the_spaniard

And how many of them have the performance or fuel economy of the Tesla? The knife cuts both ways. Electric is the future The FE is there and the performance is there. Ford, GM, and even Harly Davidson think so. I am glad they are all investing in the tech so they don't get left behind. And remember the Mach E would never exist without Tesla. I can't stand Musk, but the guy has definitely turned the auto industry on its ear. FFS Rivian is about to release a fairly capable pickup the gets to 60 in 3 seconds with a 400-mile range (if it is true). What is the performance going to be like in 10 years?

Well we can't expect our citizens to be considerate when leading presidential hopefuls are not. There is a reason many on all sides of the fence consider this primary season "a race to the bottom". When it comes to behavior of our elected officials, this country (as the article states) has struck a new low. I have been part-time living, working, and traveling overseas for the last 5 years now and the last ten months have been interesting. A lot of people I work with abroad are enjoying our primary circus; it's becoming quite the running joke and we get a lot of pity for it. There has to be a middle ground between denouncing political correctness and acting like a five-year old. My favorites from the article: And I share from my own experiences out here: An article with a lot of good points, and a catholic quoting the Dalai Lama to get an important message across. I approve.

This. All we have now is the blame game and non-compromise from both sides, and where has it gotten us?

And please re-read my post on context.

Like the fantasy of Republican trickle-down economics. Bingo. Compromise is something we teach our children to do, and not compromising is a textbook sign of immaturity. A shame our elected officials didn't get the memo. I would love to see every single one of them go (of every political affiliation) and get some new blood in there. It's the number one reason I don't care for extremists on either side. It's much easier to resort to child-like bickering and using terms like demonrats and republicants. When people use anothers political affiliation as an insult, they are part of the problem.

Actually, some of it does. Studies show that the wealthy are less compassionate, less empathetic and less generous. Studies have also shown (for a while now) that being poor negatively affects cognitive function. I'm all for personal responsibility but many of the poor have few opportunities to better their situation. Once again, do we have any idea what percentage of the poor are truly freeloading? Please cite some cold hard statistics on that "tiny fraction" of the population. I don't feel bad for people that simply squander (or balk at) the opportunity to work hard and achieve success (however that is measured), but I know I have seen many poor people all over this country that would prefer to be anything but. The large majority of the poor people I have encountered in my life want to work and want to better their situation, but are limited by location, job availability, etc. I have met a few moochers in my time, but from my experience they are few and far between. I've never been focused on financial success, but it became a by-product of working hard in a tech career. As I became older and wiser, I realized that hard work and smart decisions are important to success of any kind, but many people simply do not have the opportunities that others do. There is no level playing field.

I don't have anything in particular against libertarianism other than it is unrealistic. People are not perfect life forms, and expecting the average person to be just, moral, and have high ethical standards has no basis in history or reality. It's a nice dream, but it is still a dream.

Cmon, man. Context: Food stamps are specifically referenced. Tell me, does everyone get food stamps or are we just talking about the poor? I understand the analogy completely...the context of the analogy is derogatory, and you really don't have to look far or read into it to get that.

Now that I get, but then what do you do with them when they are released? It keeps them tucked away for a limited time in an environment that often in order to survive you have to become a better criminal.

Care to list them? I'm not here advocating Socialism.

He directly compared the poor with animals in his original post, and you saying he didn't does not change his written words on the post above. Its not about a victim syndrome, intentional or not it's a fairly derogatory way to refer to people, and how exactly am I "always" looking to play that card? Its an interesting world where being wealthy (part of that American Dream) can actually reduce your compassion, empathy and generosity while being poor can impede cognitive function, reduce your opportunities, and make it difficult to become wealthy. Maybe that Jesus fella was onto something when he said that its easier for an elephant to go through the eye of a needle than a rich person getting into heaven. It's not about victim-offender. It's about seeing problems everywhere (not limiting your analysis to political affiliation, social class, etc).

While I agree with some of what you say, a populace with a void of central government is troubling. History is not exactly ripe with libertarian success stories. I'd be curious to see what happens after this country fails (which it will at some point - all civilizations do).

It doesn't really matter what the individual thinks prison is for. Anyone can justify anything in any discussiont. Lets look at what the BOP describes it as: What part of that is seen as a success in our society, particularly when we incarcerate more people than anyone else in the world? If you consider it as an effective deterrent of crime (reinforcement to alter behavior - within our context here) how can it be seen as anything other than a failure?

You discount the cognitive differences, which are vast. Anatomically there are similarities, behaviorally, you don't see much in the way of similarities beyond the basics until you get into higher primates. You are still denigrating the poor in the comparison. If you want to spin it as non-derogatory, you would say all people (regardless of socioeconomic status) are like animals. You didn't do that. Your defense of your remark is really no defense at all, because we are specifically talking about a socioeconomic class, and not people. Rats, rabbits, pigs, puppies, cats, fish, and pond scum do not have a socioeconomic status (the whole point), so I don't really see where that is relevant.

Again, very illuminating thought process. Half of the food stamp recipients in this country are children, and over 5000 active-duty military members are on food stamps. It's a little more complicated than Skinner or Pavlov might suggest. If it was that simple, the prison/incarceration system in this country would not be the massive failure that it is. As someone that grew up poor and have lived in/worked in/work in poor areas across the country, I agree with this. Now lets just not complain about a nice tax increase to make this a possibility.