Comments by "Ōkami-san" (@mweibleii) on "Thom Hartmann Program" channel.

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  4. RE: Robber Barrons. So, let's clearly state the argument. In the 1800s a few Americans got lucky and capitalized on the second industrial revolution and got rich providing other Americans with goods and services. Like electricity, radios, trains, planes and automobiles. Okay, so their crime was they GASP got rich. Now, let's compare that 'Crime' of the GASP Robber Barron's against today's HYPER REGULATED MARKETS. You know, the ones where you need a licence to cut god damn hair, to legally marry someone, to sell alcohol, to drive a cab and in some states to sell arranged flowers. You know, where selling raw milk will send you to prison but selling FDA Regulated Pink Slime is A-Okay. The one where the State makes our currency by fiat and then charges us an income tax to use it - forcing us to us it. THIS ONE. Let's see now. HAS 100 years of REGULATION WORKED for us? The richer are even RICHER!!! They'd make those Robber Barron's blush they're so god damn rich. The mansions of a Robber Barron wouldn't house the cleaning staff for these rich f$ckers. AND get this, 2015 was a RECORD BREAKING year for number of regulations - how's it working out??? Why don't YOU apply YOUR same god damn logic? If you didn't think free-markets worked in the 1800s because a few guys got rich, well that isn't shit compared to what the Regulated-Markets and the State have done in the last 100. Korean War ring a bell? How about napalm set alight and dropped on children over Vietnam? How about the phony war on terror that has killed a million children in Iraq? NSA wire tapping? And you have the god damn GALL to sit over their and whine about a few fat rich old industrialists over 100 years ago!? Give me a f*cking break.You are clueless. No wonder Sanders wins the likes of you over to his side, all he has to do is off you Moar Free. Because, at the end of the day, that's really all it is for people like you. You sit there and say Robber Barrons 'proves' free-markets can NEVER EVER work while Regulated Markets have literally destroyed entire civilizations. 100s of million of humans have died due to State regulations. Oh, but but but, Robber Barron's got rich. The Ford Family was rich. The Rockefeller's made some money. Jesus H Christ, what load of crap are they teaching at Universities now-a-days. Not like I'd know, I'm only a doctor, but hey, you have an undergraduate in business. While I was doing Physical Chemistry you were probably playing cards and watching TV. And, if you made it this far, I'll end on this note. LOOK UP the word Argument, because you don't appear to have a clue what that word means. I'll clue you in, there's two big families, deductive and inductive, try not confusing them next time you attempt to make one. Good Day
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  6. Heads Tails You listed crony capitalists of the 20th century. Robber Barron's refers to Industrialists of the 1800s. Two totally different groups of people. Do I think removing regulations that protect crony capitalists and provide regulatory-capture for rent-seekers by replacing them basic common LAWS that protect property right and contract? Yes, that's correct. As an example: FDA regulates ground pig snout, hooves, skin, tail, anus, hair, boiled in ammonia, mixed with filler (wood pulp) and dyed pink as FOOD and raw milk as POISON. You understand how insane this is? Today, thanks to regulatory capture (primarily Rx) by the AMA, we have the largest population of non-violent humans in prison (Drug War) AND at the same time a heroin epidemic! Oh, and medicine is now the most expensive its ever been - due to AMA enforced limitations on supply side of the curve. Oh, and to boot, Government Regulated Medicine now has Medical Error as  the #2 reason you will die in the USA. How's that for 'Regulations'? You do understand out Regulators BAILED OUT the criminal bankers and then fed them trillion MORE in money. And that doesn't even begin to mention the MIC. You'd literally have to be insane to think Government Regulated markets are in ANYWAY better than free-markets, lawful markets. Notice I said LAWFUL. We were NOT an anarchy in the 1800s and we would not be one if we had free-markets. Yes, some people got rich - so what? No where near as rich as the crony crooks of today's hyper-regulated markets. 
