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"...Science and Factual Knowledge The delusion here is that a society can progress - or even hold it's own - by embracing an anti-science position and glorifying ignorance..."
"Much of the ongoing debate in political, business and social/cultural arenas is rooted in an underlying disagreement about what best serves national interests and individual lives -- is it promoting the common good, or serving self-interest?"
I think the article is a decent advocacy for one side of thinking, but the other perspective has substantial validity too.
I'd summarize this as a cooperative vs competitive view of society. I would argue that the liberals favor a high degree of cooperation, which I kind of see advocated in this article, while conservatives prefer a competitive environment. The cooperative may result in more even distribution of benefits, but I'd argue that the competitive would result in larger gains and benefits to society as a whole.
How do you know they aren't. Quite a number of Mennonite around here do amazingly well in business as tourist pine for yesteryear. Since most own their own businesses, they are required to pay at least quarterly as sole proprietors.
I remember as a kid in the fourth grade watching those old black and white films, some from as far back as the 50's, about things like civic duty, fellowship with our countrymen, etc... Today I just get the feeling that many on the right are so far right they would assume we all lived on compounds using oil lamps and using roads that had a toll booth as it crossed each property owners land.
You have your groups confused. It's not as much of a right/left issue as it is a producer/deliberate parasite issue.
This wasn't happening in the 50's, either:
Quote:
Las Vegas tops the list with $11.8 million spent at casinos or taken from ATMs, but transactions in Hawaii, Miami, Guam and elsewhere also raise questions. Officials say budget cuts hinder investigations.
I do not desire some European socialist state, but America is light years away from that, but we are socialist as any human collective forming a SOCIETY is to some degree.
Its always this grossly simplistic absolutist view of the world we seem to desire. Either fundamentalist on a compound stroking a rifle in the dark chanting "this is my weapon this is my gun, this is for killing and this is for fun" or a communist state like...well I guess Cuba is all that is left. as though the world in between doesn't even exist and as though Americans and our government, no matter how disgusting would choose a system of government that has failed dismally in every place it was ever attempted.
Just as an example, note how it's called 'Selective Service' and not 'collective service.' Yet you seem to want to continue to pound square pegs into round holes to suit your own prejudices. I'm not buying it. You're deluding only yourself.
Please let me inject ... a BIG FAT NO ... not one single part of this globalist/communist/fascist tripe is of any benefit to the common man, therefore, by definition cannot be beneficial to the "common good" ... unless of course you believe the two to be mutually exclusive rather than inextricably tied.
This op-ed piece is PURE UNADULTERATED GLOBALIST PROPAGANDA, and outlines the foundational principles which have led the world to the brink of TOTAL GLOBAL FINANCIAL COLLAPSE that now exists, which includes 14 Trillion US National Debt, endless wars, increasing poverty, and a chasm separating the haves and the have nots so large today as to almost be irreparable, short of a massive worldwide revolution. "Common Good" indeed.
Let's pluck a few of these grand ideas out of this hodgepodge of bovine excrement for a closer examination:
Quote:
Personal Values and Conduct - "............
Emotional and values conflicts are the downside of too much self-interest in careers and relationships. They've been apparent for some time. For example, I wrote about the "working wounded" several years ago in Modern Madness, but today we're seeing a broader impact in the context of current worldwide changes. And it's not pretty.
For example, Thomas Friedman has described in the New York Times a values breakdown that was reflected in an "epidemic of get-rich-quickism and something-for-nothingism," and that in a " flat world where everyone has access to everything, values matter more than ever." Honing in on serious problems of the new world environment, like decline in U.S. education, competitiveness and infrastructure, along with oil addiction and climate change, Friedman emphasizes the dangers of expecting that "all solutions must be painless" and the problem of having no sense of having to sacrifice or postpone gratification.
Yet those are the very kinds of values and behavior that support the well-being of all in today's world. They are also undermined by reactive fears of the "other;" the person who's different from me and may take from me what should be "mine." The latter is one source of the growing acceptance of falsehoods from "birthers" and those convinced that Obama is a Kenyan-born Muslim.
