maudlin27

Reply to Boycott Against McDonalds in Current Events JoeUser Forums

[quote] Boycott Successful: McDonald's Abandons Homosexual Activism [/quote] In some ways this is an example of a better functioning Democracy than what is going on at the moment! Some people feel McDonalds should support an issue, others feel they shouldn't/should remain neutral, and the group that feels most strongly about it overall (i.e. the group who will 'put the most money where their mouth is', and hence the group that McDonalds will maximise revenues by choos

Reply to So you wanted cheaper gas, right? in Current Events JoeUser Forums

I'd agree, I expect these prices to only be temporary. In fact I've been amazed just how much they've fallen - go back say 6 months and it was generally acknowledged that the US (and other countries such as much of Europe) was headed for a recession, so the expected slump in demand should have already been built in to the prices. Furthermore, the size of the fall in the price leads me to believe it's an overreaction brought on by all the gloomy headlines - in all likelihood the economy in the

Reply to Red Alert 3? in PC Gaming JoeUser Forums

[QUOTE] I see everyone jumping on the "5 activation" bandwagon. What, each one of you wants to install, and play this game ONLINE on 5+ computers..? Unless you do, for whatever weird reason, I don't see why anyone cares [/QUOTE] Well for myself I find i often run out of space on my computer, and hence uninstall games I no longer play. Then maybe 6 months later I decide I feel like playing that game again, and so uninstall another game so I can reinstall it. I also have both a main com

Reply to Is This Racist? in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote] is this comment racist? "I see carloads of black Obama supporters coming from the inner city to cast their votes for Obama. This is their chance to get a black president and they seem to care little that he is at minimum, socialist, and probably Marxist in his core beliefs. After all, he is black - no experience or accomplishments - but he is black." [/quote] IMO yes. The person making the comment appears to be saying that the Obama supporters ar

Reply to Liberal super majority: The ramifications in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote] what is worse is when the ceo is killed by the government so they can take HIS money and use it to save the lives of women and children whom they deem more important. And that is what we are discussing, we are not discussing killing 100 women or a ceo. Actually to be more accurate it is one ceo dies from being denied treatment to save one woman now, 10 woman die due to lack of treatment because said CEO is no longer paying taxes [/quote] If you scale the provision of public se

Reply to Democrats: Give Us Your 401K in Politics JoeUser Forums

Unless US law is radically different to how it works here (and as a general rule it's not), I wouldn't have thought a democrat government could bind it's successors into keeping a particular piece of legislation, meaning that presumably if they introduced a bunch of stuff that was seen as a disaster, the republicans could then get voted in and repeal/remove it. Obviously they could make it politically difficult, and introduce costs to dissuade a future government from removing it, but that's

Reply to Tax System Explained in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote] You know, the thing I like about JU is the intelligence of both sides of the issue displayed by many here. You are not one of them. You are just an idiot. That is descriptive, not inflamatory [/quote] You do yourself little credit posting something like that Guy - I know you can post better than that - if you're going to call someone an idiot, at least give a few lines detailing why you feel it is an accurate description, or else it comes off as inf

Reply to Redistribution in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote] If you reread what I said, I did not say taxation of rich or poor people, I said taxation of BUSINESS [/quote] Well to be picky, a business would cover one run by an individual (sole trader), and hence personal taxation would be applicable, as opposed to a company which would be a separate legal entity and hence have corporation tax apply (although to be fair at some point I forgot the specific mention of business that you gave and looked more at rich/poor, so hence could've t

Reply to Taking candy from babies in Politics JoeUser Forums

Punish children? How? Trick or treating is legalised blackmail/extortion, you're basically saying 'give me some of your stuff or else'. So that woman was really just rewarding children who shared her (political) views - why should she have to give it to people who she doesn't want to? I mean it's not like she wouldn't have earnt that candy, it was hers to do with as she wished.

Reply to I'm Going To Vote For Obama in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote] The USSR was a horrible attempt at Communism, so them (and most "communist" countries) being an example to support your views against it is weak. They never were a true communism, never [/quote] I'm fascinated, just where is an example of "true communism" (since I'm assuming by true communism you mean the pure/ideal communism)? (just that you earlier mentioned that communism in it's pure form will never work). [quote] Before then Communism was, granted, a put off to mo

Reply to The power to tax is the power to destroy in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote] Every cent the government takes from its citizens is a cent of wealth that has been destroyed. Hence, the government should only coerce money out of society for absolutely critical projects that only the government can perform. [/quote] Not necessarily, because the extreme of no (or little) government intervention is less efficient due to market failure. Taxation is one method that can be used to directly combat such failure, while government intervention in other ways (

Reply to Redistribution in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote] no matter where the money "falls" to if there is more money it cannot possibly make the poor poorer. It can only make them richer. If business make more money, then they can pay more and thus they can hire more people / pay people more (higher competition between business for workers increasaes their wage). There is no conceiveable way that it could make them poorer [/quote] Quite possible (at least in theory, I can't be bothered to gather together all the various statistics a

Reply to The American left: Haters? in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote] No. In Europe, the term liberal means something differently than the way we use it in the US. When a European says someone is a liberal they are not describing anything like an American liberal. [/quote] Care to give a few examples? Just that I could think of several situations where either would happen; that is, in relation to the economy, a 'liberal' is typically used to mean someone with a more free-market approach, although in relation to issues such as taxation a 'l

