Quote:
|
No, one would be hard AT work. Not pretending to be standing up for something those with their frontal lobes still intact are rolling their eyes over and doing their best to ignore.
|
How can you begin to believe that there is a righteousness in those who ignore the plight of their fellow man? One might analogously liken this present economic cancer,
to a fast growing tumor, soon to overtake the body, a clearly malignant indicator than cannot be ignored? Rolling their eyes does absolutely nothing curative, like a change in a
wart or a mole on your body, this OWS movement is indicative of a class of people who have come to the realization that the time is ripe to find unity and support behind one
great and grand theme, "We're not going to take it".
Quote:
|
Vanishing American dream?
|
If you were old enough to have seen as much of American history passing before your eyes as I have seen over my lifespan, you'd be compelled to understand my use of the phrase,
"vanishing American dream". If it was once possible to envision a car in every garage, a chicken in every pot, Mom there at the stove, and Pop down at the factory, why shouldn't these
things be part of the American dream? When those ideals were set in place, this country was of a common accord, a day's work for a days pay, an automobile that was manufactured by Pop,
down at the factory, and a fresh chicken to pay the doctor for a housecall. Our system of values was based upon more than corporate profit, in the hopes that if we, as individuals, carried
our share of the bargain with industry, that it would be the road to personal prosperity, that if we supported industry, in turn, industry would support us. The federal government has become
the biggest industry of all, and it appears that rather than preserving our society, they've exported its primal values soley in the misguided interests of those who've held the reins. I do realize
that the days of $1.00 a gallon gasoline and 25 cent quarts of milk, are gone, never to be seen again, but as long as oil speculators and deregulators have become puppetmasters, working from
behind the curtain, serving personal interests first, rather than working to preserve the once great American dream, I can easily see how that dream has vanished.
Quote:
What did all these Occupying morons do to screw up their dream? Oh wait! They didn't. It's someone else's fault. They didn't go to a college, let alone work to pay the tuition, the took out
loans they don't want to pay back. Wall Street told them to. They didn't have too many kids they couldn't afford. Wall Street made them. They didn't finish HS or go college, Wall Street told
them not to. They didn't buy mortgages they couldn't afford, Wall Street made them do it.
|
Someone else's fault? Did you go to college? If you did, would it have been an off-base assumption on your part, to assume that upon graduation, there'd be a job opening for you, an opportunity
to pursue a career, the chance to make enough money to repay those expenses incurred as you educated yourself in preparation for life ahead? It is less of a situation of not wanting to pay back
a college loan, and more of the reality that although you'd love to be able to repay that loan, but without a market for your education, your skills or your intentions, you are crippled by an economic
disaster, not one of the makings of your own choice, but a situation that has been created by profiteers, common pirates, corporate slicks, who through every loophole in a bent system, have milked
the system for personal benefit, leaving only a skeletonized remnant of opportunity. It was wall street who sold them those homes which no fall in foreclosure, the greedy financiers like Fannymae
and Freddiemac, government agencies that wooed them into a ponzi scheme, who like a common drug dealer, got them strung-out on the concept that it was a piece of cake to be a homeowner.
I call them victims of an entrapment, misfortunates who were unable to identify the ultimate bottom line, the golden rule, "he who has the gold, makes the rules".
Quote:
|
The lack of personal responsibility is pathetic.
|
This statement would be so much better directed toward Bernie Madoff's victims, than the OWS protesters, they stand among others who have been led down a primrose path by false promises,
and other deceptions given to them by "authorative" sources. What part of personal responsibility do they have in the accounting of this crash-and-burn economy, were they among those few who
collapsed this economy through the piggishness of greed, the Goldman Sachs, the Lehman Brothers, the Morgan Stanleys, those saboteurs who sacked our economy while filling their pockets with our
savings? Were they among the rules committees who gave big corporations the tax breaks that brought about the offshoring of our greatest national treasure, our manufacturing industry? Was it they
who curled up in bed with foreign nations, giving financial aid while fluffing the pillows with our dollars as we Americans doubled our national debt? If there is a question of personal responsibility, that
responsibility belongs to our administrators, that collection of mifits who've sold us down the river.
Quote:
Right. It's so much better to be controlled by the government. What's going to happen when everybody lives in a slum and only a special few (you know, congress) lives high on the hog.
Will you and your ilk feel better about yourselves?
|
As long as there are people like you, those who are empathetic, the ones without compassion for their fellow man, I can't help but believe that perhaps we shall devolve into slum dwellers.
Congress, the Senate, the Executive branch of government are already living that, "high-on-the-hog" lifestyle. Having watched the ineptitude of our legislators, our congressmen, senators,
committeemen, lobbiests and the rest of the swine up there on Capitol Hill, I cannot help but to understand the frustration of the demonstrators. Does it give your heart pleasure to have to
peel off an extra dollar or two when you gas-up your car, all of the while, knowing that your political leaders are too busy building up the war machine or buying influence from Pakistan?
