NYTimes Connections
- NoEnzLefttoSplit - Nov 29, 2023 - 12:18am
Wordle - daily game
- NoEnzLefttoSplit - Nov 29, 2023 - 12:13am
JFK Assassination
- kurtster - Nov 28, 2023 - 11:10pm
Other Medical Stuff
- kurtster - Nov 28, 2023 - 8:31pm
November 2023 Photo Theme - Perspective
- fractalv - Nov 28, 2023 - 7:34pm
Musky Mythology
- R_P - Nov 28, 2023 - 5:41pm
What the hell OV?
- oldviolin - Nov 28, 2023 - 4:13pm
Things You Thought Today
- oldviolin - Nov 28, 2023 - 3:48pm
Radio Paradise NFL Pick'em Group
- rgio - Nov 28, 2023 - 3:33pm
Download Manager IPhone problems
- RPnate1 - Nov 28, 2023 - 2:18pm
The Obituary Page
- rgio - Nov 28, 2023 - 1:55pm
Israel
- R_P - Nov 28, 2023 - 1:38pm
Radio Paradise Comments
- pilgrim - Nov 28, 2023 - 10:00am
Animal Resistance
- lily34 - Nov 28, 2023 - 9:59am
Trump
- kcar - Nov 28, 2023 - 9:09am
The Dragons' Roost
- GeneP59 - Nov 28, 2023 - 8:59am
Name My Band
- GeneP59 - Nov 28, 2023 - 8:58am
RP On Windows Media Player?
- super88dan - Nov 28, 2023 - 7:40am
Economix
- black321 - Nov 28, 2023 - 7:38am
Today in History
- Red_Dragon - Nov 28, 2023 - 7:14am
NY Times Spelling Bee
- lily34 - Nov 28, 2023 - 6:48am
New mix, what would you like to see ?
- KurtfromLaQuinta - Nov 28, 2023 - 6:27am
Talk Behind Their Backs Forum
- Manbird - Nov 27, 2023 - 7:07pm
Tech - what makes RP sound so good?
- William - Nov 27, 2023 - 5:37pm
USA! USA! USA!
- R_P - Nov 27, 2023 - 1:35pm
Dialing 1-800-Manbird
- oldviolin - Nov 27, 2023 - 1:32pm
New Music
- oldviolin - Nov 27, 2023 - 11:52am
Questions.
- miamizsun - Nov 27, 2023 - 10:37am
♥ ♥ ♥ Vote For Pie ♥ ♥ ♥
- miamizsun - Nov 27, 2023 - 10:36am
What Puts You In the Christmas Mood?
- miamizsun - Nov 27, 2023 - 10:34am
iPad wake screen
- michaelmuller - Nov 27, 2023 - 10:11am
the Todd Rundgren topic
- Coaxial - Nov 27, 2023 - 9:36am
Mixtape Culture Club
- ColdMiser - Nov 27, 2023 - 7:46am
Bug Reports & Feature Requests
- pete_shakey - Nov 27, 2023 - 6:07am
Lyrics That Remind You of Someone
- oldviolin - Nov 26, 2023 - 8:25pm
Happy Thanksgiving!
- Bill_J - Nov 26, 2023 - 5:58pm
Audio Problems
- uaerez - Nov 26, 2023 - 12:30pm
Shameless Band Promotion - West Coast Division
- sunybuny - Nov 26, 2023 - 11:56am
Guns
- Red_Dragon - Nov 26, 2023 - 10:45am
HALF A WORLD
- oldviolin - Nov 26, 2023 - 9:54am
AI Bill
- timothy_john - Nov 26, 2023 - 3:52am
Would you drive this car for dating with ur girl?
- KurtfromLaQuinta - Nov 25, 2023 - 8:07pm
Eclectic Sound-Drops
- thisbody - Nov 25, 2023 - 6:36pm
Discussion Thread for the Meetup Meetup Topic
- Red_Dragon - Nov 25, 2023 - 2:02pm
Europe
- thisbody - Nov 25, 2023 - 1:08pm
Climate Change
- R_P - Nov 25, 2023 - 12:00pm
Germany
- thisbody - Nov 24, 2023 - 12:29pm
Vinyl Only Spin List
- kurtster - Nov 24, 2023 - 8:04am
Ukraine
- Steely_D - Nov 23, 2023 - 1:20pm
Live Music
- R_P - Nov 23, 2023 - 11:05am
Artificial Intelligence
- thisbody - Nov 23, 2023 - 9:28am
It's the economy stupid.
- thisbody - Nov 23, 2023 - 9:17am
Tech & Science
- thisbody - Nov 23, 2023 - 9:08am
Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant Massacree
- islander - Nov 23, 2023 - 7:51am
Coffee
- haresfur - Nov 22, 2023 - 7:53pm
Counting with Pictures
- ScottN - Nov 22, 2023 - 2:08pm
Climate Change
- thisbody - Nov 22, 2023 - 1:53pm
• • • The Once-a-Day • • •
- oldviolin - Nov 22, 2023 - 12:26pm
Cryptic Posts - Leave Them Guessing
- oldviolin - Nov 22, 2023 - 12:23pm
Is there any DOG news out there?
- oldviolin - Nov 22, 2023 - 11:09am
Movie Recommendation
- thisbody - Nov 22, 2023 - 10:28am
Art Show
- oldviolin - Nov 21, 2023 - 10:06pm
Outstanding Covers
- oldviolin - Nov 21, 2023 - 9:55pm
RightWingNutZ
- Steely_D - Nov 21, 2023 - 9:06pm
Photos you have taken of your walks or hikes.
- Beez - Nov 21, 2023 - 6:36am
Baseball, anyone?
- haresfur - Nov 20, 2023 - 7:28pm
2024 Elections!
- thisbody - Nov 20, 2023 - 1:00pm
Getting ready to donate again.
- trebzuk - Nov 20, 2023 - 12:40pm
Upcoming concerts or shows you can't wait to see
- touille - Nov 20, 2023 - 11:46am
SWELL. What else
- touille - Nov 20, 2023 - 11:30am
RP Daily Trivia Challenge
- lily34 - Nov 20, 2023 - 6:04am
Thought For The Day
- oldviolin - Nov 19, 2023 - 6:29pm
Joe Biden
- R_P - Nov 19, 2023 - 1:48pm
Exercise -- the dreaded E word
- westslope - Nov 19, 2023 - 3:35am
Bad Poetry
- GeneP59 - Nov 18, 2023 - 3:13pm
|
Index »
Radio Paradise/General »
General Discussion »
Capitalism and Consumerism... now what?
|
Page: Previous 1, 2, 3 ... 9, 10, 11, 12 Next |
MrsHobieJoe

