They're always keen to point out the efficiency of capitalism. When I look at this (source), it tells me that their definition of efficiency might have come from Ambrose Bierce's Devil's Dictionary.

THE GREAT AMERICAN RAILROAD WAR: How Ambrose Bierce and Frank Norris Took on the Central Pacific Railroad-Dennis Drabelle, St. Martin’s Press

FDR: American Badass!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1811315/

Iron Sky
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1034314/

Worldwide Entertainment Event: London Olympics Track and Field Events, (bird's-eye-view take-offs & Landings)

...watching people do the geekinest dance invention craze since the Wiggle or Watusi, Opa's White-man-style!

Ecclesiastes, 1:9:
What has been is what will be,
and has been done is what will be done;
and there is nothing new under the sun.

Sonnet 59, Shakespeare
If there be nothing new, but that which is
Hath been before, how are our brains beguil'd,
Which labouring for invention bear amiss
The second burthen of a former child.
Oh that record could with a backward look,
Even of five hundred courses of the sun,
Show me your image in some antique book,
Since mind at first in character was done,
That I might see what the old world could say
To this composed wonder of your frame;
Whether we are mended, or where better they,
Or whether revolution be the same.
Oh sure I am the wits of former days,
To subjects worse have given admiring praise.

Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary:
There is nothing new under the sun but there are lots of old things we don't know.

i agree that everything to some extent is a remix, but a person's first exposure to an idea/concept/whatever... isn't

>> ^blankfist:

"Politics is a strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles."
– Ambrose Bierce

It seems to me that you should really turn the sharp end of that quote on yourself blankfist. You don't seem to realize that your own supposed principles should be viewed in that same cynical light.

Let's try to talk about sorting right and wrong, at its most basic level.

I'm basically a hedonist at heart. I say that morality is about maximizing pleasure, and minimizing suffering. Not all pleasures are created equal -- the base pleasures of the flesh rank below the more erudite appetites of the intellect, and those rank below the high pleasures to be found in helping others achieve greater heights of pleasure.

When it comes to designing social frameworks in which people coexist, I think we should try to maximize the net pleasure of all the people involved. I have been persuaded by history and philosophy that this requires a notion of inalienable human rights, and the use of a legal and political system to uphold those rights.

I have also been persuaded that market economies can be both economically efficient and while retaining a great deal of individual economic choice, so I'm willing to entertain including a legal definition of claims to inanimate objects known as "property". I think for a market to function, people must be allowed to purchase and sell property within it, and I think all people should have the right to participate in it, and enjoy the fruits that can be earned within it.

But I also think the overall economic scheme known as a market should be subservient to the overarching goal of maximizing pleasure for everyone in society, and not that society should be subservient to the rules of the market, regardless of its effect on the happiness of the people within it.

I also think that where markets run afoul of intrinsic human rights, like a person's ability to stay alive, or freely express themselves, markets must bend to the higher callings of these intrinsic human rights, rather than vice versa.

The bottom line is that morality can never become a license for me to ignore the effect of my actions on other people -- morality demands that I must always weigh the effects of my actions on everyone, everwhere, and ensure that I am always serving to maximize utility pleasure for society as a whole.

"Politics is a strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles."
– Ambrose Bierce

Taxation is money owed for services, but those services and goods are mandatory and paid for under threat of violence. The mafia uses a similar technique, offering protection to certain businesses for a percentage of their earnings. What's the difference? The difference between the government and the mafia is the process of voting for or against those who rob you and to a lesser degree what is taken from you.

Sure you can all justify taxation saying it's for services rendered, but that doesn't make it any less a theft. Just like how the war isn't any less a series of murders just because it's wrapped in nationalism.

Voluntaryists (anarcho-capitalists, libertarians, anarchists, etc.) believe services and goods shouldn't be offered under threat of violence. If Verizon sent you a phone in the mail with a letter that detailed a compulsory phone service you must pay for, and if you refused they'd send men with guns to your home to detain you and throw you in a cage, would you not think that's extortion and completely wrong? Well, that's exactly what taxation is according to your examples: exaction for mandatory services or goods.

Just because all of you are in agreement and enjoy stroking each other's egos in the process, doesn't mean your argument is sound, moral or right. It just means you like pressing your will onto others by force if necessary. To me, that's an indefensible position, but apparently not to you.

A fine quotation is a diamond on the finger of a man of wit, and a pebble in the hand of a fool.
- Joseph Roux

I would kill everyone in this room for a drop of sweet beer.

Homer Simpson

Any man who has $10,000 left when he dies is a failure.

Errol Flynn

You are not permitted to kill a woman who has wronged you, but nothing forbids you to reflect that she is growing older every minute. You are avenged 1440 times a day.

Ambrose Bierce

Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.

Napoleon

nice to see ambrose bierce here , the much maligned and frequently banned .
if anyone cares for old media forms , try "the Devils Dictionary" .

Brain: an apparatus with which we think we think.
Ambrose Bierce