I think you have some good ideas, Chan. I agree that there ought to be an end to unfunded or unrealistic mandates set up by the government. It's just a poorly run system to tell people to do things, but then not fund it. If they're going to do that, it's pointless.

Your points on the drug war and cuba are largely sound. The latter is stupid, and the former costs too much, causes too much social and economic harm.

Your point on foreign romps is also good.

The problem with the flat tax is what while it's physically an equal measure, it's not really fair at all. 10% of a billion dollars doesn't hurt the rich man as much as 10% of 10,000. You are not equally considering interests, just considering identical treatment. Ethical equality or fairness doesn't necessitate identical treatment.

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Yep... but we can hope.

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May your paradise always be green, you liberties always be full, and may the ignorance of you enemies not drive you to be pro-nuke.

"We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself
into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and
trying to lift himself up by the handle."-Winston Churchill

Of course it's fair! Everyone is paying the same percentage of income. This crap about how 10 percent of 10,000 hurts the poor man more than 10 percent of a billion dollars hurts a rich man is more of your sick, perverted leftist nonsense. Maybe you should ask someone who has a billion dollars how much taking 100 million from him hurts.

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

THat isn't actually fair. Fair doesn't mean identical treatment. That's a common misconception. You clearly do not understand the concept of utility or marginal utility. Your analysis of the meaning of "fair" is too simplistic.

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Fair does mean identical treatment in identical circumstances (in this case the identical circumstance being taxation). What is not fair is this notion that we should look at such esoteric factors of whether the amount of taxation "feels" differently on the people being taxed - though you really have no way of knowing how the amount of tax feels to these different people. I can tell you that $7500 (10 percent of my income) has as much an impact on me as $750 has on someone making $7500 (I've been in both positions, so I know this from actual experience).

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

No, it does not. What an absolutely absurd thing to say.

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"I was there and I saw what you did.... saw it with my own two eyes"
Phil Collins--In the Air Tonight

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Defeating market theocrats since 2001.

It's not even that hard to understand. The more money you have, the less valuable to you each dollar, and each new dollar is. If you have a large quantity of money (10 billion), and you take 10% away, you will still have 90% left, and that 90% is going to represent a significantly greater sum than 10% of a very small sum (10,000).

It's significantly easier to live on 90% of 10 billion than it is 90% of 10,000.

Money left, and more money, is worth more to people who have less of it than to those who have more, and this is especially true below a certain threshold income.

Therefore, it's absolutely a absurd to say it's "fair" to charge people equal rates, just because they are physically equal. The results aren't equal. It's like saying if I slap you in the face, it's just as "fair" as slapping something that will barely be able to feel it. You're ignoring a weighing of impacts.

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So TU, you're saying that when you shoot a person it's DIFFERENT from shooting a steel beam?

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"Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states...Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds."



~Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Defeating market theocrats since 2001.