Kemp, you are a lost cause. Trusting "dictators" is what got us into the mess in the first place, and being blind to the fact that they were (and still are) dictators helped, too.
An association of independent moral rating agencies would be anything but dictatorial. It would be the opposite: they would facilitate diverse groups of people to work together to audit each others' research and findings - a far cry from the dictatorial draconianism running rampant on Wallstreet, government regulators, and a morally debauched, useless, academic establishment. You naively lap the the notion that they are legitimate and function as they are supposed to, even when historical facts and even current events point to the contrary.
I mean, I used their own bloody source, and you still don't see it.
"You spoke as if banks and credit rating agencies are the same organizations with the same people. "
They are the same people: the same sorts of ways of thinking (or should I say brainwashing); people who attended the same sorts of schools; who go to the same sorts of restaurants; who have the same sorts of hobbies; live the same lifestyles and associate with people just like them; people who wear the same sorts of cloths; live in the same sorts of neighborhoods; and who rotate around from one position in one company / organization / bank / government position one administration to the next, be it at a rating agency or a bank or a trans-national corporation, etc. Do you really think there is any difference in the way people think in that crowd? They CAN'T think differently, because they are the same, and share the same moral values, which is what resulted in the systemic folly which was the financial crisis. Their homogeneity resulted in consensus in folly, and they are still there.
You're a lost cause, insulting, accusatory, in your willful ignorant, naivety.
@Beowolfe
" The more you make the higher your tax bracket and most middle to lower class pay ZERO taxes. This is fact, this is not "personal attacks, innuendo, derailment of topics, accusations, intentionally inflammatory comments, trolling, disingenuous content, and, above all bad intent." Your response to him stating this fact is very much all of the above."
And a response to how this was not true was not justified because of his insult, accusation, inflammatory comments, etc. Why should I school him? He couldn't pay me enough to set him straight. He doesn't want to be set straight, because he is an ideologue, like Einstein, plain and simple.
I have said how his statement is not a fact many times, only to be ignored, it seems, as it just doesn't compute with people who buy into ideologues' mindsets. The irony is that the nature of the dictatorship is apparent to the free, but oblivious to the oppressed. Those profiting or well-adjusted and comfortable inside the dictatorship will make apologetic arguments for it, at the expense of the liberty of others and themselves, and then accuses anyone who aims to teach and to reveal the dictatorship for what it is as having dictatorial aspirations. It's absolutely absurd!
Carbon taxes, sales taxes, fees, inflation, cost of basic living, cost of basic goods and services, cost of education and health care, are all forms of taxation which are borne more so by the poor than the rich; environmental pollution, crime, lack of social justice and the effects thereof and the damages incurred by them are other forms of taxation which are borne more by the poor and middle class than by the rich. And when you see how taxes are used to suit the interests of firstly the rich who claim to pay most of the taxes, rather than the poor and middle class who ACTUALLY pay MORE when all is considered, you can see that it is the poor and middle class are the ones getting shafted BY the rich. Taxes should be seen as a penalty to charge the rich for disproportionately profiteering off an inherently unjust civilization, and those taxes should be used to remedy the system to make it more equitable and to solve the systemic injustice rampant in it, however, it is controlled by people who clearly will stop at no lengths to undermine the values of liberal democracy to suit their own interests any chance they get.
This thread was about how multi-national banks were (and probably still are) laundering money for drug cartels and terrorists in plain daylight, and how all they get is a slap-on-the-wrist charge that they can make up by raising interest rates on national debts, and all I get for my contribution for a PLAIN AS DAY explanation for the root causes and a viable solution to remedy the situation is ridicule, insult, accusations. I'd really like to give up, but can't, because I can't stop caring.
Why don't you?