Just idiotic. Idiotic, wasteful, immoral, unethical, and impossible…

The ancient Egyptians had a better chance at resurrection.
When the preservation process causes more irreversible damage than death, paying through the nose for it is just dumb…especially paying to have just your disembodied head frozen in a vat with hundreds of others who died of something incurable.
Won’t it be ironic when they solve the cell rupturing freezing issues, learn to reanimate dead tissue and repair brains that were freezer burned for decades…only to not be able to cure the diseases they gave you by tossing you in a vat with the other heads! 😂

This is nothing new. The first intentionally cryogenically frozen person was frozen in 1967, and not much has changed.

Also…who in the f*ck thinks “there aren’t enough people, we need to bring back the dead”? What utterly brain dead moron thinks stopping death, even just for the Uber rich, is a good or feasible idea.

In the immortal words of comic book guy, worst idea ever!

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Not wanting to get rich in Norway? Not wanting toys? Meh.
Military spending in Norway per capita? We're in 7th place. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditure_per_capita

In Scandinavia anyone can get wealthy. Anyone can get a proper college education.

Health care? In the US you spend more per capita than in Scandinavia.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-spending/u-s-health-spending-twice-other-countries-with-worse-results-idUSKCN1GP2YN

I quite prefer the model here, and wouldn't switch for the world.
Sure I pay a lot of taxes - half my salary goes to taxes, and I pay 25% VAT on the rest - but I do get value for my money; education, health care, pension and a good infrastructure.

And hey - to help other countries - how about we add up the military spending we use with with how much we spend on development aid:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_development_aid_country_donors

Funny last few seconds --

Up Next: A giant vat of dicks, apparently.

Japan was supposed to buy us out too at one point, don't get your hopes up.

I am not saying that the US is a great place vs the rest of the world, I am just saying that you don't get the 'utopia' that people claim Norway to be without huge sacrifices by the people and also being a net exporter of natural resources.

Norway has one of the highest tax rates and one of the highest VAT rates in the world. They are net exporters of Oil, Natural Gas, and Seafood, almost all profits of which are nationalized by the government and rerouted into pension funds.

They are one of the highest cost of living places in the world and that is not factoring the taxes, but goods and services. If you take your family out to eat and spend 100 dollars, you are going to pay an additional 25 in just taxes.

The society is conditioned to believe in Jante's Law, so this suits them because everyone is 'equal'. However, with the immigration rates rising from poorer EU countries, there are cracks appearing in the laissez faire attitude. Protests and even a mass atttack have happened once people realized that they are now supporting people that are lower than them.

The point is, you can't simply point to the nordic socialist countries and say "Oh, what a wonderful place, if only everyone was so enlightened!" because it won't work without a specific set of circumstances. Most countries don't have those circumstances and must forge ahead in their own path. Additionally, almost no other country has the unique set of challenges that the US faces due to our position as the supposed world leader. Personally, I've long wished we would back off and let the rest of you all figure out stuff on your own. I think, however, that it wouldn't be long before one or more countries would come bitching to us to fix something.

We have decided? When did we have this decision? Because it's pretty much an assumption that we all feel that we are better off if our neighbor's children go to college, etc. The road bit is a terrible example, because even if you don't own a car, you use the roads or some other part of transportation that road taxes aid with. I don't feel that I should have to pay for other people's fuckups and I am not the only one to feel that way, by far. If you smoke all your life and then don't have insurance when the cancer comes around, maybe you should have made some other life decisions. If you screw around and get someone pregnant, it isn't my family's responsibility to fix your mistake. If you feel differently, then we are probably going to continue to disagree on everything else.

The numbers are the average of gross monthly income, before taxes. They have less purchasing power because they have far more money removed towards their taxes and because they have a VAT. The local purchasing power is going to vary due to cost of living in each state being different. For instance, the cost of living where I live is much higher than the rest of the state, while the state overall cost of living is less than some other states, such as California.

I am not playing with numbers or inventing facts, just listing what information could be found by simple google searches. As far as the top 5 bottom 5 bit, I can tell you the average middle class family income in 2014 was 4250 US dollars a month gross. This is the average for the entire middle class, which while declining due to various factors is still larger than the upper and lower class in the country.

I am not outraged and indignant for them, I am defending the facts. The fact is that for all they have, they pay through the nose. The fact is that they have a CULTURAL idiosyncrasy that allows them to be happy with being perfectly equal with everyone else, it is the only way a system like this can make someone happy. Do you not grasp that there is almost no single way to get ahead in a society like Norway's? You have to be identical to everyone else. If your idea of happiness is going to a dead end job, working 40 hours, coming home and not being able to do much because you don't have discretionary income, paying for others to not work hard, etc, then by all means move to Norway. Just be careful if you do, because they really don't like paying for immigrants to have free stuff. In fact, they recently had someone get quite violent over it.

