Korean Job Discussion Forums

[slideaway77]

Economic downturns? The one we are currently (UK) sliding into will be nasty for the big western economies. Nasty like in a 1929 kind of way.

Can't really argue much (not that I would argue- in a you say red I say blue knd of way) as what your saying is sound, in principle at least.

[mindmetoo]

At the end of the day, anyone can barf up a flash animation claiming all kinds of things wrong with a system and then propose a nebulous solution that will fix all problems, without even stopping to consider the law of unintended consequences. People think they could engineer a better shark, too. Or "hey, Australia has a rabbit problem, let's introduce a predator. Oh wait, the predator prefers indigenous wildlife. Oh crap."

However, things evolve for a reason and I'm not so ready to scream "the new world order's play to turn us all into serfs!" or derivations of that. You say you're from the UK. Any memory of what the UK was like in the 1970s when politicians basically felt it was their role to simply manage the decline into third world status?

Is the system perfect? No. Look at it like airlines. Planes used to crash a lot more. Every time a plane crashes they figure out what was wrong and fix the problem. Planes will still crash. No doubt about that, but they crash a helluva lot less today than 20 years ago. A plane crash doesn't argue for 100% change in air transport. It calls for reasoned tweeking.

We had a gold standard. And every time governments needed money to fight a war, they went off the gold standard and pursued money creation and fractional banking. I'm not sure we're ever going to eliminate wars or governments going on and off the gold standard when they deem it convenient. Instead of trying to hot wire a gold standard that also addresses a real credit need, arms length central banking seems like the best evolution.

At the end of the day any system you think is perfect can be abandoned quickly for political expedience to fix real world problems.

Another major issue I had with the movie is the way it personifies bankers. One or two fat cat guys sucking up the money. But wait. Banks aren't 2 people. Banks are public companies. If they're making large profits, simply buy shares in a bank and share their wealth. Banks employ thousands of people. If banks are making profits, they will expand operations and hire more people. Bank jobs are not low paid jobs. They pay pretty well and provide nice working environments.

And what do banks do with those profits? They don't bury them in the ground. They take those profits and invest them in new companies and companies that want to expand. Oh, more jobs.

A healthy banking sector seems to me a good thing, as long as it's making profits from good investments vs say service charges.