botchtowersociety

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Posts by botchtowersociety

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  63

  The Economics Thread

  by sabastious in

  1. social
  2. current

  jim has a job stacking boxes for a courier company.

  frank has his own business selling lumber.

  jim has a house project so he needs some lumber.

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  botchtowersociety

  So we all have to hope that Frank doesn't make the money disappear?

  Unless he burns it or loses it, how did the money disappear? If there are $1 million circulating in the entire economy and no one decides to burn what they have, it doesn't get lost. It just changes hands.

  The money is just an accounting unit and a means of exchange, if it is good money, it retains its purchasing value. It has no value in and of itself other than being a unit of accounting for value and exchange. Its only value is that you can use it to get something that is valuable, and that is only because people trust it as a reliable means of accounting that they can use in the same way. The real value is not in the money, it is in the things that money is used as a medium of exchange for.
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  63

  The Economics Thread

  by sabastious in

  1. social
  2. current

  jim has a job stacking boxes for a courier company.

  frank has his own business selling lumber.

  jim has a house project so he needs some lumber.

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  botchtowersociety

  The "honor system" has flaws when people cheat.

  Very true, that is why we have laws and ways to enforce them.
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  63

  The Economics Thread

  by sabastious in

  1. social
  2. current

  jim has a job stacking boxes for a courier company.

  frank has his own business selling lumber.

  jim has a house project so he needs some lumber.

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  2. 
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  botchtowersociety

  Trees grow slower than corn I guess. It's much harder to harvest trees on your property than corn.

  It seems to me then, that we are dealing with a difference of degree, and not of kind.
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  63

  The Economics Thread

  by sabastious in

  1. social
  2. current

  jim has a job stacking boxes for a courier company.

  frank has his own business selling lumber.

  jim has a house project so he needs some lumber.

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  2. 
  3. 
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  botchtowersociety

  So if I have a website I can sell it for however much someone wants to buy it for. How is that a good plan? Don't we have the capability of finding out exactly how much all websites have been sold for and generating an algorithm by it? The free market will just try to get it or sell it for what it's NOT worth, right?

  We do not have access to perfect information. Websites vary in perceived value because of many different factors. They are not cookie cutter.

  All trades take place due to a difference of opinion. At an agreed upon price, a seller sells because he judges what he is selling to be worth less to him than what he gets in return. A buyer buys because he judges what he is buying to be worth more to him than what he gives up for it.

  In the Jim/Frank case, the lumber is worth less to Frank than the $150 he gets for it, and to Jim, it is worth more than the $150 he gives up for it.
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  63

  The Economics Thread

  by sabastious in

  1. social
  2. current

  jim has a job stacking boxes for a courier company.

  frank has his own business selling lumber.

  jim has a house project so he needs some lumber.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  botchtowersociety

  Food comes from an infinite source and should be treated differently I think. The lumber has to be "refined", but the food can be eaten as soon as it's picked.

  Other than the time required to replace what is harvested, what is the fundamental difference between lumber from a tree and, say, corn from a plant?
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  63

  The Economics Thread

  by sabastious in

  1. social
  2. current

  jim has a job stacking boxes for a courier company.

  frank has his own business selling lumber.

  jim has a house project so he needs some lumber.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
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  botchtowersociety

  If one "marks up" a price just to yield a profit that doesn't necesarrily mean a profit was legitimately earned. Retail seems like and easily exploitable system me.

  If the buyer and the seller agree on price, and the transaction is free and open and not forced or fraudulent, then the profit is legitimately earned. Always. If Jim doesn't like the price, he can check other retailers. If he doesn't like retail, he can drive out of his way and pay wholesale for a larger amount of product than he needs. If Jim has carefully considered all the factors, he has determined that $150 is his best price.
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  63

  The Economics Thread

  by sabastious in

  1. social
  2. current

  jim has a job stacking boxes for a courier company.

  frank has his own business selling lumber.

  jim has a house project so he needs some lumber.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  botchtowersociety

  Jim's house project does not increase the value of the property he lives on once completed. Jim has just lost $50.00 has he not? He has $100.00 worth of lumber and spent $150.00 for it.

  That depends. If the retail price is $150, and Jim bought retail, he has not lost $50. Frank might buy wholesale, which has bulk pricing. Jim doesn't buy in bulk, since he is a retail buyer. The retail price includes more than Frank's markup. It likely includes shipping and storage at Frank's store in Jim's community. Frank's price isn't just $100 he paid wholesale, it is $100 plus costs.

  Also, what if the project was not to raise the value of the house, but to increase Jim's comfort and well being? In that case, yes, he did spend $150 on lumber, but only because he judges the value of what he gains as worth more than $150.

  And that last sentence is the most important one. Just about all economic transactions are ultimately tied to increasing wellbeing and comfort.

