Comments by "Wandering Existence" (@WanderingExistence) on "How Money Works" channel.

  1. Norfolk Southern approved a $10 billion share buyback program and a 9% dividend increase just before they told their employees that they couldn't afford to give them any sick days and 10 months before they had a giant accident that poisoned a whole town because they wouldn't invest in maintenance and pursued understaffing to save money.
    11000
  2. I think Warren Buffett said it in a little bit more relatable way that "if a woman can have a baby in 9 months, nine women should be able to have a baby in 1 month."
    1500
  3. Even wage labor is renting yourself via "self ownership". Employment is literally renting another human being as if they're property. The employer-employee relationship is a very insidious dynamic. Employment is a rental contract, like if you rented capital (say, a chainsaw from Home Depot), you pay rent for the "time preference" (basically the cost of time) for a piece of property. Capitalism is based on a principle of self ownership, which sounds empowering, until you realize that most people don't own enough capital goods to make enough income other than themselves, and must rent out the authority over themselves as pieces of "human capital". This is a process of dehumanization where human beings are valued for their return on investment as capital goods. This is why, at the very least, capitalism needs unions and safety nets (or abolishment), or else the system won't value people for their human value. Importantly we must also think about our sick, elderly, and disabled people, as they can't provide competitive economic return for the investor class to value. We must figure out a way to change this economic system if we wish to value each other.
    992
  4. Henry George was also in favor of taxing all types of natural resources. Alaska has been doing a UBI since 1982. It is funded by charging oil companies fees to extract oil from their land. We shouldn't let corporations be extracting and excluding natural resources for free, they should be paying for value that the citizens are entitled to! Divvy up the revenues into a citizen's dividend and pay people for being a part of a country that generates economic value.
    951
  5.  @badluck5647  Capitalism makes people complicit with the exploitative relationship by making owning stock, real estate, bonds, and other financial assets as one of the few ways to be secure in their older years or when they fall too ill to work. A deceptive part of capitalism is that allows people to own equity on a market basis unlike feudalism but it is in such vast inequality and alienation that the Bossism and Landlordism starts to look a lot like a form of neo- (commercialized) feudalism.
    943
  6. "The rent of land, therefore, considered as the price paid for the use of the land, is naturally a monopoly price. It is not at all proportioned to what the landlord may have laid out upon the improvement of the land, or to what he can afford to take; but to what the farmer can afford to give." — Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapter XI "Of the Rent of Land"
    595
  7. ​ @badluck5647  I assume you blame serfs for their involvement in feudalism?
    593
  8. "The rent of land, therefore, considered as the price paid for the use of the land, is naturally a monopoly price. It is not at all proportioned to what the landlord may have laid out upon the improvement of the land, or to what he can afford to take; but to what the farmer can afford to give." — Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapter XI "Of the Rent of Land"
    572
  9. Employment is literally renting another human being as if they're property. The employer-employee relationship is a very insidious dynamic. Employment is a rental contract, like if you rented capital (say, a chainsaw from Home Depot), you pay rent for the "time preference" (basically the cost of time) for a piece of property. Capitalism is based on a principle of self ownership, which sounds empowering, until you realize that most people don't own capital goods other than themselves, and must rent out the authority over themselves as pieces of "human capital". This is a process of dehumanization where human beings are valued for their return on investment as capital goods. This is why, at the very least, capitalism needs unions and safety nets (or abolishment), or else the system won't value people for their human value. Importantly we must also think about our sick, elderly, and disabled people, as they can't provide competitive economic return for the investor class to value. We must figure out a way to change this economic system if we wish to value each other as human beings.
    563
  10.  @badluck5647  It is better than feudalism, yes, but you're just continuing landlordism. Capitalism creates massive inequality and companies, like BlackRock and mortgage banks, that basically become neo-feudal lords. Shareholders are put before workers and communities. Yes it's better than feudalism... So that begs the question, if we improved then why can't we create a more improved system than what we have now?
