Originally Posted by BillCosby

Well said.........



I imagine the terrorist were quite shocked @ how quickly the ppl there were able to move on & get over it..........

Originally Posted by disfigured

So a president could completely fuck up all those things, and I couldn't care less.

What I do need is a president smart enough not collapse the entire country's economy over some ridiculously misguided theo-political vision, that was founded by pseudo wanna-be-intellectual hacks.

Originally Posted by cheapseats

disfigured:
I'm wary of any economic policy.

cheapseats:
As you should be.

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disfigured:
I think Economics is a soft science.

cheapseats:
More inexact than soft, I think millions upon millions will back me up on that.

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disfigured:
In fact I don't think, I know it's a soft science.


cheapseats:
Economics is a soft science in the same way, conceptually not literally, that political science is soft and social science is soft and psychology is...geez Louise...bounce-house soft.

I don't know that it's correct to do so...that's okay, there's no pop quiz tomorrow...but I refer to certain sciences as hard. Not hard as in difficult although, for me, that too, but hard as in inflexible, with immutable laws.

Math...there may be more than one way to get to it but there's a right answer. The professor who has graded an answer as wrong is unlikely to be persuaded to another view by subjective argument, regardless how interesting or logical.

Same thing with chemistry, physics, engineering, biology.

But man of man, put a few of them together...as, say, in medicine...and the alchemy is less true. We got us some wiggle room here, and the lawsuits to prove it.

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disfigured:
It's reliant on the conduct of completely unpredictable people.


cheapseats:
No, it's not.

People are NOT completely unpredictable, for starters.

People are born and people die, that's reliable. And we observe that, in a capitalist society, birth and death are big and steady businesses. There's a price tag on both.

Cutting a spacious and well-appointed booth for the peculiar American habit of paying a premium for designer labels and other Keep Up With The Joneses touchstones, people WILL gravitate to lower prices.

There IS a distinction between Want, however urgent it FEELS, and bona fide Need. When the going gets tough enough, people WILL dispense with Wants and cannot dispense with Needs. People will do what they have to do to satisfy Need. People WILL kill for food, for example.

All people need nutritious food, potable water and breathable air.

All people need sleep.

Most people prefer comfort. Most people like bells and whistles. Most people are distracted by shiny objects.

No doubt owing to the spectacular vulnerability of each small human in a great big world, most people have, at bedrock, fear and insecurity. Fear and insecurity is EASILY manipulated and readily marketed. I give you the insurance industry.

Nor are market forces completely unpredictable.

Resources are scarce-read-that-limited.

In a free market, excess supply WILL have a downward influence on prices just as surely as excess demand drives prices up.

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disfigured:
If a fad of frugality ever sweep the country ever single University Professor's theories would be completely null and void.

cheapseats:
That WOULD throw Big Money for a loop. I have argued and argued for strategic boycotts, but to no avail. See above re: comfort. The people have so much more power than they realize but they do not want to be inconvenienced, plus they are afraid of the Big Boys. 'Don't put it on my credit report...no, anything but that!'

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disfigured:
I print the Economic Journals and case studies for major Universities in the New England area. I've read nearly every article written by these eggheads. Not a single one isn't loaded with just about entirely hindsight.

cheapseats:
Usually 20/20.

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disfigured:
Most of em couldn't make a go of a lemonade stand if their lives depended on it.

cheapseats:
True, that. Ditto, politicians.

I do not subscribe wholesale to the conventional wisdom says, "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach." A teacher is a special Type, and we could use more of them. And we'd have more of them, if we regarded them and remunerated them in accordance with their service.

But, yeah, generally speaking, the ones who know what's goin' on are out there MAKING it go on.

Book smart and life stupid, my father used to call it.

There's how a thing reads on paper and there's how a thing works in practical application.

There was a great story about a guy at one of the Ivy League schools who got a shit grade on a paper that proposed overnight delivery. There was the professor, in issuing I want to say a C+, citing all the reasons why not. The kid...I forget if he dropped out or graduated...went on to found FedEx.



