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#52 Nov 04 2013 at 5:41 PM Rating: Excellent
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gbaji wrote:
someproteinguy wrote:
gbaji wrote:
someproteinguy wrote:
So, in that case, how does one keep someone with a large amount of money from misusing it?


Start with a definition of "misusing" that is not synonymous with "having". Then punish those who actually misuse their money/power/whatever. Right now, the criteria seems to be "punish anyone with money". Which is stupid as hell unless you are actually assuming that merely having it is "bad". Which gets us right back to me asking people why they think this is true.
I agree, it's stupid to punish people merely because they're successful, and what is "bad" is really important to have defined. The danger is with my previous post, that a minority can have undue sway on the political process. If a minority gets too much influence in defining what it means to misuse your power it's difficult if not impossible to enforce the will of the majority.


Ok. But what does this have to do with income gaps?
That difference in wealth equality is a difference in political equality.
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#53 Nov 05 2013 at 7:40 PM Rating: Default
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someproteinguy wrote:
That difference in wealth equality is a difference in political equality.


Except that it's not. At least not directly. A difference in wealth equates to a difference in message volume. A rich person has a louder "voice" within society than a poor person. And yes, this means that a rich person can influence political outcomes more than a poor person. But I see two issues with that:

1. Not all rich people agree on everything. So the fear that the 1% will all just control everything is really a phantom fear. That 1% will have greater influence, but will spend most of that fighting amongst eachother.

2. This isn't really different than every other political system ever tried in the history of man. Find me a system where the "rich" don't have greater influence and power than the "poor". There isn't one. So the question isn't about whether they have more influence, but whether they have greater influence than other alternative methods, or whether the negatives of that influence imbalance could be lessened via some other changes.


I'd rather live in a system where a small number of wealthy individuals have an significant amount of influence over our government than one in which things are the other way around. And honestly, if we're to pick a method by which influence and power is gained, I'd much rather it be "guys who are successful at business" than "guys who are successful at government". But that's just me.
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#54 Nov 05 2013 at 8:41 PM Rating: Excellent
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gbaji wrote:
stuff.
Which is fine, and I don't think you'd have many disagreeing with you, on some level at least (or at least I won't). It's more an order of magnitude. How many middle-class people does it take to out-shout a rich man in politics? As inequality increases that amount becomes greater, when it gets too great you have problems. If something negatively affects the majority to the benefit of the minority, but the minority's voice in politics is greater, you create instability or you end up with a situation where you have patronizing politics where a minority can simply "buy votes" which isn't necessarily much better.
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#55 Nov 05 2013 at 8:49 PM Rating: Excellent
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gbaji wrote:
I'd rather live in a system where a small number of wealthy individuals have an significant amount of influence over our government than one in which things are the other way around. .
That's called an oligarchy.

Nice to have confirmation that you hate the American government, though.Smiley: thumbsup
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#56 Nov 05 2013 at 8:53 PM Rating: Default
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someproteinguy wrote:
gbaji wrote:
stuff.
Which is fine, and I don't think you'd have many disagreeing with you, on some level at least (or at least I won't). It's more an order of magnitude. How many middle-class people does it take to out-shout a rich man in politics? As inequality increases that amount becomes greater, when it gets too great you have problems. If something negatively affects the majority to the benefit of the minority, but the minority's voice in politics is greater, you create instability or you end up with a situation where you have patronizing politics where a minority can simply "buy votes" which isn't necessarily much better.


This effect is somewhat self correcting in a democracy though, isn't it? Increasingly so the more wealth is concentrated. The more the wealth is focused in a smaller number of hands, the fewer actual votes those hands have and the more they have to spend to try to influence an increasingly massive majority. I don't think that private wealth is a problem in this regard.

I'm far more concerned about public power and influence allowing a minority to control the majority. And this is far more likely to happen as a result of using government power to "correct" for wealth inequalities by taxing a minority of wealthy people and spreading that money around to the remaining majority (using the money of the rich to buy the votes from everyone else). The wealthy can choose to spend their own money influencing people's opinions (and thus potentially their votes). But that's their choice, and the degree to which they can do this is somewhat balanced by their relative wealth versus base popularity of what they want to do. But when the government can seize their money and use it to buy votes, then you've created a power structure that can much more easily be abused.
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#57 Nov 05 2013 at 8:55 PM Rating: Default
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Friar Bijou wrote:
gbaji wrote:
I'd rather live in a system where a small number of wealthy individuals have an significant amount of influence over our government than one in which things are the other way around. .
That's called an oligarchy.


I said "significant influence", not "total control". At least try to follow the context of the discussion.
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#58 Nov 05 2013 at 9:01 PM Rating: Excellent
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gbaji wrote:
This effect is somewhat self correcting in a democracy though, isn't it? Increasingly so the more wealth is concentrated. The more the wealth is focused in a smaller number of hands, the fewer actual votes those hands have and the more they have to spend to try to influence an increasingly massive majority.
Yes but only if the amount needed to buy the votes is greater than the profit from doing so. So if, for example, you bribe both parties and create overwhelming support for a tax loophole that saves you 10x what you spent you still come out ahead, even if the public eventually catches on.

