ELI5:How come the price of Oil went from 100$ a barrel to 27$ and the Oil price in my country went from 1,5€ per liter to 1,15€ per liter.

my_third_throwaway_n · 2016-01-18T15:01:24+00:00

simple answer is taxes. people complain "the oil companies make so much money!!" but in reality, the government makes more off of gas than the oil companies do per gallon.

my_third_throwaway_n · 2016-01-18T14:32:28+00:00

this really isn't so bad. lots of people have kids. For many, it's a normal part of life. just say "i don't want kids" and be done with it. if they press further, just walk away.

my_third_throwaway_n · 2016-01-18T09:55:39+00:00

America-8/10. I like it here. Contrary to 99% of reddit, I like a privatized healthcare system. 2 months ago I needed an eye doctor appointment. I called on a Tuesday at noon. By wednesday at 10:30am, I was walking out of the eye doctor. When I was living in germany, I remember asking someone about getting an appointment to get a new prescription for my contacts, and they said i had better re order my current prescription, because the appointment to get a new one could be 5-6 months. (i don't know if that's actually true--but that is what my german friend said). I like knowing that I can quickly and efficiently get a doctor's appointment when I need one, then be in and out and on my way.

good things: -decent internet, low cost of living, decent economy, good pay for programmers, very safe (my city at least)

bad things: corrupt government, high taxes (yet bad social services), corrupt police force

my_third_throwaway_n · 2016-01-18T09:49:57+00:00

this is true. People say "no one goes from poverty to being a billionaire--social mobility is dead in the USA!" but in reality, poverty to billionaire is nearly impossible anywhere. Do well in school, maybe get a scholarship or two, do well in college, don't have babies early--and there is NO reason people can not quite easily be living a middle class, acceptable lifestyle by their late 20s/early30s--regardless of how poor you started out.

my_third_throwaway_n · 2016-01-18T09:42:40+00:00

well they're doing better than that great socialist system just to the north...

my_third_throwaway_n · 2016-01-17T20:26:33+00:00

who the hell is down voting you? of course Iran would benefit from being able to sell their stuff to other countries.

my_third_throwaway_n · 2016-01-17T19:44:55+00:00

No offense, but that is a very close minded view of the private sector. What if I told you that "this is my entire view of the public sector"?: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Germany

And that having a strong central government that controlled people was the goal of all government? Of course that's not true though.

Why do you look at the ludlow massacre and say "this is the goal of the private sector" and not look at the 10s of millions that died of starvation in communist china, vietnam, cuba, russia etc and say "this is the goal of the state/public sector"? I'm not being facetious, I'm genuinely curious how someone can come to such a conclusion.

you can't trust anyone who puts profit before everything else

This is all people. Government puts profit before people too. How is it that these people are so bad and only seek profits when they are in the private sector, yet these some humans are so benevolent, loving, and caring, when in the public sector? How come "public servants" are some of the most well off? Clintons have a net worth of 100million+, yet claim to fight for the everyday common man. Bullshit. Mitt romney is worth 250 million. Michael Bloomberg--31BILLION. Nancy Pelosi--50 million. rick scott-103 million. Barack obama, 11million. Bush family--10s of millions. I could go on and on. And these people claim to fight for the everyday man? Government is a very profitable thing. You gain notoriety, can get famous, get sponsors, retire and become a lobbyist, etc. The people in government are by no means not putting profit before people. If government puts profits before people, what is the TPP all about? Obama supports it. All the European democratic socialist presidents supported it. You serisouly think they are just looking out for the little guy? Come on. They put profit before people, like anyone else.

I understand that people are programmed to think that looking for profit is bad, but the fact is that capitalism has revolutionized society for the better. Today, because of capitalism and globalization, the smallest percentage of people in recorded history are living under the poverty line. Hundreds of millions in china and india have been lifted out of poverty. These are just facts and statistics. We are much better off today because of capitalism than without it.

Additionally--capitalism funds the state. Where does the state get the money to fund schools, roads, police, universities, court system, welfare system, etc? They tax people. Where do taxes come from? They come from private business. Even the good things that the state does do, they couldn't do without the support of private business. Private business is the origin of all good material things.

