This weekend, in Cyprus, the government decided to 'tax' all bank deposits with a one time 6.75% tax for deposits under 100,000 Euros and with a 9.9% tax for deposits totaling over 100,000 Euros.
I thought the theft of depositors' money or part of it was supposed
to only happen in communism. This example comes to show that
'democracies' can decay pretty much overnight into pure communism.
The lifetime of any given democracy is close to 1 day, seeing how Cyprus is punishing bank account holders.
Seemingly it seems that it is more important for Cyprus to remain in
the Euro zone than to abide by the principles that say that the
government cannot take away private property from citizens without
proper compensation.
This is stealing, pure and simple, in spite of the fact that the president is promising bank 'shares' in exchange for this outright confiscation, with no war threat or martial law in effect.
This incredible decision, supported and recommended (!) by the European authorities, given that Cyprus is in the Euro zone, shows -as clearly as daylight- what the fundamental problem with the European common currency is. The periphery always breaks the rules and the core countries need to step in to defend the common currency, even though the currency is the only common thread between periphery and core. This cycle cannot be broken without changing the rules 'on the fly', as it were. But jeopardizing democratic principles on the commonality spiel altar is reprehensible. Totally.
The officially backed theft of depositors' money is almost unprecedented as it indicates that taxation decisions were/are taken without public input and without regard to individual property rights.
The government of Cyprus has shown that it behaves like communist government, with excuses that are equally ridiculous.
Instead of exiting the Euro zone and affect fiscal policy in a democratic fashion, Cyprus decided to remain in the Euro zone and behave like a dictatorship. Paying for the government's mistakes over the years with private money is totally wrong on so many levels that I cannot afford to go over in a short post.
As we have learned in school, there is a trade-off scale that maps democracy to economic freedoms. The less economic freedoms there are (and this includes predictability around taxation) the less democracy there is, no question about that.
How can the common currency (Euro) continue to survive this mess? It is only a matter of time before the economic separation between nations will include again national currencies. Strong nations cannot continue to subsidize weak nations forever or else.
Democracy and economic freedoms demand private ownership be respected as it is the unbiased basis for economic growth. Threats to private ownership make it impossible for economic growth to achieve critical mass and sustain economic momentum.
Cyprus's example shows what 'peaceful' governments can resort to when needed and we should all learn from this that we need to protect our private property -with all our powers- against abusive practices of confiscation, even partial, and even when 'justified'.
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Friday, March 15, 2013
Long Live The Process (and Science)
After only 2 days, this week, a new pope was elected in the Vatican Conclave (a sort of special election in church parlance).
Out of 115 cardinals, 77 voted for an Argentinian Jesuit (Jorge Mario Bergoglio) who took the name of Pope Francis.
The Papal election process is a tribute and testament to the process that takes over creativity.
Churches and religions love stable processes and they need an 'eternity' to change processes.
In numerous ways states have learned to preserve basic state processes (election, courts, military, etc.) from religion and perhaps this is a requirement to be considered a state to begin with. Religion taught kings how to make states work and exist forever.
Perhaps religion should also learn from the functioning of the state and start to use democratic processes to elect their leaders...
Does that make the current process obsolete? Not really as the papal election outcome is somehow manageable and intellectually elevated and elevating for the crowds.
I believe that science and scientists should take a cue from the Catholic Church and create, cherish, and repeat stable processes (in perpetuity) to celebrate scientific events and accomplishments in order to attract more adherents to the scientific process and thought.
Out of 115 cardinals, 77 voted for an Argentinian Jesuit (Jorge Mario Bergoglio) who took the name of Pope Francis.
The Papal election process is a tribute and testament to the process that takes over creativity.
Churches and religions love stable processes and they need an 'eternity' to change processes.
In numerous ways states have learned to preserve basic state processes (election, courts, military, etc.) from religion and perhaps this is a requirement to be considered a state to begin with. Religion taught kings how to make states work and exist forever.
Perhaps religion should also learn from the functioning of the state and start to use democratic processes to elect their leaders...
Does that make the current process obsolete? Not really as the papal election outcome is somehow manageable and intellectually elevated and elevating for the crowds.
