What is Capitalism

[Rey C.]

One of the greatest and most admirable examples of capitalism in my lifetime: H. Ross Perot

Henry Ross Perot, a U.S. businessman, is best known as the founder of Electronic Data Systems (EDS) and Perot Systems, the information technology equipment and services providing companies. He also ran for the United States’ Presidency as an independent candidate in 1992 and 1996. In 1962, he founded Electronic Data Systems, which was taken over by General Motors in 1984 for $2.5 billion. In 1988, he founded Perot Systems, which was also taken over by Dell for $3.9 billion in 2009. In March 2012, Forbes ranked him the 99th-richest person in the United States with a net worth of about US$3.5 billion.

After leaving the Navy in 1957, he started working as a salesman for IBM where he successfully distinguished himself and became the top employee by filling the year’s sales quota in just two weeks. He had several unique entrepreneurial ideas, but he felt largely ignored by the seniors and left IBM in 1962 to establish his own company, Electronic Data Systems to employ his entrepreneurial ideas and skills. Back in 60s, it wasn’t so easy for him to nurture a startup. His road was rough and rocky but he didn’t give up. After 77 failed attempts to sell his data processing services to corporations, Perot somehow convinced and won a government contract and transformed the company into a technology powerhouse.

Perfect or without sin? No. Show me a man who is. But he continued building, even in the face of failure, and then inspired others to do the same. He also gave of himself to bring back those who had been lost in an unpopular cause. I came to know about him when he formed United We Stand, and the incredible cross-section of people I met during that time will always stand out in my mind until the day that I die. It's the one and only political movement I've ever made myself a part of, and I'll always be proud of that. And his fighting spirit should be a lesson to all, especially in their moments of doubt.

“Most people give up just when they’re about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game one foot from a winning touchdown.”

“Action is greater than writing. A good man is a nobler object of contemplation than a great author. There are but two things worth living for: to do what is worthy of being written; and to write what is worthy of being read.”

“Failures are like skinned knees, painful but superficial.”

“If you can’t stand a little sacrifice and you can’t stand a trip across the desert with limited water, we’re never going to straighten this country out.”

“Most new jobs won’t come from our biggest employers. They will come from our smallest. We’ve got to do everything we can to make entrepreneurial dreams a reality.”

“Punishing honest mistakes stifles creativity. I want people moving and shaking the earth and they’re going to make mistakes.”

"If someone as blessed as I am is not willing to clean out the barn, who will?"

 

[Luxman]

WHAT IS A PYRAMID SCHEME?

 

[Luxman]

Dark Waters’ pollution threat isn’t Hollywood hysteria – it could be a ticking time bomb worldwide

https://theconversation.com/dark-wa...-could-be-a-ticking-timebomb-worldwide-131873

 

[Rey C.]

Lowell Hawthorne

Age: 52

Country of origin: Jamaica

Occupation: Founder and CEO, Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery and Grill

His advice to entrepreneurs: "Anybody can achieve the American dream. You've got to be focused, educated, have discipline, and just go for it."

Shortly after moving to the Bronx from Jamaica in 1981, Hawthorne, 21, green card in hand, landed a job as an assistant stock handler with the New York Police Department. He earned an associate's degree in accounting from Bronx Community College and was eventually promoted to accountant. But entrepreneurship beckoned.

Hawthorne had watched his father operate a bakery in his native Jamaica and knew he wanted to work alongside family. So he pitched the idea for Golden Krust, a Caribbean-themed, family-style eatery, to his seven brothers and sisters who had also come to the U.S. At first, they couldn't get a small business loan. "The banks were hesitant to grant loans to new restaurants because of the failure rate -- especially niche restaurants such as ours," Hawthorne recalls. "We also didn't have a lot of personal assets to guarantee the loan." So the siblings took out second mortgages on their homes and borrowed money from family and friends, raising $107,000. In 1989, the first Golden Krust restaurant opened in the Bronx. In 1991, Hawthorne left his job with the NYPD for good. The next year, he became a U.S. citizen.

