News that makes you say WTF! (19 Viewers)

Hust

Senior Member
Hustini
May 29, 2005
93,703
I lived in Cleveland for 4 years. Here is what I see when I read this: single mom, 3 kids probably left alone or unparented frequently.

More details:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/year-boy-shoots-kills-year-boy-ohio-home-30267617

Here they claim the mom lives with at least 3 kids...lol they don't even know how many exactly. Where is the dad? Why was the gun not secure out of reach and just laying around? They live on the east side and looking at the neighbor hood it certainly isn't a good one. Not a gun problem, it was a white-trash parenting problem.
 

Seven

In bocca al lupo, Fabio.
Jun 25, 2003
39,346
So, Hustini, imagine this exact same living situation, only now there isn't a gun inside the house. What do you think would have happend in that scenario?
 

Ocelot

Midnight Marauder
Jul 13, 2013
18,943
It's not that you need it as such, it's that you can't stop it even if you tried to. It's just how a market works. You'll always have inflation.
Well, not necessarily, but the alternative is far worse, and inflation isn't really a problem if it remains on relatively low levels. And if it's accounted for in tax brackets, wages, pensions....
 

Seven

In bocca al lupo, Fabio.
Jun 25, 2003
39,346
Well, not necessarily, but the alternative is far worse, and inflation isn't really a problem if it remains on relatively low levels. And if it's accounted for in tax brackets, wages, pensions....
It would require an incredible amount of effort though.
 

Ocelot

Midnight Marauder
Jul 13, 2013
18,943
It would require an incredible amount of effort though.
Not really that much. The main difficulty is actually determining the annual rate of inflation, putting together an adequate basket and keeping it up to date every year.

Then all public affairs (minimum wage, tax brackets, pensions, wages of public servants) could be automatically tied to the RoI, still allowing for legislatory interventions in cases of mismatches, grave economic crisis, etc. With wages in the private sector it's naturally more difficult, though easily manageable with strong trade unions and collective bargaining. The only problem is that most of the western countries did a pretty good job at destroying these over the past few decades.
 

Seven

In bocca al lupo, Fabio.
Jun 25, 2003
39,346
Not really that much. The main difficulty is actually determining the annual rate of inflation, putting together an adequate basket and keeping it up to date every year.

Then all public affairs (minimum wage, tax brackets, pensions, wages of public servants) could be automatically tied to the RoI, still allowing for legislatory interventions in cases of mismatches, grave economic crisis, etc. With wages in the private sector it's naturally more difficult, though easily manageable with strong trade unions and collective bargaining. The only problem is that most of the western countries did a pretty good job at destroying these over the past few decades.
Inflation IMO is almost a natural process. Especially because of costs and wages in the private sector. Even with trade unions and collective bargaining it seems impossible to prevent rising prices and eventual inflation. I'll admit that I don't know much about all this and that I refer to built-in inflation, but I just don't see how one could prevent it.
 

Ocelot

Midnight Marauder
Jul 13, 2013
18,943
Inflation IMO is almost a natural process. Especially because of costs and wages in the private sector. Even with trade unions and collective bargaining it seems impossible to prevent rising prices and eventual inflation. I'll admit that I don't know much about all this and that I refer to built-in inflation, but I just don't see how one could prevent it.
No no, this is not about preventing inflation it's just to make sure wages actually rise with prices, so that purchasing power is not affected ;) I understood your last post wrong probably then.

And you can prevent inflation, and even have deflation over extended periods of time (e.g. Japan, especially in the early 200es), but the effects are usually quite desastrous and central banks strive to avoid them at virtually every cost - the extremely low interest rates and quantitive easing policies of the ECB right now are an example of this. Basically, if you know that your money will be worth more in a year from now than it is now, you're not very likely to spend it, and companies or banks are not very likely to give loans or invest, which of course is pretty bad for the economy.

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In general though you're right in that inflation can be described as natural, the norm, in our current economic system.
 

Seven

In bocca al lupo, Fabio.
Jun 25, 2003
39,346
No no, this is not about preventing inflation it's just to make sure wages actually rise with prices, so that purchasing power is not affected ;) I understood your last post wrong probably then.
Ah, now I understand what you mean. I think most countries, European ones at least, do have safeguards that guarantee that wages rise along with prices. Unfortunately this very system is under attack right now. In a time where we should be thinking about basic income (let's be realistic, we are facing a mass extinction of jobs today), governments are taking a completely opposite stance and try to rectify the economic situation by petty measures.
 

Ocelot

Midnight Marauder
Jul 13, 2013
18,943
Ah, now I understand what you mean. I think most countries, European ones at least, do have safeguards that guarantee that wages rise along with prices. Unfortunately this very system is under attack right now. In a time where we should be thinking about basic income (let's be realistic, we are facing a mass extinction of jobs today), governments are taking a completely opposite stance and try to rectify the economic situation by petty measures.
Yeah, there are at least some mechanisms in place in most countries, but these usually don't cover every area (Austria for example has a rather well-functioning collective bargaining system for all wages & pensions, but tax brackets are absolute - meaning that as wages & prices rise, the amount of income tax paid rises disproportionally, effectively leading to a lower real income). And of course there's the example that started this whole discussion, the minimum wages in the US which haven't been adjusted for 6 years now, which makes for some real significant changes; the same wage now adjusted for inflation is 10% less than it was in 2009 (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0774473.html).

For the second part: Agreed, but tell that to Merkel & co. :sad:
 

Hust

Senior Member
Hustini
May 29, 2005
93,703
So, Hustini, imagine this exact same living situation, only now there isn't a gun inside the house. What do you think would have happend in that scenario?
Imagine having a responsible mother, you tell me what might have happened. Fault is entirely on the mother here.
 

Seven

In bocca al lupo, Fabio.
Jun 25, 2003
39,346
Imagine having a responsible mother, you tell me what might have happened. Fault is entirely on the mother here.
I'm not saying no one is at fault. Clearly people were irresponsible. But if there hadn't been a gun, the kid would have been alive. I am getting quite sick and tired of a big portion of the American people blatantly disregarding obvious truths.

Isn't it bad enough that you have a two party system in which the next president is always going to be a Democrat, simply because she's the one running for a party that doesn't require you to be insane?

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The kid deserved it
Bet he was shot in the back too. Trying to flee the scene with his stolen pacifier.
 

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