Capitalism Hits the Fan (Lecture)

[shukudai]

I actually saw this in one of my classes, and thought I would share and see other people's opinions on it. It's basically a "how the US got to where it is economically today", in a layman's way. You can find torrents for it around, but the whole thing is hosted for free where I found it, with the free previoew crap plastered across it, which doesn't matter that much as it's mostly a lecture:

http://www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/comme...m_Preview.html

[Ferion]

Extremist views are always very biased towards their point of view. It's really late so I've only kind of skipped through the video, but he claimed that real wages haven't raised in the past 30 years. However:

http://worthwhile.typepad.com/.share...p_rw_81_06.png

It depends heavily on if you use the CPI or the GDP deflator to measure real wages, but even with CPI there is still a rise in real wages over time. I'm not saying he's completely wrong, but some of his claims are a little extreme.

Edit: Clearly wages are pretty low relative to productivity when using the CPI index to calculate the real value though.

[test123]

Capitalism is not at fault, corperatism is.

[Drex]

Capitalism is not at fault, corperatism is.

It's hard not to fault the former when it leads so smoothly to the latter

[SwampdonkeyPLD]

It's hard not to fault the former when it leads so smoothly to the latter

Big govt. leads to the latter, not capitalism.

[aurik]

There's a reason why no economy actually has true laissez-faire capitalism. (Hint: that reason is because it doesn't work)

[Headspace]

Big govt. leads to the latter, not capitalism.

Oh ok

K-ROLD

[Yabby]

Big govt. leads to the latter, not capitalism.

Swamp is right, the big government is 100% at fault for this.

http://nforum.ogplanet.com/lostsagae...-Trollface.png

[Kuya]

Big govt. leads to the latter, not capitalism.

We need less government and more tax cuts.

[SwampdonkeyPLD]

So, for example, when the ethanol industry lobbies for subsidies it's capitalism fault?

Capitalism didn't give govt. the power to subsidize.

[Kuya]

So, for example, when the ethanol industry lobbies for subsidies it's capitalism fault?

Capitalism didn't give govt. the power to subsidize.

Then the solution is we need to not let the governmetn subsidize things. We can do this by making the government smaller.

[Kuya]

If government didn't interfere with capitalism all the time, capitalism wouldn't be so bad.

[Drex]

So tightening controls on corporations leads to those corporations going out of control.

Actually, not really. It leads to very predictable and controlled response. Unfortunately, the response is unemployment and shortage.

[aurik]

That's nonsense.

[SwampdonkeyPLD]

Not totally, look at how many jobs have been lost on the gulf coast as a result of the ongoing moratorium.

[aurik]

Yes, and a ban on prostitution also deprives many young ladies of a legitimate living.

[Headspace]

Now you're thinking with portals.

[Pirian]

Not totally, look at how many jobs have been lost on the gulf coast as a result of the ongoing moratorium.

Not totally, look at how many jobs have been lost in the US as result of lack of financial regulation and oversight.

[Restrat]

Whoever thinks of the traveling salesmen/performers who lost their jobs when it became illegal to sell snake oil and Laudium as miracle cures?! More jobs lost by regulations.....

[Drex]

Whoever thinks of the traveling salesmen/performers who lost their jobs when it became illegal to sell snake oil and Laudium as miracle cures?! More jobs lost by regulations.....

There's still plenty of that going on today. I don't really think you can regulate a product harshly enough to prevent gullible people from buying it. After all, then you're getting into shit like "define 'it works'".