Am I a Classical Liberal?

[xbuzzerx]

As usual, your posts are laden with laws you think the government should impose upon us. With libertarians like you, who needs authoritarians?

On "us"? Do you believe this is a nation of nothing but overbloated corporate interests? I realize your posts consistently reflect that this is the only segment of America that matters, but the first line is "We the People", is it not?

 

[Kulindahr]

As usual, your posts are laden with laws you think the government should impose upon us. With libertarians like you, who needs authoritarians?

Laws restricting tyranny is what government is FOR.

 

[Kabluey]

As usual, your posts are laden with laws you think the government should impose upon us. With libertarians like you, who needs authoritarians?

What do you mean impose upon 'us'.
I doubt you are a shareholder of any consequence in a company that is a monopoly.

 

[Benvolio]

You needn't worry about the "tyranny"--lol--of corporations. They are escaping the country in droves. Other countries are welcoming them with open arms. Pfizer became an Irish corporation last week.

 

[Kabluey]

You needn't worry about the "tyranny"--lol--of corporations. They are escaping the country in droves. Other countries are welcoming them with open arms. Pfizer became an Irish corporation last week.

Because Pfizer wants to minimise its tax payments by taking over an Irish company.
They're not fleeing, they're cherry picking tax havens so they don't have to pay for your pension.

 

[xbuzzerx]

You needn't worry about the "tyranny"--lol--of corporations. They are escaping the country in droves. Other countries are welcoming them with open arms. Pfizer became an Irish corporation last week.

So we return to square one.

It is an obligation of first world people everywhere to meet the living standards of the poorest and least regulated parts of the third world because corporate greed is paramount.

 

[jbrown329]

For conservatives, the only ones that matter are corporations and billionaires. Everyone else can eat shit and die. Dig for food in dumpsters and sleep in cardboard boxes. Can't afford healthcare? To bad. Die and die quickly.

 

[Kulindahr]

You needn't worry about the "tyranny"--lol--of corporations. They are escaping the country in droves. Other countries are welcoming them with open arms. Pfizer became an Irish corporation last week.

Once upon a time people who ran American corporations were patriots, who stuck here regardless.

 

[xbuzzerx]

Once upon a time people who ran American corporations were patriots, who stuck here regardless.

Weaklings and bad capitalists! They allowed sentimentality to override their profit margins. They would never survive the review of shareholders today!

 

[Kulindahr]

Weaklings and bad capitalists! They allowed sentimentality to override their profit margins. They would never survive the review of shareholders today!

Maybe corporations that do business internationally should have to pay their taxes with stock until the government owns 33.5%? The government wouldn't be allowed to buy and sell, just collect dividends -- and veto any move to leave the country.

 

[Kulindahr]

BTW, not too many have addressed whether I'm a classical liberal. Disappointing, that.

 

[jbrown329]

^^ I wouldn't know. I haven't been here for very long.

 

[opinterph]

BTW, not too many have addressed whether I'm a classical liberal. Disappointing, that.

You are assuming that everyone knows and/or agrees on the definition of Classical Liberalism.

Let's see, "Classical" Liberalism is the philosophy that all liberties are reserved to the individual and may only be abrogated by the state when they cause harm to others.

People also forget that "Classical" Liberalism promotes economic freedoms as well as truly "free" markets.

"Classical Liberalism" SHOCKINGLY promotes the least amount of government in your life as possible!

Early classical liberals (before it was defined) apparently extolled the virtues of "a nation of shopkeepers", believing that having a huge portion of the population engaged as part of the entrepreneurial class made for a stable and robust economy.

By the early nineteenth century, though, when classical liberalism was defined, it was thoroughly laissez-faire.

Early classical liberalism was more libertarian that later, because it recognized that government is not the only enemy of liberty; any giant institution can be, and thus there must be checks and balances against all such institutions.

 

[Kulindahr]

You are assuming that everyone knows and/or agrees on the definition of Classical Liberalism.

Not really, though I did think of posting a definition.

The differences in definitions arise from where different political historians decide to draw the line of where classical liberalism arose; the starting point varies enough to include Jefferson and Smith and Paine to pretty much excluding everything before the Civil War.

The discussion here has helped me clarify things, and I don't think "classical liberal" applies, partly exactly because the term gets defined differently. So I'm going to call myself a Jeffersonian libertarian.

 

[Benvolio]

Not really, though I did think of posting a definition.

The differences in definitions arise from where different political historians decide to draw the line of where classical liberalism arose; the starting point varies enough to include Jefferson and Smith and Paine to pretty much excluding everything before the Civil War.

The discussion here has helped me clarify things, and I don't think "classical liberal" applies, partly exactly because the term gets defined differently. So I'm going to call myself a Jeffersonian libertarian.

I don't think so. Jefferson's philosophy was " that government is best which governs least." I doubt if you can find a definition of libertarian which accomodates your plans for a vastly expanded government.

 

[xbuzzerx]

I don't think so. Jefferson's philosophy was " that government is best which governs least." I doubt if you can find a definition of libertarian which accomodates your plans for a vastly expanded government.

I don't think any of the Founding Fathers would have approved of a monarchy in all but name via corporate oligarchy.

 

[Benvolio]

I don't think any of the Founding Fathers would have approved of a monarchy in all but name via corporate oligarchy.

Nonsense. If corporations ran the country they would not be leaving to escape high taxes.

 

[kallipolis]

Appearances suggest that the United States has one of the most onerous corporate tax regimes with a headline rate of 35% among the highest in the world, and the authorities have taxing rights over profits made far beyond United States. In reality the system is peppered with loopholes meaning many American multinationals are achieving some of the lowest effective tax rates on record, with Pfizer one of America’s most proficient tax-planning multinationals for years, storing $74bn of untaxed profits outside the US.

With Pfizer now integrating with Allergen at its executive headquarters in Dublin, Ireland will ensure that its United States sources earnings will be booked through its Irish associate where the corporate tax rate is 12.5 pct against the United States rate of 35 pct.

Pfizer's stockholders must be rubbing their hands with joy knowing that Christmas can be celebrated every day.

 

[xbuzzerx]

Nonsense. If corporations ran the country they would not be leaving to escape high taxes.

They don't pay taxes anyway, the amount of corporations who file zero profit returns is enormous. They leave to get labor at 1/40th the cost. You are, as usual, bald-faced lying.

 

[Benvolio]

They don't pay taxes anyway, the amount of corporations who file zero profit returns is enormous. They leave to get labor at 1/40th the cost. You are, as usual, bald-faced lying.

You lie. See Kallipolis #78 above. Google corporate "inversion".