[Outcast_Searcher]

Perhaps having to have an IQ of 100 or better to cast a vote?

So, we should not allow half the population to vote? What an awesome way to run a democracy. LETS DO IT!!

PEACE

Why not have the smartest half of the population make the decisions?
Of course there might be a few sitting Senators and congressmen along with some news broadcasters that might not make the cut.

How about only landowners are allowed to vote, especially on taxes?

Well way back when that was the way they did it and property taxes were only accessed against those that owned property. Seemed fair enough as the property owners (and their families) benefited from the tax expenditure so were paying "their fair share" .

You just want the Asians to run everything.

How does one decide which is the "smartest half" of the population? High IQ test scores? Even with the obvious bias in such testing, re educational backgrounds?

Ironically, on this site, one might think more of the "common sense" intelligence (re being able to actually DO and BUILD things), vs. traditional pure book learning, likely to help on an IQ test.

In that context, my anti-vaxxer brother in law, is much more intelligent than science and math pro-vaccine me, leaning on science and math, for example.

And he can build an entire room like a kitchen from what's in his brain, while I'm completely clueless about such things. So despite having more formal education than him, especially science and math, I object to the idea that I'm automatically "smarter" than him. I'd just call it having different skills and knowledge, due to having had very different backgrounds.

[vtsnowedin]

Well the IQ standard was just a staring point of the debate, not something that I think you could actually do today or in the near future.
Voter pools have evolved over time from Lords, to property owners, to male tax payers then on to include women, and now to everyone who has a pulse, or not.
I believe it can be said the present voter pool is not serving the country well considering the last few choices it has made but how to restrict it now and in what way to improve the results is something I know few answers about.

[Newfie]

And MAYBE the concept that we should pick rulers by voting is the problem.

The whole basis of democracy is that we all get together and make a good decision. That does not seem to be working so well. Now I am not saying some other method is better.

The thought has crossed my mind that humanity is by nature ungovernable in any fashion that works well for the average person.

That some Western European countries seem to he doing it is only a fiction, none are being run anywhere near a sustainable fashion.

Sometimes I think it is inevitable that we destroy ourselves.

[Revi]

Democracy is the worst system except for all the others. I am a believer in democracy, but it looks like others have lost faith in it. I don't always like the decisions people make, but I'm willing to abide by them if it's a fair election. That's the problem.

[Newfie]

Revi,

Until recently what you wrote pretty well matched my opinion. But I have changed my opinion.

Even if we have free and fair elections would we ever vote to voluntarily degrow our economy and move to a sustainable status? I dint think so. That would require some form of advanced central planning.

Felling pretty discouraged.

[Plantagenet]

Biden administration says they will pay illegal alien families suing the government ca. $1 million dollars

biden-admin-may-pay-millions-migrant-families

This is utter insanity.

No....wait....this is Joe Biden and the Ds in action.

They WANT more illegal aliens to come to the US and what better way to trigger off absoltutely HUGE waves of illegal immigrants then to pay ca. one million dollars to some of the illegal aliens who are suing them.

Thats going to inspire millions more illegal aliens to swarm to the US in hopes that they, too, can receive a million dollars from Joe Biden.

And what about the Haitians who just crossed the border?

Joe Biden and his HHS secretary both lied and falsely claimed the border agent were "whipping" the Haitians. Then they disciplined and reassigned the border agents.

The lawyers are going to quickly figure out those Haitians should immediately sue the Biden administration as well. After all, they've got Joe Biden on record blasting his own US border agents.

So I predict the Haitians will sue to get their $1 million dollars too.


Ohmigosh....I bet the Haitians will now claim the border agents were whipping them in a lawsuit. AND I bet that Joe Biden will happily pay $1,000,000 per family to make a lawsuit go away since he was the one lying about our own border agents using whips

SHEESH!

