Comments for entry "The End of Capitalism" at Dilbert.com Blog

Comment from HowardI

SunPMPSTE_Rstst

Lets just hope that our economy would now do better. Everyone is affected by the recession that we are facing and almost everyone today is now in need for financial options like payday loans. The popular online auction site eBay may be next in line for payday loans. The website has been an online Mecca for people looking to sell superfluous items, collectible and offbeat, for over a decade, but their revenue has been slipping of late. The auction function of the site hasn't been as lucrative as it once was. The website may be looking for payday loans to boost its diminishing stock price. Extraneous spending has been dropping across the board, and most of eBay's income has been from straight sales rather than auctions. The average person doesn't want to bid on a vintage lava lamp when they are contemplating Cash Advance Loans just to keep their lights on.

Comment from Coldman

SunPMPSTE_Rthth

Here are my predictions on what will change: To keep risk-taking and moral hazard under control: expect more restrictions on lending and debt financing, stricter corporate governance and securities market regulations, more vigorous prosecution of white-collar crime, and harsher bankruptcy laws. To raise the revenue needed to fund entitlement programs in a politically convenient manner: expect more taxes on consuming things that are deemed to be socially harmful, such as various unhealthy substances and environmental pollutants.

Comment from Nelsonbenson

SatPMPSTE_Rthth

How about banning blogs that advocate stupidity while conveying authority (yes you)? How about making it illegal for popular people like Mr. Adams to give advice without a license? Mr. Adams, capitalism never failed. American materialism did. People borrowed in order to finance a lifestyle they did not earn or deserved. People turned in new cars for newer cars with better GPS. People traded 3000 sf houses for 5000 sf houses for that cathedral ceiling. Capitalism never failed. It actually succeeded so much we forgot it can SOMETIME fails. And so we lived like is no tomorrow and are paying the price which we should all, including myself, pay. Mr. Adams is also a great beneficiary of capitalism and the ease by which one can conduct business in this wonderful country of ours. As an immigrant, who lived in many other countries, I have to tell you, America is not perfect, but it is still the best.

Comment from KenK

MonPMPSTE_Rthth

This guy says capitalism does not exist and never has. I agree. http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/12/meritalism_not_capitalism.html

Comment from chiffon khaki

MonPMPSTE_Rndnd

How could they ban single passengers in cars? More people are staying single every year. So invest in the blow-up doll industry now and don't forget to buckle them up.

Comment from rockhopper

MonAMPSTE_Rndnd

Actually whenever I catch on fire I smoke. Don't you?

Comment from mattmcknight

SunAMPSTE_Rstst

The end of capitalism- no way. The end of consumer credit- maybe. The end of consumer debt securitization- definitely. Individual stock ownership is not the problem, it's debt. We are be seeing the end of easy credit for companies, individuals, and the United States. Hopefully we will also see an end to people being able to buy insurance on risky loans.

Comment from graciemaesharpei

SatAMPSTE_Rthth

I agree with johno777. One of the main problems with what has happened here has been deregulation. We have either deregulated industries so they are no longer accountable or we make laws but then don't fund for enforcement. I work in healthcare as a rehabilitation therapist and it is a huge mess because of deregulation. What I see is that most healthcare companies, including hospitals, nursing homes, and assisted livings are owned and operated by people who have no background in medicine and are there only to make the investors money. The problem with this is patients are often snowed by the facility into unneccessary treatments so that the healthcare center can make money off of insurance and Medicare. Now, one would think that the doctors and the therapists could step in and stop this right? Wrong. Most physicians and therapists don't work for themselves anymore, they work for a company. The company pushes "productivity" quotas that healthcare providers must reach in order to stay employed. This is suppossed to be regulated and physicians and therapists can be charged and convicted of Medicare and insurance fraud. Unfortunately, the company and/or management doesn't get in trouble for this. Also, Medicare and the FBI are so poorly funded for this right now, that they seem to be looking the other way and these companies know this. So now, healthcare providers are between a rock and a hard place: Refuse to give unethical medical treatments and lose their jobs (and be unable to find employment without the same expectations) or commit the fraud and (maybe) get caught and lose their license to practice. Are the companies and the investors hurt by this? No. If one provider refuses to do something unethical and is terminated, they can always find someone else who will do it. My solution: Healthcare shouldn't be a business. Invetors shouldn't be able to make money off of your illness or health crisis. The money the company makes should go back to the patients in the form of salaries for healthcare providers (CNAs don't make squat and they have the hardest job in the whole building), increased staff for more individualized care (think patients in nursing homes!), improved environments and activities (again, eldercare), and programs for preventative medicine that acutally work (here's one solution for destructive behaviors, like overeating and smoking).

