PTJ Decries Income Inequality at TED 2015

This one might not be up long, so check it out while you can. Paul Tudor Jones basically lambasting capitalism as it exists today and talking about all the negative externalities that are likely with the current wealth gap.

 
Best Response

Wait? Eddie? You're Alive!

In all seriousness, I heard him talk and he makes a number of great points. I think it's definitely worth listening to, but he's saying nothing that hasn't been said already (The 1% vs. the masses, death of the middle class, the effects of income inequality on a society - look at Newark and then follow the highway about 12 Miles down the road just (or take the Morris and Essex Line) to see the difference in wealth firsthand, Rise in corporate profits while under decreasing margins, the supposed economic recovery, the only way out is War, Taxes or Revolution, etc.). What I want to know is how his Social Justice charge will really do anything to create change? I think the idea of "Just Index" is novel, but unless it's embraced by more people, I think it's just a pipe dream. It's a well meaning one, but a pipe dream none the less.

 

It's a tough nut to crack. I generally agree w/ his point on some of the side effects of our system (e.g. CEO compensation.) I'm not sure how we get to "Just Corporate Behavior" but I'll take that or revolution over higher taxes and war.

If the hoi polloi are pissed off and think they're being screwed, it isn't a good thing in the long run for anyone.

 

Meh, only made it half way. Not sure what the problem is with money flowing to corporate profits when nothing is stopping someone from becoming said share holder. If you want to spend your money on superfluous non-sense instead of investing it, do whatever you want. Just don't shit on the system when you're poor and people who made better decisions than you aren't. The real discussion here IMO is making certain that the amount of jobs (globally speaking because of how inter-connected we've become) keeps pace with the demand for them. We're screwed in the long-term if this can't happen (I struggle to see how it can, but I digress). Unemployment will soar, wages will sink, CBs will print money out the ass to stop the deflationary forces, liberals will continue to foster irrelevant discussions, and the world will turn. All that said, if I was some billionaire I'd 150% be covering my ass with some speech like this too. Sure he's about 9 months late to Pikkety's party, but it's the effort that counts. Haters gonna hate, I personally respect the hustle.

 
Dr.Seuss:

Not sure what the problem is with money flowing to corporate profits when nothing is stopping someone from becoming said share holder. If you want to spend your money on superfluous non-sense instead of investing it, do whatever you want. Just don't shit on the system when you're poor and people who made better decisions than you aren't.

You good sir obviously have no grasp on reality. Spoken like a tried-and-true middle/upper middle class kid that "earned" everything.

 

I've about had enough of people calling our current system "capitalism" when it is almost anything but. Massive regulation, massive government intervention, massive amounts of subsidies, favorable conditions for only the biggest of businesses....this isn't capitalism. PTJ needs to do some research. The wealth gap would disappear if we didn't pay people to be wards of the state and actually had some sort of competitive environment for anybody but massive multinational corporations. "income inequality" is the new way by which the government seeks to confiscate even more of our wealth, and some of these otherwise intelligent people are playing right along.

"When you stop striving for perfection, you might as well be dead."
 

Another rich guy blaming the system that made him so. Pathetic.

"They are all former investment bankers that were laid off in the economic collapse that Nancy Pelosi caused. They have no marketable skills, but by God they work hard."
 

Watching Paul in this clip felt like watching Gecko in the movies hah but in my view, the real problem is opportunity inequality, not income inequality, as Buffet said "we are all born equal but we don't have equal opportunity on the long run" as example: rich individuals borrow money at a lower rate than others, rich individuals know a lot more critical information than usually do others, or rich companies with lots of cash can be monopoly and destroy small businesses, right?

 

There is a fourth option: the people who work demand a better deal. Some time in the 80s the American middle class stopped sticking up for itself. Unions are easy to hate for a lot of reasons but they're really just part of the picture....everyone who works as an employee, about 85% of the population, just gave up on themselves.

Modern business seeks to please only one of the three real participants in business: the shareholder. The other two, the employee and the customer, are treated like a disposable liability mostly because people don't demand better. There once was a time when such a racket was enabled by corrupt politicians, but now the politicians openly encourage this imbalance at the behest of their paymasters or even for silly ideological "purity". It's a fraud of epic proportions foisted on an entire people.

At some point, the people who work will together demand a larger share of the wealth they had a hand in creating. Until then, yes, we're heading towards political instability. For anyone who thinks this is 'good', turn on the news or open a history book and learn about what this really means. Notice that PTJ doesn't mention this 4th option; partly because he's to thick too see this and also partly because that would be bad for him.....the super wealthy are beginning to fear the golum they have created and they have only themselves to blame.

Note above repeated use of the word "demand". These changes will not be willingly granted. They have to be taken by force....it's either going to be settled in the court of public opinion, or it's going to be settled with weapons.

ALSO: Eddie, glad to see you drop by! :)

Get busy living
 

I didn't get a whole lot out of that in terms of negative externalities, which I was hoping to hear more about. Constantly nowadays, we are told as a society that the income gap is growing, and there is tons of empirical data to support that claim. However, we are generally told to just accept that it is a problem on its face, and that's it.

It's asinine to compare the US's situation to that of basically the rest of the world, ever. The main graph he showed illustrating correlation between income inequality and "social ills" didn't tell us any story at all. First, I am extremely skeptical of what the source of that data views as "social ills". Secondly, income inequality is of course generally associated with the so-called 3rd world countries, where people live in abject poverty or oppressive regimes maintain some type of dictatorship or oligarchy. It's disingenuous to insinuate the United States faces a similar problem in that regard.

Our current system, for all of its imperfections, its bureaucratic inefficiencies, and its corruption, does not even compete with the aforementioned shitholes when it comes to "social ills" or some shitty agenda-biased index attempting to quantify it. Our productivity and technological advancements have been astronomical and our standard of living as a society has continued to improve dramatically over the past several decades. What is there to fight over other than to express one's jealousy of others' success?

I'm not saying it's good that it's happening and I'm trying to look at it with an open mind, but I've yet to see real, compelling evidence as to why a revolution or war would be coming, or why we are facing a grave problem. The rich may be getting comparatively richer, but the baristas at Starbuck's still have their iPhones. We are in unprecedented territory as a society with regard to this topic, and I think people should approach the subject accordingly. Floating around the idea of a quick fix to this "problem" by way of increasing taxes on the rich, who already shoulder a highly disproportionate burden, is just cynical and reeks of class warfare/socialism.

 

I don't believe there is a revolution or war coming, but the militarization of police (swat teams with light-armored vehicles in suburban areas) is an indication that the risk of social unrest is being taken seriously by a hand-full of people. Gun ownership has declined over the years so we can't blame radical citizens, etc. Apparently police should be feared.

One solution would be to raise medium wages (~$28K) not average wages (~$44k).

>Incoming Ash Ketchum, Pokemon Master >Literally a problem, solve for both X and Y, please and thank you. >Hugh Myron: "Are there any guides on here for getting a top girlfriend? Think banker/lawyer/doctor. I really don't want to go mid-tier"
 

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