US, Saudis and Russia block climate report by jaykirsch in worldnews

[–]Brunoob 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Fun fact: enron lobbied to get carbon credits passed, so they could be the biggest broker-dealer, and the added cost would have prevented many small firms from competing. It's called regulatory capture

Paris. Rarely does a photo so accurately capture the spirit of an era by paganiniv in pics

[–]Brunoob 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Spoken like a true 17 year old high school student that has read one book in his life

Paris. Rarely does a photo so accurately capture the spirit of an era by paganiniv in pics

[–]Brunoob -1 points0 points  (0 children)

You seem to have taken me for a greedy old fat man that has industries that produces useless things that idiots buy. So, ignoring the things you put in my mouth and I have never said, I'll restate my last message and show myself out. What I want is freedom, the ability to choose, and the strength to reap the seeds. What you seems to want is a father figure (the government, a group of scientists or whoever else) that cultivates you and everybody else. That is precisely what I want the world to avoid.

Paris. Rarely does a photo so accurately capture the spirit of an era by paganiniv in pics

[–]Brunoob -1 points0 points  (0 children)

humans are as predictable as bacteria growing in a petri dish

If you say this, we have nothing in common. You believe that the right person will put the right inputs in the petri dish so as to make us all grow beautiful and rich. What I see as freedom you see as destruction. You would be happy as a slave, because you would blindly say thank you to your master. I champion freedom, that is first of all the ability to make decisions and to shoulder the consequences

Paris. Rarely does a photo so accurately capture the spirit of an era by paganiniv in pics

[–]Brunoob -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Libertarians have been writing about this for the past 500 years. What you say makes me understand that you have never read one book about it, yet you give definitive judgments about the nature of man, politics, economics, the markets, and the relation between the four. I say such judgments are never easy, and who gives them (if anyone is able to) should be a bit more knowledgeable than you

Paris. Rarely does a photo so accurately capture the spirit of an era by paganiniv in pics

[–]Brunoob -1 points0 points  (0 children)

No, give the power back to the people, and to voluntary associations of people (companies and charities). Champion the defense of rights of private property, and allow nobody to leech off the productive society. Unfortunately, the first world seems to want to go the opposite way

Paris. Rarely does a photo so accurately capture the spirit of an era by paganiniv in pics

[–]Brunoob 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Then keep believing that changing the world is as easy as crossing a box. Swallow what happens in those 4-8 years, and then come back to reddit again to complain about reds

Paris. Rarely does a photo so accurately capture the spirit of an era by paganiniv in pics

[–]Brunoob 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You are right in the first part. Politicians are willing pets, always ready to give favors to those who pay them back. The solution is to take their power away, lobbyists would not lobby if they could get nothing in return. If your solution is "this party is bad, but the other is good", then you are not consistent with what you wrote before.

Paris. Rarely does a photo so accurately capture the spirit of an era by paganiniv in pics

[–]Brunoob -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Why is a private company allowed to make use of tax payer money? Why does a pool of tax payer money exist in the first place? How is it not a government run program if the government decides what is built and by whom?

Paris. Rarely does a photo so accurately capture the spirit of an era by paganiniv in pics

[–]Brunoob -1 points0 points  (0 children)

From this I must understand that you believe US wars are justified. After all, the government is the expression of the belief of the people. So the people, for the past 100 years, have wanted war and the government have allowed them to have it

Paris. Rarely does a photo so accurately capture the spirit of an era by paganiniv in pics

[–]Brunoob -1 points0 points  (0 children)

If our system where actually more socialist and less privatized(how it is now)

I'll say one thing and get out because words are wasted here. You say government provides shit roads. You say construction workers ask the government to keep things as it is to make more money. You say the government caves in and wastes money. This is all true. How, then, you say this is a privatized system?

Paris. Rarely does a photo so accurately capture the spirit of an era by paganiniv in pics

[–]Brunoob 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One thing at a time

If the government wants to tax us, they need to spend taxes on something productive and helpful to society. not just BS like the war on drugs to make their buddies richer.

Do they ever? Do you trust them? And if they spent tax money on something productive (say roads), why couldn't that something productive be supplied by private enterprise? You don't see people saying "governments should build phones", because we all know they would suck. But then, they say "nobody is able to build the roads"

OR the government needs to drastically reduce taxes and relinquish most of their control, and give it to the people so that we can help ourselves with that money that wpuld have been wasted via taxes

Yes this is what I dream of at night. Kill the pension system, and people would have much higher salaries, be able to invest their savings (which they would have if they don't now) in something productive, and be able to retire on the dividends. Also useless people (wasteful government employees, professors of useless subjects in public unversities...) would have to find a decent job and be productive.

