This seems like the equivalent of Hannity insisting that he's not a Republican.

It should be a rule that liberal posters must self ban for a week if they are compared to Hannity.

Pretty much every country has a VAT, so it can't really be that unliberal. Denmark, Norway, Finland, etc.

Americans use the word 'liberal' differently. Because they don't have the equivalent of a Labour Party, anyone who advocates more government intervention in the economy via higher taxes and redistribution is a 'liberal' (though the dreaded 'Socialist' word is becoming more popular (and misused) post-Bernie).

Most of the rest of the world (possibly excluding Australia/NZ) understands that there are different dimensions: one Left to Right axis, another axis for liberal to authoritarian and a third axis for nationalism to internationalism. In the US they try to cram three different dimensions into one (probably because until recently no major politican has advocated Bernie style redistribution and almost everyone's a flag-waving nationalist), hence the confusion.

liberal in the european (and maybe australian but they seem fairly conservative) sense works fine. i doubt ive ever called myself libertarian because it's such an american thing.

basically give money to poor people, but not massive subsidies to middle class people. focus on fewer issue where government should play a part and mainly stay out of the rest. regulate/tax externalities. let uber live etc.

like one of the main european issues in forever has been how easy it should be to hire and fire people. it's what the french are going to riot over later this summer when macron tries to change labour market laws and it's what the germans have been trying to push on southern europe throughout the crisis. the entire left thinks it's a terrible idea and theyre just wrong.

i would say be more switzerland than finland, but i have no idea how country actually works.

There's no way those dots group so densely in the bottom left without the questions/answers being really fuzzy.

I am fine when autistic white guys all get together and live in a big boat at sea, but I really hate when people assume that means I'm a libertarian.

#NotAllSeasteaders

german politics seems so innocent
https://www.ft.com/content/47969426-...66969?mhq5j=e1

Phoenix confirmed hot af. Didn't quite make it to 120 though.

Bottle your sweat and toss it on the Senate floor.

Heard some airlines have cancelled flights in Phoenix due to the heat

Yeah 50 American flights

http://www.azcentral.com/story/trave...hts/409634001/

I grew up here but 20 min walk followed by 20 min in car wo AC wiped me out.

Why a car with no AC? Get a loan to fix it if you have to!

.

In lieu of an income tax though! I'm so far to the right we can barely understand each other!

Thanks for the concern. AC works, if not well, but I was afraid the car would overheat and that would have really sucked so I left it off. At 110 F it's not really a problem, but today was next level hot.

If global average temperature increases by 2 C, things will get interesting around here.

I wouldn't have guessed this of you. I'm sure you're well aware of the hyper-regressive nature of consumption taxes, why do you support that over more progressive schemes like income taxes?

It depends on the structure. If you leave off some basic necessities a consumption tax could be more progressive than the current graduated income tax. I think from a liberal(progressive more accurate here I think) v. conservative pov the relevant thing is who is paying the taxes, not so much what the mechanism is. If you include consumption of financial instruments, consumption of corporations, consumption of land....it could be very progressive.

I can imagine progressive consumption taxes in the abstract and make it seem like a good idea. Not so sure about the real world.

I should look this up before posting. I will after. But, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru....California has the highest state sales tax....

Eh, after a little research I think leaving off food and rent and making sure to tax things like buying stocks could be pretty progressive. There's some talk in the progressive VAT circles about refunding the first $x of taxes.

I would love it if I never had to file taxes again.

But, it seems like the Democratic Socialist countries take from everyone with the VAT and then make up for it with social services.

This is a question that routinely bugs me. Should, for example, I register as the party I typically vote for, or as the party I'd prefer but recognize won't actually work in the real world?

I'm not sure what the answer to this question is , but i know you're much more of an idealist than I am.