OT: So goes Californica, so goes the nation...

How would krw know? I know how he can thinks he knows, but that's not an interesting subject.

FFS not that usage of the term, you bloody fool. This:

Who cares. You go in for magical thinking, and I don't. End of story.

Not charity. Anything a government does is forced, but charity is, by definition, voluntary giving; not forced.

Socialism is selfish.

Sacrificing your own time and money to support something you believe in is noble, self-sacrificing and selfless; giving other people's time and money away is quite the opposite, involving little work or sacrifice by the 'giver.'.

Using a government to take other people's money and support a cause you believe in but they do not isn't charitable at all. Gov't does the latter, at the point of a gun.

Cheers, James Arthur ~~~~~~ "To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." - Thomas Jefferson

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Cursistor Doom is silly enough to think that foreign aid is charity. James Arthur ought to know better, but isn't going to give up the chance to vent his favourite sound-bite

Not the usual attitude. Capitalism is supposed to makes selfishness a virtu e. Adam Smith's words to this effect do need to be read in the context of t he rest of his output, and his free market is rather less rapacious than th e one that James Arthur sees as perfect and infallible.

James Arthur is happy to be ripped off to pay for defence, roads, police an d the justice system, all of which are of more interest to the well-off tha n the less well-off. Socialism - properly managed - adds education, health care and social services to the mix. The business of giving other peoples t ime and money away to keep the army fed and armed isn't any different - in principle - from spending more money on making sure that the army has an ad equate economy to defend (an economy that can pay for the ever more expensi ve and elaborate weapons that a developed economy can produce).

James Arthur could have his cheapskate state, but it would eventually be wa lked over by neighbours who were more interested in the long term growth of their economy and their society.

And always have done. That's how governments work. Pacifists have to cough to pay for military spending, just like everybody else.

roper regulation, business will take it all. Look at the banks, $300 for a fifty cent overdraft. And if someone committed a terrible fifty cent overdr aft, you think they got an extra $300 laying around to fix this so they can get their mandatory direct deposit pay of minimum wage at 28 hours a week ?

That $300 overdraft fee is a *result* of regulation. Specifically, the Dodd-Frank bill, passed just after Obamacare. That law and the commission it created are also the reason that a mortgage now takes more paper than a stack of bibles--protecting 'little people' by making sure they can't possibly navigate the process. Thanks Barack & Nancy!

Cheers, James Arthur

Yep.

The places that can't feed themselves can't feed themselves because of their politics, usually. We've got cellphones and books and a world of knowledge for solving almost all their basic problems, it's their politics that gets in the way.

Same as where we're heading here, actually, just on a much larger scale.

ISTM the very best thing we can do is set a good example that others can follow. If they want to.

Our success was that we respect property rights (what's yours is yours and no one can take it) & let individual people run their own lives; their failure is that they don't.

Cheers, James Arthur

Why should he when nobody else has either?

Potentially they might even have money in a deposit account at the same bank but if the current account goes overdrawn the bank will sting a

(this happened to a customer I know whose treasurer wasn't on the ball)

They make their money by exploiting people who are in any way careless. It is so out of hand in the UK that payday loan sharks look good by comparison to some of the bank charges for minor transgressions. Payday loan fees in the UK are regulated but bank charges are not!

From a Which Consumer survey earlier this year. You could change bank but it is a big hassle and they are all at it so why bother.

No such law exists in the UK and banks are even more avaricious and greedy than anything you have in the USA. They are still reeling from the PPI mis-selling scandal - essentially stiffing customers for an "optional" insurance that would never pay out to obtain sales bonuses.

And that small matter of needing a 2008 taxpayer bailout to prevent the entire corrupt edifice of international banking failing completely. Exchange rate rigging you name it the banks have been at it.

Regards, Martin Brown

Wow. Jefferson was an awesome thinker.

In the States, there are credit unions that are essentially coop banks. Th ey are generally a better deal for consumers. I have a credit union accoun t with a checking account, a savings account, and a credit card. The credi t card balance gets paid automaticlly each month. I think they will also transfer funds from my savings account to cover checks if there are insuffi cient funds. The credit union is based in California. So could be a pain , but the credit unions have an agreement to provide services for customers of other credit unions.

My son also has an account in the same credit union and I can transfer fun ds to his account over the internet.

Dan

I have. My gun is loaded and sitting almost within arm's reach. I am not going to shoot myself or anyone else today.

And actually, if anyone wants to shoot themself, I say let them. Let them stop their misery. But really, you shouldn't have to use a gun for that, you should be able to just get a pill and not make a mess.

Sloman calls him a tax evader.

But that's just the pot calling the mirror 'black' again, isn't it?

Jefferson was brilliant. You can download a collection of his writings from various sources on the internet. Very impressive.

Cheers, James Arthur

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t proper regulation,

That's funny--the O-ministration is using Dodd-Frank to outlaw payday loans !

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Can't quarrel with any of that.

A bailout was the worst possible course. Rather than being chastened or destroyed by their failures, now the miscreant banks are all just bigger, badder, and bolder, with Uncle Sam there to back them up.

You wouldn't think people pooling their money and lending it to each other should be such a big deal, but the People Who Know Better sure have made it that way.

Cheers, James Arthur

Then they should either not bounce checks or have the accounts linked such that an overdraft debits the deposit account.

The solution is the same as it is for payday loans - DON'T DO THAT!

How about changing your habits?

Irrelevant.

Irrelevant.

We've been members of a CU in New York for more than forty years and haven't lived in NY for over half that period. Most of our banking is done online but we can deal with cash and checks at a number of local CUs. Any overdrafts would be taken out of a savings account or an automatic personal loan. The loan would cost some but it's not a big number (don't remember - there is always money in the account).

Most banking can be done online.

Loan sharks love Obama.

Cursitor Doom does seem to be one of the nobodies who thinks that.

Since Cursitor Doom believes in Donald Trump and a grand international Muslim conspiracy to take over the world, the fact that he thinks that I'm less than sane is a kind of back-handed endorsement - at least I certified as not sharing his kind of lunacy.