Today is April 15th. It's a significant day in America because income taxes are due. It's also the day when some people are protesting taxes by having "teabagging" parties. If you don't live in the USA, or watch American television, you've probably never heard of "teabagging." Here's a quick summary from a show that I watched on MSNBC.
Listen for Lawrence O'Donnell, who explains the importance of socialism in America. According to O'Donnell, America is like all other Western industrialized nations. It has a mixed economy (capitalism and socialism).
I agree with that. I don't agree with his claim that, compared to all other nations, American probably has the best mix of socialism and capitalism.
10 comments :
Larry -- I don't know if you intended this as a joke, but "teabagging" has a pretty distinct *ahem* meaning that wouldn't be the obvious manner of a public protest.
"Tea Party" is the traditional term for a tax protest in America, with reference to the "Boston Tea Party" of 1773. I believe that various left wingers may be using the term "teabagging" as a derogatory description of the current protests.
Today I learnt two things from John Hawks - the latest on Australophithicines and the meaning of teabagging!
hahahahaha
C'mon. Even I know what t-baggin is, and I'm in Chile.
No teabaggin' for me. I'm just not that trusting. But how 'bout Frodo Baggin'? Or Bilbo Baggin'?
You ought to find the Rachel Maddow Show section on teabagging, it was rather amusing.
I believe that various left wingers may be using the term "teabagging" as a derogatory description of the current protests.No, apparently the right wingers came up with it all by themselves. Good job!
The left wingers are of course merely reporting the news.
John Hawks says,
"Tea Party" is the traditional term for a tax protest in America, with reference to the "Boston Tea Party" of 1773.I'm aware of the fact that the modern right-wing protests against taxes stem from the Boston Tea Party of 1773.
It's ironic that the protest in Boston was not against taxes per se but against taxation without representation.
Modern right-wingers are protesting taxation by their properly elected representatives in Washington D.C. Many of those representatives are Republicans.
I don't understand the American opposition to taxation. Do Americans think they can have a great country without paying for it? How would that work?
From the outside it looks like a substantial percentage of the country doesn't trust the system of government set up by the Constitution. That can't be good.
Larry Moran said:
"It's ironic that the protest in Boston was not against taxes per se but against taxation without representation. "The Boston Tea Party was really not about that, but was an action by colonists to help preserve their local businesses from predation by the British East India Company, which enjoyed an unfair tax advantage by fiat from the Crown.
see:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thom-hartmann/the-real-boston-tea-party_b_187189.html
Larry, by"A substantial percentage," do you mean the multitudes visible in the Fox News clips?
Also he did not say the very best mixed economies. He said one of the very best. Hedged a little there.
From the outside it looks like a substantial percentage of the country doesn't trust the system of government set up by the Constitution. That can't be good.The current budget passed by Congress includes a deficit of more than $1.75 trillion.
To put it another way, the government of the United States plans to borrow around 1.3 times the GDP of Canada, just to run itself for this one year.
I'm sure that before they give up on the Constitution, they will realize that their tax problems can be solved by expropriating the productivity of our weaker neighbors to the north.
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