One Degree wrote:Like so many today, you believe economics is our God to be served. You simply can’t see beyond money. This is not a personal insult but simply pointing out we have been convinced to believe it is more important than it is.
First of all, you are no authority to tell what I believe or I do not believe. Second drop the charade, the lies and deception. I called your bluff, your bullshit. If you are such a humanist, get rid of your material possessions and go help the poor. I can't believe you are the same person that was proposed to shoot poor desperate HUMAN immigrants because they were crossing a border just a few days ago in a different thread. Of all the people in the world, believe me, you are in the bottom 1% of whom I'd consider taking advice on moral integrity. Just your support for such a despicable orange buffoon already disqualify you, the rest is just a bonus.
Yes, many of our people are lazy and thieves.
That is step one. Recognize the problem. Everything else is a distraction.
We created them.
I completely agree with you. Now, the solution is not to scapegoat something else and chase our tails trying to fix a different problem that is NOT a problem. Tired of seeing TV politicians, movies and just about everyone selling "American dream" as if you are entitled to it and as if you don't have to work hard for it. Back when "the American dream" was a thing and the "middle class" was created, people actually worked hard, long hours and worked to better themselves. There was a time we were leaders in technology, all countries would look at us and be 10 years behind.
I will help anyone, and I will put effort. I will share my time, knowledge and wealth but there is 1 condition, you also have to put as much effort if not more effort than me. I will not carry you on my shoulders. (and yes, I am not literally talking about you, this is a "general" you).
I said I simply don’t think they are important.
Like I said. I'm calling your bluff. If you really mean what you said I'd expect you never post in this forum because you stopped paying for internet and sold your computer to aid a poor kid in Africa with AIDS. If I see you post again, you better stop bringing this nonsense that you obviously don't even believe for yourself and stop acting like a moral schmuck.
Enjoy them, but don’t live your life just so you can purchase them. Quit looking to the economy as the solution to a better life.
The economy is the fuel. The car is progress. The economy is what fuels progress in our society. At some point in our future, perhaps hundreds if not thousands of years in the future, assuming that we have not wiped ourselves or died to some kind of cataclysm, we might find ourselves into a post-scarcity world. At such point, the economy will likely look dramatically different or even be completely replaced. however PROGRESS will continue, at this point driven by other goals (e.g. curiosity, general goodness, etc).
As usual you have created a strawman and attacked it. Too bad what you have said does not in any way address my point.
Would it be so terrible if your TV cost twice as much but we still employed thousands making them?
For the same quality, longevity and "specs" as foreign made one? Yes. You are trying to lecture me, and pretending that you care more about people than material things but you fail to realize that just as the TV made in the US, the TV made in china or mexico or india is also made by people. Arguably people that are far worse off than the worse here. So by that simplistic logic, I should in fact be obligated to buy the cheaper one because the workers making them are in far greater need and because it would allow me to spend the other half of the money that could have gone for 1 tv into buying a second one. And at this point I am helping 2x indian people instead of 1 american one furthermore arguably they need it more.
Of course, this is not what happens in real life. For one, helping people in my country also benefits me, because it is money that remains inside my community and eventually part of it returns to my pocket. I'll be the first to admit that it is a bit selfish but so be it. If I had the choice to buy two otherwise identical products in term of quality, characteristics, etc. I would always choose the one made locally because of that (that is, assuming I had the information. Part of the complexity for this question is the fact that we usually do not have all the variables. For instance, the Japanese brand car might actually be 100% assembled and produced in the US while the US branded one exports parts from china/india and is half assembled in Mexico, etc. and we not always have all the information but rather just a "perception"). But again, reality is nuanced and you seem to have some trouble understanding it.
Would it be so terrible if your TV cost twice as much but we still employed thousands making them? Why have another country make them?
I bolded the important bits. You answered your own question. You have another country make them because they are half as expensive to do so. Not hard at all. It is called capitalism.
Your figures on unemployment disregard the simple fact it only includes people looking for a job, not all the unemployed.
That's the only figure that matters. I don't care for the 3 years old that is "unemployed" or the 70 year old that is retired and also "unemployed" or the rich guy that is just living his fortune and it is also "unemployed" or the stay-at-home mom (or dad?) that works at home while spouse brings the money.
We have plenty of people to work.
Why aren't they?