John McDonald

">the recipe for the first great depression! Yeah: protectionism, trade wars, beggar-thy-neighbor..." - John McDonald

"Its not particularly different at all. If China let the yuan "float," they could still use reactionary monetary policy to achieve an effective peg. US cuts interest rates, they cut interest rates. Fed sets up low cost bank loans, China sets up low cost bank loans. The fundamental issue is that America wants to devalue its currency more than China does, but China doesn't have to let that happen and they have very little incentive to let it happen. Its America begging for a break on our debt. I think its kind of sad. Now, I wish we were in a better position to lecture others on human rights, environmental concerns, and systemic political corruption, but these are also issues we need to be concerned about in our own domestic and foreign policies before we go around acting like our own shit don't stink." - John McDonald

"What, the Federal Reserve doesn't influence the value of the currency? Its called "monetary policy" and we use it too. The fact that we let the market decide how much it is worth before and after said manipulation is sort of a false comfort, it has very little to do with how federal planning has influences the dollar's sustained fall in value." - John McDonald

"I came to say the opposite. Finally! Someone isn't blaming China for our own screwed up financial position. I really don't blame China for pegging the yuan, because if they didn't we'd be effectively defaulting on our debts. If I had loaned someone hundreds of billions and held their currency in reserve, I sure as hell wouldn't accept partial payment through currency trickery." - John McDonald

">Non agression is not and never has been a part of libertarian philosophy. Political philosophy fail" - John McDonald

"Go look under your kitchen or bathroom sink. There's a good chance you've got a few bottles of it too." - John McDonald

">kids in California, who are already paying less than most students around the country Thanks for putting the stupid up front. Saves me time." - John McDonald

"If our health system was efficient, it would be affordable. Mandating the inefficient system doesn't make it affordable, and neither does a little bit of subsidy for the absolute poorest of Americans. I'll have to check out the Senate's subsidy schedule, but the original House bill only really provided assistance to people with less than full time jobs or people who are right at the minimum wage. Where I live, average wages are around $10 an hour. Candidate Obama realized that forcing these people to spend $300-400 a month on health insurance wasn't going to fly, but President Obama seems to think its absolutely no problem. The golden part though, is to hear this old insurance company gem repeated again: >Is a few dollars really worth more than a life? And yet we're still in a situation where we spend more to save fewer lives. Hey, I know, let's expand the broken system!" - John McDonald

"Thanks, but your working class struggles are not relevant to our goals of maximizing insurance company profits. We'll just have to downvote you, because these concerns dampen the self-righteous delusions that cause us to support government force against your family's financial well-being." - John McDonald

"Thanks, but your working class struggles are not relevant to our goals of maximizing insurance company profits. We'll just have to downvote you, because these concerns dampen the self-righteous delusions that cause us to support government force against your family's financial well-being." - John McDonald

"Barney Bank? He's kind of liberal-tarian on social issues, but he's long been a pretty big supporter of government-backed banking. His latest supposedly populist measure would be to force the Fed to lend even more to homeowners who are in trouble. Because ya know, debt slavery can always be fixed with some more debt!" - John McDonald

"Aye, New York, California, & Texas all have big industries that rely heavily on direct government subsidy and legal enforcement. Hollywood/RIAA doesn't work without the DMCA & FCC, Wall St. needs ALL KINDS of government help, and Texas wouldn't have anyone to sell all their war machines to. This sets a lopsided table to start, but then some states further inflate their economies with ridiculous deficits, above-market wage floors, high taxes, high costs of business, etc... so that they end up with a higher nominal income and yet lower purchasing power. Federal taxes don't distinguish between nominal income and purchasing power, so whichever state inflates its economy the most ends up paying the most out in taxes. In short, this is why Texas has one of the best employment rates. They take the federal benefits that their size provides, but they don't inflate nominal costs so they don't pay more back in. Of course, that's not to say inflated economies can just deflate costs again without..." - John McDonald

"Have you tried it with like, a splash of fruit juice or even just while eating fruit? I'm not a huge fan of it myself, but it seems to do amazing things for how I feel when I'm sick. Its best with lime, lemon, OJ, raspberry, peaches, or pears, but its usually warming shelf space until I feel all stuffed up, low on energy, over-full of greasy foods, or otherwise under the weather. Anyway: white, green, and black tea all come from the same plant but have unique tastes and health benefits because of different phases in the plant's lifecycle. There's just something about those freshly sprouting plants and seeds you mentioned earlier that makes them a perfect food for an immune boost. OK, good luck. I quit drinking soda regularly many years ago, among other dietary changes, so I know you'll be feeling good if you can find a diet that's both tasty and fresh!" - John McDonald

