In other news the governor wants to make huge cuts to an aid program that has grown while aiding a recent influx of asylum seekers, essentially driving out a future skilled workforce and tax base. http://www.pressherald.com/?p=603640
I swear, the idiot thinks he can fund a government on insults alone.
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This is more hilarious âif Stephen Hawking were British, he would be deadâ-style nonsense. Itâs amazing that the Gov isnât backing down from his false claims, though. I guess for conservatives of his ilk, facts are something to reshape to fit their agendas rather than something being seen as having independent realities.
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Oh god, my mistake!
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After bills are paid, people would spend it at Amazon and Best Buy on more Chinese-made shit until their last cent was gone, maintaining about the same percentage of charity. Certainly nothing that will fill the various holes that government provides: the populous isnât lining up for tollways everywhere to pay for road maintenance, fundraisers for proper gear for the volunteer firefighters, kids begging with candy bar sales to fund their schoolsâ roofs, and $5/letter mail.
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Could you provide some concrete examples of government services that could be provided more efficiently by private entities? I donât disagree that there are some but I canât imagine any of them would have a significant impact or not go to complete shit once the next Comcast took it over.
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Iâm reminded of Rural Electrification in the 1930s, which would not have happened if corporations were in charge; the great distance between farms would have made it economically unviable for a company intent on making a profit.
There are people in remote areas who rely on medications being delivered to their door on a regular basis. Thatâs not profitable for FedEx or UPS.
I personally know people who donât have high-speed internet because they donât live close enough to their neighbors to make it profitable for ComCast or Verizon. (And the distance Iâm talking about is only a couple hundred feet.)
Part of living in a civilized society means we are willing to support something that otherwise wouldnât be profitable so that others may have some minimum quality of life.
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urge to argue with libertarian nonsense resisted
According to wikipedia Stephen King lives in Main and in a waterfront mansion in Florida.
This fits very well with my theory of where rich people live:
Just like an 800 pound gorilla⌠wherever they want to.
Typically this breaks down to one of a few options:
Where their work is (mostly the biggest, wealthiest cities) King is an author, so he can work wherever, in theory anyway.
Social connections/Familiarity. King lived in Maine a long long time.
Weather/Beauty. Florida, California, southern Europe, etc. Florida is the bit of that closest to Maine.
They do not move to Kansas because it would save them 5% on their income taxes. Because its Kansas.
They wonât even move to Seattle, which has virtually no taxes on the rich at all, from California where state taxes on very high incomes are well above average. Because its colder and cloudier and darker.
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You already said the governor was a liar. Adding the ÂŽ after his name was redundant.
Extremely relevant Seinfeld quote:
Really does explain how GOP can lie about evolution, age of the Earth, climate change, âdeath panelsâ, Saul Alinsky-following Kenyan, socialist Hussein Obama, Benghazi, etc., etc., etc.
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Most regressive taxes in the country!
Weâre #1!
Oh man⌠Donât try to outcreep the guy who personally crushed the van that hit him.
I mean, seriously, governor, you are punching above your weight - ethically AND fiscally
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Are you suggesting every insurance company would have to establish their own fire department in each and every town or that most of their customers are going to have to be willing to wait for their regional branch to respond from 20 miles away? Assuming theyâre not already busy elsewhere. And what about car accidents and gas leaks and people falling through the ice and forest fires or a fire that spreads between multiple buildings all protected by different insurance companies?
I donât think your suggestion is very practical.
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My all time favorite, and I donât know why - the Obama Cell phones.
This is the necessary answer for pretty much all ideas that come from libertarians.
I get where they are coming from (to a point) on certain issues, but they really donât think things through.
I had someone suggest to me that we can continue to fund and take care of the massive infrastructure -roads, bridges, highways, etc⌠- all over the USA via a âpay for what you useâ scenario - 100% private, etcâŚ
I mean Jesus Christ on a pogo stick. Itâs like a child. Because âtax is theftâ. Theyâd let fucking planes fall out of the sky and bridges crash into rivers because - âdonât tread on meâ or whatever. The market will take care of it. God, talk about lunacyâŚ
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Like Adam Savage pointed out: Libertarianism is just anarchy for rich people.
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My father, a civil engineer, once asked me what a libertarian was. Heâd been living across the seas for a couple of decades and wasnât quite as on it when it came to American politics as he could have been. I gave him a nutshell explanation that may have been inaccurate for a large proportion of Libertarians, âThey believe that anything that can be privatized should be privatized.â
He responded with, âI would agree with that, depending on what you mean by can.â
He then went into a lengthy explanation of why no one would pay for private roads ever unless they were either, A) Obscenely wealthy. or B) Forced to do it. At least, not roads up to our modern safety standards and codes, which is an entirely different can of worms. Also, could you imagine the actual ideal (if unrealizable) case? Weâre talking fifteen competing routes to the same place with toll-roads everyfuckingwhere. A goddamn concrete nightmare. Of course, In reality, what youâll get is about one or two shitty and semi-safe road systems that donât go places poor people live, because fuck them is why.
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Forget firefighting lets talk insurance. Without government regulation how many people would be able to tell the difference between insurance with reserves to actually cover them versus Ponzi schemes that save money by not hiring good firefighters and fold when a few buildings burn down?
Countries with ineffective governments have exactly this problem.
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Health Insurance (here in the USA) totally helps people.
Say that with a straight fucking face.
You know, where youâre having a dream, and during the dream you try to read, and all the words scramble themselves so they donât make any senseâŚ
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When your only argument for privatization of public services invokes Americaâs hilariously inept, broken, and corrupt private insurance system, itâs probably time to reevaluate your priorities.
Try leaving your country and visitingâŚwell, pretty much any other industrialized nation. America is fairly unique in its clinging to libertarian meritocratic myths, and in countries where âsocialismâ isnât a bad word, the quality of life is demonstrably higher.
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