TheGreatEmperor TheGreatEmperor

The Shopacolypse

The Shopacolypse

Yes Schem, this is an attack on capatalism.

http://www.adbusters.org/abtv/player.php?id=405

Last year American's spent over 400 billion shopping during the holidays.

Over 20 million American's are addicted to shopping

Cosumer debt is now at 2.3 trillion dollars.

Where will it stop?
134,866 views 45 replies
Reply #26 Top
Plus, free trade is destroying world culture. The corporations who manage to sell their goods abroad do not spend the time to blend and integrate their products to the culture of the consumer. Instead the spend their time and money bombarding undeveloped countries with advertisements of the glamor of western countries.
End of quote

sorry for reviving an old topic, but this is a statement I just have to respond to...
Having traveled throughout 2 "developing" (Dominican Republic in the Caribbean and Bolivia in South America), I have to object to people saying we are forcing out world culture. TV ads in other countries don't glamorize "Western Life" to sell American products any more than they do here. They play off the wants and desires of the people there. You don't sell Washing Machines by saying "USA!", but by demonstrating how it improves peoples lives. And people are abandoning "traditional" and "cultural" ways (lye soap and rocks) in droves of their own free will. I would too.
They retain their own distinct views on life and religion and family and just about everything very well, and you may be surprised by how much they differ from what you are used to. Traditional song and Dance still play a large part of the live of Dominicans and Bolivians, in spite of hundreds of years of Spanish Conquistadors and American Economics domination. Coca Cola can't destroy culture, sorry.

Anyways, why drink Coca Cola when you can have a Coca Leaf Tea?
Reply #27 Top
frankly what it boils down to is that any company trying to make money by forcing the wrong culture on a country will find their profits will come through as easily as a square peg through a star shaped hole. it forces them away, no idiot would run a company that way.
Reply #29 Top
I was talking more of a larger societal contrast. Since both the Dominican and Bolivia are technically part of the west.

I was thinking more East here. Not to turn it into another West vs East thing.

Oh, and unemployment is up to 5% here, many fear recession.
Reply #30 Top
Thats cause we have DUMB people that go for the money and the greed. No im not saying that communism is a good thing. IT CAN NEVER WORK! People are just to greedy. Even the guy who invented it said it couldn't work. Capitalism is flawed the same way. ALL the systems sound good as an idea but once you add the human element it morphs and twists into a courrpt system. All of the systems become courrpt in the end because people have this fasination with MORE money then they could ever use! American CEOs make such a stupid amount of money http://freegovinfo.info/node/218. The american work system is BROKEN along with most of the other stuff. No doubt its a great place to live if you have a decent income, but even then IT IS IMMPOSSIBLE to live off minimum wage.

Until everyone realizes that looking out for numberone can't work if we as the entire human race want to move forward in everything.
Reply #31 Top
As much as I hate to agree with a Pink Space Pony member Schod is right. Think about it, farm life is idealized because people forget little things like not seeing anyone but your family for months at a time, working from sunrise to sunset seven days a week, haveing an entire years work destroyed by drought, selling food for incredibly low prices, and then being kiked of your five acres because a goverment owned bank fore-closed on the loan and replaced those memories with the memories with the idealized image of the hardend frontier family standing romanticly on top of a hill with a sunset behind them with the wind blowing through fields of golden wheat. On the other hand, factory jobs are no pick nick though they are much better than they used to be. I am refering to the industrial revolution here when coal miners never saw the light of day, children were drowned because they were to expensive to keep, and children worked twelve hours a day, vaugley similir to the so called "agrarian paradise." So, quite honestly, i dont have answer.
Reply #32 Top
Avatar,
I think you hit the nail on the head. I'd just like to interject that capitalism Does work much better than Communism or even Socialism, for the very reasons you described. It all comes down to who has the power. In capitalism, each individual OWNs, therefore has power, and since most people are good it is used largely for good and paying for the relative wealth and comfort of the American middle class. Even Bill Gates in his infinite richness represents only a fraction of 1% of Microsoft's income, with the VAST majority of the other 99% going to pay for the rest of the employees. Its only the few corrupt greedy bastards (ala Enron) that ruin it for people.
Communism and Socialism suffer far more, however, because the few determine who gets the money, land property, etc. With everything in the hand of those few, greedy, corrupt, and ambitious people are driven to achieve those positions of power. With fewer people in control, the propensity to fall into corruption is greater.

