Obama's Private Army now law. Hidden in health care bill

Trader666 · Apr 6, 2010

Only on ET do we have people who know more about stocks than Warren Buffett, and who are so politically astute that one of the key founding fathers is "naive" in comparison.

Quote from NeoRio1:

Franklin was right about voting but a bit naive to not realize that simply giving citizens the right to vote almost guarantees the destruction of the Republic.

Mav88 · Apr 6, 2010

I think Neo is just saying that all democracies are unstable, Franklin may actually agree especially now that we are becoming multicultural. The original USA was a federation, not a republic so that gives some sort of weight to Neo's argument. Certainly democracy is not the best form of government, but it beats many other options.

The bottom line is that humans are still the destructive and self-serving rather-dumb creatures they were 10,000 years ago. Most people don't really want to work and produce, they would rather take and live off others. Understandable, most work sort of sucks and most people are not educated enough to do much beyond mowing your grass.

Letting them vote themselves entitlements is a death spiral.

Trader666 · Apr 6, 2010

WTF is wrong with you people? Are you so foolish that you actually believe you have a deeper understanding of this than Franklin did and do you really think he was that naive? News flash: you don't and he wasn't.

Mav88 · Apr 7, 2010

I never said he was wrong, I quoted him twice, I said he 'might' agree with neo based upon the original configuration of the USA.

You obviously didn't grasp what I said, nowhere is it at odds with Franklin.

Scataphagos · Apr 7, 2010

Quote from Mav88:

no, redistribution is from the politics of envy. You can get rid of envy if everyone is miserable equally. The Soviet Union was like that and for a long time the ideal in Sweden was a flat income distribution until they realized they were on the path of economic suicide.

Look around the socialist world, you'll see nothing but capitalist reforms. It just doesn't work, especially in a highly inhomogeneous society.

In the countries who "blew themselves out" on deficit and social spending and who have recovered... it's always the same solution... 1. SLASH GOVERNMENT SPENDING... 2. SLASH TAX RATES...

Duh!

Trader666 · Apr 7, 2010

First, you didn't quote Franklin, you just think you did by parroting something that's attributed to him but not sourced.

Second, I doubt Franklin would agree with neo's absurd statement that I quoted above.

Finally, if you had a clue about Franklin in general and his role in the Constitutional Convention in particular, we wouldn't be having this exchange.

Quote from Mav88:

I never said he was wrong, I quoted him twice, I said he 'might' agree with neo based upon the original configuration of the USA.

You obviously didn't grasp what I said, nowhere is it at odds with Franklin.

Ricter · Apr 7, 2010

Quote from Mav88:

no, redistribution is from the politics of envy. You can get rid of envy if everyone is miserable equally. The Soviet Union was like that and for a long time the ideal in Sweden was a flat income distribution until they realized they were on the path of economic suicide.

Look around the socialist world, you'll see nothing but capitalist reforms. It just doesn't work, especially in a highly inhomogeneous society.

No, redistribution is from the politics of empathy.

I look around the capitalist world and see all kinds of socialistic reforms. It's as if the whole planet thinks the right way is some form of moderation.

CaptainObvious · Apr 7, 2010

Quote from Ricter:

No, redistribution is from the politics of empathy.

I look around the capitalist world and see all kinds of socialistic reforms. It's as if the whole planet thinks the right way is some form of moderation.

There's plenty of redistribution going on, but it ain't from the top going down, it's from the middle going up. The Repub version of redistribution is a ruse. It's all a shell game manipualted by the elite. They want every last dime we have.

Edit: To be clear, the Dems are in on the scam as well. The government, both Dem and Repub want it all, every last dime, every last bit of individual rights, everything.

Trader666 · Apr 7, 2010

Quote from Ricter:

No, redistribution is from the politics of empathy.

Trader666 · Apr 7, 2010

So that's why the top 1% paid more in federal taxes in 2007 than the bottom 95%?

Quote from CaptainObvious:

There's plenty of redistribution going on, but it ain't from the top going down, it's from the middle going up.