Great Moments in Socialism

[djAdvocate]

Feb 18, 2012 17:02:40 GMT -5 Opti said:

Feb 18, 2012 15:36:44 GMT -5 @investorbob said:

"The odds are against it in the long run."

So if Socialism fails in x years, and capitalism fails in x+y years (where y is greater than zero), which is better? Capitalism has worked for thousands of years. Socialism has never worked.

If Socialism never worked why would we need to discuss it at all?
I don't know any pure socialistic country including here and Europe
but there are quite a few public projects that some feel fall under the
socialist umbrella.

i know of no socialists that think Europe is socialist. what Europe and the US have are blended systems. and honestly? that is the ideal way to do it. there is tyranny on both ends.

[formerexpat]

You will forgive me if my faith in the current system has been somewhat shaken. I check my investments every 1st day of the month, and as of Feb. 1, my mutual fund that invested in financial institutions was $3,300. I bought in at $5,000 in 2008. However, the good news is that I knew that when the health care bill was passed, the health insurance industry was going to soar. My $5,000 in that mutual fund is now almost $7,000. I credit my success for that purely on the fact that I have been an insider in the health care industry all my life. In short, if you don't have an inside edge, capitalism, as it now exists, exploits the outsiders. I am not against capitalism. However, it is seriously under regulated and rigged in favor of the insiders. Enron should never have been possible.

You should read the little book of common sense investing by John Bogle. You're trying to pick winners and losers of mutual funds - they're all losers in the long run.

Stick to DCA in a LT index fund like the S&P 500 index, total stock market index, total international index and total bond index.

4 funds - all of your needs.

[djAdvocate]

Feb 19, 2012 12:05:09 GMT -5 formerexpat said:

You will forgive me if my faith in the current system has been somewhat shaken. I check my investments every 1st day of the month, and as of Feb. 1, my mutual fund that invested in financial institutions was $3,300. I bought in at $5,000 in 2008. However, the good news is that I knew that when the health care bill was passed, the health insurance industry was going to soar. My $5,000 in that mutual fund is now almost $7,000. I credit my success for that purely on the fact that I have been an insider in the health care industry all my life. In short, if you don't have an inside edge, capitalism, as it now exists, exploits the outsiders. I am not against capitalism. However, it is seriously under regulated and rigged in favor of the insiders. Enron should never have been possible.

You should read the little book of common sense investing by John Bogle. You're trying to pick winners and losers of mutual funds - they're all losers in the long run.

Stick to DCA in a LT index fund like the S&P 500 index, total stock market index, total international index and total bond index.

4 funds - all of your needs.

good advice.

[Deleted]

vandal--So what point are you trying to make, then. You listed 2 investments that together have basically broken even in a time when the market has broken even.

By the way, I'm not exactly sure when you bought your healthcare fund, but the S&P 500 has far outperformed the S&P Healtcare index over the past 2 years. The former is up over 70% and the latter only 40%. The overall market has also outperformed looking at early 2010 (just before Obamacare was passed) through today. (Note, I'm not criticizing your choice. If my worst decision was picking a stock that went up "only" 40% instead of one that went up 75%, I'd be rich....)
---------------------------------------------

"Please, don't assume that everyone who disagrees with you is an ignorant novice."

Sorry. All I have to go on is what you say, and your post was written like you've only made two purchases since 2008.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Escape from Detroit
In an announcement that shocked even those most attuned to the horrific problems facing Detroit, the U.S. Census Bureau recently reported that the Motor City has suffered a population loss of 25 percent in just the past 10 years, and now approximately only 700,000 people call Motown home.

That is hardly enough for one congressional seat! It is hard to believe Detroit was home to nearly 2 million residents in 1950. While the city’s official unemployment rate hovers at a Great Depression level of 28 percent, there is recent evidence that fewer than 37 percent of Detroit’s residents are actually working.

www.alec.org/docs/RSPS_4thEdition1.pdf

[traelin0]

www.mackinac.org/12832