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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: koan who wrote (760069)	12/29/2013 3:21:29 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575173

The reason you cannot name a country more free than ours is that it is impossible to have the type of freedom you want when 330 million people live together, without anarchy. Nonsense. The US was freer, even as recently as before Obama, and more so further in the past, without ever having anarchy. As for countries more free than the US - The US is tenth in Heritage's Index of Economic Freedom, 17th in the Frazer institute's study of economic freedom, 32nd in the Press Freedom Index put out by reporters without borders (down from 17th just over a decade ago, personally I think this is an under-ranking, but I probably wouldn't place the US first), forth in the freedom index at freeexistence.org (if you give all criteria equal weights), 4th in the east of doing business index put out by the World Bank, 19th in the trade report put out by the World Economic Forum (although that list includes some things that don't fall under freedom), and tied for 22nd in the Freedom of the Press report put out by Freedom House. And the myth that pure capitalism can replace social planning. The myth is that central planning can effectively substitute for the free market. Of course its not just economic freedom where the US needs to improve.

To: koan who wrote (760069)	12/30/2013 3:52:05 AM
From: average joe	Respond to of 1575173

And the myth that pure capitalism can replace social planning. Social planning by who, you? The last thing anyone needs is aging hippies with one foot in the grave to be in charge of bankrupting what is left of the economy with social planning and public spending! The U.S. has not had pure capitalism for over 100 years. It has been in a steady decline from a capitalist economy to a command economy where the government feels free to bail out badly managed businesses while punishing good ones. A quick fast crash would have been much better than the slow hard one that is coming. Watch what happens in France over the next two years and see if you want a repeat of the same thing. France’s Hollande Gets Court Approval for 75% Millionaire Tax By Rudy Ruitenberg Dec 29, 2013 8:54 AM CT 152 Comments Email Print French President Francois Hollande received approval from the country’s constitutional court to proceed with his plan to tax salaries above 1 million euros at 75 percent for this year and next. Under Hollande’s proposal, companies will have to pay a 50 percent duty on wages above 1 million euros ($1.4 million). In combination with other taxes and social charges, the rate will amount to 75 percent of salaries above the threshold, the court wrote in a decision published today. “The companies that pay out remuneration above 1 million euros will, as expected, be called upon for an effort of solidarity on remuneration paid in 2013 and 2014,” the Economy Ministry said in an e-mailed statement. Hollande, who once said he “didn’t like” the rich, announced the 75 percent tax in February 2012 as part of his presidential campaign to appeal to his Socialist base. It has become a symbol of his government’s record-high taxation rate. A first proposal to put the change into law was turned down by the constitutional court in December last year because the tax applied to individuals and not households. The country’s top administrative court said any rate above 66 percent would be rejected as confiscatory. Hollande revived the plan this year, making it apply to salaries and be paid by employers rather than individuals. The total amount is limited to 5 percent of a company’s revenue. The court examined the proposed tax after more than 60 members of parliament and more than 60 senators filed their opposition, it said. To contact the reporter on this story: Rudy Ruitenberg in Paris at rruitenberg@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net bloomberg.com