Posted on 05/07/2015 4:14:04 AM PDT by Servant of the Cross
Why did Rome and Byzantium fall apart after centuries of success? What causes civilizations to collapse, from a dysfunctional fourth-century-B.C. Athens to contemporary bankrupt Greece?
The answer is usually not enemies at the gates, but the pathologies inside them.
What ruins societies is well known: too much consumption and not enough production, a debased currency, and endemic corruption.
Americans currently deal with all those symptoms. But two more fundamental causes for decline are even more frightening: an unwillingness to pay taxes and the end of the rule of law.
Al Sharpton is again prominently in the news, blaming various groups for the Baltimore unrest. But Sharpton currently owes the U.S. government more than $3 million in back taxes, according to reports. His excuses have ranged from insufficient funds to pay them to sloppy record-keeping and mysterious fires.
Sharpton, a frequent White House guest, apparently assumes that his community-organizing provides him political exemption from federal tax law. He seems to be right, at least as long as the current administration is in power.
The Clinton Foundation is expected to refile its tax returns for 2010, 2011, and 2012 after failing to separate government grants from donations. If an average citizen tried to amend his taxes for such huge sums and from that long ago, he would probably be under indictment.
News reports of undocumented donations from foreign governments caught the foundation underreporting its income. The well-connected Clinton clan apparently had assumed that their political status ensured them immunity.
In the current political landscape, ideology also offers cover for tax noncompliance. Two of the most liberal talking heads at the MSNBC cable news network, Touré Neblett and Melissa Harris-Perry ...
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
The only thing I would quibble with of your assessment....is that I don’t think it was the businesses who co-opted the government - I think the government grew so damned big, powerful and intrusive, that businesses were just in the self defense business - which has now bloomed into full fledged crony capitalism.
BUT...the first step in the process, by definition and logic, is out of control government.
L A W L E S S
Or ruling class making up s*(# for the peon class as they go.
Whoever you are, you are not fit to shine his shoes.
However, I will still shine my own shoes....and I do a good job of it too.
Oh, I forgot....I’ve joined the ranks of the semi-retired after building a very successful business over the last 40 years and I don’t have to wear leather shoes any more.
Are you fit to shine shoes? Have you made something of yourself in life.....other than an employee?
You are correct. However, give money to THEM.....NOT THE PARTY!
You are correct: Jeff is a good choice but wait until we know all who will be running. The worst thing we can get to run on the ticket would be a member of the establishment and worse than that, waste our money on a candidate that is simply a “puppet” of the Republican/Democrat party.
BRAVO! Clap, clap, clap.....you are correct and have hit the “nail right on its head.”
Well since I compared you to him, I’ll just tell you that yes, he’s a very successful person in the field of high finance and investments - and while I don’t know, I would think he is probably now independently wealthy.
But the key point is, you totally embarrassed yourself on how inaccurate your comments towards him are. You could not be more wrong, tho I suppose you are that wrong a lot.
As for me, I am semi retired, letting a company I built pay me a dividend every month, along with a pair of executive homes we own and rent out for big dollars. I also get paid to write, speak, etc, in my free time.
“The problem was NOT that too many people voted for the GOP, it’s that too many people did NOT.”
WELL! Isn’t that one of the most intelligent statements ever espoused!
So, not enough people voted for the GOP candidates? Ronald Reagan had no problem getting the votes...did he? I wonder why? Oh! I think I have it.........they seemed to have this strange feeling come over them that he was the genuine article and not a shill for the party.
Yep! That was the key! And, guess what.......? THEY WERE RIGHT! The people voted for the MAN.....NOT THE PARTY and we got the best president in history.
IT’s a sure sign you’re losing an argument when you have to take the other side out of context to pathetically try and make your point. In the context I wrote that, it was brilliant, pithy, applicable and fully refuted the statement I was referring to.
When you take it out of context, it can be demagogued. Losers do that.
Yeah, that too.
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