Originally posted by Daedalus
Room you should stick to the philosophy.
Why did the USSR fail, why is China moving to a capitalist economy, why is North Korea starving, why are Cubans driving 50 yr old cars, why does France have 12% unemployment?
Why did the USSR fail? The Cold War, wasting there money on a showdown with the United States that never materialized. Were the Soviets evil capitalists, instead of socialists, the outcome may very well have been the same.
Why is North Korea starving? It's run by an evil dictator, cut off from global trade.
Why are Cubans driving 50 yr old cars? Because they want to. It's part of their culture. Seriously, I was in Cuba last year and there are plenty of new cars, a few German cars but lots of Korean cars. Just no new American cars. Cubans love American cars, and would rather drive a 50 year old American car than a one year old Polish car.
why does France have 12% unemployment? Inflexible labor markets. If the United States had less flexible labor markets, we'd have similar unemployment rates as the French.
Daedalus, I understand capital gains tax is a form of double taxation. Is that necessarily bad? Virtually all goods and services we consume are taxed at more than point. That's the reality of the tax code, not necessarily good or bad.
Clarification--payroll taxes are withholdings for social security and medicare (and other various taxes in some localities). You pay these on the first dollar you make, but you don't pay them beyond wages you make over $88k. They are also only paid on wages, not dividend, interest or capital gains. They are by definition a regressive tax.
Income taxes are graduated. You don't pay them on the first dollar you make, and depending on how much (or little) money you make you not pay them at all.
So when you tell that PFC in Iraq whose wife and two children live on food stamps, who pays payroll taxes, as well as federal and state consumption taxes that he doesn't deserve a child tax credit, you PROVE my point.
Jaxs170, as far as Dan Rather calling Florida for Gore, maybe that has to do with the fact that Gore won the popular vote in Florida. As far as CNN reporting doom and gloom, maybe that's because there isn't anything good to report. The Pentagon has a press department, if there was anything good for them to give to the media they would. Are you telling me there's plenty of good news, that the Pentagon's PR department is trying to get it out to the media, but their liberal bias prevents them from reporting it? I don't believe that for a second.
The conservative's problem is that the so called "liberal" media gave the President a free ride before the war. Now that the war (or peace) is going badly, they're asking the tough questions and now are being called on their so called "liberal" bias as a way discrediting them.
Doubledown, their are a lot more than a few conservative newspapers out there. My hometown is one of the largest media markets in the country and its only newspaper is a conservative one. I don't complain about it, I have the Internet, national papers and cable TV as alternatives.
As far as Michael Moore being the darling of the liberal media, that's your own personal bias. If Michael Moore is Superman, I've seen his Lex Luthor, Ann Coulter get more coverage in the so called liberal media.
As far as using John McCain as an example of an unconservative Republican, that's ridiculous. Based on his voting record, John McCain is one of the most conservative Republicans in Congress.
One more thing,
"I thought the majority of people in the service were more conservative. Why is Kimphil in the military, or thinking about going in". Hmm, let's mull that one over. The majority of people in the military are white, so why would someone Asian, Latino, or African American want to go in? The majority of people in the service are men, so why would women want to go in? Most of the people in the service are Christian, so why would someone Jewish or Muslim want to go in? The real question should be "why do you ask something so stupid?"