Random Thread - Anything Goes
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@dafyre said:
True, but then you wind up with career politicians who become career presidents and the public has little or no say in what the president does... In my mind, it becomes to monarchistic.
Well since I'm a monarchist for exactly that reason, it makes sense that I prefer a president with power than a pointless government with no means of improvement.
The number one concern I have with government is the involvement of the public. They lack the education, scope and access to information necessary to make the necessary decisions. We cannot have a good government "of the people". The two concepts must be exclusive, which is why it was so feared by the founding fathers to allow the public to vote (and they did not.) They talked at length about the dangers of democracy (America was specifically not founded as a democracy for these exact reasons) because democracy meant mob rule - exactly what we are seeing today.
The public is just a puppet of the media barons. You can't let the public decide without mayhem ensuing.
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@coliver said:
Although, the current salary of congress is 174k$. So my theory may have gone out the window. That still is not a lot compared to other high paying jobs in the country but is far more the average.
Yes, that congress makes less than doctors, lawyers, small business owners, systems admins and such is a problem. You can be a generic middle manager and make more. Congress people need enough, I think, to be at least on the upper end of normal workers. We don't want "normal successful people" weighing if Congress will cost their kids their college education or not - because people making $174K are in the range where things like that can hit them hard. They give up a lot of family time, freedom, and potentially money to do a thankless job. Paying them millions isn' the answer, but paying them enough that their kids don't suffer from it is probably important. Right now we pay so little it is as if we expect corruption to fill in the gap.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@johnhooks said:
Heck they didn't even get paid very early on. You just did it because you felt it was your civic duty.
Yes, which worked for a whole two presidents before the first corrupt power monger got into power. It meant that only the rich elite had any chance of being in government, which isn't totally bad but isn't very good, either. Washington was one of the richest men in America - but much of his fortune was not from being a good businessman (he was not) but by marrying into money (he was truly American nobility) and then using the wars to grant himself massive estates, the largest in the nation. Not exactly how we want our politicians to be.
John Adams was a working professional, one of the top lawyers in the nation. He took on an insane personal burden to be in politics and only could do it by being wealthy, owning a large farm and running his own legal practice that his fame helped to promote. This is more or less the best case.
Jefferson was also ultra rich land baron that used the political office for personal gain.
requiring people to be super rich as the foremost requirement for office doesn't work well.
Is that not the case now? States require several thousand dollars to go on their state presidential ballot. Some states may allow you to submit a pauper's affidavit that will show you do not have the financial ability to pay such a fee. Then you need to advertise via local papers, town hall meetings, road trips, and TV ads, and everything you can do to get your name out in front of people so they can get an idea as to what you are all about.
You will likely have to quit your job to go on the campaign trail as well, so there's all that. Your average Joe, even if they have a brilliant political mind simply cannot afford to run for president.
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@dafyre said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@johnhooks said:
Heck they didn't even get paid very early on. You just did it because you felt it was your civic duty.
Yes, which worked for a whole two presidents before the first corrupt power monger got into power. It meant that only the rich elite had any chance of being in government, which isn't totally bad but isn't very good, either. Washington was one of the richest men in America - but much of his fortune was not from being a good businessman (he was not) but by marrying into money (he was truly American nobility) and then using the wars to grant himself massive estates, the largest in the nation. Not exactly how we want our politicians to be.
John Adams was a working professional, one of the top lawyers in the nation. He took on an insane personal burden to be in politics and only could do it by being wealthy, owning a large farm and running his own legal practice that his fame helped to promote. This is more or less the best case.
Jefferson was also ultra rich land baron that used the political office for personal gain.
requiring people to be super rich as the foremost requirement for office doesn't work well.
Is that not the case now? States require several thousand dollars to go on their state presidential ballot. Some states may allow you to submit a pauper's affidavit that will show you do not have the financial ability to pay such a fee. Then you need to advertise via local papers, town hall meetings, road trips, and TV ads, and everything you can do to get your name out in front of people so they can get an idea as to what you are all about.
You will likely have to quit your job to go on the campaign trail as well, so there's all that. Your average Joe, even if they have a brilliant political mind simply cannot afford to run for president.
Today it is all about corporate sponsorship. You don't need to be rich at all to do it.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@dafyre said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@johnhooks said:
Heck they didn't even get paid very early on. You just did it because you felt it was your civic duty.
Yes, which worked for a whole two presidents before the first corrupt power monger got into power. It meant that only the rich elite had any chance of being in government, which isn't totally bad but isn't very good, either. Washington was one of the richest men in America - but much of his fortune was not from being a good businessman (he was not) but by marrying into money (he was truly American nobility) and then using the wars to grant himself massive estates, the largest in the nation. Not exactly how we want our politicians to be.
John Adams was a working professional, one of the top lawyers in the nation. He took on an insane personal burden to be in politics and only could do it by being wealthy, owning a large farm and running his own legal practice that his fame helped to promote. This is more or less the best case.
Jefferson was also ultra rich land baron that used the political office for personal gain.
requiring people to be super rich as the foremost requirement for office doesn't work well.