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  8. BramSLI1 We need a Bernie Sanders. Jesus H Christ we Americans have become so f#cking pathetic. You remind me of an Iranian I knew who said, The Ayatollah is trying his best it's just bla bla blah. Seriously, you sound like her. Or a Chinese I knew who just knew Dear Leader was trying his best - if only he had some help from blah blah blah....  News Flash, thanks to the DoED regulated Government Schools 1 in 5 (20%) of Americans graduate from high school FUNCTIONALLY ILLITERATE. You do understand that electing Bernie Sanders will do NOTHING to change this. His wife is part of that problem by the way, and she has done NOTHING to fix it. How do we know? Again, look up the DoED own stats on functional illiteracy rates. If anything he'll make it worse. You do understand that Government regulated healthcare is f&cked. More regulations are not going to fix it. Take a look at Government run welfare ghettos - you think Sanders is going to magically fix State sponsored generational dependency?? The Government created the problem and you want it to now fix it?! Are you insane. You Statists are no different from Theists. Seriously, the only difference is you worship the State. Instead of Bishops you praise your Senators. Instead of the Pope you pray to the POTUS. Yes, let's hope Sanders is elected, maybe he can fulfill his promise to turn the USA into that Democratic Socialistist Progressive Utopia Sweden he's always crapping on about. The quicker Progressive Socialists sink this economy, the quicker those of us who will fix things ourselves can to work. So, yes, vote Sanders.  It should be noted, if you go to Sanders website, most of his list (pretty much every item) is MOAR FREE. Free free free.... how pathetic. It seems to get elected in the USA today, all you need to do is promise free stuff. What you will NOT see on his website is ending Teachers Unions, make it easier for common people to access Private Schools, ending the AMA, or anything else that might change things over the long run. The problems we face will require at least 3 decades to fix, just to give you a clue as to the magnitude of the problems. 
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  16. Rusty Mckee One major reason why the private sector is more efficient right now is because they do not have to deal with austerity cuts" HAHAHA.... yeah, because they EARN their money. But, the solution is simple, sell off your Governmental Services TO the Private Sector. See how simple it is? IF what you say is true, and you are providing value for money, then you will continue to do so in the PRIVATE FREE MARKET. It really is THAT simple. If you DO provide a valued service, and maybe you do, then you will continue to do so through making GASP a profit selling said service. It means people in society WANT you to keep doing what you're doing and are willing to pay you to keep doing so. This is why we NEED Privatization - which also means, no need for you to worry about CONgress, because you"ll be working directly for the people you claim to want to serve.  As for your allegation that if schools were private then ONLY the rich would learn - again, you are clueless. The 1910 US Census showed in a Chicago Suburb African Americans had a literacy rate of 85% in 1910. This is without Government Schooling. Why? Because African's THEN valued learning to read and write and wanted to better themselves and the lives of their children. The 2010 census showed this SAME neighborhood, these are the great grandkids kid, THEIR literacy rate was under 50%. Again, you turd, you are wrong. The facts show you are wrong. Government Schooling does NOT work. Unless you call 1 in 5 functional illiteracy "working". You can look up the data for yourself. Unlike in 1910, Africans in 2010 can just get on generational Welfare, there is no NEED to improve. Raising children is tough work, why do that when Progressive Democrats are willing to foot the bill.   Lastly, taxing does NOT increase the supply of good and services you dolt. Taxation only redistributed existing goods and services. As an example, the DoED spends more than the Koch Brothers lifetime earning in a single year and have nothing to show for it. You keep thinking we need more tax money - News Flash Sherlock, the Government raised over a TRILLION dollars this year. The US Government has NO problem raising capital. Jesus, are you completely clueless? The Government has MORE than enough money. One more time, taxation does NOT  increase goods and services, it redistributes those that exist. 
