Correct. As a general rule, the amount of of the fruits of labor stolen by all goverments (local, state, federal, etc) aka taxes is an excellent measure of the level of authoritarianism of any given government, though not the only measure for sure.
I've noticed those on the Left (especially in Europe) seem unable to separate in their minds the two points of whether something is illegal, and what the government does to enforce that law. It's like the assumption that big government is always right, and laws automatically enforce themselves. (i.e. making something illegal will stop it, or if something is not illegal the people in that society have nothing to worry about if they did not break that law) One example of this can be found in this thread: illegal to be muscular in Sweden, Belgium We had a liberal repeatedly screaming "You think steroids should be legal?!" and unable to comprehend (even after it was repeatedly and methodically explained to him) why law enforcement singling out muscular looking individuals and forcing them to submit to testing was problematic. (ok, actually that argument took place on another forum, Politics Forum, but the rules prohibit me from linking to other forums)
Amazing how something so obvious needs to be "defined" in order to have a debate with "conservatives". And you are absolutely correct that it is little more than a deflection in order for them to avoid addressing their support of corporations exploitation of hardworking Americans.
It is GREED OBSESSED corporation that "collect any type of data at all on millions, or hundreds of millions of Americans" because that enables them to generate larger profits. It is BIG DATA that CORPORATIONS collect that should be concerning you. They know WHERE you are every minute of the day. They know what food you eat and what size clothes you wear and how much credit you have left to spend. They can predict where you will be and what you will be doing and how much you will be spending and they know enough about you to target their SuperPac advertising to get you to vote the way they want you to vote. The CIA does NOT collect that data. They merely ANALYZE it in order to detect THREATS to our nation. Blaming the CIA for what GREED OBSESSED corporations are doing is DISINGENUOUS.
Thank you for clearly establishing beyond any reasonable doubt that you SUPPORT the EXPLOITATION of hardworking Americans by GREED OBSESSED corporations. This subject is now concluded. Have a nice day!
It requires serious INTROSPECTION in order to be able to think clearly and critically. The content of posts reveals who are the critical thinkers and who are the regurgitators of rightwing disinformation. Confirmation bias and cognitive dissonance are exposed in the responses and the kneejerk reactions to anything and everything that trigger them. There is a predictable and identifiable pattern in the posts.
Well, I’m glad I don’t have to live in your restricted little bubble of victimhood. If you ever figure out what a living wage really is I’m not the only one who’d like to know. Take care.
The GREED OBSESSION driven by the Wall Street Casino Bosses has effectively destroyed entrepreneurship in America so your "solution" has zero merit. https://www.inc.com/magazine/201505/leigh\-buchanan/the\-vanishing\-startups\-in\-decline.html
Government hasn’t destroyed entrepreneurism but they have damaged it. I’d fight side by side with you to get government out of the business of creating virtual monopolies. At the end of the day, you’d cite poor rest from a lumpy pillow for a reason a person couldn’t succeed. Too bad folks are taught to be such fatalists and pessimists. Glad I wasn’t.
We are a collective of differences and uniqueness and if we do wish to live together the aforementioned traits would really relegate us to disharmony and chaos. There should be an authority even a very strong one to regulate us towards a common goal which is betterment for everyone as a whole. I will never complain as long as I could have my basic necessities, still enjoy my basic human right freedom, and of course equal protection by the law.
Kneejerk regurgitation of rightwing DISINFORMATION duly noted FTR! Thank for once again establishing that you lack the relevant subject matter knowledge in order to engage on this topic. Have a nice day!
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
Then I guess you would consider Stalin a conservative. I love how communists have rebranded themselves as liberals and pretend to be harmless. This is one tactic they use to gain power.
I’m having a great day. Remember I’m more of a socialist than right wing, but whatever. You aren’t aware of how minimum wage law and expensive regulation create monopolies you hate? Hmmm. I liked your link though. It supported my position that fear of failure has been instilled in younger people and that’s one of the main drivers of less start ups. You probably should have read more of it. It was interesting how it made the point the structure of start ups has changed and is responsible for much of the undercounting of entrepreneurial businesses. I would be more interested in your opinion on monopolies and employee/employer interactions than avoidance and links to things that support what I’ve already stated.
Stalin was an authoritarian. Those who supported him were conservatives. When the Soviet Union broke apart, the conservatives longed for the good old days with Uncle Joe. They soon got their wish with Putin. When the Soviet Union fell apart, it was the communist party bosses who took control of the industry of Russia, and are now known as Oligarchs. Oligarchs, Aristocrats, kind of the same thing. And who supports them - those who wish to conserve the social order. It was the liberals within the Soviet Union who brought it down. It is liberals in Russia who oppose Putin.
I find it odd that they fear the authority of the government over the wealthy and corporations, but not the authority that corporations have over their lives. Or even worse. It seems many on the right don't seem to realize that a right wing judge is one who favors the wealthy over commoners, employers over employees, stores over customers, the status quo over progress. It is fair to say, a right wing judiciary tends to end up on the wrong side of history. Especially when the people get fed up enough to rise up and do something about it.
The above canard works even less well with Russian communism than it does trying to deflect and project the very real racist history of the Democratic Party in the U.S. But that certainly doesn't keep you lot from trying and failing it over and over again. Tell us more about all the "conservative" atheistic, scientific socialists in the USSR. LOL. You and yours cling to nebulous abstractions like "liberal" and "conservative" because they are conveniently rationalized into circularity "conservative bad because conservative bad." You can and do take anything bad you see in the world, and try to shoehorn it into "conservative." Childish and transparent. If you all ever grow up and start discussing policy in specifics and quantities instead of labels and abstractions, you might start winning again given your immense numerical superiority.
Just a speculation here, but it seems to me that if you overlayed this graph with graphs of other economic indicators, that the decline in start ups sort of follows a loss of personal savings. The stagnation of wages. The small start ups I knew, were started either by; An employee who saved up, learned the trade, and struck out on one's own. One who retired and used one's retirement to start a small, usually simple, business. Or a few tech savvy individuals got together, pooled their resources, and developed a product. The common thread here is savings. Personal savings. It is all but impossible to get funding without having a working, sellable product. The startup capital either comes from the principles, or perhaps their parents. Without personal savings, or an inheritance, many dreams never get off the ground.
Generally, the more peaceful and stable, law and order wise, the better the atmosphere for business growth. Government regulation stabilizes the financial system and ensures fair trade. These are the rocks upon which business flourish. The high tech hubs are where they are because the local government, voted by the people, took steps to attract them. In the early days of international commerce, the markets, and the cities that grew up around them, prospered because they were stable. With that stability came a cost. In order to trade in a market, a trader had to pay a rent, which is more commonly called a tax. The trader didn't have to pay that tax, and market Lord had no right to charge the tax, but if the trader wants to trade in the market, the trader has to pay the tax. The trader is always free to trade elsewhere, perhaps out on the road where few will pass, and none will trade
I'm not a Democrat, I'm a Green. I'm also a liberal in that I prefer an egalitarian society. The classless society Thomas Jefferson wrote about in his letters, where religion was seperate from government, allowing individuals to be free from the tyranny of belief.
Political Correctness and the resistance to Political Correctness are both right wing issues. The purpose has always been to desensitize, to push along the conscience crises of the right. Like lil Bush's joke, Compassionate Conservative. Hee, hee