I think its all speculation bordering on self flagelation. Hey that rhymes!

But anyway, none of these predictions take into account how creative actual individual human beings are. Lately, I have been reading the Forbes 400 list about 27 year old billionaires and other Billionaires that were poor orphans, welfare Moms, victims of sexual assault, people like that.

You can’t factor stuff like that in.

Also, if anyone is curous I wrote a couple posts on Basic Income Guarantee and why I think it is a horrible idea.

Not that

I meant “Now”. (All day I’ve been typing ‘licked’ instead of ‘picked’. Luckilly I caught them before I sent them to my coworkers.)

you are assuming there is a trend of inflation that will continue for some unspecified period of time. Why assume this?

??? Something very profound was going through my head when I wrote this but I can’t remember what it was now. Every few years I get into economics and this time what triggered it was housing, which in Chicago has remained relatively stable. That means expensive so most of my personal experiences lately have been with prices that only go up. I can’t find one, or a small group of, links that could show my thought process.

I’m glad you asked the question because I hadn’t had a reason to question my assumption that this was our future, thanks! I think I assumed this as a security blanket because the alternative is much worse. I lived through inflation as a child and came out ok but I haven’t lived through a nightmare economic scenario.

You’re question also helped me remember a line of reasoning I had been toying with concerning what will happen after the election. Not that you’ve helped me slough off my blankie I can get to that. Really, at this time, I think we’ll get the worst of both worlds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stagflation

I mean, right now its raining. So should I assume it will keep raining until the Earth is flooded under ten feet of water?

I mean, yeah, inflation is going up, but many types of prices are going down.ver been to Walmart lately? Many things are priced cheaper then the same things were available for when I was a little kid more than 20 years ago.

inspiration->hard work->success-> power….I think we do have a meritocracy, a free market capitalist one.

I agree but what’s going on now is inflation is about to start eroding the fruits of our labor. I’m inspired, I work hard, I am successful and I gain a little power. But, where my efforts might gain benefits not just me but for future generations (inheritance, charitable donations) now my money goes to cover the rising price of goods and services. It still is a meritocracy but with shorter lasting results.

What is the explanation for this paradox? Tocqueville writes that there are two motivations for people to work - to provide the necessities of life and to improve themselves. But “a charitable institution indiscriminately open to all those in need, or a law which gives all the poor the right to public aid” removes both these motivations by eliminating the need to work and not denying aid to people who do not want to better themselves. The result is the creation of a system in which “the most generous, the most active, the most industrious part of the nation devotes its resources to furnishing the means of existence for those who do nothing or who make bad use of their labour.”

Its an article about Tocqueville’s “Memoir on Pauperism” which I have read but I no longer have.

It was pretty good. I still think most people don’t know what wealth is. I think people far removed from wealth creation have the least understanding of it, and many of these people are into political writing, like sociologists academics etc.

Aren’t “chavs” basically welfare cases in the UK that sitaround all day and act like assholes?

Why wouldn’t more of this type spreadi f everyone on the planet was made a welfare case?

Tsk, tsk.

“The system would be a government administered one that would allot every citizen a sum of money large enough to live on. A common amount proposed is 20% of per capita GDP. The wealthiest as well as the poorest citizens would receive this. Salaries from employment wo uld be a supplement to this government income.”

Is it kind of basically like everyone drawing a social security check from birth?

inspiration->hard work->success-> power.

Politics is backwards. You need to gain power first, then use your political power to try out your ideas on the public, which may or may not work. For example it took a long time to show that niether Marxism nor Fascism work, a long time and a lot of bloodshed.

As far as I am concerned people with revolutionary ideas that never caught on have a big burden of proof to meet. Wheras, to succeed, bussinesses have to demonstrate that over and over the populace chooses their product.

Martin Luther King jr. was a person. His ideas are another. I would say wheras, he was assasinated, his ideas caught on.

I think its good to acknowledge when progress is actually made. Like for example, the Richest man in Europe is an East Indian living in the UK. The second richest man in the World is a Mexican son of a Lebanese immigrant.

I think we do have a meritocracy, a free market capitalist one.

http://www.timboucher.com/journal/2007/11/06/bhoodan-land-gift-movement/

Also Brazil and Portugal have begun instituting the Basic Income Guarantee system (supposedly) so it’s entirely possible.

So in a way, if Thomas Paines ideas didn’t work maybe its not so bad. If people were redy for them they would have caught on.

No, that’s ridiculous. That’s like saying Martin Luther King, Jr. getting assassinated was the right thing to have happen simply because it did.

The reason Paine died penniless is because revolutions always start out very radical and then the pendulum swings back towards conservatism once the new power elite have taken over. It’s not a matter of “the people” not being ready for his ideas, but of the landed gentry who gained power in the turn-over of not wanting to lose what they just won!

Competition seems to be big commponent of the way things work here on planet Earth.

To me, the best solution is the free market. Because the competition is not so red in tooth and claw. The worst thing that can happen is you go out of business. You go out of business by having a model or an idea that doesn’t work.

Its democratic. Customers reject ideas that don’t work for them, and choose ones that do. To be successful, you need to have somthing to offer people.

So in a way, if Thomas Paines ideas didn’t work maybe its not so bad. If people were redy for them they would have caught on. Maybe they will catch on in the future. Maybe they were never meant to be. Its up to everyone.