General thoughts on California
#31
06-21-2009, 05:16 PM
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Dude-Nor Cal is paradise on earth- the best reefer in the world and all the hippie chicks. Killer year-round recreation right out your back door. World class wine and food locally produced. Tons of local micro brews. Awesome art & music, locally produced. (My small little town just had Charlie Musselwhite for the free Sunday Concert In the Park) Red Abalone fresh out of the water & Dungeness Crab right off the boat. If you don't think this is better than Chicago you been smokin too much of the Cali product.
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The Big Engines In the Night- The Diesel on the Pass -Jack Kerouac, "Mexico City Blues" Last edited by LightsChromeHorsepower; 06-22-2009 at 09:23 AM.
#32
06-21-2009, 05:24 PM
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The government will not change until the people demand it. All this government education has dumbed down the average citizen to the point that they don't seem to understand how things work. They think that if the government pays for it that it doesn't cost anything. They don't seem to be able to connect the dots to the government spending money and higher taxes. I can't believe how many people I spoke with during the election who actually believed that Obama and the democrats would not raise taxes on the average citizen, yet provide all these little goodies like national healthcare. They actually thought that he would only tax the rich. Now we are seeing new and expanding taxes being set up to pay for all these "freebie's." Just like the tax rebate and higher taxes next year that just happen to be about the amount of the rebate. :roll:
What most people don't seem to understand about healthcare is that it's basically a zero-sum game. We are going to provide healthcare or let people die in the streets. The real issue is how do we allocate the cost i.e. risk within our society. The way we do it now sucks. 1/3 of every dollar spent on health care goes in the pockets of the insurance industry. Another huge slice is lost to administrative costs. We spend a higher percentage of our GDP on healthcare than any other nation except, I believe, Switzerland. Yet by any measure we have a poorer standard of care than most other industrialized nations. Our system is so inefficient that it threatens our global economic competitiveness. We have to do something.
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The Big Engines In the Night- The Diesel on the Pass -Jack Kerouac, "Mexico City Blues"
#33
06-21-2009, 05:32 PM
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Believe it or not it was the start to rising oil prices. It laid the groundwork for future events. You are correct about market prices being set by supply and demand if you are dealing with a true free market. The situation with oil is that you have a monopoly controlling prices and supplies. By restricting supplies they can reduce what is available in the market and effect the price of oil. Many of those who are speculating in oil futures are the very ones who control supplies. If oil was truly a free market commodity we would see much lower prices. We have a market free for all when it comes to oil.
2. It (OPEC) is not a monopoly. It's a cartel or an oligopoly, both of which have been proven to be relatively ineffective over the long term. 3. Speculating in a commodity via a market such as futures contracts is a whole different matter. It's a feature of of a free market, laissez-faire economy, which is what all you right-wingers profess to admire. We do have a free oil market, the recent swings in price prove it. Don't snivel when you get what you want, it makes you sound like a truck driver.
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The Big Engines In the Night- The Diesel on the Pass -Jack Kerouac, "Mexico City Blues"
#36
06-21-2009, 11:16 PM
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: SW Desert, nowhere else man!!
Posts: 641
I prefer to roll past "NoCal"(yeah, I intentionally call it that) and straight into Oregon instead.
Too much of that Bay Area-influence tends to spread itself all over that area.
#37
06-22-2009, 01:34 AM
damn youtube imbeds never work for me.
anyway, "arnold" has a conversation with george takei, and has him fooled. nor-cal is pretty dope. i don't mind some parts of central cali either.
#38
06-22-2009, 02:49 AM
As Gman has stated before: The POTUS cannot spend a dime that Congress does not approve. Now the Pres. may make suggestions and try to force his agenda it still takes congress to approve the money.
Please stop looking at who was in the White House when so and so happened. Look at who was in control of congress. I think you will find a more direct connection to the economy when the house(s) changed leadership. Not that I was happy with the way things were done in the first term of the Bush Admin. ( with the GOP in the majority ). ..... but it was a damn site better than what we have now. ( IMHO ). Ridge
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#39
06-22-2009, 04:42 AM
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Thanks, I was starting to wonder about you
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The Big Engines In the Night- The Diesel on the Pass -Jack Kerouac, "Mexico City Blues" Last edited by LightsChromeHorsepower; 06-22-2009 at 04:45 AM. |
