This is soooo enraging... and I'm not even american!!

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If there is one thing the bible got right it's this: the love of money is the root of all evil.

>> ^JiggaJonson:

If there is one thing the bible got right it's this: the love of money is the root of all evil.


Possibly the one and only thing Ayn Rand actually got right...her refutation of this old saw is amazing. An eleven page (IIRC) monologue by Francisco refuting the claim is actually readable, understandable, and quite logical. Money is a symbol and a tool, and quite a powerful tool at that. It expands our capability far beyond anything that could have been accomplished when limited to a barter economy.

The part she failed to grasp (or refused to admit, I'm not sure) is that unrestrained greed is -not- a virtue. Once you throw away ethical behavior in the pursuit of unbridled acquisition...once you start treating people as tools to be used rather than human beings...once you begin to look at people as sheep to be fleeced rather than trading partners to make mutually profitable deals with...you -are- evil.

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Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

Flat rate goods and services tax anyone?

Tags for this video have been changed from 'jon stewart, the daily show, taxes' to 'jon stewart, the daily show, taxes, muffin top' - edited by calvados

Dude love of money, not money itself. i.e. avarice. Jesus' anger at the money-changers was not because he wished they were bartering...

>> ^Stormsinger:

>> ^JiggaJonson:
If there is one thing the bible got right it's this: the love of money is the root of all evil.

Possibly the one and only thing Ayn Rand actually got right...her refutation of this old saw is amazing. An eleven page (IIRC) monologue by Francisco refuting the claim is actually readable, understandable, and quite logical. Money is a symbol and a tool, and quite a powerful tool at that. It expands our capability far beyond anything that could have been accomplished when limited to a barter economy.
The part she failed to grasp (or refused to admit, I'm not sure) is that unrestrained greed is -not- a virtue. Once you throw away ethical behavior in the pursuit of unbridled acquisition...once you start treating people as tools to be used rather than human beings...once you begin to look at people as sheep to be fleeced rather than trading partners to make mutually profitable deals with...you -are- evil.

When is this horrorshow going to stop? It's so frustrating that this stuff goes on and yet we have to hear every single day here in America how there's no money so the middle class and poor have to sacrifice more and more.

@jbaber
And Rand addressed that claim as well... Seriously, if you can, read that monologue. Nothing else she wrote is worth getting excited about, but this monologue is impressive.

( Looking at this copy, it couldn't have actually been 11 pages, but it is what it is. )

Fransisco's Money speech

Get rid of loop holes and just flat tax Corporations.

Net Runner I agree that this is a damn shame. Is not a Democrat / Republican thing. Its a corporate using loopholes to its advantage.

Agreed GE is shameful. I ought to know, I work for this morally bankrupt corporate greedy meatball and it is sickening.

*blocked in Canada

Invocations (blocked) cannot be called by Norrass because Norrass is not privileged - sorry.

"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."

And people do worship the almighty dollar. Some people would do practically anything, up to murder and more, for money. If you don't have it, you have no status, no power, and no utility. The poor are despised and ignored; they are ground into the dirt and forgotten about. The love of money is responsible for a great deal of evil in the world. And a small number of people control most of the wealth in the world and lord over everyone else, silently controlling most of the power as well.

Of course absolute power corrupts absolutely, because the human nature is a fallen one. You simply can't trust anyone in power who doesn't truly follow the Lord. That is why Obama is so untrustworthy, because he has lied about being a Christian; he isn't one. Whatever he is, he has a lying and deceitful nature.

Agree with Jon Stewart. Give up in thinking anything good will come out of this administration; it is obviously stacked by the NWO crowd. The treasury is run by goldman sachs. Many other departments are stacked with special interests and big business types. The entire thing is corrupt to its roots. One thing I know, we haven't even begun to be amazed at how screwed up it really is.

>> ^shinyblurry:

"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."
And people do worship the almighty dollar. Some people would do practically anything, up to murder and more, for money. If you don't have it, you have no status, no power, and no utility. The poor are despised and ignored; they are ground into the dirt and forgotten about. The love of money is responsible for a great deal of evil in the world. And a small number of people control most of the wealth in the world and lord over everyone else, silently controlling most of the power as well.

I'd have upvoted if you'd stopped right there.

Would you vote for someone who follows *a* lord? If the problem lies in adhering to a higher power, would you accept someone who does, but simply not to your christian god? If not then ask yourself why, you simply can't argue that Christianity is the most righteous of the major religions when it comes to dealing with financial issues, it has always been at the forefront of corruption.

>> ^shinyblurry:

"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."
And people do worship the almighty dollar. Some people would do practically anything, up to murder and more, for money. If you don't have it, you have no status, no power, and no utility. The poor are despised and ignored; they are ground into the dirt and forgotten about. The love of money is responsible for a great deal of evil in the world. And a small number of people control most of the wealth in the world and lord over everyone else, silently controlling most of the power as well.
Of course absolute power corrupts absolutely, because the human nature is a fallen one. You simply can't trust anyone in power who doesn't truly follow the Lord. That is why Obama is so untrustworthy, because he has lied about being a Christian; he isn't one. Whatever he is, he has a lying and deceitful nature.
Agree with Jon Stewart. Give up in thinking anything good will come out of this administration; it is obviously stacked by the NWO crowd. The treasury is run by goldman sachs. Many other departments are stacked with special interests and big business types. The entire thing is corrupt to its roots. One thing I know, we haven't even begun to be amazed at how screwed up it really is.

