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Bottom line is most of us (yes, even most of the dreaded "1%", though I fear what will happen to the 2% if the 1% is taken out as some are demanding) want everyone to have life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Question is how do we get beyond the knee jerk zero sum game arguments, and get back in that direction.
No one, I repeat, no one, is looking to lop off the heads of American aristocracy. How is it possible that someone in the 99% thinks it defensible that someone in the 1% have more income and wealth that hundreds of millions of people combined?! That should make you absolutely livid. Regardless of how well you live, you don't live as well as you could if there were a more equitable distribution of resources. I mean... many cities around the country are returning to unpaved roads because there simply isn't any money to maintain them. There are cities that are shutting down water treatment facilities because there isn't any money to keep them online. Food goes uninspected... people die. America's suicide rate, once one of the lowest is climbing steadily and has been for the last three years... coincidence.. you betcha.. coincident with the escalation of the class war between the haves and the next tier down.
The 1% absolutely do not want everyone to have life, liberty, etc. If they did they wouldn't find it that hard to pay American workers a living wage. More than 50,000 factories have been relocated outside America's borders. Close to 20 million American's have been made obsolete so their former employers can increase their profits. Clearly the only way back is to repatriate American industry with Americans. Unfortunately that is one genie that will not willingly go back into the bottle. The profits that can and are being made by using foreign labor are real and slam dunk any possible tax breaks or other incentive to use American labor. There is no 'carrot' that any sector could offer the 1% that would make them consider going back to the way things used to be. That is why we march. That is why we protest. Only by the threat of mass civil unrest will anything be done to slow the steady transfer of wealth up out of the middle class into the coffers of the wealthy. Slow does not mean "end".
The wealthy will still be very, very wealthy. They will still have their heads. No one wants to "take them out". But no one wants to starve to death because their simply is no one willing to hire an American citizen to do anything in America. It isn't quitel like that, but, almost. Especially for the young. Unemployment in the 16 - 21 age group is 50%!! For African Americans it is 98%. And we are only in the 3rd year of the break-away. I get that you are fine with the way things are, but you are not living the lives that others are. And I don't mean lazy, uneducated or untalented individuals. I am talking about bright, young, rising stars for which this country has absolutely no use except as cannon fodder for the Military Industrial Complex. What other First World country is reorganizing itself this way? Wherever they are there are some young (and old) people protesting there right now.
Willamette Week is doing a "Occupier of the Day," bit on their blog that is rather interesting. They're showing a pretty good cross section of the type of people who are at the protest. Occupier of the Day: Leah Miller
Marching in the streets won't make an owner of a factory decide to site it in the USA. Decisions such as that should primarily be made on their merits. You can't expect a company that's losing money making something here to keep on losing money forever. Eventually, they'll go bankrupt.
Scapegoating is convenient, but if the best decision for the business is to keep, or open, a facility in the US, it will be done. That's true no matter the nationality of the corporate HQ. One fact that has been lost in the misinformation going around is that although , yes, most of your cheap(and sometimes not so cheap) consumer goods are made elsewhere, the US still has the number one or two ranked manufacturing sector in the world, by value of output. In fact, our manufacturing sector is the best performing part of our economy right now. It's future looks bright.
The advantages of moving to China are quickly disappearing. This article has a good read on it:
So uh, march all you want, scapegoat all you want, but if you think that blocking traffic, preventing people from getting to and from work, and taxing the hell out of everyone is the way to increase the numbers of good jobs, you're mistaken.
No one, I repeat, no one, is looking to lop off the heads of American aristocracy. How is it possible that someone in the 99% thinks it defensible that someone in the 1% have more income and wealth that hundreds of millions of people combined?! That should make you absolutely livid. Regardless of how well you live, you don't live as well as you could if there were a more equitable distribution of resources. I mean... many cities around the country are returning to unpaved roads because there simply isn't any money to maintain them. There are cities that are shutting down water treatment facilities because there isn't any money to keep them online. Food goes uninspected... people die. America's suicide rate, once one of the lowest is climbing steadily and has been for the last three years... coincidence.. you betcha.. coincident with the escalation of the class war between the haves and the next tier down.
The 1% absolutely do not want everyone to have life, liberty, etc. If they did they wouldn't find it that hard to pay American workers a living wage. More than 50,000 factories have been relocated outside America's borders. Close to 20 million American's have been made obsolete so their former employers can increase their profits. Clearly the only way back is to repatriate American industry with Americans. Unfortunately that is one genie that will not willingly go back into the bottle. The profits that can and are being made by using foreign labor are real and slam dunk any possible tax breaks or other incentive to use American labor. There is no 'carrot' that any sector could offer the 1% that would make them consider going back to the way things used to be. That is why we march. That is why we protest. Only by the threat of mass civil unrest will anything be done to slow the steady transfer of wealth up out of the middle class into the coffers of the wealthy. Slow does not mean "end".
