I am embarrassed. I jumped to the wrong conclusion. It just felt, Obe, like you were settling. But you proved me wrong.
Thanks, brother.
I consider everything I do on here like a postcard describing my journey.
I have absolutely no interest in telling others the truth.
All I care about is describing to others my journey…
beyond that:
it’s a matter of what they can use
or not use.
obe?
I love what I’m doing.
And I love doing it with you…
Love…
D63, I appreciate that you care about what you do and believe. Please disregard my last post, the comments I made about liberals were not directed at anyone particularly, but perhaps they were unnecessary.
Your friend, Stuart
I must be a weird guy, because I do not hold grudges or whatever, as a matter of fact, I don't hold anything against anyone. I take things to the limit literally and perhaps figuratively also, I am much more into depth exploration, where petty nuances, frustrations are sometimes a block.
When I said I am excited and thrilled to be involved in such a serious project as the ones you proposed, I meant it, and will not let insignificant meaning less psychic objects derail my commitment.
Prior to joining ilp, I was in public service for 27 years, and really had ample chance of discovering how difficult it is to reach deeper levels of communication with people of all kinds, and pre set, naturally occurring boundaries, which are a necessary port of the consciousness of people, have to be respected, as far as they go, and to the level people insist on them.
So don’t worry, this should be the least of our problems.
I am going to las Vegas today, so I may not have a chance to communicate for a while. Be well.
Sure a non-profit can provide the same service at a cheaper price. Moving on.
If you don’t have a problem with companies making a profit then what is your beef with capitalism?
So far, it seems to be that a capitalist system doesn’t guarantee a minimum comfort level in terms of food, shelter and health care. Who said that it would provide such a guarantee?
What else? You don’t want to be dependent on the whims of companies and entrepreneurs? So you want to be dependent on the whims of governments?
You make a couple of good points there.
I am full of shit but I’m trying to get rid of the useless shit, unlike philosophers who like to accumulate shit and call the bloated state: wisdom.
I am a moron. I don’t understand most of the convoluted, impractical analysis that philosophers masticate. I don’t know why I would want to study Deleuze’s ideas on capitalism when I can go out and experience it myself. If I’m interested in reading about it, I won’t read an academic who has been in school his whole life.
As for sympathy … that’s up to you.
BTW, I believe in capitalism tempered by morality and ethics.
I just spit out my coffee…
this got my attention…no way…it sounds like an oxymoron…
I personally am for health care not for profit…the present system sucks…
I suggest a drool cup. Should work for coffee.[attachment=0]McCarthy-drool-cup.jpg[/attachment]
A doctor gets paid a lot more than someone digging ditches. That’s true even in a socialist paradise.
A company that makes medical equipment or supplies makes a profit. If it doesn’t make a profit then it can’t innovate or expand. It stagnates.
Phyllo, maybe it makes enough money to do r&d, and maybe it promises only to expand to the point where maximum efficiency is achieved, but with that nasty old profit motive in place, chances are that it’ll make way more money that in needs for r&d, then it’ll expand to the point that the only thing it’s efficient at is making more money, and somehow, someway, poor people will remain sick, when they could have been healthy, and then moral arguments about entitlement and what have you will start stinking up the air all around us. The only thing that ends up happening, is instead of “moochers” who are poor getting healthcare, “moochers” who are rich get more free money.
Smears, are you agreeing that the company has to make enough money to fund R&D?
And if it makes a quality product, then it should expand and drive out makers of ‘inferior’ products. So it needs money for growth.
Are you proposing a cap on profits?
Then you need a bureaucracy which decides which companies are too big, too profitable. That bureaucracy is deciding which R&D is good and how much product should be supplied by a company.
I don’t have a problem with socialized health care. That can exist within a capitalist economic system. It amounts to a government run insurance system funded by taxes.
Some companies may need to make money for r&d, I don’t count that as profit.
I don’t think that you need to make more money off each unit of something you’re selling if your product is superior then the market will allow it more of a share without the company actively trying to force the market by inflating prices and then spending money to stifle competition.
I think that there should be some means by which we determine that a company has crossed the line between good profitable business and behaving like a predator, using leverage to increase bottom lines when it does nothing good for anyone other than the moochers who wanna convince us all they’re taking a risk and investing when in reality the companies are attempting to rig the game.
I’m not postulating that we’d need a bureaucracy that’s any bigger than the one currently in place. Like insurance companies. I mean…what’s the difference between insurance that’s run by a bureaucracy that’s run by profit minded individuals and withholds healthcare from people, and one that’s run by people who want to get people healthcare first and worry about profit after that? I don’t think we need a new bureaucracy, I think we already have one. I’m just saying that right wing fantasies aside, private business is hardly efficient and it does way less than it claims to do when it comes to things like helping anyone at all that’s not a shareholder or an insider.
It’s like…what happens when the invisible hand isn’t invisible anymore, and you can see people doing things, with totally visible hands, and you know that those things are causing only two things. 1) unprecedented concentrations of wealth, and 2) unprecedented poverty among the masses.
I mean…I’m all about reciting the mantra of whatever I’ve bought into…but look around man. Capitalists are fucking things up.
They’re hustling, son. It’s the game. Get money get money get money.
You can’t brag about being a middle man ripping off the guy on each side, and then be like, “yo, biggg baddd businessssss”. You remind me of Tyrannus… he wants to topple government because it’s cruel. And the government he wants is a cruel one.
Yom sayin?
Why not?
How can you micromanage some company and say that they shouldn’t spend profits on compensating a CEO or buying too many paperclips when they should have spent on R&D?
For a private company, you don’t have any information except the price of the product and your opinion of the value of the product.
Unfortunately, the public does not beat a path to your door. Marketing is essential. If people still buy the product at inflated prices then they must think that it is worth it. You disagree, then the public has to be educated about the value of things.
Stifling competition might be illegal or not… depends on what kind of stifling. Might be unethical or not.
Isn’t it up to the individual to decide whether he values profits or helping people?
You seem to be saying : I wish people were nicer.
Who has not fucked things up?
The majority of business transactions are done in good faith and are mutually beneficial.
Although that is a common thought, it is incorrect.
What is “profit” if not the wealth used to increase one’s position and holdings?
What can I say, Obe. I have begged the Moderators to ban me from the board on my weekends. But they won’t. Hence the utter stupidity on my part that you saw last night. I consider myself relatively smart. But I’m perfectly aware of what an idiot I can be. Because of that, it’s getting harder and harder to actually enjoy my weekends. It ends up becoming more chaos (combined with intellect which only makes it more dangerous) and regret than anything.
This is why, outside of a need for money, I am presently seeking a part-time job to take up my weekends.