Yea, it is bullying but, it is also bullying for you and I to be forced to pay for children not our own. If they are given the option of reversible surgery if their situation changes then there is fairness, yes/no? You might as well know I advocate parental licensing. Even if you have money, you might suck as a parent. No I am not the best parent. I see that a good portion of problems are breeding and breeding and more breeding. Might be another thread so I will stop.
I agree that the word entitlement is thrown around but, in certain cases it is apt. Our home has always been open to friends in need, this includes our son’s friends. Several were on government benefits that amounted to more than what we made. I did not know this bit of info until later. We fed and sheltered them so that they could save money. When I found out these young people made more money, I went to each and asked why not work, they all answered its easier and they make more money. I asked how they felt about sponging off us. Well aparently we are good people doing the morally right thing. I asked to get a hundred dollars from each. Did not get it. They disappeared after saying sure. My kid wrote them off This is entitlement attitude that I speak of.
Cities and states would use the people getting the money, public maintenance work is sorely understaffed. Street cleaning etc. How will that affect the system except for good? I know I have not adressed all your points, I will ASAP.Ok? You are one of the best here.
A compromise, If a person has A million today leave the capital alone and increase tax on future profit. Taxed is based per half mil. annual. Or if you really want to grab half that capital allow them to choose its charitable federal State application. Do not give to the feds or state carte Blanche.
When through the acquisition of that capital they make the majority of citizens charity cases, then why not just use the govt’s infrastructure to hand out the money? I mean, most money that goes to “charity” really just gets looped back around to another rich person. Like one of my old landlords. She was “retired” and all her work was for “charity” and somehow she was making nearly 6 figures. But you know it costs a lot to set up a few soup lines I guess. Those intelligent business people probably know more about it than me I’m sure. I mean hell, having lots of money is a sign of doing things right…right?
Well there could be some outside control, Sorry I thought that was implied.
Having lots of money is a sign of doing things right-for having lots of money. It’s more goal oriented than moral.
If you listen to the right wing, they’ve been screaming “no regulation” for decades. When Ronald Reagan became president, for the first time ever, minimum wage could no longer rent the average apartment. Think about the impact that that has on the poorest working people there are.
The whole, “small government no regulation get out of our lives no taxes free-market you don’t have to buy it everything is voluntary” attitude comes directly from Ayn Rand’s crazy books. All the radical republicans read it and think that it’s philosophy. They base their understanding of economics and the morals of owing people money and all that on her ideas. She’s basically misinterpreting Nietzsche and applying him to a strictly economic context and telling people they all need to be “rationally self interested”, and that everyone doing what’s best for them is going to be what makes the world best for everyone.
Alan Greenspan was a fan of her and as the fed chairman he’s the one who did all the wall street deregulation that led to the biggest robbery of all time and the largest consolidation of wealth in the history of the US and the highest unemployment, poverty and food stamp rolls ever.
Then they tell all the poor starving people that they’re poor and starving because they don’t slave hard enough.
Then they get on their yachts and leave thinking, “hey the world is a nasty place sometimes people just suffer, that’s nature I couldn’t change it, there’s nothing wrong with what I"m doing anyone else would so it to”.
But they’re wrong. It is their fault.
We have weight classes in sports for a reason. Because it’s not a fair competition when the other guy has 100x the resources that you do.
And you can tell me he earned those resources working in the gym and eating right, but it’s still not fair to make a little guy fight him.
I am not for either party, they both suck and are in bed naked together laughing at everyone. Too much giving is just as bad as too much taking. Too much giving up and force against a legal group is wrong. Creating jealous attitude is wrong. You have lived rough as have I, I still do when shit hits the fan. The system is broke but, so are attitudes. Greed is coming from both ends.
I agree. But one side is advocating for money to be concentrated in the hands of a few at the expense of the many. The other side is advocating for the many at the expense of the few. We all know most money is made through trickery or something. Like the other day when the burger patties I usually buy which are normally 2.99 each were marked down to 2.49. I thought it was a deal but they were smaller. I noticed later. Go figure the grocery store would be using trickery to hold out on a little of the burger or make me think I should buy 2 while they’re on sale when they’re not even on sale they’re just smaller. It’s everywhere. In the end I’d rather be with the many than the few and the no regulation-small government-we earned it-lower taxes crowd are the ones who are making most people poor. Since most people I know are poor, I can’t feel right advocating for the right.
One of the classes that was required when I went to school was business ed. It taught us to pay attention to the fine print, costs , etc etc. I know what you are talking about I encounter it all the time. I learned in that class to check before purchasing what maybe a sale. That has been around since before, oh hell its as old as prostitution. Buyer beware. Its not a scam as such, it is knowing you are not going to actually stop and compare. I guarantee the weight and the price were acurate, you just saw the words sale, discount etc. You did not examine, its like carnivorous plants. If a stranger knocks on your door saying you won a million bucks, would you invite them in?
I’m saying that the buyer should beware sure, but that doesn’t justify the jungle of shit a normal person has to go through to secure the things they need. There’s a difference between fine print, and fine print that’s designed to be deceptive. Businesses have more freedom in America than any other place in the world and they’ve shown themselves to be grossly irresponsible with it. Not to mention the fact that they scream for more and act like their freedom is being infringed upon when you suggest that maybe they not be such cut throats.
