Political ideology thread

[Eminence]

Agree with Fish, Legalize It! Though I might take it a step further and go the Portugal route, where pretty much all drug use is decriminalized.

 

[♪alt13]

Humanity survived for tens of thousands of years before that dynamic was invented, and it will survive long after it had become obsolete.

As for me, I believe life has no purpose other than what you create for yourself, and no meaning aside from the coincidence that the conditions of the universe allowed for our existence. Ideologically, I am often amazed at the limit of individual knowledge and understanding, and I find my views changing and evolving with time. Currently, I believe that humanity's moral and material progress is correlated to technological advancement, and I shape my worldview around whichever system enables that. I think market economy is good at it, and thus I am partial to it. But I am always eager to learn about alternative paradigms.

Do you mean back when people could lean on their whole tribe? I think there is something to the idea that the shrinking family unit significantly burdens people. Less people cooperating is usually going to create less prosperity. I can't imagine having to go it alone in this world. I've failed too often not to think that I would be much worse off. I feel incredibly lucky to have a partner and a fairly large tribe of extended family that I can rely on.

 

[fishonjazz]

So a lot of people are really opposed to the free public college idea. What if we framed it differently and changed the way high school was structured? What if High school was more like what Fish said, and helped people to succeed better at life, and could be extended to a vocational school, on public money?

It would be awesome if these kids came out of school ready for jobs, ready to manage their money a little better. If kids learned the way an auto loan works from school rather than from defaulting on their first one, that would be pretty great.

College could be improved if people were encouraged to get degrees and programs in vocational skills like electrician work, plumbing, HVAC technician, etc instead of trying for two years to figure out that they don't like studying english and literature.

Nailed it 100%. Especially that last paragraph. Lots of kids just go to college cause they just figure that is what they are supposed to do after high school. They often don't have a plan or any direction.
For many, college is a very expensive waste of time that sets a person back many years.
It shouldn't.

 

[fishonjazz]

Dude, I've been harping on the trade school thing for a while.

Problem is that it isn't a "sexy" job. Which is dumb.

Agree.
Trade school is fantastic imo. Most people (like myself) don't realize it until way too late though

 

[b_line]

Nailed it 100%. Especially that last paragraph. Lots of kids just go to college cause they just figure that is what they are supposed to do after high school. They often don't have a plan or any direction.
For many, college is a very expensive waste of time that sets a person back many years.
It shouldn't.

Lol. I saw an onion article that was headlined something like "most fiscally responsible choice made by teenager was failing to get into ivy league college."

 

[Jamezz]

Please explain your reasoning in this. If we eliminated this tax, where would the money for roads and infrastructure come from?

If you are not proposing any increases in other taxes like sales tax, luxury tax, property tax, etc, how do you propose to pay for essential government programs like law enforcement?

Four main reasons:

1) You can't tell me the roads are in good shape as they sit now. The government obviously isn't investing enough in this area.

2) The two mentioned taxes are the ones that effect the person most directly. The income tax takes money directly from our salary (most of us use a lot of energy, mental and/or physical to earn this money) and the corporate tax keeps the employers from being able to pay higher salaries to their employees.

3) Cut spending in other areas (especially in the military) and you won't need any increase in the taxes that you mentioned whatsoever. The amount of money spent overseas is absurd and would make up for most of our domestic issues.

4) As people would have more money in their pockets they could also spend more. Businesses would have more income and therefore could grow, hiring more personnel. A win-win situation.


Things are more simple than what the government likes to make us think.

 

[b_line]

Four main reasons:

1) You can't tell me the roads are in good shape as they sit now. The government obviously isn't investing enough in this area.

2) The two mentioned taxes are the ones that effect the person most directly. The income tax takes money directly from our salary (most of us use a lot of energy, mental and/or physical to earn this money) and the corporate tax keeps the employers from being able to pay higher salaries to their employees.

3) Cut spending in other areas (especially in the military) and you won't need any increase in the taxes that you mentioned whatsoever. The amount of money spent overseas is absurd and would make up for most of our domestic issues.

4) As people would have more money in their pockets they could also spend more. Businesses would have more income and therefore could grow, hiring more personnel. A win-win situation.


Things are more simple than what the government likes to make us think.

You advocate cutting 92% of federal income, yet only propose small cuts in military spending?

While the roads may not be that great, cutting money that would make roads better flies in the face of your logic that roads would suddenly be better if the government lost 92% of its income.

There are basic things that have to be paid for. If you propose cutting taxes, you need to have supporting budget cuts or supporting increase in other revenue. The roads are not going to be run by a charity. The country could fall into mayhem, with toll roads dominating the landscape, and travel becoming infinitely more difficult. And that is only one portion of what our taxes support.

 

[Jamezz]

Also abolish the Federal Reserve and have the US government be the entity that prints the money. Don't pay back the debt since it's been illegally acquired by private international banking entities. If they want their money back they can try by force. Russia would be on our side so good luck with that. Of course nobody's gonna have the "cojones" to pull all this off but it has been this way prior to 1914 when the Federal Reserve Act was implemented. It's not too distant in time...

 

[RandyForRubio]

I do remember seeing some posts from you on that. I think it can even be taken a step further to change the way our engineers are trained. I really don't think it benefits future engineers to have to take courses in humanities, etc. In the past, it was probably pretty beneficial to see how other people think in this world, but we have so many media outlets these days, that people are exposed to so many different trains of thought.

