Tax Evaders Renounce U.S. Citizenship

[Ameiko]

The USA was a reaction against the French Revolution. The aristocracy saw the writing on the wall, so they went underground. They ditched their titles, but kept their money and property, and founded a nation built entirely on the idea that property rights trump every other right. Heck - even the notion of "human right" is modelled on the idea of property: they are these "things" that you somehow "have". The USA is now and always was a nation ruled by the moneyed aristocracy. It has the usual failings of nations ruled by oligarchies.

As opposed to the "owner" class: trust funders and Paris Hilton, that wise, smart, and hard-working person. Wealth in the USA and similar countries comes from working the legal system and stealing the labour of the poor under colour of law. With the oil running out, slavery will return, and this time colour won't matter. Bank on it.

BLAH BLAH BLAH, Class Warfare, Envy, Gimme what someone else has!

Most wealthy are self made. For those who inherit their wealth, how is it your business if they give it to their descendents?

Read up on your history: men like Andrew Carnegie who came from nothing to become the second richest man in America at his time, behind only Rockerfeller who was also a self-made man. Both made their wealth in the 1800's, after the US was founded. I guess those original aristocrats who helped settled this nation and then established a Constitution lost its touch, eh?

Paris Hilton was born into wealth but her great grandfather Conrad Hilton who established that wealth came from modest means and a father who was an immigrant in the late 1800's, again AFTER the all those supposed aristocrats set up this great plantation.

Learn some history and gain some knowledge before you speak out and look foolish. I do not deny that some people are born with advantages but many have come from nothing to accomplish great things and stand taller and prouder than those you bequeath the title of our hidden masters. If such a system truly existed, do you honestly think they would be allowing their competition to come to power and gain more wealth than they have?

When did we start to truly lose our freedoms? When we let the wrong people vote and they grew the government to huge, choking levels. If their was the "owner's class'" dream all along, why did it take almost 200 years to have such a quantum leap in government control, size, and scope? Talk about some MASSIVE forward planning! With foresight like that, you'd think they would have avoided some of the crap we are going through now.

I suppose you might comment that the strife is what they want but if their wealth is generated by business, well internal strife is bad for most business. And, again, why wait until only relatively recently to empower women and minorities to create such strife through the political system when they did the complete opposite when they founded this nation?

The mind boggles!

[BeijaFlor]

The USA was a reaction against the French Revolution. The aristocracy saw the writing on the wall, so they went underground. They ditched their titles, but kept their money and property, and founded a nation built entirely on the idea that property rights trump every other right. Heck - even the notion of "human right" is modelled on the idea of property: they are these "things" that you somehow "have". The USA is now and always was a nation ruled by the moneyed aristocracy. It has the usual failings of nations ruled by oligarchies.

I was ready to launch into you, but you're Australian and you couldn't be expected to know US history.

The events that led to the American Revolution started in the 1760s; the first serious battle, in Lexington & Concord, Massachusetts, took place 19 April 1775. The Declaration of Independence was signed 4 July 1776. The Revolutionary War continued through 1783, when the Treaty of Paris was signed. The Constitution of the United States was written through the following years, signed by its framers 17 Sep 1787, and adopted when New Hampshire's legislature ratified it - 21 June 1788.

Let's take a look at the "American aristocracy" that founded the USA. "Gentlemen farmers" would be a better term; all the "titled lords" were back in England, collecting rents from their colonies. They were men of means, yes; they were well-educated and well-known, and trusted so by their neighbors and fellows that they were chosen as representatives of their colonies to the Continental Congress.

The French Revolution didn't start till 1789, and it was July 14, 1789 when the people of Paris stormed the Bastille.

The USA had been up and running for more than a year before the French Revolution.

Now, to counterbalance this - I'm quite ignorant of Australian history; all I know about are Botany Bay, Waltzing Matilda, the ANZACs at Gallipoli (God bless them every one!), the screw-ups of Mandarin Rudd, and now the mammoth fuck-ups of Ju-LIAR Gillard. I don't even know when or how Australia stopped being a colony. But I know I don't know it.

[Grimjack]

Bejiaflor, you beat me to it! Even with my crappy public school education I knew that the Amercian revolution came before the French revolution, and I believe the French revolution occurred partially because of the success of the Americans. Which is actually ironic in that the French provided more assistance to the Americans than any other country....