The amount of lies and deceptions in this excerpt greatly exceeds it's overall volume ... but it certainly does expose itself as ideological extreme leftwing propaganda, which I suppose are rather redundant statements.
In any case, I highlighted certain statements for a reason .... they all support the following insinuation which could be restated as .... "it is you .. the selfish common man that has allowed your own greed and selfishness to trump the greater good. In order to get back on track, you must accept diversity without question (you're a racist if you don't) ... socialism (because you are anti-American if you don't) ... and take the painful medicine now required to cure you of your illness (Austerity for the masses, but a little bit of sugar will help the medicine go down). That is the solution ... put aside your self interests ... be ready for shouldering more of the responsibility for this mess we the bankers created, ... and think of the common good .... that is, if you know what's good for you!
The logical fallacy here is that the greed and selfishness has come from the common man, and not the corporations and the elitists who have raped and pillaged the wealth of the nation .. and in fact .. been doing this to the majority of nations globally for decades (those that refused to go along were systematically destroyed by economic sanctions, military intervention, or both). It's now OUR turn to lay down, and grovel at the feet of the global elite to whom we must now beg forgiveness and ask for our daily bread.
The small sidebar here is that anyone that doesn't agree with this leftwing extremist nonsense is a conspiracy theorist who thinks Obama is Kenyan born Muslim illegally infesting the White House, when a great deal of evidence exists that would support the contention that he IS is a Kenyan born Muslim illegally infesting the White House.
Now this:
Quote:
Political-Economic Ideology The delusion here is that it's possible to cut deficits without both tax increases and spending cuts, and also wage expensive wars without some kind of sacrifice in our way of life. In this delusion, Republicans denounce Keynes' views, despite the fact that Keynesian theory is universally embraced. Writing in the Washington Post, Dana Milbank has pointed out that, given this contradiction, "Republican denunciation of him has a flat-earth feel to it." He points out that Keynes described exactly what happened: that the financial crisis caused a spiral of falling demand, investments and employment, and that a sudden rise in savings among anxious consumers accelerated the decline. Yet the delusion that non-government action is going to help persists. As Milbank points out, an alternative, of course, is that "the government could do nothing, and let the human misery continue. The Democrats seem to be joining in with this delusion...and this result."
One need not consult some HACK at the Washington Post to get a glimpse of what Keynesian economics provides the common man ... JUST LOOK AROUND !! Like what you see?
Without going into too much depth on the rusty and faulty mechanics of Keynesian economics, or the ridiculous demonization of consumer savings as bad, the results speak for themselves, and a careful examination of it shows it's only benefit to come in short term successes at the expense of long term, stable prosperity.
An appropriate analogy would be a company heavily in the red, revenue challenged, but continuing to expand and producing goods no one wants or needs ... and doing so by simply writing bad check after bad check for a decade. All is just fine until those bad checks must be accounted for ... the result is inevitable ... bankruptcy and liquidation. This is what we are seeing today with the United States Corporation .... bankruptcy and liquidation. While all of the profits for decades of fraud go to the Keynesian controllers of the currency and government spending ... the bill is laid at the feet of the the taxpayers .. both alive .. and those not yet born.
The expansion and contraction of the money supply by the banker gangsters have created every boom and bust cycle since 1913 ... employing the Keynesian mechanism ... they built an empire of wealth for the past 90+ years, and now they are handing the people the final bill, in the form of worldwide depression, accompanied by the psychological con job that it was ALL OUR FAULT. (And some IDIOTS buy this nonsense!! That's the real "delusion" here).
Keynesian economics can be thusly defined as a model to which a central bank (or government) has full control of a national economy, manipulating market activity by means of expansion and retraction of the money supply .. interest rates ... and selectively choosing who wins and who loses based on who actually gets money .. for what purpose ... and at what cost. Sounds more like RACKETEERING and CONSPIRACY than a system of economics.
What most people will not recognize, and those that do won't admit ... is that this IS what it IS .... conspiracy and racketeering on a massive scale. It does, by it's very nature destroy any possibility of free market enterprise existing in such an environment. It's a racket posing as an economic system to safeguard the "common good" when in reality it is the extreme opposite.
