Capitalism: Alive And Well

[Johnny Horton]

Goodbye, bloated union roles, fantastical pension plans and other such pie-in-the-sky, socialist fantasy. A new day has dawned in American Business.

Big steel is hurting the best. Unable to compete in the world market because they've been burdened and and ultimately bankrupted by too much "wretched excess," the big steel companies and being bought up, cleaned up and put back in business by people who understand that one minus one does not equal two.

The losers, as usual, are stock holders who'd hoped for undeserved wealth, and the poor saps who put their faith in a mythical board of directors who the foolishly presumed toiled day and night for the welfare of the work force.

And you malcontents can blame big business all you want. Ultimately it is YOU, the consumers, who decided whether a 10th-grade educated steel worker is deserving of a 50-thousand-dollar-a-year retirement.

As Allan Sloan writes in "Newsweek," "If you want cheap flights, cheap steel and cheap phone calls, someone has to pay the price."

American workers must learn the not so difficult lesson to save their money. They seem to drift dreamily along on a vague assumption that someone, somewhere, will not only take care of them, but that they have some sort of right to some protection.

Smarten up, boys and girls. Save. Plan. Even a minimal effort at a young age will provide you with a substantial sum of money later.

You could, of course, invest your hope in Social Security, and then scrape by, month to month on that pittance. It is, as always, your choice.

[Sethomas]

My early Baby-Boomer history and sociology teacher warned my class that our generation is going to have to pick up the tab for their social security. I'm actually optimistic, since they're going to be in homes munching life pills for years to come when we're in the job field. The economy in twenty years will be financed by people who make no contribution to the work pool, with dollars earned decades prior. It'd be a true mess for whomever inherits the economy when we find ourselves quitting the job market, but then again I'm sure that bigger problems wll whipe clean the slate by then.

[Johnny Horton]

Business is not nearly as fascinating as so many of the people who mistakenly believe they have a place in it.

Today I saw a pickup truck equipped with a ladder rack and loaded with carpenter tools. The company logo was handsomely painted on the doors, and the sign work was obviously done by an experienced professional.

But it was the company name that led me to suspect something was amiss in that institution's business philosophy.

The name? Emblazoned over a bright red CSA battle flag was the name "Confederate Home Builders."

I think I can safely assume that the proprietor is not burdened with the weight of a MBA degree.

[VinceZeb]

Horton made me LOL

[theapportioner]

Ultimately it is YOU, the consumers, who decided whether a 10th-grade educated steel worker is deserving of a 50-thousand-dollar-a-year retirement.

Pfft. Excuses. Might as well blame El Nino, the panda bears, sunspots, or Prince Alexei's hemophilia -- such a distant causal link it becomes meaningless.

Smarten up, boys and girls. Save. Plan. Even a minimal effort at a young age will provide you with a substantial sum of money later.

Nice advice Mr. Greenspan. Too bad the reality is that many simply don't have money to save.

The name? Emblazoned over a bright red CSA battle flag was the name "Confederate Home Builders."

The niche market must be greater than you would expect.

[mburbank]

I'm confused, Johnny Horton.

What is it, exactly you believe in? I mean beyond good old fashioned Grit?

You strike me as a closet elitist who wants to yarn about despising 'egg heads'. Who are you, Johnny Horton, what is your beef and how do you oike it served? Do you like your Capitalism ala Ayn Rand, or or you less... passionately laisez faire, pardon my french? Social Darwinist or merely Republican?

What's your philosiphy? And can you spell it out and maintain you panache, or will it leave a flank open?

[Johnny Horton]

Ultimately it is YOU, the consumers, who decided whether a 10th-grade educated steel worker is deserving of a 50-thousand-dollar-a-year retirement.

Pfft. Excuses. Might as well blame El Nino, the panda bears, sunspots, or Prince Alexei's hemophilia -- such a distant causal link it becomes meaningless.

Smarten up, boys and girls. Save. Plan. Even a minimal effort at a young age will provide you with a substantial sum of money later.

Nice advice Mr. Greenspan. Too bad the reality is that many simply don't have money to save.


If you think the actions of consumers are a "distant causal link" (nice phrase, schoolboy) then I have to conclude that you are plagued with a particularly potent stupidity.

And, try and remember this, people get what they want. Anyone can save money, even you. Ask your daddy for some, and put it in your piggy.

[Johnny Horton]

I'm confused, Johnny Horton.

What is it, exactly you believe in? I mean beyond good old fashioned Grit?

You strike me as a closet elitist who wants to yarn about despising 'egg heads'. Who are you, Johnny Horton, what is your beef and how do you oike it served? Do you like your Capitalism ala Ayn Rand, or or you less... passionately laisez faire, pardon my french? Social Darwinist or merely Republican?

What's your philosiphy? And can you spell it out and maintain you panache, or will it leave a flank open?

I like fried chicken, but only a few times a year. I used to masquerade as a champion of the oppressed. I wrote stories about the evil status quo, and pretended to sympathize with its supposed victims, like women, blacks, gays and so forth. You know the drill.

