MrSinatra;480561 Wrote: > the fact of the matter is that neither conservatives nor socialists are > any good at saving money or constraining gov't budgets to live within > their means and revenue, but having said that, philosophically speaking > here in america anyway, the right believes in lower taxes and lower > spending, while the left believes in the opposite. > Here in Germany both left and right believe in hefty spending (at least that's what they do) but the right believes in financing it through debt while the left in financing it through taxes. In my economy classes I learned that in the end the effect is pretty much exactly the same (distribution effects set aside). > > it should be pointed out that a constitutional amendment to force > balanced budgets was proposed by the right, and shot down by the left, > (again, here in the USA) > Oh. Here it's the other way around, it was proposed by the left and implemented by both, now it will come into effect while we have a conservative gvmt and the FIRST thing they did after the election was to propose a way around it. > > we govern at the local level more than the EU > ....and that's the probably the most valuable political proposition you have. seriously. It's what we are doing wrong over here. Unfortunately, it's only true from a domestic perspective as you can see in places like Germany (to the positive) and Iraq (to the negative). > > and we generate enough news on our own to not really be interested in > what germany or thailand is up to. in other words, we have enough on > our plate. > Well, quite frankly, a country that goes to war all over the world IMHO should have some information about that world it tries to bring it's values to or stay away. My personal impression, and I can assure you that every single European that visits the US plus lots of US citizens that have lived abroad is, that it's very hard to get even decent information about the US as far as it's not about the cats and dogs in the vicinity. > > if you like npr, great, listen. just don't ask me to pay for it. > I didn't. > > how is that democratic? > Well, I don't know how it was established, but my definition of "democratic" was as in "established by a democratically elected body". > > meaning that why would the private sector even TRY to fill a void or > need you're free to your opinion, but frankly you're not an american and > you're far far left, certainly to any normal american. > Well, over here I'm considered centrist, don't want to tell you who in Germany are/were the people who are far, far right from me :evil: > > i'm not saying that to denigrate you, not at all... i'm just saying > that when you say "there's no decent info available via private sector" > [paraphrased] i don't think you're a trustworthy impartial judge b/c > your view is so skewed. > well...That's the problem with you Americans: You always believe that somebody's view - if different from yours - is skewed... That's probably why you fail so miserably in understanding other contries' policies. > > what always amazes me about the people who support tax dollars for > whatever media, or information, or what have you, is that they are SO > committed to it as an idea, ....that is, as long as its "info" they > AGREE with. > No. I was speaking about the info I get over here as compared to the one I get from private news networks anywhere. I still believe the best news resource in the world is the BBC and that's publicly funded. > > bill moyers, terry gross, etc... these are people i'm sure YOU think > have "decent ideas" and offer "decent info." i disagree. now, thats > fine and truly very american. whats unamerican about it is making me > pay for it. > I generally tend to stay out of opinion shows... I was talking information, not opinion. That's fundamentally different although I agree you can't completely separate it. Here in Germany we have one public (TV) channel that leans to the right and one that leans to the left (although it's become very hard to tell them apart these days, left and right that is). > > pbs/npr is an anachronism and i don't see how anyone can argue that it > should get anyones money by gunpoint, (which is what taxation is, you > have NO choice).
Well, as I said, I'll stay out of _that_ discussion since you are right: it's not on me to argue since it's not my money being spent on it. Just wanted to offer a little outside perspective. -- pippin --- see iPeng, the Squeezebox iPhone remote, at penguinlovesmusic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ pippin's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=13777 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=70539 _______________________________________________ squeezenetwork mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/squeezenetwork
