Recent content by The_Honorable_Doug

First off, thanks for a legitimate response. I suppose that we'll now continue the conversation from here, as I cannot respond to every individual post since my last (but of course, people are free to go back and read my other responses.) "Let me also ask: do workers deserve equal power to...

Well, it looks as if you did not seriously address anything I said. I'm starting to think Libertarianism is far less intellectually rigorous than I originally thought (which is why nobody in the "real world" takes it seriously -only here, on the Internet, where nobody has to bother you...) "A...

Ok, no offense, but this just awful. Seriously, it makes me even wonder if the guy read Polanyi's book. He says: "The reason is that the free market is (1) what men have turned to when they have been allowed freedom of choice, and (2) what men should turn to if they are to enjoy the full...

Actually, my financial situation is ok at the moment, hence my post's language "Let's say I'm a worker..." However, I do want to address this idea of "market conditions" producing a "natural state" that government "intervenes" in. There is no such thing as a "natural state" (especially not...

Let's say that I inherit a ton of money. I decide to invest it in a restaurant somewhere, and maybe I've never been there, doesn't even matter. So I give the money to someone who wants to start a restaurant. Well, a restaurant doesn't run itself, right? We need workers. So we hire some desperate...

Whoa. So you're saying that it's totally ok that 1 out of 4 people in this country looking for work cannot find it? What a waste of human potential!

Oh? But I thought that if you were unskilled then nobody would want your labor? There is some inconsistency now.

http://www.epi.org/publication/job-seekers-ratio-improves-highest-rate/ There are way more people looking for jobs than there are jobs available: "The total number of unemployed workers in December was 13.1 million (unemployment is from the Current Population Survey). Therefore the ratio of...

http://www.epi.org/publication/job-seekers-ratio-improves-highest-rate/ There are way more people looking for jobs than there are jobs available: "The total number of unemployed workers in December was 13.1 million (unemployment is from the Current Population Survey). Therefore the ratio of...

Ok, so, it seems to me that most of the evidence supplied in these posts is severely flawed. You cannot say "well I have a good job so..." or "these few people were poor but now they are rich so..." Also, I'm talking about analyzing society as it is, not as we would want it to be. And the truth...

You're already distracting from my original point. Of course there are an exceptional few who "work their way up" but for most people this is not a possible option. And besides, where would we all go? There is limited room "on top" in a capitalist society.

Where did I suggest that I steal your money? I said that government should have more power than a private business. This is true for many reasons (especially environmental. Who owns the sky?) But in this case I wanted to discuss the relationship between the (subordinate) worker and the...

But only because they have corrupted government. Workers could just as easily seize the government for themselves (through elections or revolution or buying influence). Government is fundamentally an empty field. It's where we come together to make public decisions. Today, however, powerful...

Also! I don't think you all understand the key point here: what I am describing is the fundamental antagonism of all capitalist societies, that between the worker and the owner and who holds power, how to split the profit, etc. This scenario I described is really happening right now...

There are too many responses here for me to reply to each individual one, but keep this in mind: The contract between worker and owner in this country is, nine times out of ten, not voluntary. You think the single mother working at Wal-Mart for the minimum wage at 3 am wants to do that? Of...