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  24. ***** Sure, there are a teeny minority of people who would happily pay a plumber to do brain surgery on them. Yes, the world is full of complete morons and yes I support you/them being free to be that level of stupid - preferably before you/they breed. That's just part of living in a free society. As for the rest of society, namely hospitals and insurance companies, we'll require a certification of competence to tender for brain surgery.  Note: I wonder why electronic companies never hire plumbers to do complex computer coding? Geee, and without any State requirement to only hire people with State certifications somehow GAAASP the free market is able to align goods and services with customers to produce $150 super computers that fit in my pocket. While the current system sees the AMA (a private fraternity) with a near total monopoly (thus quality is low and price is high), in a free-market more certification options (example: DO and others) will drive quality up and price down.  Oh, and by the by, you are indeed free to walk over the magic State line and have surgery elsewhere in the world by people without USA regulated medical background. In many instances for a much lower cost and much higher quality of care. Japan is a good example of this.  One more time, healthcare IS the MOST regulated market in the USSA. It has the most regulations. No other market is more highly regulated than healthcare. And as a result we have extremely crap outcomes (400,000 Americans an KILLED each year due to medical error in our State-regulated medical care) 
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  26. ***** I don't think you understand what logic is. You don't seem to be making a logical argument and your premises are unfounded therefor your conclusions are unsound. As an example, you state the 'clusterfuck' we had prior to Obamacare was due to lack of regulatory enforcement - this is not true, further, the added regulations are NOT making us safer. Empirically, the data shows there were 90,000 deaths due to medical error in 1990 and with the addition of millions of more regulations the deaths due to medical error are now 450,000.  The 'clusterfuck' (as you say) is due to (a) too many regulations (b) AMA monopoly (c) regulatory capture and rent-seeking. Again, you're showing your ignorance, regulation is being used to maintain profits. It's the exact opposite of your presumption (that regulation is to bring down costs). One more time, regulations are there to keep profits high. As an example: cities in the USA are restricted on how many hospitals can be opened. IF it's determined (by people using the system to make money) that a new hospital will impact on the profitability of an existing hospital - then the State will refuse a new hosptial from opening. The same is true of all sorts of medical care. The number of fMRI that can opened in a city is also limited. LIMITED - to maintain profit.  Summary, the reason why medicine costs to much is due to State-enforced regulatory capture by the AMA to maintain it's rent-seeking.  I promise, more regulation, ObamaCare or otherwise, will see that 480,000 dying per year going up to a million. You'll see. Much like you think you understand what 'logic' means, you'll find out you don't - and you also don't understand medicine and how regulations is making it more expensive and more dangerous. The problem is IMO, people like you are allowed to vote. You 'think' you understand something and you think you should have your say. But in reality, you don't really understand anything and having your say with 'your' logic is the very last thing we need as a society. Therefor, limited government and free-markets are the only solutions to people like yourself. It's not that you are intentionally trying to destroy society, it's just what you do. You like to think you know much more than you actually do know and that makes you, when in aggregate, dangerous to the rest of us. 
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  34. Joshua J Free trade with Asia has pulled millions of hard working Asians out of poverty and at the same time given millions and millions of Americans higher standards of living by producing electronics cheaply ushering in the internet age. If Asians weren't making smart phones, and they were made here in the USA, they'd cost thousands of dollars and most poor would never afford them. As for why the poor are left with crappy low end jobs. Well, that's pretty easy to answer. Government schools are next to useless. As a matter of fact, the DoED found 1 in 5 American graduates are functionally illiterate. Further, the DoED found the average American reads at the level of a 6th grader. Next, thanks to Progressives like Thom, there's sooooo many millions and millions and millions of regulations making it impossible for poor functionally illiterate Americans to open up their own businesses. Thus, they have only two choices, work at McDonald's et.al. or go on to Government Welfare. Just think, if we didn't have a central bank, and didn't have minimum wage, and a trillion regulations, maybe all those jobs would have stayed in the USA?  The American middle class has spoke, when given the opportunity, they'll buy made in Japan, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan etc... over made in America. The only thing a tariff's do is prevent free Americans from purchasing the items they want. And what they want is made in China.  Notice Japan and Germany are still able to compete. That's something to think about.  Let me ask you this, in the next decade, we'll have 3D printers that put most Chinese out of a job, as we'll be able to produce anything we want in our own homes. Are you going to suggest this is going to make us poorer? Because, a cheap Asian making stuff for next to nothing, is pretty much like a 3D printer.
