>>>I wish I had mod points. Most libertarians today would not want to live in a utopia of their own creation. The whole premise of libertarianism as it stands today is not only flawed, but also unrealistic and harmful to society. >>> One could and can say the same thing about Democrats and Socialists. Why these parties and their supporters continue to pursue 100% socialism (aka communism) and/or closer government-corporate cooperation (Obama and his corporatism) makes no sense to me.
No it's more like saying, "I'm Republican but not opposed to abortion," or "I'm Democrat but not opposed to cutting welfare benefits past 2 years [like Clinton did]." -- People don't just blindly follow a party line. I do not just blindly follow the LP line; I think for myself and reach my own conclusions.
>>>How does anyone create wealth when the supply of currency is finite?
The same way Americans did it in the 1800s when gold was the official standard, and dollar devaluation was essentially 0%, and yet they rose from a bunch of farmers to the #1 industrial economy. i.e. Through improving efficiencies of manufacturing goods. (Note: I'm not convinced you can "create" wealth. If the earth is finite, so too are natural resources and ownership of them. All we are doing is dividing the pie more efficiently.)
>>>Who's going to stop them, the government that you got rid of
What part of "libertarians don't want to get rid of government..... those are anarchists" did you not comprehend??? Libertarians are like Jefferson and desire to have a minimal government in order to protect our natural rights.
>>>The law will induce people to drink less soda even though people are allowed to drink as much soda as they want.
(1) No it just means, as someone else pointed out, instead of buying one supersize soda and sharing it with their wife/husband, now people have to buy two and spend more money. This is a regressive tax/law that harms the poor.
(2) I think I'm smart enough to decide if I want large or supersize soda. F off mayor (and all politicians). The purpose of this fucking nation is to allow people to have the freedom to make their OWN choices, not to be dictated from above like the serfs of yesteryear.
Best place I ever worked had cubicles, but they had all four walls (and six feet high). It helped drown-out the noise to provide the engineer with privacy.
Listening to music or Talk radio or audiobooks stops me from wasting time on the internet, and thus doing some actual work. (puts on headphones) (resumes coding)
In Michigan a drone was used to spy on the farms of many farmers. When the police saw one of the farmers raising wild pigs they stormed his place. And then murdered all the pigs..... unfortunately the police misidentified domestic pogs as wild pigs. Ooops (and destroyed the man's career).
>>> keep using 2003, and here's a service pack that makes 2003 work with 2007 files!)
And what if someone sends me a 2010 file? In that case I have no choice but to upgrade to the new Office with its shitty ribbon interface (where I can never find the function I want).
>>>Find me a constructive activity to do with gaming consoles and smart phones
Back in the day of Atari and Commodore, I used to observe the game to figure-out how it works. And then beat it. From that I developed observation skills & problem solving to eventually become an engineer. How's that for "constructive"?
I'd like to know where this black hole came from. Was there some random star floating through space, which died, and then it started gobbling up everything? Including our galaxy (which will eventually fall in). Or maybe the superblackhole was a previous galaxy from ~25 billion years ago that fell into itself?
I'll go ask the Vorlon. He's probably old enough to remember.
No but you can compare America's poor to the industrialized persons of India or China. They'd probably look at a Detroit slum and cry with joy, wishing they could be that rich.
What kind of Bizarro world do you live in? (1) AAA titles often fall to $20 within six months of release - as part of the Greatest Hits category. (2) They last a hell lot longer than 5-10 hours. 30 hours typical and upto 50 for an RPG like Final Fantasy or Grandia. (3) That's a mere 40-to-66 cents per hour. No other form of entertainment is that cheap..... not movies in theaters, or TV shows bought off the iStore.
Even with government backing, the dollar has lost 97% of its value since 1920. We'd all be better-off to avoid government paper and store our wealth in something that can not be devalued through inlfating the supply. Namely: Land. Gold. Silver. BACK TO POINT: The guy was making the valid statement that a corporation can not force you to do anything. Comcast can not force me to pay $70/month for their TV, nor can they send armed police to toss me in jail (or worse: draft me to go die overseas in some war). No company has that power..... only government.
Your mistake is to assume all libertarians think alike. AKA stereotyping. I'm libertarian but not opposed to the minimum wage. I do not want to see McDonalds workers earning a mere $2/hour.
Of course you will find some, like black economists Thomas Sowell or Walter E. Williams, who claim the minimum wage hurts the poor especially innercity blacks. I don't necessarily agree with them, but it's still worth hearing what they have to say by watching their youtube vids. They didn't earn their Ph.Ds by being dumb (as you imply all libertarians are).
