This is an all encompassing rant, so bear with me :)


One of my pet peeves, is that people think that just because they have an opinion and they argue it strongly....that it must be right. They hear something, jump to a conclusion, misunderstand something.....form an opinion and will argue it to the end, even in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Worse yet, these idiotic opinions often become part of the body of so called "public knowledge"..causing further problems.. So let's look at some of these opinions:

"Businesses, particularly large corporations, pay no taxes" This is based on the idea that companies receive so many tax write offs, that they end up with no tax burden.

WRONG!

There are line items on corporate financial statements, )which for public companies can be looked up fairly easily) which indicate income before and AFTER taxes.

The vast majority of tax writeoffs are simply items that the company spent money on in order to make money, e.g. things that would be subtracted from total revenues in order to determine the amount of profit.....profit which is then taxed.

There are several other reasons, that's just two.


The Government should leave Microsoft alone, because they are responsible for the Internet Boom, as well as inexpensive computers.

(excuse me while I laugh hysterically)

First of all, computer prices came down due to the following:


1. Increased demand for computers, driven by increased Internet usage, people seeing how computers could help them conduct business, increased business use, etc.

2. Cheaper computer chips, there was a time when a Pentium Chip cost well over $1,000....and had about a Tenth of the processing power of the most powerful chip available today. Part of the reason the chips are cheaper are due to increased sales, (which resulted in more favorable economies of scale), improved manufacturing methods and competition between AMD and Intel.

In fact, Microsoft has raised the prices of its software...so they actually made prices go up.

The Internet thing?...HA! Microsoft was late getting involved in the Internet, and didn't establish itself as a major player in the hey day of the late 90s. In fact, it was only 4 months ago that MS started showing the financial results of its Internet operations on its balance sheet and didn't fold it into the rest of its Businesses.

In other words, they didn't want to show how weak they were.

Recent Tax Cut......(ROTFLMBAO) just to kiplingers and enter in your financial info.....and see the truth.


Enough on that, let's look at the Paradoxes and Double Standards. Another pet peeve of mine, it's the American Ideal (IMHO) of, Freedom, liberty and Justice for Me, and others of my economic group, race, religion, sexual preference......f** everyone else.

Let's look at some of those:

Whether it's racial profiling, shooting immigrants 41 times, housing discrimination, loan discrimination, denial of taxi service, etc. There is a growing trend in conservative circles, to call this "rational discrimination" e.g. It's justified due to disporportional poverty, education or crime rates.

Ok, let's look at that:

-Whites commmit virtually all White Collar crime, (making it aptly named) this crime costs society more in terms of monetary cost to the public, the time of law enforcement officials, and other costs to society....then all other crime put together...not to mention Black crime.

So what would happen if non-whites refused to hire Whites as accountants, computer programmers working on bank software, etc?

Or if I put ads in large newspapers, listing 10 reasons why whites shouldn't be trusted in positions where they could commit white collar crime?

White folks would freak that's what.

How about government assistance programs?

Welfare, Public Housing, etc. These piss white folks off to no end, (particularly conservatives) it's a case of Blacks consuming their tax dollars (even though whites consume more....not per capita, but in total $) OR it's socialism and unamerican to give extra help to people who have less then others.

Let's look at that last one, Socialist programs that help those with less to level the playing field are wrong. Hmm....

SO.....explain the following:

-Government sponsored school loans....80% of all college students receive some form of financial aid. So the same parents who bitch and moan about a poor family having housing assistance to get on their feet, are more then willing to use tax dollars to send little Johnny to college.

-State Colleges........again, sponsored with tax dollars. Isn't that socialist? extra help?....why can't people work their way through college and pay for it without help from the government?

GI Bill, VA Home Loans. Both created to help WWII veterans, and are largely credited with creating the prosperous American Middle Class of the 50s. Yup those Grade A Americans, the backbone of America...the heart of this country.....who gave birth to the Baby Boomer/Yuppie generation......got their start with Government Assisstance.

How about the Homestedders of the late 1800s? Government assistance once again, the government just giving people land.

It would be interesting to see how this country would've turned out if Blacks were able to take part in those programs, or didn't get killed and our assets stolen when we did.

Awfully socialist if you ask me. Or maybe it's only socialist when it only helps the poor, or Blacks.....not when it can help Whites or the affluent.

I won't even touch SBA loans, which are so similar to small business programs in countries like Canada and Sweden it's not even funny.

Affirmative Action:

Why is it ok for the stupid children of Alumni and Athletes to get into top schools, but not for Minorities who didn't have the educational advantages of other kids?

Why do people assume that if AA goes away, Blacks will stop getting into Princeton?


Drugs:

Why does the war on drugs focus on the people who use drugs and not those who sell them? In fact 87% of the people in jail for drugs, are there for drug use....not sales or trafficking.

Excuse my ignorance, but how will that stop the tide of drugs into this country? Jailing consumers and not the producers, when the producers have such an easy time of finding customers?

Furthermore, in spite of the overwhelming evidence that putting people in rehab is cheaper in terms of the cost of the rehab centers vs. prisons and later societal costs (in terms of reduced crime) in the short and long term....and results in more people turning their lives around.....why jail so many users?

Why is the average initial sentence for DWI 2-10 days, while it's 3-5 years for drugs. Even though DWI kills more people and alcohol related deaths are 5x the number of people killed because of drugs and drug related crimes?

</end rant>


But trust me, I have more.



Peace,





M2