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  36. thrisbt1 Voting for anyone who promises to redistribute other people's money for the 'good of society' is a waste of time. What exactly has Bernie Sanders himself done that doesn't involve taking other people's money and spending it? I mean, that's a god damn good gig if you can get it. Has Bernie inventing anything? Discovered anything? Created anything of note other than increased taxes and more paperwork? Has he created any successful businesses?  Or is he a career bullshitter?  Politically, has Bernie taken on the Teacher's Unions? Has he radically tried to change the broken system that is Government schooling? I'm not talking about throwing money at Union officials, I'm talking total reinvent education? Nope, No, and No. Is Vermont reducing regulations to make it easier for the poor to open businesses? Nope. How about reducing income tax? Nope.  Bernie Sanders is successful at one thing, and only one thing - spinning bullshit people want to hear. It generally goes like this: Yes, I agree with you. Yes, you are right. The Government is failing the middle class. Yes, I'm here to take from the rich and give everything and anything you want. Free education? Done. Free healthcare? Done. Free University. Done. Free roads. Free internet. Free free and more free. Oh, and we'll stick it to the rich while we're at it.  As I said before, I'd be happy if Bernie won. 8 years of more failed Progressive bullshit and maybe people might start to get it. Probably not. More than likely we'll have to sink into 3rd world nation status with a banana republic dictator before Americans get that what made America prosperous was a LIMITED government. Maybe we'll move back to Japan. Japanese generally agree on two things: politicians are full of crap and American politicians are a joke. It's also a much freer country in many respects. Progressives don't make much headway in Japan as Asians in general don't buy into airy fairy bullshittery. 
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  37. Joshua J  Free trade with China has benefited much more than the 'corporate elite', it's pulled hundreds of millions of poor working Chinese out of poverty (a poverty caused by central planning I might add. The same sort of central planning that's leading to our lower standard of living). Chinese aren't making us 'poorer' because they're taking our jobs, they're actually propping up our standard of living by offering us extremely high value electronics for next to nothing. Just imagine, a super computer that fits in your pocket, and as soon as a new model comes out, Americans just toss the old super computer into the trash bin.  Corporations probably will move their operations to a cheaper country. And they'd have to. Or they go bankrupt. Not because THEY are greedy, but because Americans want the best of everything and they want it for next to nothing. Blame the middle class American consumer for the need to make everything so cheaply. They COULD have supported made in America, but they don't want to. Free trade simply shows the true face of America. Which is the price we pay for living in a free society. People are free not to buy made in America. Further, many Americans have the entire retirement dependent on stocks. Hundreds of millions of Americans REQUIRE that corporations turn a fat profit and if they don't, the CEO is quickly fired.  I personally make a distinction between making a profit (which is virtuous) and spoils (which is stealing, indirectly or otherwise). If you open a cafe and make a profit (be it a chain or otherwise) and you're competing in a free market, then this means you're providing people with something they want without threatening them in the process. That's virtuous. If you were not making a profit, that'd be a signal to you, people do not want what you are selling - regardless of your good intentions, or ill intent. That's the reason we need profit in a free market. I didn't understand why you said small business need help from the government and then say you support crowd sourcing. Those are mutually exclusive statements. What we need is deregulation to make it fairer to compete. Just look at the Taxi scam as an example. Taxi's are small businesses, but as soon as Uber came along and offered competition, many ran straight to government trying to outlaw this competition - which has happened in some places via 'regulations'. The only viable solution is to eliminate government's role in regulating the markets. It seems to me that you're hung up on 'money' and 'jobs'. You suggest 3D printing is both going to put everyone out of a job AND at the same time bring on the Great Depression? This makes no sense. People do not 'have' to work and money is only a means of transaction. For example, if we have solar energy and 3D printers and recycling centers, then yes, there won't be as many jobs. That's a good thing, it means we can spend more time doing things of leisure. Life therefor is better - and the end goal is no one works at all and there's no need for money. Right now we live in a time when people toss supercomputers in the trash because they don't look nice, so, minus the State starting WWIII, we have a bright future IF we can return to free trade / free societies. 
