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It's amusing to read the idealistic, utopian rhetoric in this thread. The OWS crowd wants everyone equal,...and they want the government to fix the perceived problem,...the same government that caused the perceived problems in the first place. If the OWS crowd had their way, our society would resemble that of H.G. Wells "Time Machine" in which everyone looked the same, dressed the same, and were physical and mental equals. OWS wants everyone to be able to "play in the sun" while someone else bears the expense,...guaranteed livable income whether on works or not, free college education, free healthcare, ....free,...free, FREE,....FREE!!!
OWS has a list of complaints a mile long, and a list of solutions that could be written on the point of a needle. OWS is like an old hound dog sitting in the yard howling,...just hoping someone will throw them a bone.
You could not be more wrong, and are completely out of touch with the working class of people you snub your nose at.
A man used to be able to work one job and provide for his family. He owned a home, educated his kids, put food on the table, and the mother of his children could stay home to raise those kids properly. They even took vacations together!
Companies lasted, people often worked in one career for 20 years and retired comfortably. Those were the days when middle class had it good.
People like you that measure others by your own yardstick of success are part of the problem. Many people don't seek much in the way of material goods, they just want to maintain self-respect and provide for their own. That is getting harder and harder to do because the free market is gone. Mergers and acquisitions muscle out the little guys that can't compete. Farms are bought up by large conglomerates, commodities are manipulated, prices are subsidized. Even Congress is allowed to place insider bets. The game sucks and yes it is rigged against the little guy. Upward mobility is dead for the average person today. The country where you could be anything you wanted to be, do anything you wanted to do, is gone.
A person still can provide for a family with one job. That person just needs to keep a similar lifestyle that people lived 50 years ago. You keep ignoring the fact that the current middle class lifestyle was considered upper-middle to upper 50 years ago. How can the middle class expect to have a dramatically improved lifestyle without working more for it?
Quote:
Originally Posted by ellemint
I'm not talking about couples in which the husband and wife both work to afford an extra Ford Explorer.
I was referring to individuals who have to work two jobs in order to survive, and families in which both the husband and wife each work two jobs, which is not uncommon.
Take a look at these articles about the working poor in America if you have the time, like people who are too poor to be able to collect the child tax credit because they don't make enough income. Good people who have served in Afghanistan, not lazy bums.
Do you have a problem reading what I posted? I never once called poor people lazy. It is hard to take you seriously when you have trouble even reading what I said. And yet again, what are those people doing to improve their skills to the point where they are valuable to a company? How many hours/week do they spend in a library studying? How many hours/week do they spend volunteering at companies so that they build skills? The department of labor just released news stating that the average american spends 2.5 hours per day watching TV and only 30 minutes per day educating themselves. Is it any wonder people are struggling? Stop watching TV and spend that time researching new skills and you would be amazed what job opportunities come up.
Also, can you please respond to my last post stating how dramatically the lifestyles of the poor and middle class have improved over time?
It's amusing to read the idealistic, utopian rhetoric in this thread. The OWS crowd wants everyone equal,...and they want the government to fix the perceived problem,...the same government that caused the perceived problems in the first place. If the OWS crowd had their way, our society would resemble that of H.G. Wells "Time Machine" in which everyone looked the same, dressed the same, and were physical and mental equals. OWS wants everyone to be able to "play in the sun" while someone else bears the expense,...guaranteed livable income whether on works or not, free college education, free healthcare, ....free,...free, FREE,....FREE!!!
I can't believe your being serious
OWS has a list of complaints a mile long, and a list of solutions that could be written on the point of a needle. OWS is like an old hound dog sitting in the yard howling,...just hoping someone will throw them a bone.
Again. Way to say absolutely nothing. You obviously don't understand what a protest is about. Some issues brought up already have solutions set in action.
It's amusing to read the idealistic, utopian rhetoric in this thread. The OWS crowd wants everyone equal,...and they want the government to fix the perceived problem,...the same government that caused the perceived problems in the first place. If the OWS crowd had their way, our society would resemble that of H.G. Wells "Time Machine" in which everyone looked the same, dressed the same, and were physical and mental equals. OWS wants everyone to be able to "play in the sun" while someone else bears the expense,...guaranteed livable income whether on works or not, free college education, free healthcare, ....free,...free, FREE,....FREE!!!
OWS has a list of complaints a mile long, and a list of solutions that could be written on the point of a needle. OWS is like an old hound dog sitting in the yard howling,...just hoping someone will throw them a bone.
All they are is failures in life who want someone else to pay their way.
A person still can provide for a family with one job. That person just needs to keep a similar lifestyle that people lived 50 years ago. You keep ignoring the fact that the current middle class lifestyle was considered upper-middle to upper 50 years ago. How can the middle class expect to have a dramatically improved lifestyle without working more for it?
Do the math. You obviously don't have many friends near or below the poverty line. People are struggling. People are hungry.
