Is the World Broke? Entitlements, Spending May Spell Doom

reply to post by Jean Paul Zodeaux


I actually dont fear the collapse of our systems. In a twisted way, I look forward to it.

And I do not think "greed" is equivalent to simply wanting to enjoy the abundance around one.

There is a difference between sitting under a plum tree, and eating all the plums one can manage. Happily eating until you can literally eat no more that day, and then going home to bed, and eating all the plums you can, picking basketfulls more and storing them in your house, and then barricading around the tree so that no one can get any you have missed this year, or next year when it bears again.

Greed is fear driven. Enjoying abundance is not.

But I do understand your point. We are arguing over semantics not principle.

reply to post by hawkiye


Good points m8, I agree with your post completely.

This system just represents the Emperor has no Clothes. Once those involved in this debacle realize how grave the situation is, chaos might not be so easily controlled by IMF just trying to reboot. Individuals, families have a lot to lose if they were to just reset the system and have people try to re earn those belongings/property now.

I don't disagree with Ray Hennessey on this issue. Those decrying this list need only look at California. The highest entitlement spending, largest overall spending, most morally bankrupt, highest regulated, highest taxed state in the US is also the one most precariously perched over the abyss right now.

Corporate greed runs rampant not because of under-regulation by governments, but because rampant over regulation by governments and the rise of unions allowed corporations to start arbitrarily raising prices and, thus, profits. It used to be far simpler for people to smell bullcrap in product pricing. A company which produced widgets, for instance... the average person knew roughly the price of the materials used and the amount of compensation required to employ a worker to do the work. If materials and labor plus a modest profit was expected to run about $2 a widget and the company started charging $5 a widget, people cried "shenanigans" and the company was forced to bring their price down or go out of business due to lack of sales. However, every variable and every additional expense brought upon companies can be easily used to mask additional profit taking. Once you apply 10 different enviromental taxes, competition clauses, MBO bidding bonuses, Union agreements, usage taxes, fuel taxes, insurances, federal inspection fees, etc to the equation... the average American doesn't have any clue what the hell a fair widget price should be and the company is basically able to charge whatever they want, using all the regulations and contract expenses as a cover for the additional profit taking.

I do not blame the corporations... they are in business to make money, not to generate warm fuzzies. I blame the government who has dry humped the American entreprenuer out of business with all their assinine regulations, crippling any chance of competition which also used to help keep prices down, and I blame the union bosses (and the politicians they own) for single handedly destroying America's production sector by believing that a semi-skilled worker who pulls the handle on a metal press all day or assigns and grades homework for 12 year olds actually deserves or is qualified to make 8-10 times minimum wage. Had these unions been restrained, we'd still be a great producing nation with a politically strong and financially sound working class. Yeah, you wouldn't have autoworkers pulling in 6 figures, but then again you wouldn't have mass layoffs and whole industry sectors fleeing to Mexico and India, either.