Politics

One argument that is often made against helping the poor is that it is wrong to tax the wealthy, and that the poor have no right to any wealth. In this post, I would like to suggest that the poor may be entittled to compensation from the land and natural resources which are being withheld from them. "The deadliest form of violence is poverty" - Ghandi "The earth is the general and equal possession of all humanity and therefore cannot be the property of individuals." - Leo Tolstoy "When the 'sacredness of property' is talked of, it should always be remembered, that any such sacredness dos not belong in the same degree to landed property. No man made the land. I…

Graham Palmer, industrial engineer from Melbourne

Same story, different market. I mean, at this rate, why invest in anything if China is always going to be there, undercutting anything and everything? A number of companies received stimulus funding to help propel blossoming, more efficient solar technology among other green projects, only to be undercut by the Chinese, driving 5 of these solar companies into bankruptcy already, the biggest one to the tune of half a billion dollars. Of course, you can always say that research wasn't adequate enough to take into account the ever-present, looming, but hidden sweat-shop threat. I've been doing a little reading lately on the Chinese economic threat posed by such mismatche…

How do you view wealthy people? I said: IMO, there is no such thing as too rich. I think this for a few reasons. Firstly, they do help bail out our country via (a) the taxes while they are alive, and (b) from the death tax. (not to mention the tax on whoever receives some of their fortune as an inheritance, I'm not certain of the current rules.) Secondly, a rich person generally will want a nice house, clothes, car, mowed lawn etc, and will create jobs for others who are not as fortunate. IMO, wealthy people are essential to our economy. Edit: I should add, as long as their wealth is acquired honestly. Greg said: In th usa all that wealthy people …

The threads about food shortages in the political forum, bring up the fact that there is a connection between government and our food supply. There is also a connection between food and our economy, and between food and international national relationships. And we might want to improve the connection between science and voters, because just hoping the future won't be as bad as some say, is not highly responsible, and as self governing people, perhaps we should be more responsible? While those arguing against fear mongering have made a good point too. Running around like chicken little crying the sky is falling, is not helpful either. However, what are the po…

There are thousands of examples where innovation has been suppressed, or durability has been compromised, to maintain profitable business. We've used the highly inefficient incandescent light bulb for over one hundred years (90% of its energy goes to heat instead of light). The 1908 Ford Model T got 25 mpg and a hundred years later the average gas mileage is worse: 21 mpg. Plastics and other materials have been reduced in strength in order to decrease product lifetime and increase repeat purchases. Planned obsolescence limits the product lifetime where weakening the structure is impractical. Often politics is used to insure that inefficient methodology is adopted, like u…

Everyone has health needs at some time or another. Having insurance to cover those needs reduces stress and worry about catastrophic events. Preventative medicine helps lower costs to everyone. The list of benefits of being covered for health is enormous and well-documented. I think the federal government is the perfect place to handle a risk pool like health insurance. Not all insurance, just health insurance (not everyone drives cars or boats or owns homes). The for-profit angle of health insurance companies seems to run counter to what most people would want for themselves. After all, a for-profit insurer can crunch the numbers and decide you're just not worth deal…

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/opinion/republicans-against-science.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=general I guess this is probably old news for the scientifically aware in the USA - but for an outside observer it is a bit worrying

I have Russian friend who says that politics is the root of all evil. I laughed when he said this but then he asked me how many wars have not been started by politics and this got me thinking, is there any truth behind this? Do you trust your most well-known politician? I don't trust any politicians, not even the Australian ones.

http://www.bbc.co.uk...canada-14765837 From a bystanders position, and being a fan of both the beeb and the guardian I am probably not getting the whole story; but it does seem from a reading of the popular press in the UK that Wikileaks, or possibly more accurately Julian Assange, has gone a little over the top and is now losing friends even amongst the western liberal press

Down here "Liberal" are from the right and "Labour" are from the left. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZvYPPZpc4I&feature=related Says it all really.......

Before the unrest in Libya, the Libyan people had high standard, good wages, social and health insurance. Gadaffi is a sort of dictator, but his people are happy, fed and satisfied. He led a revolution without spilling a single drop of blood. And after all these years, there are riots in Libya? Which sane man would protest for democracy if he has everything he needs in the present system? So the first protest must have been caused by the Western insurgents in Libya - the ultimate goal is of course that 1.8 million barrels of oil a day. Civil war and the intervention is merely the last phase of such a plan. The people of Serbia and Montenegro who have experienced something…

Darn, that should be "a real chance for power of the people, instead of "change". But if we move from apathetic to a strong and united voice, that would be a good change. I do things to exercise my political muscle that I usually think are as futile as a flea climbing up the leg of an elephant with the intention of rape, but this action might have a real effect, because companies are sensitive to public opinion. I think it has real potential if enough people get involved, because the media is responding to this conflict and large numbers of people get media attention. This action is a whole lot better than rioting in the streets and burning down buildings, and w…

