neoparasite is BACK.

neoparody hasn’t posted since #6. We’re up to #137 now dude. What, do you have pictures of him plastered on your wall or somthing?

Organized “religion” is an insult! Especially organized Religion that is used to corrupt stupid people to vote for stupid politicians (mainly Republican’ts). That’s an attack on the Spaghetti Monster too – lol!

Good Hope of the Alpha Bore Church of Latter Day Idiots.

What? Are you trying to insult someone here? Who? About what? Why?

I laugh at the idiots…who go to church

Me too. What a waste of time, money and minds.

So maybe instead of bringing our standards down, we should be thinking about what can be done to bring their standards up.

Yes ElBruce, I didn’t mean to imply that our standards should be reduced. And by standards, I mean if a company in the US has to operate by certain regulations here, why can they operate with less regulation anywhere else? Huge problem, but in a “Global” economy, it’s insane to have such disparity in operating rules.

Good Hope of the Alpha Bore Church of Latter Day Idiots.

If the corporate taxe rate was lower the tax code could be simplified so that there would be no need to have those loopholes and exemptions.

I’d be all for that. But then politicians on both sides wouldn’t be able to stay employed by keeping folks like you and me at each other’s throats over the confusion about what the real corporate tax rate is.

Once you accept those pieces of paper, once you use them, you have agreed to abide by their rules of use.
After all, their value is not backed by anything physical: their value is solely generated by government action, maintaining the peace, policing economic action, take andgiving those pieces of paper to increase stability and prosperity. It’sthatreliability and control alone that makes them useful.
And most of the time, all they ask of you when you fail to obey one of their regulations is some of their own back.

You know, in medieval Iceland, when a man was found guilty of a crime, he was declared an outlaw. And that meant, for a culture without a police force, that anyone could take that man’s property, injure him or kill him, and there would be no legal penalty. No coercive government action at all, but quite effective.

Would you prefer that? If you defied the government,then they would publish in the newspaper that your life and property would no longer be under government protection? Wouldn’t that be a nice Heinleinian solution?

It really takes American idiots to confuse libertarian fantasy with the actual state of nature. What I described is the way a vast portion of our fellow humans live: you only have what you can hold onto, and the predators for the most part feed upon you.

Corporation are made up of thousands of individuals who have jobs and are just as much an American as you or I.

Tweedster Says:

So, one could reason that you are a cell?

Just for the sake of conceptualization moving forward, let’s discard that analogy right now; it’s too limited for the level of discourse that I suspect we’re about to hit.

Instead, I propose the following working definition: a corporation is a specialized clustered network of social contracts taking place between employees, investors and consumers.

Technically, they are, according to SCOTUS Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite in Santa Clara County v. Southern P. R. Co.

I’ll believe that when I see an entire corporation get thrown in jail.

.

Tracy__5 Says:

Low taxes? In this country? Are you insane? Do you know what the U.S. corporate tax rate is compared to those countries in the EU?

Do you know how many exemptions and loopholes they have available to them? As in, how much they actually pay as opposed to how much they’re theoretically supposed to pay.

.

Tracy__5 Says:

Fines and new taxes, which is what were are talking about are different than standard regulations and you should know that. I am suprised that your are trying to equate the two.

You guys claim that regulations are punitive laws all the time. If I accept the general conservative/libertarian proposition that all laws, taxes and regulations should be viewed as restrictions on liberty, then it’s clear to see that there are many such restrictions (such as the criminalization of murder or theft) which we all accept as reasonable, and in which fact necessary to maintain an orderly, developed society.

What you haven’t explained is what makes restrictions on corporations such a special case – why they deserve so much more liberty than you, I or any other individual.

.

Tracy__5 Says:

No that they will move their operations overseas because of the threat of a fine.

See my response to livelongandprosper, above.

I guess so….just as you are.

Thank you.

Corporation are made up of thousands of individuals who have jobs and are just as much an American as you or I.

So, one could reason that you are a cell?

It’s a none level playing field that is responsible for the demise of the manufacturing industry in America.

Which brings us to what’s wrong with “free trade” as it has been put forth so far. I mean, if we really wanted to bring things down to a level playing field, we’d scrap all child labor laws, as well as all laws against bribing public officials, along with a million others. And yet, we seem to be doing OK on the whole. So maybe instead of bringing our standards down, we should be thinking about what can be done to bring their standards up.

The better incentives for companies to reduce their CO2 production is to give tax incentives NOT the threat of a fine for exceeding their alloted output quantity.

What are you worried about? That they’ll cheat? That their CEO’s will get busted when they do? I’m not worried about that. Why are you?

.

Tracy__5 Says:

Last time I looked the European banks were doing any better than ours including their economies.

… mainly because they had invested in ours.

move their operations overseas where in many cases there are few if any environmental regulations.

This is a huge problem. All companies should operate on the same set of regulations. If the oil industry would be allowed to operate in the US as it does in, say Nigeria (pick any third world country with oil), there would be a revolt against these companies. But, heck, who gives a shit about their environment.

It’s a none level playing field that is responsible for the demise of the manufacturing industry in America.

April 24th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
____________

Technically, they are, according to SCOTUS Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite in Santa Clara County v. Southern P. R. Co.