The problem isn't so much that the UK is in the EU, so much as the EU is run by way too many captains trying to pilot in way too many different directions.
Perhaps: "Get the fuck out of the EU until it gets its shit together" would be better
Politics Discussion
- Thread starter trajing
- Start date
-
The FTB Forum is now read-only, and is here as an archive. To participate in our community discussions, please join our Discord! https://ftb.team/discord
Perhaps: "Get the fuck out of the EU until it gets its shit together" would be better
Being in civics this year, and in an "advanced class" (we just do a lot more discussions, not really advanced)
It is way to easy to end up disagreeing with someone or not supporting them, simply because they are on the other side of the political spectrum as you. Even if they had a good idea. (a.k.a, a different party).
Basically, its to easy to end up separating arguments into
Democrats v. Republicans
It should be issue v. issue.
Note* From the little bit of reading of the articles by various news stations I do, it seems to me that both of the parties are fucking retarded and need to be dissolved.
Amen.
I wonder what would happen if every major issue facing a country could be settled by referendum via internet.
Like every week as a citizen you get a list of things to say yay/nay on, and the only thing the government does it compile that list everything.
I imagine it would fall apart really quickly because people as a conglomerate are pretty dumb sometimes (see: any country in economic troubles simultaneously protesting austerity measures)
I had this rant about the non-choice of American political parties about two years ago:
One particularly sweltering hot day you are cruising along and you stop at a stand labeled "DRINKS". The heat has made you thirsty and so you figure "heck, why not?" and so you approach the stand, manned by a sharply dressed and immaculately well-manicured man with a gleaming white Colgate smile.
"How can I help you today?" the man asks, his grin almost blinding in the reflection of the sun's rays.
You pull together your composure and blink away the radiance of the man's toothy brightness. "Well, um, I'd like to have a drink. What are my choices?"
"Oh," the man's grin widens impossibly as he replies, "well, you could have almost anything anybody would want, of course! Just $1*!"
You wonder how this wonderfully well-mannered gentleman managed to vocalize an invisible asterisk, but shake off that thought because, well, you're thirsty and it's hot. You pull out your wallet and grab a $1 bill to have at the ready. "Well, okay then, how about some nice cold sparkling water then?"
The grinning man keeps on grinning, but waggles a finger at you. "Tut-tut-tut. That simply won't do. We have sodas here. All you could want. So what would you like?"
"Erm, well, maybe you have a 7-up or Sprite?"
"Oh no, that simply won't do. We have only colas here. All you'd ever want. Just $1*!"
"Erm..." it seems to have 'anything anybody would want' is getting increasingly narrow, but you're very thirsty now. "Well, then, could I get a Caffeine-free Diet Pepsi? I'm trying to cut back on caffeine and calories--"
"Nope!" the grinning man replies. "You can have Coke or Pepsi!"
Now you're irritated. "I thought you said I could have almost anything I could want. You aren't even offering much of a choice here."
The man just keeps grinning. "Of course I am, it's Coke or Pepsi! Two different companies entirely! All the choice you could ever need? So which one is it?"
You sigh. This is going to ruin your diet, but you're *really* thirsty. "Fine, I'll take a Pepsi then."
The man turns and procures a Big Gulp filled to the brim with Pepsi. "That'll be $4.11."
"What!?! That's outrageous! I thought you said it was $1!"
"Well yes, but it's $1*. Comes out to $4.11... well, now it's $5.13. Cash, credit, or debit?"
Screw being thirsty. You just want to punch this sucker in the face after the whole rigamorale. It is then that you notice the two gentlemen in SWAT uniforms flanking the booth and you decide being thirsty and far away from here are far more preferable. You turn around and walk away, swearing to yourself.
And the grinning man turns to one of his colleagues and shrugs. "What a weirdo, eh?"
And this is how I feel about politics in the U.S. today.
"How can I help you today?" the man asks, his grin almost blinding in the reflection of the sun's rays.
You pull together your composure and blink away the radiance of the man's toothy brightness. "Well, um, I'd like to have a drink. What are my choices?"
"Oh," the man's grin widens impossibly as he replies, "well, you could have almost anything anybody would want, of course! Just $1*!"
You wonder how this wonderfully well-mannered gentleman managed to vocalize an invisible asterisk, but shake off that thought because, well, you're thirsty and it's hot. You pull out your wallet and grab a $1 bill to have at the ready. "Well, okay then, how about some nice cold sparkling water then?"
