Listen here to Franklin Roosevelt (#FDR) introducing 80 years ago his economic bill of #rights"

For 40 years, America prospered and then came the 'no-more-taxes' era.

His 2nd bill of rights guaranteed:

- Employment (right to work)
- An adequate income for food, shelter, and recreation
- Farmers' rights to a fair income
- Freedom from unfair competition and monopolies
- Decent housing
- Adequate medical care
- Social security
- Education

Isn't it time to stop with 'no-more-#taxes'?

@rbreich

@paulschoe

I'm no longer a religious person, but I was raised Roman Catholic. 3 of the 4 gospels tell of complaints by oppressed people not wanting to pay taxes.

Soon, Trump's face will be on our coinage. We should just give to Trump's what is Trump's.

Eventually, policies may change! I agree that anti-taxation rhetoric has been a serious problem.

OTOH, the USA was founded by people who refused to pay taxes, so it may be in the political DNA & FDR was a mere respite.

Cc: @jzb
@rbreich@masto.a

@bkuhn "OTOH, the USA was founded by people who refused to pay taxes"

Yeah... this has been something I've mulled over a lot in the past few years. When you really get down to it, the emphasis in "no taxation without representation" is on "no taxation" and not "representation".

The New World capitalists resented sending money back to England, and everything flowed from that. It happened they had some good points about that, but the thing that truly motivated the "founding fathers" appears to be more about money than freedom. Or freedom to acquire more property, anyway. Which they considered many people to be, so... freedom wasn't really their jam, except for them, anyway.

Sigh. Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it. Those who do study history are doomed to watch everybody else repeat it, and find it depressing AF in the process.

@paulschoe

@jzb @bkuhn @paulschoe Our first president once said: "States are sustained by the ideals from which they were born."

That can explain a lot of what is going on in the US politics.

@sesivany Just remember, the states were primarily founded/colonized by people from Europe... It's like when people complain about how their kids turned out rotten. Yes, sure, but remember who raised them? 😉

@bkuhn @paulschoe

@jzb @bkuhn @paulschoe Yeah, I think we can't really criticise. After the general election in Oct we're getting representatives which are not much better than what you have in the US. The only difference is that no one in the world cares about our prime minister while POTUS influences the whole world.

BTW we Czechs joined the immigration to the US quite late. Any mobility was cemented by serfdom which was abolished quite late here (1781). Biggest waves of immigration from here to the US were in late 19th and early 20th century. And I wonder if the mindset of the US society could have also been influenced by the kind of people who immigrated there because from here it was predominantly individualistic, self-made men. And a majority of Czech immigrants in the US are long-term GOP voters, especially the ones who emigrated during the communist era because GOP politicians were always hard on the commies and in their opinion any tax raises and regulations are just attempts to recreate what they experienced back home. 🙄

@sesivany Yeah, really it was England, France, Germany, and a few others that really influenced the U.S. early on, especially England. It's almost as if England were at the heart of many of the world's problems... [1]

The criticisms are fair. The U.S. has bungled it, repeatedly. Especially since 9/11, when we could've led the world in an entirely different direction but chose wrongly at every turn.

The mindset is *definitely* shaped by the fact that many people came to the U.S. to escape problems and were of individualistic mindsets. "If I did it, everybody can do it" and "I got mine, screw everybody else" is a strong theme here.

Sigh. The world's messed up all around, though. I could go on at great length. I think we need a few generations of humans that aren't traumatized by world wars, plagues, and major economic upheavals to evolve to what we should be. The problem is that we seem to be stuck in a cycle of trauma, recovery, and then forgetting the lessons we should've learned. (Is it only Monday morning? Yikes. Too existential for a Monday morning...)

@bkuhn @paulschoe

[1] I say that mostly tongue-in-cheek. Mostly. Reminder to reply guys reading this, this is social media, nuance does not fit well in 140 or even 2000 characters....

@sesivany BTW, it looks likely I'll be at FOSDEM, if anyone wants to have beers (or whatever beverages...) and commiserate about the state of the world. @bkuhn @paulschoe

@jzb @bkuhn @paulschoe I haven't attended FOSDEM for almost 10 years and I don't think I will in the upcoming years. When you have small kids, any weekend away from the family is expensive.
But if you ever attend DevConf.cz or Flock again, let's have a beer. 🍻

@sesivany

There are so many bad motives that led the USA to a truly problematic Republic.

I already knew by the time of the Constitutional Convention, manifest destiny was a central policy focus. This is why every new State, even if their population is literally 2, gets two seats in the Senate & we can't change that without unanimous agreement of all States & Commonwealths.

The goal was obvious: exterminate native peoples & take the West for the wealthy & powerful.

Cc: @jzb @paulschoe

@jzb

One difficult issue of #FOSDEM — in addition to high COVID risk — is that it is hard to actually see anyone, as everyone is moving around room to room so fast.

I recommend booking explicit meetings with each individual you want to meet with.

I have a new idea for it this year.

@bkuhn @jzb 2 days are too short for an event of this size ...

@sesivany Yeah, ours are in their 20s now so... not quite the same. The youngest still lives with us, but it's hit or miss whether I even *see* her on the weekend! @bkuhn @paulschoe

@sesivany @jzb @bkuhn @paulschoe I see a difference. Trump is "genius" and "very good man". Babis is just a "very good man"... (and not yet prime minister).

@pavel @bkuhn @jzb @paulschoe @sesivany my eys are glued in the morning, I was reading about crime minister instead of prime minister

@jmlich @bkuhn @jzb @paulschoe @sesivany Well, that's not exactly bad reading, either: https://www.dreamstime.com/tel-aviv-yafo-israel-june-banner-says-crime-minister-protest-against-israeli-prime-benjamin-netanyahu-habima-square-image121524096

@pavel @bkuhn @jmlich @jzb @sesivany

Surprising and refreshing