From: Paul A. Thomas (bluewhale@jaxkneppers.com)
Date: Tue Jan 21 2003 - 19:41:29 PST
Aren't the English capitalistic pigs as well?
If so, then as we may have improved upon the idea and turned it into an
exportable good. They should receive some credit. <g>
I work with half a dozen Russians ( from Odessa to Siberia ), Vietnameese,
Austrian, German... Sweeden, Switzerland.. When you get by the rhetoric of
either side ( and the Russians at least ( OK, I'm happy about this )
indicate the government they had sucked unless you were of the
wealthy/powerful ) these people embrace our ideals more firmly than most
born in the USA Americans. And the responsibilities that go with that
citizenship as well.
But in discussing things with them, politics and ideals mostly, I find that
' people are people '... and for the MOST PART a community or section of
society agrees with each other as to what is ' right ' and wrong. Then
enforces it, at least somewhat.
Despite our faults as ' Americans ', many if not a majority of foreign
nationals would like to live here. Money/ quality of life are a good
reason, but so is being able to argue about a proposed bill then splitting
a pitcher of beer with your communist friend while discussing the odd MV's
he saw when building a bridge in Siberia as part of his college
studies. And not worrying about being arrested for that .12 breathalyzer
chat.
IMSHO, capitalism is not a dirty word. It's just a VERY small percentage
of the population who would like to use it that way that give it a bad rep.
As a side note: friends from South of the border as well as Russia indicate
they still have problems if they are pulled over by the cops here in
Ca... There, the majority of a cops income is from bribes the receive from
motorists ( if not others? ). Here, you are arrested for that. :}
Paul
***************************************************************************
At 05:43 PM 1/21/2003 -0800, you wrote:
>"Capitalism" is the communists' derogation of the
>AMERICAN style of life-in-general! They would have
>everyone believe that all we think about is how to
>grab that next penny, that we are all in an all
>encompassing, no-holds-barred, death-defying struggle
>to earn/steal/swindle every cent we can get.
>
>We have all met people like that but they are few and
>sorry people.
>
>The vast majority of us would rather be doing
>something else, like helping others, playing with our
>"toys", going to church, raising our families, or
>watching sports on TV with a cold brew in one hand and
>the remote in the other.
>
>This is why Communism failed, this is why Socialism
>always fails, as it has for the last 80+ years, in all
>its forms, in all its variations. They lied! They
>failed to define or recognize what we do here, what
>our real motivations are. They thought they could do
>better,........ heheheehe
>
>Yeah, right!
>
>Joe
>
>
>--- Edward Morgan <morgan54801@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > In a Capitalistic system the people shouldn't be in
> > competition with the Government, the Government
> > should
> > let the people set the price and make it or fail.
> > Ed
> > --- Steve Grammont <islander@midmaine.com> wrote:
> > > Hi Ed,
> > >
> > > > You site an example of somebody making a 4X
> > profit
> > > on
> > > >something, and paint all the dealers with the
> > same
> > > >brush.
> > >
> > > I didn't intend to. In other places I said
> > > specifically that I think
> > > dealers are a GOOD thing to have and I would
> > gladly
> > > pay a reasonable
> > > premium to purchase something from one of them
> > > instead of GL directly for
> > > adding value to that vehicle/item.
> > >
> > > Having said that, I do not agree that all items
> > sold
> > > out through GL are
> > > maximized. I also think that dealers have the
> > right
> > > to be unscrupulous
> > > as long as I have the right to point out that they
> > > are gouging.
> > > Fortunately I have seen very little of this in my
> > 4
> > > years of collecting
> > > and USUALLY the gouging comes from small time
> > > operations with a "get rich
> > > quick" mentality.
> > >
> > > > If some guy wants a certain truck, usually the
> > > best
> > > >one, he will out bid the dealers. The dealers
> > bid
> > > the
> > > >same amount on all the trucks in the row, and get
> > > >what's left over after the spot bidders. After
> > > taking
> > > >the good parts off the scrap trucks, to fix the
> > > other
> > > >trucks, all you get is scrap metal price for what
> > > is
> > > >left, less then what you bid. The dealer needs to
> > > make
> > > >something so he can bid again, make a living, and
> > > pay
> > > >the help.
> > >
> > > Correct. This is all fine when it works
> > correctly.
> > > That includes GL
> > > getting max income in relation to market value.
> > >
> > > > All these people pay taxes, so the IRS gets
> > their
> > > >share without getting their hands dirty.
> > >
> > > You obviously don't know the reality of tax codes
> > > like I do :-) But that
> > > isn't the point. For the sake of argument let us
> > > say some dealer sells a
> > > vehicle for $45k off of a $10k auction item in
> > which
> > > he added only $1000
> > > worth of value (basically, he did the paperwork
> > and
> > > towed it home). That
> > > means the dealer got $34k in profit before taxes.
> > > Let us just say that
> > > when all is said and done he has to pay 40% on
> > that
> > > profit (which would
> > > mean this was his ONLY sale that year) in
> > accumulate
> > > taxes. He is
> > > therefore left with $20.4k after tax profit. The
> > > Government gets the $5k
> > > + $13.6k in taxes, for a total of $18.6k.
> > >
> > > Now, if the Government had sold the vehicle for
> > $40k
> > > with the rest the
> > > same, the dealer winds up making a $4k profit, the
> > > Government gets $1.6k
> > > in taxes + $40k, which is a total of $41.6. The
> > > dealer still makes out
> > > handsomely and the end buyer is out the same
> > amount
> > > of money. The big
> > > difference is that the Government walks away with
> > > the lion's share of the
> > > profit. And that is the way it should be in a
> > > correctly functioning
> > > Capitalist system.
> > >
> > > Steve
> > >
> >
> >
> > =====
> >
> >
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Wed Apr 23 2003 - 13:25:02 PDT