Location: somewhere in Europe Gender:  
|
Posted:
Nov 17, 2012 - 1:47pm |
|
 hippiechick wrote: tHE PRIVATE EQUITY GUYS ALWAYS GET PAID UPFRONT.
Â
huh, that's not how it works.
If you invest into a business you put cash in in the form of equity and loans. The fund managers of the PE firm would be paid anyways, but the actual investment is a genuine one. There will probably be lots of wealthy people investing into a fund like Carlyle and that will make a number of PE investments on the fund holders behalf. The proportion of successes and failures needs to be right or the fund has failed.
Nb private equity covers quite a wide variety of investment, this is a classic example.
|
|
hippiechick

Location: topsy turvy land Gender:  
|
Posted:
Nov 17, 2012 - 1:37pm |
|
Zep wrote:Wrong."This is not a simple story that anybody should try to slot neatly into their political talking points. It's not just about Wall Street preying on Main Street, or big bad labor unions sucking a wholesome American company dry. It's about an entire galaxy of bad decisions that will cost many people their jobs and money." -Jordan Weissman, Atlantic."The private equity guys will likely lose most of their investment, since their stake in the company will be worthless. It's also not clear that the hedge funds and other lenders that supplied Hostess with its mountain of loans will fare much better." "As far as the unions go: You can blame them for not making enough concessions. You can blame the bakers for administering the final death blow. But you can't blame them for management's strategic incompetence, or the decision to try to run a flailing company on debt, hope, and empty calories."
Rarely are things as black and white as you think they are. tHE PRIVATE EQUITY GUYS ALWAYS GET PAID UPFRONT.
|
|
Zep