[vtsnowedin]

I just watched a couple of the Sunday news shows. They were all over Biden's dropping approval ratings and the Virginia Governors election but not a peep about the plan to pay off the separated children's families. I guess that one is too hot to handle until after Tuesday.
I have an idea for a "Fair share" for rich people with stock portfolios.
I would put in place something akin to the minimum distribution they have for 401 ks after you reach a certain age.
My proposed rule for portfolios over one million dollars is to force the sale of the oldest five percent (based on current market price and date of purchase) and collect the 20% capital gains tax due on that sale. The net balance could be immediately reinvested in that stock or any other investment and establish a new initial cost for that stock. Each year you would have a different oldest set of stocks so there would be a twenty year turn over to tax it all.
Let us assume you bought your oldest stocks very cheap so most all of the sale price was capital gain. So on a million dollar portfolio you would have to sell or turn over $50,000 of it and pay $10,000 in tax or one percent of your total. It would not change the total due overall by the current rules as when you went to finally liquidate those stocks you would use the new cost basis and not be taxed again on those gains paid for. It would be merely a mater of pay me now not later.
Of course the truly rich will not like it as they always hope they can find a way to avoid taxes altogether.
Consider Elon Musk who is now worth some 300 billion. His minimum distribution tax this year would be 3 billion.
Now before someone chimes in I do realize you will lose the potential growth of that one percent not left invested, but that might amount to a additional 0.17% based on the markets historic gain trend.

[Plantagenet]

White House Press Secretary Jean Psaki has Covid.

fully-vaccinated-white-house-presssec-psaki-tests-positive-covid

Hopefully the CDC is doing contact tracing on Ms. Psaki and they will order everyone who came in contact with her at the White House and elsewhere to go into quarantine, especially since Psaki had an unfortunate habit of ignoring the covid safety rules and never wearing a mask while she was at the podium in the White House briefing room.



Cheers!

[vtsnowedin]

It will be interesting to see how the contact tracing in that highly vaccinated and documented staff and press pool comes out. Who brought it in and where did it get to?

[JuanP]

Let's hope Biden and his minions are spreading COVID-19 in Rome and Glasgow. There are many people there humanity would be better off without.

[vtsnowedin]

Faint hope on that!! These elites have too much medical access to think any of them might actuality die from a case of covid. Dying is left to the little people and the old.

[Newfie]

While ai understand the frustration with these folks wishing them to die is a rather extreme position. Not in good form.

How about we hope they have a bolt of rational thinking.

[vtsnowedin]

While ai understand the frustration with these folks wishing them to die is a rather extreme position. Not in good form.

How about we hope they have a bolt of rational thinking.

Rational thinking????

Surely you jest!!!

Is it in good form to wish the anti vaccer Trump MAGA hat wearers get covid and die? I see a lot of that here and elsewhere.

I do find it depressing that my "rational thinking" tax proposal above has not drawn a single comment for or against.

[Revi]

Revi,

Until recently what you wrote pretty well matched my opinion. But I have changed my opinion.

Even if we have free and fair elections would we ever vote to voluntarily degrow our economy and move to a sustainable status? I dint think so. That would require some form of advanced central planning.

Felling pretty discouraged.

I agree. I don't think anyone is going to vote for degrowth. I also wonder how a more totalitarian government would do it. I think I would like to see the slow devolving of government into smaller units, like down into states. It's really hard to conceive of the country disuniting, but maybe it could just give more power to the states and they could make decisions that work better for their parts of the country. I have to go vote now, so we'll see what happens. I am just one tiny part of this system, and not many people listen to what I have to say anyway...

[JuanP]

While I understand the frustration with these folks wishing them to die is a rather extreme position. Not in good form.

How about we hope they have a bolt of rational thinking.

It may be bad form, but it is how I feel. I am not encouraging any form of violent or aggressive behavior, but I wouldn't mind at all if the virus took a few.

As far as hoping them to think or behave rationally, I wish I could. I did back in the days, but I can't anymore. Unfortunately, I have lost all hope of people in power fixing anything.

