quash said:
Rawhide said:
bear2be2 said:
Canon said:
Sounds good. We need to weed Marxists out of our country, particularly in positions where they can propagandize children and young people.
Marxism is the thought that stops thought.
Want to know the quickest and easiest way to halt the advance of Marxism? Fix our broken capitalism.
If American capitalism grew and served the middle class, you wouldn't have so many seeking and selling alternatives. Unfortunately, it currently does the opposite because of judgments and policy that have put billionaires and corporations in charge of drafting/approving our policy.
I'm very much a free market guy. I don't believe socialism works in practice. But I'm not the least bit surprised by its growth in popularity among people who have correctly determined that our current economic system, which has allowed lobbiests to circumvent the market and corporations to win without playing by the rules, isn't working for them.
If history has taught us anything, it's that you can't **** on the plebs forever and not expect an uprising.
I don't disagree with this.
The problem with billionaires and corporations drafting/approving policy is we need to figure out a way to get all that money out of politics. It's a big problem that our elected "leaders" listen to the corporations more than the middle class, seeing how that's where the money is.... big business (especially tech this day and age)
I just don't have an answer for that, unfortunately. Maybe start with term limits. And only that would be a start.
Don't focus on the supply side (Citizens United wouldn't let you anyway, and that's good) but rather on the demand side. If we fixed our tax system to make it about revenue only and not a kajillion exceptions of the stick and carrot variety then the demand for lobbyists and crony deals would dry up. Eliminate the goodies and the demand for them goes away.
And we already have term limits, we call them elections. Forcing an end to an elected official's term by capping their terms is to deny the voters of their chosen representative. I'm sure you have a list of folks you'd like to see go the same as I do, but if they are not in our district it is simply not up to us.
You know, you're not wrong. I feel the same way about denying the right to a voter for casting a ballot for who they wish.
Just don't know how to get so much money out of politics.
Yep, we need a complete overhaul of the tax law in this country and deny politicians the ability to tweak it to benefit whoever for whenever. That's a lot of power that they'll never give up though. I'm for a consumption tax, not so much for a flat income tax - mainly out of principle. I don't think people should be taxed and what they produce and should only be taxed on what they consume.
Although, I wouldn't really like it, but in order to achieve a tax overhaul to consumption, I could be convinced to support a progressive (really regressive) consumption tax. Meaning... okay the first $8K for an automobile is not taxed, autos from 8k - 15K is taxed at this rate, then 15k - 30k is taxed a that rate.... Go ahead an make a Ferrari taxed at a higher rate than a used Ford Focus... If the wealthy person doesn't want to pay the higher tax rate, then they can go buy a Toyota... Like I said, I wouldn't really like it, but could be convinced to support to at least get out of the mess we have now.
Hell, do away with my property taxes and make me pay extra tax on gasoline and make every road a toll road for that matter... almost anything would be better the tax BS we have now.
I know, easier said than done though.