Place your bets

MrChaos · Post by **MrChaos** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 1:25 pm

madpeople wrote:QUOTE (madpeople @ Jul 23 2011, 08:07 AM) Just don't screw up the world economy* with your petty bickering

*I feel tempted to put in an adjunctive few words in here but can't quite decide what, reader may insert them as they feel fit

That was for the Eurozone right? You gents are playing with fire and emotion. In the US it is politics with a chance that they'll burn themselves on epeen

madpeople · Post by **madpeople** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 1:53 pm

Well, the difference is that in the eurozone we've got some countries which are actually properly screwed, and will screw over the economy because of long term bad policies and corruption etc. - As opposed to the USA where the worst thing you've got is losing your AAA rating but your politicians are playing chicken with defaulting on the national debt for their own petty political agendas.

If you guys (americans) actually default on your debt because your politicians are too wrapped up with their own agendas to do what's right for your country (and indeed every other country with major financial connections to it i.e. everyone else) then we will not be amused.

Ok, I'm not saying you likely will actually default because the deadline passes while you're still squabbling about cuts/tax increases instead of actually raising the debt ceiling, but if you do here's a pre-emptive

MrChaos · Post by **MrChaos** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 2:03 pm

madpeople wrote:QUOTE (madpeople @ Jul 23 2011, 08:53 AM) Well, the difference is that in the eurozone we've got some countries which are actually properly screwed, and will screw over the economy because of long term bad policies and corruption etc. - As opposed to the USA where the worst thing you've got is losing your AAA rating but your politicians are playing chicken with defaulting on the national debt for their own petty political agendas.

If you guys (americans) actually default on your debt because your politicians are too wrapped up with their own agendas to do what's right for your country (and indeed every other country with major financial connections to it i.e. everyone else) then we will not be amused.

Ok, I'm not saying you likely will actually default because the deadline passes while you're still squabbling about cuts/tax increases instead of actually raising the debt ceiling, but if you do here's a pre-emptive

Duly noted AND

I am MrChaos and I Approve This Meeage

raumvogel · Post by **raumvogel** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 6:10 pm

We need to get rid of the Electoral College and oust the bought and paid for Supreme court that ruled that political action committees are entitled to "free speech" like individuals (allowing every big corporation to sway every electoral candidate).

This is not Democracy...it's Oligarchy.

Camaro · Post by **Camaro** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 6:46 pm

raumvogel wrote:QUOTE (raumvogel @ Jul 23 2011, 08:10 AM) We need to get rid of the Electoral College and oust the bought and paid for Supreme court that ruled that political action committees are entitled to "free speech" like individuals (allowing every big corporation to sway every electoral candidate).

This is not Democracy...it's Oligarchy.

America has never been, and will never be a Democracy. It is a Democratically elected Representative Republic.

Democracies tend to be bad because the great unwashed doesn't know anything... proven by the fact that not even half of Americans think it will be disastrous if we were to not raise the debt ceiling in time.

Bring our troops home, close our foreign bases, and cut the Military budget, make Canada do some work in helping defending North America. Reform Social Security into a PROPER pension fund with investment arms... and i don't know wtf to do with Medicare/Medicaid... but those costs aren't going to be pretty at all in the upcoming decade.

But the two aforementioned things should be sufficient to make a very large dent in the deficit... you can fill the rest in with either cutting pointless programs or raising taxes.

Adept · Post by **Adept** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 7:22 pm

Camaro wrote:QUOTE (Camaro @ Jul 23 2011, 09:46 PM) America has never been, and will never be a Democracy. It is a Democratically elected Representative Republic.

Democracies tend to be bad because the great unwashed doesn't know anything... proven by the fact that not even half of Americans think it will be disastrous if we were to not raise the debt ceiling in time.

I know this is your favorite topic Camaro, but I honestly don't see how you still feel this way.

The US is a representative democracy, with some flavour called electorial college. How exactly is that, in practice making leading to your politicans making smarter calls than the proportionally-voted-in poultry we in Finland have? I don't think it's protecting you from populism one iota. The myth of "republic, not a democracy" just keeps the story about people being too stupid to be trusted with voting alive and dumbs down the political discourse.

Not impresed. Same bollocks, different wrapper. The electorial college doesn't accomplish what you think it does, it just keeps you locked in the two party system.

Elzam_ · Post by **Elzam_** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 7:38 pm

It always seems like when one party fails and the other one gains power, the former will do everything in their power to make sure that the latter can do nothing. Makes them look good by comparison question mark?

raumvogel · Post by **raumvogel** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 8:45 pm