Total taxable income currently is around 7 trillion dollars per year. A 2% increase in ss and medicare would decrease the annual deficit by at least 140 billion dollars a year. This little increase provides a potential breakeven since total taxable income will increase each year, along with the population. From one perspective, its easy to say that the payroll tax rates were never properly set, if it has run away from us, but the increased rate of inflation in the medical field likely accounts for most of the runaway effect. Medicare tax rates (and ss, to a small degree) have just never been adjusted accordingly. Waiting till people are in retirement to admit that a…

There are several problems with the inflated salaries normally earned by physicians in the United States, which now average around $200,000 a year, according to the AMA. First, these salaries create a class difference between most doctors and most of their patients, and this class difference reinforces the power difference in the doctor-patient encounter. The resulting social and psychological gulf between two people who should ideally bond with each other in a 'therapeutic alliance' undermines the empathy and intimacy which should play an important role in the healing process. Second, these inflated salaries encourage people to enter the medical profession not o…

This will be accepted without question by biological scientists in particular. Bacteria cannot multiply infinitely in petri dish or test tube - sooner or later the resources are exhausted and the population crashes. Bacteria in a test tube is a biological system in a finite space Humans on planet earth is a biological system in a finite space. Therefore human population and economic growth cannot grow indefinitely - sooner or later the resources will be exhausted and our population will crash. Is there anyone in here that rejects this as a logical fallacy?????

My father is a Bill O'Reilly fan and I'm occasionally subjected to moments of his nightly monument to himself as I transit from the computer room to other parts of the house. A night or two ago, he was hosting Dick Morris and I heard a snippet of the conversation that struck me. Dick Morris claimed that the only way to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon was to change the regime (and criticized Obama for being naive for want to talk to them et cetera et cetera). Perhaps this my bias but that just rang in my ears like typical neoconservative tripe. It's Dr. Evil reasoning. Ahmedinijad is a dictator/religious zealot, dictators/religious zealots naturally want su…

Not that I care too much, but I think Romney will be the Republican candidate. I think the Rupaul, Bachman and Perry split the fringes. Of course, I picked Pawlenty back in May, so... I doubt Pawlenty will be picked as VP. Maybe Bachman, depends on how well she does. I would like to see Obama get another term, but Romney or Huntsman are the only Republican candidates that I think wouldn't run the country back in the ditch too far if they were elected.

On the 12th August historian David Starkey has told BBC's Newsnight ''the whites have become black'' and the ''destructive, nihilistic gangster culture'', he said ''has become the fashion''. You can find more details here. Various people have come to say how wrong Dr. Starkey is. The Labour leader Ed Miliband said the comments are "disgusting and outrageous". The BBC has received many complaints about Dr. Starkey's comments. So what do you all think? Is Dr. Starkey wrong in what he said? Or is he just wrong for saying it? Surely we do not want afro-american gang R'n'B drug culture to be prevalent in UK society (or anywhere else) ? This is irrespective of race.

Hello guys, i have been studying economics for 2years now, and i am really interested in how the economy of the world goes around. Recently i have been reading news on CNN, and i read about how the US has problems, and i see the word default, cutbacks, US losing power by 2025. What is happening?? i certainly know that the american economy is number one right now, but what issue suddenly puts the american economy on the decline, so much that it will collapse?? can anyone please give me a detailed information on this, if not good sources or video links??? thank you, i will appreciate any help offered.

http://site.adw.org/pdfs/10SSM_BOEE_RelLib_0205.pdf The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington is arguing that DC's new Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act violates Catholics' religious liberty. The paper starts out with the Archdiocese opining that their religious liberties are being taken away but not saying exactly how. At first, I thought the law might have forced ministers to officiate gay marriages. But of course this is not the case. The Archdioceses' complaint is that The Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act creates no penalties for discriminating against a gay couple. (the full text of the act is avail…

For about the last three years, wherever you drove, shops, stores, businesses of all kinds blatently advertised "We Buy Gold!." All over the country people who became unemployed and those behind in their morgage sold what gold they had to help them survive. Where did it all go? It was refined and turned into investment form for the rich! Those poor people who sold now see how much more it is worth (in dollars) than it was when they gave up their gold rings, bracelets and even teeth fillings. The rich now look back and see how they, the ones who bought that gold from the refiners who got it from the poor, how much profit they have from the misfortune of the poor, the p…

Climate change is just one of the many symptoms of human over population. Political instability, war and genocide are other symptoms. And climate change will exascerbate theses symptoms. Why aren't we collectively addressing over population and including population and fertility reduction in the mix of actions to reduce CO2 emissions?

Is anyone from Australia and did you watch the Four Corners report in the Comorra of Naples? It seems that the Italian government went on grandiose crusade of urban renewal, creating high rise appartment complexes that were supposed to house Italy's growing population and create vibrant high density communities. But it appears they have all become degraded high rise slums where the outcastes of Italian society are warehoused and that are the head quateres of all the Comorra familes. Does the former Italian vision sound familiar to anyone from the Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane?

Pictures of the plane http://ca.news.yahoo.com/superfast-military-aircraft-crashed-pacific-ocean-darpa-says-210201382.html http://ca.news.yahoo.com/photos/darpa-falcon-hypersonic-technology-vehicle-2-shown-undated-photo-191044447.html This looks like UFO from other world !!! All I can say is wow. I'm sure all people looking up are going be reporting a UFO.