    419
  11. "The rent of land, therefore, considered as the price paid for the use of the land, is naturally a monopoly price. It is not at all proportioned to what the landlord may have laid out upon the improvement of the land, or to what he can afford to take; but to what the farmer can afford to give." — Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapter XI "Of the Rent of Land"
    324
  12.  @badluck5647  False Dichotomy. Try Again.
    176
  13.  @luisfilipe2023  Personally, I like cooperative economic systems. It's not private and it's not state managed, it's economic democracy at the level of workers and the community. The Preston and Cleveland models are both very successful!
    158
  14.  @luisfilipe2023  I provided two example of working models that have been exported to other communities. Research before you make prejudices.
    152
  15. ​ @Elimbi1  Yep, it's called "rent seeking" and it means the landlord can extract a large amount of money for adding no value. Like how it's become a growing trend with airbnbs to charge a cleaning fee and then also request the guests to do their own cleaning- a charge for no value added.
    138
  16. They're called landLORDs for a reason. Historically feudalism transitioned into having more rights for the Lord's due to their power and prestige, like with the Magna Carta. This type of power change established fee simple private land ownership, creating more legal rights for landlords.
    134
  17.  @badluck5647  Nope, it's a cooperative model that helps communities build back after corporations export their jobs. It is built on worker and community goals rather than just maximizing profit.
    133
  18. ​ @THETRIVIALTHINGS  Bain Capital is a private equity group closely associated with Mitt Romney.
    121
  19. I would start supporting capital punishment 😅😅😅 No pun intended 😅
    119
  20. "You will own nothing, and you'll be happy"...
    93
  21. Automation and AI isn't necessarily a bad thing. The problem is is that it's controlled by, and for, the rich to get richer. If these means of production were owned by workers they would be controlled by and for the purposes of the workers instead of an absentee ruling class that increase their dividend and capital growth faster than wages will ever keep up.
    91
  22. A democratic economy is just as important as a democratic government!
    87
  23. Land is a monopoly price because it has an inelastic supply, basically you can't just make more space. In fact a lot of the price of land is dependent on the surrounding amenities, like closeness to downtown, schools, parks and scenic areas. Increased rental prices go to landlords who didn't even make the amenities that increased the value. "The rent of land, therefore, considered as the price paid for the use of the land, is naturally a monopoly price. It is not at all proportioned to what the landlord may have laid out upon the improvement of the land, or to what he can afford to take; but to what the farmer can afford to give." — Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapter XI "Of the Rent of Land"
    83
  24. Maybe we need to reevaluate the structure of the corporation. Maybe cooperation needs to be explored, like worker and consumer co-ops, community land trusts, and credit unions.
    81
  25. ​ @HowMoneyWorks  That's a great quote. It shows how wealth inequality isn't just about money, it's about a severe inequality of the quality of life. Where people are exploited into toiling their body into dust while billionaires extract the leisure power of wealth from these hard-working people. I love the channel. I would like to request a video on cooperative economics, the Evergreen cooperative in Cleveland or the city of Preston might be two real world examples to look into ✌️
    68
  26. Worker Cooperatives usually have a bylaw that doesn't allow head management to make 20-30x more than the lowest employee. Cooperatives can do this because their bylaws are voted for by the workers themselves. They can even participate in profit sharing.
    67
  27.  @kcnl2522  You're basically saying you don't understand the value of friends and family if they can't provide you an economic return.
    59
  28.  @SpicyBoba7431  😂🤣 wait you're criticizing me for not understanding financial independence through capitalism even though you're calling me a hypocrite for understanding how to be financially independent through capitalism??? WAT? 😅 I'm literally telling you that I understand finance... That's how I knew to look over NFS to see what shady things they did, like buybacks instead of investing in health and safety. I understand the concept of Discount Cash Flow analysis and understand how it promotes short-sided thinking as it literally discounts long term outcomes. Fiduciary responsibility and voting rights creates a bias towards Capital. That's how capitalism works. This isn't new or a crazy concept, this is just how business works in America. This is what they teach you in finance courses.