Location: Funkytown 
|
Posted:
Nov 17, 2012 - 12:33pm |
|
hippiechick wrote: Wrong."This is not a simple story that anybody should try to slot neatly into their political talking points. It's not just about Wall Street preying on Main Street, or big bad labor unions sucking a wholesome American company dry. It's about an entire galaxy of bad decisions that will cost many people their jobs and money." -Jordan Weissman, Atlantic."The private equity guys will likely lose most of their investment, since their stake in the company will be worthless. It's also not clear that the hedge funds and other lenders that supplied Hostess with its mountain of loans will fare much better." "As far as the unions go: You can blame them for not making enough concessions. You can blame the bakers for administering the final death blow. But you can't blame them for management's strategic incompetence, or the decision to try to run a flailing company on debt, hope, and empty calories."
Rarely are things as black and white as you think they are.
|
|
Servo

Location: Down on the Farm Gender:  
|
Posted:
Nov 17, 2012 - 11:56am |
|
hippiechick wrote: The news has been reporting runs on Hostess outlets, so I'm guessing the store shelves are picked clean by now. Sad. On the upside, the company is going into liquidation, and the machinery that makes Twinkies probably isn't useful for any other purpose. Hopefully some other baking company, or possibly a consortium of junk food lovers will buy the equipment, recipes and brand rights so that we might see the products return, if only on the shelves of nostalgia stores like Cracker Barrel and Restoration Hardware.
|
|
Zep

Location: Funkytown 
|
Posted:
Nov 17, 2012 - 11:18am |
|
RichardPrins wrote: You find the coolest stuff.
|
|
hippiechick

Location: topsy turvy land Gender:  
|
Posted:
Nov 17, 2012 - 8:35am |
|
|
|
R_P

Gender:  
|
Posted:
Sep 4, 2012 - 3:58pm |
|
|
|
R_P

Gender:  
|
Posted:
Sep 3, 2012 - 3:20pm |
|
Capitalism's Ideological Crutches(...) Blame-the-government ideology supports capitalism also in another way. By portraying government as wasteful, incompetent, corrupt, power mad and oppressive, it strives to establish another "common sense" idea. Government should be kept economically weak: Keep its spending down, its budget balanced, or else in debt to capitalists and the rich (main government creditors). Limit the taxes it can levy, the regulations it can impose, and so on. Hobble the government while painting it as a negative social force, not to be trusted. Corrupt the politicians with the resources only corporations and the rich have and spend for such purposes and then denounce that corruption as the government's fault. Turn workers away from engagement, respect for, or even interest in politics. Disgusted and alienated, many workers withdraw, leaving the political arena to the capitalists and the rich to buy and shape. US mainstream politics thus serves and never challenges capitalism.
Blame the government, like all ideologies, has contradictions and blind spots. When war is on the agenda, politicians get quick makeovers from "crooks" into "commander in chief" and "national leaders." When workers strike and otherwise resist employers, capitalism's ideologues want to unleash government on those workers. In such conditions, ideology waffles from blame and reduce to celebrate and strengthen government. Similarly, when politicians get caught working for and being paid by capitalists and the rich, a troubling question invades public discussion. Who really is to blame: the politicians who serve, the capitalists who pay and get served, or the system they built and maintain together?
Mainstream blame-the-government ideology is a fig leaf that hides (and thereby protects and supports) how capitalism works. In crisis times, it intensifies (e.g., Sarah Palin, Paul Ryan and Rush Limbaugh) to shift public attention away from capitalism's breakdown and gross injustice. Its ideologues then urgently ratchet up blame on the government for taxing us, limiting guns, attacking marriage, religion and heterosexuality, mandating health insurance, imposing regulations etc. Their mission: redirect mass hurt, fear, anxiety and resentment about the effects of capitalist crisis into rituals of resisting the evil politicians and bureaucrats who want to control us.
Capitalism's ideological crutches do not necessarily or always stress blame the government. In Germany (1930s) and Italy (1920s), for example, deep crises saw capitalists embrace instead fascist ideologies and political parties that exalted extremely powerful government. Hitler and Mussolini merged powerful government with major capitalist enterprises. They used state power directly to subordinate labor to capital and to destroy capitalism's major critics: labor unions, socialist and communist parties. (...)
|
|
R_P

