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DomoArigato
ParticipantI’m with Ron Paul on cutting back the Defense budget. The top 100 private defense contractors are costing taxpayers $306 billion per year.
http://www.govexec.com/features/0807-15/0807-15s3s1.htm
Generally, private contractors are paid twice as much as government employees doing the same work, so it would be much more efficient to hire the contractors full time and cut out the private contractor all together.
Participant[quote=markmax33]EVERY SINGLE FIAT CURRENCY HAS FAILED IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD. [/quote]
SO HAS EVERY SINGLE GOLD AND SILVER-BACKED CURRENCY.
In Diocletian’s time, in the year 301, he fixed the price at 50,000 denarii for one pound of gold. Ten years later it had risen to 120,000. In 324, 23 years after it was 50,000, it was now 300,000. In 337, the year of Constantine’s death, a pound of gold brought 20,000,000 denarii.
It doesn’t matter what a currency is backed by, the controllers of the currency can always debase it by changing the exchange rate.
The only way to protect yourself from currency debasement is to own gold or silver.
ParticipantHere’s a picture of one of the entrepreneurs to which Ron Paul would say ‘let him die!’:
http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2011/10/29/we-are-the-99-percent-photo-of-the-day-12/
He’s holding a sign with the following message:
I am a 50 yr old owner of a Local Moving Co. My business has dropped 75% since 2008. I have sole custody of an 11 year old daughter. I declared bankruptcy in Feb 2011.
I have Skin Cancer but no Health Insurance and can’t afford surgery.
I have lost my house to foreclosure and now can barely afford rent !
I started my business in 1991 and had savings, Investment Property, and a Retirement fund.
All is Lost !
I am the 99% !
It’s easy for Ron Paul to say ‘let him die!’ what with his gold-plated government pension and health insurance.
Participant[quote=markmax33][quote=DomoArigato][quote=markmax33]
If you listen to ANY videos or read anything from Dr. Paul he is the nicest man alive. He delivered 4000 babies and by definition Libertarians are very peaceful and nice people.[/quote]Is Rand Paul a Libertarian? Because stomping on a woman’s head and neck when she is already face down on the pavement doesn’t seem like a very nice thing to do:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK7b7i-cMRs
[/quote]
You can pick a video from ANY candidate and find supporters doing crazy stuff. That is extremely anecdotal and you don’t know what that person did to the other person first. How do you know they didn’t attack them with rocks or a weapon? That vid proves absolutely nothing.
[/quote]
She didn’t do anything, you moron. She certainly didn’t have a rock or a weapon. The jackass who attacked her is Tim Profitt, Rand Paul’s Bourbon County coordinator. This article has a picture of the two together:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/26/tim-profitt-rand-paul-supporter_n_774285.html
The assailant sack of shit was sentenced to a year of probation and ordered to pay $600 restitution. How can you defend this POS? Libertarians always claim to be principled people, but in reality they are fine with other Libertarians committing violence against non-Libertarians.
In my experience, Libertarians are vile, disgusting POSs. Here’s a video of Ron Paul agreeing that people without healthcare should be left to die:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PepQF7G-It0
Disgusting.
Participant[quote=markmax33]
If you listen to ANY videos or read anything from Dr. Paul he is the nicest man alive. He delivered 4000 babies and by definition Libertarians are very peaceful and nice people.[/quote]Is Rand Paul a Libertarian? Because stomping on a woman’s head and neck when she is already face down on the pavement doesn’t seem like a very nice thing to do:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK7b7i-cMRs
Another question: What is the Libertarian plan to fix the economy?
Participant[img_assist|nid=15492|title=Thread Starter?|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=400|height=300]
ParticipantI’m still waiting for one of the Libertarians here to answer the question that I raised from my post above: How would deregulation address environmental pollution by corporations or prevent it from happening all over the U.S.?
Libertarians typically say “take ’em to court” in situations like this, but that is impractical. An individual with cancer who has had the value of their real estate decimated by pollution is not going to be able to win in court against a giant multi-billion-dollar corporation. They will most likely end up dead or bankrupt before ever collecting a dime. The victims of the Exxon Valdez oil spill fought Exxon in court for 20 years. So court is not a practical option.
The great thing about environmental regulation is that it is a form of strict liability. Environmental regulation can make it illegal for a Koch Industries subsidiary to pour formaldehyde into a stream. In a court-setting, where there is no regulation, the cancer-stricken individual is going to have to prove that it was the formaldehyde that gave them cancer. That may be tough to do and will for sure be expensive. A deregulated society will disempower individuals while empowering corporations to rape and pillage at will.
Another problem with deregulation is that it kills jobs:
The deregulation of the mortgage industry allowed for massive, fraudulent malinvestment to take place which resulted in a bubble. When that bubble popped, not only did all of that paper wealth disappear, but so did a lot of the never-would-have-been-created-without-the-bubble jobs. Think about all the MIT grads that went into finance as opposed to going into an occupation that results in the production of real goods. Think about all the people that became mortgage brokers so they could make a quick buck instead of using their time to build other skills that could have been used in the ‘real’ economy (as opposed to the fake finance economy).
There are some parts of Libertarianism that I like. For example, I was glad to see that the Fed was recently audited. I think both Occupy Wall Street and Libertarians are against the bailout of financial institutions (as am I).
