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Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day. —Theodore Roosevelt in 1906
critics contend that high-frequency trades—where a single stock may be bought and sold multiple times an hour—only increases market volatility while producing nothing of value.
The very definition of rent seeking
Attacks that left scores of financial executives dead worldwide have rattled the reclusive billionaires’ club.
Eat the rich!
The free market quest for efficiency has made our infrastructure vulnerable.” BCM: “You can’t expect the market to operate inefficiently. Efficiency is what makes modern life possible.” NSA: “Yes, but we might need to place a greater emphasis on resiliency.”
Not to mention sustainability
“Fact and fiction carry the same intrinsic weight in the marketplace of ideas. Fortunately, reality has no advertising budget.”
“They cite their right as ‘artificial persons’ granted in an 1886 Supreme Court ruling on the fourteenth amendment . . .” (he flipped through documents) ”. . . Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad.
“Instead of adapting, their leaders clung to power and strove instead to be the last ones to starve to death. The Mayan civilization in South America did the same, and I expect our own civilization will do likewise. The people behind the modern global economy will prevent any meaningful change until it’s too late.”
Bullshit
The avatar looked to Sebeck. “But the question that needs to be answered is whether civilization’s inability to adapt is a failure of leadership—or an unwillingness in humanity itself.
Read “The Dawn of Everything” to see how wrong this is
Riley placed a hand on his shoulder.
She placed her hand on Sebeck’s shoulder.
Again? How many frickin hands does she have?
“This is just a big green desert. You’d starve to death out here. This corn is inedible—it’s just starch; it needs to be processed in an industrial stomach, with acids and chemicals, to break it down into processed food additives. We’re up to our eyeballs in corn here in Iowa and we can’t even feed ourselves.”
