Republican Candidates

[Humodour]

What makes you think Paul is "extreme"?

 

A few things:

1) He is a hard-core economic libertarian. The beliefs of economic libertarians often run contrary to how modern humans like society to work, with things like environmental regulations, public healthcare, public education, public funding for universities as well as government subsidy of university fees, government intervention in and/or control of natural monopolies, etc.

2) He doesn't believe in even small budget defecits. Although in a country like America this is probably a good thing, considering Americans both private and public don't have a ****ing clue how to handle money or be fiscally responsible.

3) He likes to make abortion a political football, as so many US politicians do - the criminalisation and stigma surrounding abortion hurts young people and changes lives for the worse.

4) He advocates the outright removal of many important government agencies. This point is short and I haven't gone into detail, but it's not difficult to imagine the deleterious consequences, especially since one of the agencies he advocates eliminating is the agency for environmental oversight.

5) He is homophobic. But that doesn't matter too much because he seems capable of not letting it interfere with his core ideology of support for indivudal rights.

6) He would ideally like to abolish any public funding of education (and public schools along with it). I do not believe that children's educations should be left entirely up to the market. The market ****s up. Complex systems correct themselves and go through cycles, that's just how the maths works. Removing any trace of government intervention won't change that, and in an industry like education, that means when the market messes up, children's lives are impaired. In fact, Ron Paul goes so far as to claim that "education is not a right". That puts me and him fundamentally at odds and makes him somebody I could never vote for (were there an equivalent politician in Australia).

7) He claims global warming is not an important problem. Typical Republican stance, really. Although curiously he's so far managed to avoid claiming global warming isn't happening. I think.

 

There's more, but I think those points cover enough for now.

 

I must admit, however, that reading up on him further has made me dislike him a little less: he doesn't endorse a return to the gold standard, he voted against the war in Iraq, he is wary of inflation, he opposes the death penalty, he opposes the stupid war on drugs, he advocates seperation of marriage from government involvement entirely (thus solving the current cruel situation of same-sex marriages being illegal),

 

Basically, just because Ron Paul is sufficiently different to the usual Republican dregs does not make him worth our time, although it is nice to have some fresh ideas in US politics for once.

[Drowsy Emperor]

As to this myth about Obama making up with the Russians, Chinese etc. - its ridiculous and superficial. Just because he shows a friendly face doesn't mean the CIA and the rest of them aren't doing their regular jobs on US world domination.

 

Besides, most of the supply convoys for NATO's troops in Afghanistan go through Russia. Resuming hostilities with the country that's helping feed your troops seems kinda stupid. Not even Bush would fall for that one.

[Calax]

Paul is the hard line small government. He wants things trimmed back to basically "regulating interstate commerce and defending the nation" for the feds, while the states each handle everything else.

 

And he wants to go to a Gold standard again.... meaning that every dollar would have at least some amount of gold backing it, which would be a minor disaster.

[Gfted1]

I must admit, however, that reading up on him further has made me dislike him a little less: he doesn't endorse a return to the gold standard...

 

And he wants to go to a Gold standard again.... meaning that every dollar would have at least some amount of gold backing it, which would be a minor disaster.

 

[Junai]

From Paul's website;

 

Eventually, if we

[Oblarg]

From Paul's website;

 

Eventually, if we

[Gorgon]

I think the idea is that if you have a gold standard you can't jack up the value of the dollar based solely on the confidence of the financial markets. It would offer a measure of protection, while completely negating the positive value added effect. It's like pretending monetary policy doesn't exist, which would be in tune with his dislike of the federal reserve.

[Rosbjerg]

This is idiotic, and anyone with a rudimentary understanding of economics knows it.

 

The fed ensures that inflation occurs at a steady, predictable rate. A gold standard would result in massive deflation, instantly.

 

But the fractional reserve system they put in place when the removed the gold standard is one of the main reasons why banks have become so horribly powerful - I'm not sure where I stand on this issue, but the current system won't work in the long run, money supply (and thereby debt) is growing exponentially.. It was a idea that worked great when we thought resources were practically infinite, they aren't and a continual growth spurred on by this monetary system will be disastrous in the long run.

[Hurlshort]

I also don't think Ron Paul is pushing for an immediate switch or anything.

[Zoraptor]

The currency is not backed by anything, so they can do pretty much what they want.

