Republican bill passes, opening path to debt deal

[Gregadd]

...And indeed the US government has the highest prison population in the world, despite being 5% of world population, we have 23 million people in prison, a quarter of the world's prison population--even higher than China...

.

I think you left out a decimal point. 2.3 million is the correct number. Still way too many.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/world/americas/23iht-23prison.12253738.html

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

Actually, the smiley meant that there are certain, uh, methods involved that make living possible at $8K/year (what a freelance videographer in CT makes), some of them extreme thrift (no cable TV, prepaid cell phone, no restaurant dining, Ramen noodles, rice as mainstay, etc) and some of them accounting tricks and some of them more extreme.. how does one keep an annual $10.7K property tax at bay and work up an $89K back taxes and interest and still remain in his home? I'll let you use your imagination on that one..

I can't see anything you've come up with there that would get you by on $8k, except for the implication that you may have owned, outright, the place you lived in (dodging your taxes seemed to be your only housing concern). Even then, $8K would be almost impossible to live on. What decade are you talking about, Mark? Surely not this one?

Are there people making $100k who can't afford electronic toys? Sure. There are people making $100k who can't pay their bills. But taxes are not their problem. That's a completely different conversation.

In any case, all this is pretty pointless in the end. You and I would probably be better off to agree to disagree, and leave that open.

Tim

 

[FrantzM]

Mark

The question remains to how to pay for what you seem to take for granted: The rules that we call Law and their enforcement. Those who allow you to call a piece of land, your own.
It must be understood that there is an implied morality in Capitalism. Once you decide that something is "good" for the individual, then there is a set or ethical rules, an ethos, by extension a morality. So if the only barometer is what is good for the individual with no regard to what is good for the collective, then we are left with .. something like Somalia where those who can live the way they want and at the expense of all the others .... If you want to think small government .. that seems to be the ultimate... Unfortunately there will be taxes with another name .. You may have to pay the warlords for "protection" .. There is no free ride ...

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

Mark

The question remains to how to pay for what you seem to take for granted: The rules that we call Law and their enforcement. Those who allow you to call a piece of land, your own. And likely part of your education.
It must be understood that there is an implied morality in Capitalism. Once you decide that something is "good" for the individual, then there is a set or ethical rules, an ethos, by extension a morality. So if the only barometer is what is good for the individual with no regard to what is good for the collective, then we are left with .. something like Somalia where those who can live the way they want and at the expense of all the others .... If you want to think small government .. that seems to be the ultimate... Unfortunately there will be taxes with another name .. You may have to pay the warlords for "protection" .. There is no free ride ...

ie: Civilization has a price. You gotta pay your share in dollars and freedom. I don't know a single small government radical (refuse to call them conservatives, as I have a dictionary) who wants feudalism and few who wouldn't be oppressed serfs in such a system. They want civilization. They want democracy (which is not unrestricted freedom). They won't say it out loud, but they want to be protected from economic predators who would take it away from them. They just A) Indulge themselves in the fantasy that in a dog-eat-dog unregulated meritocracy they would be much stronger and more powerful then they've ever managed to be so far, and B) They want somebody else to pay for civilization and democracy.

Tim

 

[Steve williams]

Gents

This thread, although interesting has wavered way off topic and has become very philosophic with respect to people's political beliefs and I am not so sure that they belong in a forum such as this. So either we should stay on topic and/or abstain from such postings.

 

[Steve williams]

Gents

This thread, although interesting has wavered way off topic and has become very philosophic with respect to people's political beliefs and I am not so sure that they belong in a forum such as this. So either we should stay on topic and/or abstain from such postings.

 

[Gregadd]

Bernanke Speech Moves Markets: No New Stimulus

Is the Fed out of bullets

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/bernanke-speech-us-economy/story?id=14387079

If he has no plan to correct the current situation,he should resign.

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

Gents

This thread, although interesting has wavered way off topic and has become very philosophic with respect to people's political beliefs and I am not so sure that they belong in a forum such as this. So either we should stay on topic and/or abstain from such postings.

Might be better off closed, Steve. It was bound to get here in time, and it's bound to find its way back.

Tim

 

[Steve williams]

Might be better off closed, Steve. It was bound to get here in time, and it's bound to find its way back.

Tim

done