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Healthcare Plan Misinformation Video-induced Debate

Discussion in 'Alley of Lingering Sighs' started by The Great Snook, Aug 5, 2009.

  1. Chandos the Red

    Chandos the Red This Wheel's on Fire

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    You are actually engaging in a shell game here by adding consumption taxes into the mix. The more you consume, the more you pay. Let me get out the world's smallest violin and play it for all those consumers who use large amounts of gas for their over-bloated SUVs, (which drives up the price of gas for the rest of us), who smoke (which we all pay for in health care) and the shiny new stadiums they voted for into their local taxes. Some Americans pride themselves on excessive consumption, and when they get handed the bill for it, they start whining and bleating about "slavery." Give me a break.
     
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  2. Taluntain

    Taluntain Resident Alpha and Omega Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    Aldeth, pretty much everything is significantly cheaper in the US than in Europe, even after all the taxes. Real estate (before, and then some now), electronics, gas, cars, groceries, books, you name it. For instance, every one of those things is more expensive here in Slovenia by 1/3 - 1/2 and in some cases it even goes up to 3/4 (actually, with some things like gas, it goes WAY beyond that too). All this with the average salary being several times below what the average salary in the US is.

    Just for comparison... so if you think your prices OR taxes are high, think again.
     
  3. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Oh, my taxes are high all right. Maybe they're just not comparatively high. :)
     
  4. LKD Gems: 31/31
    Latest gem: Rogue Stone


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    When you're trying to scrape together the money for a down payment, university tuition for your kid, or a new vehicle, ANY tax is a tax too high ;)

    The insinuation that the Dems want to institute planned suicide with the majority of the population is just breathtakingly stupid.
     
  5. Aldeth the Foppish Idiot

    Aldeth the Foppish Idiot Armed with My Mallet O' Thinking Veteran

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    Having never lived outside of the US, and having never even been to Europe, I'll take your word for it. I was only responding to Ragusa's comment that Americans do not spend 50% of their income on taxes. I honestly have no idea if this is comparatively higher or lower than most of Europe's, but that was not the point I was making in the post.

    On a slightly divergent topic, I always considered most of Europe to have pretty much the same standard of living as the US. Judging from your comments, this is not true. If your salaries are considerably lower, you lose a greater percentage of what you do make to taxes, and everything costs more, it would appear that any quantity of disposable income would be hard to come by. I make more money, pay less taxes, and spend less on what I buy and I don't have much disposable income, so you guys must have very little indeed. Unless Americans spend *that much more* on health care.
     
    Last edited: Sep 2, 2009
  6. Blades of Vanatar

    Blades of Vanatar Vanatar will rise again Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Everytime I see the word "Breathtaking(ly)", for some reason, I always correlate it with Hot Chics! Adding stupid to the equation paints a very funny picture in my mind!:lol:.... stupid Hot Chics! Who would of thought.
     
  7. Taluntain

    Taluntain Resident Alpha and Omega Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) BoM XenForo Migration Contributor [2015] (for helping support the migration to new forum software!)

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    I was thinking about that too... the first thing that comes to my mind is that Americans likely just buy things far more often and in larger quantities/sizes than Europeans (or items that are more expensive). And that piracy, for instance, is far lower in the US than in Europe simply because things like books, games, CDs etc. are relatively cheap considering the average salary, whereas they're quite expensive considering the average salary here. Though naturally, this can vary significantly from one European country to another.
     
  8. joacqin

    joacqin Confused Jerk Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    There is also the quite severe divide between old "west" and old "east" Europe. Salaries but also prices and general standard of living is still a lot lower in the countries that used to be behind the iron curtain.
     
  9. Chandos the Red

    Chandos the Red This Wheel's on Fire

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    She's not the only one. Take a look at this moron:

    We should all just "relax." He was only joking. R-i-g-h-t. :nuts:
     
  10. Blades of Vanatar

    Blades of Vanatar Vanatar will rise again Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    I do take that as a joke, a bad one, especially for someone at his level, but still a joke. Talking about taking out the Pres is always a bad idea. Just another example of "Insert foot in mouth" disease. My wife tells me I have that disease as well.:D Methinks she is correct!
     
  11. NOG (No Other Gods)

    NOG (No Other Gods) Going to church doesn't make you a Christian

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    Yes, Chandos, that was a joke. You'd have to be a conspiracy loon to think otherwise. It was a bad joke, a really bad joke, up with some of the worst political gaffes I've ever seen, but it was a joke. If the FBI does any kind of investigation, it'll be purely for form's sake, and the newspapers were probably blowing it way out of proportion (unless they presented it as an embarassing gaffe). Still, the guy's an idiot.
     