It's a system that guarantees continued control of power by those who control the money supply without fear of ever losing that control to legitimate free markets. It is a system of monopoly, by monopoly men, using monopoly money they create out of thin air, and pass off to an unsuspecting, ignorant populace as free enterprise.
It is in short, the Keynesian model is economic "farming" in which the mass populace are nothing more than field workers ... working like slaves for whatever the plantation boss decides to allot to their efforts.
They sow the fields with influxes of money ... allow the growing cycle to produce, then they retract the money supply creating a financial crisis that forces the liquidation (harvesting) of the newly created tangible production at drastically reduced rates.
And to think it couldn't be more obvious:
Quote:
Public/Social Policy Ready for another one? This delusion is promoted by the Republican-Tea Party, and embraced by rising numbers of Americans. Essentially, it's that government is bad for you. Except, of course, when it authorizes tax cuts for you, if you're rich. Or, when you would like some firefighters to come by when your house is burning. Or if you'd like schools to exist to educate your child. Or...well, you get the point.
Yes indeed ... I'm ready for this one .... and to think there are those deluded masses that think government is bad for you??? Imagine that. I wonder if this guy is REALLY THAT STUPID? The the question is, does he not know that SEVERAL HUNDRED MILLION people were murdered at the hands of their own governments in just the 20th Century alone? I would also point out that most of this murdering rampage was conducted by Socialist/Communist/Fascist governments who's motto was ALWAYS the "Common Good". Mao, Stalin, Hitler are just the tip of the iceberg, with HUNDREDS MORE examples that would demand a warning label by the FDA ... "Large Powerful Government is more dangerous to your health than any other potential threat".
Oh my ... details. Pay no attention to those figures .. repeat after me "Government is Good for You". Now keep saying that until it becomes the truth. While you're at it ... just to break the monotony, throw in "I am from the government, and I am here to help you". (You'll have to repeat that A LOT before that becomes the truth).
More:
Quote:
Even a conservative writer like David Brooks has objected to this false portrayal of the "badness" of government, per se, pointing out that the Republicans are mired in a delusion about American history. He writes that our history is not just about limited government, but about "energetic governments that used aggressive federal power to promote growth and social mobility." Leaders have treated government as "a useful tool when used judiciously and a dangerous menace when it gets out of control," he writes. The issue is not whether government is big or not; it's a means, not an end. Brooks also observes that there are going to have to be spending cuts and tax increases. And, "If Republicans decide that even the smallest tax increases put us on the road to serfdom....the country will careen toward bankruptcy."
LOVE IT ... "mired in delusion about American history"? What "delusion" of history would that be, pray tell? The part about the creation of the United States because of our rejection of royal rule and oppression from the British Monarchy? The delusions for which the founding fathers repeated incessantly about the threats posed by a powerful central government and the need to restrain it's love lust for power ... which was the central theme of the United States Constitution? Those "delusions" ?
How a thinking breathing person can read this article without feeling the need to vomit is beyond me.
But to ask such a silly question ... "do you not agree with any of it" is typical of the mentality that has allowed the nation to slip to such depths of degradation, absent of even a fleeting hint of an infantile level of common sense, let alone an adult grasp of reality.
I think the article is a decent advocacy for one side of thinking, but the other perspective has substantial validity too.
I'd summarize this as a cooperative vs competitive view of society. I would argue that the liberals favor a high degree of cooperation, which I kind of see advocated in this article, while conservatives prefer a competitive environment. The cooperative may result in more even distribution of benefits, but I'd argue that the competitive would result in larger gains and benefits to society as a whole.
The competitive results in larger gains and benefits only if competition is kept open and accessible. The competitive model fails in the same way that the cooperative model fails. Eventually the winners in the competition begin to design the competition to favor themselves. Hence the monopolies that have plagued competitive systems from the beginning. Predatory business practices are part and parcel of competitive economic systems. From Carnegie to the Hunt Brothers to Microsoft, big business uses its leverage to eliminate competition, not to promote it. And when that happens, the larger gains and benefits to society are lost. The ideal is not one or the other, it's a balance between the two, and it has to be a balance that can adapt as the availability of capital, which is not fixed, fluctuates.
