Lights are Going Off All Over as "America Goes Dark" (Hugo Chavez, Glenn Beck)

[Ciaerin]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

I knew it. Someone was bound to drag out that their anti-union hack job. What's a bloated salary for a teacher? You tell us. C'mon, you made the statement, WHAT amount constitutes a bloated salary?

Here's a chart, showing median grade school teacher is $40k per year. Hell, the UPS drivers make more than that! Bloated? Gimme a break.

Here's another chart, showing average pay for teachers. The national average is $47k, but note the AVERAGE in Atlanta is only $36k/year and in Savannah it's only $25k/year. Bloated? Gimme a break.

Please, come in here with more than the rote, bumper sticker slogans of the far right. They can do their own hatchet job on our society without getting their victims to defend their union busting and other points of view.

I note one of my "biggest fans" here ain't exactly bragging how he became massively wealthy teaching history in public schools. Hey there RoysOldBoy, come on in and tell us about your bloated salary and those nasty old unions.

Mike, Mogal did not say teachers. She said upper level administrators. AKA board members/superintendents.

[Bulldogdad]

Originally Posted by crbcrbrgv

I wanted to say something brilliant, poignant, long-winded etc to all these posts, but I will make it brief. Do you want evidence that people are catching on? "Socialist" Obama is in charge. Why is "Socialist" Obama the president? Because people are catching on to the fact that the private sector is totally screwing us over.

When the private sector is screwing the country over, the only place people have to turn is the government. They tell us we don't need health care reform. Really? My wife just severely twisted her ankle but did not break it. She needed a Cam walker (one of those big old foam rubber boots). My wife works for a Fortune 250 company. Through her insurance, the Camwalker would have cost her 174 dollars. When we shopped around, we found one for 42. For years, older folks have been wintering in the Rio Grande Valley just so they can go to Mexico to get their prescriptions. The weather is an added bonus.

You righties think Obama is Socialist? Well I will tell you something. If you don't get it together soon, you ain't seen nothing yet. Americans are catching on. And as we catch on, you add fuel to the fire with your wanting to repeal the 14th amendment and supporting immigration reform that includes the police being able to hassle legal citizens of the United States.

Prove to us the private sector isn't screwing the country. As for right now, the evidence is paltry at best.

You mean like Proposition C in Missouri? Yeah voters are catching on. Spew some more Alinsky style rhetoric.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/05/us...s/05elect.html

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by Ciaerin

Mike, Mogal did not say teachers. She said upper level administrators. AKA board members/superintendents.

PROVE that the upper level superintendents are getting BLOATED pay. Prove it. Usually, such claims are baseless sloganeering.

When the anti-tax types cut school budgets, it's teachers who LOSE their jobs, not the supers. It's teachers who won't get a raise. It's teachers whose class sizes go from 25 to 40. It's students who get shortened school years and the short end of the stick. Krugman's argument is that the ruling oligarchs DON'T care, their kids go to the best private schools; they live in their gated enclaves, they can buy whatever congressman they need to get their loopholes in the tax laws.

I've heard all these arguments before; the anti-tax crowd always comes back to their anti-union, cut teacher pay rhetoric. I've yet to see any teacher living in opulence.

[kovert]

Originally Posted by Ciaerin

Mike, Mogal did not say teachers. She said upper level administrators. AKA board members/superintendents.

Oh really?

Originally Posted by lifelongMOgal

Teacher's unions definitely play a role in the increased costs. When the cost of educating children in private schools is less than in public schools it is obvious that there is waste and fraud as well as bloated salaries for upper level administrators.

[Mike from back east]

Kovert: Hey man, I got spread some more reps around before I can pad your totals with another hit. Thanks!

[BigHouse9]

Originally Posted by crbcrbrgv

I wanted to say something brilliant, poignant, long-winded etc to all these posts, but I will make it brief. Do you want evidence that people are catching on? "Socialist" Obama is in charge. Why is "Socialist" Obama the president? Because people are catching on to the fact that the private sector is totally screwing us over.