It was some time before I realized that I actually did NOT sympathize with the aforementioned. This is not to say I did not, and do not despise the heavy hand of the status quo. But taking up the banner of the oppressed was, for me, a study in hypocrisy.

Why? Here it is... I do not believe in victimhood. Certainly people can be victimized. That, however, is a temporal state of being. I am repulsed by the notion that a person must be forever helpless and that is why I cannot subscribe to liberal politics. That peculiar philosophy seems to insist that there are people and classes who simply cannot fend for themselves. Hence my definition of LIBERALS: in spite of all your evidence and experience, these are the people who know what's best for you.

I believe in self reliance. I believe in personal responsibility. I believe that all people are obligated by their existence to do all they can do to help themselves. I believe that the greatest and most treacherous perfidy is committed by an individual against his or her own abilities and initiative. That is, no one should ever turn to other for assistance, aid, money, whatever, until every personal effort has first been made.

I view incessant governmental intrusion into the lives of the poor as being insidiously cynical, and I am encouraged by the attitude of the rising black middle class that rejects the pandering condescension of Good White Folk. The fact that a black middle class is only now advancing is attributed to the stifling arrogance of liberal policies over the course of the last forty years.

But a black middle class will never rid this society of poor blacks, any more than the white middle class has elimated white trash. Ugliness compliments beauty.

I have to go now. I need fried chicken.

[theapportioner]

If you think the actions of consumers are a "distant causal link" (nice phrase, schoolboy) then I have to conclude that you are plagued with a particularly potent stupidity.

And, try and remember this, people get what they want. Anyone can save money, even you. Ask your daddy for some, and put it in your piggy.

Stick your empty rhetoric up your ass. Browbeating without providing any evidence of truth, and cumsplattering highblown generalized nonsense without showing how casuality occurs in the specific case, how the mechanism operates, is worthless crap. Akin to religious dogma, and very far from economic theory. You are not an economist, you are a proselytizer.

[mburbank]

You have to admit, though, he's a more eloquent spokesperson than usually slouches toward I-mockery to be borne.

Two things, Johnny Horton:

ALL states of being are temporal, at least for us poor mortals.

A man who employs phrases like "most treacherous perfidy" should NEVER taunt someone by calling them "School boy".

And the fact that for you "taking up the banner of the oppressed" was a "Study in hypocricy" reflects more on you than it does than those holding the poles between which hangs the banner of your condescending metaphor. I would suggest, like many before you, you have discovered a basic human selfishness which you feel a need to flout so as not to be ashamed.

But I like your poncy rhetoric. It's got a dis-STINC-tive FLAY-uh.

[Johnny Horton]

Stick your empty rhetoric up your ass. Browbeating without providing any evidence of truth, and cumsplattering highblown generalized nonsense without showing how casuality occurs in the specific case, how the mechanism operates, is worthless crap. Akin to religious dogma, and very far from economic theory. You are not an economist, you are a proselytizer.

Here, take my hand. Okay, care. Watch your step. Good. Now then.

Corporations seek to earn profits by producing goods and services. Consumers like and enjoy the goods and services, and are therefore willing to pay for them. Do you understand? It's really not so complicated, even for someone like you.

Rhetorically,

Johnny Horton

[Johnny Horton]

ALL states of being are temporal, at least for us poor mortals.

A man who employs phrases like "most treacherous perfidy" should NEVER taunt someone by calling them "School boy".

And the fact that for you "taking up the banner of the oppressed" was a "Study in hypocricy" reflects more on you than it does than those holding the poles between which hangs the banner of your condescending metaphor. I would suggest, like many before you, you have discovered a basic human selfishness which you feel a need to flout so as not to be ashamed.

But I like your poncy rhetoric. It's got a dis-STINC-tive FLAY-uh.

Please clarify. Do you think you mean "be ashamed," or do you actually mean feel ashamed? And I am bewildered by your confusion. How you attempt to assign to others my feelings about my behavior is quite beyond my understanding.

Nevertheless, I'm so ashamed, mostly for using temporal instead of temporary. But I'm glad to know you agree with my thoughts on the fallacy of victimhood. Your condescension compliments my own very nicely.

[VinceZeb]

Johnny is like Max if Max were 1) in possession of common sense and 2) funny.

[mburbank]

Johnny is like Max in that 1) He has a funvtional frontal lobe 2) He can write in complete sentences.

Vince is like a squirrel with Attention deficit disorder except that 1.) He overcompensates more 2.) he is more concerned with his nuts.

Well. That's out of the way.



Johnny Horton: Tenessee Williams called. He wants his diction back. And I meant 'to be' as the infinitive of the verb 'are', as in your 'are' ashamed, ie. you experience the feeling of shame.

A well dressed gentleman such as yourself should know my condescension doesn't compliment. It Mocks.

[kellychaos]

Two sad things:

1) Many unions have become such a bureaucracy that they've lost touch with their constituency and their main agenda in a lot of cases seems to be that of insuring their dues are paid promptly.

2) There are too many people who work their asses off to achieve union status and, once achieved, continue on to maintain a sub-par work ethic. These people rest on their laurels and make a joke of their occupation with the full knowledge that the union will protect them. It's a disgrace to the people who worked hard and fought for the establishment of their union.