Comment from KevinKunreuther

ThuAMPSTE_Rthth

Why does your blog's censors find the word e-n-t-i-t-i-e-s offending?

Comment from KevinKunreuther

ThuAMPSTE_Rthth

I've posted this already in comments section of I, Cringely's last column, but deserves to be reposted here for consideration. Scott's predictions are very interesting, but I can't say they are based on any ongoing trends that are for seeable. My predictions are based on ongoing trends that have been going on since the nineties, originally at a glacial pace but are now picking up steam and being picked up by the younger generation. These things will be commonplace within twenty five years: Paper bills and coins will disappear as money, except as annual uncirculated premiums and proofs from government mints for numismatists and investors. Money in most parts of the world will be electronic, you will have one unique credit and debit account, accessible by you at all times. Unless you have certain privileges or are very sneaky, most people will not have multiple credit/debit accounts. Tampering with your personal credit/debit account or another person's or !$%*!$%* credit/debit account will be considered a felony with very stiff penalties. In some countries it could mean death, in other countries, you could be declared a non-person, and have your credit/debit accounts wiped, then be given a specie or script lump sum and forced to live in the scary unregulated gray area economy occupied by other miscreants in the off-line world. Banks as we know them will be gone, replaced by financial online !$%*!$%*, managed as a quasi-government institution. Your value (or potential earning power) will be determined and fluctuate according to services you can and do provide. This can, by your own choice, be either fixed for periods of time, evaluated after each term, or be floating and fluctuating on free market of exchange. You can elect to take your value and services off and on the market at any time. People who misrepresent or distort their market values (disruptors) will be punished severely.

Comment from barmstrong

WedPMPSTE_Rthth

Wow...I wouldn't want to live in that society. Freedom is the only way Scott, I'd move wherever I had to for that.

Comment from endofcapitalism

WedAMPSTE_Rthth

http://endofcapitalism.com capitalism will end, but not because of speculation itself. it is the finiteness of our planet, and the absurd level of destruction that capitalism requires to exist, which will put an end to growth. there simply is not enough oil, or many other resources, to allow the production-consumption-machine to keep chugging much longer. what is the future? democracy or fascism. either we take control of our own destinies as communities, or we let those in power turn this into a very different and dark world. my website http://endofcapitalism.com has more on these subjects.

Comment from webgrunt

WedAMPSTE_Rthth

Scott, I suspect the interminable slowness of your site is some sort of experiment you're running. Testing to see how slow the site has to be before your visitation rate drops to zero, or something like that. I hope the conclusion is very near.

Comment from mathieu

WedAMPSTE_Rthth

The system you describe would still be capitalism. Adding more restrictions on what people can invest in (there already ARE restrictions) won't change anything. Forcing people to consume less is just some form of social engineering, which will change the way capitalism will work but it won't make it anything other than capitalism.

Comment from tlniec

WedAMPSTE_Rthth

User Name: callcopse Dec 17, 2008 "I'd go with a variant of anarcho-syndicalism, a form of libertarian socialism. Decentralize power and give it to local communities. Let no man be your boss and be the boss of no man. But whatever..." Look, Dennis, that's all good until King Arthur gallops into your community and demands to know who the lord of your castle is! :-)

Comment from johno777

WedAMPSTE_Rthth

What is this about the end of capitalism? Capitalism is working beautifully here in Australia. Of course we are suffering a few minor shocks in industries that depend on trade with the USA, but other than that we're simply experiencing low petrol prices and mortgages. For the majority of Australians we are currently in good times (and of course I know enough about the world economy to not take that for granted; but still . . ). I think rather than the end of capitalism, what you are observing is the end of unregulated capitalism. With the right regulatory structures, the system is better than anything else anyone has ever proposed.

Comment from imgabe

WedAMPSTE_Rthth

I think you overestimate people's willingness to give up freedom in how they spend their money. Nobody would vote for a plan like the one you proposed. As far as each individual person goes, they think "I'm managing my money just fine, but *everyone else* needs to get with the program."

Comment from callcopse

WedAMPSTE_Rthth

I'd go with a variant of anarcho-syndicalism, a form of libertarian socialism. Decentralize power and give it to local communities. Let no man be your boss and be the boss of no man. But whatever...

Comment from KaranJ

WedAMPSTE_Rthth

Is it just me that gets the feeling that something similar to this would've been published early on in the Great Depression? Busts are part of the cycle of capitalism - much as at the height of every boom, the prediction is that "It'll be different this time," every bust leads to predictions of "it'll be different this time..."

Comment from AReasonableMan

TuePMPSTE_Rthth

Scott, If you think people controlling their own money has a lot of problems, just wait until you increase the ability of people to control other people's money!