Perhaps free-market would have been a better term, but people treat them as synonymous terms that is why I used capitalism. Anyways, people are expected to make decisions based on optimizing their own marginal benefit. That is in essence I will make the best decision for me and you make the best decision for you.

Akuma, I know you love RCP so I will provide the information from there.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/03/conservatives_more_liberal_giv.html

Although i would say it does make sense.

After all those that think it's the governments job thinks that money they pay in taxes is already part "Charity work"

Those who think that government money is money down the drain obviously think they need to give more money to orginizations they believe work.

Fair enough.  I mean I would obviously like to see his numbers first hand, but that's good enough for me.

I would also like to see what he defines as a charity.  Some people consider giving to a church the same as giving to charity.  And there are charities out there (both conservative and liberal ones) disguised as political activism groups.

I would also like to see his demographic data and his sample sizes, as well as how he exactly guaged all these criteria (by survey or other means).

The biggest problem I see facing the poor right now is healthcare and the solvency of Social Security in years to come.  Both of those things I believe are too large for smaller groups to tackle.  The government has to do it.

Europeans may use that reason as they have higher tax rates compared to Americans. Liberal Americans, however, pay the same tax rates as conservative Americans. There may be minute regional differences in the US, but nothing comparable to the discrepancy between US and European taxes. I am not picking on liberals as I share equal disdain for the New Right and liberals, but as I said earlier…I give credit when credit is due.

Dammit, let me try that joke again:

ORLY?

ZAMMO!

Yeah but I think you miss my point.  The Liberal Americans think the taxes they pay work... while the conservatives think the taxes they pay don't work.

For example if your average liberal says "Well I should give 15% of what i make to help the poor."  they also think "Well 7% of my money already goes to the government for foodstamp programs so that counts."

So they only give 8%.

While the average conservatives say "Well I should give 15% of what I make to the poor" and think "Well the 7% I pay in taxes to the government for foodstamp programs and such don't really work.  So i've got to buckly down and pay a total of 22% of my total income to help the poor by donating 15%.

Basically my theory isn't that liberals are less charitable, but that republicans and democrats are equally charitable, but republicans give more because they believe the "mandatory" charity is worthless.

it is hard enough sometimes trying to convince someone that Sony has in fact, a plan.
discussing politics is near to last on the menu i would think.
everyone just go to
factcheck.com
or look up the policies which they each have because this is ridiculous.
nobody on here can prove how either candidate is going to be.
let's just say that people will know they made a mistake if and when the time comes. I'm just hoping that no mistakes are made.
half of you aren't even voters. We should all stop this BIGJON inspired madness before we all end up as blissful as he is.

Fairness? Do you know why the richest people really vote Democrat and for higher taxes on themselves?

Because they are smart enough to know that they are rich because of this country's oppurtunities and productive citizens.

They support more social programs because they know that poor people really CAN'T afford medical care, and they feel that no one should be denied it.

They are against the Iraq war because they know it is a waste of money, that oil won't even be an issue in 50 years, that an Iraqi life is just as valuable an American one.

Just because someone made or makes money doesn't mean that they don't care about people or want to deny others from making money.

That's the whole problem I have with Republicans. It's not about free trade or fairness for them, it's about keeping other people from competing or even enjoying their rights. You see it in their medical legislation, in their spending, in their energy policy(drill drill drill and nucular), in their votes for allocation of representatives, in their positions on "security" (i.e. privacy and civil liberties), marriage, education, funding religious groups (that they approve). They want to exclude people who don't live the way that they live.

Now, I'll look at it pragmatically.
If you make under 150k per year, your taxes will decrease and government benefits increase.
If you make over 150k per year, the future work force will have better skills and health standards increasing your standard of living.

Standard of living is not all about net income.

This thread is so far off topic...but I guess bigjon really didn't give us much of a topic to begin with.

It's funny how we have the same concerns but different conclusions.

i think Republicans and especially the christians care more about the poor in this country than the democrats.  democrats use them for votes by telling them that they will get free money if democrats are in power.

crazy isn't it?  Oh well, I hope we are both right and whoever wins the election will do their best to fix this country.