First Failed State - California.

[vraiblonde]

Originally Posted by Larry Gude

"President Obama, is dependency a good thing, in your view?"

And he will reply, "Dependency creates self-sufficiency. Only through dependent means can we recover our American freedoms for the future of our children. War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength."

And the interviewer will let him off the hook and that will be that.

[ImnoMensa]

Originally Posted by itsbob

Ed Zachary!!

I don't know what colleges or High Schools they graduated from, but it's not higher level math..

If a STATE can't run this program withouth going broke, there is no way in HELL a COUNTRY is going to do it. Well, unless we want a 40% tax, and inflation around 15% .. Not to include $5 - 8 gallon of gas, $20 for a pack of cigarettes, and $25 for a six pack of beer. (40% income tax won't cover it by itself.. they have to tax the hell out of EVERYTHING!)

You forgot the Soda tax. a penny an ounce for drinking a soda. They wont be happy till there is a meter on your neck charging you for the oxygen you breath, and fining you for the CO2 you breathe out. Probably put another one on your butt to measure you methane exhaust. Thieving Bastages.

[Tilted]

Originally Posted by vraiblonde

Of course. If some idiot sitting at a computer all day with their high school education, like me, can see it, then they certainly can.

So I can only logically conclude that they WANT to bankrupt the whole country and destroy the Evil Empire. What other explanation could there possibly be?

The explanation is the same as it is for most bad public policy:

Democracy shifts the focus of leadership decisions away from what is actually good and for the long-term, to what looks good and for the short term. Propriety's needs give way to perception's. The story's needs give way to the paragraph's.

We get bad public policy, because our system is set up to give us bad public policy - or rather, it isn't set up to necessarily give us good public policy. The impetuous, temperamental, ill-conceived, unsophisticated consensus of the masses steers the ship - it is the supreme captain (ultimately unconstrained by the Constitution or any well-reasoned, proven principles or wisdom) - which is a particularly problematic condition for a society to exist within.

Our forefathers understood the risks associated with Democracy - which is why they gave us Republican safeguards to mitigate those risks. That way, we could have the best of both worlds - the inclusiveness and individual member investment of Democracy, and the safeguards to liberty and (more) direct, palpable accountability of a Republic. They feared the tyranny of the majority (notionally) just as much as they feared the tyranny of a King or Parliament. When the Republican safeguards were lost, the problems with Democracy were freed to manifest themselves - and slowly over time they have seeped in through every pore and crack they could find, and are now overwhelming the beauty that was the American Experiment.

[itsbob (Premo)]

Originally Posted by vraiblonde

And he will reply, "Dependency creates self-sufficiency. Only through dependent means can we recover our American freedoms for the future of our children. War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength."

And the interviewer will let him off the hook and that will be that.

Nope..

He'll smile..


Reply:

"Now Katie, we aren't the problem"

And Katie will move on to what Michelle chose to wear to the Oval Office for their interview.

[chernmax (Premo)]

It should not come as a shock to any sound person that the land of: fictional characters, same sex, illegal sanctuary's, lax laws, government tit suckers, rainless days, Unicorns, and rainbows are failing. Who would have guessed???

[BS Gal (Premo)]

Originally Posted by ImnoMensa

You forgot the Soda tax. a penny an ounce for drinking a soda. They wont be happy till there is a meter on your neck charging you for the oxygen you breath, and fining you for the CO2 you breathe out. Probably put another one on your butt to measure you methane exhaust. Thieving Bastages.

I'm already paying for oxygen......

[Animal]

To hell with California, give it back to Mexico, build a fence from the Pacific at Oregon's southern border across to Nevada and south back to the Mexico border and rid Congress of Boxer, Feinstein, Pelosi and 52 other representatives. Let Mexico enjoy what little California has to offer.

[Bann (Premo)]

Originally Posted by vraiblonde

And yet they want to go national with it and bankrupt the whole country.

Go figure.

Unbelievable. Geez.

[otter (Premo)]

Originally Posted by Tilted

The explanation is the same as it is for most bad public policy:

Democracy shifts the focus of leadership decisions away from what is actually good and for the long-term, to what looks good and for the short term. Propriety's needs give way to perception's. The story's needs give way to the paragraph's.

We get bad public policy, because our system is set up to give us bad public policy - or rather, it isn't set up to necessarily give us good public policy. The impetuous, temperamental, ill-conceived, unsophisticated consensus of the masses steers the ship - it is the supreme captain (ultimately unconstrained by the Constitution or any well-reasoned, proven principles or wisdom) - which is a particularly problematic condition for a society to exist within.

Our forefathers understood the risks associated with Democracy - which is why they gave us Republican safeguards to mitigate those risks. That way, we could have the best of both worlds - the inclusiveness and individual member investment of Democracy, and the safeguards to liberty and (more) direct, palpable accountability of a Republic. They feared the tyranny of the majority (notionally) just as much as they feared the tyranny of a King or Parliament. When the Republican safeguards were lost, the problems with Democracy were freed to manifest themselves - and slowly over time they have seeped in through every pore and crack they could find, and are now overwhelming the beauty that was the American Experiment.