That sort of adjustment does help the poor, but it means the middle class pays the highest percentage of their income in tax. Still not a very far deal.

They don't stash it under the bed, they stick it in banks (or treasury bonds, or other low-risk investments).

The point being, it's an investment. Banks pay interest because they are loaning the money out to people who use it.

Until you can see the difference between stashing money under a bed, and putting it in a bank, you really are better off not discussing economics.

After something like 20 years I finally found a system that won't run Debian unstable right now. My Panasonic Toughpad FZ-G1 magnesium tablet + iKey Jumpseat magnesium keyboard. Systemd and GDM break. Bought (for less than full price) because I am a frequent traveler and speaker and really do need something you can drop from 6 feet and pour coffee over have it keep working.

But because of this bug I have ubuntu at the moment, and am not having fun and am eager to return to Debian.

Serious question, do you think the moon landing was faked?

That's not what is meant by being open minded.

This is such a great idea.

You've got midi-chlorians shooting out of your nose, young padawan. Don't burst.

That's what Perl and shell scripts are for.

The right word for that other one is "Imperial".

I know.

If you are talking about chemtrails, then once again, you're completely out there. You might as well start talking about how the moon landing was faked.

This exact scenario has been rehashed in more than one fiction book that I've read.

By the way, you can think even further outside the box. Rich people don't just have yachts, they also have private planes. How much screening do those go through when they enter US airspace? And how devastating would an air explosion over a populated city be?

Lots of things make sense that aren't true. The question is whether it's true. The way to demonstrate something is true is by bringing evidence.

Strange how it's something only you can see.

Only tax based on use (i.e. Sales Tax)

A national sales tax is arguably unconstitutional.

Historically, that sort of thing has been found perfectly fine at times, and absolutely wrong at other times. Just depends on how the Supremes of the day read the law.

Which means it would probably require another Amendment to make it legal.

Your assumption that the unelected bureaucrats in an African kleptocracy are more responsive to the needs of millions of people (who aren't related to them) is...amusing.

And I don't care how justified you think you are....

He starts out fine, with points I don't want to refute, by pointing out that Obama claims he doesn't need permission from congress to go to war. OK, fine, that's true. Our constitutional scholar president really does believe that he doesn't need permission to go to war. I'm not going to try to refute that point because it's true.

Then he starts going off the rails, with this kind of thing:

The US is attacking rebels in Syria because Putin prevented war in Ukraine? How does that even make sense? If you can defend that with more than vague speculation, I would be really interested in hearing it. The GP did not.