, I dont see any reason for that kind of talk on a friday night. It's not as bad as all that. Lets keep it upbeat and bullish, walking arm in arm into a bright future!
plus, he looked way better in sweaters.
If I work my butt off and earn wealth, the socialists want to force me to trickle it down through their redistributive schemes to those who fail to earn it.
I want to believe that is what he meant.
If you save or invest the money other people ARE using your money for THEIR benifit.
Get it?
He wants to believe he "worked his butt off" irrespective of reality.
We're not talking about people who work at all...unless collecting coupons and dividends has been redefined as "work".
The reason why this doesn't work in today's world is because the bankers think price deflation is a bad thing ...
Not any more after mark-to-market died.
Now they don't care what real world prices are. They have asset value models they use to up-value assets that are declining in the real world,
Like homes for example. Mortgages are still being carried on banks' books at 2007 highs yet real world market value has dropped 40% on average.
Plus they have the Fed pouring money into paper asset markets keeping them inflated, like MBS for example.
The whole game is rigged for bankers now. The real world economy and real world prices don't matter anymore.
That is a very good point. Thanks!
And I thank God every day that in the end mathematics, especially the exponential function, is infallable, immutable, and uncorruptable.
Someone said it well that all corruption carries the seed of it's own demise - it is only a matter of time... perhaps March 20th will be a watershed moment; let's hope so.
The problem is that even if there is a reset, the governing elite will find a way to cheat by using the congress of organized crime.
But... We hold the keys if we can educate everyone to live within their means. 1/4 for housing, 1/4 for food, 1/4 for taxes and fees and 1/4 to buy silver and gold on a monthly basis. Can we all do it? I am afraid that most Americans are into instant gratification.
Maybe after the reset, it can happen.
When gold and silver were real money (no debt money) nobody had to convince anyone to live within their means because when the gold/silver was gone, all the spending was gone too and starvation motivated people to go out and find their own means of sustinance instead of BORROWING what they had not earned with a "promise to repay, plus interest". Promises can be broken.
But then along came DEBT.... and DEBT allowed people to spend more than their means. But debt always has to be paid back (and also WITH INTEREST).
Abolish debt money!
Nothing wrong with debt, if you use it judiciously.
I think it was Schiff who used the example of drinking alcohol, its fun to get buzzed once in awhile, but if you drink everyday you’re a disgusting, irresponsible drunk.
It might have been another economist, not sure.
Debt is only advantageous when one uses it in such a way that the returns on borrowed money exceed the value of the money borrowed. It is never OK to charge interest on debt... a dividend is acceptable, but "money can not beget money" (usuary) - a dividend depends on the investment being profitable, interest on the other hand is the "pound of flesh" regardless if the venture is profitable or not.
Borrowing money to spend on CONSUMPTION is wealth destruction, not wealth creation. ("I'm going to Disney Land, I put it all on my Credit Card!").
Here, here!! Excellent post sir. Milestones
I think you are confused. If the money is invested and paid back as dividend, and the invested money is at risk with no guarantee of return, it is equity, NOT debt.
If you are proposing we switch to an "Equity only" model, that may be feasible. If you are suggesting we switch to a system where someone gets to decide if the money is being loaned for a productive or consumptive reason, I doubt people will go for such a subjective system.
> If the money is invested and paid back as dividend, and the invested money is at risk with no guarantee of return, it is equity, NOT debt.
I agree, unless that money is conjured into existance by fractional reserve banking.
> If you are suggesting we switch to a system where someone gets to decide if the money is being loaned for a productive or consumptive reason, I doubt people will go for such a subjective system.
The only person to decide what they do with their money should be the individual themselves. There is nothing wrong with wealth destruction. It's perfectly fine and a ligitimate use of one's wealth. But if that behaviour continues unabated then it might lead to a hungry stomach and nowhere to lay one's head at night. There is nothing wrong with that. In fact that is neither good nor bad, it just is... There is nothing wrong with being wealthy and there is nothing wrong with being poor. Nothing wrong with giving birth and nothing wrong with dieing. We all do it eventually.
People should be FREE to CHOOSE the life they want to live, wheather rich or poor, saving or spending, producing or consuming, alive or dead.
I agree with 100% fractional reserve banking. Typically in a free market banks loan out 79% and hold 21% as reserve.
In the past the number ranged from 50% to 17% held in reserve, before the Federal Reserve.
I am pointing this out so people know just how fucking crazy a 10% reserve requirement is today. Even in the wild, wild, west days bankers were much more conservative than today.
Try 2%.
rehypothecated.
yeah...i went into hock years ago taking my few thousand in savings to buy rentals. Most rentals have paid themselves off. One sold in 2002 paid off two others. Last 10 years pure spendable income. Income producing debt. Nothing like using OPM to make a few extra a month for life. Def need to throw more back into repairs/maintenence but nothing like never having to go to the ATM for beer money....
The 1/4 for taxes just might be a problem. Unless you are a tax recepient instead of a tax payer, 1/4 doesn't come close to covering fed, state, local, this license, that fee, property taxes (for the chillrun to lurn), sales tax, etc., etc., etc., oh, and don't even get started on medical.
I googled "march 20th" and this was 3rd on the list
Steak and Blow-job" Day
www.minbu.connectfree.co.uk/holiday.htmCached - Similar You +1'd this publicly. UndoMarch 20th is now officially "Steak & Blow-job Day." Every 14th of February you get the chance to display your fondness for your wife or girlfriend by showering
http://www.minbu.connectfree.co.uk/holiday.htm
Trickle Me!
Flacon well said
We have a winner, student of the month....flacon.
Good job dude!
Thanks. The trick is to see the invisible. Keynes saw it too:
"John Maynard Keynes quotes:
By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose."
