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Does it make sense to compare apples to fish? Again, I am not forced to purchase anything from private companies.
How do you propose to survive? You do not have a choice as to whether to buy groceries just because you could choose to buy them at Whole Foods or at Trader Joe's. You will buy them somewhere. It's an imperative.
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Originally Posted by Joe_Ryder
If I choose to purchase their products then I obviously find value in their product. If they choose to reinvest their earning in advertisement, there's no issue. If I choose not to purchase their wares then I in no way contribute to their advertising budget.
You are another sufferer from Island Delusion. You are a node on an economic network. Resources flow in to you and out from you. You help fund the preferences of others and others help fund yours.
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Originally Posted by Joe_Ryder
When it comes to elected officials who offer no value for their product and actually force me to buy...
No value? Is that your final answer? Maybe you should try using a lifeline on that one.
This is pretty funny. For months I watched the GOP faithful start thread after thread claiming 250k/yr salary was "not rich" as a means to attack Obama. Now when somebody under that votes on a raise, they claim they are being greedy.
Why are you SO angry?? Are people not allowed to have a different opinion than you?
People may have any opinion they like, but if they choose to show up on a political forum and post them, they should have some willingness to see them critiqued and to then back up what they have to say.
You otherwise in this case confuse exasperation with anger. It is ridiculous to try to support a point by comparing the profitability of AT&T to that of the US government. The government is not a for-profit enterprise. The whole notion of a comparison is absurd.
This is pretty funny. For months I watched the GOP faithful start thread after thread claiming 250k/yr salary was "not rich" as a means to attack Obama. Now when somebody under that votes on a raise, they claim they are being greedy.
Which one is it guys?
You seem to be confused between corporations providing a real product or service to consumers versus government fat cats who elect raises for themselves.
Scientists deal with problems on a much more complex level than congresspeople ever do, and they aren't highly paid.
Slightly presumptive on multiple counts, and seemingly confusing complexity with difficulty.
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Originally Posted by summers73
Quite the opposite. It's called the marketplace. Unfortunately, up until recently, congress has circumvented the market process by having this "automatic raise" kick in every year unless they specifically vote nay on it themselves.
That is the current system. Under the previous arrangement, the raise was calculated, but they didn't get it unless they voted to take it. The result was that they rarely voted to take it, and Congressional pay was effectively frozen. And not taking the pay raise affects the salaries of others, including the federal judiciary, which has been in crisis for some years now for being unable to attract quality personnel over pay issues. Nothing is ever as simple as 2+2 types try to make it.
Is it just me, or does it seem like most of these belong to a minority group?
I don't care that they belong to a minority group. The fact is that the federal government needs to cut, cut, cut and are doing nothing but spend, spend, spend. I bet these are the same individuals that support every poor, low-income, and middle class American paying the VAT to pay for these pay raises.
The law also provides for a very small annual Cola raise for Social Security people but Obama and the Congress have seen fit to not allow that raise for two years. I am talking about government only and not competing corporations.
Now, now, Roy. You know very well that Obama has nothing to do with it. The Social Security COLA is calculated as the average CPI in the 3rd quarter of one year over the average CPI during the third quarter of the preceding year. The 2009 average was LESS than the 2008 average, meaning you should have seen your benefits reduced. But the law doesn't allow that, so you kept on receiving the same thing. If the average CPI in the 3rd quarter of 2010 exceeds the average from 2008, you'll see a raise in 2011. If the 2010 average also falls short of the 2008 average, you won't. You'll just get the same thing again.
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Originally Posted by roysoldboy
Have you heard Obama say that at some point you have made enough money? I watch Fox so I get to hear him say that several times a day. I wonder what he meant and if the amount that is enough is the $250,000 he used to talk about. Just wondering if that $174,000 plus perks would happen to be his cut off amount. Too many small businesses will have to pay everything over his amount to the government to keep them to his suggested amount.
He likely doesn't mean any amount in particular, just that at some point, more money just doesn't mean very much to you anymore. The is the theory of diminishing marginal returns, more speciifically marginal utility theory. It's an extremely important principal in tax policy, as the intent of tax policy is to equalize the burden of taxes, not the dollar cost or percentage paid. If he is talking about $250K in this case, very few small businesses will be impacted, and none will pay anything like 100% of income over any limit at all. Your handlers have apparently mistreated you again.
I suspect that most of them weren't capable of making a living in the private sector....
Right. Most of them were deadbeats and dropouts without a past or a future, and then, just like that, local business, professional, and social leaders began pushing them to run for national office and providing them with campaign funding to do that very thing. I've seen it happen over and over again...
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