There are now more than 100 Golden Krust locations in nine states along the Eastern seaboard. Hawthorne and Golden Krust have been profiled in major publications such as the New York Times, the Washington Post and Black Enterprise magazine. In 2011, the company generated $100 million in revenue. Hawthorne says in addition to opening more franchises, there are plans to expand the company with a line of cooking sauces.

"Risks not taken are opportunities missed," he says. "You've always got to take calculated risks in entrepreneurship.” :thumbsup:

 

[Luxman]

"Around 60 percent of new restaurants fail within the first year. And nearly 80 percent shutter before their fifth anniversary."

https://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/20/heres-the-real-reason-why-most-restaurants-fail.html

 

[Rey C.]

"It's not how many times you get knocked down... it's how many times you get back up.”

Harland David Sanders: Perhaps better known as Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame, Sanders had a hard time selling his chicken at first. In fact, his famous secret chicken recipe was rejected 1,009 times before a restaurant accepted it.

 

[Luxman]

I'm not saying people shouldn't try to start a business.
Most new businesses fail because people don't have the experience or understanding of how to start a business and make it succeed.
People have to work for at least 5 years in a business before they try to start their own business in the same field.
And they have to read lots of books and talk to lots of people about how to start a business and how to maintain it properly.
Most people don't have enough experience or education, that's why most businesses fail.

The internet makes it easier to market products to a greater number of people at a fraction of the cost, but it is also much more competitive.
Over time larger parts of the internet will be monopolized by large corporations, they bribe aka "lobby" the government to regulate the internet so that it will be more difficult for smaller businesses or new startups to have a fair chance of doing business on the internet, as we are seeing with net neutrality.
The FCC was bribed to pass laws in favour of the large telecom companies at the expense of everyone else, and I have to doubt that Trump got untraceable kickbacks.

 

[Luxman]

Republicans want less government and more private control of the economy.
Democrats want more government regulations to control the economy.
That's why every 4 to 12 years the government in purposely switched from one party to the other, so that the economy doesn't go too far to one side.
Most people ignorantly and naively believe that their votes are what decides elections. :rofl2:

 

[Rey C.]

Lack of working capital is the #1 reason for the failure of most small businesses. And yes, that may stem from a lack of knowledge or understanding about how much capital is necessary to maintain a business over time. But even a successful business may fail if it doesn't have enough capital to fund increased production or inventory if/when the business really takes off. Too much business can kill you just as fast as not enough business if you're not in a position to keep up with the increased demand.


Marcus Lemonis's Top 10 Rules For Success

People, Process, Product

 

[Luxman]

Chickens Fuckers: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

 

[Rey C.]

No offense intended, but I don't see these oft sited examples of corruption and criminal activity as having valid links to the economic system, capitalism. Corruption and criminal activity are just as, if not more, prevalent in socialist economies as in capitalist economies. The only difference is, who does the stealing? And with the power of government enforcement (including the military), stealing from the public trust is so much easier under socialism.


Cuba:

Cuba has suffered from widespread and rampant corruption. The book Corruption in Cuba states that public ownership resulted in "a lack of identifiable ownership and widespread misuse and theft of state resources... when given opportunity, few citizens hesitate to steal from the government.".


Venezuela:

The large amount of corruption and mismanagement in the country has resulted in severe economic difficulties, part of the crisis in Bolivarian Venezuela.

A 2014 Gallup poll found that 75% of Venezuelans believed that corruption was widespread throughout the Venezuelan government. Discontent with corruption was cited by opposition-aligned groups as one of the reasons for the 2014 and 2017 Venezuelan protests.

 

[Luxman]

Most liberals want a fair capitalist economy but with better government regulations to prevent corruption, monopolies, and other unfair business practices.
The main problem with the current capitalist system is corruption, and most of it is done legally thru countless loopholes in the law.
There are countless thousands of ways corporations screw customers. The government does a poor job of regulating and monitoring businesses to prevent corruption, especially when republicans are in power.
Republicans mainly pass laws that benefit corporations and rich aholes.
Democrats mainly pass laws that benefit most of the poorer 90% of citizens, including most republicans/conservatives.

