Innovation and America

[f3lix]

Many states are now (or soon will be) requiring teachers to have a masters degree to get or renew a teaching license.

[Mr. Blonde]

Its only a religious issue first because of a poor education system.

[Repugnant Abomination]

Originally Posted by DJ FC

Evolution is a bad example. Because it's a religious issue first and an educational issue second. But in general I'd agree that our education system is poor.

You have it backwards, my good sir. Evolution dwells in the realm of science, religion has simply latched itself onto it like a parasite. But I get what you're saying; while it's a minor point in the broader context of the issue, the fact of the matter is so many of these parents pulling their kids out of the public system in order to be home schooled is almost exclusively for religious/social issues that are intertwined.

[thekremlin]

Dinosaurs=fiction.

[DDTempest]

Originally Posted by thekremlin

Dinosaurs=fiction.

My old boss was a devout catholic that did not believe in dinosaurs because it conflicted with the world being 6,000 years old. She was also a lesbian, a fact she had no problem reconciling with her religion.

[Cocktooth]

I'm not reading through everyone's shit. How about cutting the federal government in half. If they want to make a difference, do it locally. We paying these guys way to much money, when one guy can do the job of 10. If they want that money, work for it.

Also, start limiting aid. Earthquake hits in Japan. Fuck them. Did they send us a billion dollars for Katrina help? I'm tired of us running into fires, only to get burned everytime.

[Saint DH]

Originally Posted by Cocktooth

Also, start limiting aid. Earthquake hits in Japan. Fuck them. Did they send us a billion dollars for Katrina help? I'm tired of us running into fires, only to get burned everytime.

Japan was one of the largest donating countries after Katrina, if not the largest.

[Repugnant Abomination]

Buffett: I beg you to raise my taxes - Politico Staff - POLITICO.com

[Saint DH]

That's a good example of why I hate Warren Buffet. Do you know what Berkshire Hathaway does to make Warren Buffet billions of dollars? It buys other companies. Buffet has always been in favor of higher taxes, specifically concerning the inheritance tax. When a significant portion of wealth is taxed as it's transferred, the heir is far more likely to sell their business interests to companies like Berkshire Hathaway instead of continuing operations on their own. Notice how he speaks of Billionaires not paying their share of taxes, but then recommends people with taxable income as little as $1,000,000 get hit with more taxes, and even more taxes for those with $10,000,000. There is a vast difference between the billionaires of the world and a person with $5,000,000 in taxable income for a year.

[Repugnant Abomination]

Yeah, it's a wonder how those multimillionaires get by.

...Okay, but if I'm not going to be facetious then yeah, I get what you're saying. The point I was interested in was him talking about the super rich.

[Saint DH]

Originally Posted by Repugnant Abomination

Yeah, it's a wonder how those multimillionaires get by.

A couple of million dollars is hardly rich in today's world. Yet, it's those individuals who do earn a healthy, but not exuberant, income that pay 40 to 50 percent of their taxable income. Also, most of the people in this income range are owners of successful small businesses, which are the engines of economy prosperity in this country.

Look, I am in no way saying that these people have it hard. They live very comfortable, secure lives. But it's these individuals who create a lot of jobs and wealth for the country. Many of the jobs created by small businesses are "good" jobs. How does our government reward these entrepreneurs? By taking the largest chunk of their wealth. Warren Buffet is correct in saying that he is taxed gently. Our tax code is easily exploited and is very forgiving for someone with the insane amount of wealth as Buffet. For a guy who is climbing up in the world, though, our government takes the largest chunk.

When will the United States government realize that they must create legislation to compete in the international market for labor and business investment? Companies of all kinds can move operations to Asia, South America, Central America, Africa, etc, and not worry about unions, countless amounts of regulation, and taxes. China understands this competition in the global market. They understand it, and they're doing all they can do to make China a friend to businesses.

[Cocktooth]

Originally Posted by Dirty Harry

Japan was one of the largest donating countries after Katrina, if not the largest.

How much $ did Japan donate to U.S. after Katrina? - Yahoo! Answers



Japan's government donated 500,000 dollars to the efforts. I don't give a fuck about Toyota Honda or Panasonic. 500k is an extremely small amount considering the money we fork over.

[Saint DH]

Japan has pledged more than $1.5 million in private donations. The government of Japan has donated $200,000 in cash to the American Red Cross and some $800,000 in relief supplies — from blankets to generators — already are arriving to aid the most needy

I'm not saying that they gave anywhere near the amount of money that we gave them ($6 million), but then again their earthquakes were quite a bit worse than the drowning of that piece of shit otherwise known as New Orleans.

