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Title: Ayn Rand Worshippers Should Face Facts: Blue States Are the Providers, Red States Are the Parasites
Source:
AlterNet
URL Source: http://www.alternet.org/story/15433 ... rs_red_state_are_the_parasites
Published: Feb 29, 2012
Author: Sara Robinson
Post Date: 2012-02-29 11:41:03 by lucysmom
Keywords: None
Views: 4568
Comments: 12
Last week, the New York Times published a widely discussed article updating an argument that progressive bloggers noticed a very long time ago. It's now well-understood that blue states generally export money to the federal government; and red states generally import it.
Progressives believe in the redistribution of wealth, so we're not usually too upset by this state of affairs. That’s what it means to be one country. E pluribus unum, and all that. We’re happy to help, because we think we’ve got a stake in making sure kids in rural Alabama get educations and seniors in Arizona get healthcare. What’s good for them is good for all of us. We also like to think they’d help us out if our positions were reversed. It’s an investment in making America stronger, and we feel fine about that.
But maybe it's time to admit that we're being played for chumps, and that there are people in the rest of the country who are taking way too much advantage of our good nature. After all: it's now a stone fact that the blue states and cities are the country's real wealth creators. That's why we pay more taxes, and are able to send that money to the red states in the first place. We're working our butts off, being economically productive, going to college, raising good kids, supporting reality-based schools, keeping our marriages together, tending to our busy and diverse cities, and generally Playing By The Rules. And the fates have smiled on us in rough proportion to the degree that we’ve invested in our own common good.
So we've got every right to get good and angry about the fact that, by and large, the people who are getting our money are so damned ungrateful
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So we've got every right to get good and angry about the fact that, by and large, the people who are getting our money are so damned ungrateful
"They don't know what they got til it's gone"
Almost every country in the Middle East is awash in oil, and we have to side with the one that has nothing but joos. Goddamn, that was good thinkin'. Esso posted on 2012-01-13 7:37:56 ET
#2. To: A K A Stone, Anti-ping to Eric, Fred Mertz, Godwinson, go65, war, no gnu taxes, Skip Intro, ferret mike, jwpegler, brian s, mininggold, mcgowanjm (#0) (Edited)
The time has come for blue America to go Galt. Our farewell rant — long and epic, as Rand's turgid writing style would have required — might sound a bit like this:First off, dear Red Staters: If your town’s economy depends on a nearby dam, canal, harbor, airport, military base, interstate highway, national park or monument, or prison, just STFU. Because you are, in every way possible, a parasite, living off something the rest of us paid to build.
Second: If you are a homeowner who takes a mortgage interest deduction...
Liberals going Gault...
Anyone claiming to be an expert is selling something. I brandish my ignorance like a crucifix at vampires. Aaron Bady
#3. To: mininggold (#1)
"They don't know what they got til it's gone"
The best we can do is help them to live according to their values.
Anyone claiming to be an expert is selling something. I brandish my ignorance like a crucifix at vampires. Aaron Bady
#4. To: All (#0)
Knock off the hate-mongering, threats and name-calling. Your heroine, Ms. Rand, predicted rightly that parasites invariably despise the producers they feed on; you should be embarrassed that your own behavior bears her out so clearly.
Ain't it the truth!
Anyone claiming to be an expert is selling something. I brandish my ignorance like a crucifix at vampires. Aaron Bady
#5. To: lucysmom (#0)
Do away with all income taxes, and actually do something unique, like FOLLOW THE CONSTITUTION, and everyone will be much happier...
And who will scream first?????????
The blue states, of course.
So sorry, but you FAIL.
To: mcToejam, rat-boy, drippy, Alzheimer Fred, whitesands, t-bird, loonymom/ming, e-type jackoff, goober56, wreck, cal-CON, rabid dog, dummy DwarF, biff, harrowup the communist, and meguro. You're on the "a waste of human flesh" list. Piss off.
#6. To: Capitalist Eric (#5)
So sorry, but you FAIL.
Says who - YOU? That ain't no big deal.
Anyone claiming to be an expert is selling something. I brandish my ignorance like a crucifix at vampires. Aaron Bady
#7. To: lucysmom (#0) (Edited)
The Conservatives are NOT followers of Ayn Rand (Many of the Libertarians are however). Ayn Rand and her "Objectivist" Libartarian followers were and are ATHEISTS who worship the market as their substitute for God in the same way Marxists and Fascists worship the STATE as their substitute for God. In fact I believe that the Randians are CONTROLLED OPPOSITION because both their "Objectivism" and the Marxist Leninist theories of Communism were the creations of ATHEISTS from Germany and Russia.
The FARO RESERVE BANK!!! 
#8. To: lucysmom (#6)
I brandish my ignorance like a crucifix at vampires.
At least in THIS, we agree.
And that isn't something to be proud of.
Your ignorance is shameful. Only a FOOL would proudly proclaim such a thing.
To: mcToejam, rat-boy, drippy, Alzheimer Fred, whitesands, t-bird, loonymom/ming, e-type jackoff, goober56, wreck, cal-CON, rabid dog, dummy DwarF, biff, harrowup the communist, and meguro. You're on the "a waste of human flesh" list. Brian S[ocialist], you're a propagandist moron. ALL of you can piss off.
#9. To: Capitalist Eric (#8)
Whatever wealth transfer is done between states as a result of federal spending is dwarfed by the loss from overhead and waste involved in letting the feds control anything. ALL states, not just the ones who are technically losing according to the metric promoted in the article, will be better off without the feds siphoning off a huge amount of wealth and usurping powers not granted to it by the supreme law of the land.
#10. To: Capitalist Eric (#8)
Ignorance is the beginning of knowledge;
knowledge is the beginning of wisdom;
wisdom is the awareness of ignorance.
William Rotsler
Anyone claiming to be an expert is selling something. I brandish my ignorance like a crucifix at vampires. Aaron Bady
#11. To: thoughtomator (#9)
I agree 100%.
To: mcToejam, rat-boy, drippy, Alzheimer Fred, whitesands, t-bird, loonymom/ming, e-type jackoff, goober56, wreck, cal-CON, rabid dog, dummy DwarF, biff, harrowup the communist, and meguro. You're on the "a waste of human flesh" list. Brian S[ocialist], you're a propagandist moron. ALL of you can piss off.
#12. To: thoughtomator (#9)
Whatever wealth transfer is done between states as a result of federal spending is dwarfed by the loss from overhead and waste involved in letting the feds control anything. ALL states, not just the ones who are technically losing according to the metric promoted in the article, will be better off without the feds siphoning off a huge amount of wealth and usurping powers not granted to it by the supreme law of the land.
Exactly right, because of the overhead of 3+ million federal bureaucrats with bloated salaries and benefits.
Iran’s main drive for acquiring atomic weapons is not for use against Israel but as a deterrent against U.S. intervention -- Major General Zeevi Farkash, head of the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate
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