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[MetalSlimeHunt]

Seriously, the actual number that the money occupies is not what is important in an economy, it is the value of the money itself. Zimbabwe's money was so inflated that you needed several dozen trillion Zimbabwean dollars to buy a burger at McDonalds. They had to scrap the whole thing and start over.

Money is a means to an end, and that end is the effective establishment of standardized trade based upon a more objective system of value than that which exists with barter alone. Money is nothing but an abstraction of worth that we all mutually agree to use so that our trade will run more smoothly. Coming to believe that money itself is objectively important and serves as an end is a failing, because it forgets the actual purpose of money in our society and replaces it with obsession, which we have historically termed "greed".

[Aqizzar]

Now did I say that Chinese can't understand Capitalism? No, I didn't. I said that China, presently, isn't an example of Rand's ideas in action (who, by the way, is an entirely different animal from myself), isn't an example of unregulated capitalism, and doesn't exemplify the virtues of regulation through the market.

You keep saying these things like you think there's some kind of distinction between "lawless capitalism" and "free market with no government intervention".  It strikes me as demanding to know the number of angels dancing on the head of a pin, and it's really making the rest of your argument hard to take seriously.

And it's still giant ugly quote-ladders.

[mainiac]

Income disparity, in of itself, is not a bad thing.

I... I... what.



Side note: If I take something out of context, but the context happens to be a horrible false dichotomy or other logical fallacy, am I still doing something wrong? I'm improving their argument, which is usually the opposite of what happens taking things out of context.

Well, if the poorest 50% of the country lives with 100,000 dollars per year and the richest 1% lives with 100,000,000,000 per year (yes I know it's excessive, bear with me), there is a massive income disparity.

Meanwhile, if the poorest 50% of the country lives with 1,000 dollars per year and the richest 1% live with 5,000 dollars per year, the income disparity is tiny.

Which country would you rather live in?

That's a red herring argument, you are comparing a richer country to a poorer one.  I could easily turn it around:

Would you rather live in a country where 1% make a 2.5 million a year and everyone else makes tuppence a year or where the top make a 2.5 million still but everyone else makes $50k?

Obviously you'd rather live in the second country because the first one is a country of extreme poverty.  But the second country doesn't just distribute the wealth better there is much more wealth.

[Heron TSG]

I fail to see how that's turned around, and not just the same thing in reverse order.

[mainiac]

I fail to see how that's turned around, and not just the same thing in reverse order.

Oops, mistyped due to not really paying attention.

[Zangi]

Lawless/Unregulated Capitalism: You are just begging companies to not give a shit about what actions they take in the name of profits.
Lack of Enforcement/Monitoring: Signaling to the companies that they can do whatever the heck they want in the name of profits as long as they don't get caught.

People will still buy the products of offending companies.  Because it is cheaper/affordable... especially if the product is just as good and just as available as its competition.
Sure, you have other sorts of people with more money that will pay more of a premium for stuff made by 'good' companies... but yea... there is only so much of a market here...

That is my view of how it'll happen anyways.

[cameron]

hey look some sources, they generally conclude that happiness negitivly associates with income inequality, from that I can only assume we would all prefer to live in a more equal society given otherwise identical characteristics (these two aren't behind paywalls, if you have access to an academic database there are quite a few with similar conclusions and results)

So I'm going to say income disparity itself seems to be indicative of bad things at the very least

[Leafsnail]

So, how about that Mitt Romney fellow and his hilariously terrible trip to Europe?  Apparently his press secretary recently got angry because the media tried to ask him some questions vaguely near to a war memorial.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/07/31/romney-aide-loses-cool-curses-at-press-in-poland/

Gorka: "Kiss my ass. This is a Holy site for the Polish people. Show some respect."

Something about this quote is just so perfect.

Not that his supporters will care but the fact he's managed to offend Britain, say something stupid about Palestine and have his press secretary make an ass of himself before he's even anywhere near the presidency doesn't speak  wonders of his foreign policy skills.

[RedKing]

Problem being that "pissing off other countries" is seen as a positive trait among Republicans. As long as the other countries aren't Israel. 

[pisskop]

What do you think of this?

http://politicalcompass.org/uselection2012

Accurate, or not?

Also, take the test

http://politicalcompass.org/test

Also Palestine is not a sovereign power... so...

[Heron TSG]

We've had a few threads about that political compass website before. In general, I believe the consensus was that it was skewed somewhat towards liberalism and wasn't a very useful tool. (Questions being biased, leading, vague, etc.)

Palestine's sovereignty is sort of the issue in question, I would think. Moreover, the Palestine National Authority directly oversees several regions of Israel at the moment.

[Moghjubar]

At the voting booth, I'm fairly sure the election method for them is: see 'R', punch ballot.
With how crazy the Rs have been, its quickly becoming the other way around for me with straight Ds.

I'm sure straight ticket mentality is entrenched everywhere now, really.  I would test it by Repubbing up in an even area, running a flawless campaign, then proving I am absolutely batshit insane during the last month... but I'm afraid I would win and get stuck there.

[Leafsnail]

The thing is, going on about cultural superiority didn't go down well with left wing Israelis, even if he was saying that they are the culturally superior ones.  I guess it doesn't matter though since those aren't the true Israelis.

What do you think of this?

Nobody's Libertarian enough for me I'll just put them all in the upper right corner of my diagram with the Nazis or maybe the upper left with Stalin occasionally

[scriver]

Not that his supporters will care but the fact he's managed to offend Britain, say something stupid about Palestine and have his press secretary make an ass of himself before he's even anywhere near the presidency doesn't speak  wonders of his foreign policy skills.

What did he do to offend Britain? I haven't heard of that one.

[Zangi]

Not that his supporters will care but the fact he's managed to offend Britain, say something stupid about Palestine and have his press secretary make an ass of himself before he's even anywhere near the presidency doesn't speak  wonders of his foreign policy skills.

What did he do to offend Britain? I haven't heard of that one.

Something about the Olympic security being insufficient if I remember correctly...