The rise of socialism

babator

Wow, just wow...If anyone is willing to pay what I ask of course it is fair, you know like in 'fair enough gov, I'll pay you a couple of grand a day, no worries mate init'.

What is it of anyones business whether they under/over estimate, value, importance of whether I'm shagging their mother (just to insert a similar nonsensical element).

Sometimes it is pure luck or timing; when my father in law passed away I was due to get another car, I liked it, the price with rightish, I really had more important things on my mind, so it was fair enough deal done within one hour of test drive. Not a single one of those kind of element come into it.

Ofcourse it is down to fairness, fairness between the people making that transaction. It has nothing to do with anyone else. It is none of your business, as I said before who the hell do you think you are to judge anyone on that.

Nobody even mentioned that it is an indicator of value to society, where on earth do you get that one from.

And? Why is that important to this topic?

What does that even mean? (Rethorical question, please do not answer....)

You draw some amazing conclusions if that is what you think I said.


Really you think that is what I said? @Toko Black I think it is time for a cold show or a walk the heat must have gotten to you pal...

Toko Black

It seems to me it keeps getting harder and harder for the third or fourth generation of wealthy scions to waste their money to the extent that they drop down to the unwashed 95%. Massive wealth differences, tax havens, sophisticated financial advisers...  it is ok and natural to look after your offspring, but when your great granddaughters will still have 200x the average annual salary in wealth without anybody in between doing anything useful or skillful with the money - is that fine? Meanwhile, the current generation of winners are happily pulling up the traditional ladders of success (staggering education costs, credentialism, unpaid internships as the main way to get your foot into lucrative careers etc)

I don't think socialism is likely to succeed, but some adjustment would not be so terrible - a permanent class of idle rich seems to me to be a bigger societal problem and a bigger drag on the economy than a class of idle poor that at least hypothetically could take advantage of free education and the vaunted "hard work" to rise in the social pyramid.

Bl4ckGryph0n

I'll leave you to it then, as it's obviously seems to be a touchy subject for you.

Jezza99

ROFLMAO Another out of this world @Toko Black conclusion....Truly remarkable; you draw a wacky conclusion and I'm touchy...The mind truly boggles...

Pacifico

Socialism is like a pair of flares; eventually it will come back into fashion. Much for the same reasons as well; the yoof will "discover" it and view it as exciting, anti-establishment and cool because they have not seen it before.

Then after buying and consuming it for a while, they realise that it's a really carp product and is so ridiculous that it's actually making them look silly. But not before it trips them up and smashes their faces in.

Pacifico

Well there is an argument that that period was a one-off that will never be repeated. The rebuilding of Europe, the productivity gains and introduction of new technology all happened in a short space of time and all the low-hanging fruit has now been taken. Any improvements now are going to be a lot harder and at a lot slower pace.

For example we are now flying slower than we did 40 years ago - I flew from New York to London in 3 hours then, now it takes over 6.

SteakAndCake

The rich might be idle but their money is not - it is invested in businesses making things and providing services.

SteakAndCake

That period was not normal.  The Capitalist Golden Age 1945 - 1973 was a statistical outlier that temporarily put the middle class of the US and Western Europe on economic steroids.

Post–World War II economic expansion - Wikipedia

Since the 70's capitalism has stared to return to it's natural state which is massive wealth inequality the likes of which we've not seen since the 19th Century Oil and Railway empires with a tiny number of mega rich elites and a massive underclass of people for whom capitalism does not serve.

Pacifico

A healthy economy needs a healthy middle class.  One rich person can buy maybe 20 cars.   Millions of middle class people buy millions of cars.  Most money earned by the mega rich does not reenter the economy.

babator

Of course it does - nobody puts a spare billion under the mattress. They may buy a superyacht which provides jobs and work for thousands of boat makers in Southhampton or another Rolls Royce which provides highly skilled jobs in Sussex.