Moonlight Graham

I'm not an expert in economics, so i don't know the ins and outs of "profit maximization" as a jargon term pertaining to that field. However, i do know that profit = revenue minus cost. There are ways to increase revenue and reduce costs that are, in my view, ethical and unethical. In a real-life example, today i caught a contractor trying to dump his garbage on the side of the road at the top of my street and I told him to take a hike. He was trying to reduce his cost by throwing away his waste for free (while trashing up my neighbourhood) instead of having to pay to dispose of his waste at the city dump. His attempt to reduce cost, beyond being illegal, was also unethical in my view. No society will long endure that engages in environmental destruction.

You're right, learning about religion does take maturity to comprehend it. That's why i was baptized as a baby, had my 1st Communion in Grade 2, and my Confirmation in Grade 6...right under the gun before the age when kids start to think for themselves and question religion. They really try to suck you in early, don't they? Thanks mom, dad, the Roman Catholic Church, and my local Catholic school board!

European colonialism also existed significantly for religious and power-politics reasons, among a myriad of other reasons. One can examine colonialism and imperialism objectively, as with slavery, but eventually one is faced with judging whether aspects of it were "right or wrong". It's impossible to examine the entire subject without making value judgements on it.

Yes, pretty much. We need some MP's with some balls. The constitution makes no mention of a lot of things, including the PM, for better or worse.

To do whatever you want. I guess how much retirement is appealing to people largely depends on how much satisfaction they get out of their jobs.

What voters need to do is to vote for MP's who are not afraid to buck the party line and risk career advancement in favour of representing their constituents more. For better or worse, political parties are a needed reality of Canada's parliamentary system. Our system has "responsible government", meaning the government must retain the confidence of MP's in the House of Commons. If MP's were always free to vote any way they pleased on confidence votes, we would be having elections at an alarming rate. This would obviously be unwanted by voters, would tarnish Canada in the international context since our governments would be seen as unstable, and MP's just wouldn't put up with it because more elections means their jobs would be on the line far more often. Party discipline is important on votes of confidence, but the problem is that this discipline continues on almost all votes. Canada needs more free votes in the House, and dissent must be tolerated far better within parties and their leadership. I find it frankly quite disturbing when one person aka the PM can wield the tremendous power that he does. Currently he has great power over legislation and how his MP's vote, he can call elections just about whenever he wants (through the GG), has great control over foreign policy & affairs, and appoints our Senators and judges. Jesus! Here's an interesting article by C.E.S. Franks on the pros and cons of more free votes in the House of Commons.

I never made any value judgment on free trade, good or bad. That said, "maximizing profits" in general is what businesses do and is good for economic growth, however it all depends on the many different methods used to maximizing profits. Some are good, some are bad, and there's still a hell of a lot of horseshit in this world done in the name of profits. BC's sig is "Economics trumps virtue", which if true would mean he would have been generally in support of slavery and European colonialism. It may be true because has claimed he has no sense of morality, meaning he is likely a robot (that's pretty cool!).

The CPC must be loving this. Thems got a decent shot at a majority, despite what he polls say. I hope the NDP become the opposition. The election returns should be pretty interesting to watch.

I have not made any claims as to why the US has a vastly higher population than Canada. I really have no idea since I haven't researched the issue. What i do know is that weather has to be some part of the reason, how much i have no idea. Despite Canada having slightly more land area than the U.S., much of it is uninhabitable for any sane human being. Ie: The north of Ontario for instance is tundra, with permafrost (aka soil that is frozen year-round) in the ground and no trees able to grow above the ankles because of the frozen ground, cold temps, and insane wind. If weather is no significant factor, than why is Alaska the #1 US state in terms of land area, but dead-last in terms of population density?

Also, these wingnuts who think there is some "New World Order" conspiracy of elites behind the curtain choosing who our government leaders are and centralizing our states to form a 1-state "world government" are missing these points. There is no hidden conspiracy, it's out in the open and anyone who knows how politics really works knows that its corporations pressuring our governments toward free-trade unions, NAFTA, the EU and the like, because it eliminates trade barriers and maximizes profits for these corporations.

Above is an interview with Ralph Nader where he basically outlines how U.S. politics (and hence much of the world) works, and who actually controls U.S. government policy. The U.S. government, from the President to Congress, are puppets of the wealthy. The United States is a plutocracy, not a democracy. Corporations, powerful lobby/interest groups, and the military-industrial complex controls this world. Most of what he says is nothing new, but unfortunately few seem to realize all of this outside those in Washington and the private wealthy individuals and groups pulling the strings behind the curtain.

Prove yourself right. Back up your claim. What are some of these "many reasons"?