"Ever thought how many people die because they *do* have profit-based medical care? I know from personal experience that doctors and hospitals love selling drugs and surgeries to sick people with premium insurance, even if it turns out those procedures were ultimately unrelated to the underlying illness." - John McDonald

"Yeah, many have a favorite, but others definitely split it right down the center. I don't think there's any sector that only pays off one or the other to some extent, whether its 80-20 or 60-40 or 50-50. Hell, they have even started to wait until the polls start coming out so as to put the bigger bet on the more popular guy." - John McDonald

"Caffeine withdrawal sucks hard, but it isn't a particularly dangerous drug. Some sources like [tea](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...) and [coffee](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...) even have their own nutritional benefits! A cup of green tea only has as much caffeine as a chocolate bar or a half can of Mountain Dew, but it also has a ridiculous amount of anti-oxidants and a little bit of some essential trace minerals." - John McDonald

"We don't have one corporate and one non-corporate party, we have two corporate parties that represent different sectors of the economy. When Republicans and Democrats debate, the only thing really up in the air is *which* corporations will benefit." - John McDonald

"All property, resources, and goods are scarce relative to the total potential demand of billions of humans. I'm not sure who is supposed to be in charge of drawing a line between possessions and property, especially when the line between possessions and productive capital is already so blurred in the case of computers, or the tools of a working technical laborer. 30 years ago, there were three primary news-media outlets in America. Now self-published articles can achieve global reach and we can sit on Reddit talking about it. That we could even have this discussion today shows a huge shift in how the world works. Governments are desperately using force and the threat of violence to put this djinn back in the bottle, but it does seem that they're losing control over the conversation despite their best efforts. They have indeed managed to centralize wealth with the assistance of government, but they've got an uphill battle in that people have become more aware and angry at it. Of..." - John McDonald

"Difference is: if oil gets too expensive, the economic activity it facilitates loses profitability and demand falls." - John McDonald

"Isn't that in fact precisely related, since most of the great powers were all pursuing the same type of strategy? It seems that a breakdown in trade usually devolves into armed conflict." - John McDonald

"Words can have whatever connotation we attach to them. The history of words is a bit more interesting, however. In this case, the first person to call himself a political libertarian did so in a series of letters between another anarchist - and it was the libertarian arguing from the position that all property is oppression." - John McDonald

"I don't think property is ever going completely away. The economic trend toward centralization that provoked Marx's critique of the Industrial Era is being reversed and decentralized as a result of the Information/Computing Era. Suddenly, this computer and my internet connection is literally the means of production - in my hands, in my control. I have not had to exert force to achieve this, nor did I have to inherit it or exercise a social privilege. For so long as this persists and as much as we can export the necessary hardware to the people around the world who most need it... all facades of state and the legitimacy of power derived from violence will continue to fade away..." - John McDonald

"Ok, well, I'm kind of biased against opiates to begin with so take whatever I say with a grain of salt. If you're tripping and relatively inexperienced, you might not realize exactly how much you're taking of other stuff. I've personally noticed this when all my weed is gone the next day. When you're talking about heroin and oxys, you're talking about stuff that will kill you in the kinds of excess an acid trip can facilitate. I said I'm biased but I've also had two friends die from oxy before their 25th birthdays. It wasn't the long pathetic dependency we're taught to expect, it was more like "Oops, I think I ate too many pills." // "Oh shit, he's dead." Anyway, if you want to try out hallucinogens, I would recommend getting some shrooms and a big bag of weed. Acid and a little bit of X isn't a bad choice either, but any potent uppers or downers have to be carefully rationed before the walls and trees start talking to you, and time slows down to an invisible crawl for 8-12 hours....." - John McDonald

"Lemon or lime juice is great when applied directly to the throat or when added to a cup of green tea." - John McDonald

"Baseline scenario: Closed Economy The isolationist economy demonstrates the basic domestic problem with inflation. For people who aren't directly receiving payments or proportionate pay raises, they've effectively taken a relative pay cut. In terms relative to the cost of living, its no different than having one part of the population pay back the debt while exempting others through direct payments. In "modern capitalist" systems (whatever that means) this money primarily gets funneled and amplified through the banks in hopes it may someday trickle down on you. Global Scenario #1: Inflation vs Default Intentionally inflating your way out of debt is a type of default, so far as creditors are concerned. When a nation has established that debasing the money it owes is the best way out of a debt, they've done the same or a similar amount of damage to simply not paying the debt back at all. You might as well call China now and ask if they're willing to take 50 cents on the dollar over..." - John McDonald

">TV has become garbage And... what exactly was it before that?" - John McDonald