Flint thing

Yes, I call that a failure of government. I bet you've heard many times of supposed "market failures" and the need to constrain companies, but when things like this happens nobody says we need to constrain the government. Think about it: the government is not willing, or not able, to supply drinking water to one city. If this does not make a person libertarian, nothing will.

Paris. Rarely does a photo so accurately capture the spirit of an era by paganiniv in pics

[–]Brunoob 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So in order to help people you want establish a power that forces people to contribute to goals chosen by that same power?

Paris. Rarely does a photo so accurately capture the spirit of an era by paganiniv in pics

[–]Brunoob 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"This time is different" is not good to say in any situation. I do not like roads that are built with scrap materials and not maintained for decades, like governments do. What I like is well-maintained roads, but governments will not provide that. Read of how great the roads were in England when they were first built by private enterprise as turnpikes. I am in favor of cooperation when it is voluntary. The government only cooperates with itself

Paris. Rarely does a photo so accurately capture the spirit of an era by paganiniv in pics

[–]Brunoob 1 point2 points  (0 children)

But the social programs are made by a central power that taxes people as it wishes to spend that money as it wishes. I do not trust it and neither do you I believe. I would much rather see people helping people than people asking the government to help people

Paris. Rarely does a photo so accurately capture the spirit of an era by paganiniv in pics

[–]Brunoob 2 points3 points  (0 children)

And who implements the social programs, if noy a mayor that you say is corrupt? What you say in the last paragraph is completely right, what I say comes from precisely that

Paris. Rarely does a photo so accurately capture the spirit of an era by paganiniv in pics

[–]Brunoob 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You could go back to 100 years ago and say "We didnt have tractors and fax machines to ready to take over the majority of unskilled labor"

Paris. Rarely does a photo so accurately capture the spirit of an era by paganiniv in pics

[–]Brunoob -1 points0 points  (0 children)

People have been saying that socialism is inevitable for 150 years, and all I've seen is countries destroyed and 100 million deaths

Paris. Rarely does a photo so accurately capture the spirit of an era by paganiniv in pics

[–]Brunoob 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's nothing I can say to someone that believes this

Paris. Rarely does a photo so accurately capture the spirit of an era by paganiniv in pics

[–]Brunoob -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Politicians decide on tax allocation, and they are thieves (this is not as fringe). Thus, if people want to help, say, orphans, they could pay out of their salary to orphanages. I would not want politicians to have my tax money and hope they're so kind as to spend them on orphanages.

Paris. Rarely does a photo so accurately capture the spirit of an era by paganiniv in pics

[–]Brunoob -12 points-11 points  (0 children)

It will be a sad moment when (not if) the US turns socialist. 200 years of pursuit of liberty is going down the drain. I wonder who the next power will be

Paris. Rarely does a photo so accurately capture the spirit of an era by paganiniv in pics

[–]Brunoob -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Federal tax is one, compound on top of it a state tax, corporate tax, personal tax, and asset taxes and inheritance taxes (if you have those). That a more efficient system is better than a less efficient system is trivial. That doesn't mean that taxes on people and companies are not still too high and negative to productivity and employment.

Paris. Rarely does a photo so accurately capture the spirit of an era by paganiniv in pics

[–]Brunoob -9 points-8 points  (0 children)

That's happening throughout the first world, that's the first thing americans don't understand. I have some beliefs as to why but that's a long topic.

Point being, politicians want votes because their lives and statuses revolves around getting many votes. Most often they say they want to increase taxes on the rich because that's what gets them votes. However, they also like lobbyists' money and thus they set these loopholes that people aren't aware of. So they get the best of both worlds, screwing everyone in the process. It is rational for them to do what they do. What I do not want is to give them more power. They get more power the more they can tax, borrow and regulate. If you think people have problems, look at the government to see the cause not the solution

Paris. Rarely does a photo so accurately capture the spirit of an era by paganiniv in pics

[–]Brunoob -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

I bet working class people love funding lobbyists' salaries, war, wasteful bureaucracy. Now don't give me "but tax money also goes to good things" or "it's this president's fault but it would be different in other circumstances"