Story from today's Ottawa Citizen: I VERY much recommend reading the entire article. This is a very important issue i believe. I don't think it's so "shocking" that the parties and their leadership are blamed for the dysfunction in Parliament, i think anyone with a clue knows this is how our system functions. With MP's being so controlled by their party leadership, and MP's saying that their "real work" occurs mostly behind the closed doors of private caucus meetings where MP's cannot be held accountable by the public, there is a severe dysfunction & deficit in our democracy. Personally, i would never run to be an MP because i would despise being told how to vote and not be able to represent my constituents, nor would i put up with not being able to express my views freely to the public/media if it went against my party...unless i wanted to get severely punished and/or booted from the party. This needs to be an election issue, and the way our system functions needs to change.

Can you prove this? Have you done research into the actual reasons for the massive population difference?

34,000,000 white people + 100,000,000 descendants of black slaves + 178,000,000 mexicans = America. BAHAHA!!

Learning about other religions is healthy, and increases ones knowledge and understanding of the world and other cultures/people. Learning about other religions is a lot different than practicing them.

What up with Kim Campbell on all these US panel shows. Seen her on Bill Maher a few times too. I never see her on TV in Canada Probably because she tells the channels she's a former PM of Canada & the 1st woman PM here at that. Guess they don't figure out what Canadian news shows all know: that she was unelected and only lasted 6 months before getting the boot! BAHAAHA!!!

C'mon man. Our vote only matters one day every few years. Corporations and interest groups lobby the government every day. Who do you think the government listens to more on a daily basis: an individual citizen sending a letter to an MP/PM, or a big corporation or lobby sector (tobacco, agriculture etc.) pressuring them on policies? The same people who fund their campaigns (despite our laws) and can quickly mobilize support for their members (in the case of interest groups) to vote for a particular party/candidate that is most in tune with their policy demands. Corporations, interest groups, and the wealthy in general certainly control the U.S. government, more so than the Canadian government because our finance laws are stricter and the nature of our political system (ie: MP's vote based much more on party lines compared to US Congress). I'm not saying anything new here. The lady in the video is referring to the US government, and she's right. Oil/energy, labour unions, the NRA, tobacco, AIPAC, argi-business, big pharma, insurance companies/banks/Wallstreet, and the defense industry (re: the military-industrial complex) etc. run US government policy. The US is a not a democracy, it is a plutocracy and everyone in Washington knows it. Here's Ralph Nader explaining it well. This is the best video in this thread:

Yes and no. You can make a choice not to work extra overtime or have a second job, or start your own business & work on it for mega-hours. But on the other hand, we live in an every-more globalizing economy where competition is fiercer with revenues and corporations getting bigger, and it seems more and more that companies in certain sectors are demanding more hours from employees. If an employee doesn't want to work the extra hours or want to be on-call for a company, the company will simply replace them with someone who does. It's also harder these days for a family to live off a single income with a parent staying home to raise the kids. I suppose one can still choose a career/job that doesn't require long hours if that's a priority. They can also consume less and save enough money to retire earlier. Overall, it seems odd that we continue to reap increasing benefits from the production of the industrial revolution, but none of that is translating into us having more leisure time. We are just obsessed with buying more & better stuff, so much so that many people rack up debt to pay for the crap. A 4-day work week isn't very practical for some professions, but people could be retiring a lot earlier if they didn't spend money on so many unnecessary things.

Never heard of this organization, but after clicking your link i noticed that Tides works with this "Story of Stuff" group. I don't understand the meaning of your post, so could you clarify what point you intended to make? is there some nefarious agenda by Tides or the video creators that i'm missing?

The overarching message of this video is true and of prime importance. However, your criticisms are valid. Some of the details are misleading, not sourced, and very much oversimplified & dumbed down to the point of insulting my intelligence & talking to me like i'm a baby. This video was made for the mass-consumption of an Oprah audience, ironic considering its message. But again, the overarching themes the video presents are very true. But i think most people, even the uninformed, know this all is happening, but we seem to be stuck like zombies continuing to turn the machine without much will to change the system. It is sad we are stuck in this cycle of self-destruction for the benefit of the wealthy who control/own the means of production...and that's really what it's all about. One quote i like:

What if you don't believe in any party? It sucks for me, because while i lean left-of-center overall, my views on important issues are all over the political spectrum. Personally, i'm still deciding who will get my vote. I live in a strong Conservative riding so how i vote won't make much of a difference, but still. Ideally i would like a Conservative minority again. I don't really want a CPC majority because i think their foreign policy is absolute garbage (besides maybe arctic sovereignty), among other things. On the other hand, i think 5 years of the CPC would help bring this country a bit back to the center. The Liberals suck tremendous balls, as do the Greens, so i may vote NDP because i would prefer a CPC minority with an NDP opposition. I'm not sure i'd like the NDP to govern, but they seem to most strongly represent the things i most disagree with the CPC policies & would provide the best check on their bullcrap.

I disagree with this.

I once lived in a Crackjack box for 2 years. It wasn't so bad. Came with a fun prize too.

Bingo.