meara
You over complicate far too much and over justify. You heavily agree with the making of profit to the extent of fleecing the public and creating problems for future generations.
Several days ago on the Discovery channel on Television there was a program concerning the Cattle growers V/S the newly spreading Buffalo population which may or may not carry a deadly disease that can infect cows. Mentioned in the report was the increasing pressure by developers to sell off major chunks of ‘preserve’ grasslands, leased by the cattle people for grazing. The government is giving in and the prices of available leased grasslands are going up.
What was not mentioned is that those lands were never to be sold, but increasing political pressures by businessmen eager to capitalize on the current ‘escape the city’ movement of the well off and to make a major profit is chipping away at these resources. These businessmen do not care what the future implications may mean, just how much money they can make.
As the ranges shrink, the lease prices go up and the cattle men pass it on to the buyers and we all pay for the few to live in ‘rustic’ luxury. The American Indians have also seen implications in this movement and are getting involved, mainly for the buffalo. Part of the side effect of the selling of the lands is that the buffalo are being denied some feeding grounds, which pushes them closer to the cattle, which scares the cattlemen because of potential disease and because of limited grazing and now the cattlemen want to start ‘culling’ the buffalo herds. (A nice way of saying they want to slaughter the beasts wholesale to save some grasslands.)
For every action there is a reaction.
I live in Florida and I’ve seen the ‘storm insanity’ hit each year. Several weeks prior to the start of the season, stores stockpile batteries and increase the prices, the cost of bottle water goes up and so does the price and supply of canned goods easily prepared in the event of a power outage – like soup, stews and so on. Each year the cost of plywood goes up and each year the lumber supply shops get in greater supplies! (Each friggin’ year the dipshits board up their homes and afterwards, throw the plywood out! Next year they’ll buy new sheets.)
After the season, prices drop.
A couple of years ago, I started noticing programs advertised on late night television encouraging people to buy into the distressed housing markets and giving off glowing reports about how, for pennies on the dollar, one may buy a repossessed home, slap a coat of paint on it and sell it at a great profit. Then I started observing an increase of repossession notices in the paper and the trades. THEN I got to meet people who actually bought these homes cheaply, invested in them and sold them for a profit and loved it.
A discussion with a banker informed me that the banks no longer wished to wait years to get the loans paid off on the houses because they wanted to expand further. (That’s why most started raising rates and charging for everything.) So, they foreclosed, resold the properties, made their money and went on. Their profit pictures actually increased.
Now, they dumped X number of families out onto the streets, who now have to rely on Social Services. That doesn’t matter. Not their problem. Not yours either – at least, not yet. Until one of those frustrated people trying to survive comes along and cracks your skull open to take what you’ve got in your wallet to buy food with.
Man, when I was down and out and living in the dirt, I did what needed to be done to survive and not all of it was nice. When it comes down to the point of dying from disease or starvation or holding up someone driving a new Lexis, a BMW, wearing a Rolex, sporting $100 shoes and dressed in $200 Gucci jogging shirts for a few bucks, guess which will be done?
By the way, in your statement concerning farming, where you stated you would choose to keep the winner over the ‘loosing’ small farmer I would like to point out the following. There is a growing concern over the spread of megacorporation farms. They can control the cost of seed, the availability of loans, the price of fertilizer and the value of crops. Their big lobbies control the congress. They push small farms out of the business by making it too costly for them to compete. Then they buy the farm and incorporate it.
Such moves are responsible for little things now, like you paying $1.00 for an American Tomatoes which costs 5 cents to grow. Other areas have observed this and have expressed concern because if the nations farmers belong to a few corporations, then our food will be controlled in price like the gas companies control our gas.
Those little competitors keep bread cheaply on your table. You know, beef is 50 cents a pound on the hoof or lower? Almost EVERY chunk of organic matter in a cow is used. Hooves for glue, meat for humans, bones for humans, hide for leather, inedible meats for pet food, manure for fertilizer, even bonemeal for plants and humans. The cattle people grow the beef for roughly 30 cents a pound. The slaughter houses buy it for 50. They resell it – in all of its various forms, for about 60 cents. The grocery stores sell it to you at anywhere from 98 cents a pound for crap meat to $1.98 for better cuts up to $10 a pound for the best.
Beef prices dropped after the big beef crisis, but the grocery stores did not reduce their prices, being willing to create hardships for buyers in the name of profit. As a side effect, people started buying cheaper meats, like chicken and pork. To compensate, the prices of those meats went up. (I used to buy chicken at 50 cents a pound. Now it’s anything from 68 cents to $1.98.)
People used to buy chicken wings for pennies a pound, until suddenly hot wings became popular, now they cost more per pound than a whole chicken. Side effects.
Who gets hurt? The poor? This is just and this is right?
Supply and demand you said. Thousands lost their homes so they needed to rebuild after the major hurricanes hit. (By the way, the loss of the homes was directly in relation to the cheapening of the construction rules which was in direct response to the increase in the cost of labor and building materials which was in direct response to the sudden ability for the newly well off to buy homes and for the very well off to buy and rent homes.) Everyone was concentrating on profit with no regard to the side effects.
Well, since most people had insurance, the construction companies upped their prices, so did the suppliers of materials. The only people who made out were the builders and the suppliers because their goods and services, being in demand, went up. All over the States, the cost of wood and glass, plumbing fixtures and pipes soared because of the demand for the effected areas.
We all paid the price. Several companies had to be brought to court for price gouging. Now, those guys who did not have insurance were able to get bank loans – at increased interest rates. With the creation of new building codes, the contractors and suppliers got even more money because home owners had to have the improvements installed.
We all paid because flood insurance went up nationwide.
The poor paid most of all because they could not afford the high prices in many things.
Now, I suppose that, to you, this is just fine. Free enterprise. Capitalism. Free enterprise is fine, until it starts preying on people. Notice how banks are no longer very friendly and charge up the ass for services? (Mine, I discovered, charges if I call in to the computer to check my balance. I get 3 free calls. Afterwards, they charge me $1.00 each. I dumped my business account when I discovered that they were charging me 25 cents for every check! I use a home owners account now with no overhead. Now they are working towards putting a service charge on those accounts if you have under $1000 in them and charging you for every check over 20. 5 cents.)
I guess that is OK for people like you.
Your comment about Doctors is just crap and