Please let me inject ... a BIG FAT NO ... not one single part of this globalist/communist/fascist tripe is of any benefit to the common man, therefore, by definition cannot be beneficial to the "common good" ... unless of course you believe the two to be mutually exclusive rather than inextricably tied.
This op-ed piece is PURE UNADULTERATED GLOBALIST PROPAGANDA, and outlines the foundational principles which have led the world to the brink of TOTAL GLOBAL FINANCIAL COLLAPSE that now exists, which includes 14 Trillion US National Debt, endless wars, increasing poverty, and a chasm separating the haves and the have nots so large today as to almost be irreparable, short of a massive worldwide revolution. "Common Good" indeed.
Let's pluck a few of these grand ideas out of this hodgepodge of bovine excrement for a closer examination:
The amount of lies and deceptions in this excerpt greatly exceeds it's overall volume ... but it certainly does expose itself as ideological extreme leftwing propaganda, which I suppose are rather redundant statements.
In any case, I highlighted certain statements for a reason .... they all support the following insinuation which could be restated as .... "it is you .. the selfish common man that has allowed your own greed and selfishness to trump the greater good. In order to get back on track, you must accept diversity without question (you're a racist if you don't) ... socialism (because you are anti-American if you don't) ... and take the painful medicine now required to cure you of your illness (Austerity for the masses, but a little bit of sugar will help the medicine go down). That is the solution ... put aside your self interests ... be ready for shouldering more of the responsibility for this mess we the bankers created, ... and think of the common good .... that is, if you know what's good for you!
The logical fallacy here is that the greed and selfishness has come from the common man, and not the corporations and the elitists who have raped and pillaged the wealth of the nation .. and in fact .. been doing this to the majority of nations globally for decades (those that refused to go along were systematically destroyed by economic sanctions, military intervention, or both). It's now OUR turn to lay down, and grovel at the feet of the global elite to whom we must now beg forgiveness and ask for our daily bread.
The small sidebar here is that anyone that doesn't agree with this leftwing extremist nonsense is a conspiracy theorist who thinks Obama is Kenyan born Muslim illegally infesting the White House, when a great deal of evidence exists that would support the contention that he IS is a Kenyan born Muslim illegally infesting the White House.
Now this:
One need not consult some HACK at the Washington Post to get a glimpse of what Keynesian economics provides the common man ... JUST LOOK AROUND !! Like what you see?
Without going into too much depth on the rusty and faulty mechanics of Keynesian economics, or the ridiculous demonization of consumer savings as bad, the results speak for themselves, and a careful examination of it shows it's only benefit to come in short term successes at the expense of long term, stable prosperity.
An appropriate analogy would be a company heavily in the red, revenue challenged, but continuing to expand and producing goods no one wants or needs ... and doing so by simply writing bad check after bad check for a decade. All is just fine until those bad checks must be accounted for ... the result is inevitable ... bankruptcy and liquidation. This is what we are seeing today with the United States Corporation .... bankruptcy and liquidation. While all of the profits for decades of fraud go to the Keynesian controllers of the currency and government spending ... the bill is laid at the feet of the the taxpayers .. both alive .. and those not yet born.
The expansion and contraction of the money supply by the banker gangsters have created every boom and bust cycle since 1913 ... employing the Keynesian mechanism ... they built an empire of wealth for the past 90+ years, and now they are handing the people the final bill, in the form of worldwide depression, accompanied by the psychological con job that it was ALL OUR FAULT. (And some IDIOTS buy this nonsense!! That's the real "delusion" here).
Keynesian economics can be thusly defined as a model to which a central bank (or government) has full control of a national economy, manipulating market activity by means of expansion and retraction of the money supply .. interest rates ... and selectively choosing who wins and who loses based on who actually gets money .. for what purpose ... and at what cost. Sounds more like RACKETEERING and CONSPIRACY than a system of economics.
What most people will not recognize, and those that do won't admit ... is that this IS what it IS .... conspiracy and racketeering on a massive scale. It does, by it's very nature destroy any possibility of free market enterprise existing in such an environment. It's a racket posing as an economic system to safeguard the "common good" when in reality it is the extreme opposite.
