It's important for any person that claims to represent the people to interact with them directly. I think this is one reason, among many, why Donald Trump has made an interesting decision. For the first time in history, you can tweet at the President, and the President tweets back.

I'm considering making a new campaign promise:

I will be the first President of the United States of America to post on the #Fediverse. I will also ensure that a new grant for innovators in #socialmedia can be established through executive action. With the Freedom Dividend, I hope many open source developers can come out of the woodwork and contribute to #opensource projects like #Mastodon and #Gab 24/7.

Can you imagine: https://social.whitehouse.gov/ ?

-- AY
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@yang
Don't you just love it when politicians come to you and say, "If you vote for me, I will give you money."
It's not at all like trying to bribe people with money taken from other people's pockets.

@jlcrawf Wall St has been robbing the American people for years by evading taxation, outsourcing labor, and keeping wages low. Now as we face the looming threat of automation, we need to rethink many basic assumptions of how economies should function. My value-added tax is a very modest proposal that takes that money back from the big corporations and puts it back in the hands of the American people.

I'm not taking money out of your pocket. I'm putting money into it. An extra $1000 / month, every month, forever. No strings attached.
@yang @jlcrawf If you disavow Brad Griffin by name during the debate tonight, you have my permission to use my $1000/month to donate to a charity of your choosing.

@yang
Number 1: we are currently experiencing an economy where there are more jobs than there are people looking for jobs. Automation has not been the death nell that the left has claimed it would be.

@yang
Number 2: You claim that you are not taking money out of my pocket, but putting it in my pocket. That is exactly what my original response was talking about. Politicians that are using tax payer dollars to bribe people for their votes.

@yang
Number 3: America has been the leader of the free world for years. We have a very vibrant economy that is currently looking up. The last thing that I want is some politician that thinks he knows better than everyone else to "re-think the economy." Especially when the plan is to model it after a system that has never worked.

@yang @jlcrawf Will you help the common man also evade taxation? Evading taxes for all!
@rasterman @jlcrawf @yang Who built the roads before taxes built them? Who built the railroads? What kind of job is the government doing with the roads now?

Who's building the roads? https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2018/06/dominos-pizza-is-fixing-potholes-now-and-thats-fine/562829/

An aside, Tokyo's rails are all privatized and excellent.
@p @rasterman @jlcrawf You do need to force private infrastructure providers to take all customers. Imagine if Facebook ran the roads.
@judgedread @jlcrawf @rasterman Are you sure about that? Why does the government fund roads? I think the effects of open systems are incentive enough. I'll pay a toll instead of a tax gladly.
@p @judgedread @jlcrawf What if they outright refuse to let you through because you said something mean on Facebook? :think_bread:
@p @jlcrawf @rasterman Why is Twitter banning the entire right side of the political spectrum?

DAU is how advertising based companies make money and Twitter has banned millions of them.

Business seeks POWER not just money.

Let Facebook run the roads and the plutocrats will leverage that to control the narrative, same way they are leveraging EVERYTHING ELSE.

No common carrier rules means corporations unperson you at will.
@p @jlcrawf @rasterman Money is power and must be controlled by violence - and the state is the way it is done.

It's that or be reduced to contract-serfdom.
@p @jlcrawf @rasterman Democracy is controlled by media which is controlled by money.

To subjugate plutocrats will require the abolition of democracy.

@judgedread @p @rasterman @jlcrawf I'm down for a monetary system where noone whose last name is 'Zuckerberg' is allowed to receive a dime.

@p @rasterman @jlcrawf @yang
>Who built the roads before taxes built them?
Nobody. Roads were financed by lords from basically the dawn of permanent human settlement.
@Ricotta @jlcrawf @rasterman @yang Yes, that was the point. Unless you want to build a hospital, it is useful to build a road.
@p @jack @Ricotta @jlcrawf @rasterman @yang tolls over taxes any day of the week. If it's a necessary infrastructure upgrade, tolls are proven to be more efficient in repaying the costs rendered.

No pay, no way.
It's pretty simple.

Much like single payer health insurance premiums. Pay the toll. No pay, no way.
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