[chopchop0]

Originally Posted by FLGator487

while the remaining 98.5% of the population wonders where the next meal and rent payment are coming from.

Hyperbole, much? Have you ever left this country to see how the rest of the world lives? The average american home/car/meal is bigger than anywhere else. Being "poor" in this country still means you probably have a cell phone, a car, a TV, access to clean water etc.

And last I checked, over 15% of households were pulling in six-figures

Household income in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Maggi07]

Originally Posted by bbronston

I didn't say anything about anyone on welfare. Where did you get that from? And you are ignoring my point. If there's not enough money for every program and every state job, you either have to raise taxes or make cuts. So which is it going to be? Stop complaining about the decisions being made and start providing solutions. What should we cut then from the budget so no one feels that their ox has been goared? By the way, my wife is one who will be affected by the cuts so, yeah, I understand why people might be upset but sometimes you have to take the bitter pill to get better.

Vaughan, if you are saying that I am a leech, I'd like to hear any proof that you may have or was that just a typical ad hominem attack made against anyone who dissagrees with your position? Perhaps it was just the best you could do when faced with a position you can't argue against? I had in mind people who espouse redistribution of wealth as long as it's not their wealth that gets redistributed. Not sure what you are claiming. On second thought, nevermind...I really have no interest in hearing any BS you might have to offer. I've seen it before.

Well I suppose it was because you were calling people "pathetic leaches", I assumed you meant those who did not work to make their money. But, in fact, you must have meant me? Just checking.

How do you know I don't make enough money to have to pay more in if higher income earners were taxed at higher levels? In fact, my business would be taxed more, and I honestly do not care. I am happy to support police, fire, schools, etc, those things that some people don't think we NEED, apparently.

I do have solutions... don't we all? Why can't it be discussed and hammered out rationally instead of one guy making what amounts to a decree.

It needs to be more in balance. It can not be all about the businesses and not about the people. There's nothing extreme about that.

[FLGator487]

Originally Posted by chopchop0

Hyperbole, much? Have you ever left this country to see how the rest of the world lives? The average american home/car/meal is bigger than anywhere else. Being "poor" in this country still means you probably have a cell phone, a car, a TV, access to clean water etc.

And last I checked, over 15% of households were pulling in six-figures

Household income in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

That is a very American mentality - the judgment that having a "bigger" meal/home/car is a mark of distinction. That we're "better off" as a nation because our hamburgers, cars, and houses are "bigger than theirs." As an American, that is a mentality that I proudly reject on the premises.

I have in fact "left this country" and lived in Western Europe, and I will argue to the grave that citizens in the Nordic countries, France, Germany, and Switzerland have a better standard of living, overall, than Americans when one measures or quantifies it holistically. That's not at all my point. My point is that the salary that supports that quintessentially American "bigger" house/car/meal/TV is, in many cases, built on junk economics. Cheap credit, bubbles in commodities, manipulation of the financial markets, and so on. It is built on a tertiary sector job that the elites will thoughtlessly outsource, once feasible, if it will reduce their marginal labor cost. Most middle-class people in this country - including a hell of a lot of those in the 15% with $100K+ incomes - are simply blissfully ignorant of how close they are, at any given time, to the economic precipice. A downsized/outsourced job plus a sick child, and many folks sitting on hundreds of thousands of dollars in wealth could quickly find themselves falling through the abyss.

30+ years of gutting our industrial capacity and off-shoring it to slave-wage countries, decimating labor unions, arbitrarily slashing regulations, under-investing in education and infrastructure...and this is what you get. McJobs, rampant crime, a ruined environment, and homeless children. That Florida - a state built on fairy-tale economics - is leading the way in quite a few of these measures should be no surprise.

[bbronston]

Well, there you go again. :-) I didn't say anything about your income or your tax level and made no assumptions about you at all. I'm simply putting the question to you: what taxes would you raise and/or whose budgets would you cut? You can't leave things the way they are and you don't like what Scott has done. So, what do you want done? What good is protesting if you are just complaining?
I don't want a reduction of services, I don't want anyone to lose their job, and I certainly don't want to pay more for my wife's health care and what will be her meager pension. (She's a school paraprofessional). But, I've done budgets and been responsible for the bottom line, too, and I'm sick of people taking the NIMBY view of balancing the budgets...state and federally. As I said, everyone has to be involved. Not just the rich (and I am far from wealthy) and not just the companies who need to be healthy enough to provide jobs.

