tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post4201053528774796480..comments2024-03-27T09:14:27.496+00:00Comments on All That Is Solid ...: Filling the VoidPhilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-65024927129592663002019-02-11T19:02:55.054+00:002019-02-11T19:02:55.054+00:00Increasing interest rates is a novel idea, I am pr...Increasing interest rates is a novel idea, I am pretty sure the first act of the Paris commune was to abolition them!<br /><br />“The main form of increase in wealth has come from the rise in the prices of these assets.”<br /><br />This isn’t quite the full story. I was reading that over 70% of value created by Chinese workers is directly expropriated by Western companies, and at super exploited mark-ups.<br /><br />Also they have moved the tax burden from themselves to us.<br /><br />Also the financial bankocracy pay themselves in money rather than stock options, as they know the stock is ultimately going to be worthless. This means when the bailout comes and the stock values go down the plughole they don’t lose out (we do) as they have their money tied up in whatever they tie it up in, often offshored somewhere.<br /><br />Also they print lots and lots of money and give it to themselves. This may be fictitious but they can still buy yachts with it! <br /><br />And when the bubbles burst we will pay and not them.<br /><br />So the best way to affect a shift in inequality is through the following measures:<br /><br />Elect a socialist government<br />Closing down of all tax havens<br />Bringing the banks under the control of the state<br />Introducing a heavy progressive or graduated income tax.<br />Abolition of all rights of inheritance<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-59980695432616025612019-02-11T18:33:38.140+00:002019-02-11T18:33:38.140+00:00To the original commenter,
Kindly take your trans...To the original commenter,<br /><br />Kindly take your transphobic BS elsewhere.David Parryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16543341419630019419noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-78137978025945391842019-02-11T17:28:12.938+00:002019-02-11T17:28:12.938+00:00Israel literally has a department dedicated to ana...Israel literally has a department dedicated to analysing Palestinian reproduction trends.<br /><br />Of course you never hear Boffy calling Israel nationalist! In fact rarely do you find bourgeois nations being categorised as nationalist by Boffy.<br /><br />I actually think a superior understanding of ‘Stalinism’ to the one Boffy provides can be found in “Marxism and the National Question" by Stalin himself. It certainly provides a more thorough understanding of the relationship between Stalinism and nationalism than the ahistorical claptrap Boffy presents.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-68547897960104171342019-02-11T17:07:41.276+00:002019-02-11T17:07:41.276+00:00"Why suddenly start on (trans) gender issues?..."Why suddenly start on (trans) gender issues?"<br /><br />It was simply for illustrative purposes. <br /><br />The point about inequality doesn't quite hold because you are allowed to make arguments against inequality without being shouted down as anti this or anti that. Ok you might be called envious etc but there is little chance of a twitter storm if you say you want more inequality and there is little chance, yet, that the government will introduce laws to explicitly ban criticism of inequality (as happens in the case of Israel).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-81690524785095867082019-02-11T13:05:57.932+00:002019-02-11T13:05:57.932+00:00James,
"The rich have taken virtually all th...James,<br /><br />"The rich have taken virtually all the proceeds of growth (in the developed world) since the mid-80s."<br /><br />In actual fact, the main condition that has enabled the rich to advance their wealth since the 1980's, has not been growth, but the constraint of growth, particularly, since 2008. The rich hold nearly all of their wealth in the form of fictitious capital (shares, bonds, mortgages, and other financial derivatives), as well as property - e.g. the landed oligarchy still own the vast majority of land in Britain, as well as owning large swathes of commercial property.<br /><br />The main form of increase in wealth has come from the rise in the prices of these assets. The rise in asset prices is partly a function of rising revenues produced by those assets, i.e. higher amounts of dividends/interest or rent, but is far more due to low rates of interest - asset prices are, nothing more than the capitalised value of these revenues, i.e. the revenue multiplied by the inverse of the rate of interest.<br /><br />When interest rates rise, the capitalised prices fall. It was the rise in interest rates in 1994, which caused a sell off in asset prices then, the same in 2000, and most spectacularly, so far, in 2008. As interest rates have been rising over the last year or so, we have again seen stock markets begin to crack, for example, the US markets fell by around 20% last year.<br /><br />When growth rises, it means the demand for money-capital rises, causing interest rates to rise, and especially when that growth causes the demand for labour to rise, pushing up wages, as was happening in 2008, that creates a squeeze on the rate of surplus value, and on profits, thereby reducing the main source of the supply of money-capital, i.e. realised profits, again causing interest rates to rise.<br /><br />With interest rates at such very low absolute levels, even a small absolute rise in rates, represents a large proportional rise, and that rise in interest rates causes a correspondingly large fall in capitalised asset prices. As the rich measure their wealth in terms of the prices of these assets, any rise in interest rates, which causes a sharp fall in asset prices is seen as something to avoid.<br /><br />That is why, particularly since 2008, the rich have sought to constrain economic growth, via austerity, so as to constrain the demand for additional money-capital, and thereby prevent interest rates rising. They have simultaneously sought to divert all available money-capital, and money into financial speculation, and speculation in property, so as again to constrain economic growth, and keep asset prices inflated.<br /><br />One of the main means of effecting a shift in the equality of wealth, would be to simply raise interest rates, and allow those grossly inflated asset prices to collapse. If it was combined with an end to austerity, and programme of investment in infrastructure, it would further enhance that redistributive process.Boffyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08157650969929097569noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-20189057775170388522019-02-11T11:26:12.934+00:002019-02-11T11:26:12.934+00:00Why suddenly start on (trans) gender issues?
