Confess your Nerditude

[TheEconomist]

Just typed another wall of text to Squibb. Felt wrong not to put it here, might prevent some problems in the future.

Your childish insinuation in the thread that I am "stupid" is why I don't bother.I mentioned I mostly read news and articles. That includes sites like Alternet (which admittedly is leftist) and publications like The Economist (ironically).

I do do other things than read this forum you know. I also need time to assess your posts so I can reply. However, frankly, I can't take you seriously about the "wonders of capitalism" when Luxembourg Income Study just announced that Canada has surpassed the United States as the country with the most prosperous middle class. Because you know, we still have a middle class instead of the 99-1 split of slum and excess you experience.

Honestly, just get the fuck off my back. I've already admitted you know more than me about economics, but that doesn't mean I believe your system is right as long as I'm shown enough evidence it's not working.

The system that you think is my system has worked for 500 years, it is the very reason that Western civilization is on top. The list of the most successful countries in the world reads exactly like a list of socialist vs capitalist, with the least successful countries on the bottom being socialist and the most successful being capitalist. I'm not even talking about America vs China, Russia, Vietnam, etc. but specific countries within the West. What don't you understand?

1) Canada has one of the highest nature resources per capita with a small concentrated population and an emphasis on high-income immigration. America does not use its resources because like it would otherwise because of the dollar's reserve status, we have a dispersed, large population with millions upon millions of third world immigrants. One fifth of our population is less than second generation immigrants. Can you wrap your brain around how that would effect things like middle class ratio and per capita wealth? Despite that, Canada isn't even on par with America in the most important benchmarks. Why? They should be running laps around us in per capita since Canada has benefited greatly from a commodities boom, but that is over. Canada's wealth is going down, fast. Four years ago, Canada had purchasing power parity greater than America's. Now? It's per capita is 25% lower. Why? People got a whiff of a slowdown in China. That's how fragile Canada's wealth is. Imagine what will happen when China's bubble bursts like every other Asian economy has and for the same reasons. No one doubts that it will happen. Canada will be hit hard and you will not adapt like America. Canada has never adapted to any of its problems as quickly or effectively as America. Make no mistake, Canada will stabilize like everyone else that rode the boom (Brazil, Australia, Russia) and it will revert to its mean much closer to its average of having about half the per capita wealth of America.

2) What exactly does middle class mean? Do you know? Its an arbitrary number created by the government for political means. Take France vs America for example, the government says that America's poverty is worse than France because more people are in poverty, yet, that's only because the threshold for poverty in America is much higher. America has the highest median household income in the world, even higher than other countries which have close per capita wealth. You talk about America not having safety nets and this and that, yet, even without them, Americans are wealthier with no government aid than Canadians are with all of it. Again, what is the middle class? It's exactly what it sounds like. A middle point between the richest and the poorest. Nothing more. The poor are richer in America, the middle class is richer in America, and the rich and many times richer in America.

Even with all that being said, skimming the report you're talking about, uses the same failed methodology that economist have stopped using for years now but the people are so gullible for. Canada's middle class is doing so well because of its housing market You know, kind of like how Spain, Ireland, Italy, Greece were doing before 2008? They had a booming middle class from the housing prices? How'd that turn out? They're now called the PIIGS, the countries most in jeopoardy from the euro crisis. Usually such fluctuations are taken out of consideration by intelligent people trying to find the root problem, but not here, clearly a political piece, of course. Canada has a huge housing bubble, caused by the same damn Asians that cause housing bubbles wherever they go for the last 40 years. When Canada's housing market falls or stabilizes, even without the commodities bubble bursting, Canada will lose its greatest wealth measurement. Period. Put simply, America is towards the bottom of its housing market since its rapidly going back up, Canada's is towards the top with what potentially could be a large fall some time in the future, depending on what happens with the Chinese and the Federal Reserve. Kind of stupid to compare the two. I told you before that Canada has already lost 25%-30% of its purchasing power in the last four years, it is now about on par with other socialist countries like France, Sweden, etc. That happened without the primary wealth contributor taking a nose dive, imagine what will happen afterwards. I imagine Canada will go back to the place it has traditionally been in and was last in around early 2000's, being far behind America. I look forward to bashing you again in a few years when part two of my almost five year old prediction comes true. I haven't been wrong on a single thing yet. Don't dodge then like you do now.

