Armed robbery in Cyprus:
The Demon Behind the Benevolent Mask of the Welfare State II: Property Rights Edition
Are We All Just Cypriots Now?
[The Cypriot bank deposit seizure] reminds me of a criticism that Margaret Thatcher once lobbed at the socialists. Their problem, you see, is that they always run out of other people’s money. Well, relax Lady Thatcher. They now have at app for that. Saul Goode, Baby! I wonder if anyone in the United States is studiously taking notes...
Not to worry Komerade Amerikan. There are apps for [the Fourth Amendment] as well. Kelo v. New London is a landmark case that helps put the subjects in their proper place. As long as your bank account can be construed as conferring a public benefit through public use, this lovely piece of jurisprudence would justify its seizure down to the last penny.
Bottom line: The state can steal your property, your wealth and your sustinence at any time they get pissed off enough or desperate enough to do so. You have no recourse to the law against this. The law is pathetically bastardized. Remember how that Arch-Conservative Supreme Court was poised to heroically strike down The AACA? Forget it Jake, we are all Cypriots now.
We keep voting for these bastards because free stuff tastes good, and we hope we'll be eaten last.
The unintended consequences of the welfare state are overwhelming us. Most people who support these policies think that they're just asking the government to do a little more to "help", and what's wrong with that? They don't realize the disaster they're creating.
ReplyDeleteBen
This quote has been attributed to several people, but it bears repeating.
ReplyDelete>>A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy.<<
JQ
A better one: "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money."
DeleteJoey
The problem in Europe is that economic integration has far outstripped political integration. When Germany bails out Cyprus, they want to ensure they get their money back. When New York bails out Louisiana, as they do year after year, they just kiss that money goodbye.
ReplyDelete-KW
As usual, you don't have the slightest idea what you're talking about.
DeleteKW, if you mean New Yorkers subsidize Louisianians, you're right. I don't think they should have to, but we live in a society in which wealth is transferred from rich to poor, which necessarily means from rich states to poor states. I don't think you have a problem with that. I think you're just pissed because Louisianians don't vote the right way, which is to say that they don't give the Democratic Party the allegiance that you think it deserves. If we were talking about some loyal Democrat constituency group you'd be singing a different tune.
DeleteIf our welfare system was entirely state-based, with no federal intervention, that would go a long way to ease the burden that Louisianians place on New Yorkers. I'm all for it. Will you join me?
JQ
Basically, KW sees welfare as a vote buying scheme for the Democratic Party. People who collect welfare owe their loyalty to the Dems, and if they can't be counted on to vote the right way, then screw them.
DeleteIs the purpose of the welfare system to "help" people or to buy votes? If the purpose is to help people, why do you care who they vote for?
The Torch
I would prefer just to cut the red states lose and build a fence.
Delete-KW
@KW:
Delete"The problem in Europe..." is socialism.
Except for one thing doctor, Germany and the Scandinavian countries doing most of the lending are more socialist than the countries their bailing out.
Delete-KW
Also, New York, Massachusetts, and California are all more socialist than Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi.
Delete-KW
"I would prefer just to cut the red states lose and build a fence."
DeleteSo you're for secession? Not such a bad idea. I think the red states might be just as happy to have a fence, to keep liberal blowhards like you out.
"Except for one thing doctor, Germany and the Scandinavian countries doing most of the lending are more socialist than the countries their bailing out."
I think you mean "they're." I would argue that you're wrong on this point. Sweden, for example has relatively low corporate tax, especially compared with the United States, which is the highest.
http://www.thelocal.se/43202/20120913/#.UVGvQTdGeSo
"Japan, which currently has the highest rate in the world -- a 39.8% rate on business income between national and local taxes -- cuts its rate to 36.8% as of April 1 [2012]. The U.S. rate stands at 39.2% when both federal and state rates are included."
http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/27/pf/taxes/corporate-taxes/index.htm
Sweden's corporate tax is 22%. Denmark's is 25%, Finland is 26%.
One of the major problems with Greece was the everyone was working for the government. Government jobs are nice but somebody has to earn the tax revenues that the government employees live off. Until recently, one quarter of Greeks were employed by the government.
http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/rick-newman/2012/09/06/unemployment-in-greece-hits-depression-levelsand-is-headed-higher
"Greece also suffers from massive tax evasion--which means there's not enough money to pay all those government workers—along with widespread nepotism and laughable work rules. Some workers can retire with full pensions while still in their 40s. The government pays bonuses for things like using a computer and working outdoors."
The Torch
"One of the major problems with Greece was the everyone was working for the government."