I was raised to believe that if you put more effort in that another person, you should be recognized for that effort and get ahead accordingly. Does this mean I agree with CEO salaries? I do not, but that is a different discussion. What I was not raised to believe in is that, if you simply put in the minimum effort, you should get a medal or trophy for just competing. That is bullshit and counter-intuitive to the way the world actually works. If that was actually possible, Darwin would have had a wildly different theory about natural selection.

The tax level in Norway has fluctuated between 40 and 45% of GDP since the 1970s. The relatively high tax level is a result of the large Norwegian welfare state.

You literally dwarf the US tax rate per person, almost by double the amount.

You have a VAT tax of 25%, among the highest in the world. My equivalent is sales tax, which is 8.25% on the dollar, and it should be 2.5% lower than that, but Austin is a super-left city that taxes extra to cover all their feel good plans.

To be clear, the average Norwegian household pays roughly $70,000 per year in tax. Including the state’s oil income, government tax revenue exceeds $100,000 per household.

Discretionary spending is kept to an extreme minimum, because you don't have much left after taxes. The cost of living and recreation in Norway is through the roof compared to other countries.

Workers come to the office, punch a clock, shuffle papers, and go home. There is no cultural drive to work hard and get promoted. Norway has created a system that makes it virtually impossible to pull ahead of your peers financially. In fact, culturally, there is a thing where you are NOT supposed to do better than someone else.

What major worldwide innovations or brands do we get out of Norway? None that I can think of offhand, but here is a list of some of their more important companies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_of_Norway.

So, you get taxed a ton, cost of living is incredibly high, there is no incentive to do better than anyone else, and in return you get to have free stuff like healthcare and education. Not that it matters really, because once you get out of school you get to become a worker bee drone. Unless of course you move to another country and get to achieve something there.

So, yeah, enjoy your hive mind country. As screwed up as mine is, at least there is a chance to become something if you work hard and invest correctly.

Systemic corruption will bring this planet to its knees.

And we're all to blame. Unless we're willing to be actively involved in the democratic process, unless we're willing to use our overwhelming manpower to DEMAND justice and fairness, unless we drill into our children how important it is to be just and fair and involved, we will be exploited. And it IS happening on a grand scale.

It doesn't have to be like this, with the corruption in banking, politics, the tax loop-holes for the super rich and the toxic policies introduced for the benefit of corporations. All we have to do is decide to stand up together, for each other, and show them by our actions that we will not take it anymore.

My government won't even prosecute HSBC for illegal activity starving this country (and yours, probably) of untold billions in tax revenue, yet on a daily basis they stand in front of the cameras and tell us how lazy benefits claimants have bled our country dry. They have personally stolen millions from us, standing there in a suit confidently telling us they're going to crack down on cash-in-hand builders and the like. I suspect if we start down that particular rabbit hole, we will be left in awe of just how deep it goes - right to the very top of probably every single developed nation's government, possibly for decades. They have been fostering this environment for a long time, steering us to a point where they hold all the cards.

I hate to think i've become a tinfoil hatter, but just look at what's going on.... How can they say that they'll pursue benefits claimants and VAT-dodges to the end of the earth, but not say a single word about HSBC helping millionaires and billionaires not to pay tax? How can i possibly not see that as a conspiracy? They don't go after HSBC because they are DONORS and FRIENDS.

This isn't stuff i'm making up. It's true, it's real and it's a fucking scary Orwellian nightmare. The guy who leaked the HSBC stuff very recently announced that there are a lot more devastating revelations to come!! (which i read courtesy of al jazeera)

@VoodooV

do i sound angry to you?
you are injecting an emotional component that quite frankly is non-existent.

"an emotional rant that has been boiling for months"

um..what?
and just how did you discern these supposed pent up emotions?
what evidence have i presented that my accusing you of being a hypocrite and bully is somehow derived from some emotional cauldron of hate?

what device did you use to come to these conclusions?
was it magic?
a crystal ball?
did you fall into a vat of nuclear waste and somehow gained super powers to peer into another humans intentions?

again...you are projecting.

do you think i hate or dislike you?
do you think i am angry with you?
i dislike the hypocrisy.i dislike the bullying but those are only small aspects of a greater whole.
which is why i was pointing those aspects out.in my opinion you are better than those aspects and maybe i presume too much to feel that you are better than that.

once again i am truly saddened by your lack of understanding.
you seem to feel this is some personal vendetta,based on absolutely zero evidence.you also seem to be under the impression that i am using words to appeal to other sifters.never even considering that my usage may possibly be accurate and succinct.

has it even occurred to you that me pointing out that you are behaving badly may actually come from a standpoint of friendship?or is that a foreign concept to you?you seem to be so certain of your assumptions,yet i see no basis for them.

if you think that just because i point to your poor attitude in regards to certain people somehow translates to me hating or disliking you,you are so incredibly and concretely wrong.

i am truly sorry you do not understand.
my apologies for using words and terms that confuse you.i was not trying to be "cool" or gain the admiration of those who may be following our discussion.

