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Friday, November 27, 2009

More Politico-Economic Surrogate Venting

I was going to write tonight about Schopenhauer's* demolition of Kant's categorical imperative** and how that makes it OK for people to go to strip joints and to visit rather disreputable "world famous" soapy-massage parlours that involve bath-tubs and soap-suds and baby-oil and as many girls as can fit in that bath with you***, but I found this on Alvin's FB page...


In a capitalist system, investors make money not despite hiring workers, but because they hire workers who, if they are adequately managed, create value in excess of the wages and benefits they are paid. This value is called "profit," and the business' owner gets to keep that, after paying taxes.

In a properly functioning capitalist economy, rich people don't "create jobs" for workers; workers, upon having jobs, create rich people.

That's how the system works, in theory.

But the reality is different from the theory. In today's marketplace, the super-rich have become richer in large part by destroying jobs.

They amass staggering wealth by gambling, and fraud, and they depend very dearly on government policies (especially very low taxes on so-called "capital gains") to protect what they have and allow them to grab more.

In "capitalism" as it is actually practiced today, jobs really are a kind of charity, often superfluous to the amassing of multibillion dollar fortunes.

Today's millionaires and billionaires make their money by creating contracts—and a lot of those are, at their core, tax dodges. Baltimore City Paper. [Empharsis mine. I read it every day, don't you?]


Just love that pleasing sound when someone hits a nail directly on the head and slams it home into the wood.

E@L

* Yes, I was reading Schopenhauer in the pub tonight, literally too shagged to head out for yet another session at the soapy. Need sleep, and this tome should help induce it.

If you read the Wiki about this book, "On The Basis Of Morality", it tells fascinating story. Schopenhauer was the only person to enter some Danish Society philosophy contest back in 1839, offering this long essay debunking Kant (and Ayn Rand presciently and incidentally - 'morality' is based on compassion), but they refused to give him the prize! They later said he had not answered the question they had posed (don't ask). LOL. Sucks to be Schopenhauer!

** You can't justifiably base a moral system on your subconscious religious values! For God's Darwin's sake man, this is the nineteenth century!

*** Schopenhauer himself would be in there in a flash, all viagra'd up and ready to rock! He was quite the despicable cad rumour has it - copious detailed diaries were destroyed by family after he died. I hope someone clears out the internet for me as well.

5 comments:

Dick Headley said...

This is the intriguing fusion of the physical and intellectual that keeps us coming back.

expat@large said...

My fan-base is narrow, but my fans are loyal. Thanks Dick.

Unknown said...

Hmmm...so my thesis is that in my compassion to help the downtrodden, my morals leads to me to these so-called soap palaces wherein I employ nubile young things who are getting full value for services rendered and who would otherwise be exploited by capitalists in poverty wage factories.

Pardon me, I think I was channeling Soapenhauer there for a minute.

expat@large said...

Jay: hole in one!

Conflicted? Moi?

This one girl had a plastic bag with her as she came in the room - in it were the architect's drawings for her 1M+ Bht, 4 bedroom house in Surin. I kid you not.

expat@large said...

p.s. Yes, I got the Soapenhauer line. Very very good.

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