The Thailand expat forum for Travel, Lifestyle and Fun.

Jet Gorgon

^^ Ant, Hanoi Jane, prime example. I also think that folks get brainwashed by the press (I know, I was a journalist and I saw how my copy got mangled by the editors), and the papers will slant the view.

Back to the elec. I see Barack has garnered major grassroot support. Any thoughts on this folks? Will the corporations and industries let him muscle in? Sure, IMO, grassroots is good if you have a plan to sustain and improve the economy. Giving away via taxes the profits of people who have a vision and the motivation to make their biz work (aka Ayn Rand) will only cause these people to move their business elsewhere. Then where will the hand-outs come from?

Hootad Binky

And what if that "first-hand info" was bought and paid for by a Republican donor?

Please explain JG how your information is better than actual Navy records

Hootad Binky

Therefore grassroots is bad if you don't have a plan? Is that your point? Is this how your copy as a "journalist" reads? It's cognitively dyslexic.
Well, thanks for the economics lesson. What are we supposed to do now, ban taxes? GWB's budget dwarfs Reagan's, and guess what: it's based on taxes! It's the largest deficit in American history - from a Republican. Care to explain that for us, too? Your Fischer-Price grasp of the topics at hand is entertaining

__________________
Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone elses opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation. -Oscar Wilde

njdesi

This is a good article about Obama that relies on a primary, verifiable source, his record in the Senate. I'll try to find a link to McCain's legislative record for the past four years.

Daily Kos: I Refuse to Buy into the Obama Hype (now a supporter)

His record shows a progressive, but also an emphasis on transparent government and enforcement of anti-fraud measures.

__________________

njdesi

For McCain, go to this website and then select John McCain in the Senator dropdown box in the "Browse Bills by Sponsors"

THOMAS (Library of Congress)

He sponsored bills mostly related to the military and campaign finance reform.

Mr Earl

Obama gets applause for blowing his nose!
Does this say something about his erudite supporters?
link

Hootad Binky

^ No, it says he's popular!
Why is it then that Republicans are incapable of balancing a budget, and GWB took a surplus and turned it into the largest deficit in American history?

Hmmm?

sabang

Fair point, and I am certainly waiting to see some numbers rather than visions and campaign promises from all of the candidates. But give him his due, Obama's a smart cookie- prolly the most cerebral of any of the contenders.

I think the upper 10% of net worth people in the States can expect to pay more tax, whoever gets in. It has never seemed fair to me that they can get away with paying a lower rate of tax to the nation that afforded them their fortune than the middle and working classes.

__________________
Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

Jet Gorgon

Another Canadian socialist comment from you, Hootie. Of course it's bad if you don't have a plan. No matter what party. Grassroots folk often think the gov has a big fat coffer that they just need to break like a pinata and then everyone will be rich!
Oh, boy, you are a Canadian socialist. Taxes and the fiscal deficit are not related honeybunny. Of course we all need to pay taxes; governments don't sell cola for a living. Duh. Some country admins are better at managing that money, and funds they also receive from the Treasury market (you know, they offer bonds to investors for a certain percentage rate so they can use the money for stuff that taxes do not cover. Duh.)
Face it Hootie, you just want a socialist world, where someone who worked hard to get an education, excel in work and expand in business is cut down coz the people who say they didn't have that chance (ie, were too fekin lazy or stupid to go for it) now want to reap the benefits of the people who did work their butts off to succeed.

Milkman

Please provde a link for the above, quote, Tex. You have to cite it. Can you do so within 2 hours?

And as for taxes: it doesn't matter.

All 3 candidates, including McCain are big spenders.

AntRobertson

Perhaps you'd like to stick to the issue period, Earl. This is a thread about the US Presidential comapaign.

Norton

Well I'll be jiggered. Here all this time I thought if I spent more than I made I would be in debt.

Hootad Binky

Actually, many grassroots groups are anti-tax.
Why not?
Most taxes come from the middle class; GWB cut taxes for the rich. Is that what you're talking about?

Jet Gorgon

^^ True, Norton. I was looking at Hootad's view as income taxes, as that seems to be the predominant focus here. Any govt makes $ from a variety of taxes (altho different levels get different rev sources). I think it is fair to say, that most fed govt's run at a deficit, which means they are not over-taxing and are reinvesting the wealth in social programs and/or lower taxes, etc, to keep the economy going. Sure, the US is mired in the red with its biggest deficit in history. But, translate deficits from the past into current currencies. My mom made $1.50 an hour 40 years ago and maintained a household with three kids; our rent was extravagant at $85/month. It's all relative.