>>>Libertarians think they're getting freedom by eliminating the government. They're just getting corporate slavery.
(1) Thomas Jefferson was a libertarian. He represents the ideal we strive for. (2) A libertarian or jeffersonian does not want to get rid of government. That's an anarchist. (3) Since corporations are a creation of government (via issuance of a license), if anarchists got rid of government, such that it did not exist, neither would corporations exist. (4) So basically your whole sig is flawed.
After they get sick of the entertainment, maybe they'll wander off to an educational or news site and learn something. Besides I'd say games are pretty educational: They teach problem solving.
They make poor decisions (such as spending $110 a month for unlimited cellphone service) and thus continue to be poor. While those who make smarter decisions, like investing the $110 in a business, and climb up the income ladder to middle class.
* *I used the example based on someone I know. Doesn't even know how to use the internet, but still "had" to have a $110/month plan. Meanwhile the credit cards go unpaid.
>>>California is Proposition 13, which put strict limits on property taxes, and as a result, impoverished school districts, libraries, fire departments, and other community services >>> My state has a separate school tax. Couldn't California politicians enact a similar tax in order to avoid the Prop13 property tax restriction?
>>> TARP was hated roundly by both sides, but it passed and worked
It hardly worked. All it did was steal money from the poor (us human beings) to the rich (banking corporations). And contrary to belief it has not been paid back, nor did it solve the key problem (banks leveraged 50-to-1). It would have been better to let the House of Representatives follow the desires of the people, 75% of whom opposed TARP, and voted it down.
And as we later discovered the 700 billion TARP was just the tip of the iceberg. The private central bank in collusion with the Treasury Department (aka corporatism,fascism) handed-out 16,000 billion dollars in loans and direct gifts.
What if the voters ask for a dumb law, such as "Every Vermonter will pay zero income tax," thereby bankrupting the Vermont government? I would assume you would reject that law and vote no on it, even if the majority of your home district's constituents desired it.
Slashdot Mirror
>>>I wish I had mod points. Most libertarians today would not want to live in a utopia of their own creation. The whole premise of libertarianism as it stands today is not only flawed, but also unrealistic and harmful to society.
>>>
One could and can say the same thing about Democrats and Socialists. Why these parties and their supporters continue to pursue 100% socialism (aka communism) and/or closer government-corporate cooperation (Obama and his corporatism) makes no sense to me.
No it's more like saying, "I'm Republican but not opposed to abortion," or "I'm Democrat but not opposed to cutting welfare benefits past 2 years [like Clinton did]." -- People don't just blindly follow a party line. I do not just blindly follow the LP line; I think for myself and reach my own conclusions.
>>>How does anyone create wealth when the supply of currency is finite?
The same way Americans did it in the 1800s when gold was the official standard, and dollar devaluation was essentially 0%, and yet they rose from a bunch of farmers to the #1 industrial economy. i.e. Through improving efficiencies of manufacturing goods. (Note: I'm not convinced you can "create" wealth. If the earth is finite, so too are natural resources and ownership of them. All we are doing is dividing the pie more efficiently.)
>>>Who's going to stop them, the government that you got rid of
What part of "libertarians don't want to get rid of government..... those are anarchists" did you not comprehend??? Libertarians are like Jefferson and desire to have a minimal government in order to protect our natural rights.
Make the man pay the cost of the firefighters' bill.
>>>The law will induce people to drink less soda even though people are allowed to drink as much soda as they want.
(1) No it just means, as someone else pointed out, instead of buying one supersize soda and sharing it with their wife/husband, now people have to buy two and spend more money. This is a regressive tax/law that harms the poor.
(2) I think I'm smart enough to decide if I want large or supersize soda. F off mayor (and all politicians). The purpose of this fucking nation is to allow people to have the freedom to make their OWN choices, not to be dictated from above like the serfs of yesteryear.
Best place I ever worked had cubicles, but they had all four walls (and six feet high). It helped drown-out the noise to provide the engineer with privacy.
Listening to music or Talk radio or audiobooks stops me from wasting time on the internet, and thus doing some actual work. (puts on headphones) (resumes coding)
Do all dead or dying American corporations end-up French?
- Technicolor
- Atari
- Commodore
- Amiga
- ???
In Michigan a drone was used to spy on the farms of many farmers. When the police saw one of the farmers raising wild pigs they stormed his place. And then murdered all the pigs..... unfortunately the police misidentified domestic pogs as wild pigs. Ooops (and destroyed the man's career).
