Hello from the road

I buy my suits off the rack like a good proletariat.

Let’s see, my wish list still has some unfulfilled things, like…

- universal healthcare
- free Internet
- European-quality public transportation

People that buy expensive clothes and drive overly expensive cars think their **** don’t stink. I work with people of that mental line of thinking. They’re obnoxious. Their cars are obnoxious. Their politics of capitalism are obnoxious. Sorry for the rant, but something I just read about Medicare going up $100 and the elderly getting stiffed with the bill is really the ugly underbelly of a system that is rapidly failing. WE can find money to support a stupid Iraq adventure, but we cannot even pay for the medication for the people that built this country in the last 50-60 years. Sad. Canada or Europe is looking good at the moment.

RealestateCEO: I actually don’t. Maybe three per week. Well, last night I got more, but they were all from interesting people.

Deke, I agree with you. But, when you realize people are self-interested it lets you understand how to change the world. That’s how I started Channel 9. I worked very hard to get over people’s fears and self-interested motivations.

That said, capitalism is still the best economic system, even with its many flaws.

Deke, I agree with you. But, when you realize people are self-interested it lets you understand how to change the world. That’s how I started Channel 9. I worked very hard to get over people’s fears and self-interested motivations.

That said, capitalism is still the best economic system, even with its many flaws.

When will people learn that you can’t fix intractable social problems by throwing money at them? Nor does trying to legislate them out of existence seem to work. History has demonstrated that time after time. About the only thing that seems to make any headway against poverty is making a society as universally wealthy as possible.

Robert,

Therein lies the crux of the problem — self-interested motivations. People almost don’t want their neighbor (metaphorical neighbor) to do as well as themselves. People are inherently seflish, and you have to, as you said, work your ass off to make a difference. One person can make a difference, but many people suitably motivated can usher in change in a major way.

Scott,

Making people universally wealthy is socialism pure and simple — everyone on a level playing field. I agree with socialism principles to a great degree, but the scary thing about them is that the government needs to have quite a bit of control to facilitate said principles.
Legislation and throwing money at a problem works if everyone is on the same page.
We (the collective wealthy 1st world countries) could end poverty worldwide within a year if every country truly wanted to help its neighbor. I find it disgusting that the US spends billions in Iraq chasing a stupid adventure while that money could be building any number of cool things for Americans here at home. Our own children are 40th in ranking education-wise. There are African kids who learn more than kids here, that speak more languages, that understand the world better.
I know of American people who are my age (late 30′s) who have never been out of the US, and not for lack of money. These people are well off folks making 80, 90, 100k a year. They think going to their state’s beach is a vacation rather than taking the family to Belize or Costa Rica, or Australia. Yes these trips can be pricey, but man, I want my family to have the experience to broaden their horizons, to see that we in the US are not the only people that matter.

Robert,

Therein lies the crux of the problem — self-interested motivations. People almost don’t want their neighbor (metaphorical neighbor) to do as well as themselves. People are inherently seflish, and you have to, as you said, work your ass off to make a difference. One person can make a difference, but many people suitably motivated can usher in change in a major way.

Scott,

Making people universally wealthy is socialism pure and simple — everyone on a level playing field. I agree with socialism principles to a great degree, but the scary thing about them is that the government needs to have quite a bit of control to facilitate said principles.
Legislation and throwing money at a problem works if everyone is on the same page.
We (the collective wealthy 1st world countries) could end poverty worldwide within a year if every country truly wanted to help its neighbor. I find it disgusting that the US spends billions in Iraq chasing a stupid adventure while that money could be building any number of cool things for Americans here at home. Our own children are 40th in ranking education-wise. There are African kids who learn more than kids here, that speak more languages, that understand the world better.
I know of American people who are my age (late 30′s) who have never been out of the US, and not for lack of money. These people are well off folks making 80, 90, 100k a year. They think going to their state’s beach is a vacation rather than taking the family to Belize or Costa Rica, or Australia. Yes these trips can be pricey, but man, I want my family to have the experience to broaden their horizons, to see that we in the US are not the only people that matter.

“Making people universally wealthy is socialism pure and simple — everyone on a level playing field. I agree with socialism principles to a great degree, but the scary thing about them is that the government needs to have quite a bit of control to facilitate said principles.
Legislation and throwing money at a problem works if everyone is on the same page.
We (the collective wealthy 1st world countries) could end poverty worldwide within a year if every country truly wanted to help its neighbor.”

Deke:

Please send me the spreadsheet where you have worked all this out and I’ll publish it on my blog.

You might do yourself a favor and confine yourself to the US though as our poor lead a much better life than most people in many countries. The type of socialism you describe has been implemented on a large scale by many countries (Brazil is a good example) and yet these countries still have huge populations of people living at the subsistence level, in crime ridden slums. The problem with the “Capitalist Pigs” that you mention are the pigs, not the capitalists. In many socialist countries, and even in the US (I’d argue that our country is most of the way to being socialist already).

I live in an area heavily populated by the well-to-do and many of the people I get to know are not rich industrialists, but retired government workers that rose to a high level before they retired. They have better pension plans, better health care, and if you look carefully at the numbers they made better money than their “capitalist” counterparts for most of their careers (and they never had to worry about being laid off or fired).

Socialism is not the answer, it’s just another name for people higher up telling you what to do. At least with our system you can play business off against government. I happen to think that government has too much the upper hand right now, so I’ll keep voting for less government thank you very much.

Hi Robert,

I’d just like to say I applaud you for making yourself so visible. I think this is definitely critical to Internet success — remembering there’s a real person behind that website or blog. It’s great that you post your cell number, and even better that you document your interesting phone calls. Hopefully this will encourage others to become more visible as well. My biggest blog pet peeve is blogs without “About” pages or contact info for the owners, because why do I want to read your opinion if I don’t know who you are?

Good luck with your new job! I’ll keep reading.

Hi Robert,

I’d just like to say I applaud you for making yourself so visible. I think this is definitely critical to Internet success — remembering there’s a real person behind that website or blog. It’s great that you post your cell number, and even better that you document your interesting phone calls. Hopefully this will encourage others to become more visible as well. My biggest blog pet peeve is blogs without “About” pages or contact info for the owners, because why do I want to read your opinion if I don’t know who you are?

Good luck with your new job! I’ll keep reading.

If I had an extra $3000, which I conveniently don’t…

[Always leave a loophole.]

@22, The better solution would be to let Americans keep more of THEIR MONEY rather than let the govt decide how THEIR MONEY should be spent. Agreed much mroe could be done to improve educational opportunities, but I think we’ve proven that throwing more tax dollars at the education problem is not the answer. We spend more and more each year it seems, but nothing improves.

Ooop! Need to get to bed. Off to get measured for a custom suit and shoes made on Savile Row in the morming while I’m here in the UK. Should run about $6500 US.

One has to remember that a good suit can last a life time (well 2-3,4 years).
I purchased my suit from Savile Row in 2003 and it is still doing me proud

One has to remember that a good suit can last a life time (well 2-3,4 years).
I purchased my suit from Savile Row in 2003 and it is still doing me proud