The Financial Sector Is the Greatest Parasite in Human History
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The Financial Sector Is the Greatest Parasite in Human History
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Re: The Financial Sector Is the Greatest Parasite in Human History
#2[deleted]
Re: The Financial Sector Is the Greatest Parasite in Human History
#3Bigger than government? Arguably at least the military and internal-to-government overhead is a direct parasite on everyone else, and its only value is fighting other parasites (other governments). Some parts of government seem to be very useful, but it's a big enough sector that just the parasite parts are probably the biggest parasite.
Re: The Financial Sector Is the Greatest Parasite in Human History
#4Who keeps pushing this meme? If anything, the worst parasites are lobby groups and politicians.
Re: The Financial Sector Is the Greatest Parasite in Human History
#5Warren Buffett's Gotrocks anecdote is an interesting take on this: http://money.cnn.com/2006/03/05/news/newsmakers/buffett_fort...
Re: The Financial Sector Is the Greatest Parasite in Human History
#6The military has been worse historically surely? At least the financial sector has some function you'd miss if they didn't exist - banks, insurers etc are useful although I'll give you that about half their activities are parasite like. I'm basing that number on Krugman http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/opinion/27krugman.html?_r=...
Re: The Financial Sector Is the Greatest Parasite in Human History
#7The financial sector provides no services? What?
If I want to sell my company, the banks sure as hell provide a service. They provide a valuation, put together a pitch book, shop the company around and close the deal.
How is that not a service?
Re: The Financial Sector Is the Greatest Parasite in Human History
#8Who keeps pushing this meme? If anything, the worst parasites are lobby groups and politicians.
It's a populist call to arms. You'll be seeing a lot more of it over the next few years, expanding ever more loudly toward the rich, wall street, bankers, and corporations, with calls for much higher tax levels and minimum wage. The Fed's asset bubble-based fake recovery did absolutely nothing for the bottom 50%, but has vastly increased the wealth of the top 10%, the future social consequences of that are obvious.
Re: The Financial Sector Is the Greatest Parasite in Human History
#9The financial sector provides no services? What? If I want to sell my company, the banks sure as hell provide a service. They provide a valuation, put together a pitch book, shop the company around and close the deal. How is that not a service?
You can be a parasite and still provide a service, no?
Re: The Financial Sector Is the Greatest Parasite in Human History
#10Bigger than government? Arguably at least the military and internal-to-government overhead is a direct parasite on everyone else, and its only value is fighting other parasites (other governments). Some parts of government seem to be very useful, but it's a big enough sector that just the parasite parts are probably the biggest parasite.
yes. why even bother to argue your point? while a lot of government spending might not benefit you directly, the odds are that someone out there is getting some kind of service from it. Also, a sizable fraction of government money is going to salaries of middle-class workers. They, in turn, are likely to spend that money on things you might consider useful or neat, thereby helping the overall economy. The process might be inefficient (or less efficient than a perfectly executed and fictitious counterpart) but that doesn't make it a parasite.