Posted on 03/19/2006 5:54:24 AM PST by B4Ranch
It may also be uncomfortable for him to think that America might have been made possible by something other than greed.
Indeed. There is a small group running loose that thinks that money is the source of all happiness.
ping to Post 56
These words have that very special tone that I want every American patriot to be able to hear. When you close your eyes you can hear our flag rippling in the breeze, you can hear the mens heels click as the snap a sharp salute.
It will be a long time before we read such fine words again on FR.
Thank you Mr. Filson
I'm all in favor of hard work, fearing God, and loyalty to country too. So what does that have to do with the welfare tax-hikes that the economyincrisis.org people want?
If the words I'm referring to aren't jumping out at you then I'll never be able to explain how I felt when I read them.
Very good post.
Very.
Thanks,
Tom
De Tocqueville would not recognize you.
Nope.
You're suffering under a slew (that means a lot) of misconceptions.
First, you think I want America to be weakened. You're wrong.
Second, your first misconception has convinced you that I'm somehow disrespecting veterans, the blood they've spilled or God. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Third, you think freer trade weakens America. Wrong again.
Fourth, you think we have no manufacturing base, wrong yet again.
Thanks for the ping!
You're in luck, the words did jump out at me. The fact that you couldn't tell either means that you've arrogantly decided that I don't love God, country, and hard work as much as you, or that I don't explain my views clearly. My guess is the second.
It is because of the fact that I feel passionately about God, country and hard work, that I hate to find these values paraded with a call for higher taxes for enabling lazy people to avoid hard work.
I don't really care what your motivations are. I've never said that you wanted to weaken America. You're simply blind to the damage being done to our economic future by the policies you espouse here day after day. You clearly have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. You never recognize any evidence that contradicts your steadfast "belief" if we can call it that, in free trade.
Second, your first misconception has convinced you that I'm somehow disrespecting veterans, the blood they've spilled or God.
You have little apparent regard for the spiritual aspects of America's greatness. You have demonstrated no faith in the uniqueness of our history. I say that because foreign ownership of American firms, natural resources, and other wealth hands the reins to others who have no other motivation to care about our greatness other than "enlightened self-interest." That's not enough. Does a Saudi, Chinese, or Japanese investor care about the sacrifices of our fallen troops the way families who've grieved over them do? Absolutely not. You'll never prove otherwise. But you argue again and again as if this doesn't matter.
Third, you think freer trade weakens America. Wrong again.
Define "free trade." If you own a stake in America, your wealth is based on a lot of factors outside of the innovations and wisdom of your business. Your financial advantages are dependent on the financial opportunity provided to you by America itself. You may think that it's your "right" to sell out to the highest foreign bidder, but what are you selling? The wealth is not yours to trade without respect to the conditions that made it possible. Free trade "sounds" good, but in the long run, we can't leave decisions to selfish people who only have their own interests at stake when they trade American wealth on foreign markets. There are times when those decisions could harm America.
you think we have no manufacturing base, wrong yet again.
Where have I said that? I've said that our manufacturing base should be maintained with self-reliance in mind. Just because the Chinese can make this or that more cheaply than we can is not an excuse to allow ourselves to rely on them, or force our workers to compete with them directly. The American people should not have to compete with the third world. But that's the continuous position of the free traders. Our manufacturing base is holding up amazingly well given the conditions being forced on us by our current crop of globalist politicians.
For now, I'll continue to assume that you're just a greedy businessman or a toady to the interests of a multinational corporation without any true faith in the American dream. Everything you say to me will be filtered through my skepticism about your sincerity. You're either philosophically indisposed to recognizing the dangers of your positions our you're invested too heavily in them to see why they're not always good for America on levels you are reluctant to discuss.
You've proven again and again why we can't trust your onslaught of excuses for absolute and unshakable trust in free trade.
Hard work? There are a lot of third-world people working very hard. They're up at dawn and work their fingers to the bone. And what do they get for it?
Absolute free trade demands that we compete with them directly. You can leave the platitudes behind, because they're worthless. The notion that tariffs are the same as taxes is complete nonsense, anyway. The American who employs Americans to build American wealth isn't harmed by a tariff unless he doesn't care where the components needed to manufacture his goods come from.
You care more about leaving business alone to trade with anyone they like, any time they like, and without respect to any human values than "working hard" or protecting American intangibles.
You want to be free to make money any way you damn well choose. Admit it. You want all Americans to always trust your international judgment, and that's more important to you than anything else that might concern them.
I couldn't agree more. It's clear that many posters here cannot be trusted with the wealth they claim to have earn, so let us expropriate the means of production, lest these selfish persons fail to take the collective interests of the nation into account.
That's a fool's choice.
I'm sorry, I don't understand. Sarcasm? I'm simply agreeing with you. As you say, people cannot be trusted to buy and sell their own property in such a way as to protect American interests, the collective interests of the nation, so I agree that we must eliminate the kind of buying and selling that might pose a risk of to those collective interests. The easiest way will be to do as you propose, and redefine that "private" wealth as "American" wealth. When someone proposes to sell their private property to a foreigner, we'll just redefine it as collective property, and thereby prevent them from doing so. I'm behind you 100%.
Of course, then there's the elephant in the living room the free traders always seem to write off as inconsequential, and that is the devastating effect the selling out of our country's capabilities and infrastructure has on our national security. How much help will the enormous wealth of a few individuals be when the bombs start falling?
That's a comfortable belief when chatting with fellow recipients of tax-supported protection. Out where the rest of us work to feed our families, words mean things:
TARIFF a tax on goods produced abroad
By law, federal taxes, such as income taxes, excise taxes, estate taxes, gift taxes, import taxes, etc. are all administered by various departments of the United States Treasury.
Interesting philosophical calculus. Complain to C that B and A do not allow D.
You are a true patriot, Senator.
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