The discussion we just had in class is the exact reason our country is so divided and gridlocked. Its bothersome that we didn't even question or discuss the ethical issues surrounding segmenting the population and trading favors for votes. That's essentially exactly what we were talking about, who has the majority and what policy issues of ours can we manipulate to acquire their support. Any true libertarian in the class would be just as frustrated as I was about the discussion.
First, one of the founding ideas of libertarianism is equal treatment of everyone by the government. That means liberty for all, regardless of ethnic or social classification. Pandering to the minorities by promising healthcare reform, immigration reform, tax reform, better education, lower interest rates for borrowing and lending, etc is great if you're in a particular group receiving the benefits. However, it polarizes the country and is simply immoral.
Whatever happened to politicians who ran on principles, morals, and convictions? Using just the last two elections as examples, we've seen that candidates will change just about any opinion they hold to conform to the generally excepted beliefs of the populace. The reason this is bad for our country is, as i have said in my earlier blog posts, because we were never designed to operate as a democracy, but rather a republic. Elections are meant to single out the most intelligent, most moral, most pure citizens and allow them to make decisions that affect the entire population. Where we see ourselves now is in the situation where we elect the weakest, most malleable, most easily persuaded citizens and allow them to dictate the future of us all. Really, the only positive attribute we now seek in a president is his or her public speaking ability, and tendency to tell us what we want to hear. I don't support either major political party, but to simplify my argument, i'll just use Obama as the most recent example. His position on Guantanamo Bay, oil drilling off the coast, corporatism, the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Lybia, and foreign involvement in general, tax policy, torture, the use of drones, etc have all changed or altered throughout his campaign and presidency. We refuse to elect people that see us as "Americans" and continue to elect those that see us as "votes" or "constituents".
What we just did in class was to segment the population and say, oh, you're black here's a something that will appeal to you, oh, you're Asian, here's something that will appeal to you, oh, you're white, here's something that will appeal to you. In other areas of business that completely fine, but concerning politics, its horribly wrong. This classifies people into groups, when really, in politics, there should only be one group that matters, Americans. Our politicians should be protecting the rights of all of us, not just the ones that will get him or her elected.
"When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - When you see that men get richer by graft and pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but them against you - When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - You may know that your society is doomed." - Ayn Ran, Atlas Shrugged.
Its my opinion that this class discussion should have been strictly about business applications of sub cultures and segmentation, or at least touched on the ethical and moral issues of bringing this type of thinking into the political arena. Most people understand our country is fucked up, but few seem to question why.... we need to ask why, discuss why, and have a open and intellectual dialogue about why. Again though, just my opinion.
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Monday, November 26, 2012
Illegal downloads...
So, I illegally download movies on a regular basis. Much of the time I am able to get movies still in theaters, or at the very latest, I am able to get them only minutes after the DVD is released. I know that many, if not most, of my friends do the same. Movies, music, games, programs, etc are all easily attainable online. Most of the time you hear this portrayed as a bad and immoral trend, but is it?
There are many studies that show when pirated material is readily available online smaller bands and movie companies are benefiting. http://www.cnet.com.au/pirates-who-pay-do-illegal-downloads-actually-help-the-box-office-339342557.htm This makes logical sense too. We always hear about how evil big corporations are, and how we should support the little guys, well here's a great opportunity to do that. Pay for the movies and music worth your money, and pirate the ones you wouldn't pay for in the first place (like THOR or 3OH3).
Also, from a market standpoint, what does this trend say about the price of movie and concert tickets or DVD and CD costs? Clearly there is a large, and growing, group of people who are saying that the value received is less than the value spent. This is why we have to fight to protect the internet and the ability it gives us to have a voice. The major sponsors of bills like SOPA and PIPA are the media companies who are getting rich on low quality products.
I guess my question is, do you illegally download music, movies, programs, etc? Do you feel wrong doing it? Should I feel wrong? I do pay for music and movies that i know to be worth my money. I think the last movies i paid to see were Into The Wild, Atlas Shrugged, and maybe Batman or 310 to Yuma or something. The last music i bought was the newest Trampled by Turtles album. I simply wouldn't spend my money to buy most of the media i download, so its not like im robbing these companies of money. Its a strange question, and something i think worth discussing.
