Archived Walmart Stock Plunges on Lower Earnings/China Continues Down (marketwatch.com)
submitted ago by novictim
Posted by: novictim
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Archived on: 2/12/2017 1:51:00 AM
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Archived Walmart Stock Plunges on Lower Earnings/China Continues Down (marketwatch.com)
submitted ago by novictim
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[–] novictim [S] 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago (edited ago)
"Our economy has gone away from what it once was. "
I hope you realize that you did not say anything yet. You're describing what you think is our current state but not the economic reasons behind the decline.
Saying everyone is greedy or that chasing profits is the culprit doesn't get to the root of the problem or really give us a description of our straight forward and bonehead-simple predicament.
Consumption MUST EQUAL Production. If one goes up, the other goes up. If one goes down, the other goes down. Start from there.
[–] [deleted] ago
[–] novictim [S] ago (edited ago)
You nailed it!
"old business practices need to come back first" -> Not going to happen unless mandated by Government via various mechanisms: Tariffs, Earnings caps, Capital controls/Wealth Sharing schemes.
"How do you enable consumption? You pay people more." --> Bingo. But why and how and don't forget Capitalism and the Market.
"You do not look good in the stock market operating this way" --> Which means that you have trouble keeping up with your competitors in a grow or die dynamic.
"However when ..." Yet we are where we are.
"Its how we ran the the 50's to the 70's our most prosperous years." --> Absolutely correct.
"There is no reason we can't get back there." Not quite. Arrayed against this are all the FreeTrade cultists and Oligarchs who don't know what is good for them in the long run.
"When we have the situation setup the way it is it only leads to monopolies. " --> Correct. Monopoly is always the end product of unregulated Capitalism. And that is why Oligarchs don't want regulation and want TTP/NAFTA/GATT/WTO control.
"This stifles an economy. "--> And that is what we are seeing with the inability to "recover" from the last recession. We are in a break point or Max aggregate Consumerism leading now to a decline.
Consumption = Production. It is an equilibrium. When we lose sight of this then we cannot understand the problems we inevitably face with unregulated capitalism. Those problems ALWAYS manifest no matter what unless rules and regulation are imposed that serve to drive wealth from the Owners to the Worker-Consumers.
Before anything can be fixed, the public first has to grasp that the simple problem with capitalism is that it eats itself. It will destroy the Golden Goose of Consumerism any time it is left to its own devices.
[–] yewbontheboat ago
Or maybe our society is moving away from a consumption/production model.
With robots 1 employee can now produce what 10-100 employees could 20 years ago, so those 99 employee are expected to still consume when they no longer have a job.
Added to that new job growth for new industry has not replaced the lost jobs, and all new profits from not having a human labor force are going to owners and shareholders who are then reinvesting in an ever increasing bubble of greed.
The only reason solution is popping the bubble and rebuilding.
[–] novictim [S] 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago (edited ago)
"Or maybe our society is moving away from a consumption/production model."
Try and picture how that could happen. It can't. Consumption = Production is fundamental to all economies of any kind.
Robots do not change that basic equation.