An economic doctrine that opposes governmental regulation of or interference in commerce beyond the minimum necessary for a free-enterprise system to operate according to its own economic laws. -- The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language.
Using public money to enrich the wealthy is called corruption. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>
What exactly would STOP corruption under laissez faire? You know that the third world is basically laissez faire, for all practical purposes....
Why should we value growth over a higher quality of lifestyle for ALL citizens?
In fact, if the USA is any example, we can safely say that once a certain point has been reached, GDP growth rate can only be achieved at a cost of an ever-decreasing quality of life for more and more citizens.
You know, what works OK for a nation at one period in time, at one stage, does not necessarily work well at another time, another stage. At least it does not work well for MOST of the citizens. Of course if your priority is catering to the rich, then that is another matter. I have other priorities, as do most of my fellow citizens, I suspect....
"Here is the new object of next week's Five Minute Hate!"
Well, anyway, one thing that this presidential campaign has shown me is that one of the fundamental difference between Bush supporters and those who oppose him is conformity. With regard to those who accuse others of tinfoilhattism, are they pragmatic spotters of nonsensical troublemakers, or are they conformist sheeple, willing to goosestep for whatever cause the hierarchy tells them to?
I would say that history shows us all we need to answer that question.....
You wrote: >>>>>>>>>> "Socialism is a good idea, but not if you want a growing, vibrant economy." >>>>>>>>.
yeah! And when the slavers were running slaves to the South and the plantation owners were making a fortune growing cotton, THAT was a "growing, vibrant economy," too. Problem was the slave lifestyle, well, it kinda sucked, dude. You might wanna go meditate on the idea that a "growing, vibrant economy" aint what we want. We want a high quality of life, instead.
You also wrote: >>>> "Capitalism assures that those who are best able to use resources to produce more will end up controlling them." >>>>
Wouldn't using tax dollars for public good just socialism? And isn't socialism evil?
Now, this does run strictly to our wonderful new lasseiz-faire/globalized/neoliberal economy, which has as one of its main principles, "if there is a way through which any corporation may make money, then that is a Good Thing."
Of course, what we have here is just another example of "public financing, private profit."
They have the highest quality of life in the world, and they do just what I suggested. I am not suggesting anything radical, just do what Sweden, Denmark, et al, do.
And where did you learn that? From "studies" bought and paid for by the megacorporations and the wealthy? Gee, now they wouldn't have a motive to lie, would they?
Yeah, right. So why are the Europeans kicking our butts in lifestyle, and the Asians kicking our butts in research and science?
BTW, I submitted a story to slashdot that showed a report that the countries of NW Europe has twice as many research papers published in peer reviewed journals as did America, per capita. Rejected. And of course that report got zero play in American media.
This is becoming a fucking third country, owned by corporations, brainwashed into neoliberalism/laissez faire economics.
We decide what goes on in this country, down to the rules and law that decide EVERYTHING. If WE decide that outsourcing should be illegal, and that anyone who participates in it should be skinned alive and then burned at the stake, then that is OUR choice.
It is a government for the people and by the people, according to the constitution.
"...to each according to his need, and from each according to his ability."
The wealthy of this nation have the vast vast majority of the wealth. We need that money to pay for housing and for education and for healtcare. And also for medical research. It is abundantly clear to me that laissez faire, neoliberal, and supply side economics does NOT work as advertised, and is really just a facade for greed. I say we raise the top tax rates to 70% and take the wealth of America back from the parasitic rich.
The politicians who allowed to happen should be hung. I am not recommending any sort of illegal activities, but instead I am saying that we need to indict, try and punish these treasonous politicians. If we fail to offer any deterrents to this sort of treasonous behavior, then it will continue. Why should it not? THe benefits are there for those who do this sort of outsourcing treason. But there is no downside.
Anytime you have something that is both useful and free, and where it is competing with a paid product, you will always have the force of that paid product felt upon the free product.
