[Sivad]

How to make the music industry more egalitarian:

1. Cap record sales to 10,000 per title.
2. Make it illegal for a musician to receive more than $100,000 in a single year from any source.
3. Make it illegal to build venues with a seating capacity in excess of 500.
4. Make it illegal for anyone to collate or publish sales information with the exception of tax authorities and music regulatory authorities.
5. Make it illegal for anyone to communicate an opinion on the quality of any artist or their works.
6. Require fans to register with a regulatory body to have their musical tastes issued to them.
7. Just shoot everyone in the back of the head, because real equality only happens when we are all dead.

Or you could just provide public access to print, radio, tv, and live venues. It's crazy that we allow our systems of mass communication to be controlled by a handful of private corporations. We could easily make it way more fair and democratic. Market fundamentalism and red fascism aren't the only options. Why not anarchize society as much as practically possible?

[Agent Steel]

I'm kind of pissed off to be honest. Ever since I was a kid I did absolutely everything to try to build a future for myself. Yet today I can hardly make any damn money despite this.

I have gone above and beyond to give my absolute best efforts in all aspects of life. And it's not even close to being good enough.

Seriously fuck the world. I am full of hatred. It's like the world is set up so I can't win.

I thought this was supposed to be the land of opportunity? It's not. The system has clearly failed.

[Crantag]

I'm kind of pissed off to be honest. Ever since I was a kid I did absolutely everything to try to build a future for myself. Yet today I can hardly make any damn money despite this.

I have gone above and beyond to give my absolute best efforts in all aspects of life. And it's not even close to being good enough.

Seriously fuck the world. I am full of hatred. It's like the world is set up so I can't win.

I thought this was supposed to be the land of opportunity? It's not. The system has clearly failed.

Let me recommend a decent book, which is out of copyright and thus freely available; and which contains a lot of good tips on personal financial management (don't be thrown off by the dramatic title).

The Science of Getting Rich (ebook)
The Science of Getting Rich (Audiobook)

I think it's fair to say that one of the key underlying theses is that the so-called 'science of getting rich' boils down simply to "doing things a certain way."

[Agent Steel]

Thank you. Have you read this book yourself? Have you used its advice?

[Crantag]

Thank you. Have you read this book yourself? Have you used its advice?

I listened to the audio version in the car during long work trips.

I have used its advice, although I did find much of it very intuitive, given my economics background; but I also picked up some pointers as well as some inspiration and affirmations.

It is really simple stuff for the most part, but presented rather logically, and rather concise and direct.

It's basically about doing what you can with what you got; taking advantage of those things you have in front of you; spending less than you earn (and visa versa, making more than you spend); observations such as how it is possible to be successful in any field (and likewise unsuccessful), and just things of that nature, really.

[Truth To Power]

I'm kind of pissed off to be honest. Ever since I was a kid I did absolutely everything to try to build a future for myself. Yet today I can hardly make any damn money despite this.

I have gone above and beyond to give my absolute best efforts in all aspects of life. And it's not even close to being good enough.

Seriously fuck the world. I am full of hatred. It's like the world is set up so I can't win.

I thought this was supposed to be the land of opportunity? It's not. The system has clearly failed.

The capitalist system -- especially modern finance capitalism -- has succeeded in doing what it was designed to do: enrich rich, greedy, privileged parasites at the expense of the honest and productive. If you want to understand how that was done to you, just read all my posts in this forum.

[Agent Steel]

Exactly. Which is why we really should advocate for some form of SOCIALISM, in the interest of fairness.

[Truth To Power]

I think the all time winner is probably John Lennon, when he was shot in 1980 he had 400 million pounds in the bank. He didn't inherit that and he didn't have another trade so that was all from music royalties.

"Royalties"? I wonder what they might be. I wonder why they might be called, "ROYAL"ties.

Such a mystery. To you, that is....

Who made him such an obnoxious pareto distribution winner? Was it Joe Stalin? Was it the Queen of England? Was it the prez of america? No it was untold millions of little people who all chose to like JL's jingly jangly pop tunes better than the random next guy's tunes.

No, it was the LAW that prevented people from enjoying those jingly jangly pop tunes without paying ROYALTIES.

