Dogbert bump.France has announced it will voluntarily surrender this honor to Iraq.
What terrible reporting, EVERYBODY already knows France is the "weaseliest" (and most cowardly) country in the entire Universe.
There is no love lost between Gary and the Modesto Bee and visa versa.
Nam Vet
Had there never been an income tax and instead a consumption tax -- such as the NRST; national retail sales tax that eliminates all hidden taxes and fees and only applies to new products and services purchased but not used items -- with that, each person would know how much government is costing them.
That's far different than today where two-thirds of a person's taxes are withholding taxes that they never see, akin to "out of site, out of mind". Which the other third of taxes a person pays are "out of site, out of mind" -- they are fees and hidden taxes passed on to consumers.
On average, a person has fifty percent of their income extorted via withholding taxes, hidden taxes and fees passed on to consumers. I contend there's no way that had there only been a consumption tax such as the NRST that citizens never would have allowed the government to tax them fifty-percent on the dollar. Probably not even twenty-cents on the dollar. Thus, government wouldn't have been at most a third the size it is today.
That said, how many jobs did Microsoft create? How much have Microsoft products increased productivity and efficiency? How many jobs did government create without first taking jobs/money from somewhere else? How much has government increased productivity or efficiency? Which organization initiated force and threat of force against the other?
The government was free to not purchase Microsoft products but they chose to buy them to increase government "productivity" and "efficiency". Microsoft didn't initiate force against government. The government initiated threat of force against Microsoft.
Which is by far the weaseliest organization? Better question, which organization is a criminal organization hiding behind the banner of law?
What is the poll results a product of?...
"The oppressor no longer acts directly and with his own powers upon his victim. No, our conscience has become too sensitive for that. The tyrant and his victim are still present, but there is an intermediate person between them, which is the Government - that is, the Law itself. What can be better calculated to silence our scruples, and, which is perhaps better appreciated, to overcome all resistance? We all therefore, put in our claim, under some pretext or other, and apply to Government. We say to it, "I am dissatisfied at the proportion between my labor and my enjoyments. I should like, for the sake of restoring the desired equilibrium, to take a part of the possessions of others. But this would be dangerous. Could not you facilitate the thing for me? Could you not find me a good place? or check the industry of my competitors? or, perhaps, lend me gratuitously some capital which, you may take from its possessor? Could you not bring up my children at the public expense? or grant me some prizes? or secure me a competence when I have attained my fiftieth year? By this mean I shall gain my end with an easy conscience, for the law will have acted for me, and I shall have all the advantages of plunder, without its risk or its disgrace!" - Frederic Bastiat
Thus it follows logically:
"The state is the great fiction by which everybody tries to live at the expense of everyone else." -- Frederic Bastiat
...put on an "INS" shirt!
Dogbert bump.