DeleteYou mean if we all make macrame plant hangers and pillar candles, we can't support an economy by selling them to each other? I've been to Greece, and they have a vibrant private economy: everybody sells cheap postcards, Acropolis souvenirs, retsina, and gyros sandwiches. For sure they don't make computers and shit, but who cares?
I think you've got this all wrong, Torch. Why, President Lackwit and his gimcrack economancers told us the multiplier on the Stimuzilla bill was going to be 1.5. Find me another sure-thing 1.5 ROI and I'll put every dime I own into it. Why, they should have spent a billion trillion dollars.
And just the other day, Sen Lieawatha Warren asked the reasonable question, why isn't the minimum wage $22/hr given the productivity improvements. Hell, that's chicken feed. I think the minimum wage should be $1000/hr. Then everybody would be rich!!
You conservatives have your heads on wrong, dude.
@KW: Do you oppose taxing the rich to provide for the needs of the poor? Or does it just rub you the wrong way that sophisticated people from New York have to pay for hillbillies from Louisiana? I mean, is it something about not liking people from the South? Because normally I would consider you a big fan of programs for lower income people.
DeleteTRISH
California is an economic basketcase, so I guess their socialism isn't really working out.
DeleteTRISH
The Lackwit Administration is considering the same thing, albeit in a slightly different flavor:
ReplyDeleteThe U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is weighing whether it should take on a role in helping Americans manage the $19.4 trillion they have put into retirement savings, a move that would be the agency’s first foray into consumer investments.
“That’s one of the things we’ve been exploring and are interested in in terms of whether and what authority we have,” bureau director Richard Cordray said in an interview. He didn’t provide additional details.
-- Bloomberg (1/13)
Relax. They've done so well with the bailouts, "green" jobs, the Post Office, Amtrak, and SolyndraA123AboundBeaconEner1etc.
I really need the federal government to help me manage my retirement fund the way it manages its finances.
DeleteJQ
Pretty funny. The folks in Washington who have spent 16 trillion $ more than they have are telling ordinary Americans that they should help us with our finances.
DeleteYou know, I'm thinking money can be made in a contrarian fund that shorts everything the DoE invests in. Instead of the "Dogs of the Dow", it could be called the "Dogs of the DoE".
DeleteCan we, but for a moment, imagine the reaction this kind of measure would have caused even 20 years ago?
ReplyDeleteThe modern Federal EU is poison to all it touches.
Any such concepts put forward in North America should be rejected. Violently if necessary.
“Any such concepts put forward in North America should be rejected. Violently if necessary.”
DeleteEven if it’s approved by majorities in all the involved legislatures? Who do you suggest killing first Crusader? Elected officials? Bankers?
-KW
I don't think it would be violently opposed. We'd go along with it too. What choice would we have? I see things everyday that outrage me and nobody seems to care. They even reelect the bums who serve us these shit sandwiches.
DeleteThe Torch
'Even if it’s approved by majorities in all the involved legislatures?"
DeleteIt would never be, and never was in Europe.
The only vote on the EU was on a MARKET deal in the 70's. The rest has been rule by fiat.
This kind of authoritarianism rarely gets a public mandate. How many Americans, Mexicans, or Canadians do you know that want to see their countries dissolved to form a corporate entity? How many would VOTE for technocracy? Get real, KW.
"Who do you suggest killing first Crusader?"
No one. Well, maybe people who tried to kill us for standing up to them - but that would only be under the most extreme and chaotic circumstances.
"Elected officials? Bankers?"
Their goons, perhaps. But a trail would be sufficient for most of the people behind this movement.
trial**
DeleteKelo v. New London is a monstrosity.
ReplyDeleteJoey
More like a failed capitalist laboratory burst into flames.
ReplyDeleteThe Cypriot banks were allowed to gamble irresponsibly with their customer's money and they lost their risky bets badly. Either they go bankrupt, in which case depositors lose all their money over the first 100K euro (the first 100K is insured by the EU), or the EU taxpayers pick up part of the bill and the depositors (mostly tax dodgers, many from Russia) get to lose only part of their deposits over 100K.
I'd say that's a sweet deal for the depositors. Instead of being robbed, as right-wing idiots like you like to claim, the depositors were in fact rescued by the governments of the EU.
Who told you this, Troy?
DeleteJQ
It's all over the news here in socialist paradise all the time. Is there something specific I said that you wish to dispute?
DeleteJQ,
Delete"Who told you this, Troy?"
The ministry of truth.
The Cypriot banking system (before the implosion) was worth about 8 times the rest of the Cypriot economy. Cyprus effectively existed to be a low tax, high interest paying money laundering operation. A capitalistic paradise, which has become unstuck.
Delete>>Is there something specific I said that you wish to dispute?<<
DeleteHow can I dispute it when you've shown me nothing to demonstrate the veracity of your assertion?
JQ