Donald Trump
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Trump is breeding hate and fear for a power grab hes obviously not qualified for. It's sad that its such an effective tactic.
HAIL SATAN!
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"And this is something you can't do... why? I'm not saying there aren't real reasons why. I'm saying those reasons are themselves examples of government bullshit. It's ridiculous to have minimum wage laws in an economy with any serious unemployment issues, where jobs could exist at a lower wage. Welfare also creates an incentive-based functional minimum wage, as working a job which makes less money than government assistance is foolish. I think the biggest problem here is a lack of introspection. If you're shit, demanding a higher wage and better working conditions than you deserve isn't likely to end well. If you aren't shit, you probably don't need the force of government to negotiate on your behalf. When Stephen Colbert was killed by HYDRA's Project Insight in 2014, the comedy world lost a hero. Since his life model decoy isn't up to the task, please do not mistake my performance as political discussion. I'm just doing what Steve would have wanted. Last edited by ScrotieMcB on Jul 23, 2016, 1:15:25 PM
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^While I can see where you are coming from, I think you are being waaay too optimistic regarding employers. Big companies and subcontracts should be a hint. Far too many would rather go for quantity over quality if that's cheaper.
Most people in "lower" jobs are easily replaceable since there arent any great requirements or possibilities to make one distinguish himself from rest. Oblivious Last edited by Disrupted on Jul 23, 2016, 1:39:46 PM
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^ Well, yeah, that's my point. For a lot of jobs out there, the workers are easily replaceable. So if a government steps up to the economy and says "hey, you need to pay workers from my country more, or they're not working"... then they're not working.
Those of us in service or professional industries, not as effected, because those jobs are worth paying for skill. But if you're wondering why manufacturing jobs have left America, if that's what you're trying to defend, then there is no way you can be for minimum wage. That's exactly the type of legislation which has forced manufacturing out of the United States. Just to be clear, I'm not really a "free trade is great" guy. I'm more of a "free trade is inevitable" guy. This country was founded on the backs of smugglers dancing circles around England's futile attempts to restrict free trade; that's who the Boston Tea Party people were. If you want something other than free trade, either you want a lack of enforcement where the law is widely ignored, or you want perpetual war against economic "criminals." Both are foolish positions, as is any compromise of the two. When Stephen Colbert was killed by HYDRA's Project Insight in 2014, the comedy world lost a hero. Since his life model decoy isn't up to the task, please do not mistake my performance as political discussion. I'm just doing what Steve would have wanted. Last edited by ScrotieMcB on Jul 23, 2016, 4:25:45 PM
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" The same here. I may be left wing, but I can see it easily. Also, I know a little about the theoretical reasons this is that way (comparative advantage and all that crap).
rant about cheap labor, minimum wage and trade
About minimum wage: it's a really crappy tool to solve the low wage problem (it's essentially a non means tested wage floor with its own problems). For some reason, the ideal minimum wage is not zero (ask economists, there is a hard math way to calculate it). The economists at reddit always talk about implementing a Negative Income Tax (that is equivalent to the Universal Basic Income with some phase out/tax tricks...this is a Milton Friedman idea so it should appeal to a lot of people); that's pretty much similar to the EITC in US (but it could be made more generous and remove many types of welfare to apply the second welfare theorem directly...with exceptions for things that have massive market failures).
Blaming immigrants for low wages is moronic, counterproductive, and not even really that real (Borjas has a seminar paper about the subject that I constantly hear about, it has a similar effect to automatization on wages, in the single digits for low skill jobs). Overall immigration tends to be good for almost everyone but there are some side effects to patch. Blaming cheap labor in other countries is stupid too (will you prohibit them to work?). It's their comparative advantage and it has decreased poverty at the global level (see Elephant Graph). I'd rather focus in making trade deals with labor laws provisions so you don't have to trade with slavers (I've heard the TPP has this, but I understand now why a lot of people would oppose it, the dispute resolution methods can be understood as a violation of sovereignty in some way, and the copyright part is crap) and help labor in first world countries too if they are displaced or wages are not high enough. If rich people are richer than ever, tax them (although not every tax will do the trick). That's the reason I oppose Sanders and Trump on trade. The two are misguided, won't offer any good solution to the problems, and the second one will make things worse in spectacular fashion because he is so dangerously ignorant (his comments about debt, trade deficits and so on show that he doesn't even understand the basics, also, he seems to propose a Gold Standard...gotta love shiny metals...Friedman is rolling on his grave). Also, one is a socialist and the other one is supposedly the avatar of capitalism ("the party of economic freedom fails at economics and promotes XVII century mercantilism"). Make of that what you wish. ... This week has been fabulous. The RNC was a shitfest. Anti semites, rick roll, plagiarism, few black people and women, latinos that don't really know their spanish really well, backstabbing (Cruz may be a psychopath but he owned Trump), empty seats, a lot of talk about Hillary Clinton as filler to replace actualy policy, and Trump's speech fairly disconnected from objetive truth and low in actual details. Also, I learned that one of Trump's advisers is a Putin plant, Paul Manafort. That guy loves dictators and Putin cronies. It seems Trump hasn't seen anything weird about Erdogan's purges either...Nice humbleness from Trump in a golden chair too. And the air kiss was totally pandering to the LGBT people (remember kids: protection from the extremely uncommon terrorist attack > liberty, acceptance and rights). Add a Forsaken Masters questline https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2297942 Last edited by NeroNoah on Jul 24, 2016, 2:09:07 PM
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It surprises me to hear you think a gold standard for currency is ridiculous, Nero. I mean, the currency system in virtually every other ARPG is a Keynesian mess, while Path of Exile is one of few to assign genuine utility to its currency. When applied to gaming, the incentive system of fiat currency has glaring faults - why is it so difficult to see how the same faults apply to real-life currency?
