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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (365905)	5/24/2010 8:45:49 PM
From: DMaA	1 Recommendation Respond to of 793868

The dome on the Hagia Sophia has never been surpassed. Sure we've built bigger with super steels and other material. But they built this thing with stone. And it has survived centuries of earthquakes. We could not reproduce it today with the same materials. The knowledge is simply lost. ed. ah, I see it's collapsed 3 times. Still.

To: LindyBill who wrote (365905)	5/24/2010 9:04:07 PM
From: TimF	Respond to of 793868

In fact the whole Islamic civilization was really a product of the cultures they subjugated. Technically that's true, since technically even most of the Arabs where subjugated/forcibly brought in to the Islamic world. But the people subjected to Islam by the Arabs, and by others, like the Turks (and even the Arabs and Turks themselves) produced cultural and technical advancements, long after they where assimilated in to the Islamic world. The Islamic world was for a time more tolerant of differences, and new ideas than the Christian World. But the Christian World became more open, and the Islamic world became less. For awhile after that change they remained military powerful, but where not advancing civilization to any great degree. Then even in military power "the west" left them in the dust. And the fundamentalists among them oppose new ideas and even modest cultural openness. To the extent they become a more powerful force, the future just gets darker and darker for the countries under their influence. There is something your statement - "And they still are the height of 8th Century civilization. That's the problem."

To: LindyBill who wrote (365905)	5/26/2010 1:18:17 AM
From: TimF	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793868

Ibn Khaldun, Taxes and the Rise and Decline of Empire newworldeconomics.com The Laffer Curve, as Explained in 1377 Posted by David Foster on May 22nd, 2010 Ibn Khaldun: It should be known that at the beginning of the dynasty, taxation yields a large revenue from small assessments. At the end of the dynasty, taxation yields a small revenue from large assessments. The reason for this is that when the dynasty follows the ways (sunan) of the religion, it imposes only such taxes as are stipulated by the religious law, such as charity taxes, the land tax, and the poll tax. They mean small assessments, because, as everyone knows, the charity tax on property is low. The same applies to the charity tax on grain and cattle, and also to the poll tax, the land tax, and all other taxes required by the religious law. They have fixed limits that cannot be overstepped. When the dynasty follows the ways of group feeling and (political) superiority, it necessarily has at first a desert attitude, as has been mentioned before. The desert attitude requires kindness, reverence, humility, respect for the property of other people, and disinclination to appropriate it, except in rare instances. Therefore, the individual imposts and assessments, which together constitute the tax revenue, are low. When tax assessments and imposts upon the subjects are low, the latter have the energy and desire to do things. Cultural enterprises grow and increase, because the low taxes bring satisfaction. When cultural enterprises grow, the number of individual imposts and assessments mounts. In consequence, the tax revenue, which is the sum total of (the individual assessments), increases. Read the whole thing. Via Isegoria. chicagoboyz.net