Tag: politics

Current news, politics

Brick-and-mortar stores are complaining that online stores not having to charge sales taxes is unfair; they’re right, what an occasion to end sales taxes!

Though it’s a state government leading the charge, the good justification for changing the law isn’t the one in the state’s interest. I see two complaints here: The state government wants more revenue. Online sales generally lower the amount of in-state sales, so the sales tax revenue is reduced. Physical retailers have to charge more than online retailers because of the sales tax boosting their … Continue reading Brick-and-mortar stores are complaining that online stores not having to charge sales taxes is unfair; they’re right, what an occasion to end sales taxes!

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ASMS, Common Arguments, culture, philosophy, politics

Dragging people down instead of trying to make things better

Perhaps I’ve blogged about this before. The tendency has existed long before social media, but social media makes it even easier to broadcast one’s ressentiment. Today this one popped up in my newsfeed, edited because Facebook and Twitter will use it as the image for this post: See what I did there? The original post suggests that because children’s parents are being charged nefarious costs, … Continue reading Dragging people down instead of trying to make things better

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Common Arguments

The “actually women make 96 cents on the dollar” response to the wage gap misses the point

Sometimes someone will bring up the wage gap, that women on average make only 75% of what men make. Then some crusaders of truth charge in to inform them that in fact if you hold all factors constant, then you end up with something closer to 96%. Do some people think that, when holding everything else equal, the pay gap between men and women is … Continue reading The “actually women make 96 cents on the dollar” response to the wage gap misses the point

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politics

If the Court finds a law says a bad thing, then change the law

Noah Feldman wrote in response to calls to amend the US Constitution to repeal or otherwise fix the second amendment. He makes an interesting point about antiquity serving to protect some rights. If some instance of government wanted to curtail certain rights, it would have to go through the amendment process (assuming it doesn’t just burn the Constitution—this only works for slow-moving evil). Even though … Continue reading If the Court finds a law says a bad thing, then change the law

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Common Arguments, politics

“People can still kill without guns” is a stupid argument against gun control

Some people argue against gun control on the basis of other methods to kill existing. To put their argument in a valid form: We should control guns only if no other methods to kill people exist. Other methods to kill people exist. So, we should not control guns. They state 2, which is obviously true. The problem is that 1 is obviously false. The generalization, … Continue reading “People can still kill without guns” is a stupid argument against gun control

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Common Arguments, politics

Of course civil disobedience is treated as disobedience

In response to any worthwhile protest, the options are resist or acquiesce.   If ignore is an option, then the protest is ineffective and should be turned up. Which brings us back to the point of resistance or acquiescence.   So, to condemn the school administrators who are punishing the walk out protesters just to say they should have instead ignored them is silly. (Unless … Continue reading Of course civil disobedience is treated as disobedience

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philosophy, politics

What does it say that people have no idea how to argue for caring about other people?

Certain debates prompt a certain article from the Huffington Post to make the rounds again. Sometimes it’s gun control; sometimes it’s health care. At this point people have mostly given up on linking to the article, preferring to state the headline and move on: Usually this comes from liberal spheres. On the occasion a leftist voice can be heard, sometimes a leftist will deal with … Continue reading What does it say that people have no idea how to argue for caring about other people?

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Common Arguments, politics

The successes of the walking out protests

Some students walked out of school today in response to the latest shooting. Some people, primarily non-students, are very upset about this. A run-down of the bad arguments I’ve seen levied against the walkout, and why each one is ridiculous. Put together, they reveal the opposition is people digging their heels into the ground for entirely selfish reasons. Bad argument #1: The kids are just … Continue reading The successes of the walking out protests

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philosophy, politics

Whether to accelerate is not so much a question of values

To oversimplify, but catch the essence of, the case for acceleration versus putting a band aid on the status quo, the agreed seems to be that: Right now x=h people are dying/being substantially harmed/bad thing per year. Accelerating would increase that to an average of h=x+a for y years, but then decreasing it to h=x-b for z years. The band aid Bernie would decrease it … Continue reading Whether to accelerate is not so much a question of values

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