Bayer-Monsanto lose next Roundup Trial - the bad side of capitalism!

Discussion in 'Latest US & World News' started by Mandelus, May 14, 2019.

  1. Merwen

    Merwen Well-Known Member

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  2. Merwen

    Merwen Well-Known Member

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  3. AFM

    AFM Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Last edited: May 21, 2019
  4. AFM

    AFM Well-Known Member Past Donor

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  5. xwsmithx

    xwsmithx Well-Known Member

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    I'm not a fan of the corporate world, and this situation is a prime example, although I'm not convinced of the toxicity of glyphosate to anything except monarch butterflies and milkweed plants, though that is bad enough. But I am a fan of capitalism, so I'll give you my best argument as to why we should let things like this happen.

    First of all, in a perfectly competitive marketplace, there are always going to be winners and losers. Someone predicts that shortbread cookies are going to take off and so he stocks a lot of it. Someone else predicts that sourdough cookies are going to be a big seller and so he stocks a lot of it. A month later, a big celebrity endorses shortbread cookies and person #1 makes a fortune. Someone else claims to have gotten sick from sourdough cookies, sourdough cookies stop selling, and person #2 goes broke. This is a natural consequence of the free market. Those who guess right do well and those who guess wrong don't. There's no way to "fix" this without the government interfering with the free choices of the marketplace.

    Second, in a perfectly competitive marketplace, company failure contributes to market efficiency. Inefficient companies spend too much on goods, services, and labor for the amount of sales they make. Efficient companies spend the right amount. When the inefficient companies go broke, resources are freed up for more and better purposes, and the efficient companies add to their market share.

    Third, in the same way that when a large tree falls in a forest, it opens a clearing for small trees to start growing, when a large company fails, it opens opportunities for newer, better, more efficient companies to replace it.

    Fourth, the "death" of a company is not to be mourned in the same way as the death of a person. No one dies when a company goes under, and while there may be some displacement as a result of the loss of jobs and so on, that usually pales in comparison to the displacement that occurs as a result of a change in technology. Automation puts far more people out of work than company failures.

    "A new report predicts that by 2030, as many as 800 million jobs could be lost worldwide to automation."

    https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/30/16719092/automation-robots-jobs-global-800-million-forecast

    Finally, while it would be nice if the managers who make dumbass decisions that bring down multi-billion dollar companies would have to share in the pain with their lowly employees who lose their jobs, that, too, would be an interference with the free market, and smart rich people can find ways around those kinds of attempts, such as having all their money in Swiss bank accounts and only paying themselves $1 a year salary. Far better to keep taxes and punitive measures against such people low so they don't move their money out of the country. Money in Swiss bank accounts doesn't help the next generation of businesses grow, but money still in the country does.

    So for all these reasons, while we can point our fingers at Bayer and shake our heads and say, "Thou fool," we should not interfere with the workings of the free market.
     
  6. Mandelus

    Mandelus Well-Known Member

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    No ... the problem is that management decision-makers at the end of the discussion are simply not going to be spouting and having consequences if they make a mess ... as here with Bayer AG!
    These people will surely lose their jobs as well ... but they will fall very soft and with millions of severance pay.
    But the workers and employees bear the consequence, because they lose their jobs because of the mistakes of the company management ... and they do not fall soft!

    Nobody can reasonably explain this injustice and this mistake, and fewer and fewer people are ready to accept it and consider it a mistake in the capitalist system ... rightly!
     
  7. Jeannette

    Jeannette Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Other than Europe and the rest of the world, my daughter knows a couple that travels 40 miles to get food from their African country because they distrust American meat. Now that's pretty bad.

    MacDonald's in foreign countries from what I know, uses domestic meat and products to make sure they're under the regulations and protection of that country.
     
    Last edited: May 22, 2019
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  8. AFM

    AFM Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Why do they distrust it ??
     
  9. Merwen

    Merwen Well-Known Member

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    Bt is an insecticide--and all the reports are not in yet on how it may be affecting people.
    That's not what the article was claiming:

    "... the new generation of GM seeds contain bacterial genes that enables the plant to produce natural toxic herbicides and pesticides, allegedly protecting the crop. These abnormal bacterial genes transfer to the normal bacteria that inhabit our gut, and we end up with a bacteria that produces herbicide and pesticides within our own intestines. "
     
    Last edited: May 22, 2019
  10. AFM

    AFM Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    This is nothing but genetic engineering. Insecticides are not included in the corn.

    So what ?? How many people have been harmed from Bt corn ??
     

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