Rick Santorum warns against dangers...

[Autumnlicious]

Atheists are furries now?

Fuck it, I'm now a follower of Thor, my back up religion.

[Violet]

Atheists are furries now?

Fuck it, I'm now a follower of Thor, my back up religion.

Depends, are all atheists like me?

At least your backup religion has a hammer.

[DeistPaladin]

At least your backup religion has a hammer.

There's a demotivation poster on that topic.

[Ashendant]

Atheists are furries now?

Fuck it, I'm now a follower of Thor, my back up religion.

Some, i'm a atheist and a furry, but i never liked the costumes or proclaim myself to be a animal

[Violet]

At least your backup religion has a hammer.

There's a demotivation poster on that topic.

That's the one.

[reverendjeremiah]

Do I have to say it again?

Anyone ( and I mean ANYONE!) who wants to let corporations run wild fucking people over at every turn is guilty.

And that surely includes your quasi-religious devotion to that sad superstition of "free marketism."

Damn Min is good!

[DeistPaladin]

"Free marketism" now? That's like the creationists and "Darwinism". I do not "worship" free markets, I believe that Free Markets and the rule of law are the most efficient model both Economically and Morally.

I think I should chime in here and say there are ways in which some of my attitudes as a former-libertarian were very much like a religion.

I believed that tax cuts for the top 1% would create prosperity for everyone. I believed that Reagan was right when he said "government is the problem". I believed regulations could be cut back and the free efficient markets would effectively regulate themselves. I was aware that Ayn Rand wrote terrible fiction with characters that were platforms on which she voiced her ideas but still felt the ideas were sound.

I've gone back and read "Atlas Shrugged" the same way an ex-Christian might read the Bible and wondered how I ever put any stock in any of this crap. Expressed as a religion, Rand was the prophet, government the devil, St. Ronnie was Jesus, market forces the god and prosperity for all the promise of salvation.

I feel like I have a much more sober and balanced view today. Businesses create wealth if properly directed. Their profit maximization model helps to eliminate waste and maximize production, making the most of scarce resources. That's what it does but that's ALL it does. It will not care about the environment. It will not hire more people just because you gave them a tax cut. It will cut corners wherever it can even at human cost. And sometimes corporations can be short sighted, going for quick profits at the expense of the long term.

Government has a role. Businesses create the wealth, government regulation keeps them honest. Neither one is good or evil. There's a balance here.

Society's wealth is not just created by the top 1% but by a strong middle class as well. What makes the 3rd world distinct from more advanced countries is the lack of a middle class.

[Jaysyn]

And sometimes corporations can be short sighted, going for quick profits at the expense of the long term.

Sometimes? I can count the number of publicly traded companies that look past the next fiscal quarter on two hands.

[reverendjeremiah]

Government has a role. Businesses create the wealth, government regulation keeps them honest. Neither one is good or evil. There's a balance here.

Society's wealth is not just created by the top 1% but by a strong middle class as well. What makes the 3rd world distinct from more advanced countries is the lack of a middle class.

The economic libertarians want to put the fox and the hen house together WITH NO FENCE, claiming the hens will punish or reward the fox naturally with some spooky "unseen hand" (sounds like superstition. May as well rub a rabbits foot on a lottery card). Sure, then hens will punish the Fox, and that fox will die, and a better fox will be created that is more beneficial to the hens.

People who push economic libertarianism want to be the fox running rough-shod over the Hen house.

Democracy is about checks and balances. I want the government and business to check each other, not business run free while government says "If we put up a fence, it would be immoral...so what if the fox kills a few Hens and their children...its Freedom. If you dont like it, stop crying like a baby and have nothing to do with the Fox."

Yeah.."Dont blame the Fox, just have nothing to do with him.".. thats libertarian economics.

[Minimalist]

I do not "worship" free markets

I'm sorry Void but you do. With the same silly passion as any of the theists can muster for their particular vision of a god. Neither of you has a shred of evidence for your position but you swear that if we only commit ourselves to your fucking belief system that all will be well.

I find that I cannot demand evidence from the god-freaks and let you off without it. I'm still waiting for your model of a modern state built on libertarian ideals. I expect to die waiting.[/i]