2011-07-31, 01:18 | Link #15281 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Suburban DC
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I have to generally agree with the above.
Excessive regulation and red tape can drag on economic progress and vitality, that is common knowledge now, especially for smaller buisnesses. The problem is currying favor towards large corporations. You can't "VOTE" those people out. You can't reform them, you can do that with open and well monitored government. But when government plays to corrupt buisness oligarchs whose own type of corruption is not as easily detected, then what? Government can actually deal with people from a humanistic standpoint, Corporations at worst only see people as consumers, a figure in their bi annual financial readout. I think that European countries while not perfect have shown that you can have healthy free enterprise and entreprenureal spirit with strong public programs. Do they have to stay frozen in time, NO. Sometimes there has to be tweaking of the systems dependent on the situation. But still I think that our consumer oriented social darwinism isn't all it's cracked up to be sometimes. It's better for certain things than others, not a one size fits all approach. |
2011-07-31, 01:30 | Link #15282 | |
NYAAAAHAAANNNNN~
Join Date: Nov 2007
Age: 35
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2011-07-31, 03:40 | Link #15284 | |
NYAAAAHAAANNNNN~
Join Date: Nov 2007
Age: 35
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It is no different from the Russian oligarchy of only a few providers controlling the price for all. Except that in English, it is called plutocracy. India's case is different due to something called an "equilibrium shift", where nationalisation of key industries led to serious inefficiency and corruption, thus it shifts in the other direction of de-consolidation. In the US, it is a different matter because privatisation has led to the bigger players buying out the smaller ones, resulting in a "neocron" consolidation. In India, the private sector has to step in to "free" the markets, whereas in US, the government has to step in to "free" it. But the US government has become too powerless to do anything.
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2011-07-31, 04:06 | Link #15285 | |
I disagree with you all.
Join Date: Dec 2005
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He concluded that "the client's always right" is something the worker should think. Not an excuse for the client to behave like an asshole. Likewise, I think the bootstrap thing is a fine mentality for oneself. It stops being so when one uses it to bury the less fortunate in the mud, on the pretext they should be able to pull themselves up. And if they think the government makes it harder (personally, I think free education makes it a hell of a lot easier), well, nobody said it was supposed to be easy. Wasn't that their point when they extolled the values of hard work and all? |
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2011-07-31, 04:55 | Link #15286 | |
Observer/Bookman wannabe
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Singapore
Age: 38
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Cui servire est regnare ("for whom to serve is to rule"). I would like to think that the reverse is also true: To rule is to serve.
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2011-07-31, 05:07 | Link #15287 | |
Komrades of Kitamura Kou
Join Date: Jul 2004
Age: 39
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2011-07-31, 05:11 | Link #15288 | |
Observer/Bookman wannabe
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Singapore
Age: 38
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Nowadays? They outright spit on it, grab it and toss it into the bin, and show you the middle finger. The rich just don't see the need to appear legitimate now, and they act as though they cannot be stopped. And in many cases, they really can't be.
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Last edited by yezhanquan; 2011-07-31 at 05:43. |
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2011-07-31, 05:16 | Link #15289 |
books-eater youkai
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Betweem wisdom and insanity
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Activists: 30 Syrians killed in attacks
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...07-31-05-27-46
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2011-07-31, 07:00 | Link #15290 | |
Zetsubou gunsou
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Switzerland
Age: 43
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So all news we've had from Syria lately comes from them, yet we have no information whatsoever on who they are, where their sources come from and what their aim is. News agencies don't even bother to check and cross-check. It's quite telling on the current state of "journalism", and on how little critical thinking people have nowadays. This is an interesting read on the subject. |
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2011-07-31, 07:11 | Link #15291 | |||
Knight Errant
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Age: 35
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Furthermore there was huge emphasis on correct etiquette towards visitors, and it was expected that people would facilitate any guests (be they strangers or not) to a great extent, feeding them over themselves if necessary. Read any kind of ancient myths and you see it all over the place, particularly "gods disguised as traveller" stories. With the number of people in our society, it's difficult to maintain this kind of mentality, so we must do the next best thing and encode it into law, to avoid a "tragedy of the commons" because we can no longer use social pressure alone to get everyone to give equally. In essence, the key flaw of "pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps" is that it forgets that we are social beings, we cannot exist alone, and our success is rarely dependent on ourselves alone either. |
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2011-07-31, 07:23 | Link #15292 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2007
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2011-07-31, 11:21 | Link #15293 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Suburban DC
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Well it looks like SOMETHING will get done.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2...s-for-cuts/?hp 3 Trillion, largely in cuts. Debt limit will be extended into 2013. You know interestingly, it just dawned on me that all this bruhaha was to able to keep the govenment actually able to borrow money. Rather mundane in the face of actually having to decide on what to cut, this will be interesting because the Republicans (wisely) have avoided details aside from the ol Medicare/Social Security deal. NOW is where we get into real debate. Obama faces tough road ahead in public eye due to weak economy; http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/us...s.html?_r=1&hp Frankly, I think the economy was gonna suck no matter who was in office but whatever. I don't think the President can magically come up with an industry to get people off the uenmployment docket. There are a lot of older workers who are being squeezed out and downsized in a sort of protracted deindustrialization. And no matter who, I don't know what the head of gov can do to stop buisnesses from hording cash. I just don't see how we can make the huge gains to make a dent in the unemployment to suffice much of anyone really. I've read a lot of commentary saying the high times of the 90s-00s are over and we are unlikely to see such rapid growth anytime soon. Last edited by solomon; 2011-07-31 at 11:37. |
2011-07-31, 12:16 | Link #15294 |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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The fun thing will be watching the GOP once their voting base realizes they're going to take personal damage (Social Security, Medicare, farm subsidies, etc) for these antics. And if the compromise with the "across the board cuts in a fail stop" goes in... all their voting base will be on them because if they can't play nicely now with only stupid pride and ego as the issue, it won't get better later.
And yet again... the plutocrats are dancing with the lowest taxes in US history and basically no incentive to support the country in terms of infrastructure or jobs.
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2011-07-31, 12:34 | Link #15296 |
Knight Errant
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Age: 35
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Corporations can dodge taxes anyway
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2011-07-31, 12:42 | Link #15297 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2008
Age: 38
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Aren't they shipping more jobs overseas than before, even with lower taxes? It's not the taxes that they want to avoid (they're good enough at that already), it's the wages and salaries. They can ship it overseas and pay like $1.75 an hour, or keep it here and pay over $7.00 an hour. Cut wages and salaries by over 75%? You bet they'll jump at that.
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2011-07-31, 12:51 | Link #15298 | |
I disagree with you all.
Join Date: Dec 2005
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2011-07-31, 12:59 | Link #15300 |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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They currently enjoy enormous tax breaks that encourage overseas operations thanks to lobbying ... remove those and there's less incentive to move operations overseas. Yeah they *could* move their HQs to those locations. I can just imagine the delight of CEOs who actually had to live where their factories were.
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current affairs, discussion, international |
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