Saffire

Well "private" isn't really private when 100% of their revenue comes from government (which in turn gets the money from taxes). If you carry out the logic, you could call all government employees "private contractors". Something is truly private when it's based on a voluntary trade (ie no taxpayer money involved).

Thanks for that insight, Cobalt. And the same thing is happening in the US - the Democrats are acting like Republicans. :P

Heh, I like his accent. The increase in immigrants moving to the UK seems to me to be the result of years of socialism. The free government services act as a honeypot for people willing to leave their own countries, but aren't willing to get an education or skill. Ironically, socialism is likely also the reason so many "working class" low-IQ dolts exist there, like the woman in the original video.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGQIxYfKKtc]The gathering storm - YouTube[/ame]

If Obama vetoes this bill because of this insane provision, my opinion of him will skyrocket.

The Senate just passed a bill which Obama will sign, that allows the government to label any American a "terrorist" and hold him/her indefinitely without trial or charges, on American soil. We are now officially a police state. These are the (traitorous) Senators who voted for it: Ayotte (R-NH) Barrasso (R-WY) Blunt (R-MO) Boozman (R-AR) Brown (R-MA) Burr (R-NC) Casey (D-PA) Chambliss (R-GA) Coats (R-IN) Coburn (R-OK) Cochran (R-MS) Collins (R-ME) Conrad (D-ND) Corker (R-TN) Cornyn (R-TX) Crapo (R-ID) DeMint (R-SC) Enzi (R-WY) Graham (R-SC) Grassley (R-IA) Hagan (D-NC) Hatch (R-UT) Heller (R-NV) Hoeven (R-ND) Hutchison (R-TX) Inhofe (R-OK) Inouye (D-HI) Isakson (R-GA) Johanns (R-NE) Johnson (R-WI) Kohl (D-WI) Kyl (R-AZ) Landrieu (D-LA) Lee (R-UT) Levin (D-MI) Lieberman (ID-CT) Lugar (R-IN) Manchin (D-WV) McCain (R-AZ) McCaskill (D-MO) McConnell (R-KY) Menendez (D-NJ) Moran (R-KS) Nelson (D-NE) Portman (R-OH) Pryor (D-AR) Reed (D-RI) Risch (R-ID) Roberts (R-KS) Rubio (R-FL) Sessions (R-AL) Shaheen (D-NH) Shelby (R-AL) Snowe (R-ME) Stabenow (D-MI) Thune (R-SD) Toomey (R-PA) Vitter (R-LA) Whitehouse (D-RI) Wicker (R-MS) [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUHh1iqe43w]Sen. Rand Paul and Sen. McCain speak on Detainees on Senate Floor - 11/29/11 - YouTube[/ame] They're preparing for REX84, which is a "continuity of government" plan following a complete financial collapse. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug0IL7k3elQ]Oliver North Questioned - Rex 84 Exposed During Iran Contra - YouTube[/ame]

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/25ab975a-1a9f-11e1-ae14-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1f904wrKH Businesses prepare for end of Euro. If you are in the Eurozone and reading this, please take your family's money out of the banks and buy tangible assets like gold and silver.

I'm against making peoples' freedom of movement illegal (immigration laws), but I'm also against arresting people for saying rude things in public. Just ignore the bitch and get on your with your life.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/d9a299a8-1760-11e1-b00e-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1f1bkYk00

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L9na3NuwC8]'America will collapse' - YouTube[/ame] [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6YymydAen4]Detlev Schlichter on Sky News with Jeff Randall - Paper Money Collapse 5th Oct 2011 - YouTube[/ame]

This is getting serious: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8917077/Prepare-for-riots-in-euro-collapse-Foreign-Office-warns.html When a currency collapses, economic coordination is impossible in the interim period (until a new currency takes its place). During this time, there will be mass-anger, mass-unemployment, and mass-loss of savings. "Retirement" will become impossible for millions of people. And in the US, the government is already preparing for the collapse: http://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/senators-demand-military-lock-american-citizens-battlefield-they-define-being

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/denmark-to-approve-gay-weddings-in-church/2011/11/23/gIQAPMRnnN_story.html http://news.advocate.com/post/13324191023/possibly-the-most-beautiful-ad-for-marriage-equality Very strange coming from an atheist woman. Maybe some Australians here can expand on why the government is dragging its feet on this, because I'm not very familiar with your politics. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TBd-UCwVAY]It's time. - YouTube[/ame]

I know, imagine how cheap everything will be! Let's get some competition up in heauh.