  Obviously it's worth, to Jim, exactly what he paid for it.

  That is the wrong answer. If it is worth exactly that much to Jim, why make the trade? No one bothers to do a trade to stay in the same place. Everyone makes a trade because they perceive that it improves their position in some way.

  BTS
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  15

  Space Shuttle, NASA, and The NAZI SS.

  by pedal power in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  todays last landing of the space shuttle atlantis, and the ending and retirement of the space shuttle fleet,signals the end of an era in manned space flight in the usa.. i feel obliged to bring to your attention, the man who put the the usa at the forfront of the space race, and put the first man on the moon, and was the brains and driving force of nasa, that would result ultimately in the shuttle programme, the construction of the space station, and the hubble telescope.. who was he, and what was his background ?

  well his name was wernher von braum, he was a german soldier, scientist, who attained the rank of sturbannfuher in the ss, he was one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in the nazi regime, developing the v2 weapon, the first icbm.. he and his team of german scientists, were captured near the end of ww2 and taken to the usa, there they escaped the war trials, and von braun, the former nazi officer, was put in charge of the space programme, set up by president kennedy, he and his team of former nazi scientists designed and built the saturn v rocket which took men to the moon in july 1969, i was 7yo, my father insisted on wakening me up, to view the looner landing, i am glad he did, and now 42 years later its over, and some of our thanks, if not all must go to,wernher von braun, german ss officer..

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  botchtowersociety

  why not simply think of them as apolitical opportunists who simply wanted to build rockets and would do anything to accomplish that.

  That sounds about right. Some scientists and engineers are so driven to realize their ideas that they will work with anyone that funds them.

  Here is the song.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEJ9HrZq7Ro
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  15

  Space Shuttle, NASA, and The NAZI SS.

  by pedal power in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  todays last landing of the space shuttle atlantis, and the ending and retirement of the space shuttle fleet,signals the end of an era in manned space flight in the usa.. i feel obliged to bring to your attention, the man who put the the usa at the forfront of the space race, and put the first man on the moon, and was the brains and driving force of nasa, that would result ultimately in the shuttle programme, the construction of the space station, and the hubble telescope.. who was he, and what was his background ?

  well his name was wernher von braum, he was a german soldier, scientist, who attained the rank of sturbannfuher in the ss, he was one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in the nazi regime, developing the v2 weapon, the first icbm.. he and his team of german scientists, were captured near the end of ww2 and taken to the usa, there they escaped the war trials, and von braun, the former nazi officer, was put in charge of the space programme, set up by president kennedy, he and his team of former nazi scientists designed and built the saturn v rocket which took men to the moon in july 1969, i was 7yo, my father insisted on wakening me up, to view the looner landing, i am glad he did, and now 42 years later its over, and some of our thanks, if not all must go to,wernher von braun, german ss officer..

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  botchtowersociety

  BOTCHY, would it be too much for you to recognise that your ENTIRE space programmes succsess was because of a NAZI, a very brilliant one at that ?

  Dude, I have huge respect for what Von Braun accomplished, I am just saying that few things are ever invented out of the blue. German rocket research started out of an interest in Goddard's work, which was largely ignored in his own country. The point I was trying to make was that he may have been a Nazi out of necessity, not conviction. I know people that were members of the Communist party in their home country for the same reasons, and how many people are nominal JWs for the same reasons today?
• 
  15

  Space Shuttle, NASA, and The NAZI SS.

  by pedal power in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  todays last landing of the space shuttle atlantis, and the ending and retirement of the space shuttle fleet,signals the end of an era in manned space flight in the usa.. i feel obliged to bring to your attention, the man who put the the usa at the forfront of the space race, and put the first man on the moon, and was the brains and driving force of nasa, that would result ultimately in the shuttle programme, the construction of the space station, and the hubble telescope.. who was he, and what was his background ?

  well his name was wernher von braum, he was a german soldier, scientist, who attained the rank of sturbannfuher in the ss, he was one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in the nazi regime, developing the v2 weapon, the first icbm.. he and his team of german scientists, were captured near the end of ww2 and taken to the usa, there they escaped the war trials, and von braun, the former nazi officer, was put in charge of the space programme, set up by president kennedy, he and his team of former nazi scientists designed and built the saturn v rocket which took men to the moon in july 1969, i was 7yo, my father insisted on wakening me up, to view the looner landing, i am glad he did, and now 42 years later its over, and some of our thanks, if not all must go to,wernher von braun, german ss officer..

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  botchtowersociety

  Von Braun developed the V2 rocket for Germany. The basic propulsion technology, however, had first been developed by American Robert H. Goddard, the father of modern (liquid fuelled) rocket propulsion.

  This Wiki page adds some color to his involvement with Germany's Nazi government.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernher_von_Braun#German_career