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i see reading comprehension isn't high on your list of abilities
and, to be done with you once and for all on this issue, why don't you answer my question and tell us why these corporations need their govt welfare seeing as they make more $$$ every quarter/year?
... or will you continue to show your true colors and choose to purposely ignore this question yet again??
OK, let’s summarize:
You implied that oil and gas companies don’t "share their wealth with the peasants". I disagreed with you stating that oil and gas companies pay billions of dollars in income taxes to the US government every year which the US government in turn uses to help fund social programs.
You replied by stating “if they're so profitable then why don't they give up their corporate subsidies” which implies that they are not profitable because if they were profitable they would give up their corporate subsidies. I disagreed with you again stating that that they are highly profitable and pointed out Shell’s 1st qtr 2015 earnings as an example.
The fact that (1) oil and gas companies are highly profitable and (2) that they pay billions of dollars in taxes is something not lost on most people but apparently it is on you.
With respect to the corporate subsidies themselves, my opinion, or your opinion, or anyone else’s opinion regarding these subsidies is irrelevant here because it doesn’t change either one of these two above simple facts that you and I disagree on. If you think it is relevant, I’d love to hear you explain why…but you won’t because you can’t. It was just your lame attempt to deflect from being wrong about oil and gas companies not spreading their wealth. Exxon Mobil paid $31 BILLION dollars in taxes on $79 Billion dollars in earnings in 2014 and you don’t call that spreading the wealth??? Any more and I’d call it Socialism. Especially since their corporate subsidies that you are so high and mighty about are approx. 1.5% of this total tax bill. But again, how are their subsidies relevant as to whether or not oil companies spread their wealth??? It’s not. Does the fact that Exxon received subsidies change the fact that they paid over $30 BILLION more in taxes than they received in subsidies??? No.
Albany has a pretty good economy, so no. It has low unemployment, fairly strong job growth, and population growth. It has govt jobs, tech jobs, and universities. It's generally doing better than most places.
And the city proper is looking better than in decades. Downtown and environs were much worse 20-30 years ago.
Well I wasn't around to judge how it was 30 years ago, but the problem with Albany is that it is severely divided into two societal halves.
On the one half you have the universities, the government jobs, on the other half you have buildings rotting from the inside out, you have a large percentage of the population on welfare, you have drug violence and pure ghetto.
I would say it is split down the middle 50/50 evenly but I would say it is more like 70/30 in favor of the ghetto overtaking the city. And I say this as a witness who lived there for about 5 years during educational years very recently. I moved last year to California and the ghetto of the city I live in takes up a much smaller area than the ghetto of Albany. As a matter of fact, Albany is a reflection of a wider problem spreading all throughout upstate New York. A problem that will see the entire upstate area becoming like Detroit if some serious economical intervention is not undertaken.
Edit: What i'm wondering is if these tech and government jobs really improve the economy, why is the ghetto growing more and more every year and consuming the rest of the city? And where is the trickle down effect to be found? You still have **** poor low wage jobs consuming the low income population to where people cannot survive even if they did work 50 hours a week.
Well I wasn't around to judge how it was 30 years ago, but the problem with Albany is that it is severely divided into two societal halves.
On the one half you have the universities, the government jobs, on the other half you have buildings rotting from the inside out, you have a large percentage of the population on welfare, you have drug violence and pure ghetto.
I would say it is split down the middle 50/50 evenly but I would say it is more like 70/30 in favor of the ghetto overtaking the city. And I say this as a witness who lived there for about 5 years during educational years very recently. I moved last year to California and the ghetto of the city I live in takes up a much smaller area than the ghetto of Albany. As a matter of fact, Albany is a reflection of a wider problem spreading all throughout upstate New York. A problem that will see the entire upstate area becoming like Detroit if some serious economical intervention is not undertaken.
Edit: What i'm wondering is if these tech and government jobs really improve the economy, why is the ghetto growing more and more every year and consuming the rest of the city? And where is the trickle down effect to be found? You still have **** poor low wage jobs consuming the low income population to where people cannot survive even if they did work 50 hours a week.
Keep in mind that Albany is only 21 square miles. So, it may appear that it is mostly ghetto, when in fact it isn't and as a student, you may not know all parts of the city. This can happen with college students that generally only go to limited parts of a city/area. They may know about rougher areas like Arbor Hill, the South End and West Hill or the good parts as being Center Square or Pine Hills, but may not know about Buckingham Lake, Whitehall, New Scotland or Delaware Ave. This happens here in Syracuse and I'm sure other cities in Upstate NY. More info: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...05814755,d.dmo
Also, have you been to Detroit, as none of the cities in Upstate NY are on that level of urban blight and Detroit is different in that it is pretty sprawling and more auto centric for an "older" northern city.
Well I wasn't around to judge how it was 30 years ago, but the problem with Albany is that it is severely divided into two societal halves.
On the one half you have the universities, the government jobs, on the other half you have buildings rotting from the inside out, you have a large percentage of the population on welfare, you have drug violence and pure ghetto.
I would say it is split down the middle 50/50 evenly but I would say it is more like 70/30 in favor of the ghetto overtaking the city. And I say this as a witness who lived there for about 5 years during educational years very recently. I moved last year to California and the ghetto of the city I live in takes up a much smaller area than the ghetto of Albany. As a matter of fact, Albany is a reflection of a wider problem spreading all throughout upstate New York. A problem that will see the entire upstate area becoming like Detroit if some serious economical intervention is not undertaken.
Edit: What i'm wondering is if these tech and government jobs really improve the economy, why is the ghetto growing more and more every year and consuming the rest of the city? And where is the trickle down effect to be found? You still have **** poor low wage jobs consuming the low income population to where people cannot survive even if they did work 50 hours a week.
I disagree with your assessment of Albany. I would guess that you have ignored the very nice residential neighborhoods off Western Avenue, Delaware Avenue, and Manning Boulevard, and I would further guess that you've missed the many blocks of restored rowhouses in and around Washington Park and east to the ESP or the many apartments/condos that are located in downtown Albany. Yes, some of these neighborhoods might seem "ghetto" but the fact is that they are majority middle/upper class. Albany is a small city where the neighborhoods, especially close to downtown, frequently change from block to block.
Furthermore, you've obviously NOT been out to Loudonville, Latham or Clifton Park or crossed the Hudson into East Greenbush.
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