Federal Government

Taxing or Extortion?

This entry was posted in Capitalism Constitution Domestic Terrorism Economics Federal Government Government Libertarianism US History US Politics on by

Looks like the Italian Mafia may be taking some lessons from the US Gov/IRS:

Libero Grassi, owner of a thriving textile company outside Palermo, was killed in 1991 after he refused to pay a large monthly “pizzo,” the Sicilian word for an extortion payment.
The new strategy is to avoid exorbitant rates, such as the ones applied to Grassi’s factory, but to cast the protection net much further afield, even to small shopkeepers.

Yep, if you kill them they will not be around to pay you tomorrow. A much better method is to expropriate their assets and perhaps dump persistent refuseniks in jail.
And like much government and its tax collectors:

It means the Mafia selling itself as a fact of life, even a benevolent association that helps find a job or fix a problem. This makes it not just a criminal organization but a criminal phenomenon rooted in history and harder to extirpate.

It has long seemed that one reason the politician gangs have pretended to want to eliminate folks like the mafia is that they want the same business themselves: extortion taxes, your local lottery, etc.
Via Catallarchy.

Who Is to Blame?

This entry was posted in Environment Federal Government Health Care Marketing Regulation World Affairs on by

For you being overweight?
Too many would like to foist the blame on corporations and governments. For example:

This Westernization — in some circles, Americanization — of the global culinary landscape no doubt contributed to the fattening of the world. But many obesity experts say it’s hard to know where to place the blame.
“What we’re looking at is not solely an American phenomenon, but a transnational corporation phenomenon,” Rigby said.

Rigby is policy director for the International Obesity Task Force.
Then there is this:

Choice also applies to foreign governments, which Paul Zimmet, director of the International Diabetes Institute in Melbourne, Australia, said have played an equal role in allowing poor diets to become a health crisis.
Governments haven’t done enough to make healthy foods affordable and physical fitness accessible, he said.

Just when did these things become governmental functions?
Zombyboy places the focus right where it belongs:

It is much easier to blame international corporations and America instead of focusing responsibility on the choices individuals make, though. It also takes responsibility for the effects of choices away from those individuals–instead of changing lifestyles and making hard choices, there’s a possible payday from the latest round of lawsuits against the people selling the food.
Eating healthy and getting exercise aren’t things that are forced on us, they are simple choices that we make on a daily basis. That many of us tend to make those choices poorly is not an indictment of an industry or a nation, it’s an indictment against us.

Folks, put the fork down and take a walk!