Aspies For Freedom

China would also be brought to its knees with that.

If government is there to bail everybody out who doesn't want to work, of COURSE there will be "many unproductive people".  There's little incentive for them to become productive.  If government wants to make matters worse, they can load everyone down with regulations and taxes if they want to start small businesses, discouraging people who would like to become productive without being someone else's wage slave.

You think that is a good idea to say that out loud. You just know that there's a Chinese spy reading this saying either "Oh no, there onto us," or "Hey, that's a great idea, let me write that down."

SO true here in the US. Large US corporations exploit theird world countries, and then their coporate taxes paid to the US federal government is used to finace the welfare system here. A system that rewards not being self sufficient, not pulling ones own weight, not being productive.

I have no problem with assiting people who are not so fortunate. But the sad fact is the US system in effect punishes anyone who attempts to get off wlefare - if they get a job, they will find themselves unable to afford rent, food, etc.

Sometimes I think this is deliberate. Money is a commodity like anything else. It's value is directly related to how scarce it is.

Lot's of poor folks means money is worth more - you can pay lower wages for more work, etc.

What worries me is all the western corporations investing in infrastructure there. I suspect some time in the next 20 years that China may decide it in their best interest to nationalize all foreign owned factories, etc.

If/when that happens, I doubt the western economy could handle such a loss.

Meanwhile, agricultural jobs can be hard to get, and if you do get them, don't pay well. Farmers work hard, they should get paid a living wage, or at least minumum wage.

Huh?  Several million Mexicans have come to the USA to get the jobs Americans do not want to do.

One big problem that is never mentioned is the 500,000 deaths each year due to cigarettes. People are going crazy over the 3300 soldiers killed in Iraq in four years when that many people are addicted to cigarettes each day, leading to the death of over 1000 of them every day.  Tobacco is the ONLY product sold in America that will kill you if used as intended.  Any other product that kills 10 people a year is investigated and outlawed by the government.

OOOh,China trade and economic fall out are a subset of one of my pet topics. So....

WARNING: Lots of blather coming up. Go ahead and skip it if I drone on and on.

China and the USA are in a destructive symbiant relationship. We have them by the neck(trade) but they have us by the balls (debt). Up until now it has been mutually beneficial and no one has closed their hands to crush. Now,however, our grip is starting to weaken and they are preparing to squeeeeze.

My belief is that they have been preparing to decouple from the United States and are/were planning on somwhere between 2010-12 to do so. They have to be careful because they face many difficulties:

One Child Policy: In a society that has celebrated extended families and ancestors now they are facing a family of 4 grandparents, 2 parents and one child. No sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles cousins. No extended family to spread supporting 6 older family members on one  back. IF they are lucky enough to marry, then 2 shall be supporting 12.

Large Rural Population: Massive amount of under educated rural people who grew up under the communist safety net, and now are struggling to adapt to the new mix of commcapitalism.

Pollution and environmental degradation: Horrible disaster unfolding in real time. Development, deforestation, water and energy pollution. It is being documented that itis taking years off many lives.

China owns over 1 trillion in american debt. Treasuries, Mbs, Fannie and Freddie--you name it, they have it. About a month ago they announced they were no longer going to accumulate foreign reserves. They have enough. I almost fell out of my chair the day they announced it, because something that can shake our world so hard should be front page news and trumpeted near and far as a wake up call, but it was just a small blurb in bloomber, reuters and a few others.
Now they are investing in THINGS. Commodities. Oil, chemicals, minerals, infrastructure. The things they will need, not the greenbacks.

They were buying our debt, even though they knew it would most likely be devalued and worth far less than the trillion and change now in order to keep us spending. They needed to grow, and fast in order to be able to switch from a trade/export economy to mining the millions of potential domestic consumers.