3) Canada is hardly the beacon of socialism you seem to think it is. It succeeds because of its capitalism, period. No economists even the socialists deny that. Instead of reading articles, you should read books, that's what intelligent people do. Start off with Paul Krugman, his views are very similar to yours. His utopia would probably look exactly like your utopia. Google him. Yet, even he hates socialism and sees major, major, major problems in Canada. Irregardless, there are many things about Canada that are more capitalist than America. The banking system for one. For all of the talk of American capitalism, our banks are run like socialists countries. I wish it were because of corruption, that would be easy to solve, its set up that way because of misguided idiots like you. Canada's banking system, however, is still based on the tried and true Deutsch models from the 1600s's. How's that for "not working"? I wonder if you realize the core reasons Canada is successful in the few areas it is, is because it has remained true to the capitalist model.

4) I call you an idiot because stupid is as stupid does. Being consistently wrong every time you open your mouth yet still having the arrogance of a market guru wreaks of the same low IQ mentality that keeps most people from learning from their mistakes and not fucking up. If you think you're smart, prove it. I've proven my knowledge to you, you've done nothing but tell me how immoral I am, even though you have no idea what economic system I would create if I were king.

[ragnarok]

It's true that it does to most people, but not everyone. I doubt I would be nearly as easily corruptible as anyone else simply because I care more about the benefits of what I do than of anything it could bring to me.

Everyone can be corrupted. Your claim that it doesn't work for you so easily only means you were corrupted at a younger age.

Remember, a person's values is the most difficult to change, you know where this is going.

[DemolitionSquid]

I've never said Canada is perfect, we obviously have our own problems. I still, however, vastly prefer our moderate system to the extremes of the American model. That's the foundation of my belief, base equality. That's not going to change. You're the one who brought me into this thread by insulting me and making me defend myself, so again, grow the fuck up.

- - - Updated - - -

I've never said Canada is perfect, we obviously have our own problems. I still, however, vastly prefer our moderate system to the extremes of the American model. That's the foundation of my belief, base equality. That's not going to change. You're the one who brought me into this thread by insulting me and making me defend myself, so again, grow the fuck up.

[TheEconomist]

Everyone can be corrupted. Your claim that it doesn't work for you so easily only means you were corrupted at a younger age.

Remember, a person's values is the most difficult to change, you know where this is going.

God, you're nothing but a cliche machine. Call me in another life when you've been a 20-something who will inherit millions but then plan to give it all to charity. Better yet, call me in a few years if you're successful by any stretch of the word and actually have some life experience, instead of hovering around forums and spamming just to get your name on every "last post by" string.

That's the foundation of my belief, base equality.

Yes, your belief. It is a belief. Nothing more. Based on nothing other than your own morality. You've said yourself that you tend to think intuitively instead of analytically or logically. That is nothing something that can be done to economics. You should stick to sociology. The economy is a machine, that must be treated like machine to function most effectively. Morality cannot be involved in any way or, as it has been proven time and time again, it will be disastrous. Remember, a large contributor to America's housing bubble was Clinton's "moral benevolence" which forced him to create legislation to force banks to lend to lower incomes. That "act of moral superiority" ended by costing $17 trillion dollars and hurt black and Hispanics the worst, the very people he was trying to help. People tend to forget the role of government entities like fannie and freddie while they're blaming all their problems on Wall Street (who, for the record, did cause the problem, for the most part. Don't misunderstand me.)

As for your "grow the fuck up" comments, think back to late 2009, early 2010 when you and about a dozen other people repeatedly ganged up on me for my "beliefs" and predictions (which turned out 100% right). I'm simply giving you the pay back and not letting you forgot. I waited a long ass time to be able to do that. I deserve to rub it in your face.

[DemolitionSquid]

I waited a long ass time to be able to do that. I deserve to rub it in your face.

You deserve nothing more than anyone else.

- - - Updated - - -

I waited a long ass time to be able to do that. I deserve to rub it in your face.

You deserve nothing more than anyone else.