Anyway, for election video lovers, this MSNBC has many NBC news/talk show clips, updated daily. (Sorry to those whose Inet connectins are too slow to receive.)
I like this Tucker host, who asks who is Obama really, and what's he going to do? True, none of the candidates have a solid platform in place, but as commentors note, Obama gives people hope. If he gets in (probable as ChinThee notes), will Ruros and Asians wave US flags and kss Americans?
One unemployed US factory worker in the rust belt said it best, noting that hope is a good thing, and "let's keep jobs in America" jingoism sounds great, but let's see the beef, man.

msnbc.com Video Player

^Sorry, Hootad, you sneaked that comment in on me. Sure the grassroots folks want lower taxes for THEM -- tax the crap outta the rich! Sure, and tax the crap out of the big corporations and then let the unions suck them dry, like they did to the US automakers. That's why most oil companies are flush with cash -- many US oil cos are incorporated in Bermuda or another tax-free haven, and that's what gets the goat of the Dems. Mind, I doubt the Dems will lift the tax off gas at the pump, do you?

Hootad Binky

^ But socialized medicine makes it cheaper for General motors to relocate in Canada, for instance, since they no longer have to cover employees' medical insurance. Which is why auto workers are being laid off in the US and hired in Canada, where these jobs strengthen the tax base and provide local communities with long-term, high-paid jobs.

And what about corporate welfare? What about governments routinely bailing out failed or fraudulent banks and businesses with political connections, like the savings and loan debacle? Or the Enrons and Worldcoms squandering employees' pensions? Who's supposed to pick up the bill for that?

You guessed it, the taxpayer.

You say most governments run on a deficit.

Not "socialist" Canada:

Not "socialist" British Columbia, either.

What "deficit"? Taxes in Canada have remained steady. Meanwhile, property values continue to increase across the country and the economy is still growing. Why do you insist the US, with it's legions of poor, tax breaks for the rich, and gargantuan debt, has a better system?

It doesn't. It's a crap system.

How about posting some actual data for a change.

Hootad Binky

You mean this Tucker host?



He was fired from his prime hosting job on CNN's Crossfire after getting badly owned on live television by Jon Stewart regarding the last primary. Basically, he was full of the usual GOP rhetoric, but with nothing to back it up, and he got stung, and stung very badly, on national television:

Jet Gorgon

That it does, strengthen the tax base. That's a crock about the med coverge, Hootad. The unions crippled the cos with wage demands and total bennies, like pension plans.

Well, Hootad, if the gov didn't bail them out, what would happen to all the taxpayers' money in those institutions?

What "deficit"? Taxes in Canada have remained steady. Meanwhile, property values continue to increase across the country and the economy is still growing. Why do you insist the US, with it's legions of poor, tax breaks for the rich, and gargantuan debt, has a better system?
It doesn't. It's a crap system.
How about posting some actual data for a change.[/quote]

Did I say Canada, specifically, but as I did say, why hoard a surplus? You want to talk Canada, OK. Why a surplus when the healthcare system is feked (you know it is; not enough docs and nurses who are underpaid and split to private clinics or the US, overcrowding and underfunded hospitals, continued cancellations of operations, etc). How abut the homeless, incentives to self-employed folks, more funding for the police, schools, libraries. What are they saving it for? A takeover of the US? Churn that money back into the economy. Building up infrastructure? Sure, Hootad, you know what political connections you need in Canada to get a gov contract? Well, I do coz I know people in the forestry and construction industries. Alot of those tax dollars get shifted into contractor backpockets, too.

The main reason Canada is flush with cash is our natural resources (oh, maybe the gov is saving the $ for the day we run out). Funny, too, our utilities bills are higher than in the States -- because Canada gets more $ for our power from places like California where energy demands are much higher. So, they charge us more for what's left.

I wrote a letter to a local paper awhile back about how the city gov squandered its casino tax income.

I was much amused by the "City announces latest round of casino cash recipients" article.
As you noted, the city's press release states that "the funding will support a mix of capital asset purchases that directly contribute to diversity in arts, culture, heritage, amateur sport and community safety."
I was wondering where XX Business Improvement Association's $21,500 of decorative banners fits in there -- culture, heritage, or community safety? I thought biz assns got together, planned improvements to make their shopping areas more snazzy, paid for these upgrades, and then everyone involved wrote off the expenses.
And how about the XX Festival Society: $22,278 for children's inflatables? I hope that's not for twist and tie balloon animals like Sparky the Clown makes at kids parties.
My other favourite was $1,500 for XX Community Association's reader board. That must be a really nice board.
So, there were 59 applications for grants, and 29 were granted. Wonder what the 30 other ones were asking for."

So tell me Hootad, why does Canada hog a fiscal surplus? And why does it need to keep interest rates high, basically slowly strangling our exporters? I imagine the automakers who came across the border are in a flummox now that the loonie is strong. They should have stayed in the US, kicked out the fekin unions and got on with it.

And, please also tell me why consumer goods prices are so much more expensive in Canada than they are in the States (even before the loonie strengthened)? Why is local wine so expensive (I can buy a great chablis for $5 in Seattle, but it costs $15 or more for a BC wine.) Even Canadian beer is cheaper in the States. And how about local produce prices? Even in the summer they are two or three times higher than local stuff in the States.