The OP himself has probably put a few quid into JL's dead pockets. JL was made by the fans not by the government or the "oligarchy".

That is a false and absurd load of crap. The oligarchy's government forcibly imposed a system DESIGNED to enrich greedy, privileged, parasitic rentiers like John Lennon. That system rewards creation of "brands" like John Lennon and the Beatles, not high-quality creative output.

Exactly. Which is why we really should advocate for some form of SOCIALISM, in the interest of fairness.

Capitalism will always beat socialism because when socialists steal capital, it reduces the amount of capital available for production; by contrast, when capitalists steal land, it does not reduce the amount of land available for production.

Socialists claim to advocate socialism for the sake of justice, while capitalists claim to advocate capitalism for the sake of liberty. But if capitalists truly valued liberty more than capitalism, they would advocate justice, not capitalism; and if socialists truly valued justice more than socialism, they would advocate liberty, not socialism.

[B0ycey]

The capitalist system -- especially modern finance capitalism -- has succeeded in doing what it was designed to do: enrich rich, greedy, privileged parasites at the expense of the honest and productive.

A worthy assessment.

If you want to understand how that was done to you, just read all my posts in this forum.

An unworthly assessment.


For someone to have capital @Agent Steel, someone/something else must be in debted to them. So unfortunately AS, you can work as hard as you like, but if you don't have something to offer that someone else is looking for, you will always struggle to make money. This is a supply and demand issue, but TtP would blame land rents for your problems though. You'll be shooting the landlord before the banker if you listen to him.

[Rancid]

The biggest fallacy is that Capitalism is fair.

[Truth To Power]

For someone to have capital @Agent Steel, someone/something else must be in debted to them.

False. Capital is not debt. Debt (including debt money) is debt.

So unfortunately AS, you can work as hard as you like, but if you don't have something to offer that someone else is looking for, you will always struggle to make money.

And also if you do. The system is designed to make you struggle even when you DO have something to offer that someone else wants, as long as you do not have a MONOPOLY on that thing.

This is a supply and demand issue,

It is a monopoly privilege to restrict supply issue.

but TtP would blame land rents for your problems though.

It's by far the biggest and most important piece of the problem.

You'll be shooting the landlord before the banker if you listen to him.

Without landowner privilege, what would the banks lend for, and against?

[B0ycey]

False. Capital is not debt. Debt (including debt money) is debt.

Are you aware that legal tender is an IOU against the government? It is a debt. And is the reason why a nation needs a certain amount of debt to keep its economy running. But a nation is not an individual. When an individual gets into debt, they can't rely on taxes to bail them out. They rely on their Labor to bail them out, as what else have they got to sell?

[Rugoz]

Actually the effect of limiting pay for athletes, musicians, and other entertainers would only be to further tip the balance in the favor of the promoters and managers which get obscenely rich off exploiting the talents of said performers.

Mind you, I have for one never implied it would be desirable to cap salaries of entertainers, whatsoever. That'd strike me as a right wing, corporation lover notion if I have ever seen one.

It's not about decreasing the wage share of total sports revenue, but about decreasing the wage spread, i.e. redistributing from the winning teams/athletes to the losing teams/athletes. I'm not a particular fan of collective bargaining, but in sports and other (partial) zero-sum markets it makes sense.

[Drlee]

The capitalist system -- especially modern finance capitalism -- has succeeded in doing what it was designed to do: enrich rich, greedy, privileged parasites at the expense of the honest and productive. If you want to understand how that was done to you, just read all my posts in this forum.

You do realize that this statement makes no sense whatsoever.

[annatar1914]

I thought this was a most wise comment;

Capitalism has nothing to do with rewarding those who work hard. Capitalism has everything to do with rewarding those who own capital (that's why it is called 'capitalism'). Capitalism is entirely dependent to function on the dependent relation of immiserated workers to capitalists, who as we have observed, most likely inherited their capital to begin with.

