Bear Pit: now the sole domicile of politics at LuLa

[Alan Klein]

I understood your point perfectly well, but I object to the chauvinistic, pre-1960 manner you express it. Why assume that, when inflation makes things tough, it's the wife who must go to work? And why assume the husband can "make" her go to work? And assume that the husband will be ashamed that his wife has to work? Isn't that just silly macho crapola? I expect it was true in the past, but not now. In my 30 years of marriage, I have always felt proud that my wife is an educated, skilled, and hard-working person who enjoyed her work and brought in a good income--more than me some years.

There is no consensus that stay-at-home moms lead to healthier families. I did some research on this topic and there is no agreement but the message I get is that good parents have healthy families and bad parents do not, regardless of who works and who stays home.

And as for daughters marrying rich guys? Seriously? Alan, that is really dumb. It assumes that daughters must be dependent on their husbands for material support, again chauvinistic crapola.

I don't deny that I'm an old white guy with conservative views.  And I was born long before 1960.  But that doesn't make old ideas wrong.  Meanwhile, divorce is rampant, kids are doing terribly because of broken families, and mother's who might be better off at home working with their kids to improve their futures, are stuck in the workforce having to help the family make financial ends meet. 

Arguing that women have to rely on their husbands for economic support is just as erroneous as saying that men have to rely on their wives to take care of their kids.  Marriage is a partnership where each adds to the value of the family.  It's a division of labor. Having one person work and the other rear the children has better outcomes. 

But the government due to its tax and spending policies has forced many families to forego that relationship and force both parents to work.  That limits the personal care children would get.  The statistics show how bad kids are doing.  I'm not against both parents working if that's what they want to do.  But many families would prefer one parent to stay home, especially when the kids are pre-school, and the government has made that impossible for most families. 

[Alan Klein]

It was FDR in 1933 who ended the gold standard to help the government deal with the depression. The last few technical details were done away with by Nixon, that's all.

It was the "technical details" that Nixon imposed in 1971, the coup de grâce,  that separated gold from the dollar allowing the Fed to print as much as it wanted. That's when inflation started to become more rampant.  In fact, no country is on the gold standard anymore so inflation is going nuts in countries around the world as their central banks print like crazy as well.

Regardless of what FDR did in 1933, the Bretton Woods agreement in 1944 established the US dollar as the reserve currency and it was backed up by gold until Nixon took us off the gold standard in 1971. As I recall, it was France who insisted at the time that we give them gold for the dollars they presented to us.  Nixon realized that the US just didn't have enough gold to make these kind of payments. So he closed the gold window.  Going off the gold standard has also helped us live well as we can buy stuff from others just by printing money that becomes more worthless every day.  Those days are running out.

Last summer was the 50th anniversary of Nixon edict.
https://www.barrons.com/articles/gold-standard-dollar-dominance-bretton-woods-51628890861

Here's the history of Bretton Woods.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bretton_Woods_system#:~:text=Bretton%20Woods%20established%20a%20system,every%20other%20currency%20was%20pegged.

As an aside, I remember when there were dollars that said Silver Certificate on top.  On the left, it would say it was redeemable in silver from the US Government.  Those no longer exist.  Now you have on top Federal Reserve Note.  All it says on the left is that you could use it to pay debts.  You can't redeem it for squat.  It's backed by nothing.   Because it's backed by nothing, The Fed can print as much of it as they want, and have.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

So if you have a bill that says "This note is redeemable for squat," it probably isn't authentic.   

[digitaldog]

So if you have a bill that says "This note is redeemable for squat," it probably isn't authentic.   

The guy, proven wrong again doesn't know the difference between the gold standard and dollar convertibility to gold. Yet he lectures about economics and other topics he clearly doesn't understand.
Worth repeating:

"I think the problem with people like this is they are so stupid that they have no idea how stupid they are. You see, If you are very very stupid, how can you possibly realize that you are very very stupid? You have to be relatively intelligent to realize how stupid you are... If you are absolutely no good at something at all, then you lack exactly the skills that you need to know that you are absolutely no good at it. And this explains not just Hollywood but almost the entirety of Fox News." John Cleese

[Robert Roaldi]

There's an interesting Wiki page about the "freedom convoy" in Ottawa, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Convoy_2022.

