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Just yesterday, my iPhone aggressively autocorrected my attempt to type "walk" as "Walloon." We could Walloon together. Ominous!
June 24, 2010
"Just as German taxpayers are finally fed up with subsidising Greek pensioners, so Flemings are fed up with subsidising Walloons...."
The troubles in Belgium.
Just yesterday, my iPhone aggressively autocorrected my attempt to type "walk" as "Walloon." We could Walloon together. Ominous!
Just yesterday, my iPhone aggressively autocorrected my attempt to type "walk" as "Walloon." We could Walloon together. Ominous!
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Wallonia used to be the industrial heartland of Belgium; now it's their rust belt. Let's help save the Francophones, by buying an example of Belgian industrial craftsmanship:
http://www.fnherstal.com/index.php?id=176
I know how they feel. I'm sick of subsidising the coasts.
And the Wookies are really tired of bailing out the Ewoks.
I think its definitely a watershed moment in history when Europe has finally come to the realization that Thatcher was right about socialism and running out of other people's money while lecturing our President that adopting an austerity program might be a good idea.
Ditto, HD. My sister-in-law is an East German who grew up under the USSR. Neither she nor her parents can understand why the US government is trying to go down the central-planning road.
Some things just lend themselves naturally to central planning. Armies, MMO's, and, of course, shotgun play-action dives. Everything else becomes distorted when the strings are pulled by a select few puppetmasters.
I'm sick of subsidising the coasts.
California's sick of subsidizing the rest of the country:
http://www.calinst.org/pubs/balance2003.htm
(Sorry, latest report available.)
Wallooning in the garden, like a Teddy Bear....
Some day, the north will be tired of subsidizing the south.
fls blasted from the past: "California's sick of subsidizing the rest of the country:"
Hmmm, I guess that's why they're trying to get federal money now?
Just stop.
Neither she nor her parents can understand why the US government is trying to go down the central-planning road.
Honestly I think the main reason is that US liberals have always viewed post-war Europe as the bastion of the perfect progressive society; free health care! free education! free ponies for everyone! while here in the backwater we don't have those things and execute murderers.
It's nothing grounded in reality but in the faith that if you simply throw more money at something it will improve. Evidently hard evidence like Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland has no impact on the devoted.
This movie coming soon to a theatre near you.
This is how all collectivist efforts end.
Once folks discover that an increasing number of takers are being pulled by a declining number of workers, it becomes stupid not to shirk.
The incentives in socialism sound noble on paper, but in reality people end up being destructively selfish.
Capitalism promotes selfishness that ends up being amazingly constructive and promoting the very social justice reformers had desired.
Happens every time.
And reality is denied every time.
Hoosier D missed one: "Evidently hard evidence like Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and U.S. Public Education has no impact on the devoted."
FIFY
(Just had to tie in the most glaring domestic example for shits and giggles)
All the reports I've seen is that the lion's share of the housing debacle resides in a small number of locations, CA, Las Vegas, Florida, ...
Sending money to Washington; we'll stop if you'll stop, FLS.
Discord in the Spanish Netherlands? Not to mention Greece, Spain Italy, Ireland, Portugal.
Sounds like half of Europe wants to secede from the other half.
If they promise to give it back, we'll let them use "Dixie".
Wisconsin is actually home to the largest population of Americans with Walloon (and Belgian) ancestry - half of my bloodline included.
There's a large settlement northeast of Green Bay near the base of Door County.
http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=12141
If they promise to give it back, we'll let them use "Dixie".
State of Jefferson . Hmmm...I wonder if we have a theme song? We should get one.
"State of Jefferson . Hmmm...I wonder if we have a theme song? "
Well we're movin on up,
To the West side.
To a deluxe new state in the US.
Movin on up,
To the West side.
We finally got a piece of the pie.
Europe is overdue for starting another continent-immolating war anyway.
Well when you consider that they have pretty much emasculated thier militaries if one does occurs, it will end up with a lot of rock throwing and pitchforks.
"Well when you consider that they have pretty much emasculated their militarizes "
Maybe they'll have a big a big slap-fight, with high-pitched squeals and screams.
Just stop.
Too many facts to absorb this early in the day? "Math is hard" -- GMay
True, but I bet the Germans could stand up a good one pretty quick. Strangely enough, this time a German takeover of Europe might not be such a bad thing.
I'd just be satisfied if they leveled Brussels and The Hague.
fls tried: "Too many facts to absorb this early in the day? "Math is hard" -- GMay"
I suppose the well-publicized and more-current-than-2003 fact that Cali is trying to get a federal bailout is beyond your comprehension?
