But maybe it's a Chrabeli cookie! They are sooo... good.They want to put a cookie in my computer for thirty days to read their report.![]()
But maybe it's a Chrabeli cookie! They are sooo... good.They want to put a cookie in my computer for thirty days to read their report.![]()
You know: I agree with the premise. But so what?
We are concerned in the West that political decisions are increasingly taken for the benefit of a minority. In some countries that are becoming major powers, perhaps soon the most powerful, that minority also openly holds political power and is a much smaller minority, a tiny number of people.
What will this mean for a planet with over 7 billion people now and diminishing resources?
What will this mean for a planet with over 7 billion people now and diminishing resources?
Um . . . we're fucked?
We are concerned in the West that political decisions are increasingly taken for the benefit of a minority. In some countries that are becoming major powers, perhaps soon the most powerful, that minority also openly holds political power and is a much smaller minority, a tiny number of people.
What will this mean for a planet with over 7 billion people now and diminishing resources?
I'm not seeing any way out, and am therefore resigned to a cynical pessimism that would have shocked me ten years ago. I used to be the most optimistic person I knew :frown1:
If I were a betting man, I would stake quite a lot that in whatever department you call it, bureaucrats are eying the European federal Sales Tax. We call it, the perfect irony, Value Added Tax; there is no value added, but it is a perfect tax, it quietly creeps into every cent you spend and the powers that be will see it as a way to reduce your Federal Debt.
If I were to die tomorrow, I, my estate would pay 40% death duties, correct, death is taxable. Given the 40 to 50% tax that I have been paying ever since I started to make more money than I needed, I will end up paying about 70% tax. And this is only on the bit that I took for myself. There is the tax on the jobs I created, the corporation tax, the business rates etc etc, oh and of course 20% VAT on any gross profit as well as import duties etc etc. My personal ledger with Government is probably somewhere like 95% in the government's favour. But hey, I can afford a roof and food at the moment, so long as the Bank's and Government's mismanagement doesn't fuck me over with no safety net.
So, you are correct. We all work for the man. Government, resource suppliers, banks and retailers, own virtually all of us and leave us scraps for which we are most humbly grateful. You can probably add lawyers and doctors.
Where the optimism?
If I know you at all Bb, you are like me. Cool Hand Luke to a decent degree.
Whilst we in the West are rallying against the 1%, it is a sobering reality that the emerging economies, the BRICS, are plutocracies under the control of the .0001%
Vladamir Putin is allegedly the richest man in the World now, supported by the so called oligarchs; though plutocrats would be a more correct term imo.
In China, 90% of the new millionaires owe their success to political connection. The families of the political elite run the business and natural resources of the country. The corruption of local officials that you may hear about, is in reality an asset grab race.
India tries to have justice from time to time and a strong middle class is developing, but the vast majority are destitute poor and no one gives a damn about them, whilst the seriously rich are in hyper drive.
Whilst you may not like the capitalist reality within your liberal democracy, take a moment to peep over your shoulder and see what is coming.