girl4you2
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Joined: 8/4/2005
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quote:
ORIGINAL: GoddessDustyGold
I think what I find most interesting here is the comments about "that''s the governement..." This is not a direct quote, but I often wonder about the people who shrug and seem to think that all blame as well as all responsibility for a citizen's personal comfort level should be laid on "the government". In the USA, we seem to forget that WE are the government! As long as people don't come out in force and protest some of the ridiculous spending "the governement" is doing, it is giving tacit permission to be wasteful. We are not supposed to be wasteful, but "the government" can be? And can we really say, as a people, that we are not wasteful, and have some sort of sense of entitlement just because we live in the good ol' US of A?
As to the price of petrol in other countries...has anybody thought to check to see how much of that is taxes and where those taxes go? It is a trade off. Ya want social program such as socialized medicine, then you will pay for it at the gas pump. In the USA we still pay less at the pump, but we also have less in terms of certain expensive social programs. This is one case where you just can't have your cake and eat it too. The more you want or demand, the more you will have to pay for it, in some way or another. It ain't free! It's just a poorer quality and the customer service stinks. But you're still paying for it.
So think before you vote. You do hold the power, and we all should be asking some very hard questions and holding our representatives to a stricter standard. But we don't. Most of us don't even pay attention to what is being presented in Congress, how much fat has weaseled it's way into a bill, and who has or hasn't voted and how they voted.
On topic...it has been 30+ years since we have built a new refinery in this country. Why is that? Another hard question. I kind of know the answer. Perhaps encouragement for a windfall profits tax would be good. The plus side for the corporation is proof along approved guidelines that these windfall profits are, in fact, being plowed right back into new refineries which will benefit the corporation and the citizenry. That gets them a "windfall profits" tax break. Some regulation is good. Some tax breaks are good. The minus side is determining what constitutes a windfall profit. The trick is finding the right balance.
I say fire all the Lobbysits! But then I always thought the answer to cancer caused by cigarette smoking would be to just kill all the rats.
*Smiling as I type this...honest!*
quote:
ORIGINAL: girl4you2
i don't have the answers, only some ideas. voting and reading into who one might vote for might be a start. so many vote without reading the whole of the laws or looking into the background and voting record of those they vote for. also writing to one's local, state, and federal representatives and letting them know how one feels is another idea. sometimes not much is done, but sometimes it's heard.
i think that we agree that there is much we all can do as citizens to ensure that what is enacted by the legislators reflects what the people think best. checking into the laws that are being proposed, not just hearing the hype, checking voting records and issues acted upon, reading what is in the law as it's presented, not as it started out; these are all fairly easy things to do and not that time consuming. it's not about living in cabins and not having change, it's about being socially responsible and realizing the costs of things. it's also about educating oneself to what is out there being done, and what other things might be done. out here, it's also about asking why the windmills are the last to come on board during energy burn days and the first to go offline, when they are being touted as such a viable and cost effective means of providing energy. sometimes it's also about realizing why answers are hard in coming. aren't those rats peddling fast enough?
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maireann croí éadrom i bhfad. is maith an scáthán súil charad. is leor nod don eolach.
got shoes?
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RE: record profits by Exxon Mobil of $9.9 billion-what ... - 
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