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What's childish nonsense is for you to think that today's wealthy elite typically "produced" their wealth.
The country we used to know was stolen from us as we slept for the last generation. The change in the viewpoint of millions who used to be part of a comfortable middle class but now live at the edge of homelessness could not be easier to understand.
While I'm sure some have not and some have. Who are you to tell who has and who hasn't and what does that have to do with your salary and your job.
I find this concept of stolen country to be completely pointless. It was because the people voting let the congress and presidents run your taxes and your personal lives have taken the power out of your hands and put into corruption power hungry Washington. When you have a powerful government that runs peoples lives and incomes you have businesses who sit in the wings who capitalize on it and write the laws with congress to benefit themselves. The only ones to blame are those idiots who vote for socialism and government expansion. Big Government = less freedom and bailouts for the corporations and anyone "too big" to fail.
Government did that!!! Government put it into place and government who the people elected have destroyed your freedom of self determination.
I will answer that question like this: somebody has to clean the toilets, buff the floors and wash the windows of the hospital, Do I think that person should make anything near what the surgeon in that hospital makes? No. But I do think that the janitor and his family are entitled to a decent standard of living. Aside from the work you see in the buffed floors and clean bathrooms, think of the conquences of him not doing his work correctly. Infections and germs running rampant in a hospital full of fragile patients. The surgeon's skill can save a patient but the janitor's skill can keep that patient from getting Staph and dying. That to me means that janitor is valuable if he does his job correctly and to best of his ability. So if the surgeon works 10 hours a week at earns $200 an hour and the janitor works 100 hours a week at $20 an hour, I would say that YES that is a fair wage. More than likely however the surgeon and the janitor will both work around 40 hours a week (I am not just counting the time the doctor is actually performing an operation but all the prep and paperwork and lab exam time). Therefore the doctor will make a wage of $8000 a week and the janitor $800 a week. That is a fair rate of pay for both.
You know its funny my grandfather cleaned toilets and my grandmother worked in a factory. They supported 2 kids and lived in a house.
If we can set prices for a janitor to be a "living wage or fair wage" what about the person making just over that working retail in a store doing a cash register they make min. wage of which I think should be removed. When you set min wage or any wage the business will always pick the low number. Anybody who wants to support themselves can not have these jobs period. These are jobs for people who live with their parents who need extra income for another reason. High school kids, college kids and NO illegals should be doing these jobs. If a janitor makes 800 per week I want my salary increased as well.
Again who in the hell forces anyone to be a janitor and they tell you the pay before you take the job. If you don't like it get something else that pays better and requires some thinking and some education or self-education. What do these people do all their life do they ever go to school, think about doing something else. Alot of people enjoy the simple life and to be left alone and take these jobs for less pay just to not have the stress. Point is you and no no government should be setting wages of any kind nor should it be price fixing and no laws should be benefiting any class and any business. The dollar is worthless and the cost of living is higher because of government not rich people who own businesses and not all people who own businesses are RICH! Pizza shops, and every other business you see the employees most of america are not greed CEO's looking to run the world.
A job does not mean security, I job does not mean wealth, a job does not mean you get what you want to make to support anything you deem to be worthy or entitled too. A job means money and if it does not pay for the lifestyle and standard of living you want you will have to find another one!
Or work SMARTER!
I have no college degree, some college of which is not applied to my current field. I have worked data entry, retail, and many other min wage jobs. Until one day after being fired from my crappy retail job, I learned I am smart enough to think for myself and educate myself in computers and web design. I have since 1994 and current at the age of 36 made 45k, 87k, 95k per year and work for forture 500 companies working on email systems. Anything can be done and it didnt cost me any money to "train" or go to a school I am self taught. It takes drive and I really dont care about the money its about supporting myself. In the time since 1994 I have noticed a few things the price of goods have increased, taxes have increased, government is bigger and credit is easily given to get everyone into debt to live like the CEO! This starts with government getting in the way, run by corporations and people thinking government is the solution to the problems. Most of the problems are because of people who have no interest in progressing and want everything provided for them via government.
Making a living is hard enough but when the buggers force you to "manage" your own retirement instead of having some professionals do it for you and take responsibility for doing it right and then destroy the savings and loan business so they can put all that mortgage money on the sleezeball market making certain they can speculate in housing while telling you that you have to because it will make them money and they will never be allowed to bankrupt but you will. This system is rigged and we need some politicians with the courage (something Mr Clinton never heard of and Mr. Bush never needed) to tell the big corporations that they are not in charge and are not going to be allowed to cheat. They and their executives are cheating the entire system. They are cheating the stockholders with their excessive executive compensation by voting raises across boardroom limits, cheating the small stock holder with excessive mutual fund "management" fees and cheating the government by buying lower taxes for themselves and their families.
I am beyond tired of getting ripped off. I happen to believe in capitalism and a free market but what we got ain't either. It is closer to the mercantile guilds, Hansiatic League, the Medicchi of the Middle Ages and the pirate bazaar of Dublin during the Viking era. Just one bunch of crooks after another stealing what they cannot earn.
