Capitalism

[ImTheCaptain]

yeah, yesterday TD Ameritrade was restricting GME trades, today it is not.

[RJKarl]

But it's OK when a hedge fund or major investor/group takes a plunge and moves the market. Got it.

[ImTheCaptain]

yeah, won't someone please think of the hedge fund managers

[ConnorEl]

Vendetta-fueled investing seems a bad idea.

For all involved.

[sailordeac]

yeah, won't someone please think of the hedge fund managers

yeah, like you-know-who

[deaconson]

tag: where are those emails?

[MHBDemon]

What Elon Musk has done in building Tesla and SpaceX is undeniably impressive no matter what his starting point was man. Come on. This is where the extreme anti-capitalism stuff goes off the rails. He could have bought an island and disappeared after the PayPal exit but he is tackling incredible challenges that nobody else has dreamed of and is making NASA look like a bunch of dudes shooting off mode rockets in their backyard. Has he enriched himself enormously in the process? Yes but that doesn’t diminish his very real accomplishments.

[WakeForestRanger]

[Deaconblue]

They were all parts of Standard Oil. Standard Oil controlled almost all the oil production in the US until it was broken up in the "trust busting" days. 33 companies were created from Standard Oil. Eight had "standard oil" in their corporate name.

[PhDeac]

Reading the Crypto thread and the investments thread on The Pit has convinced me there are two economies, one for people with money and one for suckers who work for a living.

[ImTheCaptain]

you, too, could take your rent money and buy $GME at $350/share and become poorer!

[TenaciousKory]

Reading the Crypto thread and the investments thread on The Pit has convinced me there are two economies, one for people with money and one for suckers who work for a living.

damn this two economies thing sounds familiar

[Louis Gossett Jr]

you, too, could take your rent money and buy $GME at $350/share and become poorer!

Sure sure blame the people with the ability to buy a 100+ shares and then manipulate poor people to pump up the stock and hold it while you get out way ahead.

[wakelaw13]

I'm a little confused by this thread. Fair regulation of the capitalist system is certainly necessary, but what's the alternative?

I represent people from all walks of life, and as part of my job I often become familiar with the type of work they perform and how it pays. I also travel across the state for that work, although it's primarily the eastern half. I have come to a couple conclusions.

First, I think the biggest divide in this country is urban v. rural. Political ideology is one thing, your personal reality is another. It isn't difficult to convince people living in rural counties that the country is going to hell when their shithole town died years ago. It isn't hard to convince them that an elite few control everything when that's most likely true in their town. And if you can play up inherent biases on the way to convincing them it's the other party's fault, even better.

Second, labor is incredibly undervalued, and it's getting worse. The divide between the haves and have-nots is growing. That's a problem for everyone. My dad was the first in his family to go to college. His parents worked in factories, and put him through a private northern university that's of roughly equal quality to Wake. Today, two factory workers are barely feeding their kids. I'm not an economics expert, but I know enough to understand some of the reasons for that change. What is clear is that the divide has deepened and it has resulted in a lot of angry people. It's why I understood a vote for Trump in 2016. I did not condone it, I don't think it was smart, but I understood the sense of despair that drove people to him.

The answer isn't ending capitalism. The answer is common sense reforms that alter capitalism's unfettered path. The answer is that our government must continuously work to prop up the middle class, because without that intervention it goes away.

[PhDeac]

It seems like you're saying the problem isn't the system. However, we need a government that continuously has to fight to make sure most of the country doesn't suffer within that system. But the problem isn't the system.

[MHBDemon]

The answer is socialism.

[RJKarl]

pure socialism, like pure capitalism won't work.

[wakelaw13]

It seems like you're saying the problem isn't the system. However, we need a government that continuously has to fight to make sure most of the country doesn't suffer within that system. But the problem isn't the system.

I’m saying capitalism is the best system but it’s far from perfect, and for sustained success it requires significant government regulation to bolster and protect the middle class.

[PhDeac]

Seems like there's plenty of room for a better system that doesn't require the government to be hands on in order for it not to actively harm most of the people.

[wakelaw13]

So once again, what’s the alternative? It’s not socialism.