[DDTempest]

Originally Posted by Dirty Harry

Also, most of the people in this income range are owners of successful small businesses, which are the engines of economy prosperity in this country.

You think these businesses are the engines of the economy because the larger businesses pay virtually nothing in domestic taxes?

[Saint DH]

Originally Posted by DDTempest

You think these businesses are the engines of the economy because the larger businesses pay virtually nothing in domestic taxes?

No I do not. I think it's because these business typically generate "good" jobs. What I mean by good is that they have good salary, working conditions, training, benefits, etc.

[Repugnant Abomination]

The Bush tax cuts need to expire.

[Beebs]

The biggest pet peeve of mine, in relation to this, is people saying the rich need to pay "their fair share." It as an absurdity, by any rational measurement, to say that the rich aren't paying their fair share; the vast majority of taxes are paid by the rich (absolute terms), they pay a larger share of their income (relative), and they get relatively fewer exemptions as a percent of their bill, while up to 50% of the nation pays no income taxes at all.

This isn't to say increasing the tax load further on the rich is completely evil in and of itself, but call it what it is.

I fail to see how any definition of "fair" has yet to have been reached and surpassed.

[thekremlin]

Amazon.com: The Power Makers: Steam, Electricity, and the Men Who Invented Modern America (9781596914124): Maury Klein: Books

Really good read (I'm only about 2/3 through, so maybe the ending sucks.) A huge majority of it is about the birth of the electricity industry, which I knew nothing about. Turns out Edison was a massive pimp. I thought he was just like "Oh shit, I have an awesome idea, lightbulbs." But no. Everyone wanted lightbulbs, and they all tried to invent them. But this canny muthafucka went in a totally different direction and beat everyone out. BUT HE WASN'T DONE. He then decided to build an entire distribution system for it, so he invented the power plant. How did I not know that?

Mostly, though, this book makes me sad because it's so hard to imagine something like this happening again. Can you imagine power plants being invented today?

Also, I want a World's Fair.

[f3lix]

So to you, the technological evolution of a power plant isn't match or surpassed by the creation of computers?

[thekremlin]

Yeah, that's a good one.

[DDTempest]

Originally Posted by Beebs

The biggest pet peeve of mine, in relation to this, is people saying the rich need to pay "their fair share." It as an absurdity, by any rational measurement, to say that the rich aren't paying their fair share; the vast majority of taxes are paid by the rich (absolute terms), they pay a larger share of their income (relative), and they get relatively fewer exemptions as a percent of their bill, while up to 50% of the nation pays no income taxes at all.

This isn't to say increasing the tax load further on the rich is completely evil in and of itself, but call it what it is.

I fail to see how any definition of "fair" has yet to have been reached and surpassed.

"Fair share" is a very relative and hard to define term ... would the rich be as rich if they didn't have publicly funded law enforcement to protect their assets? Who benefits more from an interstate highway system: the business owner or the factory worker? Would being ultra-intelligent have the same result on your own well-being if the bulk of society was uneducated?

I know these are philosophical questions that can't really be answered because the fact of the matter is that structured society, mostly funded by the wealthy, has existed for centuries. The "wealthy" today have substantially more to gain by being a part of society than they have in past centuries.

[thekremlin]

Agreed. Last week's riots in London are a good example. The rioters were pretty clearly short-sighted, and didn't have any point to make. But it says something that people view their situations as so helpless that they would do something which sabatoges any chance they have at a real future. And guess what, it sucked to live in London that week. To me, it was a good illustration of how the upper class has an incentive not to allow the gap between rich and poor to become too large.

Side note: it was also really funny to hear the same people who are constantly bitching about taxes bitching about how the police didn't do enough.

[Repugnant Abomination]

Stein might be a creationist, but at least he's showing some sense on taxes.

FoxNews.com - Breaking News | Latest News | Current News

[Beebs]

Originally Posted by DDTempest

My old boss was a devout catholic that did not believe in dinosaurs because it conflicted with the world being 6,000 years old. She was also a lesbian, a fact she had no problem reconciling with her religion.

1) That is just flat out funny, how did she explain how munching box fit in with her religion?

2) In terms of science, Catholics, or at least the Catholic church, seems to be way ahead of protestants in terms of not trying to deny science, at least in the modern era. I am almost certain that either this pope or JP2 said, directly "evolution is a fact."

[DDTempest]

Originally Posted by Beebs

1) That is just flat out funny, how did she explain how munching box fit in with her religion?

She didn't have an answer when I called her on it ... it really undermined the credibility of everything she said for two years.