President Obama forces GM boss Rick Wagoner to step down

its a freaking nightmare, liberties be damned. this is the abuse of power i never thought id see so sudden but make no mistake, the power grab is in full force.

radical is as radical does.

 

all taxes are penalties. your money is less worth because of it. thats what a tax is. its just to what degree.

 

Yeah, consumption tax - just not on all consumption. At least, not evenly on all consumption.

Like tirk says (sorta) - taxes are repressive by nature.

I'd rather give folks more options to choose how to spend than give them less purchasing power. I'd rather encourage growth and production rather than encourage spending beyond one's means.

I think you would be MUCH better off. But it's just an opinion.

It'll never happen. It's been so long since we've had to defend our liberties against outsiders that most of us aren't even aware how little individual liberty we have left.

I guess I should be happy in a way. It's the surest way to make this administration go away in three years and some change...

 

To draw up an economic plan in this fashion is even less possible than, for instance, successfully to plan a military campaign by democratic procedure. As in strategy it would become inevitable to delegate the task to experts. And even if, by this expedient, a democracy should succeed in planning every sector of economic activity, it would still have to face the problem of integrating these separate plans into a unitary whole. There will be a stronger and stronger demand that some board or some single individual should be given power to act on their own responsibility. The cry for an economic dictator is a characteristic stage in the movement toward planning. Thus the legislative body will be reduced to choosing the persons who are to have practically absolute power. The whole system will tend toward that kind of dictatorship in which the head of the government is position by popular vote, but where he has all the powers at his command to make certain that the vote will go in the direction he desires. Planning leads to dictatorship because dictatorship is the most effective instrument of coercion and, as such, essential if central planning on a large scale is to be possible. There is no justification for the widespread belief that, so long as power is conferred by democratic procedure, it cannot be arbitrary; it is not the source of power which prevents it from being arbitrary; to be free from dictatorial qualities, the power must also be limited. A true "dictatorship of the proletariat," even if democratic in form, if it undertook centrally to direct the economic system, would probably destroy personal freedom as completely as any autocracy has ever done.

by F.A. Hayek

 

In some ways this has always happened (drinking age, 55 mph speed limit, etc).

But it's happening with a new vigor and a new sense of urgency.

I'm wondering if the socialists haven't found their martyr in this administration. Make so much change so fast that, although the incumbant himself is doomed to failure, the policies are tough if not impossible to reverse.

Scary thought

 

Ever try to take away a drink from an alcoholic? You can't. Your only recourse is to knock them over the head and throw them out of the bar.

It's not a question of what we do. It's a question of Americans having the will to change the politicians who won't change their behavior. I have not seen a lot of it.

 

of course all taxes are penalties and devalue your money but a consumption tax actually rewards people for not spending. Income tax makes no such reward. Because of this, I think a consumption tax would be bad for our country.

 

And if they take public dollars we go back to the point of nationalization of industry and central planning, something I do not advocate.