I'm not really a fan of the gold standard in particular - arbitrary metal with a long tradition, although its utility is ironically relevant now as a conductor - but I am definitely against a currency whose only value is derived from faith in one's government. Perhaps because I lack it. When Stephen Colbert was killed by HYDRA's Project Insight in 2014, the comedy world lost a hero. Since his life model decoy isn't up to the task, please do not mistake my performance as political discussion. I'm just doing what Steve would have wanted. Last edited by ScrotieMcB on Jul 24, 2016, 2:20:49 PM
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The gold thing is a bubble. It's not that useful, many coworkers I have use it for electronics and that's it (nor stable in value, you can make better investments). Also, it's a straightjacket for monetary policy. In this case, I prefer history over principles (I mean, yes, it's part of the government, but managed by economists via central banking is the better system by far...before, depressions could last decades). I'm sure there is an edgy Mises article to deny this points, though.
As I said before, faith is something you have to earn. Dollars are trusted because US government has paid their debts (ironically, the party most concerned about debt and currency debasement has done more to sabotage this than anyone else with debt ceiling showdowns and promising to renegotiate the debt to get better deals). Currencies are constantly competing so the failure of one can be covered by the rest generally. When dollars start to get shitty, people will move to other currencies. If all currencies fail at the same time, we are doomed anyway. Assets are not inherently superior. The Euro can show you what happens when your monetary policy is too rigid (those guys wanted to emulate the better parts of the gold standard, I think). PoE's economy is designed to fight inflation, but real world economies have to balance between unemployment and inflation (short run Philips curve and all that) so it doesn't translate directly. The Federal Reserve has a double mandate because of that (the ECB doesn't, and the Eurozone got rekt). By the way, I'm not sure what do you refer as Keynesian (mainstream economics is a synthesis between Keynesian and Neoclassical schools, I'm not sure it has anything to do with MMO gold inflation). PS: Fun fact, ISIS supports the Gold Standard. Add a Forsaken Masters questline https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2297942 Last edited by NeroNoah on Jul 24, 2016, 2:59:58 PM
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I think the "straightjacket" is the biggest issue with asset-based currencies (which PoE avoided in its game economy, by having many currencies). Which kind of makes me wonder if various asset-based investments (futures, etc) would be the rough equivalent. Although I feel I haven't really done enough research to properly comment. It's silly that I haven't researched it already, considering my concerns.
I totally agree about Democrats ironically being the party of fiscal conservatism, by the way. Sometimes it feels as if the two parties are so preoccupied with winning over opposing viewpoints and lying to their bases that the Democrats are the functional conservatives and the Republicans are the functional liberals. When Stephen Colbert was killed by HYDRA's Project Insight in 2014, the comedy world lost a hero. Since his life model decoy isn't up to the task, please do not mistake my performance as political discussion. I'm just doing what Steve would have wanted. Last edited by ScrotieMcB on Jul 24, 2016, 4:19:42 PM
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Ehhh...rather than Gold Standard I'd research Free Banking (to my understanding one of the problems is transaction costs and inconvenience, also, it can still implode hilariously). Still, there is a consensus by economists about Central Banking, not even famous libertarians are against it (like Friedman, although he fought tooth and nails to make it as isolated from human stupidity as possible...and he failed...I think his policies were tried in the UK under Thatcher).
About Democrats...well, they are moderately liberal (they have gone for stimulus packages in the past to battle the crisis). It seems they are a colition from the center right to the center left/far left in economic policies so there is infighting but at least they don't flirt with global collapse so often. Sanders is bad at economics (although I admit some of his policies in a very general sense seems legit) so it's for the better he didn't win. The challenge for those so called "progressives" is to not fall in the purity trap and to actually hear the experts. I personally prefer economics in a technocratic, rather than left-right way. Add a Forsaken Masters questline https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2297942 Last edited by NeroNoah on Jul 24, 2016, 4:56:20 PM
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The gold standard would last exactly as long as it takes to efficiently mine an asteroid- which isn't THAT far off.
A comprehensive, easy on the eyes loot filter:
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1245785 Need a chill group exiles to hang with? Join us: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1251403 |
