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Because you'll be raising the price of our goods even more than the prices people complain about now. that's not how free markets work. you can't all the sudden pull back because that's opposite of progress....the rest of the world isn't going anywhere else.
I get so tired of hearing this - 'that's not how free markets work' as it is inevitable and there is nothing we can do about it - a force unto itself. Of course we can do something - we can regulate capitalism. It has worked in Sweden. They have high taxes it is true, but so do we, and we get nothing much in return, whereas they get health care, education etc. A true social safety net.
Good for you , Tinman. You are smart and resourceful and able to think on your feet and anticipate pitfalls, and you would have been successful, no matter which course you would have taken, probably even overcoming one or two serious mistakes. Not everybody is Tinman. For every person like you, there is someone who lacks your qualities, and they will fail, no matter what they do right or how hard they try. Steel resolve is not in their playbook, and never will be,
What is to be done with these people? Remember when you were a kid, and chose up sides for a game? Little weak kids got chosen last, but they were still on the team. What did you do with them? Did you give up a little of your own glory and let them play and enjoy some of the fruits of the game, and feel dignity and pride if they were on your winning team? Even though they were the kind of people who would NEVER be on a winning team if it were up to them to win. Or did you just call them stupid and lazy, and run them off the sidelines, so they wouldn't get in the way for your triumphant victory, that you so richly deserved?
Algebra is not math. It never was. It is useless and senseless and not even used by engineers as some claim. But your hope is granted. I dont have kids but if I did I would show them what is right and wrong. NOT what your Teachers Union tells you.
Algebra is the grammar of the language of Arithmetic. You don't learn to do algebra. You learn to think it. By doing all those homework problems, you learned to form constructs in your mind, to plug numbers into, so you could put values into relationships in such a way that they would work for you. Now you do it every day, but you don't realize you are doing it. When you guess how long it will take you go to go drive to the mall if you go to the post office on the way and it will be rush hour on the way home, you have just solved an algebra problem in your head.
I remember being sidelined during any number of school games because I was nearsighted enough to be nearly blind. Stick and ball sports are really difficult if you cannot see the ball. These sports taught me the power of rejection at a very early age. I also learned that being alone is preferable to being in a gang of fools. That being said, I did do rather well in gymnastics and wrestling, considering I was 5’ 8” and weighed 165 with 5% body fat at the time.
Free market capitalism works, which is why it is quickly replaced with corrupt crony capitalism that favors the rich by eliminating competition from the poor.
They have high taxes it is true, but so do we, and we get nothing much in return, whereas they get health care, education etc. A true social safety net.
You say that because you have not lived in Europe and have no idea what high taxes are. Since you advocate a "safety net", I'll assume you are probably paying minimal federal taxes anyway relative to the resources you use - you leave the real taxpaying to people making $150K+. Understand this: Most of the lower and middle class families pay minimal taxes in this country. If you doubt this, I suggest you take a trip to IRS.gov and download the stats. Under a socialist-type plan as advocated by Obama and the other Democrats, your tax liability will increase dramatically. Services that you use now (and pay nothing for) will not increase proportional to the new taxes you pay. Who do you think is going to pay for all this stuff?
Secondly, and most importantly, you are not going to pay for it by cutting costs elsewhere. Defense (as a percentage of the GDP and the budget) is at historical lows. The major entitlement programs are draining the budget. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid dwarf defense spending. Obama is proposing adding a fourth - health care.
Secondly, and most importantly, you are not going to pay for it by cutting costs elsewhere. Defense (as a percentage of the GDP and the budget) is at historical lows.
Only because "history" includes WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and the Cold War arms race as if they were relevant today.
Quote:
Originally Posted by trappedinNM
The major entitlement programs are draining the budget. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid dwarf defense spending. Obama is proposing adding a fourth - health care.
Social Security and Medicare are off-budget programs. The former is running huge surpluses. The latter is at about its break-even point, but it has reserves on hand that should fully sustain it through about 2020. Medicaid is a joint federal and state program that has always been funded out of general revenues. It is the only one of the three that has any true budgetary impact.
We are all already paying for health care. Overpaying, by the standards of every other developed country, nearly all of which also have better-performing health care systems than we do. Our current payments are more than adequate to finance the shift into a more efficient and more effective universal health care system.
So you tell me what I do wrong okay? I work full time, and go to school full time. Through no fault of my own my knee started having issues about a year ago. Now, I am told, if I don't have surgery soon, I may loose my knee and need an artificial one. I pay for my own school, books, car, house, etc. I can not afford healthcare. So what am I to do? Drop out of school in order to pay for my surgery and the years it would take me to pay off with my current job OR stay in school and possibly not be able to finish anyway because of my knee?
Oh and btw I also take care of a teen in highschool who was in an abusive situation and I let him come here so he didn't have to go through what he was. But hey...im just a poor bum of society.
Plenty of people choose to be poor. Just like some people choose to be a single parent.
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