COLLECTIVE MADNESS
“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
A free market would not allow things like corporate welfare or more accurately corporate preferences. Regulation, corporate laws and taxes allow corporations to adjust their practices to benefit themselves for regulatory reasons and not for strict market economic benefits.
ReplyDeleteWhy should a corporation have a tax or regulatory advantage over an individual? Why do we need corporations at all?
So multiple people can pool their resources to create and run a business?
DeleteUh, Yeah, that might be one reason.
DeleteI'd hate to build something as archaic and simple as my 98 Corolla by myself,
...never gave it a try tho.
Did not try to start a corporation in order to monetize and spread the risk of my model airplane building "business" tho, so not much of a knowledge base on the subject.
You and your two buds just go ahead and build that 747 out in the machine shop in back. Who needs corporations to do that? Though you wouldn't have any machines in your shop without corporations.
DeleteCorporations are way too much maligned.
Corporations took us to the moon. We would starve without corporations. We wouldn't be able to travel with any ease without corporations. You'd all die of disease early without corporations. The women wouldn't have their blessed birth control without corporations. A good thing might be we'd not be hammering on one another daily without corporations, on the other hand you wouldn't have a clue what's going on in the world, which wouldn't be much I grant you, without the corporations. You wouldn't even know what's going on in your town except throught gossip at the bar, which wouldn't have any beer, without corporations.
What is wrong with you people, being down on the corporations? Without the corporations you'd all be living in huts, going nowhere, doing nothing, as happened during most of human history.
Corporations and their stockholders face double taxation. First the corporation, then the stockholders.
DeleteYou people are bonkers.
Or in teepees. You wouldn't have electricity, you wouldn't have heat, you be fucked, like most people used to be. For God's sakes, grow up.
DeleteYour lives would be short, brutish, and nasty.
DeleteI swear on the Bible. You completely missed the point.
DeleteYou conflate a tangible industrial enterprise with a legal abstraction. You are born as a human being and become what you will. Your birth certificate, issued by the Church or the State, is not you.
DeleteCorporations were legalized in British law so individuals could "Limit Individual Risk/Liability."
ReplyDelete(Not as Tax Avoidance Schemes)
Disruptive Trends to Watch in 2013
ReplyDelete1. 3-D printing
2. The Internet of Things
3. New healthcare business models
4. Low-cost, online, competency-based learning universities
I'm thinking of buying a 3D printer. If I did I'd never have to buy anything ever again, just simply knock it out in 3D software and 3D-print it out.
DeleteThere ya go.
DeleteI'm gonna print out a doctor so I can have live-in healthcare and forget about death panels.
DeleteI think I'll click on "female" in the gender box.
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DeleteI will not expose my therapy online in the SocialMediaSphere, so I may miss out on the instant celebrity Status of the Steubenville Football Sexual Warriors.
DeleteJust forcing Corporations to pay their taxes in the year the money is earned, rather than allowing them to delay their taxes indefinitely by keeping their money in a foreign account would go a hell of a long way to some semblance of tax fairness (not to mention, Domestic Investment.)
ReplyDeleteAlso, not to mention another $100 Billion/Yr, or so, knocked of the Federal Deficit.
Deletebtw, the budget deficit for December rounded off to 0.0 Billions.
DeleteThe first time since 2007 that we haven't had a sizable deficit in December.
There has to be, and there should be, income inequality. It's the way of the world.
ReplyDeleteHowever, if you let it get too far out of hand, it's bad for the economy, and, even, in the long run, many of the rich, themselves.
like in the French Revolution?
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DeleteThink, Ash.
DeleteI know it is hard.
The Glorious French Revolution ended up eating people just like you.
William Blake was for it, before he was against it. Same with Coleridge and many another young turk.
The guillotine can cut both ways.
After your head is severed, it plops into a gunny sack.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunny_sack
Here is a rock group named after severed heads.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severed_Heads
The device was named after Monsewer Guillotine, its inventor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillotine
There may be one out there someday with your name on it.
wow, brilliant bob. Now why don't you tell us who was killing whom and why and how that relates to the Rufus comment?
