Morality of Profit

ATMs = Job killers?

From: Forbes
By: Tim Worstall

Yes of course mechanisation of a task destroys the jobs of those who previously did the task. That’s the whole point of mechanising the task. So as to free up that valuable labour so that it can go and do something else. Which makes us all richer.

For now we’ve got the output from that newly mechanised task plus the outout from the new work that is being done by the newly freed labour. If our displaced teller now works in pre-school, changing diapers, then we’ve both a way of getting money from the bank and clean and smiling babies. As a society, we’re richer, for before we faced the choice of either banking services or smiling babies.

Read the entire Forbes Story HERE.

Read the original comment and contradicting employment statistics HERE.

Image Credit: Culver-Union Township website

Mind Boggling Chart of the Day

"Yes, it really is saying that the bottom 5% in the USA have a higher income, a higher standard of living, than the top 5% of Indians."

Mind boggling chart of the day

Cities With Most Billionaires

"Today Moscow is the city with the most billionaire residents in the world."

Moscow Leads Cities With Most Billionaires - Forbes.com

Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%

Notice the choice of the verb in this sentence, and then ask yourself if "earn" would have been more accurate but not as politically useful.

"Yet in our own democracy, 1 percent of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation’s income—an inequality even the wealthy will come to regret."

Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1% | Society | Vanity Fair

Can You Love Free Markets and the Poor?

"Intentions are not outcomes.  Showing others that we care about alleviating poverty and actually alleviating poverty aren’t the same thing."

Can You Love Free Markets and the Poor? - Art Carden - The Economic Imagination - Forbes

Wealth and Technology Make the Death Toll Smaller, Not Larger

"Which would you rather have? A more realistic sense of your place in the world -- or your life?"

Wealth and technology make the death toll smaller, not larger | The Rational Optimist…

Earthquakes Don’t Add to the Wealth of Nations

"A nation isn’t richer when it has to allocate scarce resources to rebuilding. Just think how the money could have been used, in ways only entrepreneurs can envision, rather than rebuild what was destroyed."

Earthquakes Don’t Add to the Wealth of Nations: Caroline Baum - Businessweek

Why Bother Being a Billionaire?

"Billionaires, even low on the Forbes list, have more money than they can spend. Lex's Sarah O'Connor and Edward Hadas discuss why they still strive to increase their fortunes."

Why bother being a billionaire? - lex - global economy - FT.com

The Wealth of Nature

In his book, The Rational Optimist, Matt Ridley makes the point that natural resource wealth does not automatically equal a better standard of living for a poor country.

On the contrary, it typically leads to great wealth for just a few, and unchanging poverty for the rest. Consider the case of Angola.

Plutocracy: The Rich Elite And The Rest Of Us

"The controversy over the disparity between the rich and the rest of us has hit the covers of two emblematic fountains of ideas; The Economist and The Atlantic Monthly.  The mention of a risk to society of “an entrenched plutocracy,” brought that almost archaic word back to me. I had used it on the front-piece of my best-selling biography of J. Paul Getty, “The Great Getty” some quarter of a century ago."

Plutocracy: The Rich Elite And The Rest Of Us - Robert Lenzner - StreetTalk - Forbes

Merchants and Craftsmen

"Merchants and craftsmen make prosperity; chiefs, priests and thieves fritter it away."

Matt Ridley, The Rational Optimist

Wealth and Cruelty

"Wealth in pagan Rome was necessarily something cruel; it's not any more."

Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited

Where Americans Earn The Most

There's gold in that there swamp!


Where Americans Earn The Most - Forbes.com

The Quotable Bastiat

"I do not address myself to those philosophers who, if not in their own names, at least in the name of humanity, profess to adore poverty.

I speak to those who hold wealth in esteem -- and understand by this word, not the opulence of the few, but the comfort, the well-being, the security, the independence, the instruction, the dignity of all."

Economic Sophisms, Second Series, "Natural History of Spoilation"

Je ne m'adresse pas à ces philosophes qui font profession d'adorer la misère, sinon en leur nom, du moins au nom de l'humanité.

Je parle à quiconque tient la Richesse pour quelque chose. — Entendons par ce mot, non l'opulence de quelques-uns, mais l'aisance, le bien-être, la sécurité, l'indépendance, l'instruction, la dignité de tous.

Sophismes Économiques, Physiologie de la Spoliation

Money on the Dark Side of the Moon

As is often the case, I recently had music playing in the background at my house. This particular morning I had Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon record playing (yes, among other forms of media, I listen to records). As some of you know, the song Money is the first song on side two of the album. As I dropped the needle, it occurred to me that, even though the word "money" has a specific meaning to me in economic terms, I had never really studied the lyrics to this well-known song. So I dared to examine what "money" means to songwriter and bassist Roger Waters of Pink Floyd - at least what it meant to him in the early 1970's when he wrote the song.

By 1973, Pink Floyd had already recorded eight albums, including a movie soundtrack and a #1 album in 1970 called Atom Heart Mother. Therefore, it is safe to assume that when the song was written, Roger Waters was already struggling with his new found fame, and enjoying the money that accompanies a #1 album release.