TGE,
You may be surprised at just how diferent the cultures I spoke of are, in spite of being in relatively close proximity. My points still hold.

As far as unemployment is concerned, historically 5% is often referred to as a labor shortage, not recession. Through a real recession in the US during the 1970s unemployment hovered around 9-10%, iirc. Long time since economics classes. :(
Reply #33 Top
@ Kilumanjaro You have clarifed my point exactly! Thank you!

The problem is that no one ever looks ahead. there is going to be a HUGE need for doctors that specialize in taking care of old people. Medicare & Social Security are broken. Privitizing would make it even worse (ala Walter Reed. THis whole administration is affecting the world in SOO many unintended ways, and its all so a few of their buddies can get rich.

Consider this, Trent Lott left congress the day before a bill was going to go into effect. The bill would have prevented congressmen & women from becoming lobbyists for a two year period. Does that strike anyone as odd?
Reply #34 Top
This is an ironic post. Without capitalism there would be no forum, SOASE, or personal computers for that matter.

Yes Schem, this is an attack on capatalism.


Allow me to support this attack. The only way to get wealthy in a capitalist society is to exploit millions of people in third world countries. Those people usually die too...
End of quote


Thrawn, with respect, this is one of most misinformed statements I have ever read. The fastest way to create wealth in a capitalistic society today is through the creation of intellectual property. Your view is literally generations behind. In capitalistic societies it is now, and has always been those that pursue their passions that create wealth. The wealth of the industrialized nations do sometimes employ people in the third world, who are poor by western standards. This opportunity they are afforded provides an alternative to greater poverty, starvation, and death. Their life was bad prior to the introduction of capitalism, it is a little less bad after capitalism.

Capitalism is a good thing, you are only afforded an opinion to the contrary because it exists. Without it you would not possess the tools or opportunity to make your opinion known.
Reply #35 Top
TGE,
You may be surprised at just how diferent the cultures I spoke of are, in spite of being in relatively close proximity. My points still hold.
End of quote


Yes, but overlapping cultural values are still basically the same.

Thats cause we have DUMB people that go for the money and the greed. No im not saying that communism is a good thing. IT CAN NEVER WORK! People are just to greedy. Even the guy who invented it said it couldn't work. Capitalism is flawed the same way. ALL the systems sound good as an idea but once you add the human element it morphs and twists into a courrpt system. All of the systems become courrpt in the end because people have this fasination with MORE money then they could ever use! American CEOs make such a stupid amount of money http://freegovinfo.info/node/218. The american work system is BROKEN along with most of the other stuff. No doubt its a great place to live if you have a decent income, but even then IT IS IMMPOSSIBLE to live off minimum wage.
End of quote


Well, heres the big arguement and question. Is it greed, or is it their deserved right. Sure things have gotten a bit ridiculous, but in my opinion the bussiness runers and the CEO do deserve a large pay check. They carry almost all the responsibility of a company, they take the higher risks, they work overall a lot harder, and worry a lot more.

Now, lets compare things. Lets take the US and Japan. Here in the US people are more orriented around the individual, so people get a paycheck more on an individual basis, most of the time people who work for large corporations work just for the money, not for futhering that company. Now lets look at Japan, here most corporations set a limit on how much CEO can earn, based on how much the lower paid worker own. These CEOs probably work the same amount as our CEOs, but get paid substantially less. But again, theres the culture, Japan is still more an isolationist, group thinker. Many people work extra not for the money, but for helping out common goals for their employer, and their fellow worker.

As much as I hate to agree with a Pink Space Pony member Schod is right. Think about it, farm life is idealized because people forget little things like not seeing anyone but your family for months at a time, working from sunrise to sunset seven days a week, haveing an entire years work destroyed by drought, selling food for incredibly low prices, and then being kiked of your five acres because a goverment owned bank fore-closed on the loan and replaced those memories with the memories with the idealized image of the hardend frontier family standing romanticly on top of a hill with a sunset behind them with the wind blowing through fields of golden wheat. On the other hand, factory jobs are no pick nick though they are much better than they used to be. I am refering to the industrial revolution here when coal miners never saw the light of day, children were drowned because they were to expensive to keep, and children worked twelve hours a day, vaugley similir to the so called "agrarian paradise." So, quite honestly, i dont have answer.
End of quote


Well, here again is pricipal. First off, they sell their crops at low prices, but they get twice the highest price as a government subsidy, this happens almost everywhere. Especially in China where it is the only way for the government to keep the rural workers out of trouble. Also, factory jobs are not encouraged or even allowed to be passed out as freely as you would think. China has labor limits, and also year quotas, which keep in check how many workers can work in a certain industry. Not to mention that city dwellers(live in a city for +5) have a lot more rights then those who just moved into the city. All in all, its not just culture, its also government. China is widely critisized as a country of great contrast, rapid expansion and yet somehow backward policies.

