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If the top 1% have another decade like the last one they will control 80% of the wealth and we will be fighting over the remaining 20%. While we are squabbling over giving the insurance companies 1/5th of what we still have for health care they are stealing us blind with interest rates that would make the mob blush
Well it's a good thing we have Obama as president then. He keeps bailing out these wealthy corporations.
And those Democrats in Massachusetts. They require you to send your money to insurance companies. Presumably so you will be denied coverage and die.
Change we can believe in. As long as your a wealthy capitalist.
My son knows he is lucky to have a job. It's minimum wage, and part time, but he's been there for over 2 years now, since he was 16. It works well with his college schedule so he won't be leaving until he's ready to find a full time job.
Obama said his policies would keep unemployment under 8%. It has gone higher than that since his policies were enacted. If he didn't want the blame he shouldn't have set unrealistic goals in public.
If it had satyed under 8% or even gone down he'd be taking credit. Would he not?
I understand. Yet, you have to realize it has been 9 months. His policies might not have achieved what Obama has hoped.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bigskydude
Hey .. I'll tell you what.
Go hire a teenager, and then come back in here and tell me about all of what might be Obama's fault.
Kids these days have absolutely no work ethic. They want maximum pay for doing the least possible amount of work. They don't show up ontime, or even at all, or when they do show up, they're on the wireless to their girlfriend or their buddies all day.
Cars, girls, and rap-crap music rules their days ... nevermind trying to work up from the bottom ... the only thing they know is that starting at the top is the order of the day, regardless of whether or not they know what they're doing.
I won't blame Obama, Bush, or Clinton for this ... the blame lays squarely on the parent and no where else.
These guys all want this stuff handed to them on a silver platter, it doesn't make any difference who the President is.
Work ethic is taught in the home.
Exactly. I am a young person but I understand work ethic starts at home. It is not a Bush/Obama deal here at all.
My generation simply lacks responsibility and work ethics.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sanrene
No evidence? The stimulus was supposed to be a shot in the arm for business to start hiring, it was supposed to keep UE under 8%, it was supposed to create 600,000 new jobs by summers end (are we there yet?), is was supposed to creat 3-4 million new jobs by end of 2010.
Tell me gain why we spent another $1 trillion+ that we don't have?
Was it to grow government? Cause that's all it's done. The government rolls are expanding while the private sector is shedding jobs.
No. I agree with you up to a point. This is NOT JUST Obama's fault though. You and several others seem to have an intense hatred for him. Just like how Bushes advisors told him Saddam had weapons and were wrong, same with Obama. They thought the bill would work and as of right now, does not seem like it.
I know plenty of people that work or have worked at Wal MArt. None of them were homeless or hungry. Some of them lived quite nicely.
Anyway, people pay people for services rendered. That's it.
Do you pay the neighbor kid 60K a year to cut your grass or what you deem is appropriate for services rendered?
You show me a budget in which one can live "quite nicely" on 7 dollars an hour!
Obama said unemployment would not go above 8% if we passed his stimulus bill. We passed his bill and it went above 8%.
And jobs won't improve. We are getting ready to go into depression. Unemployment will hit 25-30%. Probably by the end of next year.
China is going to have no choice but to stop buying our debt. The dollar will collapse. As soon as they figure they can survive economically without us. That's getting pretty close.
Interesting, the economy in China, Japan and Germany toook as big a hit as the U.S. last fall. They passed no stimulus and let things sort themselves out. All three are now experiencing positive economic growth. We are doing the same things that got us into this mess in the first place. Somehow it will work this time though. LOLs.
This is what I find. Show me where you get the info that unemployment is projected to reach 25-30% by the end of next year.
Quote:
September 18, 2009
In August, 27 states and the District of Columbia reported over-the-month unemployment rate increases, 16 states registered decreases, and 7 states had no change.
And KMart and Target would come along and offer $4 a hour. Alll the good employess would leave Walmart for more pay. And KMart and Target would make a fortune. This would force WalMart to pay $6 an hour to get the good employees back. That would force KMART to up the salary to $7 and so on.
Of course, WalMart would already know this so they wouldn't lower the wages in the first place.
That is why we don't need minimum wage laws.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DrJoey
Please provide an example of a country where this model has been successful.
You show me a budget in which one can live "quite nicely" on 7 dollars an hour!
Newsflash: a basic job at Wal-mart isn't intended to be used to support a family.
What do you think happens when minimum wage is raised? The price of everything simply goes up offsetting any increase you saw from an increased in minimum wage. Minimum wage jobs are not intended for people to make careers out of.