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disfigured:
It would be like putting the statistician up at the plate in the bottom of the ninth because he had a good handle on the numbers.

cheapseats:
That said, a good handle on the numbers is EXTREMELY important in commerce.

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disfigured:
All I do know is the present political party in power isn't doing a good job so it's time for a change. Where have I heard that? Wow......

cheapseats:
Better define change. 'Out of the frying pan, into the fire" didn't come into widespread use by happenstance.


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disfigured:
This is a throw the bums out year.

cheapseats:
I felt the same and strongly so, but no longer put stock in it unless it is the result of outright revolution and, even then, it's only a matter of time before the fresh blood is corrupted. We see it again and again in our own history, we see it again and again in world history. Look how heavy-handed the founder of FedEx became, once protecting his bottom line.

Throwing a few assholes into federal penitentiaries...the ones to which they are so eager to consign so many minorities...THAT'S what will enjoin Changed behavior upon government officials.

There are a few right now who could EASILY be prosecuted, but the people wait politely and fearfully for the criminals' partners in crime to do the job. Good one.

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disfigured:
If it doesn't succeed the two-party system is doomed.

cheapseats:
I think we should at least talk about a parliamentary system.

Originally Posted by cheapseats

Agreed. Well...I care, but it doesn't much affect me if the next president fucks all those things up, except as I am obliged to walk around more people who sleep on the street.

The economy is the ticket to everything, obviously. Money is more important than anything, it couldn't be more clear.

Barack Obama has signified no economic brilliance, on the contrary, and has been designated as the most liberal senator in Congress. Without stimulating the economy, the only way to pay for all that change is to raise taxes. My money man predicts 54% taxes and his financial institution is planning on $150 per barrel for oil. Goldman Sachs, who read the mortgage crisis better than any of the others, is making its plans around $200 per barrel, he said. 'Course who else but a liar would handle a liar's money?

It is not just economic fallacy, it is economic folly to think a good man can't make a bad situation worse.

Jimmy Carter comes to mind.

Originally Posted by Rollerball

dude, you need a life

Originally Posted by cheapseats

Ouch...you cut me to the quick.

You know how Obama bowls like a girl? You post like a girl.

However we got here, whoever is to blame, we ARE AT WAR...people ARE being killed, not that that is as compelling as ObamaRama.

There ARE people who mean us harm. There IS a radical sect of the Brotherhood of Islam whose divine marching orders include our annihilation.

It is an important thing to bear in mind.

Originally Posted by cheapseats

Agreed. Well...I care, but it doesn't much affect me if the next president fucks all those things up, except as I am obliged to walk around more people who sleep on the street.

The economy is the ticket to everything, obviously. Money is more important than anything, it couldn't be more clear.

Barack Obama has signified no economic brilliance, on the contrary, and has been designated as the most liberal senator in Congress. Without stimulating the economy, the only way to pay for all that change is to raise taxes. My money man predicts 54% taxes and his financial institution is planning on $150 per barrel for oil. Goldman Sachs, who read the mortgage crisis better than any of the others, is making its plans around $200 per barrel, he said. 'Course who else but a liar would handle a liar's money?

It is not just economic fallacy, it is economic folly to think a good man can't make a bad situation worse.

Jimmy Carter comes to mind.

Originally Posted by disfigured

I'm wary of any economic policy. I think Economics is a soft science. In fact I don't think, I know it's a soft science.

It's reliant on the conduct of completely unpredictable people. If a fad of frugality ever sweep the country ever single University Professor's theories would be completely null and void.

I print the Economic Journals and case studies for major Universities in the New England area. I've read nearly every article written by these eggheads. Not a single one isn't loaded with just about entirely hindsight. Most of em couldn't make a go of a lemonade stand if their lives depended on it. It would be like putting the statistician up at the plate in the bottom of the ninth because he had a good handle on the numbers.

All I do know is the present political party in power isn't doing a good job so it's time for a change. Where have I heard that? Wow......

This is a throw the bums out year. If it doesn't succeed the two-party system is doomed.