DeleteIt was good, wasn't it. The important issue here is though Ash your personal safety vis-s-vis your naivete. It will not be finally good enough for you to have spouted socialist rhetoric in the past, once they have found your sailboat, your golf clubs, and the fancy silk knee breaches in your closet, and the expensive perfume. At that point the ever vigilant sans-culottes will unilaterally declare you a counter revolutionary and oppressor, at which point they will introduce you to the guillotine with your name on it. I am trying to be helpful to you here so leave you with this -
Deletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sans-culottes
Here is a list of corporate goodies in the fiscal cliff bill:
ReplyDelete$78 million to retain an accelerated tax write-off for owners of NASCAR tracks
$62 million tax credit for companies operating in American Samoa
$222 million tax rebate for rum distillers
$222 million in accelerated depreciation for businesses located on Indian reservations
$430 million over two years in tax breaks for film and television producers who incur production costs incurred in the United States, with a special bonus if the costs are incurred in economically depressed areas in the United States
$59 million in tax credits for cellulosic biofuels
$2.2 billion in tax credits for biodiesel and “renewable diesel”
$7 million in consumer tax credits for buying plug-in motorcycles
$154 million for the manufacturers of energy-efficient appliances
$650 million in tax credits for builders of energy-efficient homes
$12 billion in wind-energy-production tax credits
Proof that BHO's hatred of profits is not absolute.
Delete...at least if you consider gifts from his government to be "profits."
Yaron Brook is a disciple of Ayn Rand and I have read all of her books. I disagree with almost all of her proposed solutions for the future, but she had many brilliant insights into the troubles of the modern age.
ReplyDeleteIn her fiction she expressed the motives and self-justifications of the looters and takers that have plagued human history.
She extolled the rights of the individual. In my humble opinion Ayn Rand named what is wrong with the modern world with bang on accuracy. I do not ascribe to her proposed solutions, but respect her overall body of work. It comes as no surprise that the looters and takers of the 21st century have a visceral hatred of her.
Brook and his total commitment to laze faire capitalism, I’m not sure.
How many women served in the Militia in the American Revolution?
ReplyDelete...just heard them mentioned by the President of Hillsdale College, Larry Arnn on Hugh Hewitt radio show.
Ronald Coase, The Nature of the Firm(wiki):
ReplyDeleteThe Nature of the Firm was a brief but highly influential essay in which Coase tries to explain why the economy is populated by a number of business firms, instead of consisting exclusively of a multitude of independent, self-employed people who contract with one another. Given that "production could be carried on without any organization [that is, firms] at all", Coase asks, why and under what conditions should we expect firms to emerge?
I'm gonna print out a replica of Bella Absug so I can have my own personal sex toy.
ReplyDeleteI'll print out a few whips for her, also, while I've got the printer powered up.
I tried to listen to him, twice. It's just too childish. A precocious 6th grader couldn't believe a society could exist under "Randianism."
ReplyDeleteGovernment spending during the Civil War brought these corporations fantastic wealth. Corporate executives paid “borers” to infest Congress and state capitals, bribing elected and appointed officials alike. They pried loose an avalanche of government financial largesse. During this time, legislators were persuaded to give corporations limited liability, decreased citizen authority over them, and extended durations of charters.
ReplyDeleteAttempts were made to keep strong charter laws in place, but with the courts applying legal doctrines that made protection of corporations and corporate property the center of constitutional law, citizen sovereignty was undermined. As corporations grew stronger, government and the courts became easier prey. They freely reinterpreted the U.S. Constitution and transformed common law doctrines.
One of the most severe blows to citizen authority arose out of the 1886 Supreme Court case of Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad. Though the court did not make a ruling on the question of “corporate personhood,” thanks to misleading notes of a clerk, the decision subsequently was used as precedent to hold that a corporation was a “natural person.” This story was detailed in “The Theft of Human Rights,” a chapter in Thom Hartmann’s recommended book Unequal Protection.