There are many studies that show when pirated material is readily available online smaller bands and movie companies are benefiting. http://www.cnet.com.au/pirates-who-pay-do-illegal-downloads-actually-help-the-box-office-339342557.htm This makes logical sense too. We always hear about how evil big corporations are, and how we should support the little guys, well here's a great opportunity to do that. Pay for the movies and music worth your money, and pirate the ones you wouldn't pay for in the first place (like THOR or 3OH3).
Also, from a market standpoint, what does this trend say about the price of movie and concert tickets or DVD and CD costs? Clearly there is a large, and growing, group of people who are saying that the value received is less than the value spent. This is why we have to fight to protect the internet and the ability it gives us to have a voice. The major sponsors of bills like SOPA and PIPA are the media companies who are getting rich on low quality products.
I guess my question is, do you illegally download music, movies, programs, etc? Do you feel wrong doing it? Should I feel wrong? I do pay for music and movies that i know to be worth my money. I think the last movies i paid to see were Into The Wild, Atlas Shrugged, and maybe Batman or 310 to Yuma or something. The last music i bought was the newest Trampled by Turtles album. I simply wouldn't spend my money to buy most of the media i download, so its not like im robbing these companies of money. Its a strange question, and something i think worth discussing.
Our buggy moral code...
After watching Dan Ariely's presentation in class this afternoon, I had some thoughts that wouldn't really be great for classroom discussion. First of all, i believe the topic of today's discussion touched on some of the fundamental reasons why our country is in such a bad place. In general, the inability of most Americans to make "cool-state" decisions. These are, as Ariely described in the book, rational long term decisions.
From marriage to savings to electing the next president, Americans show an overwhelming failure in their ability to make rational long term choices. Consider the debt our country is in, over 16 trillion dollars, leaving each and every citizen of our country with over 51,000 dollars of debt. In the past 4 years of Obama's presidency the national debt has risen by over 5 trillion dollars. At some point our debtors will come knocking and this debt will have to be paid. Unfortunately there is also the option to continue what we've been doing and pass the debt along to our children and grandchildren, accumulating more debt along the way. As i said in my previous blog post the easy decision is usually the wrong decision. Its unbelievably easy to ignore the responsibility we have to leave our children a better country than we were given, but unfortunately thats the path our generation has continued to take.
Is it rational to spend more money than you make on a personal level? No! Then i must ask why its rational to do so on a national scale. Its difficult to make the decision to cut foreign involvement, decrease military presence around the world, reign in the out of control welfare spending, and in general decrease the size of government, but its these decisions that need to be made for long term prosperity and security. I don't say these things to support or denounce a particular party, but to illustrate the necessity of making "cool-state" choices concerning our government. The fact of the matter is that we cannot continue to make these short term choices, we simply can't afford to do it much longer.
I would love to leave my children a country with less debt and financial chaos than the one that was left to me, however, i really don't see a way to do this. Invariably the empire of fiat wealth we've erected will come to an end, it will be interesting to see how and when this will take place.
http://www.infowars.com/ron-pauls-farewell-to-congress-speech-transcript/
Read up, its well worth your time.
From marriage to savings to electing the next president, Americans show an overwhelming failure in their ability to make rational long term choices. Consider the debt our country is in, over 16 trillion dollars, leaving each and every citizen of our country with over 51,000 dollars of debt. In the past 4 years of Obama's presidency the national debt has risen by over 5 trillion dollars. At some point our debtors will come knocking and this debt will have to be paid. Unfortunately there is also the option to continue what we've been doing and pass the debt along to our children and grandchildren, accumulating more debt along the way. As i said in my previous blog post the easy decision is usually the wrong decision. Its unbelievably easy to ignore the responsibility we have to leave our children a better country than we were given, but unfortunately thats the path our generation has continued to take.
Is it rational to spend more money than you make on a personal level? No! Then i must ask why its rational to do so on a national scale. Its difficult to make the decision to cut foreign involvement, decrease military presence around the world, reign in the out of control welfare spending, and in general decrease the size of government, but its these decisions that need to be made for long term prosperity and security. I don't say these things to support or denounce a particular party, but to illustrate the necessity of making "cool-state" choices concerning our government. The fact of the matter is that we cannot continue to make these short term choices, we simply can't afford to do it much longer.
I would love to leave my children a country with less debt and financial chaos than the one that was left to me, however, i really don't see a way to do this. Invariably the empire of fiat wealth we've erected will come to an end, it will be interesting to see how and when this will take place.
http://www.infowars.com/ron-pauls-farewell-to-congress-speech-transcript/
Read up, its well worth your time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)