We also have a transportation in place that allows those unhappy with our system to leave. Now that is freedom.
Certainly all those "crimes" that are victimless, crimes against the state as it were. Prostitution between consenting adults, the full panoply of "drug crimes", various "environmental crimes" that carry the criminal sanction.
Lots of people imprisoned for years for prostitution? Which specific "environmental crimes" do you deem as no biggie that come with a prison sentence? So, do you think drugs like meth should be legalized?
To the politicians, money equals power and control. Ever since Bush created TARP, both the Dems and Repubs in Washingtn have had an unsatiable desire for ever more federal spending dollars. They got a taste of the power that a trillion dolars provides, and they just will not stop. If the whole nation had gotten behind the TA party movement to reaign in federal spending, maybe we would not have such a depressingly high fiscal debt.
It's not just the prison sentences with prostitution. Other factors are the permanent criminal status the women get, allowing unscrupulous police officers to be very intimidating. And of course the health implications. Anecdotal, but I knew a father and son who were sent to federal prison for basically digging an unapproved ditch on their property. Many people don't realize that meth and cocaine have been legal on prescription for 50 years or more. People don't know because they've never been told by their beneficent media. It is more rational policy to have such drugs sold by licensed and tax-paying pharmacists than by street corner crooks.
You really don’t have much of an argument with just three “invented” crimes. Sorry but I don’t believe your anecdotal story. So street meth is perfectly safe is it? And yes, even if all drugs were legalized there would still be a black market for drugs. Case in point, in places where pot is legalized there is still a black market for it.
I did not say street meth is perfectly safe. I said prescription meth has been around for decades, and it meets federal standards for purity and dose. Street meth does not. Pot is different, for a number of reasons. Firstly, anybody can grow their own anytime they want. Secondly, because legal pot is a state option, there are many versions of "legal" pot. Some are good systems, some are not. If a system puts an extreme tax on the product then a black market can develop, just as there are black markets for untaxed cigarettes in many jurisdictions like NYC. Stealing tractor-trailers full of untaxed cigarettes is a lucrative black market business.
The above is somewhat true, but is also like saying "only 10% of the fire is what's doing most of the burning." @thread generally, no one specific 1. Actual government employees, including foreign government employees (mostly China, Israel, these days, "look a squirrel, see that MUHRUSSIA! squirrel over there!" anyone feel MORONIC, stretching into your LW shill double digit IQ about MUHRUSSIA these days in light of recent events? YOU ****ING SHOULD... either liars/shills or MORONS... no "C" answer), benefit from the kinds of power and money grabs these types of moral panics engender, whether corona or too much bullying in govindoctrinationcamps. ALL of these exaggerated social problems are equivalent to the "promo code" that gets you the mypillow at a 50% discount. The difference is that they STEAL YOUR OWN TAX DOLLARS TO PAY FOR THE BOGUS AD CAMPAIGNS. Everything from "food insecure" to "the plight of the homeless" to corona to even opioid addiction that somehow needs more social workers, bureaucrats, etc. to fix. SO DON'T LEAVE THESE CREEPS OUT, it is by specific, intentional design that you think of it as "big banks and large corporations." BY DESIGN... did they fool you AGAIN? AGAIN? AGAIN? The U.S. Financial sector is far more MIXED than not, has been for over 100 years, gets moreso DAILY every time the new SOX or Dodd Frank money waste/graft is enacted. Yet somehow it's not about a 60-70% GOVERNMENT financial sector, but greedy Wall Street and "banksters" and the ilk? Like hell it is, that is GOVERNMENT, not the private sector, WAKE THE **** UP already. 2. Government contractors and grantees, DWARF actual government employees today, maybe as much as 5X as much as in "1." This is ALSO by design. "Oh but you see the federal government is really -shrinking-, pay no attention to the 1000% larger amount of contractors and grantees hiding behind the curtain." WAKE UP! ALL of those will steal your hard-earned money at the point of a federal gun for their own unearned security and affluence, security that YOU and I don't get, THEY do. 3. Public unions that didn't even exist pre 1960 are waiting with bated breath for the next gigantic bureaucratic boondoggle like Homeland Security. They know it's coming, they are slavering for it, and people who EXCLUDE these creeps from the prime bad actors are EXACERBATING its ascendance. These Soprano level creeps have no need to run gambling books, crooked card games, waste disposal, they have SEIU and NEA to run all their cons LEGALLY. Every time we get a mortgage collapse, storm, virus, terrorism... that can be exaggerated to an effeminate, ignorant electorate, these people win. They will steal YOUR and MY last dime to pad their crooked unearned pensions and other graft... and they will force YOU and ME to pay for all the resentment-based lie narratives that equate to PR campaigns. These creeps and their taxpayer paid lies are ALL OVER THIS FORUM not to mention communication channels that really matter. 4. Most importantly MEDIA, big media, including the big tech giants, the people who make their living scaring people and making them miserable. Just estimating those as "big corporations" doesn't cut it any more. It's pretty easy to parse the difference between a big national manufacturer of HVAC equipment and MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, WAPO, etc., Let's NOT paint them with the same brush because the overwhelming portion of the legitimate corporate landscape, large and small, does not deserve those aspersions, are not playing in the same toxic waste pools.
I agree. Big banks and mncs own our politicians . And the evidence is right there in congressional record.
I'm not asserting that any particular country is at the top, only that the USA clearly is not. Simple. Based on virtually every metric that matters (quality of life, standard of living, educational levels, poverty levels, debt levels, tax burden, economic freedom, civil liberties, etc.), the US ranks lower than several other countries.
So in your warped world, the only two options are (a) accept mediocrity or (b) leave the country? Your lack of imagination is simply astounding.
Big banks sucking up trillions in liquidity is thievery on a massive scale. It's big government at its worse.
8m7n6hb5g 34567890-455h7jk,o.;/' Didn't they pay taxes along with everyone else? If you are a taxpayer you morally have the right to petition for government benefits.
I don't claim to know the answer. I leave such speculation up to those suffering from superiority complexes. I've found that most people outside the USA are not particularly interested in asserting their own "greatness" relative to other countries. That is a mental disease found almost exclusively among Americans.
When you have 97% of federal cases and 94% of state cases ending in plea deals, you know we have a serious issue with our justice system. In that world, 97 percent of federal cases and 94 percent of state cases end in plea bargains, with defendants pleading guilty in exchange for a lesser sentence. Courtroom trials, the stuff of television dramas, almost never take place.
You only have the right to collect what you paid and nothing more. Anything in excess of what you paid is thievery.