Reply to Share Your Own Toys-Not Mine! in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote] Maudlin: Your analogy doesn't even make sense [/quote] Analogy? It was a republican version of the joke, it's not meant to be subjected to rigorous analysis or taken that seriously. Anyway the reasoning behind it is simple; Republicans favour gun ownership more than democrats, and also harsher criminal penalties/methods, on average. As for not being 100% applicable, are you arguing that all people not on high incomes are lazy, or that people who choose not to take part in lega

Reply to Redistribution in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote] Heavier taxation of business makes the rich poorer and the poor poorer. Lower taxation of business makes the rich richer and the poor richer [/quote] Not necessarily. It would be expected to increase the aggregate income for the country in question, but whether that translates to the poor getting richer depends on where it falls, while the same is true for the reverse. If you're raising taxes on the rich and giving that money to the poor, then the poor are like

Reply to Share Your Own Toys-Not Mine! in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote] When I read this, I thought of a cartoon a friend recently sent me. It's Halloween and three little kids are out trick-or-treating with their goodies bags full. At one house, a man greets them saying: "Look how much candy you have" as he reaches into their bags and grabs a handful. "I'm going to take half and give it to the kids who were too lazy to go trick or treating." It shows one of the kids, thinking, O crap! A Democrat! [/quote] Hmm,

Reply to The American left: Haters? in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote] One of the things I notice whenever I get into a discussion on politics is that American liberals are very quick to get very angry if you disagree with them [/quote] Not just the liberals, the conservatives also can hate to be disagreed with too. It's part of human nature - people hate to be shown up as being wrong - some people will treat it as a good thing, allowing them to grow in experience and highlight areas they might not understand fully, others react by attacking the

Reply to The waiter, the tip, and Obama's plan in Politics JoeUser Forums

The thing I find funniest about this? The idea that the waiter "earnt" the tip - ok, a small part of a tip acts as a regulator, since you're unlikely to tip a very poor service, but what if the service you receive is satisfactory, or amazing? How much of a difference is there in the amount you tip then? Ultimately that waiter is being paid a salary for what they do. If they do a good job, they might get a raise, or won't get fired. If they do a bad job, they'll likely get fired. Why should th

Reply to Liberal super majority: The ramifications in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote] Is society really better off without him [Buffet] but with the 23-year old welfeare mom?...I don't think I could illustrate better precisely why it's so scary imagining the government deciding who should get care than what you just wrote above [/quote] Care to give more precise details on what you would find less scary than that (i.e. what specific method of evaluating you're talking about)? The impression I'm getting from what you've posted is that you'd support a system wher

Reply to I've Got the Solution!!!! in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote] Now to be fair it would be a big transition to get former investment bankers to put down their briefcases and pick up rifles [/quote] Just offer them big bonuses for killing enemy combatatants - they take too many risks, die off at a fast rate (solving the increased expenditure problems long-term), and hopefully bring insurgencies such as in Afghanistan that have been growing strongly for many years prior to their arrival to their knees and possibly even destroy them completel

Reply to Liberal super majority: The ramifications in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote] What about the next 23 year old woman who needs help and cannot get it because the hospital doesn't have any resources left after you decided to let the stupid rich guy who paid for all the stuff die? [/quote] Strange reasoning in part - he was old, hence his working life was coming to an end. Meanwhile that woman not only has potentially a long working life (albiet not at much of an income in the example I gave), but also has children who have a long working life (who would p

Reply to Liberal super majority: The ramifications in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote] Needs? Not really. Wants - most do. But needs? How did mankind survive without it for 100,000 years? [/quote] By dying earlier?! We could survive as a species with a life expectency of 30 years (due to no healthcare), just as we could survive if everyone over 50 years old was refused food and forced to starve to death. Doesn't make food any less of a need, in fact it shows that it is a need if you die much faster without it! [quote] The

Reply to Obama's a socialist, let's be real in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote] In a country where 38% of the voters pay no federal income taxes...Frankly, it's amazing Republicans get into office at all. They start out with 38% of the population against them to start with [/quote] Couldn't help but be a bit pedantic, but not all of those will automatically be opposed to the republicans - some of them could, for example, be entrepreneurs who are currently not earning enough to be taxed, but expect there is a high chance they could be successful and jump f

Reply to European ideals succeed. in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote] There is no such thing as fairness when some people get to give more than others while others get to take more [/quote] That's got everything to do with fairness. Some people see it as only fair that the government is there to lend a helping hand to people when times are hard, providing that person is doing everything they can to try and get out of the hole. Others see it as only fair that people are taxed based on their ability to pay, and you don't tax the poor into the grou

Reply to WSJ: Obama's 95% Illusion in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote] lets say that an employee at walmart puts on his vest & during his shift he robbed a bank. according to your logic, walmart would owe that bank however much their employee stole. in reality, the employee is liable, not walmart. thats bcause the employee willfully comitted the crime & walmart did not order him to or threaten him into doing it [/quote] Actually I'd imagine that to make walmart liable you'd just need to prove that the employee was acting to furth