[bubtubgub]

> I can understand (if not condone) the birthday party thing, where you spend millions to get someone famous at your party, as by doing so you are saying "I have so many millions, I can do this ridiculous thing, or buy a famous painting, and still be richer than you". But it seems weird that it's a booming and widespread business model.

The rich are growing richer and the wealth gap is deepening, is happens all the time until the lower classes can no longer stand the abuse and revolt, after which usually a subset of the upper classes gets power and makes minor concessions to calm the mob. Usually this is followed by increased propaganda and controls to prevent another revolt from happening which leads to the people losing more power. Most of the media and sources of information are already in the hands of the elite and allied with their interests, so revolts are less likely and usually easily suppressed. The cycle continues. A police state and an Elysium-style separation of the elite from the plebs seems closer every day. People find it easier to ignore the struggle and suffering of people far away or people they don't see, even the impoverished and homeless in their own cities, because the media mostly ignores them, but most don't realize that they will soon also be in this class of ignored, powerless beggars and the elite class will be better protected and more isolated, allowing them to ignore the problems of the lower classes even more.

[silverbax88]

Are you really referring to a tenant of Marxism to explain why some people have enough money to blow on trivial things in a night club and correlate it to some sort of future revolution?

This isn't something new - 'Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous' from the 1980s was based on this exact kind of excess.

[BenDaglish]

> Are you really referring to a tenant of Marxism

Marxism's taking in lodgers now?

[bubtubgub]

No, nothing of what I said has anything specifically to do with Marxism. Nor am I claiming to say anything new or original.

[drzaiusapelord]

Societies can handle x amount of difference between the wealthy and the poor. We're nowhere near any point of revolt, regardless of what hyped up manboys on reddit and HN think. Low unemployment, high gdp per capita, high household income, high human development index rating, etc.

If anyone's revolting its the Greeks and the Spanish, not Americans. And not because of "the rich" but because the feel good socialism they can't pay for is destroying a generation of wealth, work, and prosperity.

HN/Reddit unicorns like Brazil, Russia, Finland, etc are also all underperforming:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-11/meet-2016-...

Gee, maybe low regulatory environments, easy access to investment cash, entrepreneur culture, freedom of speech, honest elections, a real judiciary, capital protections, etc matter to an economy? Naww, keep ignoring the facts.

[apalmer]

Just so we are clear... what countries do you think are doing well?

because i would posit that out of the countries that are economically performing well outside of the united states almost none have: low regulatory environments, easy access to investment cash, entrepreneur culture, freedom of speech, honest elections, a real judiciary, capital protections

if we are going to say we need to focus on empirical evidence then I dont think this elements are as important as you are making them out to be...

[bubtubgub]

> Low unemployment, high gdp per capita, high household income, high human development index rating, etc.

Not true, real unemployment (ie including homeless people, people that are unable to work, etc.) is quite high and rising. Many people are just completely excluded from the 'official' unemployment statistics. Mean GDP per capita is fairly high BUT median, which is a much more important metric of wealth inequality, is quite low and decreasing relative to mean. Not sure why you listed household income and GDP per capita as different things even though they are basically the same for this purpose... and high human development index says nothing about revolt, in fact higher educated and well-read people that are economically disenfranchised tend to be more outspoken and interested in the wealth gap.

> And not because of "the rich" but because the feel good socialism they can't pay for is destroying a generation of wealth, work, and prosperity.

80% of the American public is essentially completely politically disenfranchised, for most people in the US the net income adjusted for inflation and increasing costs is decreasing.

https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/mgilens/fi...

> And not because of "the rich" but because the feel good socialism they can't pay for is destroying a generation of wealth, work, and prosperity.

Greece and Spain are far from 'feel good socialism' compared to countries that are much closer such as Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, where quality of life and happiness is regularly rated as higher than the US.

> Gee, maybe low regulatory environments, easy access to investment cash, entrepreneur culture, freedom of speech, honest elections, a real judiciary, capital protections, etc matter to an economy? Naww, keep ignoring the facts.

Literally none of those things conflicts with socialism, socialism actually helps many of those things. But I guess you heard the good ol 'socialism bad hurr durr' on fox news or whatever and suddenly feel that is a basis to justify your misguided beliefs.

