EPTAsk and answer stupid questions here! - Page 616
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AbouSV
Germany1278 Posts
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Thieving Magpie
United States6752 Posts
On May 23 2017 18:23 AbouSV wrote: At least they sleep sometimes. I'm super curious what this is in reference to. | ||
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AbouSV
Germany1278 Posts
On May 23 2017 22:05 Thieving Magpie wrote: I'm super curious what this is in reference to. The 15 hours break we had between your last post and mine :p | ||
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Thieving Magpie
United States6752 Posts
On May 23 2017 22:51 AbouSV wrote: The 15 hours break we had between your last post and mine :p Shots Fired :D New Question: Why do Americans complain about the state of their infrastructure and then complain when taxes are asked for to fix their infrastructure? | ||
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TMG26
Portugal2017 Posts
On May 24 2017 00:41 Thieving Magpie wrote: Shots Fired :D New Question: Why do Americans complain about the state of their infrastructure and then complain when taxes are asked for to fix their infrastructure? I believe this answers your questions about America: http://i.imgur.com/EA9MGvC.gifv | ||
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JimmiC
Canada22817 Posts
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opisska
Poland8852 Posts
On May 24 2017 02:14 JimmiC wrote: My issue with raising taxes for anything, no matter how positive it sounds, is that there is nothing less efficient then government. By the time you get through all the bureaucracy of even the tax collecting. The work getting done is super inefficient as well. It's like paying 8 bucks for a 1 dollar beer. Sure I enjoyed the beer but I hated paying 8 bucks for it. If someone could find the magic bullet for doing the infrastructure, social programs, education, health care and so on. Where it was done well and good bang for my buck I would be OK with taxes, I get they are a necessary value. I just get shit for my money at this point. edit: Also this thread has been popping off! Yes, this is a common feeling of Americans. But is it really based on more than a feeling? At least in the case of health care, we can see that it is simply wrong, the US healthcare is far less efficient than any modern universal health care system, the Americans literally pay the highest prices for often not competitive standards of care, there is ample literature on that and the education system has a plenty of issues as well. And recently problems are surfacing with infrastructure as well - I don't really know if it is new or has been there forever, only now it's getting popular outside of the US, but for example the water supply purity issues are simply shocking for a first world country and are again obviously caused by the competitive setup of the system. The countries with the highest living standards and the highest citizen happiest tend to be those with the highest taxes. All of these observations put these often repeated statements about inefficiency of government in serious doubt in my opinion. I find this in general as a big issue in today's politics - people are just endlessly repeating such positions that are however based just on feelings and beliefs, not reality. | ||
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Plansix
United States60190 Posts
On May 24 2017 02:14 JimmiC wrote: My issue with raising taxes for anything, no matter how positive it sounds, is that there is nothing less efficient then government. By the time you get through all the bureaucracy of even the tax collecting. The work getting done is super inefficient as well. It's like paying 8 bucks for a 1 dollar beer. Sure I enjoyed the beer but I hated paying 8 bucks for it. If someone could find the magic bullet for doing the infrastructure, social programs, education, health care and so on. Where it was done well and good bang for my buck I would be OK with taxes, I get they are a necessary value. I just get shit for my money at this point. edit: Also this thread has been popping off! Having worked in both the private and public sector, I have seen waste in equal measure in both. I think the ongoing belief that government bureaucracy is wasteful is mostly a result of “marketing” by pro-business/free market advocates that would love lower taxes for the wealth. But in the private sector, businesses are allowed to fail with little impact on the community. Schools or police departments failing have a larger impact. And there is nothing more inefficient and bureaucracy filled than an international bank. I have never interacted with a private sector more in love with its own bureaucracy and completely willing to justify it at length. I imagine that it is what talking to Scientologist must be like. Edit: opisska is on point that it is a very American belief. We have an entire political party that has been selling that theory(and only that theory) for decades and trying to prove it correct. | ||
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Acrofales
Spain18292 Posts
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Plansix
United States60190 Posts
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opisska
Poland8852 Posts
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Epishade
United States2267 Posts
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JimmiC
Canada22817 Posts
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Acrofales
Spain18292 Posts
On May 24 2017 02:46 Epishade wrote: My friend asked me if I've ever seen the clown at Wal-Mart that hides from gay people, but I've never seen one of those. Do you guys have homophobic clowns at your Wal-Marts too? I dunno. At least I've never seen it!  | ||
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JimmiC
Canada22817 Posts
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opisska
Poland8852 Posts
On May 24 2017 03:38 JimmiC wrote: I can't speak for murica. But governmental waste is huge here. We have accountants applying for cash register jobs with the city because it pays more and has pension and huge benefits. The government unions are so strong it is basically a job for life once you get it. I've often wondered if it's attitude or reality in the difference between Europe and NA because there is a disconnect for sure. My master plan would have the government oversee, and check out bids, regulate and so on. With Private companies bidding and operating. I am sorry to hurt your dreams, but that also doesn't really work very well. The government is prone to corruption, I give you that. However the corruption is made much easier when the deals are nicely packaged away at a high level of granularity and hidden within a big contract. A case study: water supply in Czech Republic. Instead of running it as a local government service, a lot of water supply systems in cities have been sold to mostly foreign companies to run it. The result: water is much more expensive and the profits end up outside the country in a net loss for the citizens. Now we can't easily regain control, because the companies won't sell the gold mine back to the state. I think the problem can be stated even more simply: the role of the government is to do exactly the things that won't get handled by the free market (otherwise we won't need the government for them), so it's not surprising that free market solutions to government agendas have a tendency to fail. | ||
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JimmiC
Canada22817 Posts
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opisska
Poland8852 Posts
On May 24 2017 04:09 JimmiC wrote: I'm sure you are right over there. We don't have nearly the corruption issues (it is there but there is so many laws and watch dogs it's not the same) Here the issue seems to be the power the unions have that ups the costs of labor and amount of labor required so much. Why do such unions exist for government workers and not in business? I find it quite hard to understand what the problem really is, because it seems indeed very different from the problems we have with government. Here it doesn't make a big difference in your rights as a worker whether you are employed by the state or a private company, because everything follows the laws which hold for everyone. Couldn't your problems be solved by a simple legislative reform, bringing the conditions of state and private workers inline with each other? | ||
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JimmiC
Canada22817 Posts
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opisska
Poland8852 Posts
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