01-03-2013 07:45 AM
@Thoric wrote:
@crossrulz wrote:
@Thoric wrote:
As a Brit I've not been paying attention, but I assume the big P's solution to the fiscal cliff is a little, well, unsavoury?
Raise taxes on those making more than $400k and not make any spending cuts. I heard the deal will put us another hundreds of billions of dollars in debt in a single year (I don't remember the exact number, I heard it in a pass by conversation)
I'm not good with accounting, but the history of the US public debt (according to Wiki) shows an average increase of 1,000s of billions of dollars per year. To increase by just hundreds of billions this year is perhaps a sign of a reversing trend? Is this perhaps therefore a step in the right direction? I don't know, I'm just trying to make sense of the numbers - hundreds of billions of dollars is a LOT to imagine! I did once hear the analogy of a speeding freight - it takes time to slow to a stop before it can be reversed. Maybe the brakes are finally on?
Then think of it in terms of the indivual if those big numbers don't work for you.
I owe $51K, my wife owes $51K, My son owes $51K, my grandaughter owes $51K.
The actual amount of spending must be concidered in the context of income. At this point the US is spending as much as we make.
As to the debt, the US total debt due to promises etc etc, it would take the entire income of the world for one year to pay off- what is owed.
"Owe no man nothing. A man can not serve two masters."
Ben
01-03-2013 07:46 AM
Let me just say that B basically doubled our debt in his 4 year tenure (5 to 10 Trillion). And he refuses to think that we are just wasting our money with the extreme amount of frivilous spending we do (let's spend tons of money to study ants on some remote island!). The only option he's making is to raise taxes. Which is such a great way to help the down-trodden economy (sarcasm with that last sentence).
01-03-2013 07:51 AM
@crossrulz wrote:
Let me just say that B basically doubled our debt in his 4 year tenure (5 to 10 Trillion). And he refuses to think that we are just wasting our money with the extreme amount of frivilous spending we do (let's spend tons of money to study ants on some remote island!). The only option he's making is to raise taxes. Which is such a great way to help the down-trodden economy (sarcasm with that last sentence).
The issue B does not have the guts to fix is entitlements since those sheeple keep him in power. The SHOULD have screwed me! I am turning 55, the age traditionally held up as the cut-off ages where grandfather clauses will keep things unchange for the older while fixing it for the younger. If they don't fix it by Feb, I will slip in under the grandfather clause.
But instead they will let me off the hook but encumber my children with my debts.
It is wrong to make the childer pay for the sins of teh father.
Ben
01-03-2013 08:43 AM
@Thoric wrote:
@Ben wrote:
6) Make fire-arms a requirement of citizenship. Rather than police asking "do you have a gun?" the question should be "Where is your gun?".
What!?
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And the question should be posed by your familly members- not from pigs grazing out of the public trough. "Police" are only necessary when the the public body as a whole choses to offload their individual responsibility to correct the antisocial manners of their members.
01-03-2013 09:15 AM
Yesterday, while reading this thread, I started googling the phrase "voting is for suckers and thieves" because I thought I had posted it here (I hadn't) and that it might be appropriate. I had to refine the search a bit before I got anything, but I finally came up with this gem:
http://endlessunlimited.com/?p=315
Oh, and let’s not forget the truly nefarious. Voting is one of their favorite schemes. However, I don’t think most people are truly nefarious. The average person isn’t driven by mass murder or institutionalized ponzi schemes. No, the average American is entertained into ignorance (a sucker), is willing to obey the silliest order (slave mentality), or considers themselves absolutely subjected by the forces occupying their neighborhood (a conquered person).
[...]
<insert toungue into cheek> I think that establishing a national religion is the only viable solution. <remove toungue from cheek>
01-03-2013 09:33 AM
<Tongue_In_Cheek>We already worship the "Almighty Dollar", so I contend that we have a universal religion in the US already.</Tongue_In_Cheek>

01-03-2013 10:37 AM
@LV_Pro wrote:
<Tongue_In_Cheek>We already worship the "Almighty Dollar", so I contend that we have a universal religion in the US already.</Tongue_In_Cheek>
An observation that support the phrase "Nature abhors a vacuum." When God was removed from the public square, something had to fill that void.
Ben
01-03-2013 11:29 AM
@LV_Pro wrote:
<Tongue_In_Cheek>We already worship the "Almighty Dollar", so I contend that we have a universal religion in the US already.</Tongue_In_Cheek>
You're correct; any movement to institute a state religion would have to supplant the existing one. Although, I'd argue that it isn't related to money any more than any other form of idolatry. Democracy is the god our rulers cram down our throats from the beginning of our lives worship (and it fits with the theme of my last post about voting). I bet that many here would argue the merits of democracy with the fervor I'd have arguing the appropriateness of Christianity.
Democracy, The God That Failed, by Hans Herman Hoppe
01-03-2013 11:35 AM
@JÞB wrote:
And the question should be posed by your familly members- not from pigs grazing out of the public trough. "Police" are only necessary when the the public body as a whole choses to offload their individual responsibility to correct the antisocial manners of their members.
Police (or some similar function - I'd suggest private security) are needed when an individual needs help correcting an injustice. It can require armed intervention when someone exhibits sufficient "antisocial manners"; this is where it's reasonable to outsource the correction (and where liberty gets interesting).
01-03-2013 12:02 PM
It worked so well for the Hatfield and McCoy families. Out sourcing to "private security" (or paladins, mercenaries, hit-men) has many flaws, not the least of which is that to hire them requires money, so those with the most money, how ever acquired, get the most say, whether they truly are in the right or not. Then again, there have been more than one instance in history where the "hired help" has decided to keep whatever they have been hire to get for themselves.