Guess I'm just one in a million. Thanks to the internet it's more like one in a thousand nowadays.
PS: I have never taken a single "university/establishtment" course in economics, which is partly why my mind is still able to comprehend common sense.
I got a new text book (for a class I am teaching) and had to read a chapter on fiscal aggregate demand. It was 100% fictional bull shit, and it is taught to students as if it was gospel. Very sad.
Schiff is a good teacher. He knows his Austrian economics.
I do what I can to counter the crap in the books, Money, Sound and Unsound Money by Salerno is available for free.
I love Rothbard. Gary North is probably my favorite living blogger, Dan Mitchell.
There is so much available today that is not propaganda that was unimaginable 20 years ago. I remember reading the Bell Curve and being shock it was available on book shelves.
Keep learning.
Here's one that should be turned into a nursery rhyme to be sung to newborns - although it's all just common sense:
Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics
Henry Hazlitt
http://www.amazon.com/Economics-One-Lesson-Shortest-Understand/dp/0517548232/
And then we told them that we must bail out the rich to help the poor. (hilarious laughter ensues)
Did they really fall for that one? (the room goes awkwardly silent)
Sure they did. (laughter, cheers)
And then we told them that gold is a barbarous relic! And that gold is overvalued and will go down! (laughter, cheers, golf clap)
Sir, please stop this madness, you are killing me! (chuckles, cheers, back slaps)
I toss my hat into the ring with those claiming that Keynes' views have been so bastardized via hijacking by modern economists (despite that Keynes was obviously not infallible; it's just that he was very bright, and may have gone off the rails a bit whenever he tried to impose economic theory upon what he deemed as social and economic injustice in the real world), that conventional Keynesianism bears little relationship or nexus to JM Keynes.
What if there were no rhetorical questions?
What if 87.3% of all statistics were not made on the spot?
I question the precision of your made-up statistics.
It's the seasonal adjustment that's the problem
close enough for government work...
When that expression was invented, it was a compliment.
Sarcastic asshole?
Sorry, no, you're just a regular asshole.
and so rhetoric sublimates..
Ouch. Alas, this is fight club, but they may have mentioned the site you're thinking of in the first comment.
Seasonally adjusted? Sarcastic asshole? The stats are bs.
Get it asshole?
I might have gotten it if that was the comment to which you replied. I thought you were taking a swing at me, but since you weren't, I will apologize, give you a greenie on the bs stats, and move on.
I question the precision of your made-up statistics.
------------------
Then you are a terrorist.
So the wealthiest 1% have worked 200% harder than everyone else in the country? Becuase that is what their salaries have increased by comparitively. You might be naive in what "trickle down economics" was meant to do: give tax breaks to the very rich, and they would in turn invest in their businesses, give employees salary increases, etc. Instead they just invest it in hedge funds and only pay 15% income tax like Mitt Romney.
What do you call folks who live in the top 1% of the world's population and are envious of those in the 1% above them?
Stupid american self loathing imbeciles comes to mind.
Food.
Ha!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHZaY-8chJo&feature=related
Idiot bastard children.
If we had 100% fractional reserve banking and gold/silver reserves none of this shit would happen.
If there are no buyers there is no market.
Eliminate the stupid people who bought and you eliminate the market.
Oh can't eliminate the supposed professional money manager buying worthless financial instruments?
Can't elimiinate the problem.
If we had 100% reserve fractional currency, the capital would have been locked up in a closet somewhere and most of the advancement of civilization would not have happened. Fun to pretend otherwise though.
Middle: excluded.
Yes but you cant buy votes with that system.
So the wealthiest 1% have worked 200% harder than everyone else in the country? Becuase that is what their salaries have increased by comparitively
I Think a better question to ask is, how much has productivity increased at the management level ( C Suite) versus how much has productivity increased at the common employee level?
I suggest that innovations in computer databases and availability of information, internet connectivity, etc. has likely had a far more profound impact on management than front line employees.
If the government gave you some free wealth in order for it to trickle down, where do you think they got it from in the first place? Those same poor bastards they are saying you should let it trickle down to.
That was true with Reagan. He decreased taxes on the rich... and in that 1986 tax deal, and expanding the tax base by including more people who were not taxed, or taxed as much - the untermensch making 1/1000th of what the top .1% makes now.
You are correct, Quinvarius.
Yeah, the big payroll tax increase to protect social security which got dumped into a "lock box." Only the bottom of the box was a conveyer belt to the MIC. And now the money that Joe Bagodonuts pumped in there is soon to become an exorbortant entitlement (said with a sneer.)
Another caption to today's feature picture might be, "Let's call it a lockbox."
Excluding the current collapse, say in 2007, was the average person better off or worse than in 1987? Did houses get smaller and fewer people have cars and vacations and smaller houses and less educated? Did their quality of food and water get worse?
Did their overall level of debt increase? Did the amount of interest paid on their savings go waaaaay down?
If people chose to borrow more, than they got further into debt. That's how it works. Nobody forced them to borrow.
The decline in interest rates has more to do with the run-away inflation getting under control; the high interest rates were there temporarily. Nothing to do with tax cuts.
You are upset that people couldn't get as much money from compounding interest on debt; how do you feel about banks collecting compounding interest on debt? You cannot reasonably take both positions, that compounding interest on debt and high interest rates are great for savers, while demonizing banks for doing the same thing.
If the government gave you some free wealth in order for it to trickle down, where do you think they got it from in the first place?
Not quite. in this case, it is a matter of the government stealing less and having less to redistribute. I have simply been left with a larger chunk of the fruits of my own labour.
And you will tell me with a straight face that Dubya worked harder than a UAW machinist in Michigan?