I believe they are speeding up their timetable. The USA is on the leading edge of one of the greatest recessions of all time, and might possibly challenge the title of Great Depression. ( I will savethat blather for another day--but it is here, now beginning)

Did you hear how Paulson and Bernanke got smacked down by the Chinese Lady giving a presentation? They went crawling over with their kneepads and lube to grovel, but also tried the browbeat them method. She turned to them and said something along the lines of most outsiders do not and can not understand the chinese way. smack.

The trade sanctions and tarriffs that congress is salivating over will be a disaster. If you owed a bank one million dollars, you do not tell the bank what to do. Congresscritters seem to think by squeezing the chinese American JObs will return. not gonna happen. They are gone. American manufacturing has been gutted. It takes years and money to re-build capital like that. Capital spending has been declining and willnot be able to automatically wave awand and make the factories reaapear.

And who is to blame? Americans. It islike a triangle of addicts drooling over the next profit, next trinket next power trip, with no thought for 1 year,5 year, 10 years down the road.

The triangle consists of the American as consumer, American as investor and American as spectator.

The owners of stock in a company do not care about the health of the companies in thelong term, only THIS quarter, maybe 2 quarters out. Did it hit the numbers? no? sell. Ahhh, they willright size and down size and outsource? buy buy more profit next quarter.

The consumers do their patriotic duty to support the economy by spending themselves into serfdom for crap that will fall apart in a year that they dont really need anyways. Why worry? All that liquidity and credit floating aroudn will take care of it.

God help us all because we just watch. We watch all this happen and we think something is not right but just as we might actually think and consider and search foronce, bam look american idol is on quick turn it up!! oh ,no Anna Nicole died and now there is a custody fight lets watch. Spectators = sheep= mutton

I didnt get this down right. I wasnt able to say it right. I never am able to. Sorry everyone. Maybe someday I will be able to but I realize today was not that day. ah well. Maybe a rerun of cribs ison and I can kick back and watch.hahahaha

This is the dirty little secret that the predatory criminals who hire illegals don't want us to know.  Illegals are popular to hire in the USA because the predatory dirtbags who employ them know they can abuse these people with impunity.

However, the solution does not need to be a xenophobic one.  We also don't need some stupid "guest worker" program.

Just open our borders to anyone who wants to work and simultaneously restrict welfare and other entitlements to citizens, only (note that public education, workman's comp, unemployment insurance, and social security, are not entitlements).  Come here to work?  Get the same pay and protections as US citizens, but some benefits will still require US citizenship.

That half a million deaths stat is likely complete bullshit.

Nowadaus, and lung cancer, or even many non-lung cancer deaths, are automatically attributed to cigarettes. If the person did not smoke, it must have been second hand smoke.

Now of course, lung cancer (as well as all other cancers) had been around since humans evolved.

Does smoking cause cancer? almost defintely yes. Does it ALWAYS cause cancer? almost definitely no. Does it cause MOST cases of lung cancer? Anyone who claims they know for certain one way or the other is deluded. However my suspicion is "no", many or most cases would have occurred anyway.

The rise in lung cancer rates is lilkley more directly casued by the rise in people living to be older - as one gets older, chances of getting cancer increase. If people are not dying of childhood diseases, flu epidemics, industrial accidents, heart disease, wars as much, you WILL have an increase in cancer deaths.

debatable, since shooting humans is not the only intded use for a gun.
in fact, humans don't die if a hunting rifle is used as intended.

Sometimes your insight and knowledge make me feel like an idiot.

That's HOT.
I LIKE it. (and you know what I mean by that!)

No specific type was specified. Only guns in general were mentioned.

But ok, lets say a .22 handgun fired in self defense at another human being. MOST times that will not result in death.

Or do you mean only larger bore handguns? Or assualt rifles? or sub machine guns?

Of course aay of the above, esp. the last two, could be used for suppresive fire, which generally does not result in any casualties, and is well within the realm of their "intended use"...

It's not that black and white.

Yes I do know what you mean.  Thanks for the compliment sean. But you should never feel like an idiot. You are very smart. And I think THAT is hot. Besides I missed so much in that post. Ah well.