Is that not the case now? States require several thousand dollars to go on their state presidential ballot. Some states may allow you to submit a pauper's affidavit that will show you do not have the financial ability to pay such a fee. Then you need to advertise via local papers, town hall meetings, road trips, and TV ads, and everything you can do to get your name out in front of people so they can get an idea as to what you are all about.
You will likely have to quit your job to go on the campaign trail as well, so there's all that. Your average Joe, even if they have a brilliant political mind simply cannot afford to run for president.
Today it is all about corporate sponsorship. You don't need to be rich at all to do it.
H aha ha. Good point. In that case, we should require NASCAR-like jackets, shirts, and ties for the candidates.
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@dafyre said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@dafyre said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@johnhooks said:
Heck they didn't even get paid very early on. You just did it because you felt it was your civic duty.
Yes, which worked for a whole two presidents before the first corrupt power monger got into power. It meant that only the rich elite had any chance of being in government, which isn't totally bad but isn't very good, either. Washington was one of the richest men in America - but much of his fortune was not from being a good businessman (he was not) but by marrying into money (he was truly American nobility) and then using the wars to grant himself massive estates, the largest in the nation. Not exactly how we want our politicians to be.
John Adams was a working professional, one of the top lawyers in the nation. He took on an insane personal burden to be in politics and only could do it by being wealthy, owning a large farm and running his own legal practice that his fame helped to promote. This is more or less the best case.
Jefferson was also ultra rich land baron that used the political office for personal gain.
requiring people to be super rich as the foremost requirement for office doesn't work well.
Is that not the case now? States require several thousand dollars to go on their state presidential ballot. Some states may allow you to submit a pauper's affidavit that will show you do not have the financial ability to pay such a fee. Then you need to advertise via local papers, town hall meetings, road trips, and TV ads, and everything you can do to get your name out in front of people so they can get an idea as to what you are all about.
You will likely have to quit your job to go on the campaign trail as well, so there's all that. Your average Joe, even if they have a brilliant political mind simply cannot afford to run for president.
Today it is all about corporate sponsorship. You don't need to be rich at all to do it.
H aha ha. Good point. In that case, we should require NASCAR-like jackets, shirts, and ties for the candidates.
I think that that would make matters worse in a lot of cases. I know quite few NASCAR fans and they have crazy brand loyalty.
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@coliver said:
@dafyre said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@dafyre said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@johnhooks said:
Heck they didn't even get paid very early on. You just did it because you felt it was your civic duty.
Yes, which worked for a whole two presidents before the first corrupt power monger got into power. It meant that only the rich elite had any chance of being in government, which isn't totally bad but isn't very good, either. Washington was one of the richest men in America - but much of his fortune was not from being a good businessman (he was not) but by marrying into money (he was truly American nobility) and then using the wars to grant himself massive estates, the largest in the nation. Not exactly how we want our politicians to be.
John Adams was a working professional, one of the top lawyers in the nation. He took on an insane personal burden to be in politics and only could do it by being wealthy, owning a large farm and running his own legal practice that his fame helped to promote. This is more or less the best case.
Jefferson was also ultra rich land baron that used the political office for personal gain.
requiring people to be super rich as the foremost requirement for office doesn't work well.
Is that not the case now? States require several thousand dollars to go on their state presidential ballot. Some states may allow you to submit a pauper's affidavit that will show you do not have the financial ability to pay such a fee. Then you need to advertise via local papers, town hall meetings, road trips, and TV ads, and everything you can do to get your name out in front of people so they can get an idea as to what you are all about.
You will likely have to quit your job to go on the campaign trail as well, so there's all that. Your average Joe, even if they have a brilliant political mind simply cannot afford to run for president.
Today it is all about corporate sponsorship. You don't need to be rich at all to do it.
H aha ha. Good point. In that case, we should require NASCAR-like jackets, shirts, and ties for the candidates.
I think that that would make matters worse in a lot of cases. I know quite few NASCAR fans and they have crazy brand loyalty.
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I would actually be very happy to force our politicians to wear NASCAR jackets with all of their sponsors.....
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Is it just my feed or has the SW pages lost some of their crazy, I haven't seen any recent insane post that makes you Facepalm.
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This place is very busy lately, very impressed
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@scottalanmiller said:
@MattSpeller said:
This place is very busy lately, very impressed
ML or the random thread?
ML - I have to clear unread a couple times a day now, used to be just the morning. Can't keep up with y'all until 3-4pm PST
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I know, it is taking all of my focus. I sometimes don't even get a chance to check in on other communities, this one is so busy.
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I can't even begin to keep up. It's past the point of keeping on top of the site casually in any way.
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This is pretty cool...
http://www.cnet.com/news/nikes-new-hyeradapt-1-0-power-laces-is-very-back-to-the-future/
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Just walked past this place...
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@scottalanmiller said:
Just walked past this place...
They're actually really fun and relaxing! And your skin feels amazing afterwards
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As Scott goes silent for a few hours after the fish are eating his skin.
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I thought that @MattSpeller might appreciate this:
What is the difference between USA and USB?
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One connects to all of your devices and accesses the data, the other is a hardware standard.
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