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wilbeer
Mountain climber
Terence Wilson greeneck alleghenys,ny,
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He believes it is about .......safety.
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Flip Flop
climber
Earth Planet, Universe
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Hey Estupido,
I wonder how your buddies are doing in Y'allcatraz.
You and Dick Cheney think alike. Real men! Real. Murican. Men. You're like John Fukin Wayne.
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Curt
climber
Gold Canyon, AZ
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It is indeed a sad state of affairs when people and corporations consider it safer to keep their money offshore than to keep it in the United States.
They don't. Try again.
Curt
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zBrown
Ice climber
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They keep it there not to pay taxes, not because it is safe.
They'll count on the wealth [i.e poor folks in the military] of the U.S. to get it back if necessary though.
You'll notice that the money is not ion North Korea, India, or Great Britain.
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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And speaking of Bernie--Way to go WI !!!
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Escopeta
Trad climber
Idaho
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Why on earth would we care where Putin or Gadaffi put their money? Is that important to us somehow? I could give a sh#t if Putin puts his money in his mattress.
You guys get all butt hurt when people don't play your silly taxation games and then you turn around and double down on the stupid policies that cause people to take their money out of the country in the first place.
But hey, I'm sure self-styled Socialist Bernie will sort it out. Lol
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nah000
climber
no/w/here
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^^^^^
wooosh...
that's the sound a point flying over your head just made.
best of luck.
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Escopeta
Trad climber
Idaho
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They keep it there not to pay taxes, not because it is safe.
It warms my heart when people reinforce the point I'm making while they think they are disputing it. This would be on the greatest hits.
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wilbeer
Mountain climber
Terence Wilson greeneck alleghenys,ny,
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Such vitirol....lol.
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madbolter1
Big Wall climber
Denver, CO
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if only big government would get out of the way we all would be free!!!
That's a straw man, it seems to me.
I'm about as libertarian as they come, and I'm not at ALL a laissez faire thinker. There are necessary and legitimate roles for the feds to play in regulating commerce, mergers, tariffs, standards, anti-trust, and so forth. I'm not at ALL "republican leaning" regarding "hands off" government!
This is a case in which an eye to "originalism" can tell us much about what the "classical liberals" were thinking. They were not "hands off" "libertarians" (which by your lights basically amounts to anarchists, it seems).
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F
climber
away from the ground
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Escopeta
Trad climber
Idaho
FREEDOM!!! BENGHAZI!!! KILL!!! MORE GUNS = MORE FREEDOM!!! TAXES=DANGER!!!
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Escopeta
Trad climber
Idaho
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F,
I could care less, but I think it's generally considered bad form to attribute something to a poster that they didn't write.
But by all means, carry on how you see fit.
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MisterE
Gym climber
Small Town with a Big Back Yard
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Hey, now - easy. Take it to the Donald Thread, people.
;)
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F
climber
away from the ground
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Don't worry, I won't misrepresent you by reposting anything reasonable. Just echoing your well established sentiments, sugar tits.
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nah000
climber
no/w/here
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fair enough mb1... as a general rule regarding libertarians as a group, you're right, it was a strawman... i shouldn't have been so flip with the generalized statement...
that said, with regards to escopeta specifically, i haven't seen evidence of it being anything but true...
but back to you, if you'll oblige me and for curiosities sake:
1. what are two current collective problems that you see as being caused by government being too small or too powerless?
2. do you think that the panamanian money shuffling that has recently been exposed is due in large part to taxes being too high?
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madbolter1
Big Wall climber
Denver, CO
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1. what are two current collective problems that you see as being caused by government being too small or too powerless?
I wouldn't phrase the question that way, as I don't think that our current government is either too small or too powerless. It has all the CAPACITY it needs; it is too corrupt to exercise the powers it legitimately COULD.
A) The government should be wielding its anti-trust powers FAR more than it does. I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again: The very fact that the Comcast/Time-Warner merger was even CONSIDERED without knee-slapping guffaws indicates how far down the road we are! The so-called "regional monopolies" keep us in the Internet dark-ages compared to Europe! And that is just one example of the problem which permeates everything from banking to health-care.
B) Monetary policy is a pet peeve of mine! "The Federal Reserve" is NEITHER federal nor a reserve. This POS organization COULD be entirely shut down and should be. It manipulates OUR money (the actual VALUE of the real assets we own) and loans OUR value back to us at interest.
2. do you think that the panamanian money shuffling that has recently been exposed is due in large part to taxes being too high?
Well, "in large part" is a wide-ranging phrase. I think that the various entities engaging in the practice have a plethora of motivations and that those motivations vary in priority depending upon the "sector" of the entity. I'm confident that corporate taxes play "a role," but I don't think that ANYBODY knows how "much" of a role, particularly on a per-entity basis. Getting to the bottom of the motivations would have to be done on a case-by-case basis.
Bottom line is that ALL of the present candidates, with the exception of Bernie, are OBVIOUSLY in the pockets of the "establishment" that is ruled by the banks and multi-national corporations. NEITHER of these "sectors" give a rat's shriveled left nut about US, except insofar as "us" writ large are the "consumers" of their "products."
So, the next president almost certainly won't wield the power of the government to get US out of the wringer. Meanwhile, the parties are motivated to keep US fighting each other over points of relative trivia, while they keep selling debt to our posterity.
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nah000
climber
no/w/here
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mb1:
the thoughtfulness is appreciated. for what it's worth i agree with almost all of what you wrote... only thing i question is your statement that it is due to gov't being corrupt that it doesn't wield the power that it otherwise should...
while i don't know the answer for certain, i'd argue that for every time it is corruption that stops it from acting, there is at least one instance of bureaucratic inertia, incompetence and/or ineffectiveness [at least in more developed countries]. ie. unless shown otherwise i generally stick to a version of hanlon's razor when viewing failures within the large public or large private sectors... but i admit i could be wrong, in this particular instance, on that front.
regardless of the quibble: thanks.
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madbolter1
Big Wall climber
Denver, CO
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for every time it is corruption that stops it from acting, there is at least one instance of bureaucratic inertia, incompetence and/or ineffectiveness
Not a quibble at all. I agree with you.
To me, the big difference is that "inertia, incompetence and/or ineffectiveness" can in principle be addressed in good faith by people of good faith. Corruption, however, like a cancer, evades good faith and people of good faith. Dealing with the latter is much harder and requires much more concerted effort than dealing with the former. By keeping US divided and thus "ineffective," the evil and corrupt ensure that WE can't join forces to fight them.
That's why I'm for Bernie, even if I don't agree with MUCH of what he stands for. To my mind, if he'd go after even half of the corruption he says he will, I can compromise on the rest of his platform. If he'd just issue an executive order taking the Federal Reserve out of the picture and return our money to US (backed by something tangible), well, that would be a new world indeed!
And thank you (and Moose) for your thoughtful responses as well.
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Let's be clear, the potential for corruption is a fact of human nature anytime human beings aggregate and there is nothing whatsoever unique about government in that respect. It afflicts all forms of human organizations and institutions be they churches, unions, governments, militaries, or corporations. Without appropriate governance and oversight all of them will resemble organized crime in due course.
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