    56
  29.  @SpicyBoba7431  Lmao. How would I live congruent with my ideals when there aren't institutions available to live by those ideals??? You cant call me a hypocrite and unable to manage capital. I use your system to point out how bad your system is.
    51
  30.  @SpicyBoba7431  You know absolutely nothing about me, I do live below my means. Telling you I understand intermediate level finance and you're literally acting like I need personal finance 101??? Lmao. I've read so many books on personal finance and economics, don't come at me with that basic.
    49
  31. It's actually a stolen idea from the "landlords game", which was created to show why land value taxation helps decrease exploitation by the inherent Monopoly of private ownership of land. "The rent of land, therefore, considered as the price paid for the use of the land, is naturally a monopoly price. It is not at all proportioned to what the landlord may have laid out upon the improvement of the land, or to what he can afford to take; but to what the farmer can afford to give." — Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapter XI "Of the Rent of Land"
    48
  32. Wage labor is renting yourself via "self ownership". Employment is literally renting another human being as if they're property. The employer-employee relationship is a very insidious dynamic. Employment is a rental contract, like if you rented capital (say, a chainsaw from Home Depot), you pay rent for the "time preference" (basically the cost of time) for a piece of property. Capitalism is based on a principle of self ownership, which sounds empowering, until you realize that most people don't own capital goods other than themselves, and must rent out the authority over themselves as pieces of "human capital". This is a process of dehumanization where human beings are valued for their return on investment as capital goods. This is why, at the very least, capitalism needs unions and safety nets (or abolishment), or else the system won't value people for their human value. Importantly we must also think about our sick, elderly, and disabled people, as they can't provide competitive economic return for the investor class to value. We must figure out a way to change this economic system if we wish to value each other.
    39
  33.  @luchain771  This concept of being small government against taxes is interesting when governments literally hand out deeds- do you remember what Manifest Destiny was? Nobody created natural resources. According to Locke's theory of capitalist acquisition things are acquired through Labor. Locke created the Lockean Proviso to discourage over usage, but you have to realize he was writing in the 1600s... 190 years before Henry George. Capitalism has always had this idea baked into it, but capitalists have this interesting tendency to ignore capitalist morality in favor of capitalist profit... Who would have thought that would have been the case from a system dictated by the profit motive.
    38
  34.  @kevinlue4756  So you missed the point then? Cool.
    34
  35. Wage labor for a CEO/ boss is renting yourself via "self ownership". Employment is literally renting another human being as if they're property. The employer-employee relationship is a very insidious dynamic. Employment is a rental contract, like if you rented capital (say, a chainsaw from Home Depot), you pay rent for the "time preference" (basically the cost of time) for a piece of property. Capitalism is based on a principle of self ownership, which sounds empowering, until you realize that most people don't own capital goods other than themselves, and must rent out the authority over themselves as pieces of "human capital". This is a process of dehumanization where human beings are valued for their return on investment as capital goods. This is why, at the very least, capitalism needs unions and safety nets (or abolishment), or else the system won't value people for their human value. Importantly we must also think about our sick, elderly, and disabled people, as they can't provide competitive economic return for the investor class to value. We must figure out a way to change this economic system if we wish to value each other.
    34
  36.  @strayedarticle2838  Yes, a much larger presence of worker co-ops, consumer co-ops, but often hybrids of the two. Unions could also be a large aspect. Essentially more economic democracy.
    32
  37.  @narwhalsincorporated1181  How does that help the lack of sick days when you could be fired for not coming into work?
    32
  38.  @BC-vv3ot  Doesn't your boss and the politicians bought by billionaires already have that power of you? At least I want to give you more of a voice.
    32
  39.  @MrHeavy466  A democratic economy, where people have the right to vote on things that affect them instead of rich people deciding how the economy works.
