You’re using money that is already taxed. — NOS4A2
If you do not earn enough money to pay tax, you probably won’t get tax relief on your donation. — NOS4A2
The net flow of tax money is from the government to me (my schemes), not the other way round. — Isaac
The state is an alien Kafkaesque entity, remote and distanced from oneself.
(Almost like an implicit definition.)
What's up with that? — jorndoe
Who do you think the establishment is? It's just guys like me. Their desks are bigger, but their jobs aren't. They don't conspire, they buy boats. — Quentin · Cube (1997)
I'm not going to quote, it'd seem like fingerpointing. — jorndoe
They don't conspire, they buy boats — Quentin · Cube (1997)
Nice start of an explanation, though. Please go on. — just above
Is communism realistic/feasible? — jorndoe
I have noticed that both right-wing and left-wing radicals get along very well when it comes to restricting citizens' freedoms and to support dictators.
— Jacques
Really? Like whom? — Isaac
Ah, I see. Much the same way as you support racism then? — Isaac
Everyone's here taking friendly potshots at one another, soft jabs to the midsection — Outlander
Jacques accused me and pretty much my entire social group of supporting a ruthless war criminal responsible for the massacre at Bucha. Can you explain in what way that's a "friendly potshot"? — Isaac
Tu quoque? — jorndoe
one man - unscrupulous in nature - could occupy the sole position of government and all duty bound to it, and cause it to be used for what is socially deemed negative, controlling, or destructive. Now all goods and services are subject to this maligned pursuit. But if you have freedom of ability to produce or not produce what you want when you want, it now requires greater effort and coordination to ensure the average citizen is now subject to said pursuit. Make sense? That's the argument at least. — Outlander
Of course it is. — Outlander
Makes sense, but as I've been discussing above, there's more than one way to restrict freedom and government-type actions aren't even top of the list. — Isaac
This "freedom of ability to produce or not produce what you want when you want" is easily constrained by total monopoly over the means of production. Which is what you get in a capitalist state. — Isaac
Please produce this list for us, in your own words. — Outlander
the difference is one can get "caught" and social outrage justified whereas in state-controlled production one who criticizes is metaphorically "in bed with the enemy" and against the well being and future of the children ie. a traitor. — Outlander
if I'm eating at a large corporate chain you better believe I'll be living the rest of my life waking up when I please not knowing if it's 7 AM or PM and loving it. — Outlander
PeoplePeople, please keep the off-topic mudslinging elsewhere. — jorndoe
For some reason, it seems that some (Western) communists and socialists have become apologists for Russia. — jorndoe
broadly it is through the appropriation of the means of production in the hands of groups of individuals whose united objectives cause them to act as a monopoly. — Isaac
A communist system is, in essence, saying that it is stakeholders, not owners who should dictate how a resource is used. — Isaac
It's not hard to create social movements by manipulating media outputs, possibly even easier than government's trying to do it. — Isaac
They might pay out, but it is inevitably less than the profit they make. so they continue to harm people, and pay less than they make in compensation. — Isaac
I'm guessing some sort of sweeping changes would be needed, perhaps cultural/ethical, but that's just conjecture on my part. — jorndoe
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