Value is not intrinsic to an item. A laptop has no value to an aborigine, just as a Goua'uld Healing Device has no value to someone without the ATA Gene. Certainly value is intrinsic to the producer of the item in question. What is not intrinsic is price. Value and price are separate issues. Value ...

emotional leper wrote:Value is not intrinsic to an item. A laptop has no value to an aborigine, just as a Goua'uld Healing Device has no value to someone without the ATA Gene.

Certainly value is intrinsic to the producer of the item in question. What is not intrinsic is price. Value and price are separate issues.

A few things I got from an econ class 2 yrs ago: Gold standard means less currency. Tightens govt's ability to do things. W/ expansion of currency we dodged a depression or recession after the crash of 1987. We could not do that under a gold standard b/c currency is far more limited. Right now we a...

Adam Smith's theories of value can easily be proved false by giving Aboriginals who have never had contact with western civilisation a laptop computer. I do not agree. I will assume, since you haven't bothered to make an argument, that you are alluding to the necessity of demand; I agree that deman...

Finn, you're very astute to point out that I left out a response to that one sentence! I did so on purpose: I've heard bad things about universal health care in Canada and European countries, but to look up the information would take some time. Since I didn't want to make a statement without backin...

I don't know enough about economics to really weigh in here, except to note that EL's point of view is contradicted by Adam Smith's labor theory of value. Meaning, the worth of something is proportional to the amount of time and trouble it takes to get it. Smith also notes in "The Wealth of Nat...

Not to mention that dualism is in facty an "ism"! The only person I don't agree with is finn, and that is simply out of spite. Just kidding my friend. ....bait me at your peril! :twisted: ;) Are you trying to say that my definition might unmake the universe??? Or make God press CTRL+ALT+D...

Waddley Hasselhoff wrote:It means that discussing/debating with you is on my list of things to avoid because I've seen where it gets other Watchers and I don't have patience of a saint.

Not very nice.

The problem with the Mathematical Models of Economics that are bandied about is this: They try to treat a complex system as a simple system. The Real World is not a simple system. There are an infinite number of variables, which cannot be renormalised. You cannot even begin to renormalise them. The...

LM, as I stated prior I am not suggesting that Islamism is a form of fascism (that was The Dreaming); what I have been discussing is whether there are any comparable elements between the two movements, beyond simple "totalitarianism". Based on your last post it would seem that we agree th...

By the way, that is not strictly speaking a "Laffer Curve" since I have attempted to show the long-term effects of freed / lost capital within it, as well as the effects of tax policy on economic incentives. The classic Laffer curve only addresses the role of incentives and is much more of...

ex, Oh undoubtedly what I said is not fact or even always realistic; it's one interpretation. I was just wondering what mathematically EL was disagreeing with. I suppose it really depends on the economic crisis at hand; longterm growth, tax cuts may be the solution (there's a debate to be had on th...

I may have used the term "Islamofascism" in the past, but I am not a fan of the term any longer, because it is a misnomer. I can admit that you may have had something to do with that realization.

PS I would agree that there are times when pure, massive government outlays are required (when demand is at an unsustainably low level, say). WWII is the best example of that.

Tsukasa Logged Out, What do you mean? It's an economic projection; it's not supposed to be precise mathematics. The end result is the ~$10b gap in GDP after increased government spending and after tax cuts. The point is to show that tax cuts stimulate economic output or GDP (the variable "Y&qu...

LM, as I stated prior I am not suggesting that Islamism is a form of fascism (that was The Dreaming); what I have been discussing is whether there are any comparable elements between the two movements, beyond simple "totalitarianism". Based on your last post it would seem that we agree tha...

Plissken, thanks for the education. Some of those are implied in my definition but I do seem to have missed several important elements. In my defense I was not attempting to be exhaustive, I was trying to facilitate a comparison in general terms.

This is part of a discussion I was having in another forum, I think some here may find it interesting as well, and it is definitely relevant to the Presidential election. It's difficult to assess Reagan and taxes. There was a big tax cut early in his term followed by numerous tax increases throughou...

Uhg, your link just a-sploded my browser Monty. (Acrobat is satanic software) I'd post some extracts but, well, it's 9 pages long, and it's all good. Worth reading for a cultural exploration of the use of the term 'fascist'. And anything by Eco is excellent. I'm currently reading "Baudolino&qu...

Yeah, I know what you mean. :roll: When I was in college I was a barista for a coffeehouse. Let me tell you, I never got all high and mighty about what things were named. I find it irritating when starbucks workers get an attitude and act as though you need a private club membership--for which pleb...