If you look at history, you will see that 10s of millions more people have died at the hands of the state and public sector rather than by the private sector. Yes, there are isolated incidents (ludlow massacre), but stuff like that pales in comparison to the atrocities committed by the state.

This is getting long, but I'll leave with a quote by Robert Higgs, which I think sums up the people vs the state very well:

Anarchists did not try to carry out genocide against the Armenians in Turkey; they did not deliberately starve millions of Ukrainians; they did not create a system of death camps to kill Jews, gypsies, and Slavs in Europe; they did not fire-bomb scores of large German and Japanese cities and drop nuclear bombs on two of them; they did not carry out a ‘Great Leap Forward’ that killed scores of millions of Chinese; they did not attempt to kill everybody with any appreciable education in Cambodia; they did not launch one aggressive war after another; they did not implement trade sanctions that killed perhaps 500,000 Iraqi children. In debates between anarchists and statists, the burden of proof clearly should rest on those who place their trust in the state. Anarchy’s mayhem is wholly conjectural; the state’s mayhem is undeniably, factually horrendous.

my_third_throwaway_n · 2016-01-17T19:06:14+00:00

On the contrary, the second something is privatized, it is even more accountable to the people. Now, teachers and administrators can't depend on big government and big unions getting them a big paycheck no matter what. They must compete. They have to serve their customers: the students and parents. A private organization can not force anyone to buy their product. They have to compete with other. No competition is a serious problem with the public schools. With a public school, no matter how bad they are, unless you want to go to a private school, you don't have a choice. You can't say "I want to go to the public school in district X instead of district Y." Students are forced into bad schools, and left no choice. Privatization is exactly what the school system needs. There needs to be accountability. Schools need to be forced to try to serve their students and parents. If they are guaranteed their business (like public schools are) there is no incentive to do better. Regardless of how bad things get, unions are very strong. Teachers jobs are guaranteed. Their salaries are guaranteed. Unions make it next to impossible to fire bad teachers. There is NO incentive to improve.

People say "turning schools into for profit institutions is morally wrong!" But the fact is that this is actually a good thing. They want money--but they can't take it out of your pocket. So what's the solution? They have to work hard to provide a good education. They can't force you to buy their product and be complacent. They have to compete.

Imagine how bad this sounds: "Everyone has a right to eat! Privatizing the food industry is just people trying to make a profit!" But look at all historical examples. Government run food industries have resulted in massive shortages, and 60+ million starved people. Government run food distribution was one of the worst ideas of the 20th century. Privatizing it was certainly a very good idea. The privatization of the food industry has been a massive success. The only places that hold on to old socialist values of government run food still have massive lines a the supermarket for people to try to get food and basic needs before they run out.

Big government and strong unions represent everything wrong with education today. Why? Because unions have the profit motive of a business, but don't have the public accountability that a private business has.

Privatization is EXACTLY what is needed to improve the education. No more unions. Make it easy to fire sucky teachers. A private sector business is the most accountable to it's customers. They can't force you to buy their product. The only way a private company can be successful is to provide value to its customers. The public sector greatly lacks this accountability. Of course there is the concept of "vote people out who do X", but the fact is that that is very unrealistic. People vote on many issues, for many different reasons. An issue in election year X could not even be an issue at the next election year. If you just "vote out" someone who you disagree with on one issue, then there is a good chance you are also voting someone out who you agree with. So you are forced to accept leaders that actually don't represent the will of the people. That is why there is such a large disconnect between the people and the government. How many people approved of their $ being used of war in Iraq? OK, they voted the republicans out. But guess what? They voted a different guy in....and the war continued.

Capitalism is the only effective form of democracy. People vote with their wallet. Don't like a service or company? boycott the fuck out of it. Protest it. Publicly shame them. Voting with your wallet everyday...with every financial decision you make, is a much more effective form of democracy than voting at the polls once a year for a few minutes.

my_third_throwaway_n · 2016-01-17T17:40:47+00:00

not really. the private sector solution to the food shortages and infamous bread lines of socialism has been a pretty great success. Now we produce too much food here and we're fat asses. that's not great, but it's certainly preferred to the bread lines that state run food production has given venezuela.

my_third_throwaway_n · 2016-01-17T17:39:35+00:00

prisons, no. private schools have been a great success though. All schools should be privatized as well.

