Application of the Argument

[robot_vs_ninja]

"Every indication of contrivance, every manifestation of design which existed in the watch, exists in the works of nature, with the difference on the side of nature of being greater and more, and that in degree which exceeds all computation. I mean, that the contrivances of nature surpass the contrivances of art, in the complexity, subtilty, and

Comments

[greenmaid]

oh matt.

[robot_vs_ninja]

He's a brilliant man!

[fireshard]

Is he saying that human ingenuity is greater than nature?

[robot_vs_ninja]

No. He's saying that nature works like a watch and must have a maker.

Well, this excerpt isn't saying all that, this is pretty much the conclusion of his full argument

[fireshard]

Oh.
Very...profound. I guess he is saying there must be a god then?

[dinosaurdorer]

god is not necessarily (a/the) maker, definitively. Personally i see his arguement (from given excerpt, so don't attack based on the fact that i've never read the whole thing before, just attack my misenterpretation of the excerpt) as being that nature has a direct influence on the way we think and the things we do; ergo, the perfection of the natural world directly influences variations of a "multitude of cases" in the human mind because we cannot be better than nature. plus matt is hot.

by the way matt, whom is the character, and why is he so devoid of the idea that man is not better than nature, because i am. i invented the atom bomb and used nature's own flaws to completely destroy it. fag.

[morethanabean]

queer.

[robot_vs_ninja]

Yeah you are.

[morethanabean]

ain't denyin' it.

[robot_vs_ninja]

hot.

[dbacon35]

I decided to post this in your journal, just so ryan didn't get some big political rant in his comments

[robot_vs_ninja]

I responded to it in Ryan's journal.

[dbacon35]

Currently there are six income tax brackets. The middle and working class fall into the 20-25% tax bracket. Saying the government takes 1/4 of the working class's income is not a gross estimation

[robot_vs_ninja]

Yes, there are six tax brackets, but each bracket is progressive. As an individual's or a family's incomes goes up, their average tax rate goes up. As income goes down, average tac rate goes down.

If I make $50,000 a year, it's not all taxed at the same rate. The first $20,000 might be taxed at 10% while the next $20,000 will be taxed at 15%; and the last $10,000 will be taxed at 20%. The percentages used to classify each tax bracket are average tax rates; the whole sum of your income is not taxed exactly at that rate.

The way I see it, corporate taxes are designed so as to internalized negative externalities. A portion of this burden is passed on to consumers, and in some cases it's more than other cases, but in general, the change in price because of those taxes is going to be neglible. Now if their were an increase in the price of inputs, then maybe we would see more of an affect, but even that would balance itself out elsewhere in our economy on the long run.

I don't know enough about the FairTax to really comment on it.