What caused the crisis was not real growth. It was the kind of smoke and mirrors that caused the fall of Enron. It was a Ponzi scheme where the homes of poor people were used as collatoral to raise massive amounts of money, inflating the price of housing way past the level of affordability.-Consumptio n CAN'T grow forever. A) Supply is limited. There is only so much stuff that you can dig out of the ground, only so much oil, coal, gold, nickel, iron, coltan, only so many forests that you can cut down. B) there can only be so much demand. How many cars can one person drive? How many shirts does one really need to wear? Once you have a TV in every room, do you need any more?
A) they are rationing food because the price of corn is being raised artificially due to its use in ethanol. At least the Cubans have food to eat. In Haiti, they are eating biscuits made from butter and mud. And even these are becoming unaffordable.B) The Cubans have a much better heatlh care system. Americans are going there even despite the embargo when they can't pay for the surgery they need.C) the Cubans are mostly suffering because of a trade embargo which has lasted 50 years, imposed by a nation, that under normal circumstances, would have been, by far its largest trading partner.This embargo is the very thing keeping Cuba communist. The communist system is quickly abandoned once open trade with capitalist societies commences. It happened in Russia, China and Vietnam. It is only the continued threat of American intervention that keeps the Castros in power.-And regulation and reform are not socialism, it is government. And continuous growth is impossible, because there is a point where there is no land left to build on, no oil left in the ground, the soils are incapable of growing more food.-
I'm not trying to say any other type of economic system is better, at least not on this poll. I'm just trying to suggest the concept of growth in a world that isn't infinite, might be faulty.
Socialist economies work much better, just ask the Cubans who are currently rationing food. Of course our potential central planners like Barney Frank and Chris Dodd will do a much better job.
What caused the crisis was not real growth. It was the kind of smoke and mirrors that caused the fall of Enron. It was a Ponzi scheme where the homes of poor people were used as collatoral to raise massive amounts of money, inflating the price of housing way past the level of affordability.-Consumptio n CAN'T grow forever. A) Supply is limited. There is only so much stuff that you can dig out of the ground, only so much oil, coal, gold, nickel, iron, coltan, only so many forests that you can cut down. B) there can only be so much demand. How many cars can one person drive? How many shirts does one really need to wear? Once you have a TV in every room, do you need any more?
A) they are rationing food because the price of corn is being raised artificially due to its use in ethanol. At least the Cubans have food to eat. In Haiti, they are eating biscuits made from butter and mud. And even these are becoming unaffordable.B) The Cubans have a much better heatlh care system. Americans are going there even despite the embargo when they can't pay for the surgery they need.C) the Cubans are mostly suffering because of a trade embargo which has lasted 50 years, imposed by a nation, that under normal circumstances, would have been, by far its largest trading partner.This embargo is the very thing keeping Cuba communist. The communist system is quickly abandoned once open trade with capitalist societies commences. It happened in Russia, China and Vietnam. It is only the continued threat of American intervention that keeps the Castros in power.-And regulation and reform are not socialism, it is government. And continuous growth is impossible, because there is a point where there is no land left to build on, no oil left in the ground, the soils are incapable of growing more food.-
I'm not trying to say any other type of economic system is better, at least not on this poll. I'm just trying to suggest the concept of growth in a world that isn't infinite, might be faulty.
Socialist economies work much better, just ask the Cubans who are currently rationing food. Of course our potential central planners like Barney Frank and Chris Dodd will do a much better job.
Thom Hartmann often likens it to cancer.