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.
Your basic rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. No one has taken that away from you. You are treated like a human being, but it sounds to me that your definition of "being treated like a human being" is being paid ridiculous amounts of money for very little skills. You do get fairly compensated for what you do. You want better? Go better yourself, first.
What do you think life means? It means being able to have enough to life on. How is making enough to live on a ridicoulous amount of money? Sad people like you never learned compassion or caring about someone besides yourself. Go better yourself is a cop out answer by lazy thinkers some people just do not have the intelligence to do better nor are there enough jobs for everyone if they did but keep going on with your stupid arguments you throw out everytime.
I used to be a pretty far right leaner. I worked my ass off for a certain corporation for 13 years, moved my way up from a minimum wage position to a supervisor position in that time. While I do not think that I was payed unfairly for my efforts, I also know that the vast majority of the people who wound up working under me were horribly compensated for their time.
By the time I quit my job, I was responsible for 11 corporate locations, 9 million dollars in annual sales, and had 270 employees that reported directly to me. But, I was working 70 to 80 hours a week, was never off of my phone, and was missing major parts of my two sons lives. I quit that job this March.
I won't deny that that job's pay rate is what allowed me to quit it. I put enough money away that I am able to completely start over, fairly comfortably, at the age of 36. But I learned a whole lot about business in America that I really don't like.
Everything(of course) is about the dollar. There is almost no consideration for the well being of the average worker, unless the bottom line is affected, either directly, or through negative media. I just don't feel like in this day and age, our destiny should be to work our fingers to the bone and scratch and claw and grind to make it to the top. I think we can do better. I think we can get back to allowing the average American to get a job with a high school diploma, and expect to make a fair wage through their working lives, and retire comfortably. That is getting rare these days. Again, I do agree that this is totally possible if you are willing to sacrifice all of your free time, get to know your children in passing, and fake it with your wife long enough to reach retirement. But you know what? That sucks.
I wish that American companies would realize that life is short. I wish that they would realize that quality of life is crucial, and that we only get one shot at this, and that that one shot should focus on happiness and not profit. I wish that they would realize that higher wages and shorter hours can produce a feeling of goodwill on Mainstreet that can't be reproduced by profits on Wall Street. I wish that there was a large entity that could enforce rules that would govern these companies to these effects other than the Federal Government, but there just isn't.
I am not at all afraid of hard work. I've done it, and I continue to work hard for my current employer while I finish my degree. I am studying social work, so that I can work to help the people that used to work for me. I will start at less than half of what I used to make. I'm not trying to sound like some sort of martyr or something. Just trying to give an honest experience working in corporate America.
Your basic rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. No one has taken that away from you. You are treated like a human being, but it sounds to me that your definition of "being treated like a human being" is being paid ridiculous amounts of money for very little skills. You do get fairly compensated for what you do. You want better? Go better yourself, first.
So in other words you think people who are average/below average intelligence, suffer from disabilities, or aren't well connected should just eat dirt, sell themselves into prostitution, or work all their waking hours for practically nothing in return. I refuse to live in that kind of society, unfortunately I have no choice.
BTW. I collect SSI. I want to work, and I work when I can, but I have a sensory disability that makes the few jobs that still hire without degrees pure torture. Those kind of jobs suck for anyone, but I'm literally not even capable of doing them unless I'm well accommodated for, and most employers and bosses have about as much empathy as a stone. When I have tried to work, because of right wingers who are paranoid about "welfare fraud" I've been financially punished by having my benefits reduced (which are already not enough to live off) and threatened with 'disability reviews', as if my disability is just like a case of the flu and will eventually disappear.
I could flourish and do well in plenty of careers as I have a well-above average intelligence and an immense will to work if I'm compensated for it fairly and my limitations are considered and kept in mind. Unfortunately our country's system rewards privilege and punishes a good ethic, despite their baseless insistence to the contrary.
To a Liberal it doesn't count if it's not going to the Government first.
Liberals think money we work for is the governments money. That is slavery. It's like the girl on the street corner who has to hand all her money to the pimp and she doesn't get to keep much. She worked for it, yet the pimp see's it as HIS money. She is a slave.
To a Liberal it doesn't count if it's not going to the Government first.
I am not at this point, a liberal, and I do not discount what Christians give in charity. I think that it is a great thing. I also think that there is a huge disparity in income in the United States that is not alleviated by that charity, and a society that is set up in such a way that only those who already have wealth, or those that are willing to sacrifice everything else in their lives to achieve wealth, can have it. I just don't believe that a society that values dollars over everything else is desirable or sustainable long term.
If Christian charities were some sort of unified organization that could pinpoint inequalities within our society and attempt to provide some relief as a whole, I might be contented to try and organize people to donate.
But there are thousands of Christian charities that donate to hundreds of different causes, many of which are located outside of the U.S.
This leads me to the following beliefs:
1) There are inequalities in our society that are systemic in nature, and defended by many who either benefit from them, or are led to believe that they will someday benefit from them.
2)Many in our society have been led to believe that we can all be millionaires if we just work hard enough.
This also entails a belief that it is appropriate for the average American to sacrifice all other endeavors to achieve that wealth. I believe that this is the greatest brainwashing accomplishment ever achieved by big business. Again, it is not only deemed acceptable, but preferable, that your average worker should set all other aspirations aside and strive for wealth. That is the ultimate goal for our society. Not goodness, kindness, or compassion, but wealth.
3) There is not another organization available to meet the needs of the people in the United States other than the government.
I wish that there was. I really do. There just isn't. It would be wonderful if the people could get a hold of the government again, and clean it up, but there is so much money in it now that I can't see that happening.
4) There is vast, nearly insurmountable wealth inequality in the US. The argument that some people make regarding the "taking by force" of wealth does not address the fact that none of these people could earn such wealth in any other society that ever existed. They are able to amass such wealth because they live in a nation that supports their ability to do so as a luxury. Governments have always taken tax from their inhabitants. I do believe that someone who works harder than others ought to have more, but the current disparity is nothing less than ridiculous.
Don't go to extremes. I'm not talking about no profit.
Either profit is good, or its bad.. There really isnt any negotations on it because profits dont really come at others expense.
Do you really think Bill Gates got rich by making others poor?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
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.
