random thoughts from gay shanghai

Remember this post?

Well, i've been trying to come for reasons why it didn't work out as planned.

The first thing that comes to mind is that even if you give the money to the govt in taxes, it'll still spend it on stuff, and sending it back into the economy. So it has the same effect.

But there must be more. As a progressive, I believe in the redistributional effect of taxes, it's a means of taking money from the affluent to less wealthy. Take away taxes and what happens? The rich make more and more while the poor have less and less money and government help at their service. The problem is, those rich people aren't just going to poor all that more money into the economy, they'd ship it overseas or invest it in the housing market which then busts at some time because there's too much capital in there and prices go through the roof. Whereas poorer and lower middle class incomes would still spend that money on stuff like food, holidays, clothes etc, all those commodities with "real" prices which keep the economy healthy for a great part.

Now one question has been nagging at me for a while. We all would like the perfect society, where we pay just enough taxes to ensure the government can take care of us all and keeps the economy healthy. Can't we just compare all those countries with different systems and just see which one has the best? Of course, not all are the same, for example Norway is a great country I guess, but it does get a lot of income from natural gas. Still, can it really be that hard?

One thing i'm very happy about this week is I started swimming again. For one it's a really good exercise: you have to use your muscles and your stamina, so it's loosing weight and growing muscle at the same time. The other thing being it's a fine place to see fine men. I actually miss going to the gym, looking around in the locker room, aha aha....

I'm going to try and put up this video of the song i've fallen in love with. Don't know if it'll work:

I've had such a full day, and still I feel there's so much stuff I haven't done. Some emails I didn't write really. But I did make up a huge bill, started to learn how to park, made lunch, gave Sean a long English lesson, still had some time to send out some CVs, had an incredible workout that involved running, swimming and powerwalking, made dinner and then did some more work between 8 and 9. So yes, i'm quite exhausted. I'm going to bed now.

Reading my blog posts from 2007 yesterday, my god I had fun in my life, going to the gym and mostly meeting people and visiting exciting places. I know that's all coming back, but I miss having a life. At least last week we went to Gentse Feesten, a huge party in Ghent, and to the Witch Parade. This week, who knows?

So lately my life is all about work, teaching Sean English, exercise, helping my parents out and food. So not much time for fun stuff for myself, I even don't have the energy to read in the evening. It'll change!!

One last thing, I've made an Excel file of my blog stats and till yesterday I've had 37,503 visits since I started writing in 2004. Can you believe that it's been 5 years?! Fuck!!

At least being thirty is fabulous...

Sleep, slept, slept
Keep, kept, kept
Dream, dreamt, dreamt
Hold, held, held

Once

A Cigarette
A Light
A Cheesy Pickup Line

A Day
A Night
A Lifetime

Once

Where every step is a battle
The war does commence

Went swimming this afernoon to a so-called swimming pool. Only problem was nobody was swimming, just having fun in the water. All for that, but at least in China they have separate lanes for people who want to exercise, not play.

Something weird happened to me again today. My parents went to our neighbours' home for drinks, Sean was upstairs watching something online, which meant i felt quite by myself. What did I do? Cleaning! And it felt so good; cleaning can be very cleansing... Made me miss having my own place again, and being at home alone, doing whatever I want. Including cleaning.

Today, I've done some work, gone for a car drive to practice my skills, made a very nice lunch, went swimming, had sex, made dinner and still I feel like I haven't done a thing, like i've wasted a day of my life...

When battles are fought
The war comes to an end
In the eye of minds
Pleasant rain abounds

At first glance the lowering taxes mantra makes sense. I think the hoped-for effect went something like this:

So they were hoping for a self-sustaining effect of ever higher spending and an ever growing money supply to fuel the economy. The place where they tried it, the U.S., was almost brought to the brink because of this ideology. So where did it go wrong?

I'm lying in my bed

Listening to the rain

Knowing

I'll sleep well