Voters steer Europe to the right
POSTED BY: Geezer
UPDATED: Tuesday, August 18, 2026 16:35
VIEWED: 24282
PAGE 12 of 23
Quote:You are indeed correct that I cannot absoutely prove my time in Germany. I also cannot prove that I now live in Indiana. Perhaps I don't live anywhere at all and exist as a SpamBot AI.
Originally posted by citizen:
You've never been to Europe, stop talking nonsense.
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Quote:
Originally posted by citizen:
Heh.
Since they're Finnish, they'd be at the end.
Geddit. Hello. Is this thing on?
Bwahahahaha!!!!
Good one, mate.
I can say difinitively that I was actually in Norway for about 3 months as a child. Spent the summer there. My dad was there for business and took the family with him. Spent most of the time in Bergen and took sight-seeing trips here and there. Too young to appreciate them then, though. Always bugging my parents with, "When is this going to be over?" or "I'm bored." Silly, silly child. Even saw the fjords. Wish I could go back now, but alas . . . . I'm a po' boy.
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"It's okay! I'm a leaf on the wind!!!"
"What does that mean?!?!?!"
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Bluesun- I had typed a very long reply, but the ether ate it. So, here it is, again -in brief.
Rearranging some of your sentences, it comes out like this:
Quote:Health care costs... a product of our so-called free-market system... are a HUGE disincentive for small businesses and small business employers! It even affects large businesses. Aside from making short-sighted decisions about which kinds of vehicles to produce, health care is another reason why GM fell.
The one thing that stands in my way like a titan blocking my path to my Subway is the thought of buying my own health insurance for my family.... And thus exists the difference between a land of opportunity and a land of stagnation.
Quote:Except that in terms of current public deficit and public debt, the euros are better off than we are. Why? Because they're not propping up their huge, failed, DE-REGULATED banks.
the euros have climbed the wrong tree into vines of overwhelming debt and now don't know how to get themselves down.
You have not exactly answered my question either: What's in the capitalist system for me?
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We should have strapped him into a glider, filled it nose heavy w/ explosives, and dropped his Allah lovin' ass into a large, empty field. After which, release wild boars into the area so they could make good use of his remains. Now THAT's justice.- rappy
Yeah, that's what Sheikh Issa said. Seems you both have a lot in common.- signy
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"Voters steer Europe to the right"
Just to comment on this - the turnout for the election was extremely low. When there are low turnout numbers, marginal groups with a grotch tend to dominate the results.
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Silence is consent.
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Quote:
I'm a po' boy.
You're a sandwich?
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Quote:
What's in the capitalist system for me?
A new TV and a shiny new nickel? 'Course, you'll be paying for that TV for the next few years, and the nickel is going to cost you around $3,000,000 before it's all said and done.
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Quote:Perhaps it'll shock you that I agree with these statements. Where we differ is in the solution. I would fix the broken machine. You would send it to the scrapyard and buy something new.
Health care costs... a product of our so-called free-market system... are a HUGE disincentive for small businesses and small business employers! It even affects large businesses. Aside from making short-sighted decisions about which kinds of vehicles to produce, health care is another reason why GM fell.
Quote:Yes they are better but in context it's really the western nations as a whole who are overleveraged...with the USA at the end of the fulcrum exerting the most torque upon the world machine. This is why I repeat that China's star is on the rise. They own an ever-increasing percentage of the worlds debt and are now buying gold. And I further see your empasis upon de-regulated banks. You might direct that comment at someone like Rap, the Libertarian line is "free-markets with regulation to inhibit fraud". It's the same drumbeat applied to health insurance.
In terms of current public deficit and public debt, the euros are better off than we are. Why? Because they're not propping up their huge, failed, DE-REGULATED banks.
Quote:Personal Freedom
You have not exactly answered my question either: What's in the capitalist system for me?
Economic Freedom
Which of these 2 is the greater? If I were to impose upon you a strict system of laws that limited your lifestyle to what is given in the Biblical Old Testiment (force you to live like a puritan perhaps), would you be outraged? Would you demand change? Should I then respond to your outrage with the question: "What good is a secular society to me?"
