(November 3, 2014 at 1:49 pm)dimaniac Wrote: Rich people keep america strong. If you want America to be competitive in 21 century you have to vote for Republicans. Is it better than being irrelevant socialist paradise like Sweden or Denmark? idk

You know, I find it amazing that people can still think that after the disastrous W Bush administration.

Conservatives under W got almost everything they demanded handed to them on a silver platter with all the Democrat Rollovers on the side they could eat, no strings attached, no compromises, no troubles. The only thing denied W was the privatization of Social Security. Everything else, he got and got the way he wanted it.

He slashed taxes for the wealthy in a way that would have made Reagan look like Robin Hood. He deregulated industries. He privatized as much as he could.

The result: total unmitigated disaster.

Our economy collapsed and the two wars turned into a quagmire akin to Vietnam. The tax cuts did not generate jobs nor did the wealth trickle down nor did they pay for themselves.

If that wasn't enough, Kansas ran the experiment again. Again, it was a disaster.

How many times do you need to try the same thing over and over before you realize it doesn't work?

(November 3, 2014 at 1:49 pm)dimaniac Wrote: Rich people keep america strong. If you want America to be competitive in 21 century you have to vote for Republicans. Is it better than being irrelevant socialist paradise like Sweden or Denmark? idk

Sweden and Denmark are hardly populated but punch above their weight. America is a country run entirely for a bunch of rich people who leech off the rest of the populace and do not contribute according to their wealth.
Society in America is just as one sided as it was for France during the reign of the Bourbons and look how that turned out.

(November 3, 2014 at 2:01 pm)dimaniac Wrote: Manual labor will be automated in next 20 years.

Won;t make much of a blip in wealth for the individual. Manual labor can already be had for pennies, the only reason to automate it is to avoid liability. Which is reason enough, of course. IDK if it will happen in 20 years, but eventually, yeah. Skilled labor will go the way of the dodo as well.

But who cares, are the machine making the machines yet? No? You'll have to forgive me...your criticism of someone else's utopian fantasy contains within it an invocation of your own fantasies? Sigh.

Quote:
America doesn't really need resources it needs means of production.

Then explain why we consume such a vast amount of them? I think you're going to need to reassess that claim. America goes through the lions share of the -entire earths- resources...imagining that we don't need resources relative to production ignores both our consumption and the number of manufacturing houses that go out of business due to lack of available contracts, or the inability to source the required materials competitively. I don't feel like explaining the relationship between resources and production and how you can ameliorate the cost of an item by selling the materials to an outsourced producer willing to manufacture at a pricepoint lower than your own. I'll just say this. If someone in China wants to make shoes for a penny on the dollar, let them make the shoes - if you can sell them the resources fantastic. The very reason that we produce things elsewhere is that we often find that others are willing to let go of their resources for much less than we would (and this includes the capacity for human productivity as well as things like raw materials). The connection between resource stewardship and the wealth or strength of a nation is made plainly apparent in a discussion like this one. If we need the factories we can build them (and as long as someone else does it cheaper we simply don't need them). We can't just "make" the resources (even if we did suddenly find a need, but we won't..because we already have that need - nothing sudden about it).

Any discussion of wealth or the strength of a nation that includes "we really don;t need resources" has gone off the rails, killing all passengers aboard.

(November 3, 2014 at 2:01 pm)dimaniac Wrote: Manual labor will be automated in next 20 years.

I think you are missing out on the advances in AI, all labour will be automated in 20 years. Computers will soon be able to plan and innovate faster and better than you.

Quote:You know, I find it amazing that people can still think that after the disastrous W Bush administration.

You have to consider what kind of a flaming asshole you are answering. That douche probably thinks that 'god' hates america because of fags or something.

(November 3, 2014 at 2:17 pm)downbeatplumb Wrote: I think you are missing out on the advances in AI, all labour will be automated in 20 years.

Not if interest rates will be below zero

(November 3, 2014 at 2:01 pm)dimaniac Wrote: America doesn't really need resources it needs means of production.

The first thing that came to mind when I read this was "God bless the good ol' U.S. of A. The land where people think uninformed opinions carry weight."

(October 31, 2014 at 6:35 pm)DeistPaladin Wrote: From the article:

Quote:“At least to some degree, the Tea Party movement is an outlet for mobilizing and expressing racialized grievances which have been symbolically magnified by the election of the nation’s first black president,” writes a research team led by Florida State University sociologist Daniel Tope.

Why do whites have any "racialized grievances"? What are these grievances? If the Tea Baggers were black with grievances, I'd at least understand that. You'd have no problem coming up with a list of grievances there. How has white American been wronged or mistreated?

Clearly, our right to have a white president is being violated as we speak.

The racial bias of TPers was obvious the moment they took to the streets after the election, demanding "bring back my America!"

Moving on to the birther and Muslim "controversies" -- which were thinly veiled appeals to xenophobia -- it was obvious that they wouldn't treat any president who looked like them this way. I mean, Dubya oversaw the greatest expansion in government debt in American history, the greatest expansion of intrusive government powers in American history, and the greatest foreign policy blunder in American history, and he gets a pass ... but four Americans get killed in Libya and these assholes want a fucking impeachment?

I'm sure that has nothing to do with the fact that Obama is a symbol of a multiracial America. "Their America" is clearly the America of the 50s, when those uppity blacks knew their place, when lockstep conformity was enforced by stigma if not actually by law, when gays had to hide their sexuality for fear of violence ...

I certainly agree with Jefferson's dictum that "that government is best which governs least" -- and I've voted Libertarian often in my life -- but these TPers aren't coming to their views from a coherent philosophy of government; these assholes are getting their views from the visceral hatred they feel for people who aren't like them.

(November 3, 2014 at 2:28 pm)dimaniac Wrote:

(November 3, 2014 at 2:17 pm)downbeatplumb Wrote: I think you are missing out on the advances in AI, all labour will be automated in 20 years.

Not if interest rates will be below zero

You are hilariously daft.

(November 3, 2014 at 1:49 pm)dimaniac Wrote: Rich people keep america strong. If you want America to be competitive in 21 century you have to vote for Republicans. Is it better than being irrelevant socialist paradise like Sweden or Denmark? idk

Ever looked at some actual charts?

As far as I am aware, the USA are only leading in persons incarcerated and in military spending. I most every other aspects it takes the backseat as far as developed countries are concerned.

Here are just a few facts:

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-car...2D11635080

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worl...nked-34th/

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/203879.php

There are many more to find at a quick glance, but I suspect, you're just content to stay in your bubble. These socialist paradises are way ahead on social issues like overall public health, life expectancy or child mortality.