Archive for Inflation

Why the GOP is Dragging the Country Backwards.

Posted in Economics, Life, Politics, Technology with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 5, 2012 by urbannight

The US Navy has come up with a stealth submarine that is so expensive that it would cripple the military to build them. It is described as, “A super-stealthy warship that could underpin the U.S. navy’s China strategy will be able to sneak up on coastlines virtually undetected and pound targets with electromagnetic “railguns” right out of a sci-fi movie. (Eric Talmadge, AP)”

Everything seems to be getting to expensive for the government to do anymore. Advancements in military technology and the space program just to name two. Personally, I blame uncontrolled, Free Market, capitalism. By not putting any type of controls on it, Capitalism has been allowed to rape the populous in order to keep increasing the profit margins. Prices keep getting pushed up to get the most out of ever person. Everything is more expensive and most of the money gets tied up in those big businesses and people have less and less to spend.

We also have a situation that seems very odd. We have a large portion of out of work people. More technology tends to use fewer people. Some fields have nearly disappeared. We are also told we have a shrinking work force as more Baby Boomers are retiring and we don’t have enough workers to keep up the tax base to fund their social security benefits.

The real answer is that we need fewer people. The technology of the future uses fewer people so we need to produce fewer people. That means we have to figure out a better way to fund the government retirement programs. This wouldn’t be as bad a problem is we stopped the out of control cost increase as businesses try to milk the population of every penny they have. But once the population starts to die off and if we make a point not to over procreate then there will be more money for the rest of us. There will be more money for science and technology that will take us into the future.

At this rate, it is clear that we are not going to progress. We can no longer afford it. We are not even going to sit here and stagnate. We are already slipping backwards and regressing. The very science fiction that gave people the ideas to strive for is also becoming darker, more dismal, more depressed. So much so that one writer challenged other writers to start writing more hopeful futures with new ideas. The current science fiction seems to have stopped creating new technological ideas that might exist in the future. But even should they get those creative, inventive juices flowing, the finite money supply will be so tied up in corporate business that it just won’t be there to fund the projects.

So, if the government and military really want to continue advancements in modern weaponry, then the government needs to look at profit caps for businesses, limits on how much prices can increase each year, greater control on medical costs (inflation on medical care increase at a rate of between 2 and 4 times greater than the cost of living inflation each year), and encourage the use of birth control rather than limiting it. Then the reduced population will have more money and be happier. Science fiction writers can help create the ideas for the scientists to develop and we can start moving forward again. But it requires doing everything that sends the GOP screaming onto their soap boxes and into their pulpits.

Welfare for the Wealthy


I work for a business that likes the throw the word ‘shareholds’ around all the time.  This drives me absolutely batty.  To me, shareholders are the biggest leach on a company’s resources and it is just a form of welfare for the wealthy.  And I’ll explain why I see it this way.

Once upon a time, before Wall Street existed, a ‘shareholder’ purchased shares in a venture.  Usually a ship.  Often for a particular voyage.  The money went to help outfit the ship for the journey and to purchasing cargo.  The ship returned and sold the cargo for a profit and the money went to the shareholders.  It was a one time shot sort of thing.  If you were happy with the results you had the opportunity to invest in the next trip. 

Later on, if a private business needed an influx of money, the owner could break it up into shares, keeping a majority to keep control, and selling the rest.  People could then buy into the company, producing the cash flow needed at that time, and the company would pay returns out.  Kind of like repaying a loan. Only for longer.

Now days, you buy shares of stock and you are putting a small amount of money into a company.  It seems to have very little to do with needing a quick influx of money.  You then get your ‘share’ which kind of makes you a mini-owner in the company.  Now you sit back and get returns on your shares.  So the company has to keep paying the shareholders back.  Eventually, far in excess of the money they put into the company.  The shareholders want profit course.  As they want more and more money, the company has to focus more on paying people who do nothing for the company and just sit around with hands held out saying, “Give me, Give me, Give me.”  This is money that doesn’t really ever go back into the company unless a shareholder decides to buy another share.  And they only do that so they can get higher returns.

I don’t see any real difference between share holders and people on welfare other than share holders start out with the money to buy the shares in the first place.  Then they want to get lots more money back without having to do anything. 

This is why I like to call it welfare for the wealthy.  This is why our economic model is starting to fail.  There is only so much money in the world and it keeps getting tied up at the highest levels.  Trickle down economics doesn’t exist because not enough trickles down.  As more money gets tied up in share holders’ banks or in other ‘investments’, there is less money to put back into businesses.  Therefore, cost of living wage increases do not match the actual early inflation levels so most people are getting poorer and poorer. 

I know this is a bit of an oversimplification of the flaws of our economic system.  But I still think it is a valid viewpoint and I still think ‘shareholders’ are the biggest leach on our economy and they are just people looking for a return for doing nothing.