I believe that science and scientists should take a cue from the Catholic Church and create, cherish, and repeat stable processes (in perpetuity) to celebrate scientific events and accomplishments in order to attract more adherents to the scientific process and thought.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Police Officers are Thugs, Plain and Simple
Today I was reading a piece of news about an unarmed individual who was shot to death by an officer of the police department in Omaha, NE. In this particular case the police officer in an unmarked vehicle decided
to shoot because he thought the passenger in a vehicle was reaching for their
gun.
Police officers have a great responsibility and with that responsibility comes the obligation to first do no harm.
When police officers are allowed to shoot first and ask questions later then the state of affairs changes dramatically. We can each become victims of police abuses. And no matter how innocent we are the police are getting a free ride to lie.
The irony is that we are paying their salaries and benefits and they seem to enjoy those benefits immensely.
So, the police just thinking that somebody is reaching for their guns and they can open fire then we are all in their sights. We are all deer in their headlights.
The police cannot be allowed to act this way. We have to protest and demand that police follow simple and civil protocol.
Police officers are thugs. Plain and simple. We need to demand that the DA and our elected officials stop police brutality.
Police officers have a great responsibility and with that responsibility comes the obligation to first do no harm.
When police officers are allowed to shoot first and ask questions later then the state of affairs changes dramatically. We can each become victims of police abuses. And no matter how innocent we are the police are getting a free ride to lie.
The irony is that we are paying their salaries and benefits and they seem to enjoy those benefits immensely.
So, the police just thinking that somebody is reaching for their guns and they can open fire then we are all in their sights. We are all deer in their headlights.
The police cannot be allowed to act this way. We have to protest and demand that police follow simple and civil protocol.
Police officers are thugs. Plain and simple. We need to demand that the DA and our elected officials stop police brutality.
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Mars is Just Like Earth - What Will Theologians Say About That?
Today, after a long journey and after drilling holes on rocks on Mars, NASA's Curiosity robot found out that Mars is, at least from a chemical composition perspective, just like our planet.
This is an unbelievable piece of news as we can now prove without any doubt that the entire universe is more like our plant. Or that our planet is not dissimilar to any other planets.
This shows, yet again, that our planet, our beloved home, is anonymous from a 'supreme being' viewpoint.
If I were a supreme being responsible for earthlings and after hearing the Mars news, I would just run away as I would have become philosophically obsolete and hence no longer needed.
After all, why should any Earth based creature believe in any supreme being if the entire universe is composed of the same matter and it is symmetrically spread all around us? What makes Earth and its inhabitants so 'special'? We are just a reflection of where we live in the universe and no supreme being is needed to point to us that we are special.
We are special, but not because a supreme being had anything to do with it, but rather because we have evolved the way we have on our own using mechanisms that are truly universal and explainable scientifically.
It is astounding to be free of theological constraints. It is even more astounding to ponder that we can become extinct as quickly as we have become humans, if not faster. Much faster.
This is an unbelievable piece of news as we can now prove without any doubt that the entire universe is more like our plant. Or that our planet is not dissimilar to any other planets.
This shows, yet again, that our planet, our beloved home, is anonymous from a 'supreme being' viewpoint.
If I were a supreme being responsible for earthlings and after hearing the Mars news, I would just run away as I would have become philosophically obsolete and hence no longer needed.
After all, why should any Earth based creature believe in any supreme being if the entire universe is composed of the same matter and it is symmetrically spread all around us? What makes Earth and its inhabitants so 'special'? We are just a reflection of where we live in the universe and no supreme being is needed to point to us that we are special.
We are special, but not because a supreme being had anything to do with it, but rather because we have evolved the way we have on our own using mechanisms that are truly universal and explainable scientifically.
It is astounding to be free of theological constraints. It is even more astounding to ponder that we can become extinct as quickly as we have become humans, if not faster. Much faster.
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Tax Forms in the US: 149 pages for 2012
Yesterday we filed our taxes using Turbo Tax, the on line version.
It took us a few weeks to gather and group all the documents needed, import data from brokers, financial institutions, and import W2 forms from our employers.
Certainly I am glad we are done and the most amazing thing is that when I printed a copy -for backup- I ended up with 149 pages for both federal and state taxes.
149 pages is an astounding amount of bureaucracy.
We paid under $80 for Turbo Tax and Intuit filled in all our forms electronically, almost magically.
