Murdoch: at the Olympics | 100 comments (100 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Murdoch: at the Olympics (4.00 / 3)

It is not in our interest -- not in the interest of the majority of people who are not engaged in being or becoming high net worth individuals -- that things really go sick and bad. There's enough of a struggle ahead without it.

This is where Europe and the US don't match-up.

In Europe there are political parties and organizations that, at a minimum, pretend to be Left Wing. There ain't none in the US as exhibited by the position of the two 2012 US presidential nominees on the Political Compass:

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

by ATinNM on Sun Aug 5th, 2012 at 12:52:11 PM EST
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European governments (none / 0)

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Tue Aug 7th, 2012 at 03:27:39 AM EST
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Re: European governments (none / 0)

So Romney and Obama are about where Portugal's government is...

If you are not convinced, try it on someone who has not been entirely debauched by economics. — Piero Sraffa

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Aug 7th, 2012 at 03:38:06 AM EST
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Re: European governments (none / 0)

I find that very surprising. I once calibrated the compass using Bayrou's 2007 program (to see where what I could have called centre would be) and ended in the green square.

I know I find Hollande much too far to the right, and indeed Manuel Valls makes a few unwanted noises, but I would not have expected the current French government to be much to the right of the 2007 Bayrou.

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi

by Cyrille (cyrillev domain yahoo.fr) on Wed Aug 8th, 2012 at 03:58:24 AM EST
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Re: European governments (none / 0)

The calibration is iffy. I think they'd get a better scale if they only had "agree/disagree," and then required you to assign a weight to your answer.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Wed Aug 8th, 2012 at 05:22:37 AM EST
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Re: European governments (4.00 / 2)

Another thing might be that if Hollande believes something but is required to do otherwise by EU treaties, they would count what was actually done.
And since the treaties are top right corner...

Anyway, my impression from my attempt was that the conservative end of mere reasonableness would get you slightly to the top right of the green square.

Which makes it frightening to see such a cluster in the deranged region.

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi

by Cyrille (cyrillev domain yahoo.fr) on Wed Aug 8th, 2012 at 08:08:24 AM EST
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Re: European governments (none / 0)

Is what you "would have called the centre" in 2007 "the conservative end of mere reasonableness"?

If you are not convinced, try it on someone who has not been entirely debauched by economics. — Piero Sraffa

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Aug 8th, 2012 at 08:40:27 AM EST
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Re: European governments (4.00 / 2)

From memory, pretty much, yes. It seemed that anything to the right of that required that you absolutely had to either want to prevent consenting adults from engaging in consensual sex (if such consensual sex was not the kind you approved of), or to hold that any redistribution was inherently evil, or that taxation reduced government revenue, or that human rights should only be guidelines...

It certainly seemed to me that the blue corner was beyond reasonableness on at least some issues. But maybe part of it might be that some questions could have been interpreted differently.

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi

by Cyrille (cyrillev domain yahoo.fr) on Wed Aug 8th, 2012 at 08:55:13 AM EST
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Re: European governments (none / 0)

(I also think you have shifted a bit to the left since you joined ET...)

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères

by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Wed Aug 8th, 2012 at 10:31:31 AM EST
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Re: European governments (none / 1)

I did not calibrate with my exact opinions but with the Modem program (with the exception that I extended the idea of gay partnership with all the rights off marriage but not its name to actually being marriage).

So I "calibrated" slightly to the top right of myself.

I'm not that sure that I shifted to the left much, other than being more vocal about it.
I still think that we should have balanced the budgets better in 2007, while trying to change the treaties to something more reasonable of course. What I cannot accept is trying austerity in the current predicament (my main qualm with the Bayrou program this time round was his accepting the golden rule. Alas, Hollande will probably pass it too).
One area maybe: I probably now see more fields where having State companies (or even monopoly) seems a very reasonable proposition, or even the best one.

It seems to me that the world shifted a lot to the right, though. Dismantling the NHS used to be considered unthinkable.

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi

by Cyrille (cyrillev domain yahoo.fr) on Wed Aug 8th, 2012 at 11:43:54 AM EST
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Murdoch: at the Olympics | 100 comments (100 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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