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  40. Rusty Mckee Welcome to the end result of Progressive 'Socialism'. Of course we are worked to death - it costs a ton of money to pay for all the governmental 'free' services we are 'entitled' to. Particularly when it comes to the Federal Government bailing out the richest 0.1% crony so-called 'capitalists' that run our country. In a FREE society competition FOR labor ensures wages remain high. I've personally witnessed this. We don't live in a free society. We live in a hyper-regulated society, thus, demand for labor remains low - and will continue to remain low until we admit we have a problem with too much government. Which isn't going to happen. Then there's the trillions and trillions wasted on the Government's wars. Next comes the Federal Register which churns out approximately 80,000 pages of fine print regulations every year. This regulatory order is cumulative. Most of these regulations stay on the books. They are not repealed by the bureaucrats; they are amplified by new rules.These regulations are primarily aimed at protecting market players and locking out competition.  Imagine, today you can be fined for letting your children sell lemon-aid. THAT'S how 'free' the markets are in the USA. While you'd go to jail for selling open BBQ chicken without a licence, your neighbor can open a State 'regulated' tacobell and sell boiled in ammonia pig hooves, tail and bone meal mixed with HFCS, filler and food coloring. You know, because the Government wants to make sure we're "safe". Why are we working to death? The DoED costs nearly $100 BILLION a year. What do we get for our money? Institutionalized 'education' where 1 in 5 graduates are functionally illiterate. They graduate with a degree in uselessness, barely able to read and write, little practical knowledge into hyper-regulated markets where they'd go to prison for selling unlicensed lemon aid. Yes, the corporation of the USA is a huge problem - one the Government perpetuates. And will continue to perpetuate regardless of WHO is elected. Do you think Bernie Sanders is going to do a god damn think to decrease sales at Walmart? No way. Walmart is paying the lion's share of the taxes to the Government - which Bernie thinks is fantastic, because he's going to magically redistribute 'money' and this will someone make all our lives better. Americans are addicted to Government. And, in this case, we'll have to hit rock bottom before MAYBE we'll admit we have a problem and do something about it. I'd say, in another 40 years of so. Give or take a decade or two. 
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  43. Rusty Mckee So you'd prefer to let millions of Chinese children starve to death? Is that your solution? No one in the USA is starving to death. Americans are, in reality, fat. 80% of Americans have air conditioning in their homes. Americans in the bottom 15% live in homes that are larger than the middle class in France. You have a distorted view of what's real. The jobs ARE going overseas. There is no stopping that. Just as tractors replaced low skilled labor, Chinese are replacing low skilled Americans. One day 3D printers will replace Chinese. And our standard of living is rising. We live in an age where Americans toss away old smart phones like trash because they want a new 'look'. We have access to ultra cheap electronics. People aren't starving in the USA, they're getting fatter. Food is plentiful. Education is nearly free and higher education has guaranteed for anything through State loans and tons of scholarships. We are going to gain access to solar power cells (made in China) that will make our lives even better.  If you have a high level skill, getting a good paying job in the USA isn't that difficult. Engineering, writing computer code, law, medicine, biotech, etc.... if you have a low skill, then you are not getting a high paying job in the USA any longer. Primarily because other Americans do not want to buy your stuff. They prefer made in China. It's that simple. You can try to restrict what other Americans can or cannot buy, but it won't work. They'll vote for the person who is giving them a cheap iPad not a job making a cheap iPad. It's called Democracy.  I personally have only bought 1 thing at Walmart (bag of pretzels). Not that I think they're a bad company, I just don't like their crappy products and their food is low quality. But Walmart makes its money serving the POOR. I've spoken to well connected people who suggest one reason the government gives Walmart subsidies is because Walmart does such a great job feeding the poor. While the Government on the other hand does a wonderful job creating poor. It's sort of a hand in glove relationship. That may or may not be true.  What is true is low skilled manufacturing is going overseas and when it comes back, it'll be in the form of a 3D printer.
