transatlantic trade and investment partnership

[notyoueither]

that's right folks, capitalism or stalinism are the only choices.

Are you suggesting this is the case? Don't believe I saw anyone else suggest this.

[notyoueither]

Distributism/ivism appeals to me mostly because it seems centered on fixing that one ****ed-up aspect of society at the heart of the problem, that we produce people incapable of helping themselves. The infatuation with giving everybody plots of land with cows on it does seem a trifle quaint, though.

I don't think there is a 'fix' for the problem you've identified, and that's the problem with all the Nirvana's prescribed by the brainy.

There's no fix for units that are fundamentally broken. They're broken in the sense that they can't do useful work in an orderly way.

Let the able do and excel, and tax them at a level where they aren't discouraged and you can support the 'unemployables.'

And no, you're never going to supply the unemployables with a middle class lifestyle.

[Elok]

You are arguing, in effect, that these people were either born homeless, in prison, etc. or are in some sense predestined to become so. I don't believe either is true, except in the sense that the way things are now steers them into that life. But the way things are now doesn't seem inevitable or unchangeable. And many of the people who came in didn't seem especially dumb; a handful were quite bright. But just as screwed as the others.

Nor are these people being properly supported. Around here, individual foodstamps default to $194 per month, it can take a surprisingly long time to get on them, and the system appears deliberately contrived to eliminate people from consideration arbitrarily. For example, there are a number of odd but innocuously-worded questions on the application which, when answered wrongly, will automatically get your case rejected . . .

[Elok]

Also, that "Jon Miller" character keeps causing problems.