Personally, I love Wikipedia. But this article is good in that it forces us to pay attention to the problem and try to fix it.
Why then have Europeans deliberately created a different model? Are human beings fundamentally different there than here in America?
THat (loathsome) neoliberal thinking that you are trotting out here has been bought into by Americans, but only when they do not know about how Europeans work.
You wrote: >>>>>>> This is something what I've been wondering for a while. Having American relatives and seen the work environment, it's hard for me to understand why do you accept the situation ?
>>>>>>>>.
Most Americans do not even know how good most Europeans. How would they know? Other than a few newspaper articles, the information is simply not commonly made available. However, there is a growing awareness of how good most Europeans have it. But then that knowledge is limited to the fact that most Europeans work fewer hours per year. But there are so many other differences, especially with regard to the social safety net.
AMericans simply cannot appreciate how much worry it takes off of your shoulders to know that if you cannot keep your job, you will not need to be homeless. Americans do not know that i most countries in Europe, if you do lose everything, even if you are an ablebodied young person, the govt will pay for housing and food. And AMericans are probably not aware of how little college students pay for their education in Europe (heck, I think denmark even pays for all housing and food and other expenses of all college students).
Also, Americans have been subjected to a very intensive regimen of propaganda from an early age. THey have been trained to think of other people are basically evil, and not to trust other people. Also, they have been bombarded with propaganda telling them that everyone can be rich in America, if only you work hard. How the hell the logic on that one works, I have no idea.
I mean, the very defintion of "rich" means that you are in the minority with respect to wealth, so that if you are rich, then most other people must be poorer than you.
Talk about "turtles all the way down" thinking!!
Also, our system of government and our Constituion was set up long ago in order to protect the wealth of slaveowners who exploited slaves and indentured servants. That Constitution, that same evil document, is still very intact today. And it has created an electoral system that has first-past-the-post, winner-take-all architecture. This electoral system does not allow for left or right wing politics, only centrist politics. which plays right into the hands of the wealthy and the corporations. All meaningful reforms are thus stifled by the extremely undemocratic electoral system.
Of course almost all other western nations have far more democratic electoral systems, which is why they have multiple parties, proportional representational systems (or hybrid proportional representational systems).
Man, you just said what I have trying to tell people for the last year: America is FUCKED!
I mean it, man. I was born here, and served in the military for America. But when I started comparing it to other countries (which I could finally do only with the Internet), I discovered that something is wrong with this country. And it is not something new. It is something that goes back decades. Or maybe even centuries.
Let's face it: the Europeans have their governments and media working on their side, while we Americans have our government and media working on the side of the investors and the corporations. Just like it was back in the days of slavery.
Fact. Google it. In 2002 (or was it 2003?), about 30% of all tax return had a gross income of less than $20K. And about 50% of all tax returns had a gross income of less than $35K. That is counting BOTH single and joint filers. Those people are working the longer hours with little vacation just like the rest of America, but it is a little hard to get all those SUVs on that pay. Let's fact it: we Americans do not make as much money as we like to pretend we do.
Wealth is by defintion RELATIVE. The odds of becoming "The Man" are BY DEFINTION quite slim. For every McMansion in the suburbs of Big Metro, there are 10 middle aged Quickie Mart clerks hiding away in flyover country, where they escaped after the Big City busted them.
And that McMansion is usually mortgaged to the hilt....
Slashdot Mirror
You wrote: .
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Laissez Faire:
An economic doctrine that opposes governmental regulation of or interference in commerce beyond the minimum necessary for a free-enterprise system to operate according to its own economic laws. -- The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language.
Using public money to enrich the wealthy is called corruption.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
What exactly would STOP corruption under laissez faire? You know that the third world is basically laissez faire, for all practical purposes....
That should NOT be our primary goal!
Why should we value growth over a higher quality of lifestyle for ALL citizens?
In fact, if the USA is any example, we can safely say that once a certain point has been reached, GDP growth rate can only be achieved at a cost of an ever-decreasing quality of life for more and more citizens.
