On Dec 25, 2016, landmark wrote:

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I think then you are legally allowed to use those scooters you see at Wal*Mart.

Wow, it sounds like a dream come true. Can't wait to get my legs shot off in a senseless war.

On Dec 25, 2016, landmark wrote:

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On Dec 25, 2016, Dannydoyle wrote:
You provided none. Nothing but opinion. Suddenly I have to provide evidence? You're joking right?

First off what makes you believe that capitalism must redistribute wealth equitably? That concept is pure Marx and horse manure. You believe this so it is your measuring stick and it is bunk.

I don't buy into the premise that the goal is equal distribution of anything.

Ah, I thought you were talking about the car thing. The evidence for that is clear: the public highways, bridges and tunnels that are paid for by our tax dollars. So, no, not a free market. Let's see the car companies compete without such infrastructure support paid by tax money. Traffic lights, anybody?

I never said capitalism *should* distribute wealth equitably, nor that it was its goal. I said it *can't.* The evidence for that is all around us.

Whether societies *should* endeavor to provide the large majority of its members a means to survival, freedom from exploitation, health, education, and pursuit of happiness is, indeed, opinion. We all will have to investigate our own consciences for that.

On Dec 25, 2016, landmark wrote:
Ah, I thought you were talking about the car thing. The evidence for that is clear: the public highways, bridges and tunnels that are paid for by our tax dollars. So, no, not a free market. Let's see the car companies compete without such infrastructure support paid by tax money. Traffic lights, anybody?

Whether societies *should* endeavor to provide the large majority of its members a means to survival

freedom from exploitation,

health,

education,

and pursuit of happiness,

On Dec 26, 2016, NYCTwister wrote:

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On Dec 25, 2016, landmark wrote:
Ah, I thought you were talking about the car thing. The evidence for that is clear: the public highways, bridges and tunnels that are paid for by our tax dollars. So, no, not a free market. Let's see the car companies compete without such infrastructure support paid by tax money. Traffic lights, anybody?

But, should they have been built with tax money in the first place?
We would have all the roads, bridges and tunnels we need in a truly free market too.
Because we need them.

I agree that the market isn't truly free. It never will be until the need for public companies to - ALWAYS - make AS MUCH profit as possible, is gone.
That, and all the corruption it spawns.

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Whether societies *should* endeavor to provide the large majority of its members a means to survival

I have investigated my own conscious and I don't think that "society" can have any obligation to provide the needs of survival, nor should it ever try to.
The means to survive should simply exist as a function of a healthy society.

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freedom from exploitation,

Again, in a truly healthy society this is a moot point.

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health,

Nor should "society" be expected to provide health.
Health is a matter of choice. A healthy society would provide healthy choices, by default.
Even our unhealthy society provides the means for healthy choices, yet many don't make the correct decisions.

Why is that?

Admittedly there is massive need for health care now; but if we're going to have a truly honest conversation, then we have to admit that a lot of the things we need to treat now, exist because of bad choices.

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education,

Members of a healthy society would want their offspring to be better than them. That would preclude the need for any society, to need to provide one.
So no, it shouldn't be free, but it shouldn't require a lifetime of what is, essentially, indentured servitude to gain an education.

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and pursuit of happiness,

What societal structure can guarantee that?

The problem is that we don't have a TRULY healthy society, and we fight over the symptoms while ignoring the causes.

On Dec 26, 2016, Dannydoyle wrote:
I am happy to live in a place where the founders were intelligent enough to let me make bad choices.

On Dec 25, 2016, Dannydoyle wrote:

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On Dec 25, 2016, landmark wrote:

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On Dec 25, 2016, Dannydoyle wrote:
You provided none. Nothing but opinion. Suddenly I have to provide evidence? You're joking right?

First off what makes you believe that capitalism must redistribute wealth equitably? That concept is pure Marx and horse manure. You believe this so it is your measuring stick and it is bunk.

I don't buy into the premise that the goal is equal distribution of anything.

Ah, I thought you were talking about the car thing. The evidence for that is clear: the public highways, bridges and tunnels that are paid for by our tax dollars. So, no, not a free market. Let's see the car companies compete without such infrastructure support paid by tax money. Traffic lights, anybody?

