Comments on: Libertarians, Loan Sharks, and Land Mines http://dissidentvoice.org/2008/09/libertarians-loan-sharks-and-land-mines/ a radical newsletter in the struggle for peace and social justice Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:19:36 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: AJ Nasreddin http://dissidentvoice.org/2008/09/libertarians-loan-sharks-and-land-mines/#comment-27863 AJ Nasreddin Sun, 07 Sep 2008 10:50:34 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/?p=2900#comment-27863 Thank God I still live in a cash society! Of course paper money is not so dependable either. Thank God I still live in a cash society! Of course paper money is not so dependable either.

]]> By: cg http://dissidentvoice.org/2008/09/libertarians-loan-sharks-and-land-mines/#comment-27783 cg Sat, 06 Sep 2008 03:00:10 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/?p=2900#comment-27783 "images of life to take away the taste of death-string quartets playing at the entrance to gas chambers." Someone has been watching too much TV. “images of life to take away the taste of death-string quartets playing at the entrance to gas chambers.”

Someone has been watching too much TV.

]]> By: blowin in the wind http://dissidentvoice.org/2008/09/libertarians-loan-sharks-and-land-mines/#comment-27756 blowin in the wind Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:41:28 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/?p=2900#comment-27756 Brian, are you serious? Why take the TV ride at all? The real problem is the people who are addicted to it because thinking literally gives them waking nightmares-that's the real totalitarianism-images of life to take away the taste of death-string quartets playing at the entrance to gas chambers. Be friggin' grateful you still have enough spirit to be pissed off. Brian, are you serious? Why take the TV ride at all? The real problem is the people who are addicted to it because thinking literally gives them waking nightmares-that’s the real totalitarianism-images of life to take away the taste of death-string quartets playing at the entrance to gas chambers. Be friggin’ grateful you still have enough spirit to be pissed off.

]]> By: Brian Koontz http://dissidentvoice.org/2008/09/libertarians-loan-sharks-and-land-mines/#comment-27734 Brian Koontz Thu, 04 Sep 2008 21:47:26 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/?p=2900#comment-27734 You've only touched the tip of the iceberg in a society that combines totalitarianism with internal exploitation and utter commercialization. Here's another example - gift cards. The financial model behind gift cards is that many of them are not used. So a customer pays full price for a gift card, collects no interest on his "investment" while it's not used, and then many of them are never used. Most gift cards actually *expire*, having "non-use" fees after 1 year. According to http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/12/gift_card_giveaways.html 10 percent of the value of gift cards is never redeemed. So in other words money that is NOT used is being sold for money that IS used, with profits going purely to the seller. It's utter fraud committed on a mass scale, just par for the course in America - the land of the free to exploit. While we are "free to not buy gift cards", just like all other forms of advertising we *hear* about gift cards frequently. Why am I not free to not hear about gift cards? Why am I not free to not hear the massive amounts of garbage advertising and marketing and capitalist monstrosities? The answer of course is that if I was free capitalist profits would fall, and since corporations are running the country that is simply not allowed. I am a slave with no power and few rights. But the right to buy things from capitalists - oh, THAT right is upheld with the utmost integrity in America! You’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg in a society that combines totalitarianism with internal exploitation and utter commercialization.

Here’s another example – gift cards. The financial model behind gift cards is that many of them are not used. So a customer pays full price for a gift card, collects no interest on his “investment” while it’s not used, and then many of them are never used. Most gift cards actually *expire*, having “non-use” fees after 1 year.

According to http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/12/gift_card_giveaways.html

10 percent of the value of gift cards is never redeemed. So in other words money that is NOT used is being sold for money that IS used, with profits going purely to the seller. It’s utter fraud committed on a mass scale, just par for the course in America – the land of the free to exploit.

While we are “free to not buy gift cards”, just like all other forms of advertising we *hear* about gift cards frequently. Why am I not free to not hear about gift cards? Why am I not free to not hear the massive amounts of garbage advertising and marketing and capitalist monstrosities? The answer of course is that if I was free capitalist profits would fall, and since corporations are running the country that is simply not allowed. I am a slave with no power and few rights. But the right to buy things from capitalists – oh, THAT right is upheld with the utmost integrity in America!

]]> By: Donald Hawkins http://dissidentvoice.org/2008/09/libertarians-loan-sharks-and-land-mines/#comment-27720 Donald Hawkins Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:16:58 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/?p=2900#comment-27720 Lonnie this whole credit card thing could be about over for the slaves. Lonnie this whole credit card thing could be about over for the slaves.

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