[EyeBrock]

It certainly stimulated some negative views on his time away.

[Lemmy]

EyeBrock EyeBrock:

Come on Lemmy. If Harper had been working at a US uni, the media and Libs would have been all over it.

No. Harper's an idiot. He couldn't get a job at ANY university, or anywhere else, for that matter. If he HAD been able to get a job (ANY job) out of university, it would have HELPED his image.

EyeBrock EyeBrock:

And I agree it's stupid and if he actually had some policies that I could weigh up, him being in Cambridge and at Harvard would not enter into my voting decision. Personally I think it would be a 'plus' from my point of view. I spent 8 years travelling and I'm a better person for it.

Exactly.

EyeBrock EyeBrock:

But, that aside, plenty people will see it as a negative and his time in the Great Satan will bite him in the arse come election time.

The voting public are not that clever y'know. Those two words, "Just visting" sum up an easily digestible message.

That's my point. This nonesense is aimed at stupid peons who spend as much time letting cable tv wash over them as sleeping or working. And that's fine. I understand, it's a catchy phrase and it makes for good attack-ad fodder. But I have a higher opinion of CKA-ers' intelligences than the average automatons that I see at the pub. There's no excuse for educated, intelligent people to parrott that "Just Visiting" nonesense here. When my five year old hears thunder and asks if the Flying Spaghetti Monster is bowling, I can understand it.

[Curtman]

Lemmy Lemmy:

But I have a higher opinion of CKA-ers' intelligences than the average automatons that I see at the pub.

I bet if they had Google at the pub things would be different.

[dino_bobba_renno]

Curtman Curtman:

dino_bobba_renno dino_bobba_renno:

Iggy’s proposals does little for them directly. Is it better to retrain and relocate a out of work autoworker who has no hope of going back to the same field he was in or is it better to support your position and let him work a part time / seasonal job for a few months on road construction and then let him collect insurance employment or would you rather see the focus placed on retraining him for other fields of work where there is a need for workers?

You have already stated that you believe those fulltime workers are already eligable for EI. So do I. EI has will enable them to be retrained for any field they would like to pursue.

So then why do you believe we need to lower the required hours to 360?

Curtman Curtman:

dino_bobba_renno dino_bobba_renno:

Iggy’s idea is ignorant of the fact that there are many who do abuse the system. It is also ignorant of the fact that many of the jobs that were lost aren’t coming back. We need to invest in retraining and relocating people as well as allowing more time for those with what would normally be seen as good skills to reenter the workforce.

He's ignorant, but you aren't? EI is the program that helps retrain workers.

Ya, and that very system has a finite budget with which to operate. If you lower the requirements where do you think the money is going to come from to cover the additional people who are eligible after working only 9 weeks? More people on EI means less money per, very simple stuff.

I've seen you dismiss anyone who's commented on this but I have yet to see you put forward any type of argument on why lowering the required hours and standardizing the system is a good thing.

[Curtman]

dino_bobba_renno dino_bobba_renno:

So then why do you believe we need to lower the required hours to 360?

As a temporary measure, I would much rather support a family with EI than with Visa/Mastercard.

dino_bobba_renno dino_bobba_renno:

Ya, and that very system has a finite budget with which to operate. If you lower the requirements where do you think the money is going to come from to cover the additional people who are eligible after working only 9 weeks? More people on EI means less money per, very simple stuff.

I would like to know where they thought the money would go when they cut the GST as the U.S. economy collapsed and Steve was promising he would prevent a recession if he got elected.

[Lemmy]

Curtman Curtman:

I would like to know where they thought the money would go when they cut the GST as the U.S. economy collapsed and Steve was promising he would prevent a recession if he got elected.

Sorry, but you're concluding that the GST cut lowered government revenues. It didn't. It increased them.

[Curtman]

Lemmy Lemmy:

Sorry, but you're concluding that the GST cut lowered government revenues. It didn't. It increased them.

That's debatable.. I'd start with a link or a quote or something.

$1:

Page also said the deficit can be eliminated only with "significant discretionary actions," the least painful of which, in his view and the view of other private-sector economists, would be to increase the country's consumption tax — the GST.

$1:

NDP Leader Jack Layton called on the government to roll back corporate tax cuts that went into place last year and this year.

Our corporate taxes are lower than in the U.S.

$1:

“The average person on the street has a view of Canada (as a high tax country) because of their personal tax rates. But, the U.S. has one of the highest corporate income tax rates in the world," he said.

