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Poverty cannot be fixed with money, poverty is caused by poverty mentality, not a lack of money. I know a lot of people who whine about being poor but what money they do get they waste hand over fist. If they live from paycheck to paycheck and get a $400 tax refund they don't put it in the bank, they get a tattoo. People who make $8.50 an hour that won't drive a small car that gets 35 MPG but buy pick up trucks that get 15 MPG that they never haul anything in and then complain that they can't afford gas. People who replace their 55" flat screen TV with a 60" flat screen TV.
I honestly believe that if you took every last dime from everyone in the country and divided it up equally among everyone within a year the rich would be rich again and the poor would be poor again.
Ok, but my impression is that liberals are trying to take capitalism out of the mix and convert completely over to socialism. These days it's almost like capitalism is a dirty word, while socialism is very politically correct.
Am I way off base?
I don't see where anyone is suggesting that. The mixed economic model with free markets has worked very well for us. Pure capitalism though, was not 'planned' or designed in any way, it grows into what it is organically. It is the law of the jungle.
This is why we have had government play a part in regulating commerce. Monopolistic practices are prevented for good reason, yet they are a natural extension of capitalist theory, we should expect the larger companies to absorb the smaller ones if we are being ideological about it, until there is only one. But we break up monopolies (or prevent them) in order to encourage competition in the marketplace. This is an unnatural interference in capitalism.
On the contrary, I see where socialism is bandied about as some kind of evil. In fact, the fundamental framework is sharing.
The Native Americans almost universally shared possession of the lands as a people - in the tribe. Observing the European settler families carve up the landscape as personal fiefdoms they were amazed. It struck them as poor stewardship.
Today we have free public roads, public libraries, Fire Protection Districts, public schools, a national postal service, water departments in major cities and a whole lot more. These are all basically based on socialist economic models. No one has had to fear the development of these institutions, they have enriched our nation and our lives as a people.
Poverty is relative especially when some of those claiming poverty have the latest Iphones, high-speed internet service, and a state of the art flat-screen TV.
Bingo.
"Poverty" in this country is not the same as "poverty" in the third world.
I honestly believe that if you took every last dime from everyone in the country and divided it up equally among everyone within a year the rich would be rich again and the poor would be poor again.
I believe that was tried in Peru, the poor proved that they were good at being poor and soon became the poor again.
Socialism has not worked, the latest collapse is Venezuela.
It goes against the natural order in life, it requires loss of freedom and force.
In the pot numbed european countries such as Netherlands , they might enjoy their socialism but Americans enjoy their freedom more than socialism, the Dutch don't have freedom of speech to start with.
Same in the UK, they have a lot of hate speech laws that crimp free speech.
THeres a much darker side to socialism than the poverty situation.
Its evident in the lunatic university campus's where free speech is under threat from nutbags.
I wouldn't call them liberal nutbags, they're just plain nuts.
Today we have free public roads, public libraries, Fire Protection Districts, public schools, a national postal service, water departments in major cities and a whole lot more. These are all basically based on socialist economic models. No one has had to fear the development of these institutions, they have enriched our nation and our lives as a people.
Free ? I don't think so.
These free services are breaking the bank everywhere, the parasite unions and golden pensions cripple the economy. Thats socialism for ya.!
How long did it take for socialism to bust Venezuela? not long, yet its one of the wealthiest countries down there.
I'll explain socialism , its the gvmnt ownership of profit making business and industry.
When Chavez took control over free enterprise in Venezuela, that was socialism.
When they took control of Exxon it had 30K employees, within 12 months it had 130K on the payroll, thats due to nepotism and soon all the profit was sucked out .
Its got nothing to do with schools, water depts, roads etc.
I just watched Trump on the news, isn't he wonderful !
Our nation was built on these institutions. They raised us up from potentially being a third world nation indefinitely.
No one can argue that the free public education eventually brought near universal literacy. Road building opened up the country and promoted commerce.
Benjamin Franklin, a successful businessman himself, had a hand in setting up the postal service, fire insurance and volunteer fire companies.
Today we have city water systems. The people of the town are co-owners, and everyone benefits (there are also commercially owned water systems in some towns too, which take a share of the billings as profit). A prominent city near me, a mostly Republican community, has it's own electric company, owned by the citizens. These mechanisms just make sense in some applications.
Credit Unions and Co-ops are also based on socialist theory. Sharing of the assets, the co-owners benefit.
Many large cities have their own bus companies. The CTA in Chicago didn't exist until the private bus companies started to fold up, and the city took each of them over in turn for the public good.
When pure capitalism doesn't work well for a particular issue, we have another model which might.
Free ? I don't think so.
These free services are breaking the bank everywhere, the parasite unions and golden pensions cripple the economy. Thats socialism for ya.!
How long did it take for socialism to bust Venezuela? not long, yet its one of the wealthiest countries down there.
I'll explain socialism , its the gvmnt ownership of profit making business and industry.
When Chavez took control over free enterprise in Venezuela, that was socialism.
When they took control of Exxon it had 30K employees, within 12 months it had 130K on the payroll, thats due to nepotism and soon all the profit was sucked out .
Its got nothing to do with schools, water depts, roads etc.
I just watched Trump on the news, isn't he wonderful !
Do you want to know what else is "socialism"? Let' see. Well, it is the severely overpaid CEO, getting even more money, after driving the company into the ground.
● There was approximately $1.5 trillion in circulation as of February 22, 2017, of which $1.47 trillion was in Federal Reserve notes.
U.S. Population (2017) : 326,474,013
>>> $4,502.65 per capita <<<
Federal Budget (2017): $3.65 Trillion
<<<$11,180.06 per capita >>>
... PLUS A DEFICIT ...
Now exactly WHERE are 7 trillion dollar bills being taxed each year?
Quote:
Originally Posted by katzpaw
"The U.S. government" DOES NOT "get $7 trillion in taxes".
$7 trillion includes federal, state, and local taxes.
The feds collect about $4 trillion.
Of that $4 trillion, the big expenditures are:
33% Social security, unemployment
27% Medicare and health
16% Military
6% Education
sorry OP, these two are right, the federal government takes in less than $4 trillion in revenues.
but the others are also right, you cant end poverty by throwing money at the problem. we have been doing that since the late 50s, and where has it gotten us? an ever growing welfare state.
one thing to remember is that you can take away all the money people like warren buffet and bill gates have made over the years, make them penniless in fact. and with in a few years, they will be rich again. gate wont be worth $50 billion, but he will be a multi millionaire again. why? because these people know how to make money. they are also willing to put in the time necessary to make the large amounts of money. the average "poor" person in this country takes the money they make, and they buy things with it, new cell phones every year, new TVs every year, new cars every year, and then they wonder where their money went.
the rich people on the other hand use their money to make money. instead of buying one TV, they buy 100 at wholesale, and retail them to the average person buying one TV. these guys also put in work weeks of between 80 and 120 hours regularly, the average person puts in a 50 hour work week and goes home.
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