You just don't get it. We were losing jobs before Obama took office. Open your eyes and stop being negative. That's the problem with people, they blame ,but offer no solutions. Obama offer a package that will put some people back to work. The bill will not fix the problems we face overnight like you want it to. It took many years to get here and it will take many years to recover. If you want to do your part to help USA stop buying goods made in China or Mexico.
The stimulus bill was written by the Apollo Alliance and is mostly payoffs to Democrat supporters. That is why we got almost no stimulative effect what so ever. We were hood winked. Now they want to use a health care reform bill to funnel even more money to their friends.
The CBO says the stimulus will hurt the economy in the long haul, and we definitely got no benefit in the short run. Every time I drive past one of those stupid $3K signs I think about how we could have made better use of $3K.
Wake up and smell the coffee. This government couldn't care less about you or your job. They are in the business of hi-jacking the economy and our way of life. The money they are spending is geared to their own reelection efforts.
One can argue that the wealthiest 1% are already stealing from the rest of us.
What?
Who is stealing from you or from the poor? The reason why people are wealthy is because they... CREATE wealth.
The governments steal wealth through taxes, but if the business stops CREATING wealth (though products or services) forget it, no government will save you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gyconi
The problem with capitalism is that it really is just "corporatism-lite." It's practically the same system just without the involvement with politics. Capitalism, just like corporatism, is based upon a pyramid scheme. It's built upon a lucky few possessing nearly all the wealth, while most have essentially none, so those at the top own everything and practically control society and it's economy.
Those whom you call lucky are either kids or grand kids of the hard workers who created their wealth, or the politicians.
What is your suggestion? That we should rob them of their wealth and give it to you and your kids?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gyconi
And another problem is that capitalism inevitably leads to corporatism. As businesses fail and the market shrinks and condenses down to a few powerful entities that proceed to devour all the available resources, eliminate competitors, monopolize the market, lobby politicians to pass laws that benefit them, and become "too big to fail." It's just the nature of the beast.
Capitalism does have it's problems, but it's still a far better system than socialism.
Ultimately, in socialism there is no incentive to work, to produce or to create anything because you are ultimately graded on a curve.
Equal pay for work hours means that there is no incentive to be the CEO or the doctor, because as a janitor you can make the same money with less headaches.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gyconi
The only real solution to this situation that I see is socialism.
Really, so when are you moving to Cuba? And what makes you think that under socialism everyone will be equal? I am from the former Soviet Union and I can tell you that the elites were always more equal than everyone else.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gyconi
And I would argue that we certainly are underpaid. Productivity has risen over the years while wages have remained relatively stagnate. In other words, Americans are now doing more work for less pay.
You should be grateful you are even employed. Noone owes you any more money. If your labor was truly worth more, you would get paid more. The reason you don't get more money is because you are NOT worth more.
In Capitalistic system, you can create your own company and prove that you are worth more. In socialism, you can whine and cry all you want until ultimately you have no business, your government is your employer and while you make money, your products and services are pure garbage that neither you or anyone else wants to buy.
Talk to Russians who lived there during the 1970-1990's and ask them if given the choice between western (capitalistic) products vs. their own, whose would they buy? Under Socialistic system, the products are more often GARBAGE yet it costs more than the quality product made in a different country.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gyconi
And it's argued that current form of employment is a form of slavery because of the power structure between the worker and his/her boss favors the boss over the worker. The worker has to worry about possibly disappointing or offending his/her boss and may be forced to endure lousy working conditions because their ability to live comfortably is dependent on his/her employment, while the boss doesn't have that concern about offending his/her employees as they can be replaced. Capitalists like to argue that the worker can always leave and find another place to work, but that's not necessarily true. If the worker is living from paycheck to paycheck and just barely able to scrape by, then he/she isn't at all likely to be able to just leave to find another job or move, and if there's little to no other job opportunities available then he/she is trapped in his/her current job.
Why don't you start your own business? Because you have no skills or don't want to take the risk?
Then don't whine and cry that you are worth more. If it's a form a slavery I want you to quit your job as I'm sure there are others who would gladly take it and will be glad to receive even less than what you are paid.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gyconi
And while I agree that the government is oppressive, but let me ask you this, isn't our government less oppressive than many others? You stated that Americans are better paid than others in many other nations, attempting to make capitalism acceptable, so shouldn't the argument that our government is less oppressive or fascist than several others make our government acceptable?
I say no, I don't accept either our government or our corporatist system. Despite the fact that we're not as poor or as oppressed as others. That is not a valid argument for complacency in my eyes. In other words, sure, being punched in the face is better than being shot in the face, but wouldn't you rather not be shot or punched in the face at all?
That's how I see it anyway.
If you feel that current government is oppressive, check out socialistic countries and their governments.
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