The wealthy will still be very, very wealthy. They will still have their heads. No one wants to "take them out". But no one wants to starve to death because their simply is no one willing to hire an American citizen to do anything in America. It isn't quitel like that, but, almost. Especially for the young. Unemployment in the 16 - 21 age group is 50%!! For African Americans it is 98%. And we are only in the 3rd year of the break-away. I get that you are fine with the way things are, but you are not living the lives that others are. And I don't mean lazy, uneducated or untalented individuals. I am talking about bright, young, rising stars for which this country has absolutely no use except as cannon fodder for the Military Industrial Complex. What other First World country is reorganizing itself this way? Wherever they are there are some young (and old) people protesting there right now.
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My God, there are so many factual inaccuracies in this post it's sad. Where do you come up with this stuff? The Daily Worker? Saying that someone who makes more money than you doesn't want you to have life or liberty is incendiary, insulting, and ****ing downright wrong. What's next, a good old fashioned pogrom?
I seem to remember you saying you were a musician. Guess what, I could have chosen to work in a profession where I worked part time and had a miniscule chance of making much money. But instead, I worked my butt off while some of my good friends had a great old time (yes, some of them are musicians too). Many times they were barely getting by, but guess who they asked for money when they were short? Me. I gave it to them too, again and again, even though payback always seems to be a few months away.
I finally had enough last year with one of my friends. I found out he was paying another friend back, but not me, even though I had loaned him money way earlier. He told me that the reason he had been paying the other guy was because he didn't think I "needed it."
So I explained to him that every dollar of mine that he has borrowed represents time I put into working for it. While he was smoking weed and playing guitar I was out entertaining some client that I couldn't stand, counting minutes until I could pack the guy in a cab. I was getting home at midnight, getting 5 hours of sleep, and going back to work. He was sleeping until noon. I did what I did so I could make money for my family and my children. I made a choice to sacrifice in order to do it. By taking advantage of me by taking my money and then not paying it back, he was telling me that those hours I worked, that sleep I didn't get, that fun I didn't have, means nothing to him.
I said to him that we both chose our paths, and that I resented, that I do resent anyone thinks that my work and my sweat is worth less than theirs because I've made more money than them. How dare he, or you, think that you have a right to what I worked for simply because you have less? I pay lots in taxes. I pay a lot more than you do I'm sure, yet you claim the "right" to take more from me. Where do you get this "right?"
My God, there are so many factual inaccuracies in this post it's sad. Where do you come up with this stuff? The Daily Worker? Saying that someone who makes more money than you doesn't want you to have life or liberty is incendiary, insulting, and ****ing downright wrong. What's next, a good old fashioned pogrom?
I seem to remember you saying you were a musician. Guess what, I could have chosen to work in a profession where I worked part time and had a miniscule chance of making much money. But instead, I worked my butt off while some of my good friends had a great old time (yes, some of them are musicians too). Many times they were barely getting by, but guess who they asked for money when they were short? Me. I gave it to them too, again and again, even though payback always seems to be a few months away.
I finally had enough last year with one of my friends. I found out he was paying another friend back, but not me, even though I had loaned him money way earlier. He told me that the reason he had been paying the other guy was because he didn't think I "needed it."
So I explained to him that every dollar of mine that he has borrowed represents time I put into working for it. While he was smoking weed and playing guitar I was out entertaining some client that I couldn't stand, counting minutes until I could pack the guy in a cab. I was getting home at midnight, getting 5 hours of sleep, and going back to work. He was sleeping until noon. I did what I did so I could make money for my family and my children. I made a choice to sacrifice in order to do it. By taking advantage of me by taking my money and then not paying it back, he was telling me that those hours I worked, that sleep I didn't get, that fun I didn't have, means nothing to him.
I said to him that we both chose our paths, and that I resented, that I do resent anyone thinks that my work and my sweat is worth less than theirs because I've made more money than them. How dare he, or you, think that you have a right to what I worked for simply because you have less? I pay lots in taxes. I pay a lot more than you do I'm sure, yet you claim the "right" to take more from me. Where do you get this "right?"
This is a pretty good example of someone talking right over someone else's head. You could at least PRETEND to comprehend the discussion.
Marching in the streets won't make an owner of a factory decide to site it in the USA. Decisions such as that should primarily be made on their merits. You can't expect a company that's losing money making something here to keep on losing money forever. Eventually, they'll go bankrupt.
What did factories do before moving to China was possible? What did factories do before they even knew that there was a country called China? Harley-Davidson... you've heard of them... perhaps the most iconic motorcycle builder in the world. They built their brand around America and now they are moving one of their factories to Mexico. They'd move the whole works there if they could but they aren't stupid. The whole "America" thing has them painted into a corner. They'll lose "The Faithful" if they move everything offshore but the shareholders don't care. Harley sells every single bike they make and they aren't cheap. They are hardly close to bankruptcy. Tell me in words of as many syllables as you can manage about the merits of relocating Harley-Davidson manufacturing to Mexico.
