BoJ resorts to negative interest rates. The desperation is real.

[Shaun_Brannen]

It sounds like you want to return to the beginning of civilization or something. Someone needs to make a Mad Max VR game so you can tune out into your fantasy world.

Reality and history have a left-wing bias. Sorry, bud. Everything has trended to more government over time, not less. It's just an inevitable consequence of a more educated, technologically advanced world.

 

[Jhhnn]

Dear god, no.

The problem is the corporations corrupting the government. If the government weren't there as a buffer, we'd be getting screwed 100x harder.

You're right about that.

North Korea is a terrible example of socialism, but anyway, you're completely missing the point. The current problem isn't that there are wealthy people, the problem is that the wealthy are ludicrously wealthy. The proportion is way out of whack, no matter how sociopathic of a capitalist you may be. Even if you completely ignore the poor, the middle class's dollar buys far less than it used to.

However, wealth tends to pool, and those with wealth get to decide what goes on mass media and such. We're just going to be buying ourselves another 100 years or so...

We forgot the lessons of the Great Depression, that limiting concentration of wealth & power is a matter of economic self defense for the rest of the population. We set aside the legitimate mechanisms of progressive taxation & regulation that largely accomplished that & now suffer from the instability inherent in the proposition of trickledown economic theory.

 

[Zorkorist]

Meanwhile you choose to try and concentrate power in Government, an institution held by 1 President, 12 Supreme Court Justices, 102 Senate Members, and some hundreds of Congressmen.

-John

 

[Vic]

When a customer pays, a transaction is balanced between buyer and seller.

When Government pays, it's all fucked up.

-John

You're assuming that all private transactions are consensual, which is simply absurd.

 

[Zorkorist]

An economic transaction between buyer and seller, both economic men, is as perfect a transaction as can be.

-John

 

[Vic]

An economic transaction between buyer and seller, both economic men, is as perfect a transaction as can be.

-John

Sure... now 'I'm gonna make you an offer that you can't refuse.' Sign or die.
What the fuck are you going to do about it except call the government?

Can't fix stupid. You're not an anarchist, so quit pretending that you are.

 

[Vic]

The problem with ideologues is that they don't understand natural law. Their ideology is invariably based off a position of privilege which (of course) they claim to despise.

 

[Zorkorist]

I already factored in that he might kill me. I've got two cannons on his head.

I don't get your point, unless you are trying to say Government is occasionally useful.

-John

 

[Zorkorist]

Ah, I am privileged, and I deserve to be fucked by the under class.

-John

 

[Zorkorist]

Let's kill the intellectuals, the business owners, take all their wealth, and distribute it amongst us, the people!

-John

 

[Vic]

I already factored in that he might kill me. I've got two cannons on his head.

I don't get your point, unless you are trying to say Government is occasionally useful.

-John

Your naivete is astonishing.

Of course, government is occasionally useful. We wouldn't have it if it weren't.

"If man in his natural state be free, as is said, then why would he part with his freedom?"

 

[Zorkorist]

Because it is occasionally useful. Not the tyranny we have today.

-John

 

[Vic]

Because it is occasionally useful. Not the tyranny we have today.

-John

Yeah, you're so oppressed that you get to freely complain to the whole world about it.
Yaknow, there was a local news item today that made me think of you. Now.. don't get excited. A douchebag got caught on camera beating his girlfriend outside a Walmart. My first thought was that he probably thinks it was the government's fault he got caught. Or is it political correctness?

 

[Zorkorist]

Meanwhile, I held the door open for another guy today. Why? Simple courtesy, which balances out your example of simple distaste.

-John

 

[Vic]

Meanwhile, I held the door open for another guy today. Why? Simple courtesy, which balances out your example of simple distaste.

-John

Ah.. what a utopia it would be if everyone was like you. And me too IMO.
Newsflash: they're not.

 

[werepossum]

Ah.. what a utopia it would be if everyone was like you. And me too IMO.
Newsflash: they're not.

Boy, we sure are lucky none of those bad people go into government!

 

[Vic]

Boy, we sure are lucky none of those bad people go into government!

Of course, they do. That's why we have laws.

Look, we can have a better discussion than this, right? Zokorist's argument rests upon the premise that you can have a free and prosperous marketplace without an entity empowered to enforce an uniform system of law. That's so pathetic (and simultaneously disingenuous) that I feel like I'm arguing my own straw man when I'm not.

 

[Zorkorist]

My argument is that Government is the problem, and not the solution. Here we are today, full of Government, and full of problems.

Maybe we limit Government? Bring it back in bounds? Make sure it recognizes (again) that "We the people" and Freedom, and Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, were the principals this nation was founded apon, and the reason for its success.

-John

 

[Vic]

My argument is that Government is the problem, and not the solution. Here we are today, full of Government, and full of problems.

Maybe we limit Government? Bring it back in bounds? Make sure it recognizes (again) that "We the people" and Freedom, and Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, were the principals this nation was founded apon, and the reason for its success.

-John

And what is it of those that you don't already have now?

 

[Zorkorist]

I owe $60,000 to the Federal Government's financiers. That puts me firmly in some one's debt, and puts everything I have at risk.

-John

 

[Spungo]

If enough neighbors want to build a road, we will.

Or... what's more likely to happen is that your neighbors would form some kind of "government" and levy a tax on everyone in the area to pay for this road. Humans naturally form governments. Even packs of wolves have government.

And what is it of those that you don't already have now?

Which country do you live in? The US is far from free. Remember the video of those white cops choking that fat black guy to death? He was doing something like selling cigarettes. Some guy offers you $1 for a loose cigarette, you say ok, and now it's legal for the government to murder you. That's freedom? Of course, there are also cases where women have raped a man, gotten pregnant, and the government forces the man to pay child support to his rapist. There are also cases where a man rapes a woman, the woman gets pregnant, and the government forces the mother to share custody of the baby. I could also rant for hours about how shitty radio and television are. Radio stations are absolutely terrified of the government. If they ever screw up and accidentally play a swear on the radio, they get six figure fines for every swear word, and the rules are vague at best. As a result, nobody takes any risks. Opie & Anthony had a segment called Jocktober where they would bash the hell out of a different radio show every day for the entire month of October. Every station was exactly the same - safe radio that won't offend or entertain anyone, radio nobody wants to listen to. That's the garbage caused by government - everyone living in a state of constant fear.

I probably don't need to mention how many millions of families have been destroyed by the war on drugs.

 

[Shaun_Brannen]

Meanwhile you choose to try and concentrate power in Government, an institution held by 1 President, 12 Supreme Court Justices, 102 Senate Members, and some hundreds of Congressmen.

-John

Oh, yes, because I totally authored the constitution.

The way the government operates can and WILL be rewritten, in time.

But it is NOT the problem. It comes down to individuals, their values, and the decisions they make.

Ah, I am privileged, and I deserve to be fucked by the under class.

-John

When you've created them, you sure do.