    31
  40. The cool thing about land value taxation is it doesn't charge you more for adding more value in construction... You can add so much more value and just pay the same amount of tax on the land.
    29
  41.  @bartdoo5757  That's called rentier capitalism and it still alienates you from being able to control your own workplace. I have a stock portfolio, I get both sides of the coin.
    29
  42. No! It's not about taking a 25% pay cut it's about getting 32 hours FOR THE SAME PAY! Stop acting like companies that make billions of dollars a year can't afford it.
    26
  43. Wage labor is renting yourself via "self ownership". Employment is literally renting another human being as if they're property. The employer-employee relationship is a very insidious dynamic. Employment is a rental contract, like if you rented capital (say, a chainsaw from Home Depot), you pay rent for the "time preference" (basically the cost of time) for a piece of property. Capitalism is based on a principle of self ownership, which sounds empowering, until you realize that most people don't own capital goods other than themselves, and must rent out the authority over themselves as pieces of "human capital". This is a process of dehumanization where human beings are valued for their return on investment as capital goods. This is why, at the very least, capitalism needs unions and safety nets (or abolishment), or else the system won't value people for their human value. Importantly we must also think about our sick, elderly, and disabled people, as they can't provide competitive economic return for the investor class to value. We must figure out a way to change this economic system if we wish to value each other.
    26
  44. ​ @tyler0506  Many Nordic countries subsidize the exploration of the oil and charge companies to extract their oil. They then put these revenues into sovereign wealth funds that invest into companies across the world and this investment strategy helps provide a social safety net for the population. I'd be very much in favor of sovereign wealth funds if they invested in cooperative enterprises instead of investing in the current harms of capitalism, but that's a long thread to unravel.
    25
  45. Capitalism will commoditize everything! You thought your data was bad, wage labor is renting yourself via "self ownership". Employment is literally renting another human being as if they're property. The employer-employee relationship is a very insidious dynamic. Employment is a rental contract, like if you rented capital (say, a chainsaw from Home Depot), you pay rent for the "time preference" (basically the cost of time) for a piece of property. Capitalism is based on a principle of self ownership, which sounds empowering, until you realize that most people don't own capital goods other than themselves, and must rent out the authority over themselves as pieces of "human capital". This is a process of dehumanization where human beings are valued for their return on investment as capital goods. This is why, at the very least, capitalism needs unions and safety nets (or abolishment), or else the system won't value people for their human value. Importantly we must also think about our sick, elderly, and disabled people, as they can't provide competitive economic return for the investor class to value. We must figure out a way to change this economic system if we wish to value each other.
    24
  46. Management needs to be elected and accountable to a democratic electorate of the workers underneath them. We have democratic governments because we know the disparity of power and wealth that will accumulate when given the chance. We need a system of checks and balances on management by making workers a majority owners stake in the companies that they work for.
    22
  47. ​ @Browncheesboi  Georgists Represent! Community land trusts are also an acceptable solution.
    21
  48. Wage labor is renting yourself via "self ownership". Employment is literally renting another human being as if they're property. The insidious dynamic of employment is that it's a rental contract, like if you rented capital (say, a chainsaw from Home Depot), you pay rent for the "time preference" (basically the cost of time) for a piece of property. Capitalism is based on a principle of self ownership, which sounds empowering, until you realize that most people don't own enough capital goods to make enough income other than themselves, and must rent out the authority over themselves as pieces of "human capital". This is a process of dehumanization where human beings are valued for their return on investment as capital goods. This is why, at the very least, capitalism needs unions and safety nets (or abolishment), or else the system won't value people for their human value. Importantly we must also think about our sick, elderly, and disabled people, as they can't provide competitive economic return for the investor class to value. We must figure out a way to change this economic system if we wish to value each other.
    21
  49. ​ @HowMoneyWorks  still waiting, amiright?
    19
  50. ​ @SantinoDeluxe  Sounds like a cash crop 🤑
    19