In article <
b0a93h...@mid.individual.net>,
"Rod Speed" <
rod.sp...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Doc O'Leary <
drolear...@2q2013.subsume.com> wrote
>
> > Real value is no longer needed to make loans. Banks just print
> > up money out of thin air when they want to borrow it out.
>
> Even US banks don�t get to do that.
Of course they do; money gets printed when someone says it does, not
when it is needed to represent real value. The whole economy is based
on fiat money. Worse, it is mired in debt and running at a deficit.
We're in a hole and yet we keep digging *faster*.
> > That's why you can't find a savings account that pays a decent rate of
> > interest,
>
> No, that is because the Fed has driven interest rates
> to the lowest they have been for a very long time.
Yes, because it's all about concentrating wealth rather than building a
stable economy these days. Just like low prices for foreign goods
*seem* to be good but are harmful to the local economy in the long run,
low interest rates *given by the people who print money from nothing* is
a recipe for disaster in the future. Like most people, you fail to see
that and are thus part of the problem.
> > and sometimes even the interest rate on the
> > the loans *themselves* is less than inflation.
>
> Because the Fed has driven interest rates to
> the lowest they have been for a very long time.
If you don't think that's madness, you may be insane.
> > It's madness,
>
> No, its what has avoided another great depression or worse.
Hardly. Genuine fixes to the system are what will keep things from
getting worse. All that's happing now is a numbers game that is only
delaying the inevitable. Extracting a few billion from Apple changes
nothing; the government would blow through that money in mere days.
> > but people bury their heads in the sand the same
> > way they do when they can buy things made in
> > [insert foreign economy here] to save a few cents
>
> They save a hell of a lot more than just a few cents.
No, they don't. Instead the *lose* large sums of money from the local
economy. Who pays your salary? If you spend $5 of it for something
made next door, that money is likely to circulate back to you faster and
retain more of its value. The *actual* cost of your $5 purchase might
only be $1. But if the majority of that product's value comes from
overseas, you might pay only $4 at the register, but *nothing* comes
back to you. You'll go bankrupt if you keep exporting value like that.
So who pays your salary? If it isn't China (or wherever), you're a fool
to think you're coming out ahead when you ship value overseas.
Getting back to Apple. It's a more complex picture for them because
they actually do do business worldwide. The fact that they're looking
to move (some) Mac manufacturing back into the US means they're slightly
more on top of the ball that most corporations. But, still, there is an
imbalance in value that needs to be addressed if you want to have a
sustainable economy in this country. The problem is that no
corporation, even Apple, will simply give away the value it has
extracted from the broken system.
> And I bet that what you are using to post on
> wasn�t made in the US unless its an antique.
Indeed, but at least I'm not fooling myself into thinking it's OK.
> > As far as this Apple kerfuffle is concerned, my understanding
> > is that the main reason they're a target is that they're using
> > (some of) the same loopholes that other corporations abuse,
>
> They arent loopholes. They are avoiding repatriating the money
> they earn out of the country because if they did move it back
> to the US, they would have to pay 35% tax on that.
Again, it's complex for a global operation like Apple. They're not (as
far as I know) *directly* offshoring value into the Caymen Islands or
the like, but it doesn't change the fact that they *have* moved value
out of the country to the overall detriment to the economy over the past
few decades. There is a price to pay for that, and right now we are
*all* paying it while the corporations get richer. Apple needs to make
up for the harm it has done, as should all corporations. But it will
all just be drops in the bucket until the government gets its own act
together.
> > but they're doing it without having lined the pockets of the politicians.
>
> Even sillier.
>
> > Apple doesn't lobby as much as some corrupt individuals would like;
>
> They don�t need to lobby, they are raking it in without doing that.
You support my point. There is no reason to single out Apple at this
time, other than the fact that their massive offshoring of value didn't
fatten the wallet of corrupt politicians. Rather than simply changing
the laws so that they benefit We The People, they want Apple to buy
special favors.
> > people were bought by one company to pass a bad law, and now
> > they think they can collect from every company that benefits from
> > it. Apple's best defense here, at least in the eyes of the public,
> > would be to call the lawmakers on the bullshit laws they made.
>
> Nothing bullshit about the laws that require Apple to
> pay 35% tax on the money they earn out of the country.
It's 100% bullshit when it was earned by taking jobs out of the country.
That's bad for us and it's bad for Apple (as a US-based corporation,
anyway; wouldn't it be cute if *that* changed?). Look, you're just
being too simplistic about the problem. A simple tax doesn't in and of
itself fix things, because the government itself remains broken. The
economics of the situation demand to know what *becomes* of the money
that they bring back in, and that would require lawmakers to actually do
their job.
> > There are still problems with wealth accumulation, by Apple and
> > others, when it comes to keeping a functioning world economy.
> > It's all a big mess of people denying reality as they exploit resources.
> > Even if they took all of Apple's profits as "taxes", it wouldn't make
> > a sustainable system. Until some actual science is introduced into
> > the process, it remains fundamentally broken in the long term.
>
> Not even possible to apply science to tax law.
Then we're all doomed. I think you're wrong, though, not that that will
change anything. It is up to you to elect scientists instead of career
politicians.
> > Of course, given some of the battles I've had with the App Store
> > review process, science isn't exactly overabundant at Apple, either.
>
> Or in politics in spades.
You get what you vote for. So long as people like you are directly
hostile to reality, we will all pay the price.
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