The $80 price is amazing as had we had to fill the forms out by hand we would have given up and hired an accountant and that would not have been cheap, that is for sure.
It took us a few weeks to gather and group all the documents needed, import data from brokers, financial institutions, and import W2 forms from our employers.
Certainly I am glad we are done and the most amazing thing is that when I printed a copy -for backup- I ended up with 149 pages for both federal and state taxes.
149 pages is an astounding amount of bureaucracy.
We paid under $80 for Turbo Tax and Intuit filled in all our forms electronically, almost magically.
The $80 price is amazing as had we had to fill the forms out by hand we would have given up and hired an accountant and that would not have been cheap, that is for sure.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Manchester United Bites the Dust!
Yesterday at Old Trafford in Manchester, England, Real Madrid managed to beat Manchester United by a score of 2 to 1 and thus eliminated the English super power house from the European Champions League.
Amen, brother!
This is awesome news to me as Man U is one of the most arrogant team on the face of the earth.
Thank you, Real Madrid, for bringing the reds down to earth.
Man U supporters blame the referee but he had nothing to do with Real Madrid's clear and crisp victory.
Amen, brother!
This is awesome news to me as Man U is one of the most arrogant team on the face of the earth.
Thank you, Real Madrid, for bringing the reds down to earth.
Man U supporters blame the referee but he had nothing to do with Real Madrid's clear and crisp victory.
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Beer Drinkers' Democracy
Anheuser-Busch (owned by InBev), the maker of Budweiser -among other beers- has been sued for mislabeling the alcohol content of their beers.
The news, however, is not that Budweiser is a watered-down beer but that beer drinkers cannot be fooled forever by their 'kings'.
InBev's marketing department has been working for years to instill into the beer drinkers' minds the fact that Budweiser is 'the king of beer'. The irony is that a king can take decisions on almost any matter without any checks and balances and this fact may have been the leding factor in InBev's arrogance.
Beer drinkers' revolutionary step to require affinity to rules and labels leads to democracy and this leads to accountability.
We, as beer drinkers, can test the alcohol content by volume (ABV) of beer relatively cheaply and we can demand that beer makers abide by labeling laws. InBev cannot state on labels that a particular beer has 5% ABV when the beer has, in fact, 4.75% ABV.
By deliberately debasing their beer InBev has stepped into the 'pure' realm of kings (and crooks) and has started to steal from their own subjects/customers. Kings used to debase their gold -or other precious metals- currencies to create private wealth which they could use for wars or lavish court expenses.
I do not drink Budweiser but in very rare occasions and the beer debasing practices demonstrated by InBev prove to me that I should never consume any beer made by this multinational corporation as it may be deliberately debased in order to increase their profits unfairly.
Long live local breweries not owned by multinational corporations as I will always support locally owned breweries over the 800 lbs. gorillas.
Here is a list of beers made by InBev in case you want to stay away from them.
The news, however, is not that Budweiser is a watered-down beer but that beer drinkers cannot be fooled forever by their 'kings'.
InBev's marketing department has been working for years to instill into the beer drinkers' minds the fact that Budweiser is 'the king of beer'. The irony is that a king can take decisions on almost any matter without any checks and balances and this fact may have been the leding factor in InBev's arrogance.
Beer drinkers' revolutionary step to require affinity to rules and labels leads to democracy and this leads to accountability.
We, as beer drinkers, can test the alcohol content by volume (ABV) of beer relatively cheaply and we can demand that beer makers abide by labeling laws. InBev cannot state on labels that a particular beer has 5% ABV when the beer has, in fact, 4.75% ABV.
By deliberately debasing their beer InBev has stepped into the 'pure' realm of kings (and crooks) and has started to steal from their own subjects/customers. Kings used to debase their gold -or other precious metals- currencies to create private wealth which they could use for wars or lavish court expenses.
I do not drink Budweiser but in very rare occasions and the beer debasing practices demonstrated by InBev prove to me that I should never consume any beer made by this multinational corporation as it may be deliberately debased in order to increase their profits unfairly.
Long live local breweries not owned by multinational corporations as I will always support locally owned breweries over the 800 lbs. gorillas.
Here is a list of beers made by InBev in case you want to stay away from them.
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