Replies to post #23452 on Value Microcaps Free-For-All

[ambulance_blues]

I have to agree with John302.

It reminds me of this one time I was waiting in line to buy a cheesesteak at a shop in DC. This beggar came up to me and asked if I would buy him a sandwich. Normally, I would say "no" and go about my business. But this guy was very persistent, and I was feeling benevolent at the moment, so I bought him his choice on the sandwich board. A few hours later, I was feeling "beggar's remorse" and frankly quite stupid for being pestered into buying some guy a sandwich who probably gets free food at the shelter and uses the money he makes from spare-changing to buy booze and cigarettes. I was so pissed at myself that it was eating away at me from the inside. I couldn't let it go. A few hours later, I was bitching to a friend of mine that I let my guard down and got conned by a street pro. He said something that stayed with me to this day. He said; "Yea, you got conned alright. No doubt about it, you got taken. None of those guys are starving for food when they've got money for booze and cigarettes. But ask yourslef this: If you could switch places with that person for the rest of your life - would you? Would you like to be the guy standing in the rain, trying to con middle class people out of cheesesteak money, and then go to sleep at night on a park bench - or would you like to be the guy who GETS conned out of cheesesteak money, and then goes back to live at his nice house and wearing clean clothes and getting good medical attention?"

The point is this. I may not be rich in absolute terms. But I am definitely rich in relation to some of the poor souls I've seen walking the streets. And in that sense, I may as well be a billionaire. And so, speaking as a billionaire, let me tell you that if the governement taxed me an extra 10% on the most extraneous portion of my personal income to make something as silly as cheesetseaks for the downtrodden, I think I could muster a state of grace in my mind that allows me to enjoy the remains of my wealth inside my mansion, without bitterness.

[gilead23]

John OT

First regarding this

"Erm, yes we did. America was a filthy, dirt poor country populated by peasants ("pioneers", mine workers, assembly line workers, etc) for a long time. No thanks to the robber baron monopoly capitalists. I'm all for business, but business needs to be kept in line by "we the people". (read: our democratic government, unions, etc)"

Yes America was much poorer than we are today however the conditions bear no resemblance to what exists in India today where half the population lives on about a buck a day. Compare that to the early 1900's where a painter was making .50 an hour not inflation adjusted and you can see the huge difference. There were poor people, problems with homeless children wandering about new york etc but nothing like what you see in India today.

If you know middle managers making 250k a year and screwing around can you please tell me what company that is so I can go work for them? I never heard of a middle manager making that kind of money even in NY and I never heard of someone at that level which usually means hundreds or thousands of reports spending all day playing fantasy sports. They couldn't last.

As far as government providing checks and balances that is a load of BS

They provide favors. In my case I am getting screwed by

Farmers propping up prices
Banks getting massive bailouts

Old people stealing huge chunks of my paycheck

Steel companies robbing me blind through tariffs

Government telling me what I can say via campaign finance reform

Government telling me what medicine I am allowed to take

Where my wife can have a child

You want to know why many of us are hostile to the government and friendly to the private sector? Its because we look at one side where the government is using the lawmaking process to rip us off or control our lives all for the benefit of whatever constituent provides the most votes or dollars.

At the same time we look at the private sector which has provided us a nice paycheck and great products in a voluntary exchange of services.

Empirical evidence tells us that government is by and large bad and free private transactions are by and large good and we don't buy this populist bs about how government is a check or balance.

It is a goodie bag raining down gumdrops on whoever is best at gaming the system.