It does have backing, of a sort- it's the global reserve currency, so it's in effect backed by every other currency on earth. Which is precisely why they can get away with a lot more than other currencies with regard to 'quantitative easing' (printing money)- so much stuff is US denominated that dropping its worth too much stuffs everyone else up.

[Oblarg]

Fractional reserve banking works fine - there's no compelling evidence that it's the cause of our recent economic problems (I think the utter lack of governmental oversight is a big problem there, and Paul certainly won't fix that).

[Calax]

I also don't think Ron Paul is pushing for an immediate switch or anything.

Not really... but he would eliminate many of the departments that are currently a part of the USA... including the Fed. That would cause SOMETHING to happen right damn quick.

 

The issue right now is that the banks are just to big, and need to be cut down.

[Meshugger]

Ron Paul wins Minnesota and....Iowa?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfS1x5RnZZQ

[Calax]

So basically while Mitty is winning (officially) all of the races, there's a suggestion that Ron Paul might be able to sneak enough delegates under the wire to get a fighting chance at the nomination.

[Walsingham]

The notion that the Founding Fathers have an authoritative view on economics when high tech was barely even at the steam engine in their day, and communication consisted of a man in a three cornered hat riding a horse as fast as possible until it got tired... I can't even begin to... You might just as well argue that healthcare should consist of drinking as much wine as possible and falling down in a brothel.

[Nepenthe]

The notion that the Founding Fathers have an authoritative view on economics when high tech was barely even at the steam engine in their day, and communication consisted of a man in a three cornered hat riding a horse as fast as possible until it got tired... I can't even begin to... You might just as well argue that healthcare should consist of drinking as much wine as possible and falling down in a brothel.

When I become the next king of Sealand (or similar), you're hired as the minister of health and social affairs. Edited April 25, 2012 by Nepenthe

[HoonDing]

You might just as well argue that healthcare should consist of drinking as much wine as possible and falling down in a brothel.

That would at least beat the current American healthcare system.

[Walsingham]

OK I really should have foreseen the members' positive response to 18th century medicine.

[Gorgon]

I learned today that the total ammount of gold mined, ever, is less than the m^3 of two olympic swimming pools. That's a lot of gold, and not that much ether.

[Wrath of Dagon]

Where they went wrong was giving the Fed the mandate to fight unemployment, as well as inflation. Monetary policy is not the proper way to fight unemployment, except in a crisis.

[Walsingham]

I learned today that the total ammount of gold mined, ever, is less than the m^3 of two olympic swimming pools. That's a lot of gold, and not that much ether.

 

That really doesn't sound very likely. I'm pretty sure my racial memory has a line or two covering my ancestors hoofing it with massive ships full of gold from Africa. And giggling.

[Gorth]

Not to mention all those tonnes of gold (and silver) on the sea bottom, courtesy various entrepreneurs, some with letters of marque, some without

[Humodour]

In fact, one of the HUGE problems with using gold as a standard is that anybody who can mine it becomes rich, and moreover, anybody who can mine it can permanently increase the money supply (and thus the problem of inflation remains).

 

Frankly, I'd rather that power remain with the government, who I can at least elect and throw out. Don't get me wrong - my country would become the richest in the world, but that doesn't make it a smart idea.

 

Gold has little more intrinsic worth than paper, aside form reasonably inexpensive uses in electronics and medicine. Ooooh, shiny! So what - that doesn't make it a good currency.

[Calax]

In fact, one of the HUGE problems with using gold as a standard is that anybody who can mine it becomes rich, and moreover, anybody who can mine it can permanently increase the money supply (and thus the problem of inflation remains).

 

Frankly, I'd rather that power remain with the government, who I can at least elect and throw out. Don't get me wrong - my country would become the richest in the world, but that doesn't make it a smart idea.

 

Gold has little more intrinsic worth than paper, aside form reasonably inexpensive uses in electronics and medicine. Ooooh, shiny! So what - that doesn't make it a good currency.

You forget the fact that Gold is a non-renewable resources... so the money supply is limited to how much is coming out of the ground at any time. That's one of the reasons that the advent of credit in the early modern period was so important, nations were no longer beholden to their supply of gold to buy and sell things and the currency could grow far beyond what it used to.

[HoonDing]

Not to mention all those tonnes of gold (and silver) on the sea bottom, courtesy various entrepreneurs, some with letters of marque, some without