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Pastimes : Discussion Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: c.hinton who wrote (1121)	7/17/2008 10:01:10 AM
From: DMaA	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3816

The question is what is doing the bridling. Bridled by high taxes and excessive regulation? Bad thing. Bridled by moral good sense and long term self interest? Good thing. The former is the case today. Federal taxes take 1/3 of what is earned. Business taxes are the highest in the Western world. State and local take more ( more in places that are dying, less in places that are growing). On top of that are the costs of complying with ever escalating regulations, Fed, state, and local. On top of that are the terrifying unfunded government obligations. SSI, Medicare/aid for sure. But under the radar are the truly stupendous unfunded pensions at the state and local level. And now we learn that unions are underfunding THEIR pensions. Add all that up and it makes you really want to run out and start a business.

To: c.hinton who wrote (1121)	7/17/2008 1:36:32 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3816

As for mistaking socialism for unbridled capitalism,i dont get what you are driving at. Probably the idea that current issues of economic concern are "failures of the free market", when the fact is that there has been very extensive government intervention in the free markets, and that intervention is more the cause of many of the problems, than "the unbridled free market". The "unbridled free market" didn't cause our problems any more than "the oppressive rule of unicorns" did. Neither one actually happened in recent years.