Politics
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- DrBombay0
republican
- He may actually gain as many votes as he loses if he continues on this tack.MrOneHundred
- that clip is amazing to me.DrBombay
- pfft he gets applause for doing something he should have already been doing._salisae_
- Do you wonder, if after the event, he sits back in his hotel and says "Who the fuck are these people?"TheBlueOne
- I hope so.MrOneHundred
- BusterBoy0
I find it irksome how so many US politicians harp on about how "my story could only happen in the USA".
Why?
Why could a story like Obama's not happen in Australia for instance? It just breeds inward, ignorant attitudes towards the rest of the world.
- Any half white/half aboriginal politicians in Australia who spent their childhood in Jakarta running for Prime Minister?TheBlueOne
- seriously....get off your high horse, australias treatment of the aboriginals is no point of pride Buster Boy...powertoni
- Just saying I think there are some exceptional things about the US, just not neccesarily the things the americans think are exceptionalTheBlueOne
- and as a matter of fact, ive experienced as much racism (and general arrogance and bigotry) in europe as i have in my home countrypowertoni
- exceptional...TheBlueOne
- Don't be such a fucwit. Not saying Aborigines haven't been treated badly, but to say it couldn't happen is just plain ridiculous.BusterBoy
- ridiculous.BusterBoy
- TheBlueOne0
Interesting insight from an interview with SciFi author William Gibson from earlier in the year:
"UG: Some people ridicule Obama for presenting himself as a kind of Messiah. There is even a blog dedicated to the phenomenon. If Bush is the real believer, then Obama sounds more like a pop version of religion, very superficial.
William Gibson: I think it’s an American modality, and it does not necessarily mean that he would be a worse president than George Bush. Transcendence is part of the American cultural experience and I wouldn’t expect it to go away. It hasn’t been popular for a long time. It takes a particular kind of darkness to bring it out. It tends to emerge in times of major generational shift. The Obama-Clinton race seen from ten or twenty years in the future won’t be about race or gender or politics in the usual sense, it will be about age. If Obama is elected, the people who will vote him into office are going to be very young, and they will be voting for the first time. The number of people turning up to vote in the Democratic primaries this year are unprecedented and are vastly greater than the number of people turning up to vote in the Republican primaries. Something’s going on; I think it’s probably a generational shift. Not that the ’60s are coming back, God forbid, but it might be another version of that..."
- Young Americans have finally been forced out of apathy.MrOneHundred
- all the young dudes?DrBombay
- Different generation really...the Millenials/Y have the numbers - bigger than the baby Boom..TheBlueOne
- ..Xer's like myself are a tiny demographic squeezed between two monsters..TheBlueOne
- ...explains alot on the lack of a valid youth movement for the last 20 years,,TheBlueOne
- Targeted by materialism rather than idealism.MrOneHundred
- Well, just didn't have the demographic weight and heft either....it sometimes comes down to numbers..TheBlueOne
- Y is around 25-30 million people larger than X was...TheBlueOne
- Baby Boom: 76 Million
Xer: 51 Million
Y: 79 MillionTheBlueOne
- DrBombay0
USA NUMBER ONE ;)
That would be a funny t-shirt.
- omgitsacamera0
my really bad test for spray painting t-shirts...
- ********0
It's hilarious how most democrats still refute the proven success of supply-side economics. It's mind boggling. What's next, questioning free market capitalism as the most efficient path to prosperity? I swear the entire left is trying to move us toward socialism.
