Comments by "Brenda Rua" (@brendarua01) on "When workers own companies, the economy is more resilient | Niki Okuk" video.

  1. I doubt it. So prove it.
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  2. Solitary Soul. Americans have been indoctrinated to fear communism and socialism. In the process they have heard that unions are the boogeyman. Never mind that almost all the benefit they enjoy came from the sweat and blood of unions advocating and educating. Never mind that the owners take advantage of many social benefits, rarely meeting their share of the costs. Military, police, sanitation and water, roads, education and more, are all supported by the commonweal. Society does benefit from it. I'm not saying it shouldn't be this way. I'm saying that we should recognize reality, even the socialist-fearing among us.
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  3. Christopher Osmulski You are right to distinguish income mobility from wealth mobility. It is rare for anyone born in the lowest quintile of family income to move out of that segment. But move up to working class or middle class and then inherited family wealth, primarily due to home equity, can boost a person upward so that their children will benefit from a higher income via better schools and higher education. But this is primarily a white phenomenon due to segregation that kept blacks from participating in the various migrations to the suburbs. Blacks were starting to participate in this phenomenon, but less energetically due to higher insurance and interest rates. They got hit exceptionally hard during the 2008 crash since they had smaller reserves to hold out on and lost their homes. TED has had speakers talk about these things. Read "The Color of Law" by Richard Rothstein for a general history and documentation.
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  4. Jason, Seriously, you need to learn some history and some science. I wasn't proving your point by setting out some facts about mobility. This lack of mobility is party accounted for by class, in that the lowest 20% measured by income or wealth show almost no improvement over their parent's status. But within that change, whites do better than blacks or recent migrants. That is not due to race. It is due to structural remnants of earlier de jure discrimination such as poor education, limited commute options, living from check to check, poor health, etc. You show your bias by jumping to conclusions that confirm your opinions. Marxism has nothing to do with anything, but I understand that it makes you feel good to think so.
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  5. She's exactly right about privilege. Read "The Color of Law" by Richard Rothstein to get an idea of how HUD, FHA and VA ignored the Constitution and Supreme Court by both actively requiring, and then later on ignoring, intentional exclusion of blacks from community development and home mortgage insurance that makes for cheaper interest rates. The bulk of family wealth in the US, not including the top 10% or so averages around $145,000 dollars. This is primarily in home equity built up since the post WW II sub-urbanization boom. But it all started back with Jim Crow after the Civil War. Niki is right about the capitalist lies. It's built in contradictions lead to periodic busts that require bailouts. Business needs people, needs consumers of their goods and services. The coming replacement of people by AI and robots will be forced by the motive of short term profits. But it will crush the purchasing power of the people who are deemed dispensable. You need workers as owners to put controls on these contradictions. Extremes of socialism can be just as bad. But we need both and so does business. Everyone benefits from military, police, education, sewage an water, roads and more, all supported by the commonweal. Despite the ghost stories and knee jerk reactions in these comments, that is all socialism.
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  6. Chris Pyle I agree with you up to a point. For example, I think the buddies thing was not needed and not accurate. But what you call unnecessary racially divisive rhetoric is actually dependent on the goals of her talk. How she got her start is integral to her experience of starting her business. It makes what would be a bland Wall Street Journal 2 col. in. side bar, a human story. It is a true story for many. Discrimination happened. It has long term effects. Her presentation is much richer by including her story. I think we benefit because we need to understand our history in order not to repeat mistakes. I'm not sure what your problem with unions is. You just make general statements with no backup or background.
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  7. JackJack No, you need to learn to think clearly and critically. This isn't slavery and you abuse history, culture and language to call debt slavery. You devalue the word and and you're lazy. Providing no evidence of your assertion means you're just stirring up trouble - means you're trolling. You need to go back to your mama's basement.
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  8. Jackie-poo I get benefits from the taxes I pay. And you do too. Stop being a baby.
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  9. Josh Blazek I think we are in agreement about how discrimination would penalize the capitalist. My point is that the self interest that motivates the capitalist, qua person, is more complex than maximizing profit. There are plenty of examples of this. Let's look at two. During and after WW II, Richmond, CA, a suburb of LA and a bedroom community for the ship building industry, low and middle income housing complexes were developed that excluded blacks. Despite blacks having to triple up on where they could live and being willing to pay above market rent, these complexes went over a year with 600 vacancies at a time. More recently you have business owners who serve the wedding industry refusing to serve gay weddings on religious grounds. In both cases they lost money.
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  10. John Doe. No. There are class differences that show up in wealth and income mobility. The bottom quintile of wealth and/or income show very little mobility no matter who you are. But move up and things change. Whites exhibit much higher rates of improvement over their parents than anyone else, with blacks near the bottom, but above 1st and 2nd generation emigrants. This is to say that whatever your standing, you are likely to do better if you are white and not dirt poor.
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  11. Chris, how can your knee stand up to all the jerking you do?
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  12. Chris Pyle Yes, I can see your point about the misleading title. The presentation was only marginally about that.
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  13. Joker Yeah never mind they they are struggling under the thumb of the US. Smooth move there.
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  14. Josh You may be right that capitalism as an political/economic system is colorblind in theory. But it is implemented by people and they bring their own baggage. This is one example of how the assumption of rational agents simply doesn't hold up. I think you do a disservice by not making clear that you are talking about the theory as opposed to any particular instance.
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  15. Victor Espino I fear you are right. But if it gives even one person pause to wonder then that's something.
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  16. Lorem It's a given that people won't solve it. People supported what the government did. The government supported them. So what's your brilliant solution - or are you just spouting off to be cute?
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  17. Jason, Sure. And your mama funded it. Seriously, learn some history fool.
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  18. Chris Pyle It just means you had a knee jerk triggered response. I see a whole lot of assertion with no evidence. I have a sense that you didn't even watch the whole talk. But what you did watch was not heard because your armor shell snapped into place the moment you grasped what she was talking about. She's speaking from life and experience, and you have a chance to learn something about others. It's sad to see you shut down and miss an opportunity.
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  19. Mensch That's not a parallel construction. But it's funny. You get a C+ for trying.
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  20. Jack Jack Jack. Nice trolling there.
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