EPT[Politics] Peter Schiff - Page 7
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dogabutila
United States1438 Posts
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ShroomyD
Australia245 Posts
On January 11 2010 16:47 dogabutila wrote: What I learned from this thread is that it is best to invest in real things. Like guns and ammo. You know, for when the economy REALLY goes to shit. Don't forget food Goodfriend! | ||
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Uraeus
France1378 Posts
Best not-starcraft-related thread on TL in a very long while. Ps : amazed (and glad) that there have been so few insults and trolls so far! | ||
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ShroomyD
Australia245 Posts
On January 10 2010 10:15 Yurebis wrote: Oh crap a politics thread. Question: If the government is a failed business, shouldn't it be dissolved as well? Anarcho-capitalist detected. Boooom! ...just some food for thought. "People are irrational!! So it follows that we have people put in charge to stop the irrationality!!" Makes me laugh every time!! | ||
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ArmChairCritic
Sweden36 Posts
On January 11 2010 15:54 Motiva wrote: For the sake of discussion, and education, I have a few questions: If the supermarket and agriculture are the largest domestic markets for producing/selling food, and construction for housing, if you need to subsidize them doesn't that immediately imply that they're not operating properly? Isn't the entire idea of -successful- business to provide a net gain or at the least diversify and break-even? If these models aren't working to the degree that they require funding to be sustainable, isn't that in essence already operating at a net loss, in addition to acquiring debt? Especially for this particular instance? If a country that doesn't export nearly as much it imports can't even sustain a profit in the most critical of markets to the survival of the population doesn't this mean that your going to be operating at a net loss anyway? Also, if I am correct and these models aren't "performing properly" then wouldn't it be absolutely batshit insane to sustain them as such? Particularly when bust isn't the only option? EDIT: Also, Wouldn't a reduction in the standard of living be exactly what we need in debtor nation that is already living above the means it can afford? Yeah, I was just calling him out on his shitty argument but no when things are working you shouldn't subsidize and when things fail you shouldn't subsidize because the basis of out economy is to let shitty companies fail. Colleges and universities haven't had a chance to fail due to goverment funding and shit and people say that it is an incubator but it isn't any different from any other business. The university sells a service to those who are willing to pay, simple as that. As for your question about imports/exports, I am not that knowledgeable about fiat currency to answer why USA's economy didn't crash sooner because of the ridiculous amount of imports but I have a hunch that it got soething to do with goverment bonds. I will ask around to get a better answer. As for the last question, politics is not doing what is best for the country, it is about pleasing the masses. Therefore there will be alot of shitty things that influence the economy like central banks, fiat currency and so on. Might come back with a longer reply, might not, I just have so much things to do T.T | ||
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StorkHwaiting
United States3465 Posts
On January 12 2010 00:17 ArmChairCritic wrote: Yeah, I was just calling him out on his shitty argument but no when things are working you shouldn't subsidize and when things fail you shouldn't subsidize because the basis of out economy is to let shitty companies fail. Colleges and universities haven't had a chance to fail due to goverment funding and shit and people say that it is an incubator but it isn't any different from any other business. The university sells a service to those who are willing to pay, simple as that. As for your question about imports/exports, I am not that knowledgeable about fiat currency to answer why USA's economy didn't crash sooner because of the ridiculous amount of imports but I have a hunch that it got soething to do with goverment bonds. I will ask around to get a better answer. As for the last question, politics is not doing what is best for the country, it is about pleasing the masses. Therefore there will be alot of shitty things that influence the economy like central banks, fiat currency and so on. Might come back with a longer reply, might not, I just have so much things to do T.T It's not a shitty argument. You don't believe in any subsidization of markets. That's an opinion, not fact. Just because I disagree with you doesn't automatically make my opinion shitty. Further, all you did to justify it was spew cliche free market propaganda. I find it ridiculous you'd try to make any comment about the US economy when you don't understand how fiat currency works. But you think you're ready to start being rude because you don't think colleges should be subsidized. If you don't know how fiat currency works, try reading the thread. It's even more hilarious that you say something like "central banks, fiat currency, and so on" were done to please the masses. This is the point where I lose any interest in hearing what you have to say anymore. All you've really done is live up to your namesake while pretending to know something about economics, solely because you have a differing opinion from me. You think education should be completely free market. I disagree. It's a difference of opinion. What isn't an opinion is you don't really know jack about American economics but have already started acting like a child in the thread. | ||
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7Strife
United States104 Posts
No, they aren't taking advantage of new technologies. | ||
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L
Canada4732 Posts
On January 12 2010 03:55 7Strife wrote: I meet person after person here in the US that go to college/university and come out working at StarBucks, or some job they could have done without spending/consuming $20,000 - $150,000 to learn things they'll quickly forget like Mythology (gotta satisfy that those electives!) The system is completely ridiculous. They are hiring Professor Miscellaneous to give the same lecture over and over to different students about Economics, when you could buy every student an overpriced 17" MacBook Pro with a year subscription of high speed internet and be playing a 1080p recording of the best teacher of Economics (or whatever) in the world for 1/1000th of the cost, and from the students home (faster) and they could rewind or replay the lecture if they do not understand it the first time with easier and more effective note taking (they wouldn't even have to write those damn "notes"; they would be attached to the video) If the student has a specific question he could easily have a video conference with a professor on hand. No, they aren't taking advantage of new technologies. Lol, surprise, you just discovered that universities are just public research corporations and degree granting corporations, not higher institutes of learning! You don't even need a macbook; Just get recordings of the lectures, or match the lecture recording to slides. The majority of classes could be taught on an MP3 player during transit, let alone on a laptop. | ||
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ghostWriter
United States3302 Posts
