You'd have six times the mass of food, but you're not going to be too healthy if all you eat is pig feed.

Your statement being corny notwithstanding, we are not truly what we eat...

For much of the 20th century, the United States has had >70% tax on the wealthiest as well, with at some point >90%. Apparently, that did not seems to hurt the US.

Not that various American ultra-rich folks are calling for higher taxes on the wealthy too. Instead, they get tax breaks.

A few rich people being a bit upset that their income from labor gets taxed heavily, which they don't feel because the vast bulk of their income comes from investment, won't hurt them. It's the desire to spend spend spend that really gets Hollande. Actual socialists do more harm than good.

"They wouldn't dare" is not a long term argument with a government that is increasingly using the methods of totalitarian states.

I doubt you'd be able to reseal the helmet once you break the seal, so you can't just "open it enough". Once you open it, it would depressurize the suit to a vacuum, which is not where a person wants to be.

Citation needed for your claim that eggs are unhealthy.

Eggs are good food, containing lots of animal protein and useful fats, and very few carbs.

If you're still on the fat = bad bandwagon, that seems to have been a dead-end line of reasoning. Literally, in many cases.

In the 1800s we also sent toddlers into chimneys and down mines because they were small.

You're an idiot. But if you're happy with yourself, who am I to poop on your parade? Enjoy yourself.

I work 36 hours a week, and am looking to drop down a bit. Friday afternoons I'm with my friends, having a life. I do sports in the evenings before dinner. I spend much of my free time working on my hobbies, getting good at them and enjoying the hell out of them. This makes enough money for the company I work at for them to want to pay me, for me to pay for the things I want. Sure, there's lots of other work, housekeeping related, helping friends or neighbors, but that's just life.

Sacrificing that life so you can provide 'value' for someone else? No thanks.

You want me to respond to emergencies because our software is crappy? Fuck you, pay me.

Poverty is relative.

Apparently there were 1.5 million households (including 2.8 million children) in the US living on less than $2 a day before government assistance. That's not 46 million, but still quite a lot, and actual poverty. That said, the US government maintains that poverty is not having enough money to clothe, feed and house yourself. And that's quite a few people.

"R&D is the cost of doing business. It should never be passed on the customer."

Uhm, absolutely ALL costs are passed on to the consumer, otherwise you're operating a business at a loss.

An example:
Right. So I spend my life's savings. I build a smart thing, and show a compelling reason why it works. You want it. So I sell it, at a price that will replenish my life's savings and make me some money, ie materials cost + R&D cost offset + profit.

Then Eve comes along, sees my idea, figures out how it works by spending a few afternoons tinkering, since she has a working prototype at marginal cost. She has no R&D costs, and can immediately start undercutting me.

You don't give a monkey's toss who made it, so you buy from Eve, and I end up poorer than I was for being foolish enough to invent something.

Knowing this in advance, I'll save myself from researching it and making myself poorer.

With patent law, I know I have, say, 12 years to make money off the patent. So I know that if I spend $12000 on R&D, I need to make at least $1000/yr margin just to break even from sales, plus some actual profit. If I license the tech out to Alice, Bob and Carol, and I don't want to set up manufacturing, I can license it for $4000 and be in the clear and still sell the product. Each of them has an R&D investment of $4000, so the product becomes cheaper (in a more crowded marketplace).

First of all, the extreme wealth inequality in your country means that 46 million people are living in poverty. People are using food stamps for fuck's sake, and it's not even actual war time. Using money as a reason to not live a life is hardly realistic.

Second of all, as far as I can tell the parents aren't the ones fucking over the donor, it's the state of Kansas.

Thirdly... I got nothing, you're right on that one.

Patents work, and are necessary for research.

If Samsung spends $10 billion researching holographic displays, and all their competitors could just then reverse engineer the technology and build their own devices with holographic technology, then no one will ever have incentive to work out a way to get it done. Except for the 'cool' factor, but the 'cool' factor doesn't gather $10 billion in support unless a US president sets it as a goal and makes room in a governmental budget.

Move to Detroit. I've seen free-standing houses for less than $5000 on some real estate sites. Plus it's in a colorful, lively neighborhood.

Lacking a fundamental skill in society and then basing your political system on requiring that skill does not seem a winning strategy.

Small government cares about local people, and can represent them. Centralized government of hundreds of millions is incapable of effective government.

Well yes, we here in Europe have fought the occasional war. Because we are actually different countries, with cultural differences. Which is why several European countries that had been asked to vote on the EU Constitution in a referendum voted no (France, Ireland and the Netherlands). Obviously, in the end we all signed it, and now we have essentially a federal government.

Our next war will be a civil war.