Too much finance is bad for the economy • Hacker News Board

Re: Too much finance is bad for the economy

#211

Post by LiweiZ » Mon, Feb 23, 2015, 3:33 AM UTC

rahulsidhu wrote: post #207

LiweiZ wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Austrian school economics seems unheard for many. After skimming books by Mises, I believe Austrian school is on the right track. But the tool for it has not ready at that time. When I learned about complexity systems. I think it can supply the right tool. And just this week, I'm reading papers by W. Brian Arthur. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Brian_Arthur ) Quite fascinating experience. Another issue with econom…

That's an interesting thought. Any papers you'd recommend in particular?

"All Systems will be Gamed: Exploitive Behavior in Economic and Social Systems"

http://tuvalu.santafe.edu/~wbarthur/Papers/All%20Systems%20G...

He has a new book with all his papers: Complexity and the Economy (http://www.amazon.com/Complexity-Economy-W-Brian-Arthur/dp/0...). I have not bought it yet. The preface is free to download here: http://tuvalu.santafe.edu/~wbarthur/Papers/Complexity%20&%20...

Re: Too much finance is bad for the economy

#212

Post by hawleyal » Mon, Feb 23, 2015, 2:30 PM UTC

astazangasta wrote: post #67

hawleyal wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure I agree with putting doctors and cooks on that list. Providing services basic to life is not the same as supporting recreation, wealth, or luxury. To put a finer point on it, doctors and cooks, along with farmers, builders, teachers, daycare workers, et al. existed ever since everyone started specializing. They directly support life needs.

There have been gardeners for at least as long as there has been civilization. Entertainers have probably always been around. Your idea of "life needs" doesn't seem to coincide with history's.

Completely disagree. Entertainment is the first to go when there is a crisis or somehow we return to basic needs.

Edit: Also, not that it matters, but I have studied anthro for many years.

Re: Too much finance is bad for the economy

#213

Post by copsarebastards » Thu, Feb 26, 2015, 6:45 PM UTC

ahomescu1 wrote: post #102

copsarebastards wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In a way this is partly a good thing. If everyone focused on going to space or curing cancer and were unsuccessful for quite some time we'd be in trouble. Implicit in this claim is the idea that somehow we need someone to own things. Why is that exactly? In fact, employee-owned cooperatives demonstrate that when the doers own what they're doing, it can have some benefits for all involved.

> Implicit in this claim is the idea that somehow we need someone to own things. Why is that exactly? Tragedy of the commons. When scarce resources are communally owned, they tend to get exploited even worse than when they're privately owned.

I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a comment.

Employee-owned cooperatives aren't communally owned, they're employee-owned (as the name indicates).

The resources, in this case, are the employees themselves. So you're claiming that employees will exploit themselves more than an employer would?

Re: Too much finance is bad for the economy

#214

Post by randyrand » Fri, Feb 27, 2015, 8:19 PM UTC

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #113

randyrand wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The financial sector does a lot more than play middle man (in fact arbitrage is so quickly found these days its a hard to make much money doing this anymore) Primarily, they invest. Putting money into places that need capital and will likely grow.

Holding a position for a few days, hours, minutes, or seconds is not investing. It's gambling.

The financial sector holds things on many different timescales, not just minutes or hours. Sometimes for decades if its profitable.