>> ^shinyblurry:
You simply can't trust anyone in power who doesn't truly follow the Lord.

Well, history has taught us that you can't trust people who do follow the lord either, so perhaps the moral of the story is you can't really trust anyone in power.

The real issue is that no matter how much chaff guys like Stewart fill the discussion with - the cost of doing business in the US is higher than almost anywhere else. This high cost causes businesses to go to places where they can get a higher benefit to cost. The company I work for would love to do more business locally, but getting the exact same stuff from a US location costs millions more than getting the stuff from China. So we have a plant in China because it is bucoup cheaper.

The fact that GE (and others) get their taxes down to 0% (or -60% whatever) is not a problem indemic to corporations. Companies do nothing more than attempt to get the lowest operating cost they can got, which results in the highest profits. There's nothing wrong with that. A company that manages to get a -60% tax rate is doing nothing but playing the game well with the board that we're all on.

The real problem is GOVERNMENT - particularly the Federal government. The robber barons of America's past abused power in a way far more like what Stewart is whining about here. They ran roughshod over people, and there were no laws to stop them. A good thing happened, and the people forced government to pass laws that allowed government to regulate such abuses. It was a good thing.

But as with all human endeavors, a the pendulum once it starts swinging in a direction tends to keep going way past the point where it was prudent or useful. Government now has so much power that it is in a position where it is literally PICKING winners and losers in the marketplace.

It is no accident that GE is getting such sweetheart deals. They donated to the right people, and support the 'right' political things (green energy, Obama, etc...) so they have been rewarded by their political allies. It is modern-day corporate patronage in full nakedness. GM is another example. They're playing money out to the right people, and so they get billions in government money despite the fact that not a single citizen VOTED for them to get so much as a red penny.

Companies aren't stupid. They know all too well that in today's environment a profitable year, a good quarterly report, or the ability to expand operations is more dependant on the whims of politicians than any other concern. Obama yesterday gave the corn growers of the US about the biggest gift they've ever had, while at the same time stomping on oil, coal, natural gas, and other fossil fuel companies. That wasn't a COMPANY issue. That is GOVERNMENT entering the mix and picking and choosing who succeeds and who fails.

The only way this kind of outragousness is ever going to end is if you weaken government's power to write tax code. What good does fixing the tax code do when the same government can change it tomorrow to make it so a favored political donor doesn't have to follow it?

Problem is not companies and big profits. Problem is GOVERNMENT. As with so many other problems, the solution is severely weaken government power.

>> ^Winstonfield_Pennypacker:

The robber barons of America's past abused power in a way far more like what Stewart is whining about here. They ran roughshod over people, and there were no laws to stop them. A good thing happened, and the people forced government to pass laws that allowed government to regulate such abuses. It was a good thing.

Yes, so let's do that again. We just need to roll back the robber barons' acquisition of government. They took it over in the immediate aftermath of the progressive era in the early 20th century -- by 1929 they basically ran Washington, just like now.

Back then, people demanded a New Deal, and got one. We had an era of real growth, where the resulting prosperity was relatively equally shared. The rising tide really did raise all boats. Not because businesses were more kindhearted, but because we had strong unions, and regulators who saw their job as actually regulating business.

Then Ronald Reagan came along, and it became Mourning in America. Unions got systematically broken up and destroyed. Business was welcomed into Washington with open arms, and allowed to write regulation. An anti-Fed objectivist became chairman of the Fed. Taxes for the rich were slashed, so were benefits to the poor. Everyone (who matters) wins!

Now we're getting a Great Depression of our own, and it looks like instead of us getting a New Deal, the robber barons are. More union busting, more tax cuts for the rich, more deregulation, and all so we can "compete" with authoritarian dictatorships that run sweatshops, by setting up our own here at home.

And the middle class gets squeezed to make up for the difference.

>> ^blankfist:

And the middle class gets squeezed to make up for the difference.


I'm glad you've come to the realization that that's what union busting, corporate tax cuts and deregulation does.

You simply can't trust anyone in power who doesn't truly follow the Lord.

You cannot trust those with any power that follows the 'Lord' either. Every year or two some popular and wealthy church leader is revealed to be have broken church laws. They've stolen money from the old and poor folk by telling them god loves them if only they donate $100 or they end up admitting to sleeping with various women (or men). Even the so called 'good ones' are all covered in jewels and gold, as corrupt without 'sinning' as any other.

What it comes down to, Lord or no, is simple human nature. It is the driving force behind everything, good or evil (though don't get me started on those words) is simply human nature. We forget that we are simple animals when all is said and done and like animals we have our own desires and our own shortcomings. Being a greedy bastard that treads upon those below him or her with their boot-heel are no less or greater than any one of us. It is our ability to overcome our base instincts with knowledge and forethought that separate us and allow some to overcome those base instincts. But most of us would be exactly the same given the power and wealth these people have.

>> ^NetRunner:

>> ^blankfist:
And the middle class gets squeezed to make up for the difference.

I'm glad you've come to the realization that that's what union busting, corporate tax cuts and deregulation does.


Well, corporate tax cuts certainly squeeze the middle class as long as we have income tax, because the government won't cut its spending and chooses to raise taxes on the middle class to offset their revenue deficiencies. To me, this has nothing to do with union busting and deregulation, though.

False. Self-interest indulged to the extent that it becomes at the expense of others is the root of all evil.

>> ^JiggaJonson:

If there is one thing the bible got right it's this: the love of money is the root of all evil.

I love seeing capitalism continue to devour itself.