The social contract is broken

https://www.tradingfloor.com/posts/steens-chronicle-the-social-contract-is-broken-7294085

by pappyo • 10 years ago

16 10 10 years ago

lewisss• 10 years ago

It's broken because it has no sense anymore, now it's time to make a new world where every one works, not only "invest" and wait for profit!

walshemj• 10 years ago

All very well but try working if your employer doesn't have any capital - hint it doesn't work out very well.

eli_gottlieb2• 10 years ago

Or we could have a much nicer new economy, in which nobody works.

return0• 10 years ago

Did you mean: we could make a much nicer new economy ?

eli_gottlieb2• 10 years ago

Did I just see an investment advisor or someone like that recapitulate vulgar Marxism?

carsongross2• 10 years ago

I don't know how you can get marxism from this. Nationalism, sure, but not marxism.

pliny• 10 years ago

Nice graph, here's the original:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/04/U.S._Compensa...

The green line is total compensation and the blue line is wages only, the author chose the correct graph to support his point, but is lying by omission.

If I get paid 10 dollars a day to make widgets and I spend 1 dollar on a sandwich every day I make 9 dollars every day, if I get paid 9 dollars a day to make widgets and lunch is provided by my employer I make... 9 dollars every day, my situation is the same, and the green line does not move, but the blue line shows my wages have gone down by 10%.

The second graph is also very well chosen, it shows how much money corporation are making, and the author mentions that corporate profits are at an all time high! But corporate profits are almost always at an all time high, almost every point in the graph is an all time high, and if he had shown how much money, in total, was being paid in wages every year it would also be at an all time high, and almost every year would be an all time high. This is a direct consequence of the first graph (compensation is not falling wildly, if at all), and the fact that GDP in non-inflation-adjusted dollars is constantly going up.

If this is supposed to be any sort of evidence in support of his theory he might as well state that when GDP in unadjusted dollars goes up the social contract breaks, sounds like a tough problem to solve.

carsongross2• 10 years ago

The elites broke it. The people will finish the job.

Nihil sub sole novum.

vonklaus• 10 years ago

To me, a lot of the issues we are facing seem to be scaling the governmental framework out to far while simultaneously creating a society that promotes individualism.

Consider:

Christians, Muslims, Athiests, Mormons, Jews, etc are bound by internal and external doctrine and have(or choose) limited latitude to alter their beliefs.
The political spectrum is more represented now than ever. This stratification can be seen just looking at the hard core tea party conservatives driving last election, to the "social justice" movement and a candidate viably running as a socialist. We are so far apart as a country.
Rich poor gap & critically, the perception of one.
how to handle guns
how to handle the economy
racism
law & governance from jusges to police.

Etc

this is something that could be mitigated by states rights and a strong union of states that willingly band together for mutual benefit.

Obviously the world is facing outsize problems as we scale out our societies. We can probably all get a long better if we allowed abortion to be illegal in some states with planned parenthood providing transportation for those in need of it. Its called compromising. It will be difficult for people to move with little money, but that seems a better alternative than simply having one size fits all.

Also, I'd appreciate if the NSA stopped watching me masterbate.

mchahn• 10 years ago

"This is why Hillary Clinton cannot win the US election"

I quit reading here. Not because I'm a Hillary fan but because it is a ridiculous statement. If his thesis comes to this conclusion then his thesis is wrong or he's doing a really bad job of defending it.

The social contract is broken

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