Fav quotes

[MrBogosity]

Then again I'd also like to see myself on Sarah Michelle Gellar. So what does that mean?

That you're living in the '90s?

[Gumba Masta]

That you're living in the '90s?

Or in other words, Living in the Past?

[Goaticus]

"People claim America has shipped its best manufacturing overseas. Rubbish! When it comes to to manufacturing boogeymen to justify a bloated military, only North Korea is more industrious."

Betty Bowers

[Goaticus]

[MrBogosity]

Or in other words, Living in the Past?

I've just been searching YouTube for that clip from The Big Lebowski about living in the past and can't find one...

[MrBogosity]

I had a silly moment a few minutes ago...

[FSBlueApocalypse]

[Ibrahim90]

I just have to post this. I think people need to see what sort of people the politicians and administrative types who run CSU are really like. it's my opinion (additional comments section) as written it in a survey, and actually publicly stated:

I cite the 1st amendment, as well as the fact that this is supposed to be where I post my further thoughts:

simply put, I do not believe that funds will purely be from private sources, in light of this University's proclivity for projects that take longer than projected. and even if they will, why the hell are we spending it on a stadium nobody needs, when: a) we have a very good one by all accounts available in the form of the present stadium, and b) the money is better spent on genuine academic material, like new faculty, lowering of costs while improving academic quality, scholarships, academic and research grants, and new class material. you know, things a University is ACTUALLY meant to do with money?

the fact that the governing body of the University, in the person of that cunt Tony Frank is even discussing this, only illuminates to me the sheer hypocrisy of said body, as well as their complete disregard for what is actually good for the students. After-all, this is the same group of administrators--I call them bloodsucking vipers--which claims that tuition must be raised due to funding cuts from Denver, while at the same time having 6 or so new construction sites, many of which are absolutely unneeded, like that shit cube outside the library that is fucking up the scenery, but more critically making it harder to get inside the library. If they really cared, they would have suspended all of these projects, and focused instead of making the university more affordable in these economically burdened times, while maintaining high academic standards. and of course, the private funds would actually go to that purpose, instead of a shit new stadium. One which, while it may be built entirely by private means, will almost certainly be maintained  by public funds. oh, and guess who'll pay for it? us students. especially out of state ones, like myself. and even if it will only add 1 dollar to our tuition or less, the principle of it simply leaves me completely against this project, and against anyone who supports it.

I will oppose the idea for this stadium by all legal means, and be damned.

and yes, I did sign a petition, and write a letter to several well connected people about this. it is a complete travesty that in such times people are even considering it. doubt it will work though.

oh, and:

isn't it obvious? you sacrifice or abuse to death a person every mile the road is constructed: the spirits of the dead will protect the road. it worked in the great wall just fine when the Mongols and Manchus came along 

oh, wait....

[Goaticus]

[Goaticus]

Obviously according to what I just said, which is the exact opposite of what you just tried to twist it into. AronRa from this video.

[yt]7LuqfMtwo4o&feature=g-user-u&context=G2694628UCGXQYbcTJ33YyCU6X1kfBXqCITvWknXNuZMaTVlX0i1M[/yt]

[Goaticus]

[Gumba Masta]

I guess we can all agree that bombing Detroid is not going far enough by this point? I heard even North Korea stopped sending it's political prisoners there.

[Lord T Hawkeye]

Journal entry from me.  It's been discussed before but I wanted to go into more detail

This is a hopeful series I'm gonna do on the most popular myths of economics that I hear over and over again and really can't stand anymore.  The claim this time is that in a free market, some EEEEEEVIL corporation will buy up all the other businesses and shaft the poor consumer.  Just for the fun of it, let's construct a simple model using my World of Warcraft character.  ^^

Okay, Shamibell Silverheart is a blacksmith who makes decent money but thinks, wouldn't it be wonderful if she could get a monopoly over the field and make that much more money!  Let's say she has three other main competitors: Bengus Deepforge, Smith Argus and Saru Steelfury.  So all she has to do is buy them out, get that monopoly and boom!  Hand over the fist gold baths every evening!

Well...not exactly.  Think about it, if it were really that easy, why haven't any of the other three blacksmiths done this already?  Don't you think they want to make lots of money too?


Yes, this is the first major flaw in this myth, it seems to work off the assumption that the would be monopolist is the only one in the market out to make as much money as possible but that's obviously not so.  Every business owner, every worker, every customer as well is out to get the best possible deal they can.  So already Shamibell faces her first problem: Her fellow blacksmiths don't want her taking over the industry because that means she'll make all the money intended for them and her customers don't want that either because that means they'll pay more for her services.  So right off the bat, Shamibell better hope to hell that nobody catches wind of what she's doing because they would surely seek to undermine her.  How would they do that?  Read on dear friend!

