maple_leafs182

We would build the machines, we would work on the machines. Eventually we can get machines to work on machines but that is down the road. There would be a transition period. I know, that is the problem, if it isn't you or someone you know who is starving then it isn't a problem. I am simply waiting for the global economy to crumble for when it does and peoples lives are destroyed, maybe then they will question the system. I said solve problems, if they were solved then they would no longer be a problem. We use technology in order to lower production costs and increase profits but we don't use it to solve social problems. Yes, that is what I am saying, tell me one that has been solved. That is exactly what I envision, a world without scarcity. It wouldn't be boring, haven't you ever done anything simply because you enjoyed doing it, not because you get paid to do it.

I think a better investment would be in gold or silver. I would stay out of the market. The reason why I say gold and silver is because countries around the world, most notably America are printing money to prop up their economy, this only leads to inflation which leads to higher commodity prices.

Only if you are forced to work against your will, then that is slavery. Today we have the capability to build machines that can do much of the labour for us, we can free man of much labour. Ya, we should be doing that, we don't solve problems right now. If we did people wouldn't be starving, pollution wouldn't be a problem, people wouldn't be dieing in car accidents. No, because we aren't using advances in technology to solve major social problems. We all need food, clean water and homes, we should be producing technology that produce those. Instead we spend our time developing new weapons. No we haven't and I am not envisioning some sort of Utopia. We really aren't.

If providing for yourself is freedom then why don't we expand on that idea and bring it to a more global scale, together we have the means to provide for everyone without completely destroying the planet. I don't think this is the way we should run society. I would love to bring forth a new system but I think it is more important to try and change our way of thinking first. We need a new way of looking at what our problems truly are and a new method of arriving at solutions to those problems, once that happens a new system will be born. I've said this many times before, our problems are not political or financial, our problems will never be solved if we continue to think that they are. Our problems are and have always been technical, once we realize that and apply that knowledge to real world problems, who knows what we kind of society we will become.

I agree. The severity of the downturn determines the length and by the looks of it we are headed for a severe downturn. Being able to choose where you want to work isn't freedom. Freedom is waking up and being able to do what ever it is you wish to do. I don't want to destroy the current system, I want people to start questioning it. Maybe this isn't the most prosperous or sustainable system. Maybe there are alternatives that would work more favourably for all of us. What makes you so sure that this is the way we should run society.

They can have there pancake and cellphones, my point was that people have become so apathetic and self orientated that they neglect or ignore the major problems of society. It may be slowly declining at the moment but an economic downturn can easily reverse that trend. Overall we are still nowhere near actually solving the problem. The biggest thing I disagree with is that you say there is more freedom across the world. I think there is probably more slavery now then any other time in history. It may not be the conventional slavery that we are accustom to reading about, it is a new form of slavery, economic slavery. We live in a time where countries are predominantly controlled by financial institutions and their affairs. The well being of the citizens is becoming less relevant, ending hunger in a nation is a distant thought. I think it was you that said I am trying to change the world, I am not, I am trying to change the way you think, the way you look at problems and how we should go about solving them. If we want to solve world hunger we should look at what creates it. It is either there is a lack of food or it is that the people lack the purchasing power to obtain the food, Would you agree with that? So what leads to the lack of food or the peoples lack of purchasing power, essentially it is the current economic system. I am sure we can make it better by somehow increasing our productive capacity which would lead to an increase in economic prosperity but even then there will still be people that get the short end of the stick.

It is because we put our faith into a system that we don't bother to question that fucks the majority over. Currently, we don't give a care about others or how much suffering they endorse as long as we live a safe, secure life with cell phones that can make pancakes for us, that is all that matters. We could end world hunger if we wanted to, it is only a choice, but we would rather fight stupid fucking wars and wonder who tiger woods is sleeping with. Truth be told, I am getting tired of it, I am stealing these words from a song but whatever, "give me your logic, your definition, the words you twist to justify your position of mass starvation and blind air strikes, every problem is solved with a fight". This is a serious question, please answer it. Seriously guys, quit thinking in politically correct ways and look at what we are putting each other and this planet threw. It really does suck, we are headed for a global depression where billions of people will suffer, it isn't like someone shook up the planet and everything has gone disarray, all that is changing is the illusion of what we believe to be wealth.

Who cares who owns the debt, nobody will continue to buy the US bonds as the dollar continues to lose value. By rebooted do you mean a global depression?

If the dollar loses value that means the cost of living goes up. All the people who have their savings in dollars will see their wealth disappear which is probably 90% of Americans(I made that figure up). If the dollar continuously loses value then buying American Government Bonds becomes less attractive to both foreign and domestic investors. If people stop buying American bonds which I believe is happening right now then the American Government would either have to resort to printing money in order to finance their spending obligations, severely raise taxes, cut spending or declare bankruptcy. America won't raise taxes, they just extended the Bush tax cuts. They won't cut spending, or at least they haven't and things like health care is driving up their costs even more. It does not seem like they have any intentions of declaring bankruptcy, all that leaves is printing money which they are doing(QE2). This is big, pay very close attention to this. The US congress will soon be voting on whether or not they will raise the debt ceiling, if they do, then the Government will be able to continue these huge deficits, if not then the economy will face a lot of problems in the near future.