I never said capitalism *should* distribute wealth equitably, nor that it was its goal. I said it *can't.* The evidence for that is all around us.

Whether societies *should* endeavor to provide the large majority of its members a means to survival, freedom from exploitation, health, education, and pursuit of happiness is, indeed, opinion. We all will have to investigate our own consciences for that.

Ever read the Constitution? Something about roads huh?

Nice try though.

On Dec 26, 2016, NYCTwister wrote:

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On Dec 26, 2016, Dannydoyle wrote:
I am happy to live in a place where the founders were intelligent enough to let me make bad choices.

Amen.

On Dec 26, 2016, landmark wrote:

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On Dec 26, 2016, NYCTwister wrote:

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On Dec 26, 2016, Dannydoyle wrote:
I am happy to live in a place where the founders were intelligent enough to let me make bad choices.

Amen.

Millions of people around the world have no choice but to be bombed, exploited, and live in poverty so that others may choose between Coke and Pepsi.

On Dec 26, 2016, landmark wrote:

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On Dec 26, 2016, NYCTwister wrote:

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On Dec 26, 2016, Dannydoyle wrote:
I am happy to live in a place where the founders were intelligent enough to let me make bad choices.

Amen.

Millions of people around the world have no choice but to be bombed, exploited, and live in poverty so that others may choose between Coke and Pepsi.

On Sep 27, 2013, Pop Haydn wrote:
"The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in the report that it is “extremely likely” human beings are the main drivers for the rise in temperatures recorded around the world over the last 50 years — the strongest words the panel has used to describe the effect humans are having on the planet.

“Continued emissions of greenhouse gases will cause further global warming and changes in all components of the climate system,” the IPCC report said. “Limiting climate change will require substantial and sustained reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.”

"More rain could pour down over tropical areas, and monsoon seasons could expand to include larger areas, striking earlier and lasting longer, according to the report. It is “virtually certain” that sea levels will continue to rise through the end of this century and beyond, and they said it is likely that the heat waves have become more frequent across swaths of Europe, Asia, and Australia.

“Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia,” the researchers wrote in the report. “The atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amount of snow and ice have diminished, sea level has risen, and the concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased.”

-- http://www.nbcnews.com/science/extremely......11274530

On Dec 26, 2016, Gorlzax wrote:

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On Dec 26, 2016, landmark wrote:

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On Dec 26, 2016, NYCTwister wrote:

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On Dec 26, 2016, Dannydoyle wrote:
I am happy to live in a place where the founders were intelligent enough to let me make bad choices.

Amen.

Millions of people around the world have no choice but to be bombed, exploited, and live in poverty so that others may choose between Coke and Pepsi.

Danny said in his earlier post that you, landmark, should move to another country to find your utopia. Well, my country, Finland, is far from perfect but still quite nice. We have universal healtcare (like almost every other developed nation in the world except USA), we have free education system from first grade all the way to university, we have paid parental leave, we have unemploiment benefits etc. And can you believe it, we are not a socialist country. It is so funny to hear some americans talk how universal healthcare equals to socialism.

But like I said, not a perfect system here. And to be honest, there are winds of change blowing also here. And I don't know what is left of this kind of social structure in lets say 20 years. And I do have to say that a big reason why our system is changing is because of capitalism and the pressure to open everything up for competition, even the public healthcare.

Some of you said that they are happy to be born in a country where they can make bad desicions. Sure, me too. But when talking about how we use our natural resources, how we arrange the universal healthcare, how we all chip in to take care of the ones who cant take care of themselves, how good public transportations are arranged across the country, even how art is thought here as a basic right or a need that needsto be guaranteed to everybody no matter where you live (thats why majority of the theaters, orchestras and museums here are government funded) I preffer that we the people together make plans how it is all done. And for that you need some regulating. I understand that USA is very different country with a very different amount of people involved, but you could come up with something different and still similar and amazing. After all you are the greatest country in the world.

On Dec 27, 2016, tommy wrote:
Finland means dark green.

The term "dark green religion" or "dark green spirituality", which is broadly defined as a religion, or a "religion-resembling" set of beliefs and practices, characterized by a central conviction that "nature is sacred, has intrinsic value, and is therefore due reverent care."