Satire or real redistributionist nut?

[darius]

the friuts of increased productivity have not gone to the society as a whole, but to the same greedy characters who have always been there to slurp up all they can since they never seem to have enough. real wages haven't gone up. costs haven't gone down. quality of most stuff doesn't appear to have improved and the achievement of a resonably comfortable life appears to be less available to more people. a fantasy life via the various media(w/continual improvements in delivery and realism in content) looks to me like the biggest result of all our 'progress' since the start of the industrial age which once promised to liberate us all. so, where did it go?

I watch the Modern Marvels episodes once in a while on the History Channel, and it is amazing to see food processing operations where the cans and such are flying along at speed thru a system of conveyors. Perhaps the profits do inure to the wealthy owners but without such marvels we peons could not afford to purchase hand packed food items.

I am a small investor and I own a few manufacturing stocks, in fact most of my stuff is manufacturing.
Judging from the sluggish prices of the food stocks I would say they are not making a killing.  

[darius]

I feel pretty liberated.   

I think that government regulation and the incessant demands of labor has really messed up our business community when it comes to hiring more people.  More than once I have contemplated opening a small retai shop but did not do so because with a low volume of sales I would be working
for the government and for the employees. What is in it for me but headaches?
 

[Tallpine]

Even at $3 per gallon, I can - and so can all of my siblings - purchase more gasoline per hour of labor than my father or grandfather could.

And yes, my home cost 20 times what my parents' home did. I still own it, free and clear today. They paid there's off in 20 years.

jb

Going back to ~1972, gas was about $0.35/gallon and min wage was $1.60/hr IIRC.

At that ratio, min wage should now be over $12/hr (not that I think mandated min wage is a good idea).

[darius]

Going back to ~1972, gas was about $0.35/gallon and min wage was $1.60/hr IIRC.

At that ratio, min wage should now be over $12/hr (not that I think mandated min wage is a good idea).

I think the key thing in getting a bargain in the energy market is more competition from more sources, something we have too little of.

As to fuel efficiency in cars, we cannot expect to have 30mpg from ethanol as long as the engines
are designed to accommodate multi fuels and gasoline.  It has been said that an engine can be designed to get 30mpg from ethanol, and the trick seems to be a higher compression ratio.
There is a better way to gain leverage on energy prices and that is to learn how to do the same thing or get the same results while using less energy input.  However, such ideas do not sell because they cannot be copyrighted or patented.  They are simply common sense ideas that do not sell because no one gets rich off of using them, or so people think

[Scout26]

I found his sister.   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5oVzbwYWpg

[Monkeyleg]

Seen that before, but it's still hilarious.

The food is free because it comes from the land, but why should we have to pay for the land?

Also, where are those vegetable trees? And I didn't realize that the eastern states still had slavery.

[Boomhauer]

I think that government regulation and the incessant demands of labor has really messed up our business community when it comes to hiring more people.  More than once I have contemplated opening a small retai shop but did not do so because with a low volume of sales I would be working
for the government and for the employees. What is in it for me but headaches?

My father runs a small business. He got rid of his employees, dropped his worker's comp coverage, and refuses to hire any more help. That's a result of having to deal with BS and running the risk of hiring people.

[darius]

My father runs a small business. He got rid of his employees, dropped his worker's comp coverage, and refuses to hire any more help. That's a result of having to deal with BS and running the risk of hiring people.

Why can't the people in WDC see that?  If new stimulus jobs are to be government jobs then who will pay the taxes to support those jobs?  I guess we borrow from the Chinese?

[Boomhauer]

Why can't the people in WDC see that?

They see it all right.

The people in DC hate private businesses. They want private business destroyed or taken over by the government. If they can't have that, then they want private business to be taken over by their loyal sidekicks, the unions.

It's much easier to understand the actions of the leftist politicians when you realize that deep down, they are communists, although they claim not to be. Getting rid of capitalism is their #1 goal.

How they expect people to pay the ever increasing taxes, I don't know.

[Tallpine]

How they expect people to pay the ever increasing taxes, I don't know.

Even 90% of nuthin is still nuthin