RSA ANIMATE: The Economic Consequences of Mr Brown

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1. How can you class them as being competent, when they kept making the wrong decisions?
2. Thank you, Professor Ringen.
3. And I thought 25% of Irish children living in poverty was a disgrace.
4. I'm trying to find the topic which discusses a guy who was forced out of his apartment for three days because his girlfriend didn't tell her parents that she was living with someone and they are coming for a visit. In order to avoid conflict he puts all of his things into his car, and he lives in it until he is arrested for looking suspicious because he is there for days. I was interrupted and didn't see the end of the story. It was an RSA animation type presentation. Can anyone point me in the right direction to find this clip?
5. The best way to relieve poverty is to prevent government interference. Poverty arises from cooperation of the wealthy to maintain the status quo. Such cooperation is impossible WITHOUT government intervention.
   
   Monopolies (Think, Energy, Communications, Food, and Transport) always break down as one member of the cartel realises that they can benefit by stepping out of line.
   
   The means of enforcement is legislation and regulation. Poverty is not a fixed state. In fact research shows that even if the rate of poverty remains constant, the actual people in poverty change markedly over time as people grow out of poverty or fall into it.
   
   The people best placed to produced growth are those Small and Medium Businesses making the most money. They have proven that they know how to produce growth, by actually doing so.
   
   These are the businesses that pay most tax, and manifestly the government is less effective at investing that money than the business they taxed.
6. Fascism was one the best things to happen to Germany?
   Are you fucking insane?
7. In a phrase, it's TOTAL corruption.
8. Responsibility to the poor is not only the duty of the rich, it's everyone's responsibility. However, soaking the rich never works. If taxes are too high they will just move their money off shore or use tax loopholes or both. I like the idea of the progressive flat tax. This kind of flat tax would give generous deductions to individuals and families. For example, a family of four would not have to pay any taxes on the first 50 thousand. I am also in favor of abolishing our current welfare and entitlement system and exchanging it for a negative income tax based system. A negative income tax supplements people who make below a minimum income amount that the government determines based upon an adequate standard of living. If a person is disabled or elderly they would receive the full sum. Conditions also might be made for unemployment. They could use that to purchase food, health care or whatever else they need. You might say, 'but health care is so expensive.' That's mostly because you can't buy health care from state to state. Open the states up and set some regulations about not being turned down because of pre-existing conditions ect and take the government out of it and the costs go down significantly. I think that the government should only pay for the health care of veterans and people in prison or mental institutions. If we significantly cut the size of the government we can lower taxes on the middle class which is why the economy isn't recovering very fast. They have no money to spend to stimulate job growth. That is the reason we have such a high poverty rate right now as well. There aren't enough jobs being created. The poor aren't to blame. They just can't find work. The size and expense of the government is to blame. As for college tuition being so high. I'm in favor of free public colleges. Just like we have free public schools. This would force the private colleges to compete harder by lowering tuition costs. I think that our number one priority should be education and that we need to make sure that every child has access to a home computer with internet. That is why I also favor a free government internet option for those who want it. Technology is very important in the modern world and all children and college students need equal access to it. We also must allow children to go to the school of their parents choosing and not the one that's just in their neighborhood. Break the teachers unions and allow teachers salaries to be based upon performance and you'll see the quality of our public schools increase. The only entitlement I think we should have is childcare. The rest is up to the private sector. We have to make sure that those who fall between the cracks have charitable resources to turn too. Free Hospitals, homeless outreach programs, food pantries, ect. We all have to give what we can to help the poor. If we all had more of our own money we would have more to give to whatever cause we chose. As for violent crime, decriminalize drugs and see what happens. No more black markets. The crime rate would drop dramatically. I really think that the conservative vision is the more realistic one and will help the most people. It's just hard getting people behind the same vision.
9. Fascism was one of the best things to happen to Germany. More jobs, Massive expansions in the industrial,agricultural and civil sector. The economy flourished and the only reason it didn't stick was because of war, if WW2 never happened I would not be suprised of Germany had reformed the HRE and gotten elected.
10. Love the videos but the guy writing needs to learn to spell.
11. you'd think it is form the blurb they put out but in fact it's about one small step up from soviet russia. i thought as you did before i came here and, having been here for 15 years now, i'm all too aware of the many flaws and cracks in the system: let's face it, with a suicide rate about 4th/5th from the top in the OECD nations, it can't be that good of a country. the system is stiffling and non-responsive, prices/taxes are high and salaries/benefits are low. i'm only here for my daughter, now.
12. Finlands a great country. good luck
13. i think i'll stay in Finland .... Britain's officially fucked, now.
14. Cont.. After a yes vote, well, the future is ours and a Scottish general election will not be far off. The negotiation will begin and it will mark a new direction for Scotland. You said " not benefit Scotland at this time", but you will never hear of a "better time" and it will certainly not be "allowed" to happen in the future after a no vote. "that could consolidate common resources" Hence why we keep the pound, it does exactly what you described. 
15. Well, after a no vote in 2014 the 2015 General election will result in a narrow tory majority, with UKIP doing better than ever and labour stuck in opposition (the resignation of edd milliband and his brother david becoming new leader will either occur before or after the election, not sure but probably after as the result will be seen as a failure). The Lib dems will be humiliated. The reason for a tory majority is the eu referendum. Continued... 
16. and yes - i have an interest in the argument - i'm also Scottish. 
17. i'd say that an equal and mutual interdependence is the answer: that could consolidate common resources, but would remove the overarching and undue influence of English policy on Scottish and Welsh socio-economic statuses. independence would not benefit Scotland at this time, or at least i used to think so before Cameron and his set of cunts came into power. if not for Cameron, i'd say interdependence. with Cameron in power ... yes, independence cannot make the Scottish economy any worse.
18. I wrote that comment more than two years ago. That was before the SNP got re-elected and before the current proposed referendum on independence. I was in touch with the will of the people then and i'm still "in touch" now. I 100% agree with you about the role of gov. But the Scottish gov can deliver Independence and a new direction. The question is: Carry on or take a new direction? You have partly answered your own comment and validated mine. Respect Scotland and you'll be respected back. 
19. UK dont even have a constitution ...
20. This is ridiculous. A competent government makes bad decisions. Isnt that INCOMPETENCE?