Edited, Nov 5th 2013 7:03pm by someproteinguy
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#59 Nov 05 2013 at 9:07 PM Rating: Excellent
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gbaji wrote:
Friar Bijou wrote:
gbaji wrote:
I'd rather live in a system where a small number of wealthy individuals have an significant amount of influence over our government than one in which things are the other way around. .
That's called an oligarchy.


I said "significant influence", not "total control". At least try to follow the context of the discussion.


So...if the control isn't 100% it's not an oligarchy? Interesting.

Oligarchy 1] is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with a small number of people
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#60 Nov 05 2013 at 9:20 PM Rating: Decent
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gbaji wrote:
Friar Bijou wrote:
gbaji wrote:
I'd rather live in a system where a small number of wealthy individuals have an significant amount of influence over our government than one in which things are the other way around. .
That's called an oligarchy.


I said "significant influence", not "total control". At least try to follow the context of the discussion.


You do know that in democracy you only need significant influence right not total control. A majority vote isn't 100% just a significant portion of the vote.
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#61 Nov 05 2013 at 10:11 PM Rating: Excellent
Hondas have awesome resale values. We had to sell our 2 cars before moving from Hawaii, and I was expecting to be happy getting $1500 for our 2004 Honda Civic. We got $3500 for that car. I almost **** my pants. They had it parked out front before we left with a sticker that said $7900.
#62 Nov 05 2013 at 11:08 PM Rating: Decent
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Belkira wrote:
Hondas have awesome resale values. We had to sell our 2 cars before moving from Hawaii, and I was expecting to be happy getting $1500 for our 2004 Honda Civic. We got $3500 for that car. I almost sh*t my pants. They had it parked out front before we left with a sticker that said $7900.


Fast and Furious increased market value.
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#63 Nov 06 2013 at 8:00 AM Rating: Good
The only way to kill a Honda is to 1. Get in a serious accident or 2. Neglect it horribly.

My last oil change came with a caveat: The muffler is rotting. It'll probably die sometime in the next six months. Naw, you don't need a pre-emptive replacement for it. Just bring it back in when it starts sounding like a John Deere tractor.

That'll be the first major repair I did on it since a hose burst three years ago.
#64 Nov 06 2013 at 11:16 AM Rating: Good
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3. Let the body rust away to nothing.
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#65 Nov 06 2013 at 12:23 PM Rating: Good
Uglysasquatch wrote:
3. Let the body rust away to nothing.


That falls under "neglect it horribly" I think.
#66 Nov 06 2013 at 12:25 PM Rating: Good
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Unless you're into ratrods.
#67 Nov 06 2013 at 12:40 PM Rating: Good
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No, not with a Honda it doesn't. That's not neglect, its not replacing the body when it starts going, because it will start going. Honda makes excellent engines, but terrible bodies.
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#68 Nov 06 2013 at 12:51 PM Rating: Good
Uglysasquatch wrote:
No, not with a Honda it doesn't. That's not neglect, its not replacing the body when it starts going, because it will start going. Honda makes excellent engines, but terrible bodies.


Mine has held up well. The clear coat started clouding up over the summer so I got it repainted. They didn't have to do any body work besides that (and replacing the plastic cover of one headlight that was cracked.)
#69 Nov 06 2013 at 12:54 PM Rating: Good
Never had a problem with the Civic's body. But we only had it for about ten years. Maybe it takes longer than that?

Oh, another reason that car got us so much was that in 10 years, we only put 80k miles on it.
#70 Nov 06 2013 at 1:13 PM Rating: Good
I think the half life is probably about 15 years. Half of them will have had a body problem of some sort, e.g. rusting, dying paint, bumper falling off for no reason, etc. The rest of them go sometime after those fifteen years. So ten years of good condition is probably not abnormal.
#71 Nov 06 2013 at 2:08 PM Rating: Good
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Maybe it's just a thing in places where we use road salt.
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#72 Nov 06 2013 at 2:21 PM Rating: Good
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Uglysasquatch wrote:
Maybe it's just a thing in places where we use road salt.


Yeah in the south we don't have to put up with that problem but if you live close to the beach or are one of the people that think driving your car on the beach is some how fun you would have to worry about it.
#73 Nov 06 2013 at 2:24 PM Rating: Good
Uglysasquatch wrote:
Maybe it's just a thing in places where we use road salt.


Fun fact: Most cities in Georgia north of I-20, which kind of splits the northern part of the state from the middle and southern areas, keep enough road salt on hand for exactly one major snow storm each year. If there is more than one storm in any given season, we're screwed. There is also exactly one snow plow in the entire city of Atlanta and like four total in the entire state owned by GDOT.

Edited, Nov 6th 2013 3:25pm by Catwho
#74 Nov 06 2013 at 2:47 PM Rating: Excellent
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The City of Chicago has 280 full size plows, 30 small plows (4x4 pickups) for narrow streets & alleys and quick-hitches to convert another 200 garbage trucks into snow plows in case they need it.

Ever since Mayor Bilandic fumbled the city response to the major snow storm of 1979 and was voted out of office for it, the city's apparently been paranoid about being unprepared for the white stuff.
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#75 Nov 06 2013 at 2:50 PM Rating: Excellent
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Do you guys have high speed plows that keep streets clear during blizzards?
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#76 Nov 06 2013 at 2:55 PM Rating: Excellent
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They plow during storms although I don't know how "high speed" they are. These make up the 280 truck main force. Six wheelers with plows.
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