>doomsday for retail workers

We can't just let retail workers have all the fun

Fast-food CEO who says machines are the answer to rising wages is expected to be named Trump's next labor secretary

http://www.businessinsider.com/andrew-puzder-to-be-named-labor-secretary-2016-12

Oh, and a related venn diagram from Economics

https://pajamasmed.hs.llnwd.net/e12/instapundit/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Screen-Shot-2016-12-07-at-7.47.20-PM-600x431.png

Great Venn diagram.

I hate to say this, but on some level, Pudzer is voicing the truths that no politicians want to talk about and which we talk about obsessively here.

I want to hate the guy because he seems viciously anti-worker. But in essence he's seeing the same trends as I am. If you raise the minimum wage and other costs associated with having employees in an age when automation is getting cheaper and cheaper, that can only move things in one direction.

I read that and find myself once again owing littleman an apology for saying he was wrong that UBI would be a major campaign issue by 2024 :-)

Voicing truths, but equally isn't that why capitalism is clearly no longer a sensible driver of growth?

There is no such thing as a free market, and this is just more proof to me that the men at the top of business cannot be trusted, they are as amoral as the businesses they run. They make decisions for their own short term gain, not the long term or the greater good.

It will be interesting to see how Trump plays it. Some decisions will be for his ego, and some for his wallet.  If we are lucky, then the ego driven decisions might work out for the greater good too.

Phew, thats heavily opinionated for me! 

Opinionated but I agree with the position as you see it. The 'invisible hand' is not taking care of things as much as it could.

WRT Glass–Steagall and the way wealth has been created the past 30 years, I see that as a major part of the problem. Though, not sure how exactly we 'unwind' from an untenable position of debt when the only solution has been more debt.

DOCTOR DOOM HERE

"Though, not sure how exactly we 'unwind' from an untenable position of debt when the only solution has been more debt."

I repeat that it will take a MAJOR crisis event to RESET THE SYSTEM.

But Y'all have a Merry Christmas

Quote from: BoL on December 09, 2016, 10:29:18 AM
Opinionated but I agree with the position as you see it. The 'invisible hand' is not taking care of things as much as it could.

To wit...

QuoteThe rich only select from the heap what is most precious and agreeable. They consume little more than the poor, and in spite of their natural rapacity, though they mean only their own conveniency, though the sole end which they propose from the labours of all the thousands whom they employ, be the gratification of their own vain desires, they divide with the poor the produce of all their improvements. They are led by an invisible hand to make nearly the same distribution of the necessaries of life, which would have been made, had the earth been divided into equal portions among all its inhabitants, and thus without intending it, without knowing it, advance the society, and afford the multiplication of the species.

-- Adam Smith

https://books.google.com/books?id=PytC91J0ow4C&lpg=PA74&pg=PA74#v=onepage&q&f=false

QuoteRESET THE SYSTEM.

Easy, thats what happens at the end of every game of monopoly

Merry Christmas to you too Dr Doom.  

Oh and yes, the previous comment was not meant as a criticism of the wealthy, after all I am one of them, so would not criticise myself.  Only those wealthier than me (cough).... but I do no better. 

I was listening to a Desert Island Disks BBC Radio 4 podcast, not sure they are available in the USA? )  on tuesday by Bill Gates. Quite interesting how his life view has changed.

>>Desert Island Disks BBC Radio 4 podcast, not sure they are available in the USA? )  

I listen to a few BBC podcasts, so it should be available. Does that one get your thumbs up?

[downloading the Gates episode now]

i enjoy them.  you get great insight into individuals. 

Its like a 30 min biography. And there are loads.  Currently listening to a few on long journeys.  Love to hear how you find them.  The are very gently British I think.

Probably the interview list is too British for you, in that many names you might not know. A lot of UK comedians, head of the bank (Mervyn King)  sort of people. But I was listening to one with a Canadian astronaut the other day though... It was good.

Ding Ding Ding!

Mr Mackin is the winner. We're all screwed

Mr Mackin

QuoteI repeat that it will take a MAJOR crisis event to RESET THE SYSTEM.

Walter Seidel, esteemed professor of history at Stanford

QuoteThat's the bleak argument of Walter Scheidel, a professor of history at Stanford, whose new book, "The Great Leveler" (Princeton University Press), is due out next month. He goes so far as to state that "only all-out thermonuclear war might fundamentally reset the existing distribution of resources." If history is anything to go by, he writes, "peaceful policy reform may well prove unequal to the growing challenges ahead."

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/06/business/economy/a-dilemma-for-humanity-stark-inequality-or-total-war.html

 
I DO NOT LIKE being the winner of this sad story!!

Nuclear war would solve resource problems and global warming, so it's not all doom and gloom.

I keep seeing Slim Pickens riding a nuclear bomb as it drops out of a B-52 in "Doctor Strangelove."

Trump team sparks fears of 'witch hunt' as it seeks names of Energy Department climate experts

Quote from: Travoli on December 10, 2016, 06:11:32 PM
Nuclear war would solve resource problems and global warming, so it's not all doom and gloom.

QuoteAnimals Rule Chernobyl 30 Years After Nuclear Disaster
Three decades later, it's not certain how radiation is affecting wildlife—but it's clear that animals abound.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/04/060418-chernobyl-wildlife-thirty-year-anniversary-science/