[Alan Klein]

So if you have a bill that says "This note is redeemable for squat," it probably isn't authentic.   

No it's authentic.  The government will assuredly give you squat for it.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

No it's authentic.  The government will assuredly give you squat for it.

Thanks, Alan.
Now I've got to gather up all of my squat bills and ...   

[PeterAit]

Deregulation decreases the cost of goods and services.  Regulation increases them as it adds additional burdens on producing the product which raises costs.

Here are some regulations that Alan might like to do away with:

• In a restaurant, raw chicken cannot be stored with salad greens.
• An airline pilot must get enough sleep.
• Your car should not kill you in a minor crash.
• A lead smelter cannot be built next to your home.
• A surgeon must have the proper training.
• Food you buy cannot contain toxic additives.
• Prescription drugs must be safe and effective.

Just think of all the savings if we did away with all of them!

[Alan Klein]

Here are some regulations that Alan might like to do away with:

• In a restaurant, raw chicken cannot be stored with salad greens.
• An airline pilot must get enough sleep.
• Your car should not kill you in a minor crash.
• A lead smelter cannot be built next to your home.
• A surgeon must have the proper training.
• Food you buy cannot contain toxic additives.
• Prescription drugs must be safe and effective.

Just think of all the savings if we did away with all of them!

I didn't say regulations did not have purposes.  Some of them are really good. Many of them are not needed or are too much.  Many are feel-good but do not really do anything but raise costs.  Government thinks they did something good when they only caused more problems and raised costs.  But the point is that they all impose additional costs.  The question is are the costs worth it?  Society has to decide. 

The one that annoys me right now is New Jersey is going to do away with plastic bags when you go shopping in the supermarket.  So shopping will be more difficult and costly as paper bags cost more to produce than plastic and take up more space.  They fill up the trash can so there's more garbage disposal needed at higher costs.  Do we really want to cut down more trees?  The price of wood is already out of sight. 

Then when I lived in NYC, the mayor then, Bloomberg, the one who ran against Biden for the nomination, decided New Yorkers were too fat, which was probably true.  He mandated to do away with drink containers larger than 16 ounces.  None of them sugary 32-ounce superdrinks for us at McDonald's with our Big Macs and fries. Fortunately, the courts found he overstepped his authority and canceled his mandate.  We didn't call him the "nanny" mayor for nothing.  Thank goodness he wasn't elected president.  Can you imagine what he would have imposed then? Biden's bad enough. What is it with leaders who think because you give them a title, they can tell you what to do and how to live?   

[digitaldog]

The one that annoys me right now is New Jersey is going to do away with plastic bags when you go shopping in the supermarket.  So shopping will be more difficult and costly as paper bags cost more to produce than plastic and take up more space.

Good for NJ. It probably never entered your mind you can bring your own reusable bags. But you're really old and so what if the world is filled with more plastic. You will not be around much longer so, as most of what you write: out of sight, out of your small mind. 

[LesPalenik]

I didn't say regulations did not have purposes.  Some of them are really good. Many of them are not needed or are too much.  Many are feel-good but do not really do anything but raise costs.  Government thinks they did something good when they only caused more problems and raised costs.  But the point is that they all impose additional costs.  The question is are the costs worth it?  Society has to decide. 

The one that annoys me right now is New Jersey is going to do away with plastic bags when you go shopping in the supermarket.  So shopping will be more difficult and costly as paper bags cost more to produce than plastic and take up more space.  They fill up the trash can so there's more garbage disposal needed at higher costs.  Do we really want to cut down more trees?  The price of wood is already out of sight. 

I use the plastic shopping bags, but reuse them and bring them with me when I go shopping. Although flimsy, they last for 5-10 shopping trips.

[digitaldog]

I use the plastic shopping bags, but reuse them and bring them with me when I go shopping. Although flimsy, they last for 5-10 shopping trips.

That required thought and a little work on your part. You can forget Alan from doing the same.

[Alan Klein]

I use the plastic shopping bags, but reuse them and bring them with me when I go shopping. Although flimsy, they last for 5-10 shopping trips.

Well after they're used up for shopping, you can roll them up and use them for straws.