  12. Aldeth the Foppish Idiot

    Aldeth the Foppish Idiot Armed with My Mallet O' Thinking Veteran

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    I, too, think it was a joke. I seriously do not think that this guy was advocating the assassination of Obama. It was definitely a major gaffe, and I'm sure he wishes he never said it. It's also probably fair to say that this guy really doesn't like Obama, but there's a big difference between not likely someone and wanting them dead.
     
  13. Ragusa

    Ragusa Eternal Halfling Paladin Veteran

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    [​IMG] "We're not going to go out and hunt Obama" A gaffe? Don't kid yourself.

    NOG, politicians are political animals. You really believe that Rex Rammell (geez, that's a name like for a German gay porn star) can't predict what's going to be a really bad joke before he makes it? A gaffe is unintentional. I don't think this was unintentional, because I heard too much of that from people like Beck and Savage and Linbaugh already. It's a theme that's been around, and Rammel picked it up. Maybe he put it into some new words. Still, it was calculated to pull some laughs from the sympathetic among the audience.

    I don't even think Rammel really wants Obama dead, or somebody shooting at him, but he wanted the crowd, and ... taking a shot at Obama ... is cheap ... Obama is an ... easy target ... coming to think of it could probably pull some more puns out of my hat. It's ruthless, and vicious, and well beyond bad taste. And it works. It resonates with parts on the right. And we will see more of it, with ample plausible deniability of course.

    Until someone shoots. Then it was nobody's fault and nobody could have predicted something like that ... and they'll be shocked, just shocked.
     
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  14. Blackthorne TA

    Blackthorne TA Master in his Own Mind Staff Member ★ SPS Account Holder Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) New Server Contributor [2012] (for helping Sorcerer's Place lease a new, more powerful server!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

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    Sheesh, when did everyone get so dour and humorless? It was a glib response to a silly question from the audience. I'd have probably said the same thing, or maybe something more like "Obama tags? No, I'm sure they'd be out of my price range." :)
     
  15. NOG (No Other Gods)

    NOG (No Other Gods) Going to church doesn't make you a Christian

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    No, Ragusa, gaffes aren't just unintentional actions. They can also be quite intentional actions that anyone who thought more than 5 seconds about would see how increadibly wrongly it could be taken. For example, that joke about Palin's daughter having sex with a football player (or was it baseball) was 100% intentional, but anyone who thought at all would realize just how wrongly it could (and did) get taken. It was an intentional joke. It was also a gaffe. Just like this one.
     
  16. Ragusa

    Ragusa Eternal Halfling Paladin Veteran

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    [​IMG] I get the impression you're one of the people who are able go down a sewer, and smell roses, because they really want to.

    I'd rather be dour then.
     
  17. NOG (No Other Gods)

    NOG (No Other Gods) Going to church doesn't make you a Christian

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    Ragusa, if you honestly think the guy was saying he wanted to hunt down and shoot Obama, you're a loon. If not, I'm not sure what it is you do think this guy said.
     
  18. Drew

    Drew Arrogant, contemptible, and obnoxious Adored Veteran

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    NOG, Ragusa makes what he thinks quite clear in post #353 (hint: he doesn't believe this guy was saying he wants to hunt down Obama). Check five posts above this one.
     
  19. NOG (No Other Gods)

    NOG (No Other Gods) Going to church doesn't make you a Christian

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    Ah, yes, that had somehow slipped my mind. Thanks, Drew.

    Ragusa, in that light, I have one problem with your interpretation: I don't see it as a planned thing. He was talking about wolf-hunting tags when a person in the crowd called out about Obama tags. His comment seems to have been a spontaneous response to that. If we've learned one thing over the years, it's that few politicians think well on their feet. I understand you may believe that the crowd-person was planted or something, and that the comment was planned and the response not spontaneous, and I'll agree it's within the realm of possibility, but I don't think it likely.
     
  20. LKD Gems: 31/31
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    Anyone here who has never said anything to be funny, in the spur of the moment, that they regretted about .05 picoseconds after saying it, raise your hands.

    Anyone?

    Didn't think so. Stupid joke, might cost him the election*, but not criminal at all. Time to calm down, people.

    *sounds like he didn't have much chance anyhow, but this'll put the final nail in the coffin.
     
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