John McDonald › Comments

"The amendment was "compromised" down to [75% for individual plans and 80% for group plans](http://www.prwatch.org/node...)." - John McDonald

"The amendment was "compromised" down to [75% for individual plans and 80% for group plans](http://www.prwatch.org/node...)." - John McDonald

"You don't need the degree to do the entry-level work, you need the degree + experience to get the entry-level position at a place where advancement is possible. THEN you can prove whether or not you're able to solve social/structural problems or write good press releases & ad copy. Shit, I majored in PoliSci/Econ and I'm now semi-retired at 27. HR people may not see the value in such an education, but it gave me everything I needed to see the crash coming and plan a business model around surviving it." - John McDonald

"Its pretty sad that's considered the key component.." - John McDonald

"The Great Depression was a market correction *in reaction to* the interventionist "loose" monetary & military/industrial policies of the WW1/1920s era. It was the worst "market correction" in history, but the bubble being corrected was directly inflated by Federal Reserve and Federal Government spending that encouraged investment in non-productive activities." - John McDonald

"Hoover expanded the bureaucracy, chased tax evaders, and blamed the crash on inequalities of wealth and cheap imports. He even wanted a social-security style pension, but couldn't get it through Congress. Does any of that sound kind of familiar...? Tire tarriffs, chasing tax evaders in Switzerland, pensions = healthcare?" - John McDonald

">Horseshit, lying, horseshit, lying, move to Somalia. Yeah, you're definitely adding to the conversation in a constructive way. Plenty of people logically disagreed with my explanations or ideals, but most of them were able to accomplish more than rambling and angry insults. So, I apologize for wanting to "steal" *your* right to tell *me* what to do." - John McDonald

"Well, the 75-80% article was published on Thursday, so I guess that's still the most recent update I've seen on the issue. This does mean that important details can change quickly, but those changes seem to always be for the worse... And it wasn't even a very good policy before all the compromises." - John McDonald

"90 cents was Franken's original proposal, but the one that made it to the Senate compromise bill was [75 to 80](http://www.prwatch.org/node...). (Yes, they explicitly allow insurers to rip off individuals more than members of big corporate group plans) Further, the latest compromise "accidentally" allows [annual coverage limits](http://www.google.com/hostedn...). Oops?" - John McDonald

"And likewise, the concept of "no property" could be interpreted to mean a threat of force. If I am not allowed to own my shirt and shoes, will you or some "syndicate supervisor" come and take them from me? Who has initiated force in said situation? Does that answer change if the shoes were made from my own labor? If I own myself, do I know own my own labor and the product of it? I'm not convinced "all property is theft," but neither am I convinced that "all property limitations are theft." Taking little baby steps in the right direction would be nice, and in that thought I'd be glad to start with a repead of all government-guaranteed profitability." - John McDonald

"Well, I most certainly do not want to be treated as a child of my government. Bush & Obama will never fill a daddy role for me, but if you're into that kind of thing I hear the English still call their queen "mum."" - John McDonald

"Ahh, a regressive tax for those who do not choose to subsidize a horribly inefficient for-profit business. Yeah, if you're willing to pay that you're a sucker. If you stick it out to court and prison, you're a patriot." - John McDonald

"On the last two goes: About -.8 to .5 on the economic scale and -8 to -9 on the authority/liberty scale. So I'm a centrist ... if we're at a conference of anarchists and libertarians." - John McDonald

"The idea I see is not to create a world of 6 billion isolated castles, but rather a less violent or forceful way of organizing ourselves in society. Basically, it is the difference between being initiated to a prison gang at the point of a knife - or going downtown to willingly join a professional organization. But I can't speak for everyone because I believe "We are by nature very *unique and individualistic* beings." And if given a choice, I also think we'd like to choose our own clans and be free from other tribes forcefully taking over." - John McDonald

"Counter-argument: Hey, I read /anarchism/ too! Its a valid point though, that what is currently called a market economy is actually a pretty rigged system that relies on power & hierarchy. Personally, I'd like to start by dismantling certain things like banking, regulatory protections against damages caused, corporate personhood, selective subsidy regimes... So while I don't see personal property as inherently evil, I do see that there are evil or at least forceful ways one can go about acquiring them." - John McDonald

"It sounds like positions that a lot of libertarians would agree with. I don't know his other political opinions, but it sounds like some kind of anti-authoritarian influence in there." - John McDonald

"That's kind of vague - and I generally don't think people should be allowed to pollute and pay off some fee to be forgiven. I'd rather see the courts force them to clean it up until they realize its cheaper to not dump it into the river or air in the first place. The best way to make the free market do this on its own is with technology that converts industrial waste into marketable commodities, but that one is for the scientists to worry about. The best way for the government to do it is for the courts to rule in a way that counts damages rather than the "regulatory law" that actually protects polluters." - John McDonald

"Its not so radical as you might imagine. If someone commits murder, we do not cry about them being sent to prison against their will - this is an important difference between non-aggression and pacifism. They have demonstrated that they do not care to participate in a volunatary society because they're willing to use force against others to achieve their goals. The primary difference I see is that under a common-law scenario the polluters might actually be held accountable for the actual damages they do. Under the current regulatory system, there's certain types and amounts of pollution costs that they are legally allowed to externalize." - John McDonald

"Its not so radical as you might imagine. If someone commits murder, we do not cry about them being sent to prison against their will - this is an important difference between non-aggression and pacifism. They have demonstrated that they do not care to participate in a volunatary society because they're willing to use force against others to achieve their goals. The primary difference I... more... - John McDonald

"What, did you think we were going to elect a pope to enforce a dogma? Of course its whatever you want it to be. That's kinda the point..." - John McDonald

