OCCUPY WALLSTREET!

[Peatree]

Originally Posted by Hasbinbad [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

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Too funny my Ex-wife's budget probably looks eerilee (sp?) similar to the family one! Hence the "X".

Best post you've had in some time HBB!

Merry Christmas all!

[Awwalike]

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[Daldolma]

Originally Posted by Hasbinbad [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

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You realize how contradictory your standpoints are, don't you? You want a balanced budget? Really?

How the fuck are we going to get a balanced budget while instituting universal health care, passing massive public works expenditures, improving education, decreasing our reliance on oil, and following through on the other half-dozen economically-draining initiatives supported by OWS?

I'm not even making a qualitative judgment as to those goals. I'm all for a balanced budget. I'm all for decreasing our reliance on oil. I'm all for government-funded universal health care. I'm all for improving education.

But I'm not all for all of them at once, because it doesn't make any fucking sense. Either we're cutting costs or we're going green or we're improving infrastructure or we're instituting national health care. It's not feasible to do it all at once. There's not nearly enough money to go around.

[Muchew]

Almost makes sense...

Except we don't need the federal government to throw money at education to improve education. Quite the opposite really. No child left behind proved that.

Don't need federal subsidies for alternative energy either. Need to stop having oil/gas pushed on us because politicians are in bed with the oil companies.

I'm on board with your health care argument though. I'm all for universal health care, but it would be stupid to do it before the budget is balanced. Which will never happen...

[Daldolma]

Originally Posted by Muchew [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Almost makes sense...

Except we don't need the federal government to throw money at education to improve education. Quite the opposite really. No child left behind proved that.

Don't need federal subsidies for alternative energy either. Need to stop having oil/gas pushed on us because politicians are in bed with the oil companies.

I'm on board with your health care argument though. I'm all for universal health care, but it would be stupid to do it before the budget is balanced. Which will never happen...

In what way is oil/gas "pushed on us"? It's by far the most efficient and affordable energy source on the planet. In a free market that doesn't subsidize alternatives or penalize pollution, efficiency is going to win out.

If you want this country to run on something other than oil, it needs to become economically defensible. And that doesn't happen unless the federal government changes the landscape of energy pricing, whether it be through taxes, subsidies, or direct investments.

Agree to disagree on education, by the way. No child left behind proved that no child left behind was a horrible fucking idea, not that more money is unnecessary. We spend a lower percentage of our GDP on education than fucking Jamaica.

[Uthgaard]

Painting with broad strokes has never solved a problem created by painting with broad strokes. Instead of jumping from one system to the other - trading one set of flaws for others and then pointing fingers over whose flaws were worse - sticking with any system and fixing its flaws with precision will generally result in sufficient improvements that it doesn't really matter what system you use.

Education costs money. It is necessary to throw money at it. But there is a lot of room for keeping money from being wasted, and most of it can be identified and solved by applying dreaded common sense.

It's wasteful to pay for the morons who sit on educational welfare for years milking it while feigning intelligence through controversy and claims of wikipedia stardom.
It's wasteful to pay for institutions with less than 20% graduation / transfer rate combined, who lure in people with no chance of completion for the mutual masturbation that is student aid.
It's wasteful to pay retards six figures to sit around and argue these things all day when taking any action at all to improve the situation could be accomplished by a person of average intelligence and no experience.

The career politicians are what isn't working, the policies themselves could each be viable if the country wasn't so rooted into emotionalism and telling itself that it has a right to an opinion without the responsibility to think before forming it. Even a country has its own hierarchy of needs. It's necessary to eliminate the root problem first, then move on and improve the finer points.

[Daldolma]

Originally Posted by Uthgaard [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Painting with broad strokes has never solved a problem created by painting with broad strokes. Instead of jumping from one system to the other - trading one set of flaws for others and then pointing fingers over whose flaws were worse - sticking with any system and fixing its flaws with precision will generally result in sufficient improvements that it doesn't really matter what system you use.

Education costs money. It is necessary to throw money at it. But there is a lot of room for keeping money from being wasted, and most of it can be identified and solved by applying dreaded common sense.

It's wasteful to pay for the morons who sit on educational welfare for years milking it while feigning intelligence through controversy and claims of wikipedia stardom.
It's wasteful to pay for institutions with less than 20% graduation / transfer rate combined, who lure in people with no chance of completion for the mutual masturbation that is student aid.
It's wasteful to pay retards six figures to sit around and argue these things all day when taking any action at all to improve the situation could be accomplished by a person of average intelligence and no experience.

The career politicians are what isn't working, the policies themselves could each be viable if the country wasn't so rooted into emotionalism and telling itself that it has a right to an opinion without the responsibility to think before forming it. Even a country has its own hierarchy of needs. It's necessary to eliminate the root problem first, then move on and improve the finer points.

Good line.

[Aadill]

Agreed.

[Jon Lemon]

Originally Posted by Aadill [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Agreed.

tite

[Muchew]

Originally Posted by Daldolma [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

In what way is oil/gas "pushed on us"? It's by far the most efficient and affordable energy source on the planet. In a free market that doesn't subsidize alternatives or penalize pollution, efficiency is going to win out.

If you want this country to run on something other than oil, it needs to become economically defensible. And that doesn't happen unless the federal government changes the landscape of energy pricing, whether it be through taxes, subsidies, or direct investments.

Agree to disagree on education, by the way. No child left behind proved that no child left behind was a horrible fucking idea, not that more money is unnecessary. We spend a lower percentage of our GDP on education than fucking Jamaica.

It's pushed on us because of the wars we go into to continue to make it cheap... Oil company's lobby to make sure we continue to use oil. Oil company's shut down the movement to electric vehicles in the early 90's. On top of that, they completely ignore the environmental issues raised by keeping their product affordable.

The department of education doesn't do shit. How does giving the department of education money improve education for anyone? It is by far the most useless federal department we have.