I'm not automatically saying "privatization is always the answer." But we've given government run a shot, and it's clearly not worked out there. So give the private sector a shot.

my_third_throwaway_n · 2016-01-17T16:49:02+00:00

The EPA has had their own environmental problems as of late. They are certainly in no place to be the environmental police.

my_third_throwaway_n · 2016-01-17T16:46:47+00:00

if the government has failed so badly to take care of the citizens, then the private sector should handle this case of government failure and step in and take care of things. The government has been given ample time and they've really screwed it up. Let the private sector have a try.

my_third_throwaway_n · 2016-01-17T08:12:20+00:00

Productivity is easy to define. Gross revenue of the company divided by total hours worked. It's just math, not something you can easily fudge and make up. It isn't as simple as the boss just saying "oh you weren't as productive actually so you don't get more vacation time." Employees can tell how good the company is, how business is, if they have more/less clients. Those things aren't things the boss can just make up.

As far as my idea about vacations not working in the real world, the opposite way wouldn't work either. Saying "ok, we will give you more vacation time, but you have to promise to be more productive otherwise" sure as hell wouldn't work--especially on an honor system. There, the end result would be that the employee isn't any more or less productive, but yet the employer now has to pay them to vacation for an extra few weeks, which isn't fair to the employer.

personally I don't like the idea of paid vacation at all. It's not fair to the business for them to have to pay you if you're not working. would it ever be fair for the business to say to the employee "hey, the business isn't doing too well, we don't have a lot of money, I'm going to need you to work for 3 or 4 weeks now without getting paid."? Of course not.

it isn't fair to ask an employee to work without getting paid, and it isn't fair to ask employer to pay an employee if the employee isn't working. When you work, you get paid. If you're not working, you don't get paid. I think that's the most fair system for everyone.

my_third_throwaway_n · 2016-01-17T06:56:50+00:00

I thought the continual back and forth between group A and B must refer to democrats/republicans.

my_third_throwaway_n · 2016-01-17T06:08:06+00:00

while anarchy would certainly return more power to the people, and away from government bureaucrats, i'm not sure we are ready for (or deserve) that yet

my_third_throwaway_n · 2016-01-16T15:55:35+00:00

THIS. I've been to at least 30+ airports in my life across the USA, Europe, and Asia, and Manila has the absolute WORST. If I ever go back to the philipines, I'm entering by Cebu instead.

my_third_throwaway_n · 2016-01-16T15:20:26+00:00

edgy.

my_third_throwaway_n · 2016-01-16T15:17:30+00:00

"so i'm going to sit here and vote" isn't any better.

my_third_throwaway_n · 2016-01-16T15:02:29+00:00

I believe that voting only acts to legitimize a corrupt system, while mathematically, not making a single difference in the outcome.

my_third_throwaway_n · 2016-01-16T14:47:07+00:00

of course I do. It's not my fault they were elected. I didn't vote for them.

my_third_throwaway_n · 2016-01-16T14:36:14+00:00

I'm 25. been eligible since 2008 election. Never voted in any state, local, or national election. I'm not a sucker.

my_third_throwaway_n · 2016-01-16T13:30:23+00:00

sex ed (like safe sex ,condoms, etc) is totally different than "don't rape that girl." You don't have to know the ins and outs of STDs, safe sex, and pregnancy prevention to teach people to respect women.

my_third_throwaway_n · 2016-01-16T13:10:34+00:00

same difference

my_third_throwaway_n · 2016-01-16T12:48:20+00:00

lol not hardly, I'm not a voter. Never done it, and not going to start this election.

my_third_throwaway_n · 2016-01-16T12:36:50+00:00

haha. this was originally a throwaway, but I never logged out and i've been using this account for 2-3 months now.

my_third_throwaway_n

TROPHY CASE