That's a myth. In 1989, there were 2 million Russians below the poverty line. By the mid-90s, there were 74 million. 3.5 million children were homeless. (There were none recorded under the Soviets.) From 1994-2004 drug use has gone up 900% and alcoholism has since doubled. In 1995, there were fifty thousand people who were HIV positive. In 2005, there were one million reported cases. Unless you are in the top 10%, making over $200,000 per year with several million dollars in assets, you would be completely screwed if we privatized government services.
It's not stealing. If they don't like the terms of the contract, they can leave the country and go somewhere else. If I go to a restaurant, eat the food, then refuse to pay, is that fair? No, sorry. Rich people get rich because they take the lion's share of excess value from transactions. Sure everyone gains from a transaction, but the rich use their money as leverage to ensure they get a larger percent.
Look at it this way, let's say a person will let a product go for a minimum of $1.00. Anything above that is pure gravy. Assume someone will pay a maximum of $1.50 for it. A fair price would be $1.25. Fifty cents of extra value is created in the transaction, and each party gets half. The rich use the power of money to ensure they get as close to 100% of the extra value as possible.
Wait, if I go to a restaurant and order some food, do I have the right to refuse to pay? Do they have the right to use force to get payment for the food I ate? Here's what you can do if you don't want to pay the prices at a restaurant: leave. You can do the same thing if you don't want the services our country provides. No one is forcing you to stay. But if you stay, you pay.
There can be an increase in wealth, just not an unrestricted increase in wealth. If you get even 1/10 of a cent increase in income for every dollar extra you generate, there is still an increase, and still an incentive to risk.
I don't want desperate animals with the intelligence of humans around me. No one does, but not everyone thinks they should have to pay to ensure that doesn't happen.
What bullshit. Do you routinely ignore all evidence that contradicts your world-view? Look here. I'd recommend you play by the rules or move out of the country, and if we vote a tax increase on your ass, you will pay, leave, or find yourself in jail.
Of course leaders should have new ideas. New ideas that get people the things they want would be welcomed.
And you are absolutely right, we shouldn't remove anyone from the gene pool because of unintended consequences. I'd even apply that to sociopaths. They have many of the same genes as leaders and geniuses. If we eliminated all sociopaths, we might eliminate leadership and genius as well. But we don't have to cater to sociopaths. We don't have to look up to them and tell them they are heroes.
The only way to convince people to go in a direction they don't want to go is to show them that it leads to a place they want to go. So my original point stands. Read the Tao te Ching, specifically the sections on leadership for more insight.
Oh so regressive. Bad for the poor and middle class, very, very good for the rich. Do you make over $200,000 per year? If not, you would be screwed by your own proposal.
Leaders don't tell people where to go. They listen to where people want to go, and tell them how to get their. Dicks tell people what to do, in the guise of leading. Dicks and assholes have a scam going. Dicks need assholes to justify their existence. And an asshole is just some other pussy's dick. There is no difference. We do not need to cater to alpha types and let them dominate us. They may have served a purpose in the bad old days, but we do not need them now. Look how much Ghandi achieved without a single act of violence.
Sorry, taxes may get used for stuff I disagree with, but I still support mandatory taxes. I like public roads, education, social security, welfare, police, fire departments, and many of the good things governments do. Do you know that in socialist countries where people pay 50% or more of their income in taxes, the majority are happy to do so, because they feel they are getting fair value for their money? We don't need to do away with taxes, we need to raise the maximum tax rate back up to 70% like it was before Reagan took office, and at the same time stop funding for ridiculous things like farm subsidies.
Nah, what it means is, taking public transit out of the equation because many places with toll roads do not have effective public transit: rich people pay proportionally less of their income to use the road than poor people do. That's regressive and anti-egalitarian. It makes an unlevel playing field even less level. If the system charged people a percentage of their income, that would be egalitarian. That's why sales taxes are regressive too.
This isn't even about making more money. This is about reducing demand, getting people to drive less, use public transit more, creating less traffic congestion for all of us.
How about not taxing income at all? It favors the already wealthy, and helps keep the less wealthy from becoming wealthy. How about taxing ownership only. The more you own, the greater percentage of your net worth you have to pay. Helps stop the runaway feedback loop of wealth generating more wealth, regardless of whether the wealth owner even works at it.
