Post by rumpelstiltskinPost by d***@agent.comPost by rumpelstiltskin<snip>
Post by d***@agent.comIf we stop making flu shots altogether, it would address the
carrying capacity/population issue by shortening life spans by
a few years. And since it would be an unselfish act, it would also
address the main cause of conflict in the world, the undisciplined
craving for more by political leaders everywhere, a selfishness gone
wild, the same condition that afflicts alcoholics and addicts.
The principle of unselfishness is mentioned in every sermon,
in every house of worship, every day that services are held,
but that obviously is not enough to reach all areas of society.
I hope you're not getting any flu shots, or ever
visiting a doctor yourself, and are eating nothing
but potato chips and ice cream. Potato chips
and ice cream are delicious, and you wouldn't
want to be a hypocrite, would you?
You haven't given us *your* plan for addressing the main
cause of conflict throughout history: selfishness gone wild!
As to "selfishness gone wild", I agree with you
on that. It's been the American disease for a long
time but it's really disgusting now.
Kleptocracy is a government with corrupt leaders (kleptocrats)
that use their power to exploit the people and natural resources
of their own territory in order to extend their personal wealth
and political power. Typically this system involves embezzlement
of funds at the expense of the wider population.
Kleptocracies are generally associated with dictatorships,
oligarchies, military juntas, or other forms of autocratic and
nepotist governments in which external oversight is impossible or
does not exist. This lack of oversight can be caused or exacerbated
by the ability of the kleptocratic officials to control both the
supply of public funds and the means of disbursal for those funds.
Kleptocratic rulers often treat their country's treasury as a
source of personal wealth, spending funds on luxury goods and
extravagances as they see fit. Many kleptocratic rulers secretly
transfer public funds into hidden personal numbered bank accounts
in foreign countries to provide for themselves if removed from power.
Kleptocracy is most common in developing countries whose economies
are based on the export of natural resources. Such export incomes
constitute a form of economic rent and are easier to siphon off
without causing the income to decrease.
A specific case of kleptocracy is Raubwirtschaft, German for
"plunder economy" or "rapine economy", where the whole economy of
the state is based on robbery, looting and plundering the conquered
territories. Such states are either in continuous warfare with
their neighbours or they simply milk their subjects as long as
they have any taxable assets. Arnold Toynbee has claimed the Roman
Empire was a Raubwirtschaft.
Effects
The effects of a kleptocratic regime or government on a nation are
typically adverse in regards to the welfare of the state's economy,
political affairs & civil rights. Kleptocratic governance typically
ruins prospects of foreign investment and drastically weakens the
domestic market and cross-border trade. As kleptocracies often
embezzle money from their citizens by misusing funds derived from
tax payments, or engage heavily in money laundering schemes, they
tend to heavily degrade quality of life for citizens.
In addition, the money that kleptocrats steal is diverted from
funds earmarked for public amenities such as the building of
hospitals, schools, roads, parks having further adverse effects
on the quality of life of citizens. The informal oligarchy that
results from a kleptocratic elite subverts democracy (or any other
political format).
Examples
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first use in
English occurs in the publication Indicator of 1819: Titular
ornaments, common to Spanish kleptocracy.
In early 2004, the German anti-corruption NGO Transparency Int'l
released a list of what it believes to be the ten most self-
enriching leaders in the past two decades. In order of amount
allegedly stolen USD, they were:
Former Indonesian President Suharto ($15 $35 billion)
Former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos (at least $10 billion
by 1986, equivalent to about $21.6 billion in 2014 dollars)
Former Zairian President Mobutu Sese Seko ($5 billion)
Former Nigerian Head of State Sani Abacha ($2 $5 billion)
Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Miloevic ($1 billion)
Former Haitian President Jean-Claude Duvalier ("Baby Doc")
($300 $800 million)
Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori ($600 million)
Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko ($114 $200 million)
Former Nicaraguan President Arnoldo Alemán ($100 million)
Former Philippine President Joseph Estrada ($78 $80 million)
The Russian president Vladimir Putin is alleged to be the "head
of the clan", whose assets are estimated at over $200 billion.
A list of Russian and Ukrainian politicians associated with
"kleptocratic style" has been published by the Kleptocracy
Archives project.
Sources have also alleged that former Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak stole up to $70 billion.
In addition, other sources have listed former PLO Chairman Yasser
Arafat as having stolen $1 to $10 billion; & Pakistani President
Asif Ali Zardari to have received kickbacks on contracts and
misappropriating public funds, siphoning over $2 billion to his
Swiss accounts. Moreover, the International Consortium of
Investigative Journalist have outlined that current Prime Minister
of Pakistan Nawas Sharif has created offshore companies through
the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca to hide vast amount of
money illegally transferred from Pakistan in the name of children.
In May 2017, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
released a report detailing what it called a kleptocratic network
across the government and private sector in Honduras.
Nursultan Nazarbayev is a head of the Kazakhstan ruling clan with
$7 billion assets.
China's former prime minister, Wen Jiabao, left office in 2013
with his close relatives controlling assets worth at least
$2.7 billion. These revelations were censored in print and
censored online in China.
The term kleptocracy was also used to refer to the Russian economy,
soon after the Soviet collapse in 1991. The "democrats", led by
Yegor Gaidar and Anatoly Chubais, freed prices in 1992 and
unleashed hyperinflation before they privatized Russia's assets.
Most Russian citizens lost their savings in only a few weeks.
A few billionaire "oligarchs" amassed fortunes not by creating
new enterprises, but by arbitraging the huge difference between
old domestic prices for Russian commodities and the prices
prevailing on the world market. Instead of investing in the
Russian economy, they stashed billions of dollars in Swiss bank
accounts. Experts estimate that as much as $15 billion left Russia
each year as either capital flight or laundered money from illegal
transactions. Referring to Russia, Daniel Kimmage also used the
terms: "kerdocracy" ("rule based on the desire for material gain")
or "khrematisamenocracy" ("rule by those who transact business for
their own profit").
South Sudan obtained independence in July 2011 as a kleptocracy
a militarized, corrupt neo-patrimonial system of governance. By
the time of independence, the South Sudanese political marketplace
was so expensive that the country's comparatively copious revenue
was consumed by the military-political patronage system, with
almost nothing left for public services, development or institution
building. The efforts of national technocrats and foreign donors
produced bubbles of institutional integrity but the system as a
whole was entirely resistant to reform. The January 2012 shutdown
of oil production bankrupted the system. Even an experienced and
talented political business manager would have struggled, and
President Salva Kiir did not display the required skills. No
sooner had shots been fired than the compact holding the SPLA
together fell apart and civil war ensued.
In 2016, the FBI announced it was trying to retrieve around
$1 billion in funds associated with 1Malaysia Development Berhad,
an investment fund owned by the government of Malaysia. This was
the largest single action ever brought under the Kleptocracy Asset
Recovery Initiative.
Post by rumpelstiltskinMy solution for
that would be a 98% top rate for taxation, perhaps
even 100% above a certain level, with long jail
sentences for offshoring profits and other dodges.
And tariffs - I strongly advocate tariffs for anything
made outside the USA then imported, whether by
an American company or not.
Besides an income tax, I'd also support a wealth
tax, though that would hurt me personally much
more than a higher income tax since I don't have
all that much "income" these days..
Post by d***@agent.comYou don't defeat an idea with objections & criticism!
You defeat an idea with a *better* idea!