However, there is a lot about Libertarianism that I don’t like. I’m not in favor of dismantling the public-school system. A lot of public elementary and high schools are closing in California which I think is a bad thing. The quality of higher education is also deteriorating which I think is a bad thing. To me, cuts to education are short-sighted and will hurt us in the long run. Additionally, I’m not in favor of having the top 1% pay a lesser tax rate than many of those in the bottom 80%. I don’t equate elimination of environmental regulations with ‘liberty’ as many Libertarians seem to do.
I also think Libertarian’s focus on the public debt is misguided. Japan has twice the debt-to-GDP ratio as the U.S. and their unemployment is below 5%:
In summary, there are a few things that I like about Libertarianism, but mostly I see it as a way for the top 1% to manipulate the bottom 99% into dismantling the good parts of government (e.g., environmental regulation, public education, retirement programs like Social Security and Medicare) while leaving most of the bad parts of government (e.g., private contractors who gouge the taxpayer) in place.
ParticipantI for one look forward to the day when we are all making $2.25 an hour.
ParticipantQuestion for the Ron Paul enthusiasts. If Ron Paul were to become President and were also able to enact his agenda, how would your life become better?
I know that Ron Paul is in favor of massive deregulation, so I suspect if Ron Paul were able to enact his agenda we would see a lot more of this:
The link is to a story on a small community of 15 families who live downstream from a Koch Industries subsidiary (formaldehyde resin plant) that is dumping millions of gallons of wastewater into open ditches. Among the 15 families, there have been 11 deaths from cancer and many more people are ill.
How would deregulation address this or prevent it from happening in many more places all over the U.S.?
In my opinion, if Ron Paul were to become President, life for ordinary citizens would get much worse. Corporations would have free reign to do pretty much anything they wanted, no matter how awful the effect on average citizens, and wouldn’t have any regulations to hold them back.
Full disclosure: I think most Democrats are just as in bed with corporations as most Republicans. I usually vote for the Peace and Freedom candidate.
Participant[quote=Allan from Fallbrook] You might hate Perry, but he’s exuding confidence and vigor
[/quote]LMFAO! This has got to be one of the most retarded posts ever on this board. Rick Perry has been exuding idiocy and ineptitude in every debate he’s been in. Mitt Romney (Obamacare architect) has taken Perry to the woodshed in every debate.
If you really believe that the country is going to vote for another idiot from Texas you should load up on Perry at Intrade.com. They’re only giving him a 14% chance.
A fool and his money are soon parted.
Participant[quote=jpinpb]After the last Republican debate, I can see a lot of people looking for alternatives.[/quote]
I’m hoping for a fist fight to break out in the next debate.
“I’ll be the most protective of the banksters!”
KAPOW! OOOOOFFF!“Fraud will no longer be a crime under my administration!”
BAM! WHAMM! SPLATT!“Apples and oranges”
SPLOOT!… and so on
Participant[quote=Nor-LA-SD-GUY2]I did say wage inflation I think.
Anyway, with out inflation at this point we are Doomed !!! (as in we are Japan).[/quote]
How is Japan doomed? How is the U.S. doomed?
Japan’s debt-to-GDP ratio is ~2:1 while the U.S is only ~1:1:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_by_public_debt
However, Japan’s unemployment rate is only 4.3%:
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/japan/unemployment-rate
The official U.S. unemployment rate is 9.1% but underemployment is probably between 25 and 30%.
Interest rates have been low in Japan since at least 1995.
So I ask again, how is Japan doomed? How is the U.S. doomed?
Many people seem to think that high levels of debt-to-GDP will lead to doom, but there is no evidence of that in Japan.
What does lead to doom? Either not having your own currency or not having control over your own currency appears to lead to doom.
We’ve all heard about the PIIGS (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Spain) and their economic troubles. However, none of those countries have their own currency and so can’t be compared to either the U.S. or Japan.
Germany in 1914 may at first glance appear similar to the U.S. today. As you can see from the article linked below, it had just abandoned the gold standard and had a relatively strong currency (German Mark) which traded at around 5 German Marks to one dollar.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitext/ess_germanhyperinflation.html
So it was Germany’s massive deficit spending which led to hyperinflation, right? It doesn’t look like it. Instead, it looks like Germany effectively lost control of their currency because they were forced to pay war reparations in gold.
No one is militarily strong enough to force the U.S. to repay our debts with some real, physical asset, so the U.S.’s creditors will have to take our paper money as repayment. Germany of course had many other issues that the U.S. doesn’t currently face due to the fact that it just lost World War I and also due to its geographical location.
I don’t see any evidence that a high debt-to-GDP ratio leads to doom. As long as a country has its own currency and can repay its debts with that currency, high debt-to-GDP ratios do not appear to lead to doom.
The U.S. and Japan might continue to do just fine with much higher debt-to-GDP ratios. 10:1 debt-to-GDP anyone?
September 20, 2011 at 7:40 AM in reply to: high balance loan limit expiration effects (esp NCC) #729499ParticipantExpiration of the high conforming loan limits will still have some effect even in places like NCC. Here’s some recent data from June:
12.5% of buyers used less than 20% down while 56% of buyers used less than 30% down, so the expiration of the high conforming loan limits is definitely going to knock some potential buyers out of the NCC pool.
September 19, 2011 at 9:27 PM in reply to: high balance loan limit expiration effects (esp NCC) #729474ParticipantFHA loan limits are also going down to $546K.
http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/documents/huddoc?id=fhaloanlmhera.pdf
If you’re saying that NCC buyers can afford the extra down payment, then there may not be much impact. I’ve been looking in the PB area and prices already seem to be coming down a bit.
According to one of the HousingWire articles, once the higher conforming loan limits expire, they are unlikely to be reinstated.
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