Sigh, so what is to be done? There is not a single true Communist nation on Earth left. They were all infiltrated into and imploded from within to collapse, like those Towers on 9-11. And then the Capitalists have started running wild now, unhindered by fear of Communism or any Proletariat consciousness among the workers, and turned everything to garbage. What reigns instead are gangsters of the most predatory sort. Feeble Liberalism provides the slightest of fig leaves to cover the scandal of the rape of the laboring and toiling poor in this world, with liberals immersed and distracted by identity politics and advocacy for bourgeosie decadence.

But the specter of Communism, ghost that it is, must be haunting someone at the top. It's the only reason why Donald Trump said he'd run for office, decades ago. This is how Fascism rises again, one should know, the only reason and none other. For Fascism is the violence (and bribery) of the power of the State against the working classes to preserve Capitalism in it's essence, by the generation of pseudo mass movements, militarism, and nationalist populism. Tariffs and Autarky with a buildup of military forces saving national industries. Did you know Trump was selected by the Elites to be the War President? You should have known. The Elites of Capitalism don't have to like Trump and the other Praetorians of Money, most don't, but they'll come around when they understand why he's in power. 25 years of unfettered Capitalism, especially in the ultimately ephemeral Silicon Valley ''Information Technology'' Sector, have made many in the Bourgeosie stupid with success. Trump is there in the White House to save them from their stupidity, of their killing the goose that lays the golden eggs for them.

Like my assessment of the situation or not, it is what it is, the truth.

[Truth To Power]

You do realize that this statement makes no sense whatsoever.

It makes perfect sense.

Are you aware that legal tender is an IOU against the government? It is a debt.

But that's not what "capital" means.

And is the reason why a nation needs a certain amount of debt to keep its economy running.

False. Nations have run on debt-free commodity money in the past, and could run on debt-free fiat money if they wanted to cut out the something-for-nothing payments to banksters.

Sigh, so what is to be done?

Try a little honest thought. That's all that's needed, but it is vanishingly rare. If you can manage it, the results can be found in my posts.

There is not a single true Communist nation on Earth left.

Thank God.

They were all infiltrated into and imploded from within to collapse, like those Towers on 9-11.

No, they were all unable to stand from the start. Communism is absurd, anti-economic nonsense.

And then the Capitalists have started running wild now, unhindered by fear of Communism or any Proletariat consciousness among the workers, and turned everything to garbage.

Because the socialists/communists/Marxists betrayed the workers when they pretended that capital is land.

Feeble Liberalism provides the slightest of fig leaves to cover the scandal of the rape of the laboring and toiling poor in this world, with liberals immersed and distracted by identity politics and advocacy for bourgeosie decadence.

Right. What's left of the left is stewing in an intellectual toxic waste dump of Marx-inspired post-modernism.

But the specter of Communism, ghost that it is, must be haunting someone at the top. It's the only reason why Donald Trump said he'd run for office, decades ago. This is how Fascism rises again, one should know, the only reason and none other.

No, they are aware that communism is not their real or even a dangerous enemy. It is too impotent and idiotic. Their real enemies are liberty, justice and truth. To avoid that challenge, they pretend to fight socialism/communism, and the socialists/communists pretend to fight them. They are like two crooked palookas, pretending to fight while they actually hold each other up to avoid meeting the real challenger.

Like my assessment of the situation or not, it is what it is, the truth.

The above is closer.

[Nonsense]

The capitalist system -- especially modern finance capitalism -- has succeeded in doing what it was designed to do: enrich rich, greedy, privileged parasites at the expense of the honest and productive. If you want to understand how that was done to you, just read all my posts in this forum.

NONSENSE-

It might come as a surprise to you that it was not all about 'Capitalism' doing what it's supposed to do.

Rather, more of it (the concentration of wealth)has come about through the incestuous relationship between business & political parties, whose representatives that we elect are supposed to look after the 'democratic' society.

In the U.K, the TORY Party stuff the pockets of the rich - better off, with tax breaks, tax cuts ' 'blind-eye' to corruption(of which the Tories are a major part),public contracts awarded in secrecy, in reward for 'bungs', ALL paid for by 'Welfare Reform', 'caps' on public sector pay, public pension caps on increases, benefit caps & other spending cuts.

