My friend’s mother emigrated from the USSR at around the same time as you (they call themselves Russian, though their passport is Kazakh). They claimed they were required to read Marx in school. You should be aware, if so, that in Marxist ideology the Capitalist distribution of wealth is the result of expropriation of surplus labour from the workers in the form of rent and wage labour. Redistributory taxes are merely a tool to dissolve the old forms of social relations. I agree that without the conception of wealth as labour that the issue of the second third man arises, since rent, wage and inheritance are part of the subjective value assigned by the market. There are a few apologists for the ruling class that may give you succor in your distaste for taxes: Murray Rothbard and Sam Konkin are the only ones that spring to mind. Every other capitalist accedes that taxes are necessary. Those that really oppose them tend not to be capitalists. They realise that capitalism is a social endeavour, where one is limited by the technical skills of others and ultimately reject industrialisation and the division of labour in industry (William Godwin) or believe in worker control of the means of production (Malatesta).
Actually, this country is on precisely the right track for a conservative, violating the Pareto distribution with a left skew. If you aren’t part of the ruling elite (no longer the upper 20%, now the 0.1%), then you should have taken some personal responsibility, rather than whining about how the social relations aren’t favourable to you.
That said, there are plenty of countries with lower tax rates. The United Arab Emirates is particularly attractive, with similar PPP per capita to the US and nil income tax. Unfortunately though, they have public healthcare. Drat, on with the elusive search for an industrialised country that realises that their citizens just need to take out two private healthcare insurances in order to achieve second best Pareto efficiency.
Edit: On topic, my own bike was stolen from my back garden when I was a child… My neighbour let some guys into our garden and they paid him to take our bike. We recovered it from them though, somehow.
Also, I once lost the key to a bike and my father took a hacksaw to remove the chain. A shop owner came out and asked him what he was doing and he told him the truth, which made the shop owner laugh. My father has had at least one bike stolen a year.
Wow! My very first pit thread and it derails in spectacular fashion! Best. Day. Ever.
Thanks to those of you commiserating with me. And Terr, if you’re still listening, I had actually thought of that. I have an overdeveloped sense of compassion, even toward those who decide to work outside of the rules we’ve established as a society. The thief had no way of knowing this, but if he/she had asked, I’d have been glad to share my ride.
And I plan to hit the “hippie” bike shops tonight. I’m hoping they’ll have sympathy on me.
Also thanks to whoever mentioned scrap aluminum. Going to take my flyer (with reward mentioned) by some recycling centers this weekend. I’m going to get this fucking bike back. I wish I had a way to send a Liam-Neeson-in-Taken style message to the thieves.
If you are stealing my bicycle because you need the quickest available transport to (a) flee from advancing zombies or (b) pursue the mobsters who just kidnapped Lieutenant Gordon’s baby and the bike is the best option, I will give you a pass. Particularly as, in the case of (a), I have either already abandoned the bike or am currently dead; or in the case of (b) you are Batman and will find out whose bike it was and replace it with a better one, and in any event I’m not fucking with Batman.
In other circumstances you deserve punishment, though the death penalty seems excessive. A maximum of four broken ribs seems right.
The thief needed the bike as much as the person who buys those ghetto fake flowers that come in “glass pipes” needs the fake flower.
The fake flower is only there to legitimize the open sale of crack pipes. This is a very open secret, a loophole.
Yes, the person stole a bike, but he wasn’t in need of a bike. If the guy needs a bike for transportation, I’m sure he could find one for free via a charity or even some person cleaning out their garage.
He stole the bike to sell it, for cash, to use as bike thieves do. I’m sure some sell them for legit needs (food etc.) and some sell them for drugs, guns, dirty bombs and the like.
What I don’t get is who the hell buys a stolen Schwinn? If you’re shady enough to buy that spray painted black Huffy for $5, why not just steal your own? I can see the market for high end bikes being different, but seriously, who buys a stolen high end bike?
Obviously there’s a market, because bike thieves aren’t just stealing bikes to ride them for a bit, they steal for profit. The shame should be spread evenly amongst bike thieves and stolen bike buyers IMO.
