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Termyn8or -> RE: I'm a Corporation - Tax me. Go ahead try... (4/28/2008 6:43:32 PM)
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The time for reciprocally fair tariffs was about twenty years ago or so.
Back then the trade imbalance was not so bad, and we weren't under the thumb of China and others. People don't seem to realize that the trade deficit is real and the money to pay must come from somewhere. These days most of it comes from credit, which basically means it is created out of nothing.
But it is not created out of nothing after all, it is a mortgage in a way, and we have been getting away with paying interest on it and that's it. The principle always grows. Otherwise we would have very few plasma TVs and new cars. A few other things as well.
And planned obsolescence it at an all time high. Chinese products, if there are any replacable parts they are not available. Everything is made to break, and break it does. This applies to everything from toasters to Toyotas. Crumple zones for your safety, now about non crumple zones. Instead of a total loss it's a fender bender buy the idiot who ran into someone else's car got smacked nice and hard by the steering column.
I for one know this much, if I am traveling in a metal box at 60-70 MPH I'd like for it to be a sturdy one. But I see where they are coming from. He who wrecks and walks away lives to buy a car another day.
It is pervasive in all the junk we buy. There were days back when you would actually take a toaster in for repair. Now if you have a two thousand dollar TV and it breaks, in alot of cases you might as well throw it in the garbage and save the estimate charge. That money has to come from somewhere.
Most of us have lived all our lives during the time they simply rabidly print money. So people don't really see the real problem. The wealth to pay the debt is never created. In fact we have lost alot of ground in creating wealth, a big part of our manufacturing base is gone, and a service oriented society simply does not work. Even that is being outsourced anyway.
People do not see how detrimental this is. If one stands back and looks at the big picture, we are so screwed that it takes the light from screwed 12 minutes to reach us. It only take 9 minutes from the sun.
It is so bad that even I, with my extremely radical views and ideas, can't think of anything that would fix this. No action of which I can concieve would do it. This includes an armed revolution. Even if successful we will be cut off from the rest of the world, dying here with outdated and/or disassembled factories, played out land and so many incompetent people running around it is not funny. The dollar will be useless outside our borders and if it really was a revolt we can kiss Hawall and Alaska goodbye.
I have given alot of thought to the tumultuous times in store for us. It is very plain that they are inevitable. It is only a matter of time. And they must come, because the way we are going we are wasting every natural resouce we can get our grubby little fingers on, at alarming levels.
Businessmen will do everything in their power to make the most money. How that works exactly is defined by government. Businesses enjoy the protection of their property, as well as their intellectual property. The situation would be workable if the companies had not gotten so big as to be able to effect major influences on those who are supposed to govern them. On a smaller scale, if I pay off a judge and get a traffic ticket thrown out, did I do the right thing ?
Corruption cannot be discluded. I remember going to a meet with a buddy looking at some property. The building was owned by someone very well connected. I strongly advised against the purchase for two reasons. Because of the guy's connections they were not bothering him about some serious structural issues. They had a basement wall caved in over a foot, and it had alreadt seen a poor attempt at bracing, all of which was broken.
That was bad enough, but when we showed up we met the guy across the street at an apartment building, actually right next to it. I saw people out on a front stoop. I decided to talk to the guy, this was before the owner of the property arrived. It was quite interesting.
This guy bought this about twelve plex from the same seller, who built it himself, or directed the erection. It was probably up to the same standard as the other building with the basement falling in.
What tyhis guy told me was that he bought the apartments to rent out but he couldn't because the zoning had been changed to single family. So he and his family lived in the whole place.
The seller was the one who did it he said, he had the zoning changed and built the complex, and then had the zoning changed again, hoping to get the property back after a foreclosure. And he said something to the effect "And this is not the first time".
The seller was no doubt a millionaire. He tried to tell us that the problem in the basement could be fixed easily. Even then I was not so easily fooled.
Thing is, millionaire or not, he was small potatoes. But this should illustrate what political influence can do. Now step this up to the big boys. If a small time operator can do this, what do you think is going on behind closed doors ?
This was North Royalton, Ohio. This is one of the most corrupt governments in this country. I could tell you about what kind of other things they do there, but it is all based on bribery. You will never see a bunch of money grubbing MFs like this. It is so bad there, and property taxes are so high that property values dropped years ago, even in the buyer's market of the past. Bet they're having plenty of problem these days. I knew people who lived there who could not give away their houses, and that was in a buyer's market.
So here we are now with a similar situation on a national scale.
The government is bought off. They say a new drug requires years of testing, but that is the past. There have been so many class action lawsuits now that they are working to "reform" tort law so their actions do not bite them in the ass too hard. I suspect most of them spend half of their time covering up misdeeds rather than doing anything productive.
It is a sad state of affairs.
"Give me the power over a country's money and I care not who makes the laws". You know who said that, and I am leaving it at that. If you don't know who said that it is easy to find out.
Bankers caused the redistribution of wealth, to their advantage of course and now wield enough power to operate outside the law, in case they didn't get around to having it changed.
With the wealth in the hands of the "proper" people, they enjoy a position of power perhaps greater than the President of this, and some other countries.
There is more, like why aren't our politicians even the slightest bit concerned about us ? You would think they would want to take care of their cash cow, their golden goose, so to speak.
T
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