1. Your point about Greece doing what the EU has wanted. Yes, the leadership attempted to do it, but the Greek people rejected this. They are not willing to live by EU's rules although they will willing take its money.
In that case they need to pay thier own way.
You're extrapolating.............in reality, the Greeks are rejecting the austerity because there is no improvement in the economy after 4 years of austerity. In fact, the economy is getting worse. Fifty % of people under 30 are unemployed. Under those circumstances, you would rebel too.
I am not saying the Greeks are saints.............they have been cheating on paying their taxes. Then again, lots of Americans do as well; to whit, a lot of Romney's money is stashed overseas so he doesn't have to pay taxes.
2. Your point that blue states prop up red states. This is a real stretch for me. I will agree that more Federal money from blue states goes into government programs--some of which benefit red states to a degree they couldn't fund themselves. Whether this "props" them up is the stretch. These states are self sufficient to the extent they still could exist economically/politically without these federal programs because they tax themselves and the people there accept the taxation policy as legal.
If they could survive on their own without federal help, why do they keep asking for it?
This is unlike Greece, which culturally, cannot tax itself, so it is going to cease to exist in a financial sense without going thru a currency devaluation. Which is going to lead to cobbling together a primitive system of bartering and black marketeering. One cannot validly compare the the US Federation forged together after 250 years of bickering and fighting both each other and our enemies with the nascent European Union which has no common history as an entity.
Nonsense. They can tax themselves culturally or otherwise.......in fact, they were surviving in this world 2000 years before the US was twinkle in ole George Washington's eyes. Do they have their share of tax evaders........yes, they do.......and so do we..........see Romney up above.
3. Your point about Red states using (their own) tax dollars to attract businesses: They're not using blue states money to do this so it's irrelevant to this discussion.
How do you know its not blue money? Besides, its money that could be spent to making the lives of their citizens better. Instead, they go to corps. BTW many red states are some of the poorest, most corrupt, least educated and with the highest mortality rates in the country. Its not good no matter how you cut the cake.
4. OK--we will see about California. Surely it is going to have its credit downgraded without a budget deal.
You are right that it is rich enough to fund itself. It is however, both culturally and politically dysfunctional and won't--or at least up until now it hasn't funded itself enough.
Thanks to wingers......yes, it has become very dysfunctional.
In any event I don't accept your analogy that the US redistributes money in a way that "props up" states akin to the EU's actual propping up of Greece. This because we have an agreed upon regulated system that is culturally accepted here and the European Union does not. Not because one system is capitalist in nature and the other socialist in nature. The systems themselves rise or fall on its people's acceptance of them--not because of intrinsic dysfunction with either system.
Do you not believe because the facts don't justify it....actually they do........or because you don't want to believe it? |
