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quote:
rob, why don’t you get a sex change and start popping out babies to get a monthly welfare check???
because then i’d be like a bunch of my female extended family members? no thanks.
what i SHOULD have done was applied for big brother 12 this summer, apparently there was hardly anyone that applied and they are all boring and really bad at the game. i could have won 1/2 a million dollars! or at least get 750 dollar a week stipend check
“Also, still eagerly awaiting answer to how lowering tax rates for corporate executives creates jobs and spurs innovation. Try foxnews.com, they’ll have something ;-)”
reading comprehension, Johnny. i never said anything about tax rates for corporate executives.
1) I’m obviously not arguing that government should be unlimited in power or scope. However, the point of a governing body is to make stuff work better and increase the well-being of the populace, otherwise it wouldn’t be formed in the first place. To the degree that government is distorted into only helping a small percentage of the population, that is both undemocratic and standing against the purpose of the structure itself.
However, the tyranny of the majority is a problem where a dissenting opinion is being crushed, tyrant-like, by a majority rule, not something we generally run into much. The dissenting opinion may not win anybody over, but it is allowed to exist. Tyranny of the Majority is not an excuse to let a small fraction of people get away with undue influence/power, it’s an attempt to help the powerless. Which, I think we can agree, billionaires are not.
2) Hobbes’s death predates the founding of this particular country by a hundred years, perhaps explaining why they had already included such language as “promote the general welfare.”
Um, actually DIBS that’s only a small portion of the VAT model.
VAT’s actually paid at every step in the production process based on the VALUE ADDED at that process. Hence VALUE ADDED TAX. The auto manufacturer pays VAT on the raw steel it uses. The baker pays VAT on the flour. So on and so forth. In the UK VAT I believe is above 15% which is not atypical.
So you’re gonna correct the figures for VAT (and other taxes specific countries may levy) or should we just agree now that the numbers you posted earlier are complete crap?
Also, still eagerly awaiting answer to how lowering tax rates for corporate executives creates jobs and spurs innovation. Try foxnews.com, they’ll have something 😉
“maybe Bulgaria and a few other eastern European countries”
I don’t really think that’s true of Bulgaria anymore Dave. Not that they are doing better by their people than we are, but I wouldn’t include Bulgaria and most of the former Eastern European Soviet Bloc countries in the same group as the ‘stans and North Korea. Moldova and Belarus, yes, there I would agree.
essentially the costs of things i purchase on a regular basis, the amount of things i consume, rent and bill increases, student loan payback respsonsibility, etc.
two things i NEED to do
1.) stop smoking – save $400 a month
2.) stop paying back my student loans – save $200 a month
3.) no more iced coffees during the day – save $100 a month
I figure if i can do those three things, ill be ahead of the recession.
bfarwell,
You are not understanding (perhaps deliberately):
1) Democracy. There have to be limitations on government in order to avoid the ‘tyranny of the majority’. Following the majority’s idea of the ‘common good’ can lead to very bad consequences if there are not limits.
2) Not suggesting doing away with government, but the idea that it was deliberately and voluntaily established out of nothing with a specific set of objectives in mind is not a given. In fact, no-one seems to have thought that way (or wrote it at least) before Thomas Hobbes.
quote:
rob, why don’t you get a sex change and start popping out babies to get a monthly welfare check???
because then i’d be like a bunch of my female extended family members? no thanks.
what i SHOULD have done was applied for big brother 12 this summer, apparently there was hardly anyone that applied and they are all boring and really bad at the game. i could have won 1/2 a million dollars! or at least get 750 dollar a week stipend check
*rob*
“Also, still eagerly awaiting answer to how lowering tax rates for corporate executives creates jobs and spurs innovation. Try foxnews.com, they’ll have something ;-)”
reading comprehension, Johnny. i never said anything about tax rates for corporate executives.
1) I’m obviously not arguing that government should be unlimited in power or scope. However, the point of a governing body is to make stuff work better and increase the well-being of the populace, otherwise it wouldn’t be formed in the first place. To the degree that government is distorted into only helping a small percentage of the population, that is both undemocratic and standing against the purpose of the structure itself.
However, the tyranny of the majority is a problem where a dissenting opinion is being crushed, tyrant-like, by a majority rule, not something we generally run into much. The dissenting opinion may not win anybody over, but it is allowed to exist. Tyranny of the Majority is not an excuse to let a small fraction of people get away with undue influence/power, it’s an attempt to help the powerless. Which, I think we can agree, billionaires are not.
2) Hobbes’s death predates the founding of this particular country by a hundred years, perhaps explaining why they had already included such language as “promote the general welfare.”
Um, actually DIBS that’s only a small portion of the VAT model.
VAT’s actually paid at every step in the production process based on the VALUE ADDED at that process. Hence VALUE ADDED TAX. The auto manufacturer pays VAT on the raw steel it uses. The baker pays VAT on the flour. So on and so forth. In the UK VAT I believe is above 15% which is not atypical.
So you’re gonna correct the figures for VAT (and other taxes specific countries may levy) or should we just agree now that the numbers you posted earlier are complete crap?
Also, still eagerly awaiting answer to how lowering tax rates for corporate executives creates jobs and spurs innovation. Try foxnews.com, they’ll have something 😉
rob, why don’t you get a sex change and start popping out babies to get a monthly welfare check???
“maybe Bulgaria and a few other eastern European countries”
I don’t really think that’s true of Bulgaria anymore Dave. Not that they are doing better by their people than we are, but I wouldn’t include Bulgaria and most of the former Eastern European Soviet Bloc countries in the same group as the ‘stans and North Korea. Moldova and Belarus, yes, there I would agree.
quote:
rob, how did you get to those numbers???
essentially the costs of things i purchase on a regular basis, the amount of things i consume, rent and bill increases, student loan payback respsonsibility, etc.
two things i NEED to do
1.) stop smoking – save $400 a month
2.) stop paying back my student loans – save $200 a month
3.) no more iced coffees during the day – save $100 a month
I figure if i can do those three things, ill be ahead of the recession.
*rob*
Come November, people will vote in gridlock and then the stock market (bfarwell’s nemesis) will rise.
bfarwell,
You are not understanding (perhaps deliberately):
1) Democracy. There have to be limitations on government in order to avoid the ‘tyranny of the majority’. Following the majority’s idea of the ‘common good’ can lead to very bad consequences if there are not limits.
2) Not suggesting doing away with government, but the idea that it was deliberately and voluntaily established out of nothing with a specific set of objectives in mind is not a given. In fact, no-one seems to have thought that way (or wrote it at least) before Thomas Hobbes.