I think you hit the nail on the head. I'd just like to interject that capitalism Does work much better than Communism or even Socialism, for the very reasons you described. It all comes down to who has the power. In capitalism, each individual OWNs, therefore has power, and since most people are good it is used largely for good and paying for the relative wealth and comfort of the American middle class. Even Bill Gates in his infinite richness represents only a fraction of 1% of Microsoft's income, with the VAST majority of the other 99% going to pay for the rest of the employees. Its only the few corrupt greedy bastards (ala Enron) that ruin it for people.
Communism and Socialism suffer far more, however, because the few determine who gets the money, land property, etc. With everything in the hand of those few, greedy, corrupt, and ambitious people are driven to achieve those positions of power. With fewer people in control, the propensity to fall into corruption is greater.
End of quote


Now, thats a bit of an exageration, bill gates gets paid at least about 20 million a year, their sales are roughly 1 point something billion, that is more then a precentage, and it is a lot more then what the average worker there earns, and also you have to remember dividens and reinvestment, and the board of directors and the CEOS. I would say less then 40 precent of what is earned goes back to the workforce of the company.

I would also like to say, that nothing is true capatalism anymore, everything is somewhat regulated. And in the end, even with capatalism the power ends up in the hands of a few people, and usually those people are chosen by past events. This system might work better then the others, but I think that that is only because that the others try to fix things that are not really broke, while trying to also fix those that are. Failing miserably at both.


Reply #36 Top
Don't get me wrong, TGE, I think most CEOs and entrepreneurs deserve what they get too. But SOME (a vast minority) abuse their control and think only of their own gain, even bypassing regulations and controls to the detriment of their companies and therefore the entire workforce. THEY are why the regulations are needed. They are why "true" capitalism doesn't really exist and wouldn't work anyways. Everything needs regulation in any society. Anything else is just anarchy (in a bad way).
Reply #37 Top
True capatalism doesnt exist because there will always be that person that complains that fairness does not exist under such a system.

It is not the greed or the wealth of others that break such a system, it is the complaints of those who do not suceed under such a system.
Reply #38 Top
TGE you stun me with your double extremism, also, you stun me with your absolute lack of knowledge of the 1920's.
Reply #39 Top
The main thing that happened in the 1920s was Prohibition, and a very robust economy. I dont see your point, besides the fact that America is the land of useless regulations.
Reply #40 Top
*shakes head in resignation*

*sigh* have you forgotten the city bosses? all of the city bosses?
Reply #41 Top
A spawn of the Prohibition, again thats why regulating what products are produced is a bad thing.

Reply #42 Top
 :HOT: 
True capatalism doesnt exist because there will always be that person that complains that fairness does not exist under such a system.
End of quote


And your saying communism doesn't?!

Is it greed, or is it their deserved right
End of quote

But who decides who gets what? Inevitable your going to want to give the plasma screen tv to your friend bob even if he produces 100 loafs of bread less then Joe who you dislike. Human nature prevents that system!

So TGE your saying it's fair for the CEO (not nessescarily the person who built the business up) to come in and work two (2) hours and make as much money as an entry level employee makes in an entire year?

As for Japan you're right. The same thing is true in China. They view everything as the comunal good rather then the individual. Look at France too. They live longer, healthier, and are just as productive as the U.S.A. The United States expects that certain markets will roll over because we have a HUGE well organized Military. Overall though a lot of stuff is broken and no one wants to fix it because they don't want to deal with it.

The American motto seems to have shifted to "Why do today what you can put off tomorrow"? I wonder how many government watchlists we're all on now
Reply #43 Top
Oh I'm past support of my communistic roots.

I'm not saying anything one way or the other, I'm just asking the question everyone asks. Within reason of course.
Reply #44 Top
A spawn of the Prohibition, again thats why regulating what products are produced is a bad thing.

End of quote


if you think it was only from prohibition you need a new history teacher...
Reply #45 Top
I'd guess the CIA, NSA, BlackOps, that wierd extradition agency that has secret prisons in Thailand, and THE PATRIOT ACT AGENCY, oh and Be a Good Bushie.com