I don't know if I would agree with that. I think they're still useful, to a certain degree. People still need to know how to communicate with people. I actually think the Internet, texting, etc has harmed our ability to communicate in immense ways. We can't be making it worse than it is now, IMO.

 

[Jamezz]

You advocate cutting 92% of federal income, yet only propose small cuts in military spending?

While the roads may not be that great, cutting money that would make roads better flies in the face of your logic that roads would suddenly be better if the government lost 92% of its income.

There are basic things that have to be paid for. If you propose cutting taxes, you need to have supporting budget cuts or supporting increase in other revenue. The roads are not going to be run by a charity. The country could fall into mayhem, with toll roads dominating the landscape, and travel becoming infinitely more difficult. And that is only one portion of what our taxes support.

What good does having all this income fill the government's pockets if the spending is way higher. Small cuts in military spending? Just bringing the boys back home and not going to fight wars to serve other countries purposes would cut military spending by close to that 92% number that you dropped on the table. What the top bankers have done to this country is a travesty, it's criminal and it's a treasonous act that must be stopped at once.

 

[b_line]

I don't know if I would agree with that. I think they're still useful, to a certain degree. People still need to know how to communicate with people. I actually think the Internet, texting, etc has harmed our ability to communicate in immense ways. We can't be making it worse than it is now, IMO.

Yeah, I can see that. After I made that post, I started thinking about some of the courses that I thought were a waste of time in my college career, and I can see the value of some of them now.

I think the college system can be improved, and at the same time make it more cost efficient.

 

[b_line]

What good does having all this income fill the government's pockets if the spending is way higher. Small cuts in military spending? Just bringing the boys back home and not going to fight wars to serve other countries purposes would cut military spending by close to that 92% number that you dropped on the table.

Let me explain a little further, military spending accounts for about 13% of the total money spent by our government. Let's say we just go crazy and cut military spending by 100%. That means the federal government needs 13% less revenue to function. Cutting 92% of our budget by getting rid of the taxes you proposed abolishing still leaves us short by about $3.3 trillion per year.

 

[Jamezz]

Let me explain a little further, military spending accounts for about 13% of the total money spent by our government. Let's say we just go crazy and cut military spending by 100%. That means the federal government needs 13% less revenue to function. Cutting 92% of our budget by getting rid of the taxes you proposed abolishing still leaves us short by about $3.3 trillion per year.

I find the 13% number that you came up with hard to believe but enlighten me with how the remaining 87% of the money is spent. You also missed the part about the money that the US government perpetually owes to the Federal Reserve.

I'm curious, what is in your view the purpose of the Federal Reserve and where is the gold that our money is supposed to be backed up with? Where is the gold tell me, who's hands is it in?

 

[♪alt13]

I find the 13% number that you came up with hard to believe but enlighten me with how the remaining 87% of the money is spent. You also missed the part about the money that the US government perpetually owes to the Federal Reserve.

I'm curious, what is in your view the purpose of the Federal Reserve and where is the gold that our money is supposed to be backed up with? Where is the gold tell me, who's hands is it in?

 

[RandyForRubio]

Yeah, I can see that. After I made that post, I started thinking about some of the courses that I thought were a waste of time in my college career, and I can see the value of some of them now.

I think the college system can be improved, and at the same time make it more cost efficient.

Hard to improve college without our HS education improving. I remember in college being shocked at how poorly most students read and comprehended the curriculum. And I'm not exactly a very scholastic person lol.

 

[b_line]

I find the 13% number that you came up with hard to believe but enlighten me with how the remaining 87% of the money is spent. You also missed the part about the money that the US government perpetually owes to the Federal Reserve.

I'm curious, what is in your view the purpose of the Federal Reserve and where is the gold that our money is supposed to be backed up with? Where is the gold tell me, who's hands is it in?

Military spending for 2015 was 598.5 billion. Total budget was over 3.8 trillion. I was a tiny bit low at 13% but not far off.

I'm not engaging in conspiracy theory discussions about the federal reserve or Jews in this thread.

 

[Jamezz]

Thanks alt13. A couple things that caught my attention:

I'd like to see the breakdown of the Military (16%) portion. Also, how much money was spent in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya... all prior to 2015?

Interest on Debt (6%), while I believe that, why incur in an unconstitutional debt in the 1st place? What's missing here is how much of all that money that was used in Medicare, Social Security and all the other welfare, was borrowed from the Federal Reserve? In other words, of all those expenses what percentage belongs to money obtained from the people through taxes and what percentage represents borrowed money from the Federal Reserve? That's the bigger picture that we're missing here.

 

[b_line]

Hard to improve college without our HS education improving. I remember in college being shocked at how poorly most students read and comprehended the curriculum. And I'm not exactly a very scholastic person lol.

Lol. High school is a joke.

 

[Jamezz]

Military spending for 2015 was 598.5 billion. Total budget was over 3.8 trillion. I was a tiny bit low at 13% but not far off.

I'm not engaging in conspiracy theory discussions about the federal reserve or Jews in this thread.

Why not, being such an important piece in the puzzle? And once again I was not the first to bring up the Jews in a political thread, it's really getting old.

But fine, I rather not engage in discussions about superfluous patches in an already rigged economic system either.

 

[b_line]

Why not, being such an important piece in the puzzle? And once again I was not the first to bring up the Jews in a political thread, it's really getting old.

But fine, I rather not engage in discussions about superfluous patches in an already rigged economic system either.

Sorry I brought up Jews as a joke about your political ideology. I broke the first rule of the thread.

How do you propose paying for things after cutting 92% of revenue though?