From that point on, the 14th Amendment, enacted to protect rights of freed slaves, was used routinely to grant corporations constitutional “personhood.” Justices have since struck down hundreds of local, state and federal laws enacted to protect people from corporate harm based on this illegitimate premise. Armed with these “rights,” corporations increased control over resources, jobs, commerce, politicians, even judges and the law.
A United States Congressional committee concluded in 1941, “The principal instrument of the concentration of economic power and wealth has been the corporate charter with unlimited power….”
Hidden History of Corporations
I don't know what the reaction of Deuce to this headline might be -
ReplyDeleteObama to swear in on Lincoln Bible...drudge
but I would like to watch it.
I would rather he be sworn in on Mark Twain’s personal copy of Huckleberry Finn. It is far less blood stained than all the killing done to humanity based on the Bible.
DeleteThe Preacher that was supposed to do the invocation, or somesuch, got shitcanned for quoting the self-same Bible as regards homosexuality.
DeleteDitched the Bible-quoter, kept the Bible.
:)
ya gotta love it
Damn the Bible and its insidious Judaic/Christian influence which helped get rid of slavery!
DeleteArriba arriba Huck Finn and Twain!! I can agree with that. And would support any President so sworn in. At least until convinced that the son of a bitch was just another liar.
You don't know it Rufus, but you are in the wide social gospel tradition of the New Testament yourself, with all these social concerns; however with this difference, that somebody else, in your interpretation, should be doing the something about, and not ol' Ruf, glued to his computer.
DeleteThis wasn't the way of Jesus from what we can gather about him from the surviving sources. He got out there and worked for it himself. And actually did a little good, and set off a movement that finally put the Cherokee out of the slave bidness, for good and for all.
Ironically he was not, like yourself, any kind of a competent economist for our days, or his. He, like you, threw out wildly impractical suggestions and got pissed at everyone around. But his heart, like yours, was in the right place.
Got nothin' against the man; just ain't buyin' the "religion."
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DeleteLook up, asshole. As I said, I'm fine with the man. Those carnies that cobbled together that piece of shit book can suck it, though.
DeleteActually, that was wrong of me. It is in the category of inducing another to test the Lord God. Not that Rufus doesn't deserve it. ButI have taken it down.
DeleteNo, you are not fine with the man. The social gospel is the least of it. You don't have any idea what else he was talking about.
DeleteNorth Dakota brought 68 wells online in November, and Production went down by 16,225 bbl/day.
ReplyDeleteProduction Statistics N.D.
It now takes about 100 wells/mo in N.D. to maintain production. That number is steadily rising.
ReplyDeleteThe yellow line is the number of wells that have to be brought into production per month to maintain output. I think it's probably about 5 to 10% too steep, but that's of little consequence - you're only talking a couple of months longer to reach stasis, and then go into decline.
ReplyDeleteChart
Fracking has come along at a great time for the United States. You could almost say it's saved our bacon - temporarily.
But, it IS that: a Temporary boost. It is Not our Saviour; nor will it make us "Energy Independent." Far from it. We still Import about 8,000,000 bbls of oil Every Day.
Holy Shit!
ReplyDeleteIt's Much Worse than that.
From Darwinian at the Oil Drum:
"For the Bakken the number of wells went from 4,795 to 4,910, a gain of 115 wells. But the barrels per day per well went from 143 to 136. Bakken production went from 684,165 bp/d to 669,091 bp/d, a drop of 15,074 barrels per day. So even though they had a net gain of 115 wells they dropped by over 15 thousand barrels per day. That Red Queen is just not running quite fast enough."
Ron P.
Evidently, a bunch of old, non-Bakken wells weren't worth messing with any longer, and were shut down, bringing the "North Dakota" net number of new well down to 68.