Now, I am not a lyricist by any means, and I may very well be interpreting the song completely wrong. Nevertheless, with the historical context in place, here is my amateur interpretation of Money by Pink Floyd.

Artist: Pink Floyd
Album: Dark Side of the Moon
Lyrics by: Roger Waters



Click here for to see it performed in London in 1994.

___________________________________________

Original lyrics in bold font
Layman interpretation of the lyrics in normal font

Money, get away
Get a good job with more pay
And you're okay

At first, money is good and it is allows you to live comfortably.

Money, it's a gas
Grab that cash with both hands
And make a stash

Life becomes fun once you have a little disposable income.

New car, caviar, four star daydream
Think I'll buy me a football team

Once you become wealthy, your wants become a little more expensive - sometimes they seem absurd (i.e. buying a football team). But, who are we to judge him on his wants.

Money get back
I'm all right Jack
Keep your hands off my stack

With wealth comes friends, agents, managers, and obligations. These people are normally looking for an easy handout.

Money, it's a hit
Don't give me that
Do goody good b&ll$h!t

There are no shortage of suggestions as to how you should spend your money. Even though keeping your money for yourself is considered "greedy" to some.

I'm in the hi-fidelity
First class traveling set
And I think I need a Learjet

It's funny how wants become needs. He "wanted" a football team, and now he "needs" fancy luggage and a Learjet to match. However, again, who are we to judge him on his wants and needs - it's his money.

Money, it's a crime
Share it fairly
But don't take a slice of my pie

Once you become rich, it is easy to judge others and tell them how to live and spend their money, but leave his lifestyle out of it - remember it's his success.

Money, so they say
Is the root of all evil
Today

But if you ask for a rise
It's no surprise that they're
Giving none away

Those who do not have money, and some that do, point to money as the "root of all evil." But, if you notice, they rarely part with theirs. It's fairly easy to sit back judge others based on what they do (or don't do) with their money. But, in reality, it is their money, and they should be allowed to spend it on football teams, matching luggage, Learjets, or maybe even give it all away to charity. Besides, the common man enjoys watching football, making luggage, and building Lear jets.

In the end, money is not the "root of all evil"; however, mandating what one does with their money is not far from it.

______________________________________________________________
A quick note: In a 1987 interview, Roger Waters was asked, "Apart from [being successful as a band] what were the main problems associated with such immense success?"

"Mainly the one of what to do with all the money!" he answered, "You go through this thing where you think of all the good you could do with it by giving it away. But, in the end, you decide to keep it!"

Close to Nature

Most of the commentary on the situation in Haiti understandably focuses on the immediate effects of the earthquake. We are deeply disturbed by the suffering of our fellow human beings.

But there is a larger, longer running tragedy at work here. We call it poverty. Poverty is what "being close to nature" really looks like.

Behind the popular romance of nature as a pretty park where happy creatures play lurks the awful truth. Nature is not cruel, but it is clumsy, indifferently stumbling over land and people alike.

We can only love such a thing after we have contained its potential to do us harm. That does not come from prayers and worship; it comes from wealth and the security that wealth provides.

Earthquake relief does not make a nation wealthy. Wealth comes from the peaceful and profitable trade of individuals.

Until Haitians can securely own and trade property, they will continue to face the harrowing prospect of one disaster after another, one relief program after another, with no end in sight.

Wealth Creation in Africa

More Aid and More Government is Not the Answer

In this provocative talk, journalist Andrew Mwenda asks us to reframe the "African question" -- to look beyond the media's stories of poverty, civil war and helplessness and see the opportunities for creating wealth and happiness throughout the continent.

Unleashing Capitalism in SC

Here is a much-needed alternative to top-down government planning for prosperity.

Unleashing Capitalism is an expert prescription for the systemic problems that keep South Carolina poor. The book is a road map to prosperity through policy reforms that will put economic power back in the hands of the people.

View the book here.

It is edited by Peter T. Calcagno of the College of Charleston, along with associate editors, Joshua C. Hall and Russell S. Sobel.

Stimulating the Piggy Bank

Savings in the US is slowing increasing, despite the spend, spend, spend mentality in Washington. Maybe we are beginning to learn a valuable lesson - you cannot spend your way out of debt. Now, if we can only get Congress on board with this idea.

from NPR's Weekend Edition

For nearly two years, the U.S. economy has been struggling with a recession brought on by excessive borrowing, both for home mortgages and consumer purchases. Economists say many people have learned a lesson; the personal savings rate is inching back up as more Americans embrace the "new frugality."

Still, half of U.S. households don't have even modest savings, according to a new study conducted by TNS Group, a market researcher, with help from professors at the Harvard Business School and Dartmouth College.

The researchers conducted a survey to see how many households could round up $2,000 within 30 days to cope with an emergency, such as having a car breakdown or needing a major home repair. About half said that even if they turned to relatives for help, they could not come up with $2,000 for a "rainy day," the study found.

Read or listen to the entire story here.