Quote:
Originally Posted by Oregon Elephant
When used properly, not when exploited.
|
By "used properly" you really mean, "used in a way of which I approve".
Quote:
|
You're makeing a lot of assumptions about the poorer people. Many of the poor have kids, so they can't work 16 hours a day. They are finding a way to survive, by voting, making a difference, and making the oil companies stop gauging prices. They are trying to change the world, or do you feel that is shooting to high and they should just accept the world and change themselves instead?
|
They can't work sixteen hour days because of the choices
they made, not the oil companies, not the government, they themselves. How is it you deny any personal responsibility for your or anybody else's situation in life? They can feel free to vote, but it seems to me that if they have the time to be away from their kids to really get out there and advocate taking wealth away from people, they've certainly got the time to go out there and make some of their own.
Quote:
|
As for me, I can't live any closer to my work, I don't have the money for the nice side of town and those fancy homes. But I managed to get lucky enough to get a job over there.
|
Sounds to me like you made an employment CHOICE which consequently affects other elements of your life. I'm sure there are a myriad of other living situations and employment solutions you either didn't want or didn't find in your searching, the bottom line is that you CHOSE to live where you live and you CHOSE to work where you work.
Quote:
|
I don't think I even need to be in this debate, you are argueing against yourself. You began with saying that we should stop complaining and if we want the price to go down we need to stop consuming, now you shoot your own argument by saying "when America slows its consumption, those countries pick up the slack."
|
Referencing domestic consumption and production (which does exist) and then referencing the global consumption and production of the same commodity (the companies with which we take exception) is in no way contradictory. Different rules apply at the domestic and global levels of economics.
Quote:
|
All the nations have the same consumption pattern.
|
Really? So China's petroleum consumption has NOT substantially increased over the last ten years regardless of global economic conditions or your assanine 'time of year' measurement? All this time I'd been listening to IMF and WB numbers when really the overly simplistic news stories about gas consumption fluctuating at certain times of the year were all I needed. Thanks Career Point!
Quote:
|
Unless the countries in the southern hemisphere began using a heck of a lot of oil (as their summer is our winter, so their driving season is our off-driving season), then those other countries are not picking up the slack. The price is going up even though demand goes down. That's not free trade, that's price gouging.
|
Oil is used for more than gasoline champ, like plastic manufacturing, electrical power, and a multitude of other heavy industries in which China and India find themselves rapidly expanding.
Your definition of "free trade" is similar to your definition of "used appropriately"; if it is in line with your preferences. Such a method of defining terms in a discussion does not reflect any degree of variable operationalization or uniformity of terms or conditions. Oil companies aren't lying to us and saying oil will cure cancer, nor are they forcing us to buy their product, thus the trade is absent fraud or force and is in fact free. Just because you don't like it doesn't make it any less true.
Quote:
|
What are you talking about?
|
Read Joseph Stiglitz or Saskia Sassen, two of academia's most heralded economists and two of the biggest idiots to ever print a word of text. Fact is, America enjoyed an inflated economy characterized by egregiously high wages and even egregiously higher spending. Our economy must adjust to reflect the lack of global desire to buy American products (no longer made in America) and the lethargy and feeling of entitlement among America's last remaining manufacturing sector employees.
Life's tough sometimes, and not everybody can have two cars, a house, and a dog named Spot. The idea is to do the best YOU can without blaming your shortcomings on the prosperity of others. If people are seriously having trouble putting together $128 extra a month, maybe it's time they reconsider their spending habits, or maybe seek additional income. Even when I made minimum wage (I flipped many a burger in my youth), I could move finances around to find cash, surely people making even low wages can do the same. If they can't, oh well, we can't allow the failures of the few useless individuals in a society to justify punishing the successful. It's your life, manage it like an adult.