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Legal Marijuana could Generate 132 billion

Not from what your POV of it is, obviously.

Your line of employment and career hinge upon unfettered capitalism, that which is primarily benefiting the 10% who own 80% of all stocks, and corporations whose stocks are publicly traded, so you have a larger bias than most DSF members who post here.

My career dealt with working in both private and government service, that was beneficial to private business, government, and the general public.

I could link to some definitions of what capitalism is supposed to be, but none would exactly match what is being practiced here in the USA.

We are led to believe by conservatives that the "free market" is all that is needed to self-police capitalism, but that would only be completely practical in a closed-off society, w/o any trade with other nations who do not practice "our" hybrid version of it. The gargantuan trade deficits that have grown exponentially since offshoring rapidly increased in the 80s, and outsourcing exploded with the the advent of broadband internet ~turn of the century are obvious (and ominous) signs that there are no level "playing fields" globally.

That, along with deregulation, mergers, consolidations, monopolization, downsizing, rightsizing, (JIT) automation, technology, robotics....and we are only on the cusp of what AI is capable of doing....that being a complete game-changer. All of these things have and will affect both competition and consumerism, being those who sell and/or manage, purchase, and lease products and services. You may call me a socialist, but I detest what "capitalism" has become, it is by no means a panacea for all what ails this country economically or socially. I can vote to change who represents me in government, but I have absolutely no voice or vote in who manages or sits on the board of directors for any given corporation...unless I am a (majority) stockholder or investor.

My line of employment and career hinge upon nothing of the sort. If it did, I wouldn't have a career because we have nothing close to unfettered capitalism. If you think we do, you definitely don't know what capitalism is. Money accrues to Wall St largely because of regulations - regulations are also often what cause bubbles that lead to things like the subprime housing disaster. If you think Wall St was responsible for that and not the government, mostly Democrats, you're either blind or willfully ignorant of the facts. If you want to pat yourself on the back because you think you did something for the greater good being a government leach, go ahead but I'm not buying it - zero credit. Our gargantuan trade deficits are driven by bad regulation, bad tax policy and bad treaties, not because of a self-policing capitalist free market.

I too detest what "capitalism" has become in America, the difference is I'm smart enough to realize more regulation and government interference isn't the answer.
 
I can vote to change who represents me in government, but I have absolutely no voice or vote in who manages or sits on the board of directors for any given corporation...unless I am a (majority) stockholder or investor.

I never claimed to be the smartest guy on this board so maybe this is a dumb question, but why in the hell should you?
 
I never claimed to be the smartest guy on this board so maybe this is a dumb question, but why in the hell should you?

Corporate personhood via the Citizens United SCOTUS ruling.

Why should business be treated like a single US citizen, w/all of our supposed advantages, but have few if any of our disadvantages?
 
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My line of employment and career hinge upon nothing of the sort. If it did, I wouldn't have a career because we have nothing close to unfettered capitalism. If you think we do, you definitely don't know what capitalism is. Money accrues to Wall St largely because of regulations - regulations are also often what cause bubbles that lead to things like the subprime housing disaster. If you think Wall St was responsible for that and not the government, mostly Democrats, you're either blind or willfully ignorant of the facts. If you want to pat yourself on the back because you think you did something for the greater good being a government leach, go ahead but I'm not buying it - zero credit. Our gargantuan trade deficits are driven by bad regulation, bad tax policy and bad treaties, not because of a self-policing capitalist free market.

I too detest what "capitalism" has become in America, the difference is I'm smart enough to realize more regulation and government interference isn't the answer.

Mostly Democrats?

Yeah, how dare they think that Wall Street capitalists wouldn't game the system by using some common human sense, and refuse to wholesale transfer variable rate sub-prime mortgages, that they bundled and sold off to other fly-by-night mortgage companies, who would turn around and then sell them to other even more obscure outfits...et cetera..to the point where many of the original deeds were next to impossible to locate. Iceland, for example did nearly the same thing, the only difference being that the greedy scammers were prosecuted and punished instead of YUGELY rewarded for being so BIGLY.

Then of course many other unrelated businesses had to be justly compensated for being indirect casualties of the popped housing bubble and resulting recession. If there weren't any profit-choking regulations, then faaar more tens of millions of irresponsible, lazy slacker Murkins would never have achieved their undeserved dream of home ownership to begin with. There would be tens of thousands more of renter "Pottervilles" instead all over the US and its territories.

I am actually kinda surprised that you somehow find the almost daily prime-time to even bother to try to educate and correct the (still as yet remaining) few of us loopy Leftys here, by using your vast knowledge of politics and business, but apparently haven't started or host a blog, townhall-like website, social network, or YouTube channel so that you would be able to reach/spread out and confab with what would likely soon become a much larger and/or national, mostly conservative audience. Perhaps you do have one or more of the above, but humbly won't reveal any by posting a link or links to it/them.
 
the housing bubble was caused by the following

federal regulation that forced the lowering of mortgage underwriting standards

owners/buyers being stupid and borrowing more than they could afford
 
owners/buyers being stupid and borrowing more than they could afford

Hmm...that seems very similar to the situations that our current POTUS found himself in (at least 4 times), then had to go beg and borrow from overseas financial institutions. Sure would be nice to learn how he managed to pull that off, if he merely would release his tax-returns.

Of course most people gamble that their mortgaged home would have/will continue to increase in value, and optimistically that they would earn as much or more than what they are/were earning. But you're right, in the sense that variable rate/balloon mortgages are more volatile, and the houses are far more prone to foreclosure. Like most people, I had no idea that so many of these types of mortgages were soaring nationally in number back in the late 90s-early 00s. My first visible clue was seeing an entire row of homes with for sale by owner signs suddenly sprout up nearby on a busy street across the borderline to a somewhat less economically stable suburb. Then the signs were taken down and BK foreclosure signs replaced them ~6 months or so later.
 
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