You can guess what the outcome at the next general election is going to be, I hope, but do not expect, that CORBYN is anything other than a 'chancer' in the 'last gasp' saloon, bellowing rhetorical gas about bringing about a different order for the 'many', not the 'few'.

Now, call me a cynic, but every Labour Party post-war election manifesto has been full of 'promises', NONE of them kept & any little promises have always been undone whenever the Tories have got back in power.

I'm too old to give a xxxx, that's why I think people should vote for CORBYN, it's the 'Nuclear' option, that is, if the TORIES will not(they won't)deliver for those they have attacked since WW2, then get rid of them per sempre.

[Drlee]

Truth To Power wrote:
The capitalist system -- especially modern finance capitalism -- has succeeded in doing what it was designed to do: enrich rich, greedy, privileged parasites at the expense of the honest and productive. If you want to understand how that was done to you, just read all my posts in this forum.

Nonsense is correct. The problem is not with capitalism. It is with the unholy alliance between politics and capitalism. In fact, the problem is not capitalism that is the problem it is the failure of government to constrain it. If you wish to blame politicians for enriching some of the people who you have blamed then I am with you. I am no fan of unrestrained capitalism and I know practically no one who is. Of course the world has never seen unrestrained capitalism.

Then you refer to all capitalists as rich, greedy, privileged parasites and all others as "honest and productive". Which am I? I am well fixed having made my money mostly as an entrepreneur. Does that mean that I am a greedy, privileged parasite?

Your position is very naive. Shallow.

[Crantag]

It's not about decreasing the wage share of total sports revenue, but about decreasing the wage spread, i.e. redistributing from the winning teams/athletes to the losing teams/athletes. I'm not a particular fan of collective bargaining, but in sports and other (partial) zero-sum markets it makes sense.

You don't understand how the system works, with your insistence on the zero-sum situation. There is no such zero-sum situation.

Sports teams are franchises, which generate revenue as a function of viewership patterns, which are a function of their relative popularity; which is basically a function of their ability to win; and otherwise attract viewers.

Your notion of a zero-sum situation categorically assumes that the numbers of viewers/live spectators are fixed, but this is not at all how it works.

In individual sports like boxing, the fighters who attract the largest number of PPV buys are the ones who get the most pay.

But there are imperfections. In the case of boxing, there are no unifying institutions like leagues--or unions--and so really no mechanism at all of utilizing a proportion of revenues from the most successful event to foster the sport in other areas--if such a thing were to be deemed desirable. On the other hand, as boxing gets more popular (which it has done recently), there are more opportunities and bigger purses.

As for team sports though, redistribution already does occur--a team which generates a lot of revenue for itself also generates a lot of revenue for its league at the same time, and some of this does go around. At least the NFL has minimum salaries in place, including for the 3rd-string practice squad players.

That you are not a fan of collective bargaining is not relevant to much of anything; other than perhaps the revelation that you do not understand how collective bargaining specifically helps ensure that players get a bigger slice than they would otherwise. You seem to misunderstand a lot of things about how the business of sports works.

[B0ycey]

But that's not what "capital" means.

TtP, the fairytale economist. There is no point discussing economics with you is there. You actually know nothing about it. It doesn't matter the asset. Bonds, shares, commodities, even your beloveded land, they are all linked and valued to one commodity - legal tender money. And that is associated with... wait for it... national DEBT.

False. Nations have run on debt-free commodity money in the past, and could run on debt-free fiat money if they wanted to cut out the the something-for-nothing payments to banksters.

Oh dear. Nations run on the gold standard in the past. There money was linked to the value of that commodity which it held back then. Now most nations have a fiat currency which is linked to the confidence in that nations economy and GDP. But confidence isn't worth anything. So the legal tender currency is a debt. Why is this important I hear you ask? Because as money is an IOU, for every banknote someone/something needs to be in debted to it. If a nation holds no debt, then who IS holding that debt? Citizens? Citizens who cannot generate wealth through taxes nor have national assets to back itself up against. No. A certain amount of national debt is actually required to keep your economy running, unless you are China who run off everyone elses national debt of course.


I'm sure I will have a rebuttal of small sentences that have no substance to them as you cannot see the mist in the fog, so I will be ignoring you from now on.