Like socialism? Are you ready to live your life like a Swede?
To add my two cents to the drawbacks of socialism consider this: The average personal income tax of Sweden is 44 percent and they have a value added tax, like a sales tax, of 25 percent.
I don’t think the American middle class would accept this, even if they received more services from the government who has trouble running themselves.
The Swedes believe in “state individualism” which is foreign to most Americans, pardon the pun. Most Americans and their immigrants believe in the “American Dream” of becoming successful, wealthy and individual freedom without government controls.
As Margaret Thatcher so succinctly put it “The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”
The things you don’t read these days about your electric utility
As I watched Thursday night’s storm, I wasn’t thinking of the so-called “dark money” APS contributes to political candidates.
That’s a headline that could be used to out most corporations that contribute to political candidates and causes, not just utilities.
Besides, my recollection from the years that I worked for a utility (yes, I’m one of “them”!) is that corporate contributions to campaigns and charities, for the major part, came from shareholder funds, not ratepayers. But enough about what the media doesn’t tell its readers.
No, what I was thinking about was the men and women of APS working the storm, making sure TVs stayed on, A/Cs kept cooling homes, surgical suites were up and running, traffic signals didn’t fail, ad infinitum.
It’s important to remember that the heart and character of any corporation are its employees, and in the case of APS, many of its employees are out working in the wind, rain, lightning, heat and dust so that the rest of us can continue to enjoy the comforts to which we’ve become accustomed.
Their safety was what I prayed for, and I thank them for their heart, character, and dedication to their customers.
This veteran has had it and will now use Yahoo instead of Google
As an American and a veteran I am personally offended by the decision of Google, and their pampered, clueless employees, to withhold artificial intelligence
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❚ technology from our nation’s military.
Apparently, it injures their humanitarian sensibilities to aid in the development of drone technology designed to save the lives of our military personnel — those who are engaged around the world in an effort to keep global terrorism outside our gates.
At the same time they are denying help to their own nation, Google is prostrating itself before the totalitarian government of communist China, seeking re-entry into a country that will use any and all technology both militarily, to increase their military effectiveness, and domestically, to keep an iron hand on their civilian population.
Google isn’t simply naïve. They are hypocrites of the worst sort.
I will use the Yahoo search engine in the future.
I would urge veterans and all patriots to do the same.