Posted on 02/13/2016 5:00:48 AM PST by Kaslin
When is the last time you were in Denmark? Or Norway? Or Sweden?
If you have had the pleasure of visiting these lovely places you may have noticed something really odd. Nobody there talks the way Bernie Sanders talks.
Sanders frequently points to northern European countries, especially Denmark, as examples of how he would like to remake the United States economy - by which he mainly means higher taxes and more social services. But the main difference between the tax systems of the US and Denmark is not high taxes on the rich. It's higher taxes on the middle class. (See my previous post on this.)
By and large, people in Denmark do not demonize the rich. They don't think that successful people are the reason why average incomes aren't higher. Nor are they clamoring to confiscate the wealth of those at the top of the income ladder.
Take inheritance taxes. The US has higher estate taxes than virtually any country in Europe. According to the Tax Foundation, our top estate tax rate is 40%. In the Netherlands it's 20%. In Denmark it's 15%. In Norway and Sweden, there is no estate tax!
Here is Bernie Sanders on the campaign trail:
In the last 30 years in America there has been a massive redistribution of wealth. The problem is it's gone in the wrong direction. Trillions of dollars go from the pockets of working families, trillions of dollars, into the bank accounts of the top one tenth of one percent and brothers and sisters, you and I together are gonna change the flow of that revenue!
And although she is not nearly as bad, Sanders has managed to pull Hillary Clinton in the direction of this same world view. For example, she has repeatedly claimed that "the deck is stacked," with "the wealthy getting wealthier at the expense of hard-working families."
This is what I call barnyard Marxism. It's the view that all wealth is theft. It's the view that there is no essential difference between making money in the marketplace and robbing a bank. It's rhetoric designed to divide. Sanders in particular employs the same kind of attacks on the rich that anti-Semites use in attacking Jews, that white southern racists used to use in attacking blacks, that nativists use to attack immigrants and that demagogues all over the world use to find scapegoats for the problems of ordinary people.
As Bret Stephens wrote in the Wall Street Journal, "The Vermont socialist preaches class hatred to crowds besotted by the politics of envy."
The coded message is: if you lost your job, if you wages have been stagnant, if you have trouble making ends meet - it's not your fault; it's the fault of the scapegoat.
It is also pure bunk.
Bill Gates is estimated to be the world's richest man. J. K. Rowling is estimated to be the world's richest woman. Did either of these two ever take money out of your pockets?
Gates got rich by providing the software that I am using at this very moment as I create this editorial. It's well worth what I had to pay for it. Rowling got rich because people all over the world like to read Harry Potter novels and enjoy watching Harry Potter movies. How could anyone object to that?
If we look down the list of the 400 richest Americans, it is remarkable that 69% are self-made. They started with virtually nothing and became billionaires. How did they do it? Jeff Bezos founded Amazon. Sergey Brin created Google with Larry Page. Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook.Phil Knight created Nike. And so on.
Last time I looked, there is no gun pointing at any one's head forcing them to buy from Amazon. No one requires you to use Facebook or to wear Nike sneakers. And no one has to use the Google search engine. All of these people got rich by meeting our needs better than other people could meet our needs.
Almost all American billionaires are philanthropists. At last count, 141 of them have pledged to give half their wealth away. Warren Buffett is giving 95% away. Bill Gates is giving 99%. I'm sure it will be much better spent than if it were in the hands of bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.
Bernie Sanders hates the idea of competition and the profit motive. He would like to remove the private sector entirely from the health care system, for example. Social democrats in northern Europe have a different view. One reason Denmark is so successful economically, despite its high taxes, is that it freely endorses deregulation, privatization and letting markets do what only they can do well - allocate resources.
There are, however, places in the world where the Sanders' rhetoric accurately describes reality. These are places where the people at the top really have stolen everything they have from those at the bottom. They are places where the luxurious lifestyle of those at the top really is oppressing those below them.
Ironically the very worst examples are Marxist countries, where leaders came to power using the very same rhetoric Bernie Sanders uses.
Fidel Castro's former bodyguard Juan Reinaldo Sanchez says that the communist leader "lived like a king" and "ran country like a cross between medieval overlord and Louis XV." While ordinary Cubans stood in breadlines and suffered the effects of a declining economy, Castro had his own private yacht and his own private island -- a luxury Caribbean getaway, complete with dolphins and a turtle farm. In Havana, he lived in an immense estate with a rooftop bowling alley, a basketball court and fully equipped medical center.
While his fellow countrymen are starving to death, North Korean communist leader Kim Jong-un has managed to slip by international sanctions and import $2.09 billion in luxury goods from China between 2012 and 2014, according to The New York Times. The items include Mercedes-Benz S-Class cars and a luxury yacht worth as much as $6 million. More recently, he imported the materials needed to construct a world class ski resort. As far as I can tell, the only skier who will use it is Kim Jong-un himself.
