"I had a great job repairing VCRs...now I can't afford a new house." I have to repeat it: there is no fixed value for labor--any labor--for all places at all times in all contexts. As an example: 25 years ago, you could make great money if you were a Novell network system administrator. Now that job doesn't exist. Things change. Jobs change. Prices change. If it's anyone's fault, it's that person's, since they didn't adapt to changing times. It's a cliche, but you don't see blacksmith shops anymore, do you? But once upon a time, moat every town had one.
How's any of that about me? That's reality. Jobs appear and disappear. They might pay a little one year and a lot the next. They might afford one standard of living at one point in the past and a different one in the future. How would you arrange things so that the VCR repair tech or the Novell administrator or the blacksmith I gave as examples would be able to do their same job and maintain their same standard of living for their entire lives? You can't. Things change and people need to accept it, anticipate it, and (at least try) to react productively to it.
Because you’re basing all that on how you would react. What you think is important. Not everyone thinks the way you do. And you have no right to tell others they are wrong. You just need to accept that capitalism isn’t for everyone. Not everyone wants it. And more and more people are saying that it no longer works for them.
Then they have no right to tell me I'm wrong. Right? We'll see. But even if you're right, you don't have a coherent alternative.
No. But, you can’t blame them when you fight every effort to find an alternative. No, as I stated before, I’m not an economist. But, many economists do have coherent alternatives. If you are truly interested, you might want to check them out rather than dismissing out of hand because you are married to capitalism.
There have been alternatives. Without exception, they've been disastrous. I've seen the alternatives. They were awful before and they'd be awful again. They get dressed up with new labels, but they all boil down to the same thing.
He is actually right about IT. You do not stop learning and limit yourself to a niche career because most of those jobs go away, and if you end up in one that lasts eventually you end up on an obsolete system and have to look for work at places that use obsolete systems.
If you’re referring to Russia and Cuba and Venezuela. You are falling for propaganda. If you were truly interested, rather than looking for articles that prove you beliefs, read something that goes against them - by reputable economists. I suggest starting with Robert Riech. Yea, he was Clinton’s labor secretary, but he is opposite your ideology and like it or not, he is a reputable economist.
except those alternatives weren't a disaster for their privileged classes... sort of like capitalism in that regard. it works GREAT for those who are born into the right circumstances or find a patron. But it fails a lot more.
