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User: KDR_11k

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  1. Re:zero sum game on Nonpartisan Tax Report Removed After Republican Protest · · Score: 1

    The economy and its growth is measured by the money flow rate, that's fairly independent of the balance. You can have money flows even when everybody is in debt. Only when they want to pay that debt back do you get trouble because then they spend less than they earn which decreases the earnings of those that they deal with. Two people can spend the same dollar (by one earning that dollar from the other) but they can't own the same dollar.

  2. Re:USA is too expensive on China's Stealth Fighter Flight Test Successful · · Score: 1

    Does the US NEED to react? China has a prototype stealth fighter. The NATO has tons of stealth fighters and bombers that are ready for combat. The Chinese fighter has not shown its actual combat abilities yet, there's more to a 7th generation fighter jet than just stealth.

  3. Re:Well, that's putting it one way on China's Stealth Fighter Flight Test Successful · · Score: 1

    I kinda doubt that China's ability to project force is limited by their planes not being stealthy. Sure, that improves their ability in air combat but it's the simple logistics that they lack in. The US is far more capable of moving people, equipment and supplies around the globe. A stealth fighter won't do you any good if you cannot keep it supplied with ammo and fuel. The further away its supplies are the more time it spends traveling back and forth between its home base and the combat zone, giving it less combat time and likely less payload per run. That was one of the issues with the Me 262 back in the day, the places where the Luftwaffe wanted the things were too far away from the airports they had so the jets arrived with so little fuel they almost had to turn back right away. So much for superior technology.

    And then there's the issue with stealth not being a on/off thing, stealth comes in varying degrees and while a plane may be stealthy that doesn't mean it's completely invisible. E.g. the F35 is significantly less stealthy than the F22 but it's so much cheaper that we don't care.

  4. Re:It ain't expensive to build a stealth plane... on China's Stealth Fighter Flight Test Successful · · Score: -1, Troll

    Germany didn't invent stealth, if that's what you're implying. The Ho 229 may have had a slightly reduced radar cross section but it was hardly a stealth plane and definitely didn't pioneer the principles of modern stealth planes. The design may look similar to the B2 but it's something completely different (for one thing the B2 is a strategic bomber while the Ho 229 was a fighter). The thing was from the early days of jet engines, it was simply someone trying to make a plane that's more maneuverable with those jet engines.

    Cruise missiles and cross-country ballistic missiles, sure. Nuclear fission, yes. Stealth planes? Nope.

  5. Re:How to lie with statistics on Hurricane Sandy Fails To Stop Line For iPad Mini Launch · · Score: 1

    The point remains though, those two percentages measure completely different things.

  6. Re:"meh" in Palo Alto on Hurricane Sandy Fails To Stop Line For iPad Mini Launch · · Score: 1

    I guess that means Dilbert was prophetic once again.

  7. Re:Register article on Hurricane Sandy Fails To Stop Line For iPad Mini Launch · · Score: 1

    I doubt they cared about power. The summary says they're mostly immigrants and such, it's a very common tactic by scalpers to pay immigrants and such to stand in line and buy the early stock so they can then resell it for a premium. No idea how they keep the immigrants loyal enough to actually buy the thing and bring it over instead of running off with either the money or the device but it seems to work.

  8. Re:zero sum game on Nonpartisan Tax Report Removed After Republican Protest · · Score: 1

    So where do you think that waste goes? When the govt buys a 10000$ hammer that's not 1$ to the hammer maker and 9999$ on the landfill.

  9. Re:zero sum game on Nonpartisan Tax Report Removed After Republican Protest · · Score: 1

    Don't forget that both trade partners provide and demand. One provides money, the other provides goods or services. Only if both parties can offer their part and demand the other you get trade.

  10. Re:it may actually be counterproductive on Nonpartisan Tax Report Removed After Republican Protest · · Score: 1

    We ARE giving that money to people. Where do you think those taxes go? The govt does not have an income surplus, i.e. it spends every dollar it gets and then some. That spending goes somewhere. Be it help for the poor, hiring people to repair the streets, employing the police and firefighters, building up the military or whatever. All those recipients get money to spend that then goes back into the economy. Unfair? Who cares, the point is that the money must flow and by flowing it improves the standards of living for everybody. Taxes and inflation must make sure people can't act as money clots and block the flow, those who accumulate too much are pressured to keep it flowing. To keep society stable a certain amount of flow must go through every individual in it. Call it theft if you want, that doesn't change that it's a benefit to society and thus mankind.

    Money exists to facilitate trade. The sum of all trade (this obviously includes trade for labor and such), not the sum of all money is the economy.

  11. Re:zero sum game on Nonpartisan Tax Report Removed After Republican Protest · · Score: 1

    Funny thing about taking economies as a whole is that spending and earning are connected. Consuming more today lets the person you bought those goods from produce more goods tomorrow. However that guy you bought from needs to put that additional money into the same economy it came from in order to grow it, if he puts it outside the country or something then sooner or later too much money gets siphoned out of the economy and those consumers become unable to consume and thus generate income for the producer. That means the producer needs to get rid of his surplus capacity which means firing workers, those workers are then unable to consume. Get enough people unable to consume and the economy grinds to a halt. Neither the govt nor the rich must be allowed to accumulate too much wealth without spending it into the local economy again or the system grinds to a halt and the economy which is measured by the flow of money, not the total of it that is available, crashes.