"you proceed from a false assumption.i have no ego to bruise.of course..the ship is yours"

@BoneRemake
i am a man of faith.
do you feel as strongly about me as you do @bobknight33.
do you speak about me in the same tone?

everything i do.
everything i say.
every minute of every waking hour is based on my faith.
is born from my faith.

maybe it is because of my faith i read bobs commentary different.
when he states that human morality has moved on from biblical morality..he is correct.

and i thought it very prescient of him to recognize that fact.

in his second commentary i watched him attempt to express how the picture had become so much larger..and grander,which only served to cement his faith even stronger.he was not dismissing science,he was incorporating it into his faith.

which some here viewed as a dodge.
now maybe that is due to a pre-conceived idea of who bob actually is.
if you think bob is a fundamentalist then yes..his commentary may seem a tad...off.

but if you see bob as a man of faith,then his comment revealed a curiosity and desire to understand and an absolute awe at the way of things unfolding before us.

if we look at science as the understanding of the physical universe by way of theory,testing and repeatable applications of said testing.then science is actually the search for god/creator (from a faith viewpoint).

were you aware that 60% of surveyed scientists regarded themselves as people of *gasp* faith?

i see a lot of people making assumptions and presumptions about other sifters here on this thread.

so you need to ask yourself one question:
how did you come to your assumption in regards to anothers:motivations,intent,feelings,faith?

what tool did you use?

was it a crystal ball?
ouija board?
did you fall into a vat of nuclear waste and gain the super power of peering into another humans soul to discern their true intentions?

as humans we all assume to differing degrees,but if you are not a person of faith,then try to avoid those assumptions.

why not just ask bob?
he is usually gracious enough to interact with those he is full aware disagree with him..almost always.

ok.
enough ranting today.
you kids stay awesome,im off to get my pool ready !

@lantern53 @bobknight33

http://www.alternet.org/no-obama-didnt-lie-you-about-your-health-care-plans

just saying. @RFlagg is correct.
obamacare is a republican policy,or was initially.

and @lantern53
what is this drivel?:"hey RFlagg, you don't understand insurance, or business, or economics...all you know is what makes a utopia, and like all progressives, you don't know how to go about it, so you just make up rules, and devise policies, none of which work, but you have awesome intentions and the world would be a perfect place if only you were in charge.".

you peered into @RFlagg 's soul and discerned his innermost philosophies and all you could come up with is some one dimensional,vapid blather about "utopia"?

what special tool did you use to discern his most intimate visions and philosophies?
crystal ball?
are you a mystic?
did you fall into a vat of nuclear waste and survived only to find out you had superpowers to peer into a mans soul?

come on man.
what you posted in not only intellectually dishonest,it lacks imagination.
if you had shown some flair at least i could appreciate your comment for its creativity.
but its just the usual boring clever monkey flinging poop.

republican,democrat.
same animal.
i thought most people had come to terms that we were all being manipulated by those who wish to dominate and oppress in order to retain their silver crown.

you have more in common with Rflagg than you do with the very people fucking you and your family in the ass.
doesnt matter which team they play for.

disagree with him all you want but stop buying into this "republican versus democrat" bullshit line.
they are in a small club.
you aint in it..you will never be in it.
they dont like you..they will never like you.
the political class serves their own interests.
you? you can go fuck yourself.

or continue bickering with people you have more in common with while the elite class (that are holding all the cards) ass-rapes your kids future.

they like that.it serves their interests.
stop.
being.
a tool.
for the slave masters.

This is blocked up here in Canada, do they show the scene where the kid freaks out his teacher by cutting off the vat grown flesh and skin from his arm?

@Buck said: "We should close factory farms and teach people how to hunt again."

Hunting can't scale to support a larger population than a hunter-gatherer tribe. So the cost of meat would skyrocket because demand stays high, and supply can't increase.

Meat costing $75 per pound instead of $5 per pound would be a huge reduction in quality of life for everybody.

That's why humans left hunter-gatherer lifestyles in the first place.


The answer will probably end up being the vat-grown meat Silicon Valley is working on now. It will be the health equivalent of organic and free range meat, since it's not fed pesticide food, antibiotics, etc.

Why do they even carry vats of hydrochloric acid?