Gender:  
|
|
aflanigan

Location: At Sea Gender:  
|
Posted:
Aug 28, 2012 - 7:51am |
|
kurtster wrote: You seem to be changing the subject away from the idea of the American Dream and what it is about.
How can one not be broadbrushed when speaking about a broadbrushed idea like the American Dream ?
I'll offer that there was a major consensus in the post WW II years, when the present middleclass was born.
I think you misunderstand the definition of the term consensus. It requires somthing near unanimity, does it not? Such as a consent vote in Congress does? What's the nature of this post-WW II consensus you are asserting? The middle class existence featuring the suburban house with the white picket fence that pop culture assures us everyone dreamt of? How many of the beatniks didn't buy into this dream?
|
|
R_P

Gender:  
|
Posted:
Aug 27, 2012 - 6:05pm |
|
Film highlights the temptations and perils of blind obedience to authorityIndie film Compliance recalls notions that the past decade's worst events are explained by failures to oppose authority One can object to some of its particulars, but Frank Bruni has a quite interesting and incisive New York Times column today about a new independent film called Compliance, which explores the human desire to follow and obey authority.
Based on real-life events that took place in 2004 at a McDonalds in Kentucky, the film dramatizes a prank telephone call in which a man posing as a police officer manipulates a supervisor to abuse an employee with increasing amounts of cruelty and sadism, ultimately culminating in sexual assault – all by insisting that the abuse is necessary to aid an official police investigation into petty crimes.
That particular episode was but one of a series of similar and almost always-successful hoaxes over the course of at least 10 years, in which restaurant employees were manipulated into obeying warped directives from this same man, pretending on the telephone to be a police officer. (...)
|
|
kurtster

Location: where fear is not a virtue Gender:  
|
Posted:
Aug 27, 2012 - 5:23pm |
|
aflanigan wrote: You seem to be changing the subject away from the idea of the American Dream and what it is about. How can one not be broadbrushed when speaking about a broadbrushed idea like the American Dream ? I'll offer that there was a major consensus in the post WW II years, when the present middleclass was born.
|
|
aflanigan

Location: At Sea Gender:  
|
Posted:
Aug 27, 2012 - 5:08pm |
|
kurtster wrote: I'll say it like this ...
Back then (?), the American Dream was working, there was indeed a consensus of what it was.
When? I think you are indulging in blatantly misguided nostalgia if you think you can point to an era where everyone in the US agreed on anything. Even during the early days of the US, there were fundamental disagreements about almost everything. Such as the proper role of a central government, and how strong it should be.
|
|
Isabeau

Location: sou' tex Gender:  
|
Posted:
Aug 27, 2012 - 5:01pm |
|
Srsly? Right at this moment, despite any occasional anti-materialistic rhetoric:
I'd love to be riding this Apple Wave.
|
|
ScottN

Location: Half inch above the K/T boundary Gender:  
|
Posted:
Aug 27, 2012 - 4:33pm |
|
RichardPrins wrote:But I think what it would take is some shared national consensus about how we define a decent and responsible life in the modern complex world. I don’t think we have that. We have slogans about being successful. We have slogans about “job creators.” We have slogans about everybody having the right to reach the sky in the quest for material self-satisfaction. We have a definition of the good life, which involves the accumulation of material goods plus entertainment.
These are clusters of issues that are interrelated, and it will require a real jolt for us to start thinking seriously about how we can re-create a healthy society here that is still the compelling image for the world that it once was. Then, the American dream was widely shared. Today, it isn’t. It's to our social and political detriment that such ideas are not even part of the national dialogue. We have been effectively sold the idea of acquisition of goods as the road to all things good. Add to that (commercial) entertainment, as you write, and there are the "keys to the highway". The last person to run on anything nearly this "unthinkable dialogue" was perhaps CA former and now currently Governor—Jerry Brown. It almost cost him his career. Of course, there are only so many "toys" to be had. What we think of as "our way" is unsustainable. Eventually, correcting mechanics will force us to this dialogue....or muddle around in a class warfare that will savage life as we know it.
|
|
R_P

