How did Bernard L. Madoff bilk upwards of 50 billion bucks out of thousands of dupes? How could investors really believe he could deliver and sustain a 10-17% return annually? Isn't it common sense, a truism, that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is?
2012: In the last four years, Tea Party adherents have dug in their heels on just about everything, making me wonder how they came to such numbers. The US has always endured its fair share of "the paranoid style," but the most recent manifestation is just pitiful. John Birch society fringe fifty years ago, Tea Party fringe now, injecting poison into political and philosophical discourse. Tea Party ideology sickens me. I salute moderate Republicans, those who can battle it out with the loony "right wing."
In the 1770s, a major slogan in pre-US North America was "no taxation without representation." Now that everyone has representation, the 21st century Tea Party shouts, "No Taxation" period. End of story.
How does one contain and effectively marginalize such fanaticism?
Today's Rune: Growth.
2 comments:
Mark Twains' take on paying taxes in his time. So called Christian men had nothing to declare and hence paid no tax. He payed his share, some 70,000 dollars and felt at that rate he would be supporting the town himself. I like listening to Warren Buffet. He has said that it is not a fair tax when he pays less tax than a secretary barely earning 30,000 a year. Enjoyed the read. MW
There's a Tea party group around where I live. I've almost gone to a couple of their meetings just to hear and marvel, but I'm not big on confrontations and it would probably end up that way. I couldn't keep my mouth shut on some of this stuff.
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