As for the troll douche here, let’s let him vent. Better he get out his aggression here than IRL. I have no doubt that he has names for his guns and is just as scary as you would imagine.
I once had my 12 yo mountain bike stolen and the insurance company gave me lots of money and then I got a better bike as the same model name existed but it was a gajillion times more ace. The bike second hand would have struggeld to get $50 but the new model [remember same name] was worth just over $1,000!
Not all bike thefts are bad…[it was inside my freaken house at the time]
Usually when a thread goes this wackadoodle off the rails the OP is at least somewhat responsible. Clearly that ain’t so in this case.
Sorry about your bike btw. That really sucks.
Don’t be sad MOL. I suspect with the election and all not going the way Terr wanted, the urge to fling poo in every direction became overwhelming for the poor dear thing.
Ah well. Call me a silly dreamer but, hopefully when it wakes tomorrow it will remember to take its pills. That way any further posts it makes will hopefully be semi-coherent and in a relevant thread.
Perfect example of liberal condescension assholery. At least in this country it hasn’t gotten to the point where “inakomyslyaschie” (other-thinkers) get committed in psychiatric clinics as they used to in the old country. Yet.
Is this thread still about Terr being an absolute shitstain on the blouse of humanity, or has it gone back to bike theft? Because boy, Terr, that’s got to by quite literally the douchiest and most absolutely idiotic threadshit I have ever seen on this forum. Congrats! You have my utter contempt for being a complete fucking cunt.
I lived in a nice little Munich suburb for a while, and from my school, I had 3 fucking bikes taken. A fourth was locked up and got its tire stolen. It’s fucking tire! While I was at school! Who the fuck steals a bike tire?! Some fucking people… Yes, I can commend the idea of death to bike thieves. If I get my hand on the rat who took it… Then I moved, and my next bike lasted 3 years until I got hit by a car (the fucker refused to get me a new one, and demanded I pay for the damages to his car). So now I ride a cheap-ass fixie which I assume is just too shit to be worth stealing.
Thank you. I take liberal hypocrites’ helpless sputtering as a badge of honor. Helping the downtrodden is great until it comes out of your pocket, isn’t it?
What, you think liberals don’t pay taxes? You probably do. We just don’t piss and moan and whine to the exclusion of being able to do or say anything else all the time.
I would posit that you should go suck a bag of dicks. You’re being intentionally obtuse and I have no interest in being the nth person to explain the difference between taxation and theft to someone who has no interest in learning anything. Especially not in a thread about people’s bikes being stolen. Maybe if your mother dies I’ll threadshit something about medicare in there. Fuckwit.
I’ve been lucky in that I have never had a bike outright stolen. I have had people who think it is fun to randomly vandalize bikes that are locked up. These are folks who wouldn’t dare touch a person’s parked car ("'cause dude, that’s a guy’s CAR!") but don’t hesitate to try out their pocket knife on a bike tire, or cut their initials in the frame with a nail file. Some people seem to think it is not property.
Ah so the only way you think of helping the downtrodden is to pay taxes? When they steal your bike - that helps them out, right? So why do you object to some poor schlob who is more needy than you being helped? You can afford a new bike.
You are making an excellent argument in favor of committing people to mental hospitals for expressing their political beliefs. I’m beginning to understand Stalin’s thinking, a little bit, thanks to you.
I don’t know why people are giving Terr any credence. He obviously gets off on the negative attention to the point where his keyboard must be getting encrustd. The argument that taxes = theft is utterly ludicrous. Nobody elected the bicycle thief to the position of city bicycle thief, the thief didn’t proscribe a bike stealing plan to the region, the stolen bike isn’t going to fund road maintenance, defense, infrastructure, record keeping, etc, things that the taxpayer will actually need and use. Taxes are not just about taking from person ‘A’ to give directly to person ‘B’ - never has been.
Can we get back to bike theft as a subject now? Thanks.
A very selective Stalinist, though–limited in this case to you. Speaking of which, could you take my “RUA Nut?” poll. I think you may just get the highest score yet. Kthxbye.