You know, what works OK for a nation at one period in time, at one stage, does not necessarily work well at another time, another stage. At least it does not work well for MOST of the citizens. Of course if your priority is catering to the rich, then that is another matter. I have other priorities, as do most of my fellow citizens, I suspect....
"Here is the new object of next week's Five Minute Hate!"
Well, anyway, one thing that this presidential campaign has shown me is that one of the fundamental difference between Bush supporters and those who oppose him is conformity. With regard to those who accuse others of tinfoilhattism, are they pragmatic spotters of nonsensical troublemakers, or are they conformist sheeple, willing to goosestep for whatever cause the hierarchy tells them to?
I would say that history shows us all we need to answer that question.....
You wrote:
"Not being widely covered is not really the same thing as being censored."
I disagree. It is a FORM of censorship. And certainly it tells us what many CorpGovMedia figures do not want us to know. And so this is important....
You wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>
"Socialism is a good idea, but not if you want a growing, vibrant economy."
>>>>>>>>.
yeah! And when the slavers were running slaves to the South and the plantation owners were making a fortune growing cotton, THAT was a "growing, vibrant economy," too. Problem was the slave lifestyle, well, it kinda sucked, dude. You might wanna go meditate on the idea that a "growing, vibrant economy" aint what we want. We want a high quality of life, instead.
You also wrote:
>>>>
"Capitalism assures that those who are best able to use resources to produce more will end up controlling them."
>>>>
Naw, I don't think so.
The situation so far has been that we fund the studies and the corporations made money on controlling that information from those studies.
LETTING the corporations do that is called Laissez faire.
I think Laissez faire is a bad thing, as it is public funding to obtain private profits.
Get it now?
Wouldn't using tax dollars for public good just socialism?
And isn't socialism evil?
Now, this does run strictly to our wonderful new lasseiz-faire/globalized/neoliberal economy, which has as one of its main principles, "if there is a way through which any corporation may make money, then that is a Good Thing."
Of course, what we have here is just another example of "public financing, private profit."
They have the highest quality of life in the world, and they do just what I suggested. I am not suggesting anything radical, just do what Sweden, Denmark, et al, do.
You wrote:
"C bears a cost of carrying this phone call, yet never receives any benefits."
No, C gets the benefits of using A or B when it is calling D.
And where did you learn that? From "studies" bought and paid for by the megacorporations and the wealthy? Gee, now they wouldn't have a motive to lie, would they?
Yeah, right. So why are the Europeans kicking our butts in lifestyle, and the Asians kicking our butts in research and science?
BTW, I submitted a story to slashdot that showed a report that the countries of NW Europe has twice as many research papers published in peer reviewed journals as did America, per capita. Rejected. And of course that report got zero play in American media.
This is becoming a fucking third country, owned by corporations, brainwashed into neoliberalism/laissez faire economics.
America is the GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD!
yeah, right....
We decide what goes on in this country, down to the rules and law that decide EVERYTHING. If WE decide that outsourcing should be illegal, and that anyone who participates in it should be skinned alive and then burned at the stake, then that is OUR choice.
It is a government for the people and by the people, according to the constitution.
"...to each according to his need, and from each according to his ability."
The wealthy of this nation have the vast vast majority of the wealth. We need that money to pay for housing and for education and for healtcare. And also for medical research. It is abundantly clear to me that laissez faire, neoliberal, and supply side economics does NOT work as advertised, and is really just a facade for greed. I say we raise the top tax rates to 70% and take the wealth of America back from the parasitic rich.
The politicians who allowed to happen should be hung. I am not recommending any sort of illegal activities, but instead I am saying that we need to indict, try and punish these treasonous politicians. If we fail to offer any deterrents to this sort of treasonous behavior, then it will continue. Why should it not? THe benefits are there for those who do this sort of outsourcing treason. But there is no downside.
But the top tax rate should be 60% at least
Blob tracking software applied to a video input. I considered a program to trace a series of paths taken by walkers in a store.
