Conservatism's Death Gusher

[Cuyo]

I liked the movie Wall Street where Gordon Gecko corectly stated "greed is good".
Greed can be good. Often, stupid mistakes are made because of greed. When and if they violate the law and are negligent and cause damage to others there are laws in place to make folks whole and prisons available for folks to go after they are convicted.
Everyone that drives a car is at fault. The demand for oil and the negligence of BP, not greed, caused this one.

They were probably negligent, but they're responsible even if they were by the book. But potentially, the entities that were supposed to be providing oversight could bear some responsibility as well. The regulators are an instrument of the Federal Government; In other words, us.

So if there is discrepancy between the massive cleanup and BP's willingness to pay, we'd have to drag them to court. Even if we win, a cleanup of that magnitude could rapidly kill even a giant like BP, meaning they go bankrupt and the taxpayer pays for the effort. Due to the corporate form, the officers and every employee walk away with what they've got.

 

[georgephillip]

I liked the movie Wall Street where Gordon Gecko corectly stated "greed is good".
Greed can be good. Often, stupid mistakes are made because of greed. When and if they violate the law and are negligent and cause damage to others there are laws in place to make folks whole and prisons available for folks to go after they are convicted.
Everyone that drives a car is at fault. The demand for oil and the negligence of BP, not greed, caused this one.

Capital Speaks through Gordon "Greed is Good" Gekko in this embellishment of his conservative world view in the movie "Wall Street":

"The richest one percent of this country owns half our country's wealth, five trillion (1987) dollars. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons, and what I do, stock and real estate speculation.

"It's bullshit.

"You got ninety percent of the American public out there with little or no net worth.

"I create nothing.

"I own.

"We make the rules, pal. The news, war, peace, famine, upheaval, the price per paper clip. We pick that rabbit out of the hat while everybody sits out there wondering how the hell we did it.

"Now you're not naive enough to think we're living in a democracy, are you buddy?

"It's the free market."

A "free" market based on the selfish/conservative desire for more than is needed.

 

[topspin]

80 percent of millionaires are first generation rich.

 

[Oddball]

Who decides who "needs" what, tovarich?

 

[georgephillip]

80 percent of millionaires are first generation rich.

How many made their first million without help from Wall Street?

 

[Oddball]

Why does that matter?

 

[georgephillip]

Who decides who "needs" what, tovarich?

Adolph:

Benito's leaning toward Peter Peterson...

I'm still in the undecided camp inclining toward Joe Hill.

 

[Oddball]

That doesn't answer the question, Mr. Godwin.

Who do you propose to be the Commissar of Needs?

 

[The T]

That doesn't answer the question, Mr. Godwin.

Who do you propose to be the Commissar of Needs?

It'll be decided by the PayCzar...

 

[georgephillip]

Why does that matter?

Wall Street serves as a gate keeper for US oligarchs.

It isn't enough to create a Microsoft or Google unless you are also committed to the capitalist profit-above-everything business model.

Had Bill Gates envisioned Microsoft as a non-profit business, Wall Street would have told him to go elsewhere for his start-up capital.

 

[Oddball]

Boy, you really don't know jack squat about business, entrepreneurship or investing....Well, except for populist and socialist cliches, that is.

 

[Big Fitz]

That doesn't answer the question, Mr. Godwin.

Who do you propose to be the Commissar of Needs?

YAAAYYYY!!! The pre-story for Atlas Shrugged right there! A bureaucrat who decides who needs what? The ultimate expression of the leftist rainbow of evil.

 

[georgephillip]

Boy, you really don't know jack squat about business, entrepreneurship or investing....Well, except for populist and socialist cliches, that is.

Tell me about Wall Street's commitment to non-profits.

If Rich Bill had decided in 1975 to dedicate Microsoft's profits to ending poverty and war, do you actually believe investment bankers like Pete Peterson would have based their rejections on anything except ideological cliches?

 

[Oddball]

Yeah, and if worms had machine guns, birds wouldn't fool with them.

What is it that makes non-profits so totally holy?

 

[georgephillip]

That doesn't answer the question, Mr. Godwin.

Who do you propose to be the Commissar of Needs?

YAAAYYYY!!! The pre-story for Atlas Shrugged right there! A bureaucrat who decides who needs what? The ultimate expression of the leftist rainbow of evil.

Atlas Shrugged giving all conservatives what they can't find anywhere else: a moral justification for their selfishness and irrational desire for more than they need, i.e., greed.

Try Lord of the Rings

Ringwraiths serve the conservative ideology of greed and death far more efficiently.

 

[Oddball]

Wow...We've struck a cliche gusher!

 

[CrusaderFrank]

80 percent of millionaires are first generation rich.

And that's a good thing

 

[skookerasbil]

another guy with the political IQ of a handball...................

Death to conservatism

yuk..........yuk............

s0n...........THE story here is how lame an effort was put forth by the adminstration. What did it take? 55 days? 58 days before they did diddly? Meanwhile, the oil was piling up on the beaches all over the Gulf. And what? He never went down there for well over a week

I'll ride on that as my #7 anyday.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Wow...We've struck a cliche gusher!

You Deregulating Denier!

 

[georgephillip]

Yeah, and if worms had machine guns, birds wouldn't fool with them.

What is it that makes non-profits so totally holy?

What if the birds had cluster bombs?

I'm not saying there aren't scandalous non-profits in existence. Many are nothing more than fronts for corporate terrorism.

However, for-profit capitalism consistently under values systemic cost. Consider a $4 hamburger that came from Amazon herds grazing on land that was recently rain forest.

Recent number crunching has claimed if you factor in the total cost of rain forest destruction and the expenses of shipping the burger thousands of miles, that hamburger's systemic cost is closer to $200.

For centuries capitalists have passed these costs on to the next generation. Those of us alive today may not have that option.