- Shut the fuck up.TheBlueOne
- seriously man ... just stupidakoni
- Why so hostile? Do you really vehemently oppose capitalism that much?********
- BTW, why did you post this twice?locustsloth
- What are you a broken record asshole? Is this your comeback tour? drop it dipshit.TheBlueOne
- Besides your full of shit like always:
http://blogs.wsj.com…
TheBlueOne - In case you haven’t noticed, free-market capitalism has already failed.MrOneHundred
- Generalizing much TBO?********
- Prove it, Mr100.********
- i think MR100 is referring to Bush givin $250B for sharesakoni
- Let me repeat, Fuck off hedge. You just ruin everything you touch assholeTheBlueOne
- Your a pussy anyway saying you'd meet me in person and never showing up. Ass.TheBlueOne
- Let's cool our heads and be rational here.********
- that happened?********
- I thought you finally killed yourself, bummer.DrBombay
- It works for you so it's good, but screw the rest of us? NICE!!!DCDesigns
- locustsloth0
Capitalism (in it's purest form) = take care of yourself
Socialism (in it's purest form) = take care of everyone
Which one of these sounds like the philosophy of a more peaceful (not prosperous) future?
Pollyannaish as it may be, the only way to built a tomorrow where everyone isn't at each other's throats, out for blood, is to move toward a societal framework that encourages communities (local, state, national, global) to look out for each other. The bugaboo that conservatives like to trot out is that it's gonna happen overnight, that stormtroopers will arrive on the doors of the rich and demand repentance in large bills.
It will not, can not, happen overnight, over 4 years, or over 40 years. But to say that free market capitalism will cure all ills, that it is the savior of the world, as our prodigal money-man here seems to be saying, is surely a path to personal and societal destruction...eventually, at least.
- ********0
Taking care of everyone, at what expense? Does it justify limiting meritocratic gain? Personal financial gain? Does it justify putting a cap on productivity, on ingenuity? Is it alright if worker motivation and incentive to succeed is completely diminished? Does it become morally acceptable to take from those who've earned it and give to those who haven't?
Because those are the absolute results of socialism in its purist form. I'll tell you what, I'll take capitalism over that any day. A rising tide floats all ships.
- ...yet sinks the ones that need help.omgitsacamera
- yeah, because the hedge fund guys and CEOs of failed banks have really earned it.MrOneHundred
- Hedge used that same stupid analogy too. It doesn’t float the ones that are already sunk.MrOneHundred
- Those failed CEOs are facing the repercussions as we speak. The ones who made their clients money aren't.********
- What repercussions? And for what? Since you think there has been no failure?MrOneHundred
- Unemployment.********
- I could survive being unemployed too if I had one of those Golden Parachutes.MrOneHundred
- Too bad most of the ships are sinking right now. You're right, we should only take of ourselves!!!DCDesigns
- ********0
In a free society, for the most part, people with high incomes have demonstrated extraordinary ability to produce valuable services for, and therefore please their fellow man. Sam Walton, founder of Walmart, Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, and singer Michael Jackson provided services deemed highly valuable by their fellow men who voluntarily took money out of their pockets to purchase those services. Their high incomes stand as unambiguous proof of that service. Their high incomes also reflect the democracy of the market place. For example, millions upon millions of independent decision makers decided to fork over $200 or $300 for Microsoft founder Bill Gates' "Windows 98" operating system. Those who think Bill Gates is too rich, and want to redistribute his income, are really registering disagreement with the democracy of the market place and want to cancel or offset the market "vote."
Indeed, we might think of the dollars people earn as certificates of performance. Think of it in the following way. You hire me to mow your lawn. After I have completed the task, you give me $20. I go to the grocer and demand a pound of steak and a six-pack of beer that my fellow man produced. The grocer says, "You're demanding something that your fellow man has produced. What have you done to serve him?" I reply, "I have served my fellow man by mowing his lawn." The grocer says, Prove it!" That's when I hand him my $20, my certificate of performance.
- it really doesn't work like that anymore. It's broken.********
- we need to find you something better to do than typing in a political thread on QBN all nightakoni
- So which century are you living in?MrOneHundred
- Which figures did I reference?********
- Michael Jackson is BROKE, you dick. Bill Gates is giving his fortune away.MrOneHundred
- and, BTW Bill Gates was defeated in an anti-monopoly case by YOUR system.MrOneHundred
- Satan's Five&Dime, Microshit and M. Jackson pediphile are your examples?!?!?! OMG!!!!DCDesigns
- it really doesn't work like that anymore. It's broken.