/ no de4.html
Here is a link:
http://vismod.media.mit.edu/tech-reports/TR-372
Anytime you have something that is both useful and free, and where it is competing with a paid product, you will always have the force of that paid product felt upon the free product.
Personally, I love Wikipedia. But this article is good in that it forces us to pay attention to the problem and try to fix it.
Europe!
Why then have Europeans deliberately created a different model? Are human beings fundamentally different there than here in America?
THat (loathsome) neoliberal thinking that you are trotting out here has been bought into by Americans, but only when they do not know about how Europeans work.
You are the one who is out of touch.
You wrote:
>>>>>>>
This is something what I've been wondering for a while. Having American relatives and seen the work environment, it's hard for me to understand why do you accept the situation ?
>>>>>>>>.
Most Americans do not even know how good most Europeans. How would they know? Other than a few newspaper articles, the information is simply not commonly made available. However, there is a growing awareness of how good most Europeans have it. But then that knowledge is limited to the fact that most Europeans work fewer hours per year. But there are so many other differences, especially with regard to the social safety net.
AMericans simply cannot appreciate how much worry it takes off of your shoulders to know that if you cannot keep your job, you will not need to be homeless. Americans do not know that i most countries in Europe, if you do lose everything, even if you are an ablebodied young person, the govt will pay for housing and food. And AMericans are probably not aware of how little college students pay for their education in Europe (heck, I think denmark even pays for all housing and food and other expenses of all college students).
Also, Americans have been subjected to a very intensive regimen of propaganda from an early age. THey have been trained to think of other people are basically evil, and not to trust other people. Also, they have been bombarded with propaganda telling them that everyone can be rich in America, if only you work hard. How the hell the logic on that one works, I have no idea.
I mean, the very defintion of "rich" means that you are in the minority with respect to wealth, so that if you are rich, then most other people must be poorer than you.
Talk about "turtles all the way down" thinking!!
Also, our system of government and our Constituion was set up long ago in order to protect the wealth of slaveowners who exploited slaves and indentured servants. That Constitution, that same evil document, is still very intact today. And it has created an electoral system that has first-past-the-post, winner-take-all architecture. This electoral system does not allow for left or right wing politics, only centrist politics. which plays right into the hands of the wealthy and the corporations. All meaningful reforms are thus stifled by the extremely undemocratic electoral system.
Of course almost all other western nations have far more democratic electoral systems, which is why they have multiple parties, proportional representational systems (or hybrid proportional representational systems).
But what about Europe: they are less stressed, but the Industrial Revolution started there!
The reason they are less stressed is because their governments have restrained the amount of leverage that employers may apply to the employee.
Man, you just said what I have trying to tell people for the last year: America is FUCKED!
I mean it, man. I was born here, and served in the military for America. But when I started comparing it to other countries (which I could finally do only with the Internet), I discovered that something is wrong with this country. And it is not something new. It is something that goes back decades. Or maybe even centuries.
Let's face it: the Europeans have their governments and media working on their side, while we Americans have our government and media working on the side of the investors and the corporations. Just like it was back in the days of slavery.
Fact. Google it. In 2002 (or was it 2003?), about 30% of all tax return had a gross income of less than $20K. And about 50% of all tax returns had a gross income of less than $35K. That is counting BOTH single and joint filers. Those people are working the longer hours with little vacation just like the rest of America, but it is a little hard to get all those SUVs on that pay. Let's fact it: we Americans do not make as much money as we like to pretend we do.
They have more time off and work hundreds of hours less per year. That is a fact not open to debate.
And that did not happen by accident. The German people and their government arranged it that way.
Wealth is by defintion RELATIVE. The odds of becoming "The Man" are BY DEFINTION quite slim. For every McMansion in the suburbs of Big Metro, there are 10 middle aged Quickie Mart clerks hiding away in flyover country, where they escaped after the Big City busted them.
And that McMansion is usually mortgaged to the hilt....