--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Patrick Gillam" <jpgil...@...> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "shempmcgurk" wrote: > > > > Massachusetts is arguably the most liberal > > state in the union. After all, it has gay > > marriage and sends the likes of Ted Kennedy, John > > Kerry, and Barney Frank to Congress. > > > > That's why I find it ironic that it is the > > only state that I know of > > with a flat tax rate for income! > > > > Perhaps it's because I associate a flat tax with > > conservative/libertarian policy and progressive > > taxation with liberals...but don't you find it > > strange that they would have a flat tax? > > Interesting. I wasn't aware that Massachusetts > had a flat tax, and I live just north in New Hampshire. > > I cannot contribute to the tax discussion, but > as long as we're writing about ironies, get this > one I heard from James Fallows on Fresh Air > yesterday: China, a communist state, has no > social safety net such as Medicare or Social > Security. People are on their own in that regard! >
...and China is currently seriously debating putting Property Rights into their constitution. Property Rights are the cornerstone of capitalism and although the U.S. constitution has it, the Canadian one specifically and purposely left it out. And here's something else that I find interesting about China in this vein: remember the Tianamen Square Democracy Movement back 15 years or so when all those protesters were slaughtered by Chinese troops? Well, contrary certainly to what I was lead to believe by the media, the gripe that most of those protesters had wasn't so much that China wasn't free enough or didn't have enough democracy or freedom but, rather, that China was moving AWAY from communism! The protesters -- at least their leaders -- had more in common with Stalin and the Gang of Four than with Deng.