The importance of personal freedoms and economic freedoms is equivalent. In an economically free society citizens have the choice to participate or not. As I see it, you are personally choosing the latter, and thats fine. And you still indirectly benefit from all the advances in tech that were products of an openly competing free american marketplace. The hotbeds of advance in the world exist in the free markets: USA, Japan, ect..
The answer is: "Whatever you endeavour to take for yourself within the law."
My question to you is now:
What is there in a marxist society for me?
And if your answer is going to be "free stuff" I'll be disappointed.
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Ah, thank you for your thoughtful reply. Busy right now, back tomorrow or sooner (I hope!)
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We should have strapped him into a glider, filled it nose heavy w/ explosives, and dropped his Allah lovin' ass into a large, empty field. After which, release wild boars into the area so they could make good use of his remains. Now THAT's justice.- rappy
Yeah, that's what Sheikh Issa said. Seems you both have a lot in common.- signy
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Quote:
Quote:
Health care costs... a product of our so-called free-market system... are a HUGE disincentive for small businesses and small business employers! It even affects large businesses. Aside from making short-sighted decisions about which kinds of vehicles to produce, health care is another reason why GM fell.
Perhaps it'll shock you that I agree with these statements. Where we differ is in the solution. I would fix the broken machine. You would send it to the scrapyard and buy something new.
Well, sometimes you just have to scrap something and start fresh, unless you're a fan of pouring tons of cubic dollars into a lost cause to "fix the broken machine".
Quote:
This is why I repeat that China's star is on the rise. They own an ever-increasing percentage of the worlds debt and are now buying gold.
This would seem to be a ringing endorsement of China's system. If all the Western nations are overleveraged and China's buying up their debt and gold, wouldn't that imply that they have a better system?
Mike
Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day...
Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
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Quote:
Originally posted by bluesuncompanyman:
Honestly, the way I've always seen it, the euros have climbed the wrong tree into vines of overwhelming debt and now don't know how to get themselves down. We on the other hand have things about 40% solved.
So the Europeans have got themselves into too much debt, as opposed to America which is almost half way to paradise on Earth.
Quote:
Originally posted by bluesuncompanyman:
Yes they are better but in context it's really the western nations as a whole who are overleveraged...with the USA at the end of the fulcrum exerting the most torque upon the world machine.
So Europe isn't in as much debt as the States? How on Earth does one reconcile these two statements? Without of course assuming you were saying things that aren't true, and hoping a subtle shift in rhetoric and a bit of hand-waving would distract attention, so you wouldn't have to admit it I mean. Clearly we know that can't be the truth of it.
Quote:
Originally posted by Kwicko:
This would seem to be a ringing endorsement of China's system. If all the Western nations are overleveraged and China's buying up their debt and gold, wouldn't that imply that they have a better system?
China's largely non-consumerist society is still undergoing the change from Agrarian to Industrial, let alone Industrial to Atomic to Information. Attitudes of the Chinese Populations as a whole are far less consumerist than in the West, so where we spend now save later, they save now and leave it to their children or emergencies. Since the Chinese government practices Leninist-Corporatism and owns or controls all the banks, they have access to all those savings.
Consumerism is most heavily responsible for this, and consumerism is a modern parasitic offshoot of Capitalism, indivisible from Capitalism's modern form in fact. Of course I'd never suggest that Capitalism isn't the perfect unassailable system. Capitalism is perfect, it's God and Heaven rolled into one, brand recognition is the new religion and it is good. To say rampant unsustainable consumerism isn't a good thing is the words of a Communist, even if you're not an advocate of Communism. And never forget Communists are evil people, and must be properly dealt with as Saint McCarthy demands. Perhaps putting them in some sort of camp where they can all be together? A concentrated Commune we could call it.
No, clearly any perceived problems of Capitalism are completely down to the Alien Socialist Body Snatchers (could these be Alien-Socialist-Body-Snatcher-Jews? We may need PirateNews to consult). Pointing out that the countries that most heavily mix Socialist and Capitalist ideals tend to be those with the highest social mobility (most opportunity), lower levels of inequality and even lower levels of violent crime is surely just crazy talk? Could crime even stem from social pressures, rather than just bad people? No, all that is crazy commie talk too! It's all the Socialists and the Communists fault, and that sentiment is in no way similar to how Stalin blamed all his and the USSR's short comings on Capitalist conspiracies.
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