If there’s anything I’m afraid of, it’s that Obama won’t go far enough in economic reform in the US. With a Democratic Congress (and Senate? pffft, I don’t know), he could surely put through some of the most revolutionary - and at this point necessary - economic legislation since the Marshall Plan. But politics are becoming increasingly and worryingly centrist, at a time when the only credible surviving economies are socialist.

God bless McCarthy’s nice wave of propoganda for brainwashing an entire nation for generations. (Wow, it rhymes; therefore it must be true!)

But seriously, can’t you just look at the idea of wealth distribution without instantly associating it with Communism? And can’t you look at some of Marx’s ideas without instantly branding them as evil, without even considering how beneficial the applications would be?

Think for yourselves. If an idea makes sense, it makes sense. Who gives a fuck where it came from or what it’s been used for in the past. Base it on it’s own merit.

For example, over here in the UK the Labour party is in power. They were origionally a socialist party. To this day they can still be classed as social democrats. Are we running around with red flags burning the rich and raping the aristocracy? No. We’re running an economy based on minimal state intervention, which is only used to subsidise the poor (and therefore enabling them to advance there own personal freedoms and better benefit society in the long run) and avert any major problems.

And, I hate to break it to you, but Thatcherite economics have FAILED. We’ve seen that left to it’s own devices the free market cannot properly function. There needs to be a serious rethink of the global economy and our entire political ideology. If you’re not willing to accept that, then you’re a) a moron and b) part of the problem.

p.s if you want to discuss the reasons why the free market cannot function when left to it’s own devices, and the reasons why we’re in this god damn mess, feel free to email me. S.A.Waters@hotmail.com

Daniel Dickey

annnnnnd ……… bingo. barter economy anyone? how do you tax a company that exchanges a 747 for 100 tons of raw steel?

now dont get me wrong at all here. i actualy like the idea (in theory) of a flat consumption tax, but i can poke many many many holes in the theory (too many to list here).

look its like this, tax questions arent simple, any time you take something away from someone for the benifit of others your on slipery moral ground. my example of women i have worked with getting large tax breaks for having sex with no birth control vrs my not having unwanted kids is a good one. im getting screwed no two ways about it. im being asked to pay more for someone elses mistakes. you dont get more ‘unfair’ than that when it comes to questions about taxes. but in truth i have looked each and every one of these women in the eyes, ive seen their children and in reality im more than willing to put up with the unfair taxes to help not the mothers but the children. sure the mothers dont diserve a reward for poor choices but can we ‘punish’ the mother without hurting the kids whome never had a choice at all?

put in this context should anyone feel guilty that someone with enough advantages to even be in a position for a tax on the ‘rich’ to effect them is being unfairly taxed?

i live on about $28,000 a year. im not hurting for anything right now, i have a nice place to live, plenty of food on my table, a car to drive, and plenty of ‘play’ money to do things i enjoy doing. in fact i could actualy live on much less than i have now, i could prolly live on $20,000 (less if forced into some hard decisions) a year and still have a quality life so any argument that those poor souls making $300,000 a year or more are being taken advantage of is just noise to me.

finaly if the taxes bother you that much that you dont want to pay a higher rate at the $250,000 level than make less than the cutoff. no one is FORCING anyone to make huge ammounts of money, thats a personel choice, and if you decide that $249,999 isnt enough to live on for a year and just HAVE to make that extra buck than be ready to pay the price for it. its not like the tax codes are a secret and totaly random.

Limited personal experience applied to broad generalization?
Check.

Cites exorbitant costs to becoming an electrician as a means of discrediting “licensing” while failing to provide context?
Check.

Attacks the association of Reagan with “trickle down economics” purely on semantics, when we all know “supply side economics” (happy now?) is what is being discussed.
Check.

Thinks the word “deplane” would have been used instead of “explain”.
Check.

Use of insults like “epic fail” and “assbiter”, especially to (poorly) conceal the fact you have no idea what you are talking about.
Check.

Your name reminds me of Nattie Light/Nattie Ice
Chuh-Check

now the whole crux of your argument seems to hinge on the idea of job creation, you imply that a company taxed more will cut jobs to afford the new tax bill, but the simple TRUTH is that company get tax credits for each and every job they create that more than offset any increase in taxes. these job tax credits were implimented specificaly to counteract your theory. so no , its pure bullshit to say that companys will cut jobs, becasue the truth is if they are having tax problems the BEST thing they can do is ADD a few workers to get those large tax credits. in fact one of the companys i used to work for would ADD people to their workforce at the ’slow’ time of the year and basicaly let them stand around with their thumb in their asses just to get a tax break. this was helped on by being in new york state and having state tax breaks as well as federal for job creation. they paid almost NO taxes in NYS because of this.

anyhow if your MAKING $300,000 a year, and earning enough to STILL be TAXED on the full 300K even taking into account tax breaks than you have nothing to bitch about. as Obama said in responce to McCains saying that the US companys pay one of the highest tax rates in the world, Obama said that would be a fair statment if they actualy PAID that rate and the tax code wasnt full of loop-holes and tax breaks, the REAL (the rate that the IRS actualy GETS) American tax rate is about anywhere between 0 and 11%.

its typical republican bullshit if you ask me, the headlines read ‘US pays highest tax rate in the world’ and people who cant be bothered to look into it take it at face value, but when you actualy get into the fine print you see that isnt even close to the truth. but the headling, the ‘on paper’ tax rate of 36% give the republicans a headline they can use to add MORE loop holes and tax breaks for their favorite companys like big oil.

want a ‘fair’ tax code? you can start by getting rid of ALL tax breaks and loop holes, then work from there.

finaly from my end of the tax scale as a ‘worker’ i want to know why a woman who cant keep her legs closed and brings one kid after another into the world when she cant afford it should get a fucking $5,000 tax credit PER CHILD, when i, who is smart and responcable enough to use a fucking condom doesnt? MY ‘reward’ for not adding MORE burdens too society? why paying higher taxes of course.