Obama won Texas if super-delegates counted

Comments

If I were in charge of the Republicans, I would run the You Tube videos of Peter Paul the Sunday before the November election day should Hillary receive the nomination. If I was going to place a bet- I'd place it on Al Gore getting the nomination at the convention. But I'm pulling for Hillary. ;)
I'm uneasy about this, Jack, I'm glad he won, but because it seemed to go to Hilary on the night she's survived to keep fighting, I am concerned the Dems are gonna tear themselves to shreds before the fight even starts. Hillary will stop at nothing and could end up losing the nomination but having put enough negativity out there to seriously damage obama.
That would be a good thing!
A good thing for John McCain perhaps, but I tend to side with the rest of humanity. ;)
I don't want to wake up and discover that we [America in the collective sense] has elected a Fidel Castro clone, meaning Obama, President.
When you put it like that, you're right. You don't want to end up with a fairer education system and a healthcare system that actually functions.
Dream on...
Probably more of a nightmare if the Republicans get any longer in office...
Whatever the case, H. R. C.’s stroppiness will harm the Democrats severely.

I'm old enough to know that politics cannot make anything fair or function more efficiently. Bureaucratic management drives up costs taking away resources away from the actual services and the money is taken either in taxes or an extra cost of insurance premium. I do not think that any tangible property or service which is provided by another at their expense is a "right" that another person can rightfully claim. That would make the first party a slave of the second who is receiving it without just compensation to the first party. There is no free lunch.

I'm young enough to know that it can - the possibility is there, it's only prevented by too many self interested politicians.

I am in Britain, I am said tax paying first party. We pay high taxes, but then anyone in the country who has an accident or illness knows that there is healthcare available to them. I don't like that the taxes are so high, but I'd rather that than live in a country without the health and social support system we have. It's not their right to have some of my money, you're correct, but I find it basic human decency to see that the worst off in society are looked after. It's social responsibility. Why should someone starve while the rest of us feast, etc? People don't choose to be born into cyclical poverty, through health and education systems we can give these people some chance of working there way out of it, which only benefits society as a whole, and from a capitalist point of view - the economy as a whole.
[this is good]

Pete:

Look up what a Ponzi scam is because this what the US Government is perpetrating on the American people. Every program: Social Security, Medicare, and a nationalized health care system if it comes to this is what I am facing and what my children will have to shoulder in taxes for their entire life. Our government has no responsibility for its promises or future consequences. The demographics in my country are such that as the population ages there are not enough working age people to replace my generation and shoulder the tax burden to pay benefits for people born between 1945 and 1965. This is a downward spiral, which there is no viable solution other then either a completely private and voluntary system or a public one where fewer taxpayers will have to pay for ever escalating costs.

Zak, thanks I understand a Ponzi scam, and I understand your tax concerns,however, I can't believe that a society that has both the extreme wealth of Buffet and Gates and the extreme poverty of people unable to feed and provide healthcare for their children can't be organised better to help break the poverty of the ones at the bottom.

Take your top rate tax band - 35% why not increase that to 36.5%? That is paid only on income over $350,000, that would mean an increased revenue of $9,750 from every person earning one million. For every million earned over that initial million it would be an increased revenue of $15,000. So while a small proportion of the population earns these figures, the total sum raised would be a very good start into providing basic level health care for those who can't afford it. The extra 1.5% would be peanuts to someone earning those sums yet has the potential to help hugely.

The more people that can be freed from the poverty trap the more people contribute to the economy. Think about it, the more people earn enough to live the more money they're putting back into the economy, the more jobs become available. The whole economy grows as a result. There can be conditions attached - as in Wisconsin, for example - to ensure that the system can't be taken advantage of by free loaders.

It's not perfect that some people have to pay more, but it seems to me that in the modern world it's the only economic system that can cope with our social issues without causing extremes of poverty. It's a long term game plan - look at FDR's new deal - the idea is to stimulate the economy to become more fruitful for all.

Because there are unintended consequences of every policy, people don't live static lives. They have goals and dreams they need to be motivated such that they won't fear that some politician will escalate the tax rates and take away what they have worked so hard to achieve. Capital flight is the greatest enemy of every society that sacrifices the individual for the benefit of the state. Sure it's in the name of the poor but in reality it goes to the state, its bureaucracy and leaders who build monuments to their glory.

Zak - I agree that people have goals and dreams, but are those at the bottom not equally entitled to have goals, hopes and dreams as those in the middle and at the top for whom achieving is a credible possibility? A tax system like the one I mentioned would only have the very rich effected, and by the time you're earning $350k plus then you can afford the extra percent.

However, what you say about bureaucracy is true - were we talking British Politics I'm actually in favour of tax cuts (I'm a conservative) but that is because I know the British system so see how much is wasted and could be saved. I don't know the USA system so can't suggest cutting waste to provide money for healthcare as y'all could be very efficient for all I know!

What you say about leaders is true too - I believe in the old saying that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I'm a paradox in that some days the knowledge that this prevents real change makes me think we should give up trying, because politicians will always be that way, but then other days I think that it's better to try and fail than to give up.

This is a slippery slope, who defines the “rich”? 1% today may become and additional 15% later. Why would the government do a better job distributing goods and services then people independently living their life? The economy isn’t a fixed pie, a zero sum game, it is dynamic a result of human action. Public policy should not create a closed system where only the politically astute can become successful. I started out with little resources of my own and what I have or will achieve is due to my skills and risk taking. There must be economic freedom to allow people to rise to the level of their talent and effort.

At no point do I suggest that their would not be economic freedom, nor a closed system. I merely suggest that something should be done about the poor so that everyone has the chance to use their skills and talents to better themselves. Why should you have that opportunity and not others? People who start with out money for basic education and healthcare are by and large trapped and unable to break the poverty cycle.

Neither do I suggest the government would do a better job distributing goods and services, that's communism and it doesn't work. However as independent people have proved quite adept at making themselves rich and tacitly ignoring the fact that others have nothing, struggle to have money for food, live with treatable illnesses because they can't afford the most basic healthcare, the Government stepping in to ensure they're provided for seems to me the only way.

The problem with the Capitalist system is that just because it's far better than communism people seem to have decided it's perfect, companies and people set out to maximised their own profits and to hell with the rest. There is also a case to be made that society owes it to the very poor because often they ended up in that trap because they were underpaid by people making a whole lot of money from their work.

Doesn't your humanity suggest something should be done to help them? Or should the poor be left to their basic existence without hope of improvement or help?

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Jack Yan

About Me

Jack Yan
New Zealand
‘I think they’re wonderful. They have so much courage! Here they are, hurling through space on a molten rock at 67,000 miles an hour, and the only thing that keeps them in their shoes is their misplaced faith in gravity.’—John Lithgow as Prof Dick Solomon, in Third Rock from the Sun
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