Not everyone takes food stamps. Not everyone who is hungry is unemployed.
Do you have a problem reading what I posted? I never once called poor people lazy. It is hard to take you seriously when you have trouble even reading what I said. And yet again, what are those people doing to improve their skills to the point where they are valuable to a company? How many hours/week do they spend in a library studying? How many hours/week do they spend volunteering at companies so that they build skills? The department of labor just released news stating that the average american spends 2.5 hours per day watching TV and only 30 minutes per day educating themselves. Is it any wonder people are struggling? Stop watching TV and spend that time researching new skills and you would be amazed what job opportunities come up.
How does that matter if there's not enough new jobs created?
Also, can you please respond to my last post stating how dramatically the lifestyles of the poor and middle class have improved over time?
You mean less happiness and more stuff? Less spending power? More debt?
A person still can provide for a family with one job. That person just needs to keep a similar lifestyle that people lived 50 years ago. You keep ignoring the fact that the current middle class lifestyle was considered upper-middle to upper 50 years ago. How can the middle class expect to have a dramatically improved lifestyle without working more for it?
The reason you have to work more for the basics that were available to the middle class yesterday is because the dollar has been intentionally devalued. What is a dollar worth today compared to the 50's or 60's? Significantly less, plus the cost of goods has skyrocketed. Back then you could buy a loaf of bread for .39 cents, now it averages $4.00 and is full of chemicals.
I bought some ground turkey yesterday, why are they putting artifical flavoring in my ground turkey???
Again. Way to say absolutely nothing. You obviously don't understand what a protest is about. Some issues brought up already have solutions set in action.
...and you accuse others of "saying nothing"?
What a wad of nothingness crammed into three sentences.
Now go ahead and whine about life's inequalities and the pie-in-the-sky utopianism you OWSers all dream about.
And btw, why are you writing in all bold? Afraid people will ignore you otherwise?
All they are is failures in life who want someone else to pay their way.
The OP simply ignores the original demands of OWS. One may suppose that the OP was hoping no one remembered the idiocy of OWS' initial demands. You are correct,...the OWS group as a whole were not only failures, but childish whiners as well. OWS wanted the government to take care of them, to institute their list of freebies and simply let someone else pay the taxes to support their lazy butts.
A person still can provide for a family with one job. That person just needs to keep a similar lifestyle that people lived 50 years ago. You keep ignoring the fact that the current middle class lifestyle was considered upper-middle to upper 50 years ago. How can the middle class expect to have a dramatically improved lifestyle without working more for it?
Do you have a problem reading what I posted? I never once called poor people lazy. It is hard to take you seriously when you have trouble even reading what I said. And yet again, what are those people doing to improve their skills to the point where they are valuable to a company? How many hours/week do they spend in a library studying? How many hours/week do they spend volunteering at companies so that they build skills? The department of labor just released news stating that the average american spends 2.5 hours per day watching TV and only 30 minutes per day educating themselves. Is it any wonder people are struggling? Stop watching TV and spend that time researching new skills and you would be amazed what job opportunities come up.
Also, can you please respond to my last post stating how dramatically the lifestyles of the poor and middle class have improved over time?
Well, it's true that most people have running water now. And I know many people spend a lot of time watching TV.
However, in terms of purchasing power I think I already cited the study on wage stagnation:
"Over the past 40 years, a period in which U.S. GDP per capita more than doubled after adjusting for inflation, the annual earnings of the median prime-aged male have actually fallen by 28 percent. Indeed, males at the middle of the wage distribution now earn about the same as their counterparts in the 1950s! This decline reflects both stagnant wages for men on the job, and the fact that, compared with 1969, three times as many men of working age don’t work at all.
I don't know if someone earning a median wage today can have the same lifestyle as someone earning the median wage in 1950. As was already pointed out, in 1950 most people could get by with only one breadwinner, afford a small house, and afford college for their kids, and a vacation. Now, it seems most people have two working parents, where I live in the northeast even a small house is very expensive and out of reach for most young couples, and college has become extremely expensive and leaves young people in debt for decades after they graduate. So, I just don't know.
I work on Wall Street so I was able to see the movement up close and personal. There were some legitimate issues raised, but the problem is it expanded to include everyone with some type of complaint about anything, and the movement became so disjointed and unorganized. It then was comprised largely of homeless, hippies, or others who totally discredited the movement. Problem is, if you try to get more specific, it may lack the scale and size that drew so much attention in the original movement.
You do not know what you are talking about, what do you do on Wall Street sweep floors?
Most in the occupy movement were either employed or college students/ college grads that were outrage because of the cost of college and had big loans and could not find jobs.
If you noticed while there were at times a hundred or two sleeping in the park but when they had marches/protests their numbers grew substantially.
Even the number of people staying in the park was up and down as people stayed as long as they could afford to but left and were replaced by others, some stayed a night or two or on weekends.
The homeless were there to get food.
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