It's a system that guarantees continued control of power by those who control the money supply without fear of ever losing that control to legitimate free markets. It is a system of monopoly, by monopoly men, using monopoly money they create out of thin air, and pass off to an unsuspecting, ignorant populace as free enterprise.
It is in short, the Keynesian model is economic "farming" in which the mass populace are nothing more than field workers ... working like slaves for whatever the plantation boss decides to allot to their efforts.
They sow the fields with influxes of money ... allow the growing cycle to produce, then they retract the money supply creating a financial crisis that forces the liquidation (harvesting) of the newly created tangible production at drastically reduced rates.
And to think it couldn't be more obvious:
Yes indeed ... I'm ready for this one .... and to think there are those deluded masses that think government is bad for you??? Imagine that. I wonder if this guy is REALLY THAT STUPID? The the question is, does he not know that SEVERAL HUNDRED MILLION people were murdered at the hands of their own governments in just the 20th Century alone? I would also point out that most of this murdering rampage was conducted by Socialist/Communist/Fascist governments who's motto was ALWAYS the "Common Good". Mao, Stalin, Hitler are just the tip of the iceberg, with HUNDREDS MORE examples that would demand a warning label by the FDA ... "Large Powerful Government is more dangerous to your health than any other potential threat".
Oh my ... details. Pay no attention to those figures .. repeat after me "Government is Good for You". Now keep saying that until it becomes the truth. While you're at it ... just to break the monotony, throw in "I am from the government, and I am here to help you". (You'll have to repeat that A LOT before that becomes the truth).
More:
LOVE IT ... "mired in delusion about American history"? What "delusion" of history would that be, pray tell? The part about the creation of the United States because of our rejection of royal rule and oppression from the British Monarchy? The delusions for which the founding fathers repeated incessantly about the threats posed by a powerful central government and the need to restrain it's love lust for power ... which was the central theme of the United States Constitution? Those "delusions" ?
How a thinking breathing person can read this article without feeling the need to vomit is beyond me.
But to ask such a silly question ... "do you not agree with any of it" is typical of the mentality that has allowed the nation to slip to such depths of degradation, absent of even a fleeting hint of an infantile level of common sense, let alone an adult grasp of reality.
Just as an example, note how it's called 'Selective Service' and not 'collective service.' Yet you seem to want to continue to pound square pegs into round holes to suit your own prejudices. I'm not buying it. You're deluding only yourself.
Look simple yes or no, if a person paying taxes is a conscientious objector and exempt from selective service, is he still required to pay taxes that will be used for the military?
The competitive results in larger gains and benefits only if competition is kept open and accessible. The competitive model fails in the same way that the cooperative model fails. Eventually the winners in the competition begin to design the competition to favor themselves. Hence the monopolies that have plagued competitive systems from the beginning. Predatory business practices are part and parcel of competitive economic systems. From Carnegie to the Hunt Brothers to Microsoft, big business uses its leverage to eliminate competition, not to promote it. And when that happens, the larger gains and benefits to society are lost. The ideal is not one or the other, it's a balance between the two, and it has to be a balance that can adapt as the availability of capital, which is not fixed, fluctuates.
We generally agree here, and what you state is one of reasons I don't support replacing the income tax with any type of consumption tax. However, the baseline article in this thread espoused the rationale for the cooperative side of the equation, and I believe it was appropriate to bring up the benefits of the other side as well.
I too see it as a balancing act, with measured changes needed as situations evolve. Looking at the distribution of income today, and how the wealthiest folks have prospered the most during the past few decades, I'd be more in favor of some programs that provided benefits for those who haven't fared as well. However, I also find that often the proposed programs are excessive and/or misdirected relative to the problem, hence I have reticence in supporting many of these efforts.
Look simple yes or no, if a person paying taxes is a conscientious objector and exempt from selective service, is he still required to pay taxes that will be used for the military?
More than just conscientious objectors are exempt from selective service. And if you had read the MWR article, you would have seen that there are alternatives to paying taxes that support the military. Therefore, your question doesn't have a simple yes or no answer.
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