The next fact window breakers like to overlook:  In order to buy someone out, you must offer them enough to compensate them for what they believe they stood to gain if they chose to remain in business.  In other words, the better a business is doing, the more it costs to buy them out.  If I stand to gain 1000 gold a year, you can't buy me out with a mere pittance of 500 gold.  It would cost maybe 10,000 at least to convince me to sell.

Remember this, it will be important.

There's also the risk that maybe someone is unwilling to sell at ANY price.  Maybe his shop has sentimental value and he doesn't want to give it up.  What do you do then?  Window breakers like to present buying out like it's some kind of hostile invasion.  No, it's a voluntary trade.

So buying someone out not only carries no guarantee of success, it's also a financial risk because it's expensive.  If Shamibell wants to buy out Bengus Deepforge, let's say it'll cost her 10,000 gold so she'll have to take out a loan to pay for that.  It's risky but sometimes worth it.  It certainly does happen a lot in real life business.

Okay, so now she's bought out Deepforge Smithy and goes to Smith Argus to buy him out offering him 10,000 gold.

He says no.  Why not?  Because his business is now booming so 10,000 gold isn't enough to convince him to sell.

Oh dear!  It seems Shamibell has overlooked something.  By buying out Deepforge, his customers have flocked to other blacksmiths and not neccessarily hers.  Many have displaced to Argus' Smithy and with less competition, he stands to make more money now so it's going to cost more to convince him to sell.  He says he'll sell for no less than 20,000 gold.  Ouch!

So Shamibell now has to go even further into debt to buy him out.  But, mucho money awaits if she just buys out the last competitor right?  So she takes the plunge.  Now all that's left is Saru Steelfury!

Oh dear...Steelfury's business has REALLY taken off now that her only competitor is Shamibell who's now burdened with debt and has to raise her prices just to make the payments.  Steelfury laughs when Shamibell asks him to sell, saying "Why would I do that?  Since you're now in debt and I'm not, I can undercut you easily and take all the business for myself!"

Yes, in a cruel irony, in trying to claim the whole market for herself, Shamibell instead indebted herself only to give it all to whichever competitor was the most patient in waiting for her to indebt herself and remove all his competition.  So Steelfury instead gets massive profits and Shamibell is forced to close down her doors and work in the mines for the rest of her life.  How tragic!


Of course, even if Shamibell DID succeed in buying out all her competitors, she would still be massively in debt in the process so it would be a long time before she was ahead again.  She would also have no ability to stop an entirely NEW blacksmith from opening up and making her efforts for naught.  Indeed, if you were a young entrepreneur and you noticed there was only one blacksmith business in the market who was greatly weighed down by debt that you could easily undercut, surely you would think it was a ripe investment to make.

In fact, when Rockerfeller tried to do this very thing, all people did was start up oil companies for the sole purpose of selling them to him for a mark up.  Obviously this is not sustainable.

Worse yet, even if you DO overcome all these obstacles and keep competition out, you're still limited in the amount you can charge before people will just simply abstain from your services completely or seek alternatives.  The average peasant can't afford to buy tools for 1000 gold a piece so if you insist on charging that, they'll just resort to using sticks, import from elsewhere, try to make their own or any other solution they can devise.


So no people, buying out your competition is not some magic money tree because if it was, why isn't everyone doing this all the time?  Remember, buying out competitors is NOT against the law.  People do it all the time if they think it's financially viable.  The reason people don't is not because they're afraid of the government.  It's because it's extremely risky, there's way too many things than can go wrong and the potential gain isn't worth it in the long run.  No board of directors at any large firm would ever approve of such a plan.


Do you have an economy myth that you'd like exposed for the wasteful superstition that it is?  Please leave a comment and yours could be the next one I do.  Until next time, be aware and be wise.

It occurs to me another thing that can go wrong.  What if the bank doesn't think you're little monopoly scheme is going to work and refuses to lend you the money?  Oh dear...

[MrBogosity]

Nice. Of course the reason why you see so many mergers in banking and other industries is because government protects them against failure, meaning they don't have the risk that's normally involved with buying out competition as you described.

[evensgrey]

Nice. Of course the reason why you see so many mergers in banking and other industries is because government protects them against failure, meaning they don't have the risk that's normally involved with buying out competition as you described.

It also helps that there are a LOT of firms operating in most industries (even banking, at least in the US, we don't have many firms that are legally BANKS in Canada, at least not in the retail market, most of them are something else, like a credit union).  The more firms there are, the smaller the overall impact (on the firms involved and the industry as a whole) that any given merger/buyout has, so the case for it is easier to make.