DeleteBut, up in the Bakken, where it matters, they had a net addition of 115 wellS, and, still lost 15,000 bbls/day. YIKES.
DOUBLE YIKES!
Bakken Shale Statistics - North Dakota
DeleteThis is an absolute Heart-Stopper.
DeleteRune Likvern nailed it
DeleteSomehow, the price of natural gas has not spiked, as you predicted it would here within the last six months.
ReplyDeleteSo, less incentive to drill, but still, horizontal drilling remains the major ongoing component of the rigcount, unlike the small percentage of energy provided by "renewables" (not to include hydro, since that's renewable, but evil)
in your dreamstate of California.
...not a bad name to ascribe your quality of analysis: Dreamstate.
http://www.eia.gov/naturalgas/weekly/#jm-prices
Adds to your record going back to predicting that the fallout from the coming Democrat created Mortgage Meltdown would be negligible.
ReplyDelete$3.33-1.92 /$1.92 = 0.73
ReplyDelete73% Gain in 8 months?
I'll take it.
Those Wind Turbines, and Solar Panels will be producing a LOOoong Time after those frac'ed well have been capped
Delete(in the case of solar panels, maybe 50 or 60 yrs, or more.)
yeah, that's why they have a 30 year gaurantee.
Deletehttp://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/hist/n9190us3m.htm
They would not produce Toyotas in the USA if the market price was less than the cost of production.
That became the case with Natural Gas.
Actually, that shows how much you know of the things of which you rant. The Gas in Pennsylvania CAN be produced for $2.50 and up.
DeleteBut, it was my knowledge that the other big plays - Barnett, Haynesville, Fayetteville, etc could not that allowed me to make that call.
Delete"could not that allowed me to make that call. "
DeleteRoger, copy that.
Whatever; I made it. You didn't.
DeleteAt the dead, stone bottom, I might add.
DeleteNatural gas prices are the same as they were in 2001.
ReplyDeleteNot to many consumables can match that, although Japanese Real Estate can be purchased at 1980's prices, after 30 years of policy that Obama/Bernanke insist will save our Bacon.
Bacon?
What will the Muzzies do if that comes true?
Biden Says “No Silver Bullet” to Gun Violence. Did he really say that?
ReplyDelete:):):):):):)
DeleteThank you for making my day.
Maybe he was thinking of a Coors ad.
Anything about 'biting the bullet'?
Sent from Mat, under a label that says 'classic humor'.
ReplyDeleteI am afraid to watch it :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDuii97sUFY
I am at 7:30, and can't go on.
DeleteAs for Solar Panels, they degrade at a rate of approx. 0.16%, annually.
ReplyDeleteIn 30 years you will have approx 95.2% Efficiency in a panel that's been long paid for, and don't eat nuthin.
For ex, a panel that was putting out 230 Watts when new will likely be rendering 219 Watts. Free.
The Frac'ed well, on the other hand, will probably have been capped for 20 yrs, or so.
Hell, maybe there is something to these solar panels. They seem to hold up much better than you.
DeleteI have more than a little bit in common with solar panels. When the sun goes down I get slow, for one.
DeleteAnd, since the sun has been down for a while, now, I'm going to do the same.
DeleteI'm telling you, though; that might have been some really big news out of the Bakken, today. It'll take another three or four months before we'll know for sure.
Good night Rufus. Don't forget the candles by the bed, the solar panels being down.
ReplyDeleteFrom the are you sick of it yet department -
ReplyDeleteObama gives himself lifetime protection with armed guards 24/7...
FLASHBACK: Obama opposed bill to allow person to use gun to save own life in own home...drudge
Monthly Dry Gas Shale Production
ReplyDeleteThis, in RufusWorld, is a real bummer for all of us.
(except those who are cheering Obama's dismantling of the US Economy and Constitution.)
...but I repeat myself:
That IS RufusWorld.
Looks like gas/shale production is looking up. I can understand why it puts him in a bad mood.