"Copied from my comment: The problem is a common one among both liberals and conservatives: they will often attempt to understand the libertarian position as a set of policy prescriptions. There should be no taxes, smoking should be legal, etc... But it can't be adequately summarized this way because libertarianism is a philosophical approach to politics and it doesn't come with a set beliefs about specific issues. Any good libertarian forum will provide a wealth of debates on education, healthcare, crime, prisons, and all of the social functions that other political factions debate about too. The philosophical underpinning is non-aggression, or the ideal that participation in civilization and all human interaction should be a voluntary thing. But it isn't pure pacifism, because there has to be some way to defend or retaliate against those who use force or damage property. And yes, this even means a tendency to support a common-law approach to pollution that holds polluters directly..." - John McDonald

"Copied from my comment: The problem is a common one among both liberals and conservatives: they will often attempt to understand the libertarian position as a set of policy prescriptions. There should be no taxes, smoking should be legal, etc... But it can't be adequately summarized this way because libertarianism is a philosophical approach to politics and it doesn't come with a set... more... - John McDonald

"Yup, they want to force us to buy insurance or pay a tax penalty to help subsidize those who do. It seems pretty mental to me too, but the voting population is so hooked and doped up on mood pills that they'll probably get away with it." - John McDonald

"Minor in econ, major in political science so I got to take a bunch of macro, pub ad, & international econ classes under that. Oh yeah, I also got a minor in history that made me very critical of the assumptions taught in the other two. It was pretty damn clear to me in 2000-2005 that the lessons of history were in conflict with the beliefs of the economists and political planners." - John McDonald

"Yeah, wheat is just impossible. Excessive soy gives me strange muscle aches and brain fog, it is quite unlike the wheat effect and requires a pretty big dose like you'll find in a lot of processed vegan foods. Beans are kinda iffy, which kills me all over again, because the best non-wheat flours are actually bean-based. So once in a while I deal with the digestive inconvenience of beans to eat cookies or brownies or pizza. I do manage to eat a lot of fruit and sprouting veggies but I imagine those are kind of resource-intensive as well (the price says they are). Broccoli, asparagus, carrots, onions, celery, garlic, sprouts, tomato, and spinach all go well with meat, but they are not filling on their own. Fruit has the same problem - I can literally eat pineapple or raspberry or grapes until I'm starting to feel the sugar crash. Then as soon as I stop, I'm hungry again! Oddly enough, I can drink lots of milk or anything dairy. I guess cheese is something I could substitute for meat?..." - John McDonald

"The visceral reaction is what you might call a "gut reaction." That is, my gut wants meat. There are a lot of foods I can't eat, and meat provides a nice one-stop-shop for most of the essential nutrients. Yes, eating meat can be unhealthy, but so can eating a lot of the sugar-rich alternatives. Grains might be the most economic and environmentally friendly product, but they'll literally kill me because my immune system does not recognize them as food. But if there were a meat producer who was using more sustainable methods, I would not mind supporting them. Part of the problem there is that the FDA has put strict limits on what can be advertised in conjunction with food - and many of these limits are designed to protect the worst offenders from the PR disaster known as the true competition of ideas. In the meanwhile, eating less meat could just be substituted in my mind with "eat less." Since I'm already at the low end of my height's healthy weight, I'll just say "no."" - John McDonald

"People who actively seek the highest personal power available tend to be... not so cool." - John McDonald

"Whats the growth prospect for Japan and the UK? The 1-4% spent on debt service is a real opportunity cost for the economy, and even a small percentage of $15 trillion is a huge number. Long story short, interest payments aren't a very fun or productive way to spend money." - John McDonald

"Whats the growth prospect for Japan and the UK? The 1-4% spent on debt service is a real opportunity cost for the economy, and even a small percentage of $15 trillion is a huge number. Long story short, interest payments aren't a very fun or productive way to spend money." - John McDonald

"As a carnivorous libertarian, I must wholeheartedly disagree about spam. For the price, you can get much better cuts of meat, even if its just sausage, ground beef from a tube, or bacon. Hell, the price range on spam currently puts it with cheap steaks and boneless chicken. If it absolutely has to be meat that stores well and doesn't require preparation, even beef jerky delivers a better nutritional result. I basically agree with the article - the mere thought of these foods grosses me out. Now I'm going to go finish cooking: steak, bacon, and bean sprouts for about $1.75." - John McDonald

"Depends on whether or not they were cultivating wheat at that place and time. I could have turned out better or worse depending on the local diet." - John McDonald

"Alright, that's pretty damn expensive. Its also the most expensive public college in an already-expensive state. So, should a poor student with a 2.5 get a larger need-based grant to attend the research university? Or should the research university keep its admissions high and give scholarships to the students with 3.5s? And how do the public colleges get so damn expensive? Its like $3000-$8000 tuition a year outside of California and I guess some of New England" - John McDonald

"Its not absurd, I'm currently in the process of recording the financial aid and tuition at a few hundred private colleges, and there are a whole bunch of schools that require about a 1.8 high school GPA while directing all of the student's financial aid inquiries to the federal government. These are small for-profit private schools with absolutely no academic standards - many of them are very religious - and they take their entire funding directly from the government and student loans. Nothing about the federal financial aid program examines student academic merit. It is a huge education bubble because its not about educating smart people so much as it is selling a degree to those who qualify for freebies. Anyway, most states have very affordable public universities that actually hold higher admissions standards. California is probably the only place where poor students are really priced out of public colleges." - John McDonald

"If tuition keeps going up 10% a year, poor AND middle class people will be priced out of college. I think if more aid was merit-based rather than *just* need-based, we'd be able to get more smart kids to college regardless of their financial situation. In the meantime, the level of need-based aid that is independent of academic merit is just absurd." - John McDonald