Politcs @ MindSay

When you redistribute wealth by raising taxes on the wealthy you accomplish two things, one of which works simply because you have raised taxes:

(a) More money in the pockets of the public means more consumption, which leads to more surplus production realized as profit, this leads to more production of surplus value, more jobs, more income, more consumption, and so on.

Allow income to be bottled up at the top and you retard economic growth. What capitalists perceive is good for them personally is actual bad for the capitalist economy. Self-interest behavior at the firm level leads to weak economic development at the system level. This is why capitalism needs state intervention.

(b) More taxes mean smaller budget deficits. Smaller budget deficits mean lower interest rates. Lower interest rates mean more borrowing and investing. More borrowing and investing means expanded economic activity and more jobs. This dovetails with (a) to grow the economy.

Every time this strategy is used it works. Every time taxes are cut for the wealthy and on capital the economy slows or contracts. This is why as a general empirical reality Democrats preside over better economic times than Republicans.

Republicans are good for a narrow range of capitalist interests - energy, for example - but Democrats are good for the overall capitalist system.

America does much better under Democrats than Republicans. It's a material fact. All you have to do is examine economic patterns over the past 50 years.

What I would do is raise top marginal rates to over 90 percent, raise corporate taxes and capitalist gains taxes, and implace an exit tax on corporations leaving the country. I would then reduce taxes on 90 percent of the population, eliminating taxes on everybody earned 60 thousand dollars or less and implace a negative tax on everybody earning 300 percent of poverty. I would start public infrastructure projects, especially environmental clean up, sufficient to soak up all surplus workers.

The economy would boom.

A final note to readers: Before you post, be sure to read through the post and consider your thoughts before leaving a comment. I will erase any irrelevant comments mercilessly. If I don't reply to a comment, but leave it posted, it's probably for a reason.

"Sectarian violence is now the gravest threat to our strategic objectives in Iraq, and to be honest, Iraq is a more complex strategic problem entering 2007 than it was this time last year," he said. However, he noted, he's seen cause to believe the struggle is winnable.

 

READ ON

 http://terrorism-online.blogspot.com/2007/02/iraq-situation-winnable-official-says.html

Brother, Sister

They'll consume and condense, they'll control to convince,

they'll console you content, and tell you it all makes sense.

But programmed years and ipod ears

can only muffle the working class cry.

And the dirt on our knees makes an uneasy peace,

Do you believe the revolution is nigh.

-Original



EAC

While I sure that the abortion debate will start again because of the supreme court hearing a case today. I'm, sadly, not going to comment on that subject. Instead, lets talk about sex baby... lets talk about you and me.

Actually, let me start this off right... "FUCK YOU! ROCKSTAR!"

There I said it. The company that has made one of my favorite franchises, Grand Theft Auto. The same company that I have admired for bucking the trends and changing the face of gaming. I have a lot of respect, Rockstar, but I'm disappointed... very disappointed.

Everyone knows about the "Hot Coffee" mod. In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas there is hidden code that allows for you to view the main character, CJ, and one of his girlfriends in some varing sexual positions. This mod caused quie a controvsery. GTA:SA was pulled from the shelves due to receiving an AO (Adults Only rating). Sony has said many times that they will not license AO games. Rockstar then created the "Special Edition" game you currently see on store shelves. All the naughty bits taken out. Of course, the damage was already done because major political players had taken notice. Many states have passed or are trying to pass laws that make it a crime to sell mature rated video games to minors. California is one such state.

Of course, this isn't Rockstars fault completely. In order to view these risque scenes, you needed to install a patch on your computer or buy a cheat device for your console. Right out of the box, you could not view these scenes. You had to work at it.

Now that we are all up to speed, in two weeks Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Joseph Lieberman will present a federal bill that deals with the regulation of video games. The main part will make it a crime to sell Mature, Adults Only and Rating Pending titles to someone under 17. Sort of like selling cigerettes to a 16 year old. For the record, I have no issues with this.

Although, here are the other highlights of the bill (This comes from the IGN article):

- an annual analysis of the ESRB rating system to determine its effectiveness,

- authority for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate misleading ratings (this provision is in response to the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas "Hot Coffee" situation)

There isn't enough information for me to go on here, but I'm a little skeptical of a federal analysis of the ESRB rating system. What happens if it isn't deemed effective? How is the analysis run? Who are they picking to decide those things?

The ESRB's goal is provide a rating system about the content in a game. This is help inform people on what they can expect to find in a game. Weather it be realistic violence or fantasy violence. Strong sexual themes or adult language. They are not out to change the game content, but to rate it. I don't believe I can say the same for the politicians.

Of course, the points highlighted from the bill could work out fine as well. If it passes, the analysis could very well show that the ESRB is doing one heck of a job and everything will be hunky-dory. Maybe I'm worried for nothing. The one thing I know though, is that we wouldn't have seen this bill and you wouldn't have had to read this long post if Rockstar would have just deleted the code. I know you can't access the information with cheating, but Capital Hill doesn't care about that. Rockstar knew the code existed. They knew it could be accessed by outside means. They just didn't have the foresight to see this mess. The ESRB has kept them safe for so long while others wanted their games banned. It seems that Rockstar has taken a bite of the ESRB hand.

Been reading this cartoon since it started last month and I really like it.
Some of you already know about it because I emailed the link but for those that havent go check it out

http://www.webcomicsnation.com/neillisst