And here comes the "America is perfect and can do no wrong" party to defend treason, torture, extortion, coercion, lying, theft, abuse of power, destruction of the constitution, and any other evil under the sun. All so you can feel good about yourself as a "patriotic American" and excuse the fact that you don't have the courage to stand up to tyranny. What if, just what if your country was engaging in evil? Would you have the balls to stand up and do something about it? Or would you close your eyes, put your fingers in your ears, and shout "LALALA I can't hear you!" at the top of your lungs? Would you be so quick to excuse if democrats were in power?
No it's not. Dicks want you to think they are different from assholes, but they aren't. Dicks want you to think you can't protect yourself from assholes without them, but you can, even if you are a pussy. Dicks are as useless as assholes are. They are both part of the same problem.
It's a general behavior of groups that evolved to work together as groups. Usually you'll find some privileged channel of information that requires investment of resources to activate, such as our emotional displays which require extra effort, and even the occasional sacrifice of water, to activate. Humans have very good emotional BS detectors, and a drive to seek out other humans to perform our emotional displays in front of. Few people really cry their eyes out alone. Most pack and herd animals have similar channels. Remember, genes and evolution don't give a rats ass about individuals. Genes will gladly sacrifice the well being of the individual to pass on more copies of themselves, so genes that code for cooperative behaviors get passed on.
That's why lying feels bad to most people, not because we're told not to do it, but because it's bad for our selfishly cooperative genes.
Ah, so in your world-view, people are not influenced by what they see others doing. That's not been my experience. I've traveled quite a bit, and most people everywhere do what the people around them do, not what's 'inherent' to them. Maybe 1 in 100 follows their inner voice, the rest follow the pack.
Ah, the old "eyes glazing over" paradigm. Definitely no synergy in that. Here's an action item: leverage your value added intellectual capital to architect a new scenario.
I think you may be right. The vomeronasal organ is vestigial or nonexistant in humans, and there don't appear to be any connections between even vestigial vomeronasal organs and the brain.
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That's a myth. In 1989, there were 2 million Russians below the poverty line. By the mid-90s, there were 74 million. 3.5 million children were homeless. (There were none recorded under the Soviets.) From 1994-2004 drug use has gone up 900% and alcoholism has since doubled. In 1995, there were fifty thousand people who were HIV positive. In 2005, there were one million reported cases. Unless you are in the top 10%, making over $200,000 per year with several million dollars in assets, you would be completely screwed if we privatized government services.
It's not stealing. If they don't like the terms of the contract, they can leave the country and go somewhere else. If I go to a restaurant, eat the food, then refuse to pay, is that fair? No, sorry. Rich people get rich because they take the lion's share of excess value from transactions. Sure everyone gains from a transaction, but the rich use their money as leverage to ensure they get a larger percent.
Look at it this way, let's say a person will let a product go for a minimum of $1.00. Anything above that is pure gravy. Assume someone will pay a maximum of $1.50 for it. A fair price would be $1.25. Fifty cents of extra value is created in the transaction, and each party gets half. The rich use the power of money to ensure they get as close to 100% of the extra value as possible.
Wait, if I go to a restaurant and order some food, do I have the right to refuse to pay? Do they have the right to use force to get payment for the food I ate? Here's what you can do if you don't want to pay the prices at a restaurant: leave. You can do the same thing if you don't want the services our country provides. No one is forcing you to stay. But if you stay, you pay.
There can be an increase in wealth, just not an unrestricted increase in wealth. If you get even 1/10 of a cent increase in income for every dollar extra you generate, there is still an increase, and still an incentive to risk.
I don't want desperate animals with the intelligence of humans around me. No one does, but not everyone thinks they should have to pay to ensure that doesn't happen.
What bullshit. Do you routinely ignore all evidence that contradicts your world-view? Look here. I'd recommend you play by the rules or move out of the country, and if we vote a tax increase on your ass, you will pay, leave, or find yourself in jail.
Of course leaders should have new ideas. New ideas that get people the things they want would be welcomed.
And you are absolutely right, we shouldn't remove anyone from the gene pool because of unintended consequences. I'd even apply that to sociopaths. They have many of the same genes as leaders and geniuses. If we eliminated all sociopaths, we might eliminate leadership and genius as well. But we don't have to cater to sociopaths. We don't have to look up to them and tell them they are heroes.