The B...Why suddenly start on (trans) gender issues?<br />The BIGGER issue by far, whether people fully acknowledge it or not, is massive and seemingly unstoppable economic inequality. It was an issue normal people cared about until Thatcher managed to expunge it from the political dictionary.<br />The rich have taken virtually all the proceeds of growth (in the developed world) since the mid-80s.<br />When party politics has any bearing on inequality it is relevant. When all parties agree on it, a big chunk of democracy is put out-of-reach and the electorate will gradually disengage.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11464135855185678187noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-37817719681517571572019-02-11T11:08:01.748+00:002019-02-11T11:08:01.748+00:00George,
Your logic does not hold. Its quite poss...George,<br /><br />Your logic does not hold. Its quite possible for one state whose dominant ideology is sympathetic to Nazism/fascism to be antagonistic to another of similar ilk, just as it was possible for the USSR and itrs Stalinist ideology to go to war with Mao's China and its Stalinist ideology.<br /><br />The overriding characteristic of these ideologies is their nationalism, and it is the defence of their particular nationalism, not any shared commitment to nationalism as an ideology per se, which provides their dynamic.Boffyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08157650969929097569noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-60593091218171650832019-02-10T23:33:14.516+00:002019-02-10T23:33:14.516+00:00Anonymous
Is it actually true that the "over...Anonymous<br /><br />Is it actually true that the "overwhelming majority" of transitions are male to female, or is it just that they are (almost) all that we ever hear about?<br /><br />Genuine question btw.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-90671015721101246752019-02-10T17:09:21.352+00:002019-02-10T17:09:21.352+00:00Whatever you think of Hamas, you cannot accuse the...Whatever you think of Hamas, you cannot accuse them of being sympathetic to Nazism, as their charter likens their Zionist enemies to a "Nazi-Tatar invasion", also bringing in the greatest nemesis of Islamic civilization: the Mongols.<br /><br />That also got me thinking of the 1947 quotation by Arab League secretary-general Azzam Pasha, in which he predicted "a war of extermination and momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacre and the Crusades."<br /><br />This quotation is used by Zionists to claim that the Arabs as a whole have genocidal ambitions against the Jews, but if that was really the intention, why did Azzam Pasha refer to massacres OF Muslims rather than massacres BY Muslims (such as the Armenian Genocide or Timur's slaughters of Hindu Indians)?George Cartyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12170378024031141482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-87986615227087140102019-02-10T16:41:22.218+00:002019-02-10T16:41:22.218+00:00Yes, politicians bemoaning peoples lack of interes...Yes, politicians bemoaning peoples lack of interest in politics without ever seeing themselves as the problem. Still you can only choose between what appears on the ballot paper so maybe the problem is with whatever infuenses that.Johny Conspiranoid.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-50925323240599431202019-02-10T11:55:19.098+00:002019-02-10T11:55:19.098+00:00I remember Engels saying, “the Corn Laws which are...I remember Engels saying, “the Corn Laws which are so insane that no arguments can be brought against them...” and this is how politics feels today to me. For example, Israel is such an insanity. The fact of Corbyn amplifies this insanity, so for example Corbyn’s mild and perfectly reasonable objections to Israel’s actions (not even its existence) becomes terrorist sympathising anti Semite.Hamas becomes a byword for Nazi mass murderers.<br /><br />I think much of liberalism today is built on this insanity, for example we are simply to accept that there are transgender people, welcome them into the community and have nothing more to be said on the matter. Simply accept without questioning. Now I am more than happy to welcome them into the community and give them whatever rights they want but I am not prepared to just sit back and accept them as a simple fact.<br /><br />For example why is it that the overwhelming majority are male to female? This would indicate to me that this is not some genetic phenomena, trapped in the wrong body, but is more akin to being alienated in some way. Of course the liberals, whose heads are stuffed full of misogyny and paternalism can’t possibly image how men could be alienated, they own the world right! And of course for saying this the liberals will now conclude I am transphobic, hence no arguments can be brought against them!<br /><br />I think the internet just exacerbates this problem, politics becomes noise, insanity shouting at insanity.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com