From: Spudboy100@aol.com
Date: Sat Aug 09 2003 - 14:44:04 MDT
Lee:
<<C'mon, if you think that any CEOs are going to the cellar
to be shot, or marched up to guillotines, then you are
too far from reality. Even if you are right about overpaid
top executives, then the worst that will happen is that
they'll be replaced by cheaper and more effective CEOs from
within the ranks, as the fad of outside celebrity wears off.>>
No, I am sure that most of these selfish bastards will get off scott-free,
no matter how crooked or coniving they have been, and how they, through their
actions, have cheated the stockholders, and are drying up the middle class. My
point is thats it is destructive to US survival.
Lee:
<<I urge everyone to carefully attend to Rafal's *economic* arguments.
So far in perusing this thread, he appears to be the only one up
on free-market economics, who understands thoroughly why protectionism
always hurts everyone in the long run.>>
Rafal seems devoted to the nth degree in favor of free market economics.
Though, I wonder what Milton Freedman (sp?) looking at what is happening to
Americans would concur with Rafal's zeal?
Lee:
<<Right here, even the US is not really hurt by sending jobs
oversees where they can be done more cheaply and efficiently
because the American consumer is then so much better off.>>
There is an inevitable cause and effect here, and if not Newtonian, is mighty
close. When goods and services by American companies, or foreign imports
become depressed; because more and more Americans are out of work, this produces a
deflationary economy, also known as a recession.
If capital goes overseas, during a recession, so that few jobs are produced,
the economy stays moribund. This hurts even people overseas, as demand they
are dependent on, becomes so much less. I may purchase a Korean auto because it
is cheaper; but if I am broke and have to buy a used car, for example, I will
buy a clunker junker of any kind, to look for work. Far less people benfit
from my purchase.
Lee:
<<Hey Mitch, they got caught, didn't they?? The American
economy---unlike European ones---is doing just fine. Look
at the GNP and unemployment rate. I think you and far too
many other people want the make-believe of the late nineties
back, where everybody was employed on projects that were
eventually canceled and everyone thought that they were
getting rich in the markets. Real life is not like that.
*This* is normal---and not so bad, so long as you are not
having to make difficult life decisions about what to do
next to help (i.e., you are unemployed yourself).>>
1) I disagree the American economy is doing just fine. If the unemployment
rate drops significantly, W will have nothing to worry about. If it remains at
this level, or even grows, prepare for a political explosion or implosion.
Europe sucks because of its own reasons, which have more to do with their own
hypocrises and inconsistancies, not America's.
2) If the middle class shrinks our economy will resemble Argentina's which
was going great-guns from the 19th century to the Great Depression, but
disintegrated along with it's middle class. This is not an accurate model, but the
de-stablization is.
Mitch
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