"Facts escape my timid grasp" --former law student
The undying hatred of Flemings for Waloons and Waloons for Flemings is invigorating evidence that there is such a thing as human nature WHICH DOES NOT CELEBRATE DIVERSITY! Breakup of the U.S. coming up next.
OK GMay:
How much money did Californians pay in Federal income tax last year? How much did they receive in Federal spending? Should be a trivial task for a person who thinks he's smart, like you.
True, but I bet the Germans could stand up a good one pretty quick.
I think the Teutonic threat has been effective neutered to the point where even faced with an existential threat they'd just lay over. Too much guilt from the last century and all that fighting spirit I think has been bred out.
You might see some really nasty internal strife, akin to what we witnessed in the Balkans (my money is France goes up first) in the 1990s but no one over there really has the capability, either industrially or national willpower to go to town on each other.
Actually back in the mid 1990s, Larry Bond had a novel called Cauldron which was about a third world war in Europe led by a Franco-German alliance. What is pretty prophetic is the economic state of the globe at the time and the formation of the EU before there was an EU and the events that led up to war.
If you get around to reading it, you'll come away thinking that Larry Bond was Nostrodamas.
Should be a trivial task for a person who thinks he's smart, like you.
Maybe not so trivial a task since even for a person who thinks he's smart the best you could come up with was a seven year old report.
Just sayin chief.
Part of it is the EU - I mean, from the standpoint of the average Flem, what does the Belgian government do for them that the EU does not or could not? Besides tax them to transfer money to the Walloons I mean.
"How much money did Californians pay in Federal income tax last year?"
Ah, half of them didn't pay a cent. But it's nice to see you sticking up for the rich, FLS.
"Well when you consider that they have pretty much emasculated thier militaries if one does occurs, it will end up with a lot of rock throwing and pitchforks."
Unfortunetely, that might make it more likely they'll use the only military asset they have left of any value.
I can remember sitting in movie theaters as a child in the early 50's watching the news-reels of the Flemish and Walloons fighting pitched battles--complete with pitchforks--over street barricades about which language was to be taught in the public schools.
It's LITERALLY an M.C. Escher world over there; with one block wired for french-speaking cable TV and turn the corner and the next street is wired for Flemish. They've been at each other's throats for a looong time. "A House divided...."
How much money did Californians pay in income tax last year? How much did they receive in Federal spending?
The logical extension of your argument, given your first statement that CA is tired of subsidizing the rest of the country, is that those who pay the most income tax are justified in being tired of subsidizing everyone else.
Are you sure you really want to own that as a point of view?
Yeah, I think FLS just stepped in it. He he he.
...crickets...?
@fls:
How much money did Californians pay in Federal income tax last year? How much did they receive in Federal spending? Should be a trivial task for a person who thinks he's smart, like you.
Great. So all you have to do now is get Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic legislature in California, and liberals across California to give up on the idea of income redistribution in general so that California can keep more of its tax money at home. Small government conservatives are already on board with that one.
What's the likelyhood of that happening?
To further amplify the problem with FLS' point, the problem is that nearing half of the potential tax payers in this country here are not paying income taxes, due to the structure of the tax code, including all of the rebates (aka tax credits). And, even with the Reagan and Bush tax cuts, a lot of the income tax revenues have come from a relatively small number of high earners.
Up until fairly recently, a large number of those high earners lived in a small number of bi-coastal states, notably NY and CA. The problem though is that some of those really high incomes have crashed (probably more in NY, etc. than CA) due to the crash. But also, these states have unmanageable astronomical budget deficits due to their entitlement mentality and the lush salaries and pensions they provide for government employees.
The problem though is that taxes are being raised, and many of the rich who paid all those taxes are fleeing. Which means that taxes have to be raised even more.
Europe, more like America than unlike it:
1. Overall economic situation has been adversely affected by globalism and free trade gutting industry and jobs.
2. Like America, dominated by government employee unions & unaccountable Ruling Elites who set law and major policy the voters have no say in. In both America and Europe, societal position and how far you can go in established structures is increasingly determined by class, affirmative action bonus points, and what school you attended.
3. Like America, messy inefficient processes affect competitiveness.
4. The US is 49 Trillion in the hole in unfunded SS and healthcare liabilities, Europe is slightly worse.
5. Diversity, multiculti and race/gender quotas in everything from school to apportioning "proper" government, university positions has not been a blessing.
6. Mass immigration has destabilized whole swaths of Europe.
7. Global interconnectiveness has made Europe suffer for NYC machinations with poison financial paper - and threatened them with both China labor and US neocon craving of new wars.
Al Gore: "Let me show you my Walloon."
Masseuse: "WTF?"
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