j_b

put them to work for sustenance and charge the state a fortune for it KACHING! if 16 yo can work a full time job and "go to school" these rascals should be able to do it FREEDUMB!

in the meantime, JayB still doesn't want to discuss how the $100 billion/yr in tax evasion/avoidance in the US alone, the beyond bloated war budget, the abysmal marginal tax rate, the huge inequalities in wealth and wages, etc debunk his assertion there is no money to pay for services and public employees.

there, you are talking!

Right, that ~50 years to compare. The first 20 years resulted much from 1929. Then, the economy hit peak oil in the US in the 70's, which took away our ability to control oil prices and made the empire even more necessary according to some people's logic.

Fighting tax evasion Just imagine, even the OECD talks about the cost of tax evasion and how it undermines our ability to finance projects, yet JayB never heard of it.

another weak attempt at derailing the discussion

well, in your case there is strong evidence for one of them

you should care because we are dealing with similar issues.

No. I have already explained why many don't make ends meet. The only hand waving here is yours.

I'd consider it if you actually made an argument (one that justified a reply).

the 19th century through the 29 crash was the age of unregulated capitalism like today. Financial regulations were put in place to prevent boom-bust cycles of speculation, which was successful until these same regulations were dismantled by the new age robber barons. yes, you are missing the dotcom bubble crash in 2001.

that's because you reduce "efficiency" to paying non-living wages, which is not efficient at all since paying employees a fair wage is sine qua non to the quality and delivery of services.

which implies you haven't taken a look yet despite the role of tax havens being prominently discussed by at least half the political spectrum in the US and the entire political spectrum abroad. One wonders how you get at your conclusions ... cherry picking anyone?

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It is also ignoring that Europe is undergoing a long process of unification and until recently it was strictly a trade partnership. If Europe was a political entity they would absorb the Greek debt that amounts to a couple % of Europe's GDP, adjust and move on.

It's been a mainstay of reality way before the invention of statehood or do you really believe the private sector never goes into default?

well, perhaps you should think of this while you exchange back slaps with those that try to turn every topic into a mud fight. You holier than thou attitude just doesn't jive with your finding fault only with the intervention style of liberals. Do yourself a favor and drop the selective outrage.

We'll just have to assume that JayB forgot about inequalities that are as large as during the age of robber barons, trillions in profit not being taxed, paltry marginal rate of taxation, federal spending on many other things than the "welfare state", etc when he claimed there wasn't enough money to pay for services and public employee compensation. Either that or it was his usual dodging of the inconvenient reality.

of course Jim, it's all about me and none about your tendency to take neoliberal talking points for granted. That said, i am far from perfect and likely say silly things quite poorly. I am just waiting for someone to specifically point them out because wholesale accusations about me won't do.

either you have a terrible memory or you are being disingenuous since we talked about this several times including a couple of weeks ago. But I'll say it once again and hopefully you'll remember next time you want to come up with the same talking points. Elisabeth Warren published a landmark study of middle class spending over the last 30 years and she found that consumer items indeed cost less (unsurprisingly the items that make up your cherry picked list) but people spend way more on a 2nd car for the other wage earner, day care, health care, housing, and taxes (payroll and sales + nickel and dime taxes), in other words most non elective spending went up. Thus the fable of the middle class overspending on elective items proved to be a myth. as the very minimum consequence, without a 2nd income kids don't go to college especially after your type is done with completely privatizing education. while the rest of the time you argue for laissez faire policy tending toward urban sprawl and the refusal to fund public transit appropriately. way to speak out of both corners of your mouth. Anyway, Warren found that people, on average, spend little more on big homes but much more on homes in good school districts as the quality of edu has decreased with the reforms and underfunding of the education system since the Reagan "revolution" First, Warren's work is peer reviewed by opposition to what the "scholars" at CATO put out or whatever think tank the Koch bros will think of. Second, do you need Warren's studies so that you can let us know what are your exact and precise criticism of her methodology? but none of the above addresses the salient points of my post: inequalities that are as large as during the age of robber barons, trillions in profit not being taxed, paltry marginal rate of taxation, federal spending on many other things than the "welfare state", etc ...

that must be why most of the decent humorists are liberal. Moron.

morons typically think that if you don't share their stupid sense of humor, you lack humor. Funny!

still no response on topic from Attila.

more off-topic drivel from Attila (and false too but why lose time on the resident moron)

what a pathetic clown. You spent the last 2 years chasing me around to verbally abuse me and rarely commenting on subject and this is what you come up with? You are the typical wingnut who accuses his opponents of what he does systematically. How can you even look at yourself in the mirror? Douchebag.