DeleteYeah, it tends to counteract BHO/Bernanke policies to bring this nation's economy to it's knees.
Delete...for a great cause, btw:
Saving the World from profits.
...not to mention the climate, which is completely interconnected and inversely related to the US Economy.
The greenies need to talk to China and India, not to mention many other developing countries around the world, from Asia, to Africa, to South America about the climate and emissions.
DeleteOur emissions here are going down.
The world does contain some humor. That Earth First or Save The Earth or whatever it was guy, that was so against nuclear power, is now for it big time. Al Gore who was all for ethanol now says it is all a big fraud, and he was pandering to the farmers in Iowa. May be the first true thing he ever said. Other examples exist.
ReplyDeleteHere is some news of interest to me --
Energy & Environment
Court affirms feds’ decision not to use wolves to thin elk in Rocky Mountain National Park
By Associated Press, Published: January 9
DENVER — A federal appeals court is upholding the National Park Service’s decision not to reintroduce wolves to Rocky Mountain National Park to control the elk population.
WildEarth Guardians had argued that the Park Service violated environmental laws when it ruled out using wolves and when it decided to use trained volunteers to help Park Service employees shoot and kill excess elk.
A federal judge in 2011 ruled that the agency took a hard look at relevant data before concluding that reintroducing wolves wasn’t a feasible option and that volunteers’ shooting the elk to limit the population wasn’t the same as hunting, which involves shooting for food or sport. Hunting is generally banned within the park.
On Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the judge’s ruling.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/energy-environment/court-affirms-feds-decision-not-to-use-wolves-to-thin-elk-in-rocky-mountain-national-park/2013/01/09/780f21e8-5ab7-11e2-b8b2-0d18a64c8dfa_story.html
The democrats may not have the votes to pass any gun legislation in the Senate, dem Senators up for re election soon in shaky states getting shaky.
ReplyDeleteThere is no chance in the House.
Therefore, will Obama's 'dictatorial tendencies' come to fuller view via 'Executive Orders' on the subject?
If so, it will be interesting to watch the reaction of Rufus, who once said, I remember it well, without the 2nd Amendment we got nothing. Pravda agrees, I posted their editorial earlier.
heh
Will the 'faith' of Rufus in his 'secular savior' finally be tested? Will it be found wanting?
'Secular theological schools and professors and opinion makers' across the nation wait with anxiety.
I failed to add the quote by Barky about how he fully supported the 2nd Amendment.
DeleteI've been reincarnated as an Elk twice, and let me tell you, it felt a whole lot more natural and nice when a pack of wolves ran me down, and tore me to pieces as I was gasping for breath, one of which turned out to be my last.
ReplyDelete(at least that time around)
The other time, I was just innocently grazing on some wild grass, and outta knowhere this lead slug made it's way through my cranium, and I didn't even get a chance to hear the report of that rifle, which after all only traveled toward me at the speed of sound.
So all and all, I felt cheated out of even experiencing the entire affair, even though it resulted in the end of that particular cycle in my life's journey.
If you should show up again as an Elk you can stay out at my place. We got wolves there, hungry too. You can have the whole wonderful 'wolf experience', failing which, I will finally shoot you myself for my table.
Deletegourmet roast o' elkodougo
Just wait for the most ravenous wolf to get his fill of me and you can surprise your wife with a WolfElkin Feast.
DeleteYou'd be better off giving that a taste first, before experimenting with introducing a Duck into the mix.
Although "WolfElkinDuckDougo" does have a ring to it.
DeleteI've thought about a book:
ReplyDelete"Wild Elk Speaks"
(Twice)
...but I've been deterred by thoughts that those Wolves would be coming back for what they considered to be their "Fair Share" of the royalties.
Who needs a legal hassel at a time like this???
As if the Obama Economy itself isn't hard enough to deal with.
:)
DeleteHow bout "Wild Elk Eats, Speaks, And Is Eaten: The Noble Life Cycle of Wapiti"?