[TheEconomist]

If you're talking about birth right, then sure, I deserve nothing just like no one deserves anything just because their momma pushed them out from between her legs. If you mean that I deserve the same thing for making correct predictions, being right, and suffering through stupidity for years with more grace than you've ever done, as someone who did nothing but speak arrogantly about their wrong predictions time after time, then, well then that's the core of the problem with you and why you're never right.

Either way, time for this to end. If you have more one liners, PM me. I only posted that wall of text because I knew you wouldn't give an intelligent response to it and I figured at least someone should read it after I already typed it.

[ragnarok]

God, you're nothing but a cliche machine. Call me in another life when you've been a 20-something who will inherit millions but then plan to give it all to charity. Better yet, call me in a few years if you're successful by any stretch of the word and actually have some life experience, instead of hovering around forums and spamming just to get your name on every "last post by" string.

I don't see you inheriting millions and then giving it to charity, not all of it anyways. Everyone has a selfish side to him/her, you're no exception to all this. You'd do well to remember you're not always right, nor do you have more experience than anyone else.

[TheEconomist]

Already done it and am doing it now. In fact, just signed a bunch of checks on the fifth. Derp. All of the income I receive goes to someone or something other than myself other than a paltry sum for my basic needs. That amount each month is nothing to sneeze. When my father dies, and I inherit the millions I was referring to, it would be used EXACTLY how I have said. I gain nothing by lying because I care less than nothing about what people here think of me, obviously.

Yes, everyone has a selfish side. It'a just that my selfishness works towards the greater good, but, as I said, my selfishness is in how much I don't care about anyone's feelings including my own. I am relatively incorruptible because what matters to me is how good of a job I have done. That's what makes me happy and I care nothing other than making myself happy. Gaining something for myself at the expense of others, as per "corruption", makes the systems and institutions that I would be responsible for operate less efficiently than it would otherwise. The "unhappiness" I would feel from that would be far greater than just about any reward. Anything and everything around me is nothing but a puzzle that I feel that I must solve, there's very little that anything can offer me than is more important to me than that. Yes, there are limits, but you're just a child who talks for the sake of talking so I'll stop there. Which is where this entire discussion should end.

You'd do well to remember you're not always right, nor do you have more experience than anyone else.

I know exactly when I'm not right. I make a living by gambling based on my predictions. Unlike you and Squibb, I actually have constant feedback with the world that does not hesitate at all to kick me in the teeth when I am wrong, and I know exactly when, where, and why I am wrong, as opposed to almost everyone else, who can spout bullshit every day of their life and the worst that could ever happen to them is that someone might disagree with them. I spend almost every waking moment of my life trying to be aware of my biases and blind spots. If I ever became as overconfident or deluded as you think I am, I would quickly losing everything I have, that is the nature of what I do.

You can't tell me noooooooothin'

Also, the fact that, in the field we're talking about, me having more experience than you, is, well, so obvious only a retard or an emotional retard would disagree with. Any futher stupid statements by anyone will be responded to in PM. Tired of ruining good topics just because there's so much stupid shit that needs to be corrected.

[Nissa]

Guess what you guys!

Starcraft!

I plays it.

Wanna talk about it?

[ragnarok]

I know exactly when I'm not right. I make a living by gambling based on my predictions. Unlike you and Squibb, I actually have constant feedback with the world that does not hesitate at all to kick me in the teeth when I am wrong, and I know exactly when, where, and why I am wrong, as opposed to almost everyone else, who can spout bullshit every day of their life and the worst that could ever happen to them is that someone might disagree with them. I spend almost every waking moment of my life trying to be aware of my biases and blind spots. If I ever became as overconfident or deluded as you think I am, I would quickly losing everything I have, that is the nature of what I do.

You can't tell me noooooooothin'

Also, the fact that, in the field we're talking about, me having more experience than you, is, well, so obvious only a retard or an emotional retard would disagree with. Any futher stupid statements by anyone will be responded to in PM. Tired of ruining good topics just because there's so much stupid shit that needs to be corrected.

Oh on the contrary, I've seen more than enough self righteous people like your kind over the course of my life. You having more experience than me is something I'm not going to get into. Let's say you're right, it does NOT make you the most experienced person on the planet. You're the type who only knows how to step on others, never able to see another POV that's NON BS.