The US had a economy that was based more on production back then as appose to now where it is based on consumption. You can only borrow money as long as people are willing to borrow you money. The bull market for US government bonds is ending, this is why the Fed announced QE2 a couple months ago, not enough people are buying bonds.

When it does collapse, it will have a greater impact on the world then 9/11. It has nothing to do with a conspiracy, when a government continuously resorts to printing money in order to prop up a failed economic system, the currency is bound to collapse. I don't think you guys see or understand the enormity of the problem that lays ahead of us.

I agree, Robertson screws are far superior then Phillips. If people are so worried about the smoke, you can use a vaporizer or make bud butter and eat it in cookies. If we continue to keep it illegal can we at least stop saying we live in a free society.

Socialism came in response to capitalism. Many socialist saw that capitalism exploited nature and the working class, they also don't approve of the competitive nature of capitalism which they believe goes against the co-operative nature of humanity. Socialists believe that inequality occurs due to the relationship between power and the economy rather then simply the capabilities of the individual. They believe that a more equal society in terms of distribution of wealth and power would lead to a greater sense of community and solidarity which would facilitate cooperation instead of competition. There are many ideas as to what an ideal socialist society would look like and yes some advocate for a larger more intrusive government but not all socialist agree with this approach. I'm sure you have heard of Noam Chomsky who is a self proclaimed Libertarian Socialist, he would prefer a smaller almost non existent government. One thing socialist do agree on is they believe in some form of public ownership rather then private ownership of the means of major production so that decisions that affect the community are no longer made by the businessmen.

America is printing money in order to pay for their deficit which acts as stimulus to their economy. If America does not do this, America would slip back into a recession. America can continue to print money to pay for their debt and prop up their economy only until inflation gets out of hand. People are less likely to invest in a dollar that dollar is constantly losing value. As less people buy American Government Bonds the Federal Reserve will be forced to buy an increasing amount of Bonds which will lead to more and more inflation. Inflation can spiral out of control quickly this way. This will inevitably lead to a collapse of the dollar and a global depression. People always ask whether this this is a V or a W shaped recovery, I would say it is shaped more shaped like an M. The economy started to get artificially propped up with the housing bubble, it then collapsed, now it is again being artificially up until it will collapses again.

I think most atheist are turned away from the concept of god because of religion. Religion does nothing more then teach you to kneel down and obey, it has moved away from its intended purpose of spreading the message of love and has gone on to spread the message of fear. I do believe in god, I just don't believe he is some monolithic being watching us from a distance, I believe together, all of us, all that is, is god.

Pure socialism isn't authoritarian.

I think Bill Hicks had it right http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np6_b-72H3E

The biggest problem I see with Christmas besides the whole material aspect of it. What is up with this Santa Clause guy. Isn't one of the ten commandments thou shall not lie. Why are all the Christians so cool with lying to their kids.

What, how is exclusive protection for the government a socialist concept? I think that is the next step for America, then us. Socialism is the belief that we are social beings, some say it is the workers movement, it's a belief that production should be publicly controlled. Fascism is the merger of corporate and political powers, it is a form of authoritarianism, it is not the same as socialism. Personally I am socialist, that being said I don't believe socialist programs really work with our current economic system. The U.S. government takes rights away from their citizens all the time, they tap phone lines and track there citizens without warrants, they send their troops to war without a deceleration of war from congress, America is full of tyranny.

I don't know why you call em maple leaf bucks, you are the one who said I should develop a new form of money. I'm sure having a more honest money system that isn't backed by debt would be better then our current system but I don't believe a new form of money will solve things like poverty.

It isn't just central banks who can create dollars out of nothing, commercial banks can too threw fractional reserve banking.

If we use money then I don't think we should force people to use a certain type of it. In the past we let the markets choose what money is and we gravitated to gold and silver, we should let the markets chose what money is. And we are headed towards a lot of violence anyways, just wait till the American bond market collapses.

We haven't really changed much as a society, our views may have become slightly more liberal but our general concept of how society should be ran hasn't changed much. So we started off in tribes and we had tribal leaders, we then went on to religion and we had religious leaders, we then went on to monarchies and we had Kings and Queens, we are now in democracies where we have political leaders whom seem to becoming less relevant as we move into this new world of economics where it seems economic leaders hold more power. All that has changed over time is how society chooses the leaders that end up robbing us of our wealth, take us to war and limit our freedoms. We haven't got past this concept of centralization of power, we still think a small group of people can engineer a society that will work for everyone, it is not possible. We need a new way of thinking of how we should go about solving the problems that lay before us. We spend billions on jails and policing in an attempt to lower drug use and crime yet poverty is the number one cause behind drug abuse and crime and yet we only spend a fraction of what we spend on enforcement on lowering poverty. Maybe we should end poverty in order to lower drug use and crime. I think I finally get this whole Christian thing where God judges you when you die, in a way God is this global consciousness we share, we as generations always judge the generation that preceded us, we judge how they lived after they are gone. Future generations will judged us by how we lived, God does judge us when we die.

I don't know about that, I think Ron Paul will be a major candidate in the next American presidential election.

who cares what he does in his personal life.