The grinning man keeps on grinning, but waggles a finger at you. "Tut-tut-tut. That simply won't do. We have sodas here. All you could want. So what would you like?"
"Erm, well, maybe you have a 7-up or Sprite?"
"Oh no, that simply won't do. We have only colas here. All you'd ever want. Just $1*!"
"Erm..." it seems to have 'anything anybody would want' is getting increasingly narrow, but you're very thirsty now. "Well, then, could I get a Caffeine-free Diet Pepsi? I'm trying to cut back on caffeine and calories--"
"Nope!" the grinning man replies. "You can have Coke or Pepsi!"
Now you're irritated. "I thought you said I could have almost anything I could want. You aren't even offering much of a choice here."
The man just keeps grinning. "Of course I am, it's Coke or Pepsi! Two different companies entirely! All the choice you could ever need? So which one is it?"
You sigh. This is going to ruin your diet, but you're *really* thirsty. "Fine, I'll take a Pepsi then."
The man turns and procures a Big Gulp filled to the brim with Pepsi. "That'll be $4.11."
"What!?! That's outrageous! I thought you said it was $1!"
"Well yes, but it's $1*. Comes out to $4.11... well, now it's $5.13. Cash, credit, or debit?"
Screw being thirsty. You just want to punch this sucker in the face after the whole rigamorale. It is then that you notice the two gentlemen in SWAT uniforms flanking the booth and you decide being thirsty and far away from here are far more preferable. You turn around and walk away, swearing to yourself.
And the grinning man turns to one of his colleagues and shrugs. "What a weirdo, eh?"
And this is how I feel about politics in the U.S. today.
Good stuff, but I particularly like your writing voice. I'm not sure who it reminds me of.
Douglas Adams maybe? Dunno.
The EU is a good idea in theory, but terrible in practice.The problem isn't so much that the UK is in the EU, so much as the EU is run by way too many captains trying to pilot in way too many different directions.
Perhaps: "Get the fuck out of the EU until it gets its shit together" would be better
It's like teaching children to share. Everyone gets to use everyone else's toys. Ok fine.
Then it's like trying to teach them to share their money...
Ok England you put your money in *hand in 6 billion euros*
Ok France, now you *puts in 6 billion euros*
Now you Germany *10 billion euros*
Now you Greece "I have no money"... that's ok
Now you Italy *8 billion euros*
Ok so we have 30 billion euros here guys.
So here's 6 billion Euros England
Here's 6 billion Euros France
Here's 6 billion Euros German
Here's 6 billion Euros Italy
Here's 6 Billion Euros Greece... "But we need more, as we are struggling"... Ok, Germany, you have the most stable economy, can you lend Greece 1 billion Euros? Thanks.
What's that greece? You still need more. NOT A PROBLEM! Everyone else, chip in a billion, we always help a friend out, right!
Things would probably get done and we might have a better chance of moving away from what runs the risk of becoming a second Gilded Age. We've done the deregulation tango before: it didn't work in the early 20th, it won't work now.
I, for one, would love to see a viable socialist party in the States, or at least a party that has the balls to tax the rich effectively. I'm worried that what we have now will be too little, too late and that the...unsavoury people at the helm are going to screw us harder than they did in the early 2000s.
Except that nobody's really implemented a better way to manage this stuff except bureaucracy, and bureaucracies are inevitably self-serving and, once in full swing, only do the bare minimum to remain relevant enough to get their funding increased.
Source: I spent ten years sucking up tens of millions of dollars in state and federal grant funding funneled through my client agencies because I knew the right buzzwords and how to appropriately handle the bureaucrats managing those funds, and if you know that kind of eldritch magic, price no longer becomes a component of what you're selling. Once you do something like that and see it work, you never can have faith in "the system" again, because you look at every interaction through the lens of how you know it goes down behind the curtain.
Source: I spent ten years sucking up tens of millions of dollars in state and federal grant funding funneled through my client agencies because I knew the right buzzwords and how to appropriately handle the bureaucrats managing those funds, and if you know that kind of eldritch magic, price no longer becomes a component of what you're selling. Once you do something like that and see it work, you never can have faith in "the system" again, because you look at every interaction through the lens of how you know it goes down behind the curtain.
