Is it Socialism to point out that much of what the Top 1% to 2% is doing is merely “rent seeking behavior” that provides no benefit to the economy at large? I figure that this activity has now grown to at least 1/3 of the economy – and you shouldn’t need an Engineering degree and an MBA to work around it and save yourself.
intercst
Well, I can’t say I don’t agree with this but it might be a one-off. I’ve never heard of this guy and, as I always do with new people I run into, I checked him out Jim Rockford-style. I haven’t yet read his website but here’s the Wiki entry to it. The Unz Review - Wikipedia
Proceed with caution I guess. That doesn’t diminish anything in this specific video though.
Thanks for sharing. Dirtbags aren’t always wrong about everything just because they’re dirtbags. Always good to go in with your eyes wide open.
The anger is being deflected into xenophobia and racism. TPTB know the script by heart. When Jamie Dimon was asked about the growing disparity, he blamed the government, and immigrants, not the way TPTB were manipulating the system for their own benefit.
Trivia bit I picked up along the way: the thousand odd Billionairs in the US “donated” over $600M to pols last year. Do you think anyone hears, or cares, what Proles are saying? But the Proles can be diverted with shows, like thousands of brown people being herded across the border.
Steve
The “coyotes” do that every week (even every day). Do you think they are doing it for a show???
Diving them south, will be a show. Remember what was on the media every evening, twenty years ago “Muslims bad, Muslims bad, Muslims want to destroy our Christian way of life. Muslims bad”?
Great vignette although dated from #OccupyWallStreet: https://youtu.be/nK056dWK7ts?t=137
“You think all this can last?
There’s a storm coming…
You and your friends better batten down the hatches cause
when it hits, you’re all gonna wonder how you ever thought you could live so large and leave so little for the rest of us.”
FC
The bread and circuses only works for so long.
My estimate is that the skim, scam, and rent seeking is adding at least 1/3 to the average person’s living expenses with no improvement in lifestyle. Being able to capture a good bit of that 1/3 over the past 40 years, and save & invest it, allowed me to retire early with no diminution in my lifestyle
At some point this will explode.
intercst
Heck, Elon alone “donated” $250 million to the winner. Of course, the new and former guy has a history of betraying his friends.
As California power broker (and Kamala mentor) Willie Brown used to say, “If you can’t take their money and screw them, you shouldn’t be in politics.” There’s hope in that.
intercst
Sports and gambling absorb an amazing amount of Prole money. Sports and gambling are entirely unproductive. They only shift money from the Proles to the “JCs”. The hype surrounding the Detroit Lions football team this year is deafening. Tickets for the game Sunday cost as much as $4000. Media hype is unending. The “news” blathers about football for 3 minutes, then talks about something else, then circles back to blather more about football. Then the “sports report” blathers even more. Michigan has a lottery, casino gambling, and online casino games and sports gambling. The hype surrounding gambling is deafening.
However, this increase in betting activity comes at a cost to household investments. Data indicates that for every dollar spent on sports betting, there is a corresponding $2 decrease in net investments. Over the past two to three years, net investments have dropped by 14% in areas where sports betting has been legalized.
Steve
The US Economy (GDP) was $29 Trillion in 2024. Most of the $10 Trillion in “skim” is siphoned off in the housing, health care and financial services industries – along with all the taxes that the working class pay that the rich, don’t.
I’m certainly no fan of activities like sports betting that present a “negative investment return”, but it’s lost in the round off.
intercst
It may be a rounding error in the pre-skim number, but, after the Proles have been skimmed by everything else, sports and gambling’s take is how much of what the Proles have left? The really interesting thing is the third article I posted, of the correlation between gambling being legal, and the drop in investing, which implies that the Proles are tapped out. No wonder there has been so much pressure for automatically enrolling Proles in 401ks, so Wall Street skims their paycheck, before they blow it on gambling.
Steve
The skim is now accelerating in the 401k field, too. For years, the Thrift Savings Plan for Gov’t employees had an expense ratio of 0.03% and was one of the best 401k plans around. Now they’re turned it over to Blackrock and it’s averaging around 0.10% and no doubt heading higher.
When I started working for Exxon in 1981, they’d just recently started their 401k plan and their large cap stock fund was an institutional product with 0.02% expense ratio. The last place I was working at in the early 1990’s before I retired in 1994 (Fortune 500 chemical company) had an S&P 500 index fund in their 401k plan with 0.90% expense ratio. Skim, scam and fraud is the name of the game – and it’s all legal.
intercst
Americans being poorer than their parents is common.
The Great Depression. Grapes of Wrath.
The War on Poverty. Seniors were penniless before Medicare and HUD.
We hold out a promise. We do not hold out a buck.
The Chinese live 1 year longer than we do on average. If you consider that since 1985 China has had demand side economics and they still only get 1 year more than us on average after 40 years of supply side economics…what could we do with demand side econ? We will find out.
This guy is touching all the bases but not saying things in relative terms or in their contexts.
Hasn’t Blackrock been sanctioned by several states for the thought crime of “woke”? Maybe TPTB can find a “better” manager, one with correct thought, and a higher expense ratio?
Steve
to that: 10,000 homeowners burned out of their homes are getting further screwed by price-gouging everywhere. I mean, if you can’t take profits off of the desperate newly homeless, who can you rip off? “It’s just capitalism, amirite? cmon man”… meanwhile, California’s completely expected but no less disappointing mealy mouthed politicians’ promise to “prosecute / not tolerate price gougers” will do absolutely nothing. Where are the emergency, temporary laws saying prices are frozen at their December '24 levels? With consequences like Violators will be subject to a fine of 5% of their annual revenue. Simplistic, and unrealistic? Absolutely. But even more people will just leave the state without legal protection. And not only will the state be left with an XX% reduction in revenue from no property taxes on worthless for the near-future land, business taxes dropping, they’ll lose state income tax from increased migration out. People just can’t and won’t put up with getting screwed forever.
Since you appear to oppose market-based pricing, do you think insurers should not be allowed to raise insurance rates?
DB2
Evidence, please.
–Peter
I hate to say this since ptheland actually recs some of my posts and I hate to lose a “friend” even if it’s just on Wednesdays but, come on, Jack! The only things I’ve seen more headlines on the past few days has been the inauguration and the NFL playoffs.
I was going to post some stories but when i searched “california fires price gouging” the list spoke for itself.
If you understand how markets work you wouldn’t ask an embarrassing question like “evidence, please.” Or were you being funny? I know I do that sometimes
For the love of Pete!
