And I have suffered from so-called Christianity. Why do you think we're on this site? Because we like puppy dogs and ice cream cones?
Ok wait. . . if thats not why you're here, then what?
Posts by Lore
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101Atheist Fascism
by Band on the Run init is so draining for me to constantly read threads by atheists that assert that those of who are uncertain or have faith have irrational minds.
god can not be proven or unproven.
the harping is tedious.
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Lore
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61
How Many on JWNet are still JWs?
by RayPublisher ini've been wondering about this for some time.
if there are 60,000+ registered users on here, what percentage are actual non-dfed or non-daed witnesses?
if it was 1/3, that would be over 20,000 active/inactive witnesses that post and read these pages- and that's huge.
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Lore
I'm in, trying to fade gradually. Still in good standing and recently everyone is wondering why I'm not a MS yet.
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13
It must be Armageddon...
by r51785 indid anyone else besides my never-been-a-dub wife notice that today's events fullfilled the prophecy made on page 208 of the book "from paradise lost to paradise regained?
"
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Lore
Nice necro Pedal
It's cool to see what people were thinking just a few years ago.
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26
Watchtower on women shopping for shoes
by Marvin Shilmer inwatchtower on women shopping for shoes.
most folks are unaware watchtower has published an essay on women shopping for shoes.
today my blog exposes this wretched piece of publishing!
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Lore
Y'all seem to be overreacting a bit.
Women being over-concerned with their shoes has been, and still is, a pretty common stereotype which is hardly unique to witnesses.
Not to mention the fact that it's not entirely fictional.
In our congregation there is a sister with a little gold shoe hanging from her mirror in her car, a shoe license plate and, you guessed it, she loves shopping for shoes and isn't embarrassed about it.
I'm not even aware of any gay men who are as obsessed with shoes. It's kind of unique to the female gender.
You may not like this fact, and it may sound sexist to you, but such is the nature of reality. If you are gonna complain about sexism how about you stick with stuff that's ACTUALLY not true, like smaller brains.
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98
Is it ethical to make rich pay more taxes?
by Lore ini'm having trouble getting behind the idea of making rich people pay more taxes just because they have more.. aside from the obvious: "i'm not rich so lets tax them instead of me.
" the three reasons i hear most often are:.
1: they may have "earned" their wealth but they don't deserve it!.
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Lore
All three of these reasons show lack of basic understanding of wealth generation or even government for that matter. Do not put an ounce of validity to any of those statements since they lead no where.
The reasons may not be valid, but they sure are popular.
Case in point: "The assumption is that rich people are rich because they work hard and take risks. That's bs. I know a lot of rich people that are incompetent assholes that are rich due to luck of being born into a rich family." - scotoma ~ page 3
He knows a lot of them, and they're incompetant assholes who just happen to be rich. So it MUST be ok to steal their money.
I'm using the word 'steal' for dramatic effect, but if you think about it, it's just government enforced theft.
You have money, I want it, so I'll take it from you.
is the same as:
You have money, I want it, so I'll convince my congressman to take it from you.
A member of society is entitled YES ENTITLED -
both remedial and preventive medical care including mental health care.
as much education as they can competently handle.
safe and adequate nutrition. (beans,cabbage, biscuits and rice)
transportation to and from work
safe and healthy housing.They're entitled to this? Really? Says who?
This might be a nice bubbly idea in a childrens show utopia where everyone is willing to work for free to do their part. But in reality it is not only impractical but it doesn't even logically follow. What did these members of society do that entitled them to all these free services?
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98
Is it ethical to make rich pay more taxes?
by Lore ini'm having trouble getting behind the idea of making rich people pay more taxes just because they have more.. aside from the obvious: "i'm not rich so lets tax them instead of me.
" the three reasons i hear most often are:.
1: they may have "earned" their wealth but they don't deserve it!.
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Lore
Wow, more stunning dishonesty from BTS. Folks, Adam Smith advocated progressive taxation. It's just a fact.
In the interest of doing your work for you:
"The rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion"
From - The Wealth of Nations
Why you can't provide evidence yourself while calling others liars and claiming they don't do their research is beyond me.
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98
Is it ethical to make rich pay more taxes?
by Lore ini'm having trouble getting behind the idea of making rich people pay more taxes just because they have more.. aside from the obvious: "i'm not rich so lets tax them instead of me.
" the three reasons i hear most often are:.
1: they may have "earned" their wealth but they don't deserve it!.
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Lore
Just answer the question Lore. Why do you think Adam Smith disagreed with you?
No. I don't have to respond to your laziness when I've already asserted you are using a logical fallacy.
You don't get to just come in here, not read anything, claim that I haven't thought it through in a few sentences and then expect me to write you a freaking novel on the subject while you're not actually bringing anything to the discussion yourself.
What specific arguments of his do you find most compelling?
What policies that he advocated would you like to implement?
What is the ethical justification for these?
Either be specific or bug off.
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98
Is it ethical to make rich pay more taxes?
by Lore ini'm having trouble getting behind the idea of making rich people pay more taxes just because they have more.. aside from the obvious: "i'm not rich so lets tax them instead of me.
" the three reasons i hear most often are:.
1: they may have "earned" their wealth but they don't deserve it!.
