Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

American capitalism has taken an apocalyptic turn

economist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

331–340 of 360 posts

Re: American capitalism has taken an apocalyptic turn

#331

Post by bluefirebrand »

hparadiz wrote: post #330
bluefirebrand wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Presumably the 67k spend contains the car repair, house repair, hospital stay part you mentioned. Everything you're saying is accounted for It explicitly is not. The number I am quoting is for essentials, it does not factor in emergencies > I'm saying make your own social security fund I'm saying many people can't realistically afford to, so expecting it is absolutely ridiculous

$5583 a month is essentials? This is more than what I spend on my mortgage..... and all my bills.... and all my food.... and I live in SoCal. This conversation is dumb. Put money into an IRA. You lower your taxable income. It's not that hard. You grow your net worth on your untaxed monies and then later when shit hits the fan you can extract it at a lower tax bracket. And you get to gain market gains on cash that wou…

> $5583 a month is essentials? This is more than what I spend on my mortgage..... and all my bills.... and all my food.... and I live in SoCal

Is there anything that other households might spend money on that you don't?

Say for instance childcare, or having a second vehicle for a spouse, groceries for a family with children

Your post is pretty light on details about your actual household situation

Personally I don't think $5583 for a family of four (for instance) sounds that outrageous

Re: American capitalism has taken an apocalyptic turn

#332

Post by tim333 »

insane_dreamer wrote: post #313
sghiassy wrote: post #4

We came back from the gilded age. So there’s hope right?

I'd rather not go through a Great Depression, thank you very much. Maybe everyone should re-read The Grapes of Wrath.

The Great Depression was a bit of a monetary screw up which we've probably figured out how not to do again.

Re: American capitalism has taken an apocalyptic turn

#333

Post by hparadiz »

bluefirebrand wrote: post #331
hparadiz wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$5583 a month is essentials? This is more than what I spend on my mortgage..... and all my bills.... and all my food.... and I live in SoCal. This conversation is dumb. Put money into an IRA. You lower your taxable income. It's not that hard. You grow your net worth on your untaxed monies and then later when shit hits the fan you can extract it at a lower tax bracket. And you get to gain market gains on cash that wou…

> $5583 a month is essentials? This is more than what I spend on my mortgage..... and all my bills.... and all my food.... and I live in SoCal Is there anything that other households might spend money on that you don't? Say for instance childcare, or having a second vehicle for a spouse, groceries for a family with children Your post is pretty light on details about your actual household situation Personally I don't…

What I'm supposed to write a book to account for every random bullshit scenario to assuage your adhd overthinking?

This shit is exhausting. If you don't want good financial advice move on. I'm not replying to you anymore.

Re: American capitalism has taken an apocalyptic turn

#334

Post by xp84 »

phs318u wrote: post #279
xp84 wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

What a cheap shot. “gender reassignment surgeries for prisoners” - cos there are soooo many of those happening we can’t fix a single bridge. How about another explanation. Your government is totally opposed to helping citizens for “free” (let’s ignore that most government revenue comes from good ol’ taxpayers) when the alternative is to farm out the provision of expensive services to lobbying corporates. They’re more…

Both parties spend money on ridiculous things that are obviously wastes of money. Are any lies detected?

Re: American capitalism has taken an apocalyptic turn

#336

Post by tim333 »

It's a rather negative take on things. Take Musk for instance:

>Mr Musk is America’s richest capitalist in part because he is its loudest Cassandra

He's actually been going on about "A World Where All Is Free? That’s Elon Musk’s Theory of ‘Sustainable Abundance.’" https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/business/a-world-where-al...

Also booming stock markets, solar output, AI development and the like could be ok maybe?

Re: American capitalism has taken an apocalyptic turn

#337

Post by anon291 »

thyrsus wrote: post #75
anon291 wrote: post #50

America is a communist nation since the majority of the populace holds the majority of the productive capacity in joint ownership

That claim needs explanation. My understanding is that substantially less than 20% hold the controlling ownership of U.S. productive capacity.

The majority of Americans own stock and most of that is investments in the S and P 500. This is probably the closest any nation has gotten to mass public ownership of the means of production. Certainly more so than explicitly communist nations in which supposed shareholders (i.e. the citizens) have no right at all to influence company decisions.

In America shareholder lawsuits and such are common even from minority holders.

Re: American capitalism has taken an apocalyptic turn

#338

Post by _carbyau_ »

WalterBright wrote: post #169
_carbyau_ wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Me giving you a dollar doesn't create. The rich extracting wealth from the poor doesn't create. Investors buying existing housing stock doesn't create. Mine it. Make it. Improve it. Brings wealth into existence. Note that financially large businesses/individuals are a mix of wealth creation and transference. That one word comment implies a lot of the wealthiest people have not created much wealth in comparison with h…

But you aren't going to give me a dollar. The rich will sell you things they created, but it is illegal for them to extract it from you. Buying existing houses means the seller realizes the wealth he created. Transference is called "stealing" and is illegal (unless the government does it).

Transference in this case can be otherwise known as economic rent.

merriam-webster definition: "the return for the use of a factor in excess of the minimum required to bring forth its service" [0]

Think of those companies that have % take on the output of others by providing a market. Yes, they provide a service, as you say "The rich will sell you things they created".

But the arrangement allows them to extract more than it costs. That extra over and above doesn't provide extra value. It is "rent".

To be clear, at no point have I accused billionaires of illegal acts. Mind you at that scale they can influence what is legal or not, regulated or not, tariffed or not. Example, see Apple's award to Trump for tariff exemptions.

Their acts impact the economy and how money flows.

The accusation being a large chunk of their wealth is via rent than wealth creation that benefits everyone.

Now, to a business person, this is simply good business! Maximising profit on output! But from a society wide economic point of view, there can be too much of a good thing.

Sentiment-wise, the poor and middleclass want to be able to get rich too. But now it seems as though the multibillionaires will make that impossible as they seek to suck up every last dollar.

[0]https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/economic%20rent

Edit: flow and shorter... and then added more sorry.

Re: American capitalism has taken an apocalyptic turn

#340

Post by bluefirebrand »

hparadiz wrote: post #333
bluefirebrand wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> $5583 a month is essentials? This is more than what I spend on my mortgage..... and all my bills.... and all my food.... and I live in SoCal Is there anything that other households might spend money on that you don't? Say for instance childcare, or having a second vehicle for a spouse, groceries for a family with children Your post is pretty light on details about your actual household situation Personally I don't…

What I'm supposed to write a book to account for every random bullshit scenario to assuage your adhd overthinking? This shit is exhausting. If you don't want good financial advice move on. I'm not replying to you anymore.

I really don't know what gave you the impression I needed your financial advice in the first place

Do you think just because I'm concerned about people who are less well off that I must be one? Do you think the only reason I could or should care about poor people is if I were poor myself?

If so, then I truly hope you become a better person in the future

My financial situation is fine though, thanks for the concern. My financial advisor has me all taken care of

Post reply on HN