Please excuse the misuse of the language but I am very angry and don’t feel very well either.
I many ways I completely agree with you. Since government has continued to fail on "making the the cheaters pay" and in fact helped them I can't trust them. This is why I want the middle class and people who have JOBS just keep their own money. Remove the federal income tax and put a 3% federal sales tax on goods. Socialized corporations and socialized people look for government to fix the corruption and both corporations and people look for ways to get free rides off the working people and government laws. To only people we can send to Washington are those interested in executing the laws that prevent stealing of ones property and knowing the role of government is to be limited and any laws that benefit any corporation, group or individual must be undone!
After that happens and good people are elected with that idea of freedom first for the individual nothing else can be "fixed"
Well as stunningly naive as it is.. I have not seen your idea of what a CEO is considering not every CEO has the same responsibilities and pay grades!
Which doesn't really matter since we have people who don't like that a CEO can get paid alot of money. Well baseball and football players are paid lot of money too and they play a GAME!!! I don't understand the issue with someone making tons of money I am not paying his/her salary and I am not working for the person and nobody is forcing anyone to do it.
This is nothing more then people who want to complain and are having some economic issues with their own jobs and or salaries.
You have high bills and higher prices because govenrment is taking from your paycheck and lowering the value of your DOLLAR on purpose!
Are you rich no, but because someone else is money alot of money that doesnt mean your entitled to it and it anything you should look at why your paycheck is small. Is it because you dont work hard? NO its because the market rate is low, the taxes are high and prices for goods are high because your dollar is not worth that much!
America's soul, thats an interesting topic. I was born in 1970, brought up with the idea that we were the land of the free, of equal opportunity, and limitless possibilities. That you would be paid what you were worth, and with hard work you could be anything.
Then I learned that WHO your parents were really defined a lot of those choices. And yet...i STILL believed.
Then I saw more and more dishonest people get ahead. I learned that those who had money....were the ones making money. And that they often got that money, not because they were better, but because who they knew, or what immoral actions they would take.
And its continued. Nowadays its ownership of capital that defines who is getting ahead. Those who have money are now the ones that matter politically, They are the ones who get richer and richer, while the rest lag further and further behind.
They complain about taxes....while their tax rate is lower and lower, and the amount of taxes we paid is a smaller and smaller amount of our GDP. And they somehow manage to convince others that this isnt true. They blame our debt, not on them not paying their share as they have in the past, but rather that people are taking too much.
People complain about how bad it is that we help others......when we have a large amount of unemployment, that is not likely to ever get better. Apparently we need a final solution for these people.
I watch technology replace people more and more, all the while the clarion call rings out about self dependance. A recipe for starvation and poverty.
I listen to states cut education spending, claiming its too expensive.
Everyones all about "I got mine".
Walmart hires workers, and pays them so little that we have to subsidize them....and then claims that if we raised the minimum wage they would go under.
Im in the top 20% in income. I made so much last year that social security gave me money back. I paid more as a % of my income taxes then most people in the top 1%. Thats not right.
How can so many people just ignore the facts of whats occurring? How is it possible to ignore all the evidence?
We lost our soul all right. It was sucked out of us by many in the 1%.
"There was a time when most Americans would have resented the suggestion that they wanted someone else to pay their bills. But now, envy and resentment have been cultivated to the point where even people who contribute nothing to society feel that they have a right to a “fair share†of what others have produced.
The most dangerous corruption is a corruption of a nation’s soul."
Judging from the title I thought this might be an interesting, almost philosophical topic, boy, was I wrong, the title is off-topic
Oh please! Its not about envy. Look at the numbers people. The rich have never been richer in this country, the middle class is failing. All this crap about self reliance is the wool that is being pulled over your eyes. The game is rigged.
America has sold it's soul and is in the process of ruining middle class America, while turning us into a third world country. Soon we will have open borders and no where to go!
Americans are entitled to some of our own country. The CEO of my company works no harder than I do. I doubt that he works as many hours in his air conditioned office as I do in the freezing rain of winter and the stifling heat and humdity of summer. So the CEO is not entitled to make 8000 times what I make and pay LESS of a rate of taxes on it. This country is for ALL of us and not just the top 5% and if that means we have "lost our soul" then so be it because gaining our common sense is even more valuable. Do I want everybody to pay something? YES! I do not believe that 1/2 the people should be paying no taxes. Do I want the RICH to pay MORE? Damn right!
I think you just became the poster child for envy and resentment taking over the soul of this country.
Are taxes wonky, and are the 1% favored? Yes!
Are corporations paid off with loopholes? Yes!
But, is there a shortfall in tax receipts? No!
Is there a spending problem? Yes!
The government needs to become more accountable for how it spends (wastes) the money it takes in. If the government spending is never reigned in, it'll make no difference how fair the tax structure is.
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