Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Right Wing Extremist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DMaA who wrote (15720)	9/5/2001 10:56:59 AM
From: Bilow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 59480

Hi DMA; Gibbons has a fascinating chapter on the trend in the Roman Empire towards legal confusion. Basically, the legal system would get more and more complex until finally everybody agreed that it was a monstrosity and an emperor would sit down with advisers and simplify it. I really see no way that we can avoid this pattern, though it seems likely that the "emperor" part isn't necessary. Eventually, our legal system will get so complicated that the country will decide to simplify it and start over from scratch. I'm not sure if that would mean that the we'd have to start calling ourselves the "2nd Republic" or if we could grandfather in the old one, LOL. I don't think that the system now is at all near the breaking point yet. We do have way too many laws, what passes for trade agreements nowadays is a total travesty of common sense, but the system is getting by. The reason we can pull this off is that we have the highest productive surpluses that history has ever seen. Basically, we've got time on our hands, and so we spend it making laws. -- Carl P.S. I'll post some quotes from that Gibbons chapter as a reply to this post, his prose is so exquisite... Maybe it will inspire someone to use the automatic spell checker.

To: DMaA who wrote (15720)	9/5/2001 11:20:01 AM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 59480

I am ASHAMED of our tax laws. They are something out of the decaying Ottoman empire, not the greatest country on Earth. That our political system is incapable of doing anything except make them worse shakes my confidence in our government to the core. I agree with that. I agreed with you on it yesterday and I agree today. The issue that Tim and I were discussing was high income taxes, not indecipherable tax law. Different issue. It is evidence that there is a FUNDAMENTAL flaw in our system of government. I agree with that, too. No progress will be made in fixing this problem until we can achieve a consensus that there is a problem, that the problem is fundamental, that we are attacking an INJUSTICE. Now I see why you are so emphatic about labeling it an injustice. You think that's what it takes to get something done about it. Well, you may be right about that. As for the "FUNDAMENTAL flaw in our system of government," I think your point about labeling something injustice is part of that flaw. There's so much hyperbole, so much petty partisanship, so much sound-bite presentation of issues, so many superficial polls, so many shouting heads, such limited attention span and capacity for thoughtful consideration on the part of the voters, so much careless layering of law on top of law and so much incitement to causes of "injustice" that it's impossible to get leadership that can see clearly and talk straight. So, on one hand, I appreciate your wanting to get attention for what is clearly a serious symptom by shouting "injustice." On the other hand, your approach of choice would IMO contribute to the problem. Perhaps the ends justify the means. Or maybe it be better to address the real problem rather than mitigate one of the symptoms, however onerous. I'd rather attack the matter of the tax code in a more constructive way, perhaps on the basis of cost/benefit and productivity. Karen