Libya

[P78]

and then u still have it cheap
lol

over here it's 7.5$ for a gallon

[Dudermagee]

and then u still have it cheap
lol

over here it's 7.5$ for a gallon

how high are your taxes there?
I pay .06 on the dollar, about 4500 a year for my house, 600 a year for my cars, and about 9-10k a year out of my paycheck.

[P78]

belgium is one of the highest in tax fmmfl

* Belgium continues to have one of the heaviest overall tax burdens globally, with an average of 52.06% of profit before total taxes borne. In 2007 it was 52.07%, which indicates the heavy burden remains unchanged despite all the measures that were intended to reduce taxes.

* A comparison of the average total tax rate shows that companies in Belgium pay the highest rate followed by the US at 42.8%, the UK at 41.6%, while the Netherlands is at 31%.

* A total of 115 taxes were identified of which 76 are business taxes which companies in Belgium pay and 39 are collected by the companies on behalf of the government.

* On average companies report 11.78 taxes borne and 5.05 taxes collected. The figures of the previous survey were 10.07 and 5.54 respectively.

* The tax burden has not been reduced and the ingenuity of the legislator remains as great as ever in terms of the creation of taxes, as the survey identified 20 additional taxes since 2007.

* The high social security tax at 51.13% is by far the largest percentage of taxes borne in any country and clearly is a major factor in explaining the high costs of labor in Belgium.

* The multitude of taxes results in a heavy compliance burden. Overall they reported that an average of 10 employees per company are working on the Belgian tax compliance, with an average cost of 1.85% of total tax borne.

[Dudermagee]

[P78]

lol

[Kielan]

Ok so back on topic.


Rise in oil prices were to be expected, Libya is a huge exporter.

Any country getting involved thats no Libya is playing with fire, this is already a terrible situation, and would only be worsened by foreign involvement. I don't think it would happen anyway, because there have been longer on going battles for human rights, like in Ivory Coast, that no one has gotten involved in, and that has been going on for a much longer period of time.

[Bracknaphobia]

^ Truth

[Dan T]

CNN alert to my phone reads. "Breaking News: Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi said he won't step down and wants to die as a martyr in his country."

I just don't get it...

[Kielan]

I just saw that, holy hell, he said "I have no even began to use violence yet", holy hell. Libya is about to enter civil war.

[Bracknaphobia]

Oh man...this guy is such a nut job. I hope this ends soon. I don't think it will, but for the sake of all those people...I'm hoping for a miracle.

[Dudermagee]

goddamn it there goes oil and gas prices

[Kielan]

Is it bad, that I don't even care that oil and gas prices went up. Those people are going through so much worse, that us having to pay more for gas doesn't even bother me at all.

[Dudermagee]

Is it bad, that I don't even care that oil and gas prices went up. Those people are going through so much worse, that us having to pay more for gas doesn't even bother me at all.

yes it is
Do you care that millions of people die horrible deaths every year from vaccinated and curable diseases.
That women are still treated like cattle in about half of the countries around the world.
That there are children prostitutes all over the world.
These are all preventable unnecessary things.
This war\conflict is a needed thing that has happened for thousands of years.
For fucks sake it happened here a couple times
revolution and the civil war ring a bell?
It happens all the time, most of the time its brutal. But that is the way the world progresses.

[motocaddy]

I understand y'all not wanting the US to get involved, but I think that opinion may change once Gadhafi starts gunning down large numbers of civilians.

It's pretty amazing what's happening in the middle-east right now. What started as a grass-roots youth movement has toppled many long-standing oppressive dictatorships in a matter of weeks!

Those of us lucky enough to live in democracies should support their efforts. I'm not saying we should deploy thousands of troops to the ground, but we should do what we can to help their efforts. The citizens of the other countries done a good job of overthrowing the regimes without outside assistance, but it's becoming clear that Libya may be the battle ground that determines how far democracy spreads in the middle-east.

I heard that some european countries and the US are considering instituting a no-fly zone over Libya. It would be a good use for all those unmanned missles I'm always hearing about. I think that would be an effective way to level the playing field for the Libyan revolution. The citizens have already established some control in the western part of the country and taking air strikes and gunships out of the equation would spread what's left of Gadhafi's army thin and give the Libyans a chance.

[Kielan]

yes it is
Do you care that millions of people die horrible deaths every year from vaccinated and curable diseases.
That women are still treated like cattle in about half of the countries around the world.
That there are children prostitutes all over the world.
These are all preventable unnecessary things.
This warconflict is a needed thing that has happened for thousands of years.
For fucks sake it happened here a couple times
revolution and the civil war ring a bell?
It happens all the time, most of the time its brutal. But that is the way the world progresses.

Yes I do care about all of the things you just mentioned.
Those are horrible facts of life, not enough people care, to try and help people in Africa, Middle East, Asia, South America, to get them the care they need, and its honestly disgusting how little America cares as a whole.

War and conflict is one of those things that does happen, but this one just so happens to effect a lot more the world directly, fuel prices go up, and everyone starts to take notice. How about someone takes notice to the Ivory Coast, which is in a state of slavery right now, any time you eat Hershey/Mars/Nestle chocolate, chances are, you are eating cocoa that was harvested by slaves. But no one takes notice of that, no one cares to not each the chocolate and try and put an end to that. I'm not saying the US should go in and stop these people, we aren't a world police force, and getting involved in conflicts like this only ever end poorly.

If Libya didn't have a ton of oil and wasn't one of the primary exporters, I guarantee that most people just wouldn't even think about it, hell many don't now. A rise in fuel prices though, that brings attention to 2 things, 1 - our severe dependency on foreign oil, 2 - there is severe conflict going on some where in the world that is causing this.

The Libyan conflict is just beginning, Ghadafi has already demonstrated that he doesn't care about the people. If anyone saw his speech, he said that he would stop at nothing to put down the rebellion, he also said that "the people are influenced by hallucination pills", UM.. WHAT?! The man is crazy and psychotic, no it is not the US's place to get involved, nor do I think we should, but realize even when shit gets really bad, the only reason most of the American population is going to care, is because our gas prices went up.

And yes I do realize how big a deal that is, my Dad commutes 127 miles a day, 5 days a week. Gas is a huge expense for him, and my family. So don't say I don't get it, because I really do.

Hopefully this opens our eyes to 2 things, 1 - the need for alternative energy sources is staggering if the US has any desire to be successful in the coming 20 years. 2 - Other countries in the world are facing issues just as bad as this one, and there are little things that we can do, to help slow these tyrants, and give the people a fighting chance.