10/11 Congress just passed a bill to hand out $14.5 billion to people
who *choose* to live in the path of hurricanes. ilyas, and other
motd libertarians or other social regressives, how do you feel
about being "forced at gunpoint" to pay for these handouts? -meyers
\_ What about the $120 billion for people who "choose" to live on
top of our oil? Where's the outrage?
\_ Consider it evening the scorecard for Kosovo. At least this
time we are fighting for the right side (against militant
Islam as opposed to for it).
\_ California has earthquakes, Washington state has volcano, other
states has tornados, etc. Heck, we should all move to a
state without any natural disasters.
\_ what, and create a state with 'man-made' disasters?
\_ NYC has terrorist attacks.
\_ That volcano ain't nothin'. We should create some more disasters
on the west coast to keep things fair with the fed relief funds.
\_ CA already tossed it out of office.
\_ You're all missing the point. We hear whining about giving
handouts to people who *choose* to be poor, but now we have
a republican congress just giving federal money away. Where's
the outrage about not letting the free market fix this problem??
There are numerous insurance companies which could be making
big money here (insuring against disasters, not in paying out
claims, of course) -meyers
\_ I disagree with giving fed disaster relief, and pretty much
all subsidies of any kind. Calling this a 'republican congress'
because RNC has a slim majority is more than a little misleading.
I am neither republican nor a conservative. I try my best to
game a system where the two major parties are basically centrist,
and I don't like either. I do tend to dislike the modern DNC
more than the modern RNC, but that's DNC's fault. On a
slightly unrelated note, I am glad you found something else
to talk about. Thoughtful liberals and thoughtful libertarians
tend to agree on social ills (it's 'bad' that people able and
willing to work don't get enough to eat, etc). However, liberals
are more impatient, they are willing to prod society in what they
feel is 'the right direction' with a bayonet, if necessary.
Libertarians are deeply suspicious of bayonets (and certainties
of what 'the right direction' is), so much so that they are
willing to put up with a lot of social ills to avoid said
bayonets. -- ilyas
\_ unless said bayonets are used by the government to murder
innocent people who are wrongly conviced of a crime.
apparently that doesn't even count as a social ill
for libertarians.
\_ I don't see how the old legal dilemma about the proportion
of innocents hanging in the gallows vs the guilty prowling
the streets (and where I happen to think a reasonable
solution lies) have to do with libertarians. Everyone has
to solve this problem. Libertarian opinions on proper
solutions differ, just as liberal and conservative opinions.
You are a troll. Come back with an actual point. -- ilyas
\_ Which is.. exactly what they do in florida. insurance companies
and hurricanes have a long colorful history.
\_ Yes it's rediculous, there is plenty of discord on
conservative sites.
\_ You just overwrote someone. I know there are insurance
companies in Florida. Where's the outrage about govt
messing with their market?? -meyers
\_ The same place the rest of your black 'n' white red
herring strawman went. In the trash. Try again with
new bait.
\_ 14.5B for disaster recovery is nothing compared to the shameless
giveaways to the special interests, such as the $160B farm bill
signed in 2002. Even The Economist commented: "The real explanation
for America's farm idiocy is electoral". Divide that by the number
of tax payers. This is on average how much is being taken from you
for farm subsidies.
\_ As if I wouldn't pay for it at the super market or every time I
eat out. I prefer paying that way but since aggressive income
tax schedules are sucking my income in half I'm ok if some of
that money goes to making my life better in some other way.
\_ It is plain and simple vote buying by the Republican Party, no
more and no less. Perfectly legal and how pork barrel politics
works. |