If you subscribe to the view that corporations are better suited to make decisions than elected representatives, if you believe that corporations should be permitted to spend unlimited amounts of money influencing/bribing elected representatives, if you believe there should be no laws constraining corporations, then be honest, you have lost faith in “one man one vote” and subscribe to “one dollar one vote”. If you lived in the middle ages, you would have been advocating government of, for and by the landed nobility.
~ Roedy (born: 1948-02-04 age: 64)
If you think about it, you probably would not enjoy being super rich. You would have a house too big that needed endless cleaning. The snooty neighbours would hassle you if your lawn and garden were not perfect. Criminals would be breaking in all the time, and sometimes even kidnapping family members. People would resent you. There would be endless streams of pests wanting you to invest or spend your money with them. You could afford any tempting food you wanted. Finances would be no check on overeating. Taxes would become a major life preoccupation. Your current friends would feel awkward around you. You would not have a minute’s peace.
~ Roedy (born: 1948-02-04 age: 64)
If you write to a company to complain about a consumer product such as soap with an obnoxious perfume, they will send you a coupon to buy more of the product you found of unacceptable quality.
~ Roedy (born: 1948-02-04 age: 64)
Imagine a couple had twin 9-year-old boys names Jim and Don and a brand new hardwood floor. The mother came home and found the boys roller skating/inline skating/roller blading on the new floor. It was covered in white scratches in a diamond pattern.
Cut that out! the mother shouted.
No! the boys shouted back in unison.
What? You are ruining our new floor!
But Miltie Fryedmon says that rollerblading is the most important thing there is! It trumps every other consideration!! That is the most fundamental principle of the universe!!! argued Jim.
Not in my house it isn’t! Who is this Miltie Fryedmon anyway?
You don’t know?? Jeez! Everyone who is anyone knows who he is!! He has a website and everything!!! jeered Don.This story is not literally true. It is a parable about the way so many people have taken as an article faith that profit is more important than anything else, no matter how destructive it is.
~ Roedy (born: 1948-02-04 age: 64)
Imagine a future where every child born is guaranteed shelter, at least two loving, stable, adult caretakers/parents, medical care and food.
~ Roedy (born: 1948-02-04 age: 64)
Imagine a game so intense that major losers sometimes commit suicide. One such game is money.
~ Roedy (born: 1948-02-04 age: 64)
Imagine a planet where once in a lifetime, people play a dart game. Someone throws a ball with coloured squares into the air and the player tosses a dart at it. If he misses, he is instantly killed. Whichever colour the dart lands on determines the player’ entire life destiny. Some people will be confined their entire lives to a region corresponding to the square. Some squares mean income will always be below subsistence no matter what the person does. Some regions guarantee lifetime medical care, dental care, education, food and lodging no matter how they subsequently behave. Some regions bestow the right of the player to say whatever he pleases without interference. Others constrain the player to flattering the leaders on pain of death. When you point out how arbitrary this scheme is, they remind you it is scarcely different from how things are done on earth.
~ Roedy (born: 1948-02-04 age: 64)
Imagine a species of pig than spent huge amounts of energy finding and rooting up truffles, then buried them in a hole and forgot them. That is similar to what humans do with gold.
~ Roedy (born: 1948-02-04 age: 64)
Imagine being born a prince and being taught from birth that you were, simply from your status as a prince, not from any special skill or talent, specially favoured of God and vastly more worthy than ordinary men. Imagine being taught your privilege extended to taking anything you wanted from any non-prince, including their time, wives, daughters or sons. Imagine being taught that anyone who resisted your will was a terrorist who deserved the death penalty. Now you know what is like to born Israeli or American.
~ Roedy (born: 1948-02-04 age: 64)
Imagine being filthy rich. It would be similar to a world where you could afford everything because it was so cheap. The fanciest imaginable steak dinner would be only a penny. A yacht would be $5. What would constrain your consumption? — just the health damage of too many calories and nuisance value of too many possessions. Like an obsessive-compulsive lunatic, you would fret over very penny, as a way of keeping score of your worth, even though none of the wealth had any effect at all on what you could buy.
~ Roedy (born: 1948-02-04 age: 64)
Imagine if you want to the supermarket selected two small apples. You took them to the checkout and the checkout lady said “That’ 2 kg (4.41 lbs).” “No its not!” you protest. The checkout lady points to the computer screen and says “see the computer says it is. That settles it.” You would have some recourse. You could go the weights and measures people and file a complaint and get the supermarket in trouble for using crooked scales. But try the same thing at a bank. Let’s say the interest was advertised at 5% and yet somehow they want $50 interest on a 6 month $100 loan. The catch is the bank is permitted to compute interest and other charges in any way it pleases. There is nothing equivalent to standard weights and measures for financial services. In the USA, every financial institution has its own private way of computing interest, and considers this a trade secret. This makes it impossible to comparison shop for financial services. Every once in a while a politician tries to stop this fraud and every time the banks manage to stop him. ~ Roedy (born: 1948-02-04 age: 64)
Imagine if you were a king in the middle ages. What privileges would you enjoy? You could eat until you were full every night. You could sleep on sheets, and have them washed every week if you wanted. You could stay warm with a fire in your room and furs on your bed. You could sleep with pretty anyone you wanted. You could have peasants grow strawberries for you while they starved. Today, it is as if all the kings moved to North America and ruled their Asian and African peastants from afar. On the other hand, a king of yore had to face a toothache, swollen appendix, infestation of parasites, sexually transmitted disease or gout all on his own.
~ Roedy (born: 1948-02-04 age: 64)