> Gee, maybe low regulatory environments

Yeah, that worked out magnificently in 2008.

[drzaiusapelord]

>Many people are just completely excluded from the 'official' unemployment statistics.

Every country reports unemployment similarly. The system we use has classes, so yes you can look at both U3 and U6 and the still the US comes out on top, if compared to the same class. The US's high employment rate is unquestionable, as much as you hate it and wish it to be worse.

>. Mean GDP per capita is fairly high BUT median, which is a much more important metric

Real Median Household Income is almost excactly the GDP per capita in the USA.

https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/MEHOINUSA672N

https://www.google.com/search?q=gdp+per+capita+usa&ie=utf-8&...

>Greece and Spain are far from 'feel good socialism'

They absolutely are. Their programs are unaffordable, especially in Greece's case. The government is the biggest employer there and literally writes checks it cannot back because its bullied by the unions and leftist electorate to do so. Eventually you need to pay your bills and the Greeks simply cannot.

> Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, where quality of life and happiness is regularly rated as higher than the US.

Because people are naturally racists and in ethnocentrist cultures people are happy. White loves white. Why is that a plus to you? Melting pot life will always have more strife. Also those countires are a fraction of the size of the USA. Denmark is a mere 5m people, about half of the Chicago metropolitan area. Compared that to a 330m juggernaut is silly. Sweden is about the population of the Chicago metropolitan area. Germany has a multi-payer health care system just like the US does, its much more to the right than the other countries you mentioned.

>Yeah, that worked out magnificently in 2008.

Every country has economic issues that come and go. The US has been the lead performer since WWII. We're seeing the destruction of Greece right now with no real way out. There's very different than the once in 30 years recession almost all economies suffer from. Your precious Germany had some bad dealings both political and economically in the 30s and 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. I guess we arent allowed to talk about that ,but anything in the US's history is fair game, eh?

[dang]

> as much as you hate it and wish it to be worse

> I guess we arent allowed to talk about that

Acerbic asides like these degrade the discussions here and typically provoke much worse from others, as happened in this case. Please eliminate nastiness from what you post here, regardless of how right and wrong you or someone else's views may be.

[bubtubgub]

> Every country reports unemployment similarly. The system we use has classes, so yes you can look at both U3 and U6 and the still the US comes out on top, if compared to the same class.

First of all, U3 and U6 are both not real unemployment. They exclude a large portion of the population from the statistic, like I already said, but you seem to have no idea what I'm talking about. Real unemployment which is usually taken as the number of people above 16 who do not work is about 40% in the US. Yes, there are reasons why people in this large group should be separated for statistical purposes but this number is the real unemployment, IE the actual number of people who are not employed.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/record-94610...

> The US's high employment rate is unquestionable, as much as you hate it and wish it to be worse.

You're really trying to sound like an idiot aren't you?

> Real Median Household Income is almost excactly the GDP per capita in the USA.

So now you are comparing MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD (OFTEN TWO OR MORE PEOPLE COMBINED) income to AVERAGE PER CAPITA (SINGLE PERSON) income? Really? Embarrassing.

Here is what the real median vs average incomes look like:

https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/central.html

http://qz.com/260269/painfully-american-families-are-learnin...

> They absolutely are. Their programs are unaffordable, especially in Greece's case.

So, your definition of 'feel good socialism' is 'they have unaffordable programs'? You amaze me with your depth of knowledge.

> Because people are naturally racists and in ethnocentrist cultures people are happy.

Sorry, go preach your NrX crap to the children over at /r/AnarchoCapitalism. It does not impress me.

> Denmark is a mere 5m people, about half of the Chicago metropolitan area.

How is that relevant, when their productive output is still dependent on their size?

> I guess we arent allowed to talk about that ,but anything in the US's history is fair game, eh?

You sound like an angry American redneck, who tries to yell 'Murica! Fuck yeah!' to whoever might hear you and try to defend America to people who don't have anything against the country in general and attack them with childish fallacious rants. All the while trying to cover up any issues that actually hurt American people. You are a brainwashed moron.

[dang]

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