I'm sure they buy a lot of votes saying no tax is good tax, but look where that put the U.S. Whats the deficit this year, 1,000,000,000,000USD or something?

[Proculation]

that's a good thing our corporate taxes are lower than in the US. We can drag some companies here.

[Lemmy]

Curtman Curtman:

That's debatable.. I'd start with a link or a quote or something.

No, it's not debateable. You can't argue with the facts. You should look up the Laffer Curve in a textbook and lighten up on the web sites. The rest of your post, while an interesting red herring, has nothing to do with the effects of the GST cut on government revenues, which I, and virtually every other economist I know, agree were positive.

[Curtman]

Lemmy Lemmy:

No, it's not debateable. You can't argue with the facts. You should look up the Laffer Curve in a textbook and lighten up on the web sites.

I read your conversation the other day about it.. The thing about economics textbooks is sometimes it seems a bit like Astrology. I don't believe either just because it's on printed paper.

[OnTheIce]

Curtman Curtman:

OnTheIce OnTheIce:

Good to see he finally came back "home". Perhaps now he can actually spend some time in Canada.

Boy that never gets old for you 'eh? Are the soldiers in Afghanistan still Canadian enough, or have they been away for too long as well?

Don't think the soldiers are planning on spending 30+ years over there, then calling themselves Afgans, then coming back to Canada to jump into politics.

Would it kill Iggy to spend some time in Canada or is the pay too good to go over to London and speak about "Liberalism in Tough Economic Times" then vacation in France?

Lemmy Lemmy:

Jesus Fucking Christ!!! He was WORKING AT HARVARD! He wasn't bumming around Europe or teaching English in Korea or searching for crystal skulls in the Mayan jungle. He was a couple of hours away, working at the most (and believe me, as an MIT alumnus it kills me to say) prestigious university in North America. I don't think anyone is taking it personally, but those repeating this story, like there's any substance to it, are the ones that look stupid, not Iggy.

Politics, as I'm sure you know, has a lot to do with image. For the last decade, we have Martin and Chretien bashing away at the Americans, Sheila Copps stomping on a Bush doll, etc.....and now we have a man, who's spent the vast majority of his life with our neighbour and who's referred to himself over and over again as an "American" sits sideways with Canadians.

The more Canadians get to know Iggy, the more they'll realize he's nothing like them nor does he understand ANYTHING what it means to be Canadian.

[OnTheIce]

Curtman Curtman:

Lemmy Lemmy:

No, it's not debateable. You can't argue with the facts. You should look up the Laffer Curve in a textbook and lighten up on the web sites.

I read your conversation the other day about it.. The thing about economics textbooks is sometimes it seems a bit like Astrology. I don't believe either just because it's on printed paper.

It's just easier to believe what supports your point, whether it be some random website or a Twitter "tweet".

[Lemmy]

Curtman Curtman:

Lemmy Lemmy:

No, it's not debateable. You can't argue with the facts. You should look up the Laffer Curve in a textbook and lighten up on the web sites.

I read your conversation the other day about it.. The thing about economics textbooks is sometimes it seems a bit like Astrology. I don't believe either just because it's on printed paper.

Economics is like astrology? Well, you're entitled to your opinion, but there are how many thousand accredited universities in the world that research, teach and confer degrees in economics? There are how many thousand economists working in the world today? FAIL.

[Curtman]

OnTheIce OnTheIce:

It's just easier to believe what supports your point, whether it be some random website or a Twitter "tweet".

No, it's just easier to believe Parliamentary Budget Office than some guy on in a forum who doesn't provide any references.

[Lemmy]

OnTheIce OnTheIce:

Politics, as I'm sure you know, has a lot to do with image. For the last decade, we have Martin and Chretien bashing away at the Americans, Sheila Copps stomping on a Bush doll, etc.....and now we have a man, who's spent the vast majority of his life with our neighbour and who's referred to himself over and over again as an "American" sits sideways with Canadians.

The more Canadians get to know Iggy, the more they'll realize he's nothing like them nor does he understand ANYTHING what it means to be Canadian.

If that's the case, then they should be bashing him about not understanding what it means to be a Canadian. Where one's work takes them has nothing to do with that. If you're the best baseball player in Canada you go to the US to work. If you're the best Egyptologist, you go to Egypt, if you're the best chef, you go to Paris. If you're an academic and you get offered an appointment to Harvard, that's not a negative thing.

If he's an egg-head elitist sabre-rattler then bash him for that. Leave the "just visiting" bullshit for the mouth-breathers.