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The People's Republic of National Politics
posted Sep 30, 2008
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"$700 bill bail-out", Google News
Comments [23]
 by Mofo from the Hood on 9/30/2008 @ 8:11am | Just had a thought: What if the U.S. became a possesion of China? |
 by Erik Hanberg on 9/30/2008 @ 8:18am | RR--I've seen that statue in Moscow. Very cool. |
 by izenmania on 9/30/2008 @ 8:29am | Something Mr. Nader said in his response to the current crisis:
"Why will capitalism always succeed? Because it will always make socialism save it." The hard line free market capitalists will decry any regulation, right up until their companies fail, when they raise up an outcry of "if you don't save us, capitalism will crumble!" |
 by NineInchNachos on 9/30/2008 @ 7:53pm |  yes I love orphaned regime statues.. that particular piece is called "Worker and Kolkhoz Woman" or Worker and the Collective Farmer Woman. soon we will all be collective farmer women. I think Planet Money sums it up best: "I don't see any hypocrisy. Wait, wait, you're saying, isn't it true that they call for free market when they're doing well and then for a bailout when things go bad. Yes. It's true. But they're not hypocrites. They're businesspeople. Not idealists. They want money. They want profit. When they make money on the free market, they call for the free market. When they make money through regulation, they call for regulation. When they make money through government bailouts, they call for bailouts. They are entirely consistent." |
 by scout on 9/30/2008 @ 8:36pm | Yes, it is what it is. People decry greed, such greed! Greed drives competition to make a better widget. Competition is one of the fundamental principles of Capitalism. People wring their hands and say how immoral, how evil, such greed and profit mongering. But morality has nothing to do with this economic model and to think otherwise is extremely naive - not right or wrong - it just is. |
by NineInchNachos on 9/30/2008 @ 8:49pm | speaking of free enterprise... this is my 82nd Tacomic. Almost to the big 100 ! and that $pell$ BOOK. |
by izenmania on 9/30/2008 @ 9:57pm | Greed drives competition to make a better widget. Competition is one of the fundamental principles of Capitalism.
Would that this were true. The conceptual ideal of the Free Market (which is as forward thinking, revolutionary, and possible as the conceptual ideal of Communism) relies on that, yes, and if greed really did push the competition in the direction of positive invention, then I'd be all for it. Unfortunately all it really drives is innovation in a general sense, not of the better Widget but of the better Way to Make More Money. In some cases this is the superior technology, the greater good. In too many cases, it is the better marketing scheme to sell an inferior product, the better market lock-in to keep you on the product. We have fallen into a scheme where the best and brightest, the cleverest innovators, are learning advertising and business; where creators are told that being marketable is more important than being useful; where a brand name has become so abstracted from its product that the product ceases to have meaning. There is no free market. There never has been and there never will be. Which is kind of unfortunate. Or something. |
by scout on 10/1/2008 @ 1:16am | I was speaking more of the pure economic model as I understand it. I agree with what Joe says (above) as to what it has devolved into. I would add to that the marketing tool of creating "needs" that we all must adopt and make purchases for, many of them ridiculous. The need to have a "Secretary" day, which you have to buy cards and flowers for. The need to have a take your secretary to a hotel day... wait, I have that one confused with another one... |
by izenmania on 10/1/2008 @ 10:31am | The need to have a take your secretary to a hotel day...
Which plays into my other favorite part of our society's money-flow... Free Market Litigation! Whoo! I have my original Tacomics up on shelves and mantles. As soon as one of them falls on my foot in an earthquake or rogue dusting incident, I am suing RR for Neglectful Use of Corner-Heavy Rectangular Framing. |
by scout on 10/1/2008 @ 10:48am | I have two of his pieces so we should be able to pull off a multi-million dollar class action suit. |
 by droid116 on 10/1/2008 @ 12:20pm | RR, when the book is published I expect at least one pop-up from within the pages. If you can deliver on that I will pre-order. Oh, and game pieces. |
by NineInchNachos on 10/1/2008 @ 8:39pm | popup might be beyond the capabilities of the self-publishing entrepreneur.