    Giving poor people govt handouts is indirectly subsidizing the businesses of the area (where else do you think they're going to put that money?).

    Two possible threats are when the govt decides it must save money instead of reinvesting the money it takes via taxes and such, then it acts as a brake on the economy like in Greece.
    The other threat is that one point in the chain of spenders and earners is unable to spend, e.g. when rich people cannot find investment opportunities and thus decide to sit on their money. That also acts as a brake on the economy because the flow of money gets stuck.

    Failures amplify themselves as Greece has demonstrated, they increased taxes while cutting spending, thus increasing the friction on the economy. This included salary cuts and firings. That means fewer consumers. That means less income for the businesses. The economy slowed and the GDP collapsed. And then Greece stood there with even lower tax incomes, even higher debt to GDP ratios and even more problems.

  12. Re:zero sum game on Nonpartisan Tax Report Removed After Republican Protest · · Score: 2

    Luxuries are fine but unlike the poor they don't spend 100% of their post-tax income, they invest a lot of it and investments are not complete spending, they're supposed to be earned back at some point so the recipient of them goes into debt. While the rich have a positive total balance the rest of the system develops a negative balance. When most people are in debt you run the risk of default chain reactions (e.g. with the mortgages the defaults led to a lower house value led to a lower total balance for other mortgage takers led to more defaults led to a worldwide financial crisis). When it happens across nations you get the EU where the rich states are building up a positive balance while the poorer ones are indebted to them. Then you get country defaults.

  13. Re:zero sum game on Nonpartisan Tax Report Removed After Republican Protest · · Score: 1

    Let's worry about full employment when we reach it, the US is still recovering from a recession.

    The report that's being suppressed in this story is pretty much the reason the growth the GOP wants never manifests: There's no connection between tax cuts and economic growth. Taxes are so low that they don't inhibit the economy so cutting them doesn't boost the economy either.

  14. Re:zero sum game on Nonpartisan Tax Report Removed After Republican Protest · · Score: 1

    That's not counter to what he said, he just said that the GOP also cuts taxes along with that increased spending.

  15. Re:Post-truth politics on Nonpartisan Tax Report Removed After Republican Protest · · Score: 2

    That's just vague terms, the specific numbers matter. Calculations that attempt to model Romney's plan reach the conclusion that it doesn't work and screws over the poor. The key issue is that reducing deductions cannot make up for much of a tax cut. With Romney's other planned income cuts and expenses that adds up to either driving the country into a massive deficit for little gain or requiring a tax rate increase.

  16. Re:News for nerds? on Nonpartisan Tax Report Removed After Republican Protest · · Score: 2

    It's a story about how nerdy things like numbers get pushed aside in favor of non-nerdy things like prejudices and gut feelings.

  17. Re:Politically stupid timing on Nonpartisan Tax Report Removed After Republican Protest · · Score: 1

    What? Nazis and neonazis are very strongly anti-pedophile, to the point where they lynch innocent people because they got the address wrong.

  18. Re:NBC / weather channel / comcast has deep pocket on Our Weather Satellites Are Dying · · Score: 1

    The alternative to that deficit is completely destroying the economy. We aren't out of the recession yet, cutting govt spending during a recession amplifies the recession and you get a double-dip like in the UK or the 30s.

  19. Re:Another Citation If You Please on Michael E. Mann Sues For Defamation Over Comparison To Jerry Sandusky · · Score: 0, Troll

    Hey, according to the Republicans Obama has been a very meek leader who would never hurt a fly!

  20. Re:Thank you American Chumps! on EC Sends Statement of Objections To Microsoft For Violating Anti-Trust Agreement · · Score: 1

    7 billion dollars is a drop in the bucket compared to the amounts thrown around for fixing the financial crisis you Americans kicked off.

  21. Re:It takes 15 months to start enforcing a decisio on EC Sends Statement of Objections To Microsoft For Violating Anti-Trust Agreement · · Score: 1

    Bureaucrats need their 18 hours of sleep per day.

  22. Re:I'm not British on BBC Turns Off CEEFAX Service After 38 Years · · Score: 1

    Of course they did, it has rounded corners!

  23. Re:Good Riddance on BBC Turns Off CEEFAX Service After 38 Years · · Score: 1

    Since we don't have Ceefax here I only have experience with Teletext but from what I see old people only use it when they don't have a TV program guide at hand. Also it's so bloated with ads for dubious phone services these days that it's really worthless except as a way of getting subtitles. A newspaper is more detailed, comfier and more convenient (because portable) and often comes with a TV guide as well. And that TV guide covers all channels, not just the one you've called the Teletext up on.

  24. Re:Why do I always think of Hitmen first? on Smartphone Mugging More Popular Than Ever · · Score: 1

    Hitmen? If it was an armed mugging they're armed criminals so sending in the SWAT may be justified. And legal.

  25. Re:Serial Numbers on Smartphone Mugging More Popular Than Ever · · Score: 1

    Those cameras are designed to get a picture of the driver too. If you want your mug shot on the wall in a police station feel free to pull that one.