According to Hong Kong-based historian, Frank Dikoetter, Chinese communist leader Mao Tse-tung was the greatest mass murderer in world history. "At least 45 million people were worked, starved or beaten to death," he writes. "It was like [the Cambodian communist dictator] Pol Pot's genocide multiplied 20 times over."
In a book written by Mao's own personal physician, Dr. Li Zhisui writes:
Despite his populist pretensions, Mao lived like a traditional emperor with all the material comforts that China could afford. His physical needs were taken care of by attendants recruited from young, uneducated peasants, who bathed and clothed him and combed his hair …. [He] indulged in young women--sometimes more than one at the same time -- and … even had a special bed made for his sexual activity…
The world's second greatest mass murderer, Josef Stalin killed 20 million, many by forced starvation. Stalin himself had no fear of starvation, however. Upon his death, he was worth an estimated $75 million.
On his death, Mao Tse-tung was worth an estimated $1 billion. Mao's granddaughter has been named to China's rich list, with a fortune of nearly £530 million.
During the reign of avowed Marxist, Hugo Chavez, Venezuela drowned in a sea of corruption involving "some of the most senior figures in Mr. Chavez's "Bolivarian revolution,'" according to The Economist. The country is ranked as the eighth most graft ridden country in the world. Even places like Haiti and Zimbabwe rank higher.
Although Chavez is now dead, according to Venezuelan media sources his daughter, Maria Gabriela Chavez, has bank accounts in the U.S. and Andorra with assets totaling nearly $4.2 billion - making her the richest individual in Venezuela.
And what about ordinary Venezuelans? In a New York Times report, Nicholas Casey writes:
In the capital, water is so expensive and scarce that residents wait for hours with bottles at the side of a mountain where it trickles out onto the highway.
In the countryside, sugar cane fields rot, and milk factories stand idle, even as people carry bags of money around to buy food on the black market in every city and town…
Inflation is expected to hit 720 percent this year, the highest in the world.
R.J. Rummel estimates that almost 170 million people were killed in the 20th century by their own governments. These are not deaths in war. They are the victims of genocide by the government in the country where they lived.
It is amazing how many of the people responsible for this carnage used the exact same language Bernie Sanders is now using in coming to power. They promised to redistribute wealth. And they did. A lot of it to themselves.
Yes, but this honestly seems to apply to Trump folks too, because they have no actual history to base their hopes upon. I'll be hoping as well, if/when I vote for him in the general, and/or he is sworn in... but in the meantime, I have to keep pushing for Cruz.
I always prefer to go to the bible if there is a difference in the viewpoint of literature.
Socialism as we know it failed because it tried to impose equality from top down—an idea with tragic consequences, as we saw the millions upon millions of people dead in the Soviet Union during the reign of Josef Stalin and China during the reign of Mao Zedong.
The Trump coattails can’t be ignored; against sometimes stiff resistance, he’s getting a consensus among an unexpectedly broad set of voters for the need to stop the blind giveaway to the winds which modern “liberalism” has become.
Is there any absolute guarantee? No, but we don’t know Cruz won’t go crazy either. Trump’s optimism, however, is something I have seen on video and it is persuasive through his manner that he is hoping from the heart for something good through assembling a consensus and a set of ideas that, in fact, may be less based in Trump than they are in We The People. We’ve had samples of that already with him and Jeff Sessions.
Actually, Trump does have a history—he built a real-estate empire, something which very few people have the knowledge or skill set to do. He’s proven that he can get things done.
Cruz is probably more attuned with conservative values, but does not have the track record of getting things done. He has not been in Washington long enough to demonstrate that he is able to withstand the pressures that seem to turn most representatives into RINOs no matter how good their conservative credentials were going in.
I can go for either one. My dream ticket is Trump/Cruz. My alternate dream ticket is Cruz/Trump.
>>I always prefer to go to the bible if there
>>is a difference in the viewpoint of literature.
In the Bible “The Farm” is named Ba’al.
That Ba’al isn’t a deity - it’s a pattern of human behavior repeatedly illustrated in both the Old and New Testaments.
It’s the collective state-establishment the characters worshiped and served - and were ultimately, repeatedly, enslaved by.
“...they worshiped and served created things... and because of this...”
Romans 1.
Same Ol’ Bull, different municipal toilet.
It won’t work because, well, from an earthly point of view some people had to be “more equal” to have the authority to oversee it all.
In a system where people are sincerely believing on God, the authority is in God and the mediator is the action of God on the conscience for the most part. This leaves people to be able to be equal in the sense they are equal before God, not equal in worldly stature. This is why the Cold War actions of the West so strongly stressed “In God We Trust.” Whether a mere slogan moved the West, is less clear — more evangelism and less sloganeering might have been the better order of the day. But people did see the need on some level.
No, I take it literally. Baal meant lord and it was a demonic deity. There is no “pattern of human behavior” without entities around which it forms. Ephesians 6.
ping
Socialist = Thief.