That was non-informative. Which episode? What was it about? I'm guessing you meant this one:
WATCHBIRD http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29579/29579-h/29579-h.htm
Why is the first post modded -1 redundant?
Stupid moderators.
>>> keep using 2003, and here's a service pack that makes 2003 work with 2007 files!)
And what if someone sends me a 2010 file? In that case I have no choice but to upgrade to the new Office with its shitty ribbon interface (where I can never find the function I want).
>>>Find me a constructive activity to do with gaming consoles and smart phones
Back in the day of Atari and Commodore, I used to observe the game to figure-out how it works. And then beat it. From that I developed observation skills & problem solving to eventually become an engineer. How's that for "constructive"?
I'd like to know where this black hole came from. Was there some random star floating through space, which died, and then it started gobbling up everything? Including our galaxy (which will eventually fall in). Or maybe the superblackhole was a previous galaxy from ~25 billion years ago that fell into itself?
I'll go ask the Vorlon.
He's probably old enough to remember.
No but you can compare America's poor to the industrialized persons of India or China. They'd probably look at a Detroit slum and cry with joy, wishing they could be that rich.
What kind of Bizarro world do you live in? (1) AAA titles often fall to $20 within six months of release - as part of the Greatest Hits category. (2) They last a hell lot longer than 5-10 hours. 30 hours typical and upto 50 for an RPG like Final Fantasy or Grandia. (3) That's a mere 40-to-66 cents per hour. No other form of entertainment is that cheap..... not movies in theaters, or TV shows bought off the iStore.
Even with government backing, the dollar has lost 97% of its value since 1920. We'd all be better-off to avoid government paper and store our wealth in something that can not be devalued through inlfating the supply. Namely: Land. Gold. Silver. BACK TO POINT: The guy was making the valid statement that a corporation can not force you to do anything. Comcast can not force me to pay $70/month for their TV, nor can they send armed police to toss me in jail (or worse: draft me to go die overseas in some war). No company has that power..... only government.
Your mistake is to assume all libertarians think alike. AKA stereotyping. I'm libertarian but not opposed to the minimum wage. I do not want to see McDonalds workers earning a mere $2/hour.
Of course you will find some, like black economists Thomas Sowell or Walter E. Williams, who claim the minimum wage hurts the poor especially innercity blacks. I don't necessarily agree with them, but it's still worth hearing what they have to say by watching their youtube vids. They didn't earn their Ph.Ds by being dumb (as you imply all libertarians are).
>>>Libertarians think they're getting freedom by eliminating the government. They're just getting corporate slavery.
(1) Thomas Jefferson was a libertarian. He represents the ideal we strive for. (2) A libertarian or jeffersonian does not want to get rid of government. That's an anarchist. (3) Since corporations are a creation of government (via issuance of a license), if anarchists got rid of government, such that it did not exist, neither would corporations exist. (4) So basically your whole sig is flawed.
After they get sick of the entertainment, maybe they'll wander off to an educational or news site and learn something. Besides I'd say games are pretty educational: They teach problem solving.
They make poor decisions (such as spending $110 a month for unlimited cellphone service) and thus continue to be poor. While those who make smarter decisions, like investing the $110 in a business, and climb up the income ladder to middle class.
*
*I used the example based on someone I know. Doesn't even know how to use the internet, but still "had" to have a $110/month plan. Meanwhile the credit cards go unpaid.
>>>California is Proposition 13, which put strict limits on property taxes, and as a result, impoverished school districts, libraries, fire departments, and other community services
>>>
My state has a separate school tax. Couldn't California politicians enact a similar tax in order to avoid the Prop13 property tax restriction?
>>> TARP was hated roundly by both sides, but it passed and worked
It hardly worked. All it did was steal money from the poor (us human beings) to the rich (banking corporations). And contrary to belief it has not been paid back, nor did it solve the key problem (banks leveraged 50-to-1). It would have been better to let the House of Representatives follow the desires of the people, 75% of whom opposed TARP, and voted it down.
And as we later discovered the 700 billion TARP was just the tip of the iceberg. The private central bank in collusion with the Treasury Department (aka corporatism,fascism) handed-out 16,000 billion dollars in loans and direct gifts.
What if the voters ask for a dumb law, such as "Every Vermonter will pay zero income tax," thereby bankrupting the Vermont government? I would assume you would reject that law and vote no on it, even if the majority of your home district's constituents desired it.