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Lore
I'm curious Lore, why do you think Adam Smith disagreed with you? Did he just not have a well developed sense of "fairness"?
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98
Is it ethical to make rich pay more taxes?
by Lore ini'm having trouble getting behind the idea of making rich people pay more taxes just because they have more.. aside from the obvious: "i'm not rich so lets tax them instead of me.
" the three reasons i hear most often are:.
1: they may have "earned" their wealth but they don't deserve it!.
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Lore
Sir82: OK I may have not been clear. If the taxes are based on a percentage rather than a set dollar amount, then this issue doesn't happen.
Rich guy buys a 2 million dollar house and pays 5% tax.
Poor guy buys a 60 thousand dollar house and pays 5% tax.They are paying the same percentage, which seems fair to me. But the idea with the latest tax reforms is to charge them a higher tax RATE. A higher tax RATE means a higher percentage of their total earnings. So while a normal guy might pay 25% of his profit per year as taxes. A rich guy might have to pay 50% or even 91% like in 1946. . . that's just absurd!
Sixofnine: Very well thought-out response. I see you've done your research and your opinion CLEARLY isn't being influenced by a selfish desire to pay less taxes. . .
Nomad: I think that's the crux of it. Everyone realizes it's not really FAIR to take money from successful people just because they're successful. But they'll vote to charge them more anyway, cause it's either that or we have to pay more ourselves.
Everyone seems to talk about rich people with disdain and acts like we are somehow ENTITLED to take their money. . . as if, by virtue of being poor we deserve to take from wealthy people without any other justification.
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98
Is it ethical to make rich pay more taxes?
by Lore ini'm having trouble getting behind the idea of making rich people pay more taxes just because they have more.. aside from the obvious: "i'm not rich so lets tax them instead of me.
" the three reasons i hear most often are:.
1: they may have "earned" their wealth but they don't deserve it!.
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Lore
I'm having trouble getting behind the idea of making rich people pay more taxes just because they HAVE more.
Aside from the obvious: "I'm not rich so lets tax them instead of me." The three reasons I hear most often are:
1: They may have "earned" their wealth but they don't deserve it!
2: The taxes fund government programs which benefit rich people more than poor people like roads and military.
3: If we don't tax them more then they'll get too powerful.
Here's why I don't like those reasons:
1:They don't deserve the money they earned.
This is not so much a reason TO tax them so much as it is an excuse why it's ok.
How to you objectively tell whether someone 'deserves' what they own? Who deserves their money more:
The president of a huge company who went to business school for several years, worked his way to the top, hired the best and the brightest and employs thousands of people
Or the the pizza delivery boy working for $6 and hour plus rare tips who always holds the pizza crooked so the cheese spills to one side and never delivers in 30 mins or less?
You might argue that the wealthy are just luckier than average people and so because it all comes down to dumb luck we should feel free to charge more successful people.
Well that's stupid. Luck might have something to do with it. And sometimes it might have a LOT to do with it. The second daughter of a family in china is probably gonna end up not being as wealthy as the only son of a U.S congressman.But even if we grant that getting your wealth through luck makes you less entitled to it, that doesn't mean that EVERY wealthy person is just lucky.
In addition, luck isn't everything. 1 in 3 Lottery winners go broke again within 5 years. . . Just because they suck at handling money.
Being wealthy requires some kind of skill, why don't they deserve what that skill earns them?
2: The taxes fund government programs which benefit rich people more than poor people like roads and military.
Lets take the military defense as an example. An illustration I've heard is that if you are poor it costs less to insure your stuff than if you're wealthy. So since the military protects MORE of your stuff than mine, then you should pay more for the military.
This is absurd.
First of all the military is not an insurance company. If a terrorist gets by the military and blows up Bill Gates house, the military isn't going to pay to fix it, maybe his insurance company will (which he pays more for by the way) but the military doesn't protect him more than it protects Pizza Guy Bob in New York. So if Gates gets the same protection as Bob from the military, then why should he pay more for it?
If I have a $3,000 care and it's insured for $2,000. And my neighbor has a $50,000 car and it's insured for $2,000. Then it doesn't matter WHAT his car is worth or that he has more to protect, he still shouldn't have to pay more for insurance.
Rich people get the SAME military protections as poor people. So rich people shouldn't have to pay more for it, even if they have more to protect.
3: If we don't tax them more then they'll get too powerful.
That might be true. But without the possibility of world domination, what do I have to strive for? I may as well give up now. Go have 10 kids, quit my job and live off the pity of others for the rest of my life. . .
Seriously though, what does it mean to be 'too powerful' ? Even if youre a super billionaire it's still illegal to build a nuclear missile or raise an army of mutant clones. If it just means having the financial clout to get stuff done the way you want then I posit that we NEED super rich people for this stuff. Google is 'to powerful' in a lot of ways. But without them who would pay for an armada of google cars to take street view pictures of everything? Or who would pay for robot car research? We need really rich people to get stuff done that a lot of little average people couldn't do on their own. All these reasons for taxing rich people much more than average people seem to fall pretty flat. Am I missing a major factor? Or do we all just selfishly agree to steel money from people who earned it because we don't wanna pay anything or cut spending ourselves?