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  44. Rusty Mckee  I agree that productivity gains are going to rich - you can blame government education and government regulations for that. The only way the price of labor is going to go up, is when the supply of labor goes down. This is Econ 101. Supply and Demand.  Government schools function as labor cog factories. They produce laborers instead of entrepreneurs. This means there's more labor sellers than labor buyers. Regulations make it hard to open a business. This means there's there's less labor buys competing for labor and thus the price of labor goes down. As for the "air I breath" - basic property laws protect me, my health and my property. You are living a delusion is you think regulations are to protect you from a corporation. No. The regulations are to protect corporations from you, in the form of frivolous lawsuits. This is a simple historical fact. If a chemical company pours chemicals into the river and it 'catches on fire' then you can sue the person who owns the company for property damage and a jury can send that rich person to prison for life. Regulations ensure the 'regulated' amount of chemicals can damage you and your property, without fear of being sued. As a matter of fact, once it's legal, you cannot sue.  Was there cases of pollution? Yes. Primarily in the East. Most of the USA was fine. And get this, there's STILL a lot of pollution in the USA. Primarily in government ghettos and inner cities. Farms also pollute the land and water. Only now there's nothing we can do about it, other than hope a "Regulator" passes a regulation - which it does, to protect the company's interest (see Monsanto as an example). 
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  48. Rusty Mckee Our entire monetary system was designed and implemented and voted into law by Progressives. Most notably Woodrow Wilson, he started the Progressive Party for Christ's sake. You saying there's been 'no Progressive in 35 years' is the "No True Scotsman" fallacy. The fact is Progressive Socialists are ALL we have - they come in two flavors, Fascist Corporatists and Fascists Socialists. Think of it like this, what is "Progressive" one day, is "Conservative" the next. A 100 years ago a Central Bank and taxing people by their Labor-hours was all new and "Progressive". Now it's unthinkable not taxing labour-hours and not having a central bank. It's "Tradition".  As for the worker missing out on the gains in productivity. Like I said before, until Labor is in demand, then the price will continue to fall. You can use the State to force the price of low end labor up, but you can't make people buy it.  Anyway, we can agree the monetary system is completely unfair and no longer functional. I think the way to fix it is to limit government and maximize personal freedom (the entire foundation of our society) and you can think redistributing from one group to another using a Police State is going to fix it (the antithesis to the foundation of the USA). I can promise you, the only thing the Police State is going to do, is work for the highest bidder - which is NOT the middle class or the poor. We can see they did exactly this when they bailed out the richest 0.1% during the GFC.
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  49. marisafari Inflation should NOT be occurring. As we become more productive and can make things cheaper, the prices of these items should drop. Therefor the normal way the worker enjoys 'productivity' gains is by paying less for the items at the store. The reason why we instead have inflation is (a) Central Banks cause inflation by expanding the money supply and (b) the Government NEEDS inflation to pay off it's T-bonds as well as municipals and their gawd awful bonds. In short, the Central Bank and Government work like hand in glove to maintain high inflation - because it benefits THEM. Ask a Central Banker about deflation and they'll blabber on about how we 'need a magical 2% inflation' of no one would buy anything, which is asinine. Electronics have seen prices drop year after year and sell like hotcakes! Anyway, as to your point about labor-hours. Labor-hours are just like anything else. If the supply is high, then the price is low. If the supply is low, then the price is high. To reduce the supply of labor-hours we need more entrepreneurs. But, thanks to 80 years of Progressive regulations and 100 years of Progressive Government Schools - all we have are laborers. Just imagine, in the 1960s America was seen (from the outside) as a country of businessmen. Literally, EVERYONE wanted to open a business. THAT was the norm. Now everyone wants to get a 'good job' or a handout. Very few Americans want to start a business any longer. And I don't blame them. Who would? The better option is to get a 'good job' working for the Government - nice benefits, high pay, job security, holidays off, no weekends, etc... Not the way to a prosperous future. 
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