- TheBlueOne0
660,000 voters were just disappeared in Ohio:
- locustsloth0
A rising tide will also swallow up all those not in a position to take advantage of it.
And you're right, if we flipped the switch tomorrow to a socialist society, even if there were not corruption within the system, there would be people who would shirk and take advantage or who otherwise try to defraud the system, and others would give up on their ingenuity because, frankly, what's the point.
But that's why i said it's a slow process. It's not only a matter of changing economies and banking and tax systems, it's changing the way people think about themselves and their fellow man. It's increasing productivity and ingenuity for the good of their fellow humans, not for the All-Mighty dollar.
Capitalism is an insatiable monster, motivated by greed. It's a gigantic King of the Mountain game where the ones at the top lord over all those below and everyone else is doing whatever they can to depose them and take their place. It's endgame is having only a few entities controlling nearly all the money, and in turn, controlling the fates of all the others who don't have it.
Those who have the passion to make things better in life will not only not need a profit to motivate them, but they will do a better job at it, given the resources, than someone who wants to make a better product at the highest profit margin.
- ukit0
- ********0
I disagree. Personal gain and monetary reward are the ultimate motivators. It's just the way it is. It is human nature. We are competitive by nature and we act in self-interest and kin-interest.
- * I respectfully disagree, locust.********
- respect, eh? Well, that's a welcome changelocustsloth
- So we won't help fellow Americans but we'll send aid to the entire world???DCDesigns
- * I respectfully disagree, locust.
- omgitsacamera0
Look where too much competition has gotten us. You probably wouldn't know what most people are going through right now.
- You can't blame that on competition in the least bit.********
- competition loses to greedmonkeyshine
- You can't blame that on competition in the least bit.
- locustsloth0
This is true, yet, where will it get us to wallow in those traits? It is also human nature to be compassionate, especially to those in a disadvantaged position, hence the myriad of charities that exist.
But, again, where the compassionate person will build, say a car, with the comfort and safety and pleasure of it's user in mind, the carmaker driven by avarice will eliminate things in order to make more money.
In addition, people motivated by personal gain won't ever be satisfied, for there is always more to gain. This hunger (in it's extreme, mind you) has the potential to destroy the lives. What's the harm when someone (or everyone) gets progressively more compassionate?- I have no problem with compassion. I only have a problem with it being forced upon the unwilling.********
- ...in much the same way that most here object to having the opposite forced upon the unwillingMrOneHundred
- I have no problem with compassion. I only have a problem with it being forced upon the unwilling.
- locustsloth0
The people who are "unwilling" to be compassionate for, at the very least, their fellow countrymen, are those who have greed in their hearts, and as such, are the reason why capitalism can never be truly sustainable.
- Not that i'm saying "force", more like "convince" or "turn"locustsloth
- ukit0
It's silly to argue one vs. the other, like the only choices are communism or pure unregulated capitalism. Go all the way to the capitalist, unregulated side and you end up with something like modern day China, where the lower class is working in dismal conditions with no worker protections and many of the products could poison or kill you because there is no regulation. That kind of society sounds great if you are one of the ultra rich, but hell for just about everyone else. In fact, it would be more difficult for someone at the bottom, slaving away in a factory, to start a business, innovate and rise to the top. Things like health care and progressive taxation are to the benefit of a more innovative society IMO, because they give people a leg up to achieve greater things with their life.
- 2400, btw.MrOneHundred
- i agree, it's silly to think the solution is to pan all the way in one direction or the otherlocustsloth
- "the only choices are communism or pure unregulated capitalism." Since when? Don't believe the hypeTheBlueOne
- ukit0
The knives begin to come out...
- Suck it, Gingrich, you maggot.MrOneHundred
- I love it....********