Scapegoating is convenient, but if the best decision for the business is to keep, or open, a facility in the US, it will be done. That's true no matter the nationality of the corporate HQ. One fact that has been lost in the misinformation going around is that although , yes, most of your cheap(and sometimes not so cheap) consumer goods are made elsewhere, the US still has the number one or two ranked manufacturing sector in the world, by value of output. In fact, our manufacturing sector is the best performing part of our economy right now. It's future looks bright.
The advantages of moving to China are quickly disappearing. This article has a good read on it:
China isn't the only Third World country on the planet. There is Vietnam, The Phillipines, Sri Lanka to name just a couple. There is Mexico... ... but the American perception is that Mexico is for automotive or industrial manufacturing and Asian countries are for consumer electronics. America's manufacturing has been decimated. I don't care what it looks like, it doesn't look anything like it did, and it isn't sustainable. Well over 50,000 factories have left the country and if you are going to try and argue with a straight face that any entity that has lost 50,000 units of its GDP shoudn't be concerned... ... please don't.
So uh, march all you want, scapegoat all you want, but if you think that blocking traffic, preventing people from getting to and from work, and taxing the hell out of everyone is the way to increase the numbers of good jobs, you're mistaken.
You probably are right... so... what... let's just keep on keeping on? That's how we got here. It only took 25 years for the 1% to double their wealth. The rate at which they are acquiring wealth increases exponentially by the day. 10 years from now you will be concerned, but it will be way too late. It may already be too late to do anything constructive without bloodshed. In ten years it will be too late to do anything constructive without Civil War. I plan to be alive in 10 years. Don't you? Do you really think things are ok as they are?
My God, there are so many factual inaccuracies in this post it's sad. Where do you come up with this stuff? The Daily Worker? Saying that someone who makes more money than you doesn't want you to have life or liberty is incendiary, insulting, and ****ing downright wrong. What's next, a good old fashioned pogrom?
Save the outrage. There is nothing defensible about the economics of this country. Nothing. No other First World country has as wide an income and wealth disparity as this one. It does not have to be this way.
I seem to remember you saying you were a musician. Guess what, I could have chosen to work in a profession where I worked part time and had a miniscule chance of making much money.
I am a musician. Shoot me. You've got a lot of nerve. In none of my posts on this subject have I mentioned that I personally blame anyone for my situation. This isn't about me or you. I guess you missed the post(s) where I mention that I am a Network Engineer with a CCNA pending. Or any of my many other certifications (A+, Network +, MCP) or my more than 20 years in IT or just about the length of time Personal Computers have existed. When I started out working on IBM PC-XT's they didn't even have the job description Desktop Support. Even then if you asked me what I did for a living I would have said "I am a classical musician". That's what I am proud of. That's what gives me (and others) joy. I play an extremely rare instrument at a high level and my hourly wage would make your jaw drop. So much for your opinions on the relative worths of doing something that sounds like playing around vs. real work at something boring. I support the protesters because I have daughters that deserve a chance to make a difference. They are as smart or smarter than I am and that is very, very smart indeed. I hate to break it to you TD but you are not in the 1%. You are not who this is about. Some very nice people who you don't know but take my word for it, they are really cool people (but some are not) and they are getting an extremely raw deal by "The System". They get that you enjoy your position in life but they do not have it the same way and it is NOT because they didn't apply themselves to an MBA program at Sarah Lawrence. They did and they have the debt to prove it. They have no jobs, however. The recruiters are all over in China or India lining up H1B's to do the heavy lifting at the companies these really cool American's would love to get jobs with. So they are angry TD and it's nothing personal but they are going to make a little noise and in the process annoy and inconvenience you a little. For a good cause. If this is successful you too will reap the benefits. I'd bet my house on it.
I really have to laugh at those who are worried about the minor inconvenience of extra commute time for one day.
And who else is chuckling? I was visiting Argentina, a few years back, when the farmers were blockading the roads all over the country. By the end of my trip, I saw barren shelves in the grocery stores, and in one restaurant, no beef, chicken or pork! Suppliers unable to deliver! Fish from a local river that night!
In Bolivia, they do the same thing, road blockades, where, in some cities, even planes couldn't take off, no fuel deliveries.
And remember France when they protested raising the retirement age from 60 to 62. Total chaos!
Can you hear the chuckles from abroad? When they watch our timid protests on CNN, what do they do? Flip the channel!
Two days and no posts?
Has the trendiness aspect of the protest died off already?
You know, in Portlandia, if it's older than two weeks, it's "over".
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