Do you take any interest in published rich lists?

[Kanamori]

I find this sort of thing amazing because it can reflect how differently different social classes think about money, I went into a service station the other day while waiting on some friends and there were newspapers on the stand, one had front page news about how a terminally ill guy in his early twenties had raised 3 million in the closing weeks and months of his life for cancer charities following his diagnosis as being terminally ill, next to it was a news paper suggesting that a pharmacorps execs stood to make a 60 million bonus, that's bonus, that's not even what they earn, on a merger with another US firm.

If you've got people earning sixty million as a bonus then I'm afraid that raising three million for charity does not seem the same some how. Its great that something has been raised, it no doubt does make a difference, however it does illustrate how little a contribution it could be for some people to make a similar denotion themselves personally without feeling any "hurt" from it.

It was also an interesting coincidence that the guy was raising the money for a cancer research charity and the bonuses being highlighted were those of pharma corp execs, you know not entirely unrelated fields.

... but, but they deserve it! Who wants to cure cancer when you can have a fleet of yachts you'll barely use instead?

 

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[MENTION=5601]vandyke[/MENTION]

Money is going up but the value is going down.

That's true. But if one is going up and the other down, doesn't that sort of cancel out each other? Inflation is a funny concept when you think about it...

Also things are still produced by large companies, but the produced items aren't worth anything to a lot of rich folks.

The bigger the slice of money pie, to go with my allegory from my previous post, the cheaper everything seems.

For example a farm might produce a lot of grain, and somebody makes a long contract for it to the farmer, basically agreeing to buy it when it is ready, but then they turn around and sell a short contract because all they want is the money. They never even take delivery of the grain, they've already sold it before it was even harvested.

[video=youtube;TClcxy4Ku28]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TClcxy4Ku28[/video]

It should be illegal to do this type of stuff. It's because of financial arrangements like the one you mentioned that we experience financial turmoil from time to time. People are just people. If I had $200 billion dollars, I wouldn't think twice to invest in something that could cost me $100 billion, if it meant that I might win $500 billion. Money turn into monopoly money when you have that type of availability. That's why we should have laws against it, so that I couldn't do that and risk your money and what you've invested.

I'm not a socialist nut. I'm an upper-middle class white guy who just happens to believe that this economic climate is insane. For instance, I would be very happy if we stopped measuring economic growth by how much money we spent, and instead measured how much overall wealth and money value was present in our countries. The belief that if we spend a dollar in a store, it would go into the hands of the person that received the dollar, is outdated and no longer true. Much of the money we spend go to foreign investors, Eurasian factories and future contracts, like you mentioned.

 

[Lark]

... but, but they deserve it! Who wants to cure cancer when you can have a fleet of yachts you'll barely use instead?

There is a choice between curing cancer and purchasing a fleet of yachts?

Is this like a choice between the military-industrial complex and pharmaceutical corporations?

 

[Kanamori]

There is a choice between curing cancer and purchasing a fleet of yachts?

Is this like a choice between the military-industrial complex and pharmaceutical corporations?

You're right, it should be "trying" but my point is that there are much better uses for it.

 

[Lark]

You're right, it should be "trying" but my point is that there are much better uses for it.

I dont know, personally I suspect that massive personal or private spends on cancer cures will produce the same results as massive public spends on cancer cures, the research and development, the production and distribution etc. will all remain controlled by a couple of massive, mega-corporations with vested interests in maintaing the present patterns of production and distribution with little change or innovation over time, the same as energy companies and alternatives to intensive use of fossil fuels. There's no conspiracy involved, just business practice, business cycles and business culture.

 

[Kanamori]

I dont know, personally I suspect that massive personal or private spends on cancer cures will produce the same results as massive public spends on cancer cures, the research and development, the production and distribution etc. will all remain controlled by a couple of massive, mega-corporations with vested interests in maintaing the present patterns of production and distribution with little change or innovation over time, the same as energy companies and alternatives to intensive use of fossil fuels. There's no conspiracy involved, just business practice, business cycles and business culture.

Yachts are our salvation? Something that has a cause has no cure? I wouldn't be entirely surprised if things didn't change, but that doesn't mean that they won't or can't.