You're right, jailing those who won't serve or allowing the state to collapse under the weight of the free rider problem are definitely superior options.

No, but it was better before the Soviets arrived and before the Islamic Revolution in their neighbouring Iran.

Keep in mind 'better' does not mean the same as us

Why not tie participantion in the service to suffrage and state benefits eligibility? Make it voluntary still, reduce the amount of civil unrest you'd have to deal with by using force to implement policy. If you are willing to ilsupport the state, you get to participate in its direction and be supported by it. Otherwise you can still work, own property, access to courts, use infrastructure such and roads and public education for your children, but lose out on direct financial assistance, and the ability to directly influence public policy.

What if my faith demands I take captives and blood sacrifice them to my gods?

Please tell me how the Soviets and Mao managed to house and feed a population growing at over 3.5%/year - the majority of that growth being full grown adults who have greater housing needs, without devastating the existing populace's standard of living.

Oh wait, they didn't, they killed tens to hundreds of millions of their own citizens by famine, with no ability to try to save the rest of the world. China had to implement policies to slow its own population growth to try to increase its standard of living, and both had awful infant mortality and life expectancies.

Actually it was Catholic minorities who demanded public funding for separate schools because they were afraid their culture and beliefs would be subsumed bu the majority if their children were educated with the rest of the populace. But sure, go ahead and retcon history.

Legitimate question, is this spiritual belief shaped through experience with psychedelics?

It matters that the OP labeled him as an ex-Liberal. There seems to be a fair number of people on this sub who think the Tories will save them, when history has shown them to be as corrupt and dishonest as the Grits.

Then they just have to pay to bribe both the business and the government overseer.

Not to mention the damage high housing costs do to the productivity of the nation. It impacts labour mobility, costs to run businesses, affects the risk appetite of wage labourers who might have otherwise decided to go out on their own and try to work for themselves. It pulls investment away from tech to import productivity, from education.

Personally, I bought a property that was borderline condemnable in 2017 and spent a few years off work or doing light work renovating it top to bottom doing the majority of work myself as I saw the writing on the wall as my last chance. I would have much preferred going back to school as I found an interest in fields that I discovered an interest in later in life that are significantly more lucrative than my current work. If I didn't have to worry about being squeezed out of a place to live I would have been able to pursue that, but it was one or the other.

This is a worthy question to think about, because it should be a minor annoyance at best. The first few times people asked me, personally I found it caused more of a negative emotional reaction/flippancy/use of humour as a defensive response to discomfort.

I am a male, who usually has a beard of about 1-3 weeks growth, exercises enough to keep muscle definition, and keeps his hair long. I feel my image is sufficiently masculine enough to present the answer as obvious to the world. I think made me uncomfortable because the way I perceived it was as someone else subtly questioning my masculinity, or at least saying there's enough ambiguity that they don't feel comfortable assuming. Middle school is full enough of people who are going to give a guy shit for keeping his hair long, peers and teachers alike, not to mention family.

I had to take a step back and tell myself the question really isn't about me, it's just a formula that people are using to be extra sensitive about not assuming things about other people, and the people it's for probably have been through worse than I had with people giving me shit about my hair

Other people will have different reasons and might benefit from continuing to probe themselves in a quest for self awareness.

People would be happy to fly there to pick them up, but the planes kept getting hijacked... Go figure!

Radical means going to the root of something. Radical Christianity in actuality if following Christ's (perhaps fictional) example (not Saul/Paul's who appears to have been a narcissist sociopath who tried to bandwagon and co-opt the movement for his own advantage) it would mean living a life of penury, trying to help others, and treating even those society shunned with dignity, kindness, and respect.

We know that modern evangelical Christianity with its core in the southern US is very different from this. But this does not make them 'radical' Christians, because they are not going to the root values of Christ.

Whereas following Mohammad's example means murder, rage, sex crimes, warfare, and ego driven need for control, so radical Islam is a very appropriate name for those who act like him.

I would agree with you if these people were out protesting Hamas' actions and the PLO's actions for the past many decades and how their evil actions have impacted their own people. Sending children suicide bombers, murdering Olympic athletes on German soil, spending aid money on weapons, using schools and hospitals to launch rockets. The people who are protesting didn't make this much noise until any time Israel punched back.

It's worse than a tax, because instead of allegedly going into programs to further our societal aims, it is sent to foreign financial companies.

How's that boot taste? With increasing polarization in Western politics, and Canada basically being a winner takes all system, you'd be a fool to think there won't be a government that you disagree with who could abuse this power in your lifetime, no matter which sides you agree with on whichever issues

Ultimately this makes sense for most of human nature. We shouldn't expect more from them than to try to work towards their own self interest.

The people causing this situation are our leaders and the capital class who owns them. They have designed things to work this way in order to keep their boots on our necks. And they are using the poverty and lack of opportunity of certain groups in developing countries to do so. It is sickening and manipulative. Make no mistake, our leaders are the ones that have a social and moral obligation to us and are the ones who have betrayed our countryman to squeeze out more profit and try to keep their hold. This includes CPC, Liberals, and NDP

Ever heard of Jericho?

Flayed in a public square and left exposed to the elements sounds better to me.

If only they cared this much about something positive they actually could have an impact on. Like the Greenbelt, or the science centre. Something that affects the lives of generations of future Ontarians.

That's called arbitrage, not a scam. He's taken advantage of a difference in price across markets. Traders do this all the time.. Hell, with futures, options, etc. no real product is exchanged for the vast majority of trades. The difference is calculated and the trade settled. Makes sense to do here as well.

If your counterparty is dumb enough to sell pizzas at 16 dollars and buy them at 24, that's a winning trade every time.

Depends how far in the wilderness away from settled lands you drop em. Seems like the tactic would work fairly well on both. I reckon you drop em deep inland about halfway between the Severn and Winisk rivers and they shouldn't be bothering folks for a long time.

If wages are high enough some people are driven to work even harder/more hours. That's what overtime pay is about. Theoretically 8 workers can do those 10 jobs if they choose to devote more time.

They've designed shock/death collars

The ones whose propaganda worked for within a given person's social circle.