No.
I agree with you on taxing the rich part. No. No. I don't want to see a socialist party in the U.S.(Make that a large one [There already is one])
I have had an ongoing debate with one of my peers for the whole school year now. We have gotten no where. I agree that socialism is good (once again ON PAPER). But ugh, the idea of a socialist government makes me sick. We are humans, we are not perfect.
Socialism can only work in a utopia. Humans cannot exist in a utopia. It is not how we work.
"I'm worried that what we have now will be too little, too late and that the...unsavory people at the helm are going to screw us harder than they did in the early 2000s."
If even 50% of what I have read of the presidents since the turn of the millennia is true. They need to be shot. I don't care if thats inhumane. The legacy of America's government for the past 15 years has been,"Blunder, lets go fuck up some place. Oh, not enough? Fuck this, lets go screw everything up."
My gifted education teacher said this (part of a discussion),"People shouldn't vote for Hillary simply because she is a women, people should vote for her if they feel she is competent". <-- Just something interesting that people tend to overlook.
All of the current presidential candidates are petrifying. Its disgusting. They suck. We know it, at least most people do. But do we have another choice? No. (Sure we do! The other candidates not from the 2 main parties wont even make it on the ballot though.)
There is a reason voter turnout is so low. (Besides so many people being lazy buts)
I'm not disagreeing with anything you're saying, but I want to clarify that you spelled out why high taxes are good for you, not why they're good for the community.
I would heavily disagree with you there. Governments need less money, if anything. They less they have, the less they waste.
Same.Note: discussing politics is heavily distracting me from doing my homework
I have a five page dystopian short story due on Friday. I've managed to waste a large amount of time looking through the forum. (Not to mention a ton of other stuff) (teachers seem to think that time = knowledge/being good at something) (it kinda does, if you look at it sideways)
This argument applies to "everyone gets $1,000 from the government in their mailbox every day" as well, which would be bad for the community over any reasonable period of time. So there must be more to it than that.
Have a spanish test over twenty words we just got monday tomorrow and spanish homework I do not understand (although with me both are the norm). Here taking online politic test and liking posts. Oh, and I really need to work on a six page research paper due in a few weeks just to get it out of the way, did I mention my attention span already?
Last edited:
In theory, yes.
But it would be impossible for that to work out well. Humans are humans. Eventually, someone, or some group, will screw everything up. Sooner rather than later.
Yes, but atleast in the (sad) case of America, there are only two groups and those groups could easily screw up something .Then there would be no other group with enough power to stop them, assuming nothing changes during that time. This may work in places with more variance of political groups, but I really do not think it would work with what would not even be a 50/50 chance of not screwing it up in America's case. And believe me, I would like the world to work a bit more like what you are talking about myself, although for different reasons possibly.
You underestimate the U.S.A.
Eh, I just couldn't live in a socialist region. Socialism honestly scares me. I am, by nature, a manipulative, clever, competitive, mildly misanthropic person.
I am me. I am unique. What I have is mine. What I make is mine. I always have the urge do better. There is never a "perfect". It isn't over till I say it's over (Give up). Socialism takes that away and makes me conform to society's standards.
Socialism goes hand in hand with a totalitarian government.
Call me selfish, but I don't want anyone to take what I have. That is what socialism does. I make no comment on the U.S, as the government is steadily moving toward a socialist government. I find socialist programs such as welfare and obamacare dumb. To a certain extent. Welfare is fantastic for people who have injured themselves and are unable to work. But I don't understand why people get welfare for being poor. Let the person work to make himself better. The government should not just give them that money. Use that money to pay for a college education, use it for anything other than what it is stereotypically being used for. (tried to not sound like an elitist @$$) (this does not even co0me near to discussing all the scenarios where someone might need welfare to support themselves. Just keep that in mind)
A socialist democracy is like using a pebble to hold a boulder. The pebble will just be rolled over and the boulder will continue rolling down the hill, ever faster.
Quoted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism
"Socialism is a social and economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and co-operative management of the economy"
That is what I don't like. Mine means mine. Not some random person. I want to be able to make decisions for myself.
Such is the same way with the annoyance that modern feminism is. I am biased. That goes without saying. I just disagree with the idea of socialism. I don't think it's bad. Just not the right thing for me.
(I really tried not to sound like an entitled elitist)