Gender:  
|
Posted:
Aug 27, 2012 - 3:12pm |
|
Authoritarian Politics in the Age of Casino CapitalismThe United States has entered a new historical era marked by a growing disinvestment in the social state, public goods, and civic morality. Matters of politics, power, ideology, governance, economics, and policy now translate unapologetically into a systemic disinvestment in institutions and policies that further the breakdown of those public spheres which traditionally provided the minimal conditions for social justice, dissent, and democratic expression. Neoliberalism, or what might be called casino capitalism, has become the new normal. Unabashed in its claim to financial power, self-regulation, and its survival of the fittest value system, neoliberalism not only undercuts the formative culture necessary for producing critical citizens and the public spheres that nourish them, it also facilitates the conditions for producing a bloated defense budget, the prison-industrial complex, environmental degradation, and the emergence of “finance as a criminalized, rogue industry.” It is clear that an emergent authoritarianism haunts a defanged democracy now shaped and structured largely by corporations. Money dominates politics, the gap between the rich and poor is ballooning, urban spaces are becoming armed camps, militarism is creeping into every facet of public life, and civil liberties are being shredded. Neoliberalism’s policy of competition now dominates policies that define public spheres such as schools, allowing them to stripped of a civic and democratic project and handed over to the logic of the market. Regrettably, it is not democracy, but authoritarianism, that remains on the rise in the United States as we move further into the 21st century. (...)
|
|
R_P

Gender:  
|
Posted:
Aug 25, 2012 - 11:04pm |
|
|
|
Umberdog

Location: In my body. Gender:  
|
Posted:
Aug 25, 2012 - 9:21pm |
|
kurtster wrote:2 ¢ With inflation it's probably a couple bucks these days. But you won't get what you pay for.
|
|
steeler

Location: Perched on the precipice of the cauldron of truth 
|
Posted:
Aug 25, 2012 - 9:16pm |
|
RichardPrins wrote:But I think what it would take is some shared national consensus about how we define a decent and responsible life in the modern complex world. I don’t think we have that. We have slogans about being successful. We have slogans about “job creators.” We have slogans about everybody having the right to reach the sky in the quest for material self-satisfaction. We have a definition of the good life, which involves the accumulation of material goods plus entertainment.
These are clusters of issues that are interrelated, and it will require a real jolt for us to start thinking seriously about how we can re-create a healthy society here that is still the compelling image for the world that it once was. Then, the American dream was widely shared. Today, it isn’t.
Very interesting.
|
|
kurtster

Location: where fear is not a virtue Gender:  
|
Posted:
Aug 25, 2012 - 7:59pm |
|
RichardPrins wrote:But I think what it would take is some shared national consensus about how we define a decent and responsible life in the modern complex world. I don’t think we have that. We have slogans about being successful. We have slogans about “job creators.” We have slogans about everybody having the right to reach the sky in the quest for material self-satisfaction. We have a definition of the good life, which involves the accumulation of material goods plus entertainment.
These are clusters of issues that are interrelated, and it will require a real jolt for us to start thinking seriously about how we can re-create a healthy society here that is still the compelling image for the world that it once was. Then, the American dream was widely shared. Today, it isn’t. I'll say it like this ... Back then (?), the American Dream was working, there was indeed a consensus of what it was. The economy and the American Dream have been ruined in the same way as a forest. Destruction (ala fire) is good and healthy for a forest. We have learned that lesson most recently in Yellowstone where natural fires were prevented as much as possible, so when a fire finally broke out in the wrong place, it nearly burned the whole place down because the underbrush and old fallen stuff just got too dense to allow new growth. Had fires been allowed to burn in the past naturally, clearing out the dead wood, the big one wouldn't have happened, or at least like it did. Today we have prevented old or poorly managed businesses and even banks to fail and go bankrupt when they should have in a constant, ongoing natural cycle of business(es). We will have a disaster when the House really does catch on fire because it is full of too big to fail things that are going to fail, all at once. And really screw the pooch, good. 2 ¢
|
|
|