You know the guys who own the 2nd biggest private company in America have been for decades trying to fund legislation and buy senators to block almost every environmental bill that comes through. It also happens to be the case that they are the largest polluter in the world. They say, “get rid of all these government agencies and regulations and cut all this pork and lower our taxes”. What they mean is “defund the epa so that we can pollute all we want because that’s what’s most profitable for us”. Since they couldn’t get rid of the epa altogether, they lobby for fines to be set at certain prices. Then say each time they pollute they make a million bucks, but they only get caught every 10th time. So if the fine is less than a million bucks then that’s perfect. They can still pollute and make more money and the fine doesn’t matter.
They love it. They want people to be ignorant of all these facts. They love hearing the poor people that they oppress recite the values they use to oppress them. David Koch thinks it’s hilarious when a factory worker with a poor family, out of racism and the sterotype that minorites are on welfare, defend the small government, earn it yourself, support your boss line. They love it. Trained sheep advocating against their own interests.
There’s a big difference between the government telling you how to live your life and them telling a corporation how to interact with consumers. A big difference. The freedom to bottle all the water on earth and sell it is not the same as the freedom to teach your child what to believe.
And who is to blame for all of that? We are. We are lazy We know but, we prefer to pass the buck. You want to stop that shit, stop buying it. That poor homeless person is there because they buy into hype. You want to blame the corporate but, it is us that have spend our money while bitching. Your neighbors need meat too right? So go to a butcher together pool your money and get more meat for the money. . No one will stop making obscene prices until the attitudes change. If you stop this group by certain laws another will find another way. You, me and joe blow need to quit bitching and stop buying into crap.
Buy they’re the ones selling it. I’m saying let’s stop letting so much crap be sold that we can’t breathe except to be slaves or to break the law. There ought to be a way to own a house and a car for an honest living. I’m not talking about the homeless per se, although they are the worst case scenario of the result of all this. But what about honest people who want a car and a house and to own it? How do you propose a 20-30 something or hell…anyone buy a house? Like own it? Like the bank not really own it?
Do you want the govt to own and sell land, cars, food, ,the basics?
I don’t want one small group of unelected private businessmen to control more resources than the people or to be able to lie and use loopholes to not pay for the society that supports them being able to live the way they do. I want people in general to give some and to take some and when a small percentage of the people have such an overwhelming majority of the wealth the debate isn’t about hypotheticals and philosophy really anymore. I think it’s criminal.
my friend, the majority of all wealth is in the hands of the poor, there is just no cooperation, no education so it seems that there is nothing. The poor can cooperate and pool resources but, that will never never happen, greed is easier.
The above was my last post on this for the night, I am being afflicted by a buzz and fatigue.
I’m pretty sure that a small minority of rich people control the vast majority of the nation’s wealth.
No, pool the sides together. middle to lowest class, then upper middle to wealthiest, we outweigh them in money and power. How many people do you know that do what the wealthy do and pool resources and work together to make more for themselves?
There is little to no cooperation, remember the story of nail soup?
Here.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:U.S._ … ,_2007.jpg
This is like the shit that led up to the French Revolution. As soon as I hear a motherfucker yell for me to eat cake it’s over.
Thank you for noticing 
A quick google search exposes the richest 5% of Americans in 2007 owning nearly 2/3 of US wealth (oh, Smears got in there as I was writing this). So what was that again about “the majority of all wealth is in the hands of the poor”, Kris? And this link http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33433.pdf will show that 2010 inequality has gotten even more extreme. Worldwide is probably even worse: even though much of Europe has a Gini coefficient that indicates more equality than the U.S. there are many countries much less equal.
An artifact of the individualism of Capitalism is the kind of distrust that we see in Western countries - everything is supposed to have a price (charity is very much the exception, and even then as Smears says it usually ends up in the hands of the rich minority) and we are supposed to be at odds with and competiting with our neighbour. Tight financial circumstances feed on humanity’s seemingly natural loss aversion - with so much to lose relative to what there is to gain, we are even more suspicious of one another than we would be if we all felt a little richer. An analogy akin to this tendency in the western economic system, in the human physiological system is cancer.
Social division from intense inequality serves to remove us from the lives of the rich, and the rich can further afford to separate their lives from the vast majority. This breeds a lack of sympathy, and also turns the masses against one another, because that is all they are exposed to. You are testament to all of these phenomena, Kris, in your accusation “of the self” and of those much closer to you economically speaking. It’s a natural and easy mentality to fall into, so it’s unsurprising how popular it is - though wrong.
Your anecdote about people on government benefits having a higher income than many in work is also not uncommon. I heard about a potential new employee at my own workplace who turned down the position on account of his income being higher on benefits.
This can be looked at in 2 ways:
benefits are too high, or wages are too low.
Somehow most people see benefits as something we can easily alter, yet wages seem so much more comparatively inflexible and rigid. Perhaps our perception of our political rights is that they seem much greater than our economic rights - we can lobby and vote for government changes 10 times before we dare to ask for a payrise. Why? Wages are often far too low - mostly in the name of Capitalist “entitlement” to a certain level of profits, rather than profits at all. Sure, many smaller businesses and some struggling larger businesses are barely breaking even - but then that just shows the market does not need their services. Most established businesses consider high profits falling below a certain threshold as a loss and a failure by their employees. It’s ridiculous - and the wealth statistics with which I began this post illustrate this ridiculous situation more than adequately.
I suggest you look more into these facts to help you come to an improved perspective on this whole issue. I leave you with a comparison with a recently high profile issue regarding girls not inviting sexual assault no matter what they wear - it is entirely the perpetrator’s fault if they succumb to any temptation to abuse their victim on account of their appearance. Not that financial destitution is anywhere near as bad as how I imagine rape to be, but it is likewise NOT the fault of someone who is scammed or abused by a “shrewd” businessman, because they buy $1 pens for $5 or $100,000 houses for $500,000 for whatever reason.