Thursday, 15 August 2024

Capitalism

 I saw this graphic today, and it's been on my mind for a while.

Once about every decade, one will  hear about some guy or gal who escaped off to Cuba or North Korea....or hear some passionate talk how a guy spent six months in Venezuela.

Typically, when you hear some person get all weepy-eyed over the way things are in the US or Europe....they go off the grid....trying to live out in the boonies or in some cabin in Tennessee.  

In their heart, capitalism was the evil-of-evils.

What you tend to notice....these folks dump radio and TV....halt  reading except for Mother Jones material, and isolate themselves from 99-percent of society (talking  briefly to the mail-man).  

The trouble  with this mentality is that you WANT to believe in capitalism being evil and that controls/price-caps can be pushed down.  For example....a regular plain pencil should only be three cents under price-caps....even if it costs five cents to manufacture.  

The $5 shirt price-cap....well....if it costs $5.50 to manufacture....you probably won't make that many.

I bring all of this up because tomorrow....there's supposed to be VP Harris presentation where she insists that inflation will finally come under control when she's President, because there WILL BE price-caps.  Grocery stores will be limited on what they can charge.

How things will work?  In a price-cap world....if it cost $4 to manufacture a box of Cornflakes...with 10-cents to transport it....the typical grocery store sold it (with sales tax) for around $5.00.  Under the cap business....Harris could say the box can't be sold for more than $4.75.  The grocery, the truck-folks, and the maker of the Cornflakes will have a talk and probably cut back production/sales by 50-percent. 

If you weren't happy about this?  Well....you'd escape to Mexico and buy your groceries there....feeling happy about them having your product in full production. 

It is a crazy world we live in, and have to share space with other crazy folks.

The Adventure Game

 I often review the parody 'paper'....the Babylon Bee.  So the newest fake story listed? "Study Finds 100% Of Men Would Immediately Leave Their Desk Job If Asked To Embark Upon A Trans-Antarctic Expedition On A Big Wooden Ship."

The thing about this fake story....it's probably 98-percent true...in that you could engage with 100 guys (over the age of 18), and if you said we could haul up and leave on a wooden ship adventure....most all of us would sign up.

With women?  Fewer than 3-percent (my guess) would sign up for such an adventure.

Element of danger? Oh yeah.

Element of marginal planning?  Yep.

Element of severe consequences?  Yes.

It says a lot about how society has not really advanced in the past hundred years.