Whereas, God = giver.
>>No, I take it literally
And you voted for Carter and other Useful Idiots how many times?
>>There is no “pattern of human behaviorâ€
LOL. The Israelites who were repeatedly given over to their enemies for their participation in the worship of that state-established pattern contradict your opinion.
” Thus we read of the “ba’al” of a house, of land, of goods, of a woman (that is, as a husband). It is also generalized so far as to be a mere noun of relation. Thus a “ba’al of dreams”is a dreamer; a “ba’al of anger” is an angry man; a “ba’al of wings” is a bird; a “ba’al of edges” is two-edged; “ba’alim of a covenant” are allies; “ba’als of an oath” are conspirators. Further, a “ba’al” may be the owner of animals (Isa. i. 3; Ex. xxi. 28 et seq.), but not of men as slaves or subjects, for the phrase in Isa. xvi. 8, the “ba’alim” of the nations, implies dominion over regions rather than over people. “Ba’al” in Hebrew is therefore essentially different from “adon,” which implies personal sway and control. When any divinity is called “ba’al” or “a ba’al,” the designation must be understood to imply not a ruler of men, but a possessor or controller of certain things. On the other hand, the Assyrian (Babylonian) “bÄ“l,” originally the same word, implies especially lordship over men, though it is also, as in all north-Semitic languages, used as a mere noun of relation. In Arabic “ba’al,” as applied to persons, is confined to the meaning of “husband.””
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/2236-ba-al-and-ba-al-worship
I did all that BEFORE I BELIEVED.
Can you read? I know you can.
Will you comprehend? That is a matter of your will.
And no, your LOL cannot laugh away the reality of God any more than my votes did.
This is the risk I take of making a testimony like this. It can become pearls before swine.
You really distorted me didn’t you? I said there was none WITHOUT AN ENTITY TO BE AROUND. Rest assured, VERY assured, Ephesians 6 being one of many many witnesses, that THESE DEMONIC ENTITIES ARE REAL and lured Israel and have lured moderns into much destruction.
And that will include YOU if you refuse to acknowledge God’s gospel truth.
None of which hand waves away the existence of a kingdom of a real Satan.
It is you who are begging the question in your presumptuous ignorance.
I left my presumptuous ignorance. How about you?
Who was the Ba’al of Eqypt propped up by the state-establishment?
How do you inform a group like the Millennials who do not read and cannot watch videos for, at most, 30 minutes before wandering off?
Required reading for them is the twitter message they just got.
If you are going to continue to distort me then we really can take this discussion nowhere.
YES... demonic entities and people can be in cahoots.
NO... this does not prove there are no demonic entities.
The devil tries to hide from your sight everywhere and the result is your kind of cock and bull story. People bear an onus, but are not the only actors in the story. Why is it that people who go to hell go to the eternal fire prepared for SOMETHING ELSE, namely the devil and his angels? Because they followed said devil, riiiiiiiiiiight!
And this was more like the demons propping up Pharoah’s cruel racket... NOT the other way around.
The problem is that we no longer have capitalism—we are being run by a kleptocracy that controls the politicians and the banks. Check out corruption cases against UBS, Citibank, Goldman Sachs and, most recently, Morgan Stanley. They are fleecing us and what’s left of our economy like sacrificial lambs. This is not class envy, this is the truth. Listen to these rich morons on the financial sites advocating for free trade so the jobs can go overseas and enlarge corporate pockets. Listen to them advocate for open borders so the wages can be less here. It’s all in the open if you are ready to just listen. If you object, you are accused of “class envy.”
Try to start a business these days, swimming up hill against all the regulations put in place by governments seeking to reward their friends and keep competition out.
Meanwhile, we are paying taxes so people with no or low wages can buy free groceries we can’t afford, so the large companies can keep their wages down and profits up. Grocery prices are rising and food companies thriving because food shoppers are less sensitive to prices because, heck, many of them are getting the food for free anyway! (Until very recently. Now no one can afford to shop who isn’t on public assistance.)
Do you have kids in young adulthood? Even if they have a job, can they afford healthcare? Can they go to the dentist? Can they afford to rent an apartment in a decent area if they live in a large city, where the wages are higher? Can their vehicles pass whatever overly onerous inspections process imposed by the local EPA Gestapo so the kids can afford to buy older cars? If they get a traffic ticket, can they afford the fine? If not, are they directed over to a probation office and put on probation so they have to pay those fines and are in double legal jeopardy because they have lost some of their rights due to their changed legal status?
This is why people are turning to the Bern and to Trump. We want the tables of the thieves overthrown and their temples torn down.
My dream is that each of them will gain the nominations of their parties. Then, they will meet secretly, on a dark night in some dank cemetery and agree to do away with the whole process. Trump will be president, and Bernie will be Vice. Neither of them will live longer than one term, so they’ll be free to do what needs to be done.
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