 

[Rey C.]

One problem with modern liberals (apart from the limousine variety) is that many of them have never run a business, large or small. They don't know what it means to have to meet payroll or pay expenses, even when business is down. And the ones who are entrenched in government don't know what it means to balance a budget (apparently quite true of some modern conservatives too). Small businesses employ over 53% of the American workforce. And the (unfunded) mandates passed down by the overlords in government, which make life harder for those people, most certainly don't make life better for the working poor or anybody else. It was the libs and Dems who had their hands on the wheel when NAFTA came into being, same with the WTO when Clinton gave China his blessing. Someone explain to me how those two things benefited the working class in the U.S. How about Obama's war on coal? Sure, that probably makes some brainwashed kid, like Greta what's-her-face, smile (for a change). But all it did for the miners of Appalachia was cause a great many of them to have to pretend to be disabled, so they could swallow their pride and get a monthly government SSI/disability check. How did that help the working man? The Hollyweird elites (green as Kermit the Frog... while flying around the globe in their private jets) loved it - and let's be honest, that'$ who matter$ these day$.

As for Dems or libs doing a bang up job of stamping out corruption, funny thing that not one single higher level banking or brokerage executive went to jail after the financial crisis. Where was Pelosi, Obama and Holder? When it was found that several of the money center banks had knowingly financed planes to transport tons of cocaine and other drugs into the U.S., why is it that none of the executives went to jail and none of the banks lost their licenses to operate in the U.S.? Where was Pelosi, Obama and Holder? As for unfairness, why is it that the Carried Interest Provision continued to live on, even when the Dems controlled all three branches of government? Sorry, but the main reason I don't believe in either political party as anything other than a power hungry machine, that cares about itself over everything else, is because no matter which one is in power, they do what they do. The one useful thing that I learned in a sociology of economics class many (many) moons ago was: those in power only relinquish enough power so that they may retain the majority of their power. Can someone explain the FACT that not one single Democrat or Republican administration has existed for decades without at least one higher ranking, former Goldman Sachs executive being seated near the big chair? Anyone, anyone... Bueller???

IMO, the capitalist system will only continue to exist, and hopefully flourish, if enough Americans educate themselves and use the information available to them to work with and within the system. Right now (again IMO), too many want a nanny state to cradle them, without them having to watch out for themselves. There will always be unfairness in this world. Except for those very few who are born into the Lucky Sperm Club, everyone else is going to have to deal with trials and tribulations in life. Anyone who tells you that they can fix that for you is a liar or a fool. The reason that I feel that broad socialism won't work in this society is because 1) world history & 2) human nature will be the same tomorrow as it is today.

 

[Luxman]

$200,000,000,000 In Coronavirus Relief May Get Lost To Fraud

 

[Rey C.]

Per the interview: with government programs, his estimate is that 10% tends to be lost to fraud.

The estimate is more of a guesstimate, though I tend to agree with his overall point. But I don't see what this has to do with capitalism. This would be more of a failure mode within socialism. Whenever there's a pot of money being managed, watched over and distributed at the discretion of clueless, half-interested and/or corrupt bureaucrats, there are bound to be outsized inefficiencies (meaning waste, fraud and abuse).

 

[Luxman]

New Rule: Prime Boss | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)

 

[Luxman]

Members of Congress took small-business loans — and the full extent is unknown

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/16/congress-small-business-loan-320625

 

[Luxman]

'Fake Bitcoin' - How this Woman Scammed the World, then Vanished

 

[Luxman]

6 eBay Executives And Employees Charged With Threatening Natick Couple

 

[Luxman]

How To Hide A Billion Dollars: Three Techniques The Ultrarich Use To Dodge Ex-Spouses, The Taxman And Disgruntled Business Partners
https://www.forbes.com/sites/christ...the-taxman-and-disgruntled-business-partners/