Comments on: TOM THE DANCING BUG: Cold, Thirsty and Hungry on a Desert Island

By: Conan Librarian

Conan Librarian — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 12:55:00 +0000

Now you’re just assuming that, why assume when the characters are telling you everything you need to know? I can assume too, like lets assume the fish guy doesn’t live in a hut anymore, but made do with using the beach. Or maybe he used rock, who knows.

By: Greggem

Greggem — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 14:01:00 +0000

To the extent that being a capitalist is analogous to stabbing a person with a knife, this is a good critique.

By: DavidFairbanks

DavidFairbanks — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 13:10:00 +0000

Well, I’m convinced. We need another round of stimulus spending, or maybe a TARP or two.

By: retepslluerb

retepslluerb — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 06:29:00 +0000

But that’s not true. Fish guy wants his hut fixed, he just lacked the means to have it done the day before, when he had a bad day fishing. That fish shortage was real, but the next day he could have had enough fish.

By: SedanChair

SedanChair — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 06:21:00 +0000

Also calling people names is rude.

I’d just like to point out that this statement is the very heart of lameness. Oh, this guy’s stabbing me with a knife but I better not say “you asshole,” that would be terribly gauche and rude

By: Conan Librarian

Conan Librarian — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 05:57:00 +0000

He says why, ‘because nobody wants their huts fixed’

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 18:20:00 +0000

This island does not have an efficient market. It needs a speculator. Someone who will gamble that the fisherman will indeed catch fish, the huts will blow away in the wind, and the people will be thirsty for coconut juice. This is *exactly* why the commodities markets were created.

Sometimes the baker doesn’t need corn the very day that the train rolls into town from the farmers’ fields. They literally used to dump grain into Lake Michigan before there was a commodities exchange in Chicago for speculators to buy the excess and resell it later.

By: scav

scav — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 08:31:00 +0000

If fish == oil, the catch continues to diminish and fishing guy never gets his hut fixed.

By: robert feller

robert feller — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 04:37:00 +0000

As always TTDB comics are great but this “dig” on the economic theory of austerity doesn’t address one issue…these guys on the island have not borrowed money they cannot ever repay back to start their business! It’s an analogy that doesn’t make sense…

By: Eric Hunting

Eric Hunting — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 03:23:00 +0000

In one of his recorded lectures (which, as a kid in Jersey, I used to listen to late at night on good old WFMU) the late Allen Watts had a great little story explaining how the Great Depression worked that went something like this; A carpenter is working on a new house one day when a stock broker runs up to him, waving his arms frantically and yelling; “You there! Stop that! Stop what you’re doing! We can’t build anymore houses!” Surprised, the carpenter asks; “what do you mean we can’t build anymore houses? I’ve got wood here, nails, and tools. Why should I stop building?” “Because we’ve run out of inches!” the stock broker says. The carpenter looks at him incredulous. “Run out of inches? You can’t run out of inches!” The stock broker scowls and says; “You just don’t understand business!”

By: Jonathan Roberts

Jonathan Roberts — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 02:13:00 +0000

…and you never play it the same way twice.

By: koanhead

koanhead — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 23:56:00 +0000

Wasn’t that Wackenhut’s and Pinkerton’s original business model?

By: Matthew Jones

Matthew Jones — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 22:27:00 +0000

If one of them was a women, the other two would work hard to impress her. Plus she could use the coconut shells as a bra.

By: EvilTerran

EvilTerran — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 21:58:00 +0000

Hey, now you mention it, so they do!

Nice camera work, Mr Bolling!

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 21:00:00 +0000

Oh, look. It’s that guy.

By: Mordicai

Mordicai — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 20:56:00 +0000

At least government is a large bureaucracy that pretends it wants to help people. Corporations just straight up are like “oh, we have a moral responsibility to kill our mothers & eat babies if it increases our shareholder’s profits, & hey! WE ARE THE SHAREHOLDERS!”

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 20:37:00 +0000

You’ve got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
And hire the best PR people that money can buy to put a good spin on Mr. In Between.

By: pickledbeatnik

pickledbeatnik — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 19:59:00 +0000

Mainly I think this comic refers to the small amount of people in the states controlling the vast wealth of the land based on what everyone else is doing. The fourth guy would be totally obsolete, unless he figures out that he can just grab the coconuts, eat the fish, and build a hut. Oh, wait, Occupy?

By: pickledbeatnik

pickledbeatnik — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 19:54:00 +0000

In Calvinandhobbesism, you just make up the system as you go.

By: MJacobP

MJacobP — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 19:51:00 +0000

So does the idea that government has no value extend to private government. Large corporations are vast private bureaucracies. Are they bad as well or do we just get to pick and choose what’s good and bad based on ideology.

By: Mordicai

Mordicai — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 19:24:00 +0000

That is crazy, we’d never allow private military corporations to…wait, we WHAT? Isn’t that like, the plot of a dystopian video game? Isn’t that what Metal Gear 4 is actually ABOUT?

By: Mordicai

Mordicai — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 19:23:00 +0000

But DEFINITELY worse than Calvinandhobbesism.

By: Avram Grumer

Avram Grumer — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 19:18:00 +0000

I like how the backgrounds gradually sync up.

By: Avram Grumer

Avram Grumer — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 19:15:00 +0000

Just google for irwin schiff cartoon.

By: JohnnyRojo

JohnnyRojo — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 19:00:00 +0000

My jaundiced observation is that no matter how often companies say this policy or that tax break is all about jobs, they will cut jobs (and wages) at the first opportunity. That’s why I’ve mostly worked for myself, and I can tell you it is a pleasure to fire a company because they are assholes to work with.

By: GeorgeMokray

GeorgeMokray — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 18:50:00 +0000

During Upton Sinclair’s campaign for the Governorship of CA in 1934, he wrote a series of sketches about desert island economics, playing with a variety of different economic scenaria. Some of them were quite funny. You can read about them at I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked by Upton Sinclair.

His End Poverty in California, or EPIC program is described here: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/09/28/906194/-End-Poverty-in-California Occupy Wall Street and others would be wise to take a look at it.

By: grock

grock — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 18:25:00 +0000

I get the whole thing about people owning the ocean, trees and beach. But the rest don’t make sense at all

By: Greggem

Greggem — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 18:16:00 +0000

If they are self-centered, they should trade when it is both of their self-interests to do so.

Avoiding a profitable transaction is not selfish; it’s selfless.

Also calling people names is rude.

By: SoItBegins

SoItBegins — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 18:02:00 +0000

I suppose it’s better than Calvinism versus Hobbesianism.

By: wysinwyg

wysinwyg — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 17:56:00 +0000

Never mind that the gold standard causes even worse problems…