You've been brainwashed really well, Hootad. Spoonfed Canadian crap by the leftie papers and happy to succumb to whatever the gov tells you to do. You sure you lived and worked overseas?

Hootad Binky

No, it isn't:

If your information is contrary, let's see it (but that's not going to happen is it?). Letters to the editor don't count

So you're saying that the average tax payer should bail out the rich whenever they exercise their apparent license to steal? Why is that?
You've been deriding Canada at every opportunity, which is fine, but you haven't backed up anything you've said.

They're spending it on precisely the things ^ you mentioned, if you bothered to click on the links I provided. But you don't seem too interested in facts.

Wrong. B.C. has an almost unlimited supply of hydroelectricity, and lower costs than in California, and here's just one reason:
Now let's compare current electricity costs:That's 1.5 cents per kilowatt/hour, among the lowest rates in North America and Canada.



Insights May 2004

It's lower than the U.S., so how is that a bad thing in relation to trade with the US?

It's at $1.01, actually, and it was stronger because the Canadian economy is stronger than the US.

Gotta problem with that? Then move to the US where you can drink all the cheap piss-water beer you want and dine on cheap food products produced by exploited illegal immigrant labour.

In any case, California is running out of water returning to its natural desert state. Won't be any cheap vegetables, then will there?

KID

I deliver truck loads of goods to the gm and ford facilities here in kansas ciy, the new contract that the union setteld with ford calls for the starting wage of around $14 an hour and a huge amount of the jobs will be out sourced that are actually in the facility.

Many fast food places here are paying $10- $12 an hour starting out. Union construction wages pay way more than either the gm plant or the ford facility

The only way american automakers are going to get back on top is for them to start making a competative priced product that gets the MPG equal to those that are being imported into the states.

Americans live in a time when our nation is being flooded with cheap imports in every industry, It is time that the american people start waking up and realizing that in order for their country to get back on top economicaly they are going to have to start thinking MADE IN AMERICA with their wallets. Along with that, our government needs to set in place some equal import/export laws that allow american based companies a fair chance and stop letting CHINA and other countries flood our economy while we are not allowed to do the same in their countries.

__________________
Grandpappy told my pappy, back in my day, son
A man had to answer for the wicked that he done
Take all the rope in Texas
Find a tall oak tree, round up all of them bad boys
Hang them high in the street for all the people to see

Hootad Binky

February 08, 2006

GM's Woes Bode Ill for All Americans

It’s pretty easy to blame General Motors for its declining fortunes in the global car market. When gas prices were low, they took the easy path to profits by churning out gas-guzzling SUVs, which escaped the fuel efficiency standards by masquerading as light trucks. They ignored hybrid technology and instead focused their technologists on pie-in-the-sky hydrogen vehicles, which are decades (if ever) away.

But yesterday’s decision to slash pensions and health care benefits for GM’s retirees and salaried workers, following similar cuts for unionized workers, bodes ill for all Americans. The employer-based system that the public has relied on to provide these benefits since World War II is collapsing.

In recent months, bellwether companies like GM, IBM and Verizon have joined the thousands of U.S. corporations, whether headquartered in Silicon Valley or Bentonville, Ark., which no longer provide guaranteed pensions and health care for their employees. Instead, they are turning to a system that provides individual retirement accounts in the form of 401(k)s and capped health care insurance plans supplemented with individual health savings accounts.

In the world that has been slowing arriving over the past two-and-a-half decades, it is every man/woman for him/herself. And if conservatives can get their way on school vouchers, they’ll extend the new social insecurity into childhood.

There is something deeply American about this urge to go it alone. Huck Finn striking out for the frontier, and all that. But it is radically at odds with how the rest of the world is dealing with globalization.

The easiest example to cite is Japan, whose Toyota Motors yesterday declared a huge increase in profits and will soon become the largest car company in the world. In Japan, the government pension program (the equivalent of Social Security) picks up a far larger share of retirement income and Toyota workers enjoy the benefits of a national health insurance program.

Today’s Wall Street Journal front page story on the collapse of pension programs in the U.S. carried some useful comparisons. “Employer pension plans are far less significant in continental Europe, and health-care costs are lower in nearly every other country. . . Health-care systems in some countries, such as the United Kingdom and Canada, are financed through general tax revenue. In Germany and several other European countries, all employers and employees pay for health care through a payroll tax. The per-person health-care tab is smaller, and the systems provide universal coverage,” the business paper of record reported.

But here, employers and the Republican-led government are opting for a system that embraces individual risk sold to the public as individual choice. You get to choose what health care coverage you want or need. You get to manage your own retirement investments. Woe unto you should you bet on a dot.com, or a GM. And if you decided to skip going to the doctor for a pain in your side in order to save your health savings account for a rainy day, too bad. That cancer is too far gone to treat.

GoozNews