how about a compromise... paper dolls anyone? Imagine the D&D adventures you could have with your MOFO FROM THE HOOD™ , TACOMA URBANIST™ or RUSTY GEORGE™ paper dolls! |
 by CA on 10/1/2008 @ 9:13pm | "The conceptual ideal of the Free Market (which is as forward thinking, revolutionary, and possible as the conceptual ideal of Communism)"
Of course the obvious difference being communist states tend to fail, or create police states with low living standards. Where as capitalist nations provide the highest living standards in the world. "In too many cases, it is the better marketing scheme to sell an inferior product, the better market lock-in to keep you on the product." Clever marketing can only get you so far. Remember Crystal Clear Pepsi and the Geo Metro? I'm not suggesting the market works the best in all cases. But whats the alternative? Central planning has shown itself incapable of allocating capital in the most productive manner possible. Planned economies are not competitive or innovative. They are stagnant. |
by NineInchNachos on 10/1/2008 @ 10:52pm | You've inspired my next cartoon CA! I'm going to take an exciting look at the stagnant bilgewater of the international consumer culture. |
by NineInchNachos on 10/1/2008 @ 11:16pm | behold the future lie!  a race of faceless men identified only by overpriced textiles manufactured in 3rd world countries. fortunately there is a built in cure to globalization. PEAK OIL. so enjoy the cheap energy fiesta while it lasts!  |
by Mofo from the Hood on 10/1/2008 @ 11:28pm | The pipeline from the U.S. taxpayer to the government flows money like stagnant bilgewater of the international consumer culture.
(Wednesday night Daniel Blue poetry impersonation) continued: Imagine the D&D adventures you could have with your MOFO FROM THE HOODâ„¢ , TACOMA URBANISTâ„¢ or RUSTY GEORGEâ„¢ paper dolls! Yes! Brethren of Tacoma, when the book is published I expect at least one pop-up from within the pages. Clever marketing can only get you so far. Remember Crystal Clear Pepsi and the Geo Metro? Remember what the generals of Sparta told their soldiers during the war with Athens? You come back with your shield, or come back on it! |
by Mofo from the Hood on 10/1/2008 @ 11:30pm | (Wednesday night Daniel Blue poetry impersonation)
continued: Give me Nordstrom's, or give me death! |
by CA on 10/1/2008 @ 11:32pm | "I'm going to take an exciting look at the stagnant bilgewater of the international consumer culture."
Are you going to compare and contrast it with the exciting and dynamic culture of communist Russia? Or maybe North Korea. I hear that Kim Jong Il throws one helluva party.(if the lights and electricity are on of course) |
by izenmania on 10/1/2008 @ 11:41pm | Of course the obvious difference being communist states tend to fail, or create police states with low living standards. Where as capitalist nations provide the highest living standards in the world.
Certainly capitalism is more successful that communism. But I was not talking about capitalism as we know it. Rather, I specified the ideal of the free market. Find me a free market economy. On any national/international scale anywhere. There isn't one, because it would not function. Government regulation (the antithesis of a true free market economy) is a staple of any capitalist culture. A truly free market allows monopolies to form, which stifles innovation and progress to the point of strangulation. Like communism, it's an economic theory that works well on paper, and in small communities, but in practice fails the instant that one person or company realizes they can use it to seize control of the system and its participants. It is fortunate that the capitalist world was able to recognize this danger, and steer away from a free market, toward a form of capitalism that is tempered with an appropriate level of socialist controls. That's why we've succeeded as long as we have. |
by NineInchNachos on 10/1/2008 @ 11:45pm | communist russia is long gone. north korea should be on a historical preservation list for last commie hold out.
lets look at China. Oppressive/Authoritarian and super Capitalist. (a new way of doing things?)... if you listen on a windless night you can hear them launching astronauts towards the moon. meanwhile the poorest countries in the world are lending us money like crazy just so we can "be normal" it's a good time to be a political cartoonist. |
by NineInchNachos on 10/1/2008 @ 11:50pm | also, " genitals of Sparta"
gross. |
by CA on 10/1/2008 @ 11:52pm | izenmania, I understand your point. However, I believe you are referring to laissez-faire capitalism rather than free-market capitalism. Even the most notable free-market economists in history - Smith, Hayek, Friedman, etc. - agree that market regulation is necessary to insure competition. Competition is perhaps the most important ingredient for a free market to function properly.
You seem to be implying that any degree of market regulation makes a free market not a free market. Most economists would disagree. But again, I do understand your point that regulation is a necessary part of the "free-market." |
by Mofo from the Hood on 10/2/2008 @ 2:29am | A high degree of state intervention in the economy is not incompatible with capitalism. It is a fact in East Asian capitalist development.
But increasing degrees of state intervention undermines democratic governance in favor of authoritarian governance. Bureaucratic expansion along with the act of increasing artificial markets decreases economic efficiencies of the capitalist market. In the U.S. for large masses of people in the last fifty years the material standard of living has decreased significantly . Almost no surprise if one considers the shift of the great productive capacity of industrial capitalism from the U.S. to East Asia. But for over twenty years the major antagonist of Western industrial capitalism has been the so-called knowledge class. This new middle class doesn't produce material goods and services, but instead concerns itself with the production and distribution of symbolic knowledge. It remains to be seen if the new Western middle class knowledge capitalists are a progressive or regressive shift from the formerly dominant industrial capitalists. In this new age of global commodities and high speed distribution of knowledge, how does one justify the monetary value of services from an American Ph.D compared to an East Indian Ph.D who may charge far less for equal services. |
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