It wasn't my intent to call you any name, btw. I was, as I said, describing people who espouse (whether they realize it or not) communist and socialist views...in this case, unequitable redistribution of wealth. If that is your view, you know how I feel about it but I will apologize for using characterizations that bring nothing to the argument.

[OrlFlaUsa]

So the "hotel" is less than 1 mile from where I live in Altamonte Springs and is called Remington Inn and it's basically an extended stay type of place. The little girl did exaggerate about the lots of shootings part when asked about the area outside of the hotel, but it's certainly not a great property itself and is known for having lots of crime. So many of you have hit the nail on the head about this senseless and tragic predicament that many hard working families find themselves in. Tomorrow I'll be at the Awake the State rally, and I'll be standing up to the terrible, immoral, tea party, Rick Scott-types, who still cannot accept that their failed policy of unbridled capitalism is exactly what has caused this mess. If you think that our country is trillions of dollars in debt because of public servant salaries and their benefits rather than Wall Street and greedy CEO's who literally gambled with people's homes, you are blind and I pray you open your eyes (or at least take your head out of your...).

[chopchop0]

Originally Posted by FLGator487

30+ years of gutting our industrial capacity and off-shoring it to slave-wage countries, decimating labor unions, arbitrarily slashing regulations, under-investing in education and infrastructure...and this is what you get. McJobs, rampant crime, a ruined environment, and homeless children. That Florida - a state built on fairy-tale economics - is leading the way in quite a few of these measures should be no surprise.

As opposed to a fairytale land like France or Greece, where the youth have plenty of employment opportunities?

LMAO

Originally Posted by OrlFlaUsa

Tomorrow I'll be at the Awake the State rally, and I'll be standing up to the terrible, immoral, tea party, Rick Scott-types, who still cannot accept that their failed policy of unbridled capitalism is exactly what has caused this mess. If you think that our country is trillions of dollars in debt because of public servant salaries and their benefits rather than Wall Street and greedy CEO's who literally gambled with people's homes, you are blind and I pray you open your eyes (or at least take your head out of your...).

Unbridled capitalism didn't create the monsters we know as Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Having a central bank (aka The Federal Reserve) that can manipulate interest rates and money supply at will is not unbridled capitalism. Bailing out banks for their own bad decisions is not "unbridled" capitalism, it's called "privatizing the profits, and socializing the losses"

The fact is, big government created this mess, and it sure as heck isn't going to get us out of it.

[bbronston]

Originally Posted by OrlFlaUsa

Tomorrow I'll be at the Awake the State rally, and I'll be standing up to the terrible, immoral, tea party, Rick Scott-types, who still cannot accept that their failed policy of unbridled capitalism is exactly what has caused this mess.

OK, so you are taking a stand against capitalism? And replace it with what, exactly? And what is it, again, that is "immoral" about the tea party? What do they believe in that is "terrible"? And what, in his short time as gov, has Scott done that has caused homelessness?

[ssg II]

It's far too late. We've let the fat cats rape us and the baby-daddy welfare scenario chum away. 10 % of us work now to support the rest of the country?

An honorable system destroyed by greed. Hopefully, I won't be around to suffer the demise of the US.

[OrlFlaUsa]

Originally Posted by bbronston

OK, so you are taking a stand against capitalism? And replace it with what, exactly? And what is it, again, that is "immoral" about the tea party? What do they believe in that is "terrible"? And what, in his short time as gov, has Scott done that has caused homelessness?

Cutting education without a viable alternative in place is immoral, don't pretend otherwise. And ChopChop, deregulation led to the collapse of the greatest economy on earth, don't pretend otherwise either. You guys are entitled to your opinions, but please look up what is actually true.

[StreetSmarts]

So they were in Altamonte? When they mentioned Seminole co, I was a little suprised (a lot suprised). Orange co wouldn't have suprised me, but it did when they mentioned Seminole. I couldn't tell exactly where they were from the footage, but when they talked about the area around the motel being bad, I kinda assumed it was parts of Sanford. But then I remembered Altamonte has a lot of poverty (it was mentioned in a show before several years ago).

The story also was in the Kissimmee area off of 17-92. That didnt suprise me though.