But you're totally right, there are a lot of free online resources that are much more cost-effective. I kinda feel that the scientific background I gain in university will be worth it when I get to medical school though. | ||
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StorkHwaiting
United States3465 Posts
On January 12 2010 09:45 ghostWriter wrote: Well, I've found that professors to be good source of extra help, especially when clarification of something from the lecture is necessary for understanding. It's difficult to get that from a lecture. Obviously, not all professors are good at teaching, it seems that some of them are researchers that are just in the classroom to fulfill a teaching requirement. But you're totally right, there are a lot of free online resources that are much more cost-effective. I kinda feel that the scientific background I gain in university will be worth it when I get to medical school though. I think a big part of it is the social aspect too. Yeah, there's a lot of idiocy in college but there's a lot of maturing too. Getting out of the house and into dorms for the first time is a huge step for some people and goes a long way toward maturation. I guess it's wrong to subsidize an individual's maturation and I agree that there is a lot of bullshit going on at universities with tons of hours of Gen Ed classes and getting diplomas that didn't teach much, but I also think that you can't teach any student who doesn't want to learn. I learned a ton of cool and useful things in my Gen Ed courses while I'm sure a lot of other kids just wasted their time because they saw it as "not useful" to their career. The point is that all knowledge is useful and an open mind learns to see that. A cynic can say that Gen Eds are just there to soak up our time and money. An optimist would see it as a college board trying to find what is the most well-rounded education that will put their students in good stead for their future. I don't think there's anything wrong with learning some anthropology, biology, economics, history, world religions, etc while becoming a civil engineer. Life is not a straight line, nor is it just someone's career. I think the world would be a poorer place if universities were run as online institutions with video stream and ultra-directed educations. That leads to a lot of specialization but not a very strong foundation. | ||
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7Strife
United States104 Posts
On January 12 2010 09:45 ghostWriter wrote: Well, I've found that professors to be good source of extra help, especially when clarification of something from the lecture is necessary for understanding. It's difficult to get that from a lecture. Obviously, not all professors are good at teaching, it seems that some of them are researchers that are just in the classroom to fulfill a teaching requirement. But you're totally right, there are a lot of free online resources that are much more cost-effective. I kinda feel that the scientific background I gain in university will be worth it when I get to medical school though. You missed the part where I said "If the student has a specific question he could easily have a video conference with a professor on hand." Yes, if you watch a lecture or just have a specific question you can video conference with a professor, and if they choose, they could just be at home reading a book and get a call on their "iPhone" for instance and you can ask your question. There will be time the professor is available also if you wish to see face to face. Also, Stork if you want to gain social experience then it can be achieved elsewhere. It's not worth tens of thousands of dollars when you and your buddies can get together and play beer pong with all that cash you saved. | ||
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StorkHwaiting
United States3465 Posts
On January 12 2010 10:25 7Strife wrote: You missed the part where I said "If the student has a specific question he could easily have a video conference with a professor on hand." Yes, if you watch a lecture or just have a specific question you can video conference with a professor, and if they choose, they could just be at home reading a book and get a call on their "iPhone" for instance and you can ask your question. There will be time the professor is available also if you wish to see face to face. Also, Stork if you want to gain social experience then it can be achieved elsewhere. It's not worth tens of thousands of dollars when you and your buddies can get together and play beer pong with all that cash you saved. If people could do it all online, I doubt they'd ever move into a dorm. But you're right in the sense that it is prohibitively expensive right now. And that a majority of students in college aren't taking advantage of the resources, they're just screwing around with taxpayer money. Mostly, I think universities are used to create artificial competitiveness within the labor market. To keep wages high for white-collar jobs, they make colleges hard to afford and constantly try to tier jobs by degree. Like MUST have master's to do this job, must have PhD for this job etc. This way they can keep the numbers down so wages don't get pushed down. Not saying this is a good thing, I think that's just the name of the game going on in education right now. | ||
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ghostWriter
United States3302 Posts
On January 12 2010 10:25 7Strife wrote: You missed the part where I said "If the student has a specific question he could easily have a video conference with a professor on hand." Yes, if you watch a lecture or just have a specific question you can video conference with a professor, and if they choose, they could just be at home reading a book and get a call on their "iPhone" for instance and you can ask your question. There will be time the professor is available also if you wish to see face to face. Also, Stork if you want to gain social experience then it can be achieved elsewhere. It's not worth tens of thousands of dollars when you and your buddies can get together and play beer pong with all that cash you saved. Really? I didn't know that you could just video conference any professor like that -_- It seems somewhat rude though, especially if you aren't a student at that university. And for some jobs, a higher level degree is necessary sometimes. A person who goes to graduate school for chemistry will be much more prepared for research than a person who just receives a bachelor's degree before entering the job market. | ||
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7Strife
United States104 Posts
On January 12 2010 11:13 ghostWriter wrote: Really? I didn't know that you could just video conference any professor like that -_- It seems somewhat rude though, especially if you aren't a student at that university. And for some jobs, a higher level degree is necessary sometimes. A person who goes to graduate school for chemistry will be much more prepared for research than a person who just receives a bachelor's degree before entering the job market. You can't video conference a professor right now, this is hypothetical. I'm saying they could be on call instead of giving all them damn lectures (which the recordings would cover.) | ||
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jalstar
United States8198 Posts
And, of course, lots of night and online (with video conferencing, that sounds cool) classes for people who have full time jobs, which there will be a lot of if you make those lower-tier schools free. | ||
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