Does it tickle your fancy to see us strung-out on Chinese built replicas of some of America's greatest inventions? Are you transfusing your life with dialisis from Walmart or Target, quietly
accepting the fact that although we were once foremost in the manufacturing trades, that we're rapidly becoming a second rate country because the profiteers have had their way with us?
When at last, the dust dies down, and we have become enslaved by a system of governance which is interested only in self propagation, the real question to be answered is, will YOU and YOUR ilk
feel better about yourselves.
Quote:
|
Oh knock it the heck off. Where would YOU be today, if not for capitalism? Riding high on the backs of whom? Someone has to make the money others want to live off of.
|
Here, it seems as though you have confused corporate rape, for capitalism. Where would capitalism be without the worker? You need to dig up the bones of those who died in the Triangle Shirtwaist fire,
to whisper into their dusty and mummified ears if you want to extoll the merits of capitalism. Every piece of clothing that I own was made either in China, Mexico, Maylasia, Thailand or somewhere else
where capitalism has spread its tentacles. I'm more inclined to respect socialism than capitalism, the lines are more distinctly defined between the haves and the have-nots. When capitalism has benefitted
only one percent of the population, leaving the greater masses little more recourse than protestations, the simple exercise of basic human rights, an avenue of dissention no wider than Zuccotti park, it is
time to examine more closely those tenets of the concept of capitalism, time to move toward the old three musketeers philosophy, "one for all, all for one".
Quote:
How EASILY the WHINERS of 2011 FORGET what the legal immigrants to this country came with back in the mid-1800's to early 1900's: nothing. How FUNNY it is that these occupiers and whiners FORGET
that you had to EARN your way. It remains the same today. It's convenient to take the easy road/way out. Blame your ancestors for screwing up and not instilling some sort of work ethic in y'all.
|
I'm not looking to engage you in a discussion about immigration or ancestors. In order to develop a work ethic, you need work. if the "easy way out", is to lay out on a sidewalk and get pepper-sprayed,
scorned and scourged, beaten and humiliated, well I can see that you were groping at a retort when you termed these protests as the easy way out. The real way out, is to make a fitting statement, considering
it to be a catylist for change. Yes, those who migrated here in the 1800's came with hopes and dreams but that doesn't negate the fact that the people of this day would have their own dreams. Those of yesterday
had an arena where the struggle to success was played upon a level field. Who guides their way today? China and India are exporting their brightest students to America, we educate them, and then watch them return
to their native countries, imbued with our technology, and ready to overtake us in our markets. Surely you cannot call life under the water cannon, rubber bullets, pepper spray, public outhouses and food pantries,
"the easy way out". What good are the convictions or principles of those who want it handed to them? Especially to those whose had choices.... and made bad ones? This is a question that needs to be asked of
Bernie Madoff's clients. Would I be too far off-base, to ascribe it to basic human nature? I'd rather say that yes, bad choices were made, but those choices were not offered beyond the voting booth and the system of
patronism, cronyism, nepotism that American politics has evolved to. I'm honored to meet you Mr. Sawdust, you are one of the first people that I've ever met, who has never made a bad decision. Choices are great,
but as long as we are always given the opportunity to choose, I'd surely love to find more than column A and Column B, having only a choice between the lesser of evils. I think that these demonstrators would rather
have a paycheck "handed to them", than a free handout. You seem to have lost your memory when reviewing this old adage: " You can give a man a fish and feed him for today, or you can teach him how to fish
and he'll feed himself forever'.
Quote:
There are folks who didn't make bad choices and got dealt a life-altering card. They aren't the ones occupying anything. They are the ones EMBARRASSED of those fools making a joke out of their circumstances.
|
Have you confused today's life and world conditions with a Texas-Holdem' game? Pal, this isn't about getting a bad hand in a card game, it's about an even bigger game, the game of life! Saddest note?
The game is fixed, the dealer has palmed the aces and the players can't win with the 10-2, offsuit hole cards. I'd love to have a seat at the big table there in Washington, the table where the bets are placed
with the money of others, and the ante is met on every round by careless bettors who really have nothing to lose. It's no problem when they go "all-in", they are gambling with our future because, win, lose,
or draw, theirs is already secure and fixed.
Quote:
|
Yeah...and I'd like all those folks who can't do math but operate under the idiocy to push forth a millionaires tax (get it, MILLIONAIRE?) be placed on those who make under $1M, but starting at $250K.
|
You might as well try to unravel the theory of relativity here, as I am a practical man who cannot fathom six figure salaries nor attempt to crack the Divinci code much less the tax code. Unless I miss my guess,
your attempt at throwing numbers into the mix, is little more than a subterfuge, a futile smokescreen with it's purpose to impress me (or others) with your accumen.
Dude, let me assure you, I'm not impressed in the least.
Quote:
|
Now, let's all say that two-hundred and fifty thousand dollars is one quarter of one million. Together now, so us poor folks who work our asses off (and are working hard) and don't quite make a million, but will get taxed like one, can get as brain-washed as the morons who think less than a million is a million.
|
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Working class hero? I think not. In no sense do I agree with you, not with your moniker nor with your piddly comment. If you were a working class hero, 
