The Pitchforks Are Coming...For Us Plutocrats
07-07-2014, 11:15 AM
#71
Libertarian Resistance
Joined APC: Feb 2007
Position: 757 FO
Posts: 1,057
Rereading the article that came with the original post, I noticed that the author was an original investor at Amazon.
Amazon has a market cap of just north of $150B and about 110K employees. Walmart has a market cap of just shy of $250B and about 1.4M employees. Walmart, then, has about 5 times as many employees per unit of market cap than does Amazon. Of course the Amazon guy wants to raise the minimum wage--he wants to put the burden on his competitor.
Which company is skewing the GINI index more--the giant retailer with legions of low wage employees or the giant retailer with many fewer high wage employees?
WW
Amazon has a market cap of just north of $150B and about 110K employees. Walmart has a market cap of just shy of $250B and about 1.4M employees. Walmart, then, has about 5 times as many employees per unit of market cap than does Amazon. Of course the Amazon guy wants to raise the minimum wage--he wants to put the burden on his competitor.
Which company is skewing the GINI index more--the giant retailer with legions of low wage employees or the giant retailer with many fewer high wage employees?
WW
07-07-2014, 11:20 AM
#72
Libertarian Resistance
Joined APC: Feb 2007
Position: 757 FO
Posts: 1,057
Originally Posted by Snarge
Everybody loves govt... when it reflects their values... even Libertarians... they are like CRAPers (Conservative Air Line Pilots) who from a position of luxury rail against the very economic conditions that made them....
Said differently... if you are dirt poor you can't afford to be anything other than poor... and that goes for Libertarians too....
Said differently... if you are dirt poor you can't afford to be anything other than poor... and that goes for Libertarians too....
'The state may coerce individuals only in the minimal way necessary to implement a correct (or at least well-justified) plan for protecting society from the sorts of disasters that would allegedly result from anarchy. The state may not coerce people into cooperating with harmful or useless measures or measures we lack good reason to consider effective. Nor may the state extend the exercise of coercion to pursue just any goal that seems desirable. The state may take the 'indispensable goods' that justify its existence. It may not take a little extra to buy itself something nice."
If you want to call that love, be my guest.
I disagree about the poor. Anyone who is dirt poor may be either hopeful or hopeless. I'd say that a free economy is where you might find hope and a planned economy is where the poor would be hopeless.
WW
07-07-2014, 11:28 AM
#73
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Feb 2009
Posts: 1,007
Originally Posted by Winged Wheeler
My values wrt gov't are summed up nicely by Michael Huemner:
'The state may coerce individuals only in the minimal way necessary to implement a correct (or at least well-justified) plan for protecting society from the sorts of disasters that would allegedly result from anarchy. The state may not coerce people into cooperating with harmful or useless measures or measures we lack good reason to consider effective. Nor may the state extend the exercise of coercion to pursue just any goal that seems desirable. The state may take the 'indispensable goods' that justify its existence. It may not take a little extra to buy itself something nice."
If you want to call that love, be my guest.
I disagree about the poor. Anyone who is dirt poor may be either hopeful or hopeless. I'd say that a free economy is where you might find hope and a planned economy is where the poor would be hopeless.
WW
'The state may coerce individuals only in the minimal way necessary to implement a correct (or at least well-justified) plan for protecting society from the sorts of disasters that would allegedly result from anarchy. The state may not coerce people into cooperating with harmful or useless measures or measures we lack good reason to consider effective. Nor may the state extend the exercise of coercion to pursue just any goal that seems desirable. The state may take the 'indispensable goods' that justify its existence. It may not take a little extra to buy itself something nice."
If you want to call that love, be my guest.
I disagree about the poor. Anyone who is dirt poor may be either hopeful or hopeless. I'd say that a free economy is where you might find hope and a planned economy is where the poor would be hopeless.
WW
07-07-2014, 11:56 AM
#74
Libertarian Resistance
Joined APC: Feb 2007
Position: 757 FO
Posts: 1,057
Originally Posted by Snarge
and which do you think we live? free or planned economy?
The United States, with an economic freedom score of 75.5, is the 12th freest economy in the 2014 Index. Its score is half a point lower than last year, primarily due to deteriorations in property rights, fiscal freedom, and business freedom. The U.S. is ranked 2nd out of three countries in the North America region, and although its score remains well above the world and regional averages, it is no longer one of the top 10 freest economies.
Over the 20-year history of the Index, the U.S.’s economic freedom has fluctuated significantly. During the first 10 years, its score rose gradually, and it joined the ranks of the economically “free” in 2006. Since then, it has suffered a dramatic decline of almost 6 points, with particularly large losses in property rights, freedom from corruption, and control of government spending. The U.S. is the only country to have recorded a loss of economic freedom each of the past seven years. The overall U.S. score decline from 1995 to 2014 is 1.2 points, the fourth worst drop among advanced economies.
Substantial expansion in the size and scope of government, including through new and costly regulations in areas like finance and health care, has contributed significantly to the erosion of U.S. economic freedom. The growth of government has been accompanied by increasing cronyism that has undermined the rule of law and perceptions of fairness....
United States Economy: Population, GDP, Unemployment, Inflation, Spending
07-07-2014, 01:05 PM
#78
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Nov 2006
Position: 767 FO
Posts: 8,047
Originally Posted by Snarge
So walmart controlling 25% of groceries in the US isn't 'planned'?
07-07-2014, 02:36 PM
#79
Gets Weekends Off
Thread Starter
Joined APC: Aug 2005
Position: Retired
Posts: 980
.svg)
You should one that the USA ranks with China, Iran, Mexico, Uganda in income inequality but our inequality is higher than India, Kenya, Tanzania, Russia, Pakistan, Ethiopia plus many others..
It must be the Republican plan to counter the immigration problem. They must think that if conditions are better at home they will stay there.
Gini coefficient - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
07-07-2014, 02:36 PM
#80
With The Resistance
Joined APC: Jan 2006
Position: Burning the Agitprop of the Apparat
Posts: 6,191
The Simple Truth
Private individuals and companies create wealth, the state cannot.
Anything the state does requires first confiscating the wealth from the private sector.
Let that sink in for a while.
Just to remind FoxHunter and a few others, if you want to talk Economics fine, if you want to express your love for a political philosophy this isn't the place.
Anything the state does requires first confiscating the wealth from the private sector.
Let that sink in for a while.
Just to remind FoxHunter and a few others, if you want to talk Economics fine, if you want to express your love for a political philosophy this isn't the place.
Last edited by jungle; 07-07-2014 at 03:01 PM.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