When the private sector is screwing the country over, the only place people have to turn is the government. They tell us we don't need health care reform. Really? My wife just severely twisted her ankle but did not break it. She needed a Cam walker (one of those big old foam rubber boots). My wife works for a Fortune 250 company. Through her insurance, the Camwalker would have cost her 174 dollars. When we shopped around, we found one for 42. For years, older folks have been wintering in the Rio Grande Valley just so they can go to Mexico to get their prescriptions. The weather is an added bonus.

You righties think Obama is Socialist? Well I will tell you something. If you don't get it together soon, you ain't seen nothing yet. Americans are catching on. And as we catch on, you add fuel to the fire with your wanting to repeal the 14th amendment and supporting immigration reform that includes the police being able to hassle legal citizens of the United States.

Prove to us the private sector isn't screwing the country. As for right now, the evidence is paltry at best.

So the private sector is responsible for passing the laws that control portability? Or tort reforms? Or health care fraud which is huge?

Seriously, it is the government intervention into things like this that has made costs skyrocket, not the private sector.

Newt Gingrich and John Goodman: Ten GOP Health Ideas for Obama - WSJ.com

[InformedConsent]

Originally Posted by crbcrbrgv

I wanted to say something brilliant, poignant, long-winded etc to all these posts, but I will make it brief. Do you want evidence that people are catching on? "Socialist" Obama is in charge. Why is "Socialist" Obama the president? Because people are catching on to the fact that the private sector is totally screwing us over.

When the private sector is screwing the country over, the only place people have to turn is the government. They tell us we don't need health care reform. Really? My wife just severely twisted her ankle but did not break it. She needed a Cam walker (one of those big old foam rubber boots). My wife works for a Fortune 250 company. Through her insurance, the Camwalker would have cost her 174 dollars. When we shopped around, we found one for 42. For years, older folks have been wintering in the Rio Grande Valley just so they can go to Mexico to get their prescriptions. The weather is an added bonus.

You righties think Obama is Socialist? Well I will tell you something. If you don't get it together soon, you ain't seen nothing yet. Americans are catching on. And as we catch on, you add fuel to the fire with your wanting to repeal the 14th amendment and supporting immigration reform that includes the police being able to hassle legal citizens of the United States.

Prove to us the private sector isn't screwing the country. As for right now, the evidence is paltry at best.

Wow. You think the private sector is screwing us over?

Are you unaware that the Public Sector is a HUGE problem? That's why cities and states are close to going bankrupt. The federal government is facing HUGE public sector employment costs, as well.
RealClearPolitics - The Enormous Cost of Public Unions
Are public employee unions bankrupting the nation? | 89.3 KPCC (http://www.scpr.org/programs/airtalk/2010/01/18/are-public-employee-unions-bankrupting-the-nation/ - broken link)

[hornet67]

Originally Posted by Lycanmaster

Paul Krugman speaks the truth. That's why he is a Nobel Prize winner, while his critics are just "arm-chair" commentators sitting on the side lines lmao

A "Nobel Prize winner"; now there's an award that has certainly lost it's lustre. Useless tools like Krugman, Jimmuh Carter, etc. as recent awardees, not to mention our self-appointed savior and messiah, Barry Sotero Hussein Nobama.

[kovert]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

Kovert: Hey man, I got spread some more reps around before I can pad your totals with another hit. Thanks!

Just keep being an outspoken, critically thinking, stand up kind of guy.

That's thanks enough.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by kovert

Just keep being an outspoken, critically thinking, stand up kind of guy.

That's thanks enough.

Critical thinking is a learned skill. I wish EVERY school taught it. There is ONE place (in California, of course) that is the mother lode of info on this topic, The Foundation for Critical Thinking (http://www.criticalthinking.org/index.cfm - broken link) and it's an awesome place. It's one of the best things the Army ever showed me. If more people had it, we'd have a lot more consensus and collegiality in this forum, unlike the wild-eyed, knee-jerk, believe anything they're told by Beck/Limbaugh crowd on here.

Krugman is obviously a great critical thinker. You don't win Nobel prizes being a me-too reactionary. He's one of the top intellectuals in the world, a professor at Princeton, and is WORTH listening to. The far right hates him, he is after all, the opposite of their dream of turning America into a promised land full of dumb-downed drones mouthing bible verses about creationism.