Back to cultivating my gardens!

[careinke]

While ai understand the frustration with these folks wishing them to die is a rather extreme position. Not in good form.

How about we hope they have a bolt of rational thinking.

Rational thinking????

Surely you jest!!!

Is it in good form to wish the anti vaccer Trump MAGA hat wearers get covid and die? I see a lot of that here and elsewhere.

I do find it depressing that my "rational thinking" tax proposal above has not drawn a single comment for or against.

Sorry, I was busy making money in crypto.

I think your plan has a lot of merit, and is a good start.
However, implementation could have some challenges.

For instance, would everyone have to sell on the same day? Exchanges would be overwhelmed, (at the same time realizing a nice profit bonus due to "forced" sells).

What about the family farm, that has increased in value due to our soon to be runaway inflation?

In addition, rich folks, who buy/bribe our Psychopathic Elected Leads, will not let this pass.

Peace and lets go Brandon

[careinke]

Revi,

Until recently what you wrote pretty well matched my opinion. But I have changed my opinion.

Even if we have free and fair elections would we ever vote to voluntarily degrow our economy and move to a sustainable status? I dint think so. That would require some form of advanced central planning.

Felling pretty discouraged.

I agree. I don't think anyone is going to vote for degrowth. I also wonder how a more totalitarian government would do it. I think I would like to see the slow devolving of government into smaller units, like down into states. It's really hard to conceive of the country disuniting, but maybe it could just give more power to the states and they could make decisions that work better for their parts of the country. I have to go vote now, so we'll see what happens. I am just one tiny part of this system, and not many people listen to what I have to say anyway...

It's called a Republic and is what the Founders had envisioned. Unfortunately, we have strayed far from that path on our way to the Great Reset.

[Newfie]

While ai understand the frustration with these folks wishing them to die is a rather extreme position. Not in good form.

How about we hope they have a bolt of rational thinking.

Rational thinking????

Surely you jest!!!

Is it in good form to wish the anti vaccer Trump MAGA hat wearers get covid and die? I see a lot of that here and elsewhere.

I do find it depressing that my "rational thinking" tax proposal above has not drawn a single comment for or against.

VT,

I agree I see a lot of hatred and ill will being bantied about.

It is NOT good form, it is bigotry. And both sides are guilty.

[vtsnowedin]

While ai understand the frustration with these folks wishing them to die is a rather extreme position. Not in good form.

How about we hope they have a bolt of rational thinking.

Rational thinking????

Surely you jest!!!

Is it in good form to wish the anti vaccer Trump MAGA hat wearers get covid and die? I see a lot of that here and elsewhere.

I do find it depressing that my "rational thinking" tax proposal above has not drawn a single comment for or against.

Sorry, I was busy making money in crypto.

I think your plan has a lot of merit, and is a good start.
However, implementation could have some challenges.

For instance, would everyone have to sell on the same day? Exchanges would be overwhelmed, (at the same time realizing a nice profit bonus due to "forced" sells).

What about the family farm, that has increased in value due to our soon to be runaway inflation?

In addition, rich folks, who buy/bribe our Psychopathic Elected Leads, will not let this pass.

Peace and lets go Brandon

I would credit sales anytime right up to tax filing date and as much of the stock would be rebought by the holder it should have little effect on the market or prices.
This would be on stock portfolios only,exempting farm land and real estate and timber etc. as you can't sell five percent of a house or tree and you are paying yearly taxes on them already.
My proposal differs from Warren's "wealth tax" in that she wants to tax a percentage of all your net worth and then still collect the full capital gains taxes when they are realized. I estimate that at the rate I propose it would generate some 650 billion per year now and that the numbers would grow as the recent huge gains the market has made age and become the oldest stocks in portfolios.
The average millionaire is over age 60 so a twenty year turn over of capital gains as proposed would have little net effect on their heirs results.

[Revi]

I just found out what "Let's Go Brandon" means. I guess it's a little better than the chant it replaced.