View Single Post
  #27  
Old August 24th 03, 11:56 PM
Tom S.
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default


"Chris Hoffmann" wrote in message
news

They evolved INTO democracies...then collapsed. Even Greece and Rome

started
as republics, then degenerated into democracies...just like we're doing.


Degenerated? I always thought democracy was the better of the two. At

least
it always was through all those games of Civ.


A democracy is better than a republic? Not necessarily, and not necessarily
the other way around.

" . . . democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention;
have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of
property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been
violent in their deaths." - James Madison

IOW, "democracy" is two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.

Yet...


of countries which have reverted to dictatorship after a period of
democracy, have since gone BACK to democracy.


And what is different in their composition since the reverted to

democracy?

I don't know offhand. Germany's democracy after the third reich, I

suspect,
was different than before.

....

You might want to trace the German "republics" from the Hindenberg era (1871
or so), through the Weimar "republic", through post-WW2 and through today.


I would guess that the second incarnation of
democracy either gave more power to the individual, or more to the state,
depending on the particular case.



What am I supposed to be agreeing with? Most people are capable of
understanding that money doesn't grow on trees.


Capable yes...dealing it with, no.


I disagree.


So they are "dealing with it"?


The trouble is having
representatives who can't or won't tell their constituents that the

well
is
dry.


When they do, they get bounced from office.


I definitely disagree.


An example of two you demostrate your position, please?

At least the time it takes for them to get bounced
needs improvement.


Look at the numbers for first term congresscritters versus "career
politicians".

Or who say that the well is dry when it isn't.
I take issue with his assertion that we're going to vote ourselves

into
debt
until we collapse under it. Not that it's untrue, but he doesn't seem

to
allow for the idea that people will eventually get wise to what

they're
doing TO THEMSELVES.


It allows for it, but tell me an instance when the "addicts" have ever

moved
to avert the inevitiable reckoning.


The American Revolution, the American Civil War, WWI, WWII, Korea,
Vietnam.......



Well, you got the first one right, but your context is probably wrong
(leadershipwise).

And the Repub's only milked the booming tech sectors until the dot.com
"bubble" burst.


Disagree here as well. If congress really could move that fast on a sudden
economic trend, we really would be in good shape.


Before you disagree, try to comprehend the statement. (Example of that other
government function: public schools)


Anyone who allows a multi trillion dollar debt to acumulate
against them ought to be prepared for a disappointment when they

expect
payment due.


Like Social Security?


Bingo! Not what I was referring to, but that wasn't an unexpected answer.

It
WILL be interesting to see how administrations handle that big hand

grenade,
won't it?


Look at the flack the "democracy" is producing already.

One hundred forty years of deficit spending paid up in ten? All based on
five boom years? Get real!


I don't think that's accurate. We haven't been in deficit spending for 140
years, number one.


Check how many years of the last 140 we've had deficits.

Number two, projected budget surpluses only a few years
ago were in the hundreds of billions, and growing.


You might note that these "projections" we're trashed within two years.

Even with debt in the
teens of trillions, 10 years at that rate of surplus isn't far out of the
ballpark. The light was at the end of the tunnel, until the Great

Giveaway.

Which "Great Giveaway"" The "giveaways" began over 100 years ago, so which
one are you referring to?




Until Dubya decided to spread the wealth? Yeah...$300 sure bought MY
vote.....Yessir.....


Well, send it back.

We can't spend our way to prosperity anymore than we can tax out way to

it.

On that, I agree.


Yet you belie that in your previous arguments.