If workers in America and Europe think they're mistreated now, wait til labor fully arbitrages between the developing nations and the first-world countries! There are 7 billion people on this earth, and I guarantee you there's almost always someone out there who's willing to do the same thing you do for half the price.

Why on earth was he flying that close to stuff? Looked like he wasn't even restrained in his seat.

Quote from Mohamed El-Erian, of bond fund Pimco: Think about the increase in the national debt: what took this nation the first 200 years of its existence to accumulate was doubled in the last five years. What do we have to show for it? If government spending really is the magic bullet to fight poverty and recession, why doesn't it seem to be getting us out of this one? In fact, it seems to be drawing us into another, deeper recession... Right, and this is a fundamental problem with regulatory democracy as a form of government. There is no "solution" to be found in government itself, because government is corruptible. The solutions offered by OWS are similar to religious people saying "pray harder". As a mechanism for bringing prosperity and honesty to society, government is a circular argument.

Why are all Western Democracies moving toward totalitarianism? Maybe regulatory democracy isn't the best form of government...

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30Ie-Xr6NMY]The OWS Will Fail - Here's Why - YouTube[/ame]

Humanity will try every last iteration of mass-extortion, fractional-slavery, and threats of violence before they finally realize that peaceful sharing and trading is the only way forward.

Chuck, you have a fear of eliminating the minimum wage, and I understand that. But I'm telling you the "market minimum wage" wouldn't be that much lower than what it currently is. In order to convince people to trade their labor/time for money, an employer needs to make them an offer that exceeds what they could make if they worked odd-jobs themselves - washing cars, growing and selling vegetables, painting, etc. In other words, if I can more-easily make my own toothbrush than work in a factory to earn the money needed for a toothbrush, then I'll choose to make my own toothbrush. The odds this will ever happen in an advanced economy is slim, though, because there are specialists and factories that can produced toothbrushes far more cheaply than I can. If I had to guess, I'd estimate the "market minimum wage" in America to be on average something like 5 or 6 dollars an hour. It would vary by area, of course. At a certain point, it becomes more-economical to hire Americans than Chinese. That point is well above what the Chinese workers make due to the shipping costs and taxes associated with offshore manufacturing.

I agree with this. Governments have guaranteed the banks a higher return on lending to themselves (by buying sovereign debt) than they could normally get from making loans to average citizens. After all, governments can never go bankrupt - they just raise taxes or print money. The people are at a disadvantage when it comes to competing with governments for loans. Think about how bad regulations and taxes must be in order for a Chinese worker 5000 miles away to be able to produce something more cheaply than you can! That's with all the costs associated with shipping and importing added! Wow! Eliminating the minimum wage causes factories to be built here at home, and jobs to become available. Prices for the goods manufactured in this way fall drastically. Neither would I! That's why I advocate leaving people alone. Look into liquid thorium reactors, you might be pleasantly surprised.

Good post. And yeah, I agree with you about the Chinese. So far their rise to power is very mature and measured. They don't seem to be interested in building an empire like the US has done, and Britain before it. Empires are expensive, and they always collapse. China appears to have learned from history.

Chuck, you can't have consumption without production. That's the problem with socialism - it's a temporal imbalance of consumption. Economic growth only happens when people are incentivized to invest in production (factories, hiring workers, etc). If Spain really does shrink the public sector (I doubt they will significantly, but we'll see), then the result will be fascinating to watch. It would be a beautiful real-world experiment in the effects of freedom. Too bad the Euro will likely collapse regardless...

Chuck, would you approve of this amendment to the Constitution?: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of commerce, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of trade; or the right of the people peaceably to exchange goods and services for remuneration. All laws, regulations, and taxes which presently interfere with peaceful and honest commerce, or otherwise disturb the creation and use of money, shall be null and void."