@DismalScientist 118600 wrote:
Why are you liberals so peeved at earning money through willing voluntary exchange? The only way that multibillions can be fraudulantly earned by ‘private’ parties is by using the coersive force of government to direct money their way. (Have you ever wondered why the richest area of the country lives in the Washington area?)
You wouldn’t know it from the abysmal level of economic discussion in this country, but the U.S. has one of the most progressive tax system on the planet and the 1 percent already pays a vastly disproportionate share of taxes. Not that I am shedding any tears over it.
Mortgage securities fraud. Foreign exchange rate manipulation. LIBOR manipulation. Fraud after fraud after fraud. I’m not an economist and I am not making specific economic points. I’m talking about basic crimes. These are not rounding errors or taking an extra penny from the tray at a checkout counter. Multi-billion dollar settlements. No one goes to jail for these massive crimes, except a couple low-level employees. And yet I frequently hear people scream about zero tolerance for crime. If that’s the case, why is there tolerance for crimes that affected millions of people in the Great Recession?
I only post this because you asked it. I don’t know if I consider myself a liberal as I have voted for both parties in the past. But the events leading up to the Great Recession, well, I don’t see how that’s excusable. They get all the benefits of high-risk and fraudulent behavior, while the risk gets foisted onto taxpayers? Even if the bailouts were repaid, other people don’t get bailouts like that.
Anyway, it was not my intent to post anything like this when I posted the photo. But I won’t apologize for posting the photo. Why are some people so touchy about a picture of a store window and a coat? Or even a joke in passing.
I’m not going to go on a Dislike spree either, as I see you have done. (I expect you’ll Dislike and ELITE this post too. It’s a free country.) I merely posted it as an item of interest, just as I posted the photo of the three-wheeled vehicle I saw parked out in front of a CityCenterDC restaurant last week. I read up on local real estate items, which is why I’ve been following the CityCenterDC development and the new stores there. I can be interested, unimpressed by some facets and uninterested in other elements, all at the same time. As for the expensive coat, not all conservatives would automatically back such a purchase either. Many conservatives back billionaire interests, but not all. You are the first person here to use the liberal/conservative labels. Some right-wingers rail against “limousine liberals” and “Hollyweirdo multimillionaires.” Not sure what government coercion or DC affluence has to do with any of this.
No one went on a Dislike spree when I posted that I rode by Sursum Corda earlier this month. I mentioned that it used to be one of the most dangerous, high-crime areas in the District. It’s still problematic, but it’s better than is was in the 1980s. No reaction. No outrage. I posted about passing by a portable “soup kitchen” truck and about one individual getting upset because he thought I was taking photos of “poor people” as a curiosity, when I was just taking a photo of a bike rack. No one got upset. But when I posted a photo of a luxury store, well, all this happens.
I was also interested in the bike racks around CityCenterDC because I mapped all of those onto the RackSpotter website. That’s the ultimate reason why I was at that store, so there was a bike reason for the photo. All of the CityCenterDC photos were related to my ride and to the RackSpotter website. (I had also read about Loro Piana multiple times on websites like the Washington Business Journal, hardly what one would call a liberal crusade website. It’s not political, but I don’t think many would mistake it as a radical left-wing website.)
You can think of these photos and posts as an ongoing “liberal crusade” against billionaires or whatever. I’m merely posting all this because I’m passing by these sites while riding and mapping bike racks throughout DC and some suburbs. I see it as a slice of life, of the different elements that make up the District, good, bad and otherwise, all connected through bike racks nearby (although I didn’t find any bike racks at Sursum Corda at all). They are all notable to me and likely to many others. They are also bike-related because I’m only posting images that I encounter while riding and while mapping bike racks. Perhaps some people find it unusual that I “bike tour” in D.C., instead of only in the countryside. If you don’t like it, continue to Dislike the posts if you want. Nothing I can do about it.
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