The only way to convince people to go in a direction they don't want to go is to show them that it leads to a place they want to go. So my original point stands. Read the Tao te Ching, specifically the sections on leadership for more insight.
Oh so regressive. Bad for the poor and middle class, very, very good for the rich. Do you make over $200,000 per year? If not, you would be screwed by your own proposal.
Leaders don't tell people where to go. They listen to where people want to go, and tell them how to get their. Dicks tell people what to do, in the guise of leading. Dicks and assholes have a scam going. Dicks need assholes to justify their existence. And an asshole is just some other pussy's dick. There is no difference. We do not need to cater to alpha types and let them dominate us. They may have served a purpose in the bad old days, but we do not need them now. Look how much Ghandi achieved without a single act of violence.
Sorry, taxes may get used for stuff I disagree with, but I still support mandatory taxes. I like public roads, education, social security, welfare, police, fire departments, and many of the good things governments do. Do you know that in socialist countries where people pay 50% or more of their income in taxes, the majority are happy to do so, because they feel they are getting fair value for their money? We don't need to do away with taxes, we need to raise the maximum tax rate back up to 70% like it was before Reagan took office, and at the same time stop funding for ridiculous things like farm subsidies.
Nah, what it means is, taking public transit out of the equation because many places with toll roads do not have effective public transit: rich people pay proportionally less of their income to use the road than poor people do. That's regressive and anti-egalitarian. It makes an unlevel playing field even less level. If the system charged people a percentage of their income, that would be egalitarian. That's why sales taxes are regressive too.
This isn't even about making more money. This is about reducing demand, getting people to drive less, use public transit more, creating less traffic congestion for all of us.
How about not taxing income at all? It favors the already wealthy, and helps keep the less wealthy from becoming wealthy. How about taxing ownership only. The more you own, the greater percentage of your net worth you have to pay. Helps stop the runaway feedback loop of wealth generating more wealth, regardless of whether the wealth owner even works at it.
And here comes the "America is perfect and can do no wrong" party to defend treason, torture, extortion, coercion, lying, theft, abuse of power, destruction of the constitution, and any other evil under the sun. All so you can feel good about yourself as a "patriotic American" and excuse the fact that you don't have the courage to stand up to tyranny. What if, just what if your country was engaging in evil? Would you have the balls to stand up and do something about it? Or would you close your eyes, put your fingers in your ears, and shout "LALALA I can't hear you!" at the top of your lungs? Would you be so quick to excuse if democrats were in power?
No it's not. Dicks want you to think they are different from assholes, but they aren't. Dicks want you to think you can't protect yourself from assholes without them, but you can, even if you are a pussy. Dicks are as useless as assholes are. They are both part of the same problem.
It's a general behavior of groups that evolved to work together as groups. Usually you'll find some privileged channel of information that requires investment of resources to activate, such as our emotional displays which require extra effort, and even the occasional sacrifice of water, to activate. Humans have very good emotional BS detectors, and a drive to seek out other humans to perform our emotional displays in front of. Few people really cry their eyes out alone. Most pack and herd animals have similar channels. Remember, genes and evolution don't give a rats ass about individuals. Genes will gladly sacrifice the well being of the individual to pass on more copies of themselves, so genes that code for cooperative behaviors get passed on.
That's why lying feels bad to most people, not because we're told not to do it, but because it's bad for our selfishly cooperative genes.
Wow. Man, what a shame that wasn't posted in time for more people to see it.
Ah, so in your world-view, people are not influenced by what they see others doing. That's not been my experience. I've traveled quite a bit, and most people everywhere do what the people around them do, not what's 'inherent' to them. Maybe 1 in 100 follows their inner voice, the rest follow the pack.
Lying is not good for the individual, because it encourages other individuals to lie as well.
The theory of evolution includes the theory of the selection of advantageous traits, plus methods for the acquisition of new traits, like mutation.
"Nerds can detect pheromones even though they have no vomeronasal organs"
"Really?! Then how do they smell?"
"Terrible!"
Badump-cha! Thank you, I'll be here all night. Try the veal, it's cloned!
Ah, the old "eyes glazing over" paradigm. Definitely no synergy in that. Here's an action item: leverage your value added intellectual capital to architect a new scenario.
Are you sure that's your apartment emitting that odor?
I think you may be right. The vomeronasal organ is vestigial or nonexistant in humans, and there don't appear to be any connections between even vestigial vomeronasal organs and the brain.