Supply and Demand Retards

[Loki]

Should people serve economics, or should economics serve humans? This hurricane showed that people are just discardable parts of economy. It makes Cuba and Venezuela look more civilized. Venezuela sent aid (449 tons of supplies and equipment) to the victims in Cuba. No billing, no market, no market laws.

Ayuda humanitaria de Venezuela llega a Cuba para damnificados de 'Sandy'
http://noticierostelevisa.esmas.com/...ficados-sandy/

In all seriousness, your post makes less sense than what kat posted today.

[ar81]

In all seriousness, your post makes less sense than what kat posted today.

In the anglosaxon culture, the system (the hive) comes first. Human welfare is second. It always amazed me how psychopatic this view is. Empathy is about putting yourself in other people's shoes, understand them, feel like them. The oposite is psychopathy, where you are careless about human suffering. You might be interested about reading what Dr. Robert Hare has written on this.

For example, Wall Street rewards companies that fire people, even if it sinks the nation into recession and unemployment. The reason why recession is good for Wall Street is that deflation adds profit margin for bonds, so the more unemployment in US, the more gain bond speculators may get from US bonds. If QE had money been given to US people under "helicopter Ben", US would have had a recovery and some inflation that would hurt bond speculators. Instead, QE was given to banks so they can speculate with US bonds, and as bankers "sponsor/lobby" congressmen and politicians, there was no political support for a recovery that would start with incubation of small companies, tight regulation of credit, ban on derivatives that caused crisis, changes in credit ratings according to asset risk, etc.

This Wall Street view contrasts with the words of Dave Packard:

"The betterment of our society is not a job to be left to a few. It's a responsibility to be shared by all." - David Packard

"I think many people assume wrongly, that a company exists simply to make money. While this is an important result of the company's existence, we have to go deeper, to find our real reason for being. A group of people get together and exist as an institution that we call a company to do something worthwhile, they make a contribution to society." - David Packard.

IN the past US did not need any government social programs for safety nets because communities and companies played that role, so it is understandable that people were reluctant to pay taxes for something they already did. But in the 1980s yuppie culture and greed flooded US and this social safety net was broken. Now Titanic (as portrayed in the movie) is a good representation of US society.

You are biased by anglosaxon press that is in banker's side and has a political bias. If you see Venezuela, after the regime of Carlos Andres Perez that sank Venezuela like Zapatero and Rajoy had sunk Spain, there was 70% of poverty in 1996 and even if Chavez is politically hated by anglosaxon press, his regime reduced poverty dramatically. If you read CEPAL's report "Panorama Social de América Latina 2011" Venezuela is third place as the Latin American country with less poverty in 2010. Between 2002 and 2010 poverty was reduced 20.8% (from 48,6% to 27,8%) and extreme poverty wet from 22,2% to 10,7%. You may read the report here: http://www.eclac.org/publicaciones/x...ica-Latina.pdf

Venezuela, Argentina, and even Cuba are getting immigrants from Spain who are after a better future. Independent studies on US unemployment place US unemployment in 22%, very similar to Spain. In 2011 US debt vs GDP was the 7th worst and Spain was not even among the top ten. Nowadays, Argentina is getting immigrants from US and Spain.

Argentina's Economic Woes Spur Emigration
La crisis envÃ*a a miles de jóvenes a Argentina

It seems the American dream has a better chance in Argentina, than in US.

[GGT]

<snip>

IN the past US did not need any government social programs for safety nets because communities and companies played that role, so it is understandable that people were reluctant to pay taxes for something they already did. But in the 1980s yuppie culture and greed flooded US and this social safety net was broken. Now Titanic (as portrayed in the movie) is a good representation of US society.

The "social contract" changed earlier than that....after great advancements in medicine and technology. Many things were too expensive for any average citizen OR community to afford, but no one wanted children dying from Measles or crippled by Polio. And we certainly didn't want to see retired teachers living in chicken coops, or widows and orphans begging in the streets. That's why Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid became important programs.

I just wanted to respond to that part of your post regarding supply/demand, and comparing nations in time-line. Developing nations still consider clean water, sanitary sewerage, mosquito netting, and Penicillin major health initiatives.