[digitaldog]

Well after they're used up for shopping, you can roll them up and use them for straws.

Wrong again!
Most markets, perhaps not in NJ but certainly in NM have containers for recycling what is know as “film”.
Those are probably two words (in bold) and one action you are not familiar with.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

[LesPalenik]

Wrong again!
Most markets, perhaps not in NJ but certainly in NM have containers for recycling what is know as “film”.
Those are probably two words (in bold) and one action you are not familiar with.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

That's a good idea. I haven't seen them in my town.

[digitaldog]

That's a good idea. I haven't seen them in my town.

The best solution is that which of course Alan objects to; don't even allow the use of such plastic. While we here in NM can place film (plastic so thin you can push your fingers through) and most other plastics (1-7) in places to be collected for recycling, this process is difficult and or not possible or very expensive to actually recycle. It's usually far less expensive to make more plastic (something paramount alone to Alan, not the effect on the planet**). The less plastic you use, the better.
** most of all the plastic ever made still exists, even though much become microplastic which is a massive problem.
Dog forbid all this inconvenience Alans grocery shopping of course. 😰

[Robert Roaldi]

There was a time, not long ago, when no one had plastic bags, but we managed to survive and thrive.

It is possible to make bio-degradable plastic.

It is possible to make the basic building blocks of plastics using bio-mass instead of petroleum. There are many such plants around the world already.

Everything we do is a cost/benefit analysis. But we have to include all the costs, including the ones that used to be considered externalities, because nothing is really external.

It was never environment vs economy and it isn't now. I get it that some corporations continue to think that their only responsibility is the next quarter and not the health of the air or the water 50 years from now. However, it is not the corporations that are in charge. They're just the guys we hire to do the job. If they don't do it the way we want, we can shut them down, they don't have a god-given right to exist. We got rid of the slave trade even though it was profitable.

[Alan Klein]

There was a time, not long ago, when no one had plastic bags, but we managed to survive and thrive.

It is possible to make bio-degradable plastic.

It is possible to make the basic building blocks of plastics using bio-mass instead of petroleum. There are many such plants around the world already.

Everything we do is a cost/benefit analysis. But we have to include all the costs, including the ones that used to be considered externalities, because nothing is really external.

It was never environment vs economy and it isn't now. I get it that some corporations continue to think that their only responsibility is the next quarter and not the health of the air or the water 50 years from now. However, it is not the corporations that are in charge. They're just the guys we hire to do the job. If they don't do it the way we want, we can shut them down, they don't have a god-given right to exist. We got rid of the slave trade even though it was profitable.

Well, associating the slave trade with plastic bags is a little bit of a stretch.  I remember paper bags before plastic bags.  They were a pain,  Harder to carry, takes up more room. breaks easily when the get wet, etc.  Plus the biggest issue back them was people thought they were saving loads of trees when we switched to plastic.  So we've gone full circle and found something else to worry about.  Unnecessarily.

First, off America doesn't dump plastic stuff in the ocean, that's China.  So the picture you see of turtles stuck in plastic is phony.  Our plastics are buried or recycled.  So stopping plastic bags in the USA won't stop plastic from being dumped in the ocean.  I assume you don't dump in the ocean either in Canada. It's a feel-good strategy but has nothing to do with us.  We're shooting ourselves in the foot.  We bury ours which takes very little room compared to all the other crap we bury.  Plastic bags?  Look at your desk.  Your keyboards, monitors, cellphone, and most things use plastics.  The amount that goes into plastic bags is infinitesimal compared to the plastics we use elsewhere.  My camera is mostly plastic, scanner, printer, even the film I use is plastic.  Of course, I don't discard most film I shot although I probably should. 

I didn't know there were biodegradable plastics.  Now some enterprising company might come out with biodegradable plastic bags.  first, they've had to get a waiver from the rules.  But I assume there is no such waiver so no one is going to invest in it until there is one.

[Robert Roaldi]

Well, associating the slave trade with plastic bags is a little bit of a stretch.  ....

Yeah, because that's what I meant. Stop trolling.

[digitaldog]

Yeah, because that's what I meant. Stop trolling.

He can't stop. Nor will he listen to such requests. It's his main hobby since photography was a wash.