Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "We Are Living And Dying for The Banks":
I don't understand how these above business examples, e.g., coal, natural gas, etc., would not exist in a free market.
*** The companies that trade those are creatures of the state. In a free market, ther are no businesses thata re a creature of the state. No doubt there would be coal and oil sold, but not by creatures of the state. The creatures of the state crowd out free market traders.***
Did you mean mag-lev wind turbines?:
http://inhabitat.com/super-powered-magnetic-wind-turbine-maglev/
*** No, mag lev transport. The auto companiesa re creatures of the state, so they crowd out fre market transport. In Hong Kong, mass transit is privately owned.***
Also, federal reserve notes are essentially "money"?
***No, not even close...***
- these notes are susceptible to government malfeasance and mismanagement (e.g., deflation or hyperinflation, currency devaluation)?
fed. res. notes (U.S. dollar paper money) = an object generally accepted as payment for goods:
***Right, but they are not money.***
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money
*** The wikipedia article is wrong... money is a medium of exchange, and as store of value. It extinguishes a debt. today only gold and silver does that, Federal reserve notes are fiat currency that can easily fail to extinguish debt, as have all other previous currency, eventually. Believing otherwise is risky.***
You lost me with the last paragraph regarding the use of credit and not taking money out of a business (?).
*** go to http://hbhblog.blogspot.com/search?q=money and click through on the various pages...
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5 comments:
In addition to owning the "means of production" (or being a self-employed, independent entrepreneur), what else would be a good place for having and storing wealth (if not dollars, CD's, bonds, stocks, etc.)? - gold and silver bars, coins? what about other metals like palladium? Foreign currencies? What about real estate (mortgage-free)? A problem with gold or silver bars or coins, is that you can't really use it at the grocery store. The gold has to be converted into dollars - and consider the taxes and fees for that as well.
Wikipedia entries can by changed (or corrected) by the users.
Is wikipedia correct on Hong Kong?:
"... nearly half the population now residing in some form of public housing."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_housing_in_Hong_Kong
Also: "The People's Republic of China owns all the land in Hong Kong , except the land on which St John's Cathedral stands."
http://www.clic.org.hk/en/topics/saleAndPurchaseOfProperty/basic_knowledge_of_land_ownership_in_hong_kong/
I was under the impression that Hong Kong was a free market/free trade nirvana with everything (or mostly) privately-owned.
Storing wealth? How do you define wealth? If it is assets you own, then your outlook is you vs. the world. If you define wealth as the degree to which the most have access to the most (think the price drop in cell phones) then your outlook is you and the world.
Why would anyone store more than a few weeks cash when there are so many productive opportunities to build a business? All religions are very harsh with people who want to pile up wealth and store it. Mostly because it denies the rest of us the good of someone actually producing in life.
Yes, wikipedia has it right about real estate and Hong Kong. I don't think anyone says Hong Kong is a nirvana, just light years ahead of most other regimes. There is no country that would not benefit from moving toward a hong kong-style political regime.
I've blogged extensively on what you found wikipedia say, since it is no secret.
Hong Kong is one of the freest markets, yes.
Almost no one can own real estate in Hong Kong, which has a fascinating history and makes for interesting possibilities in practice. (before the hand over, HK land was owned by the Queen.)
And yes, other than land, mostly everything is privately owned, like the buildings on the land and the mass transit and the competing currencies that are in circulation, and so on.
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