The 1% Gap Continues To Narrow

Padawanbater2

Padawanbater2

Well-Known Member
WeeblesWobbles said:
So how do you express your compassion and empathy? Just curious how you're helping save the world.

And yes, the system sucks when working behind a Hertz customer service counter requires a college degree. Total BS. But the current generation has bought into the game hook, line, and sinker. The economy is screaming for welders, CNC machine tool operators, HVAC, electric utility linemen, etc. They're good jobs that you can raise a family on. The IBEW and many employers will pay for training but there are very few takers, mostly because you need a modicum of high school trigonometry and pshhh...who had time for that, right? Pass the blunt.

I'm in the 1% and nobody gave me shit. I dug ditches and piloted a school bus while I went to night school and learned programming. I've built and sold three tech companies and I've never paid off a politician or made a single buck off the backs of the poor, starving proletariat. There are thousands like me. I know a guy who's as rich as God and he got his start hanging from skyscrapers in a harness washing windows. Went door to door and said he'd do the first job for free to prove his worth. Now he owns the biggest exterior maintenance company in America. And he never passed the 10th grade. Best read guy I've ever met.

Yeah I'm lucky that I was born in the USA and that my parents, who didn't have college degrees or silver spoons to hand out, instilled into me a strong work ethic and a complete lack of victim mentality (which the current generation has in spades).

Quit your bitching and get to work.

PS I've started a small business that hires only vets. What have you done?
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"You're Lazy"

... Yeah, just like I said, I've heard it a million times before.. everyone's just lazy, that's it. If you've already concluded that by looking at the evidence there's no point in discussing it with someone like you.
 
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spandy

Well-Known Member
Padawanbater2 said:
Exactly, just look at the statistics for unemployed/underemployed college graduates in the US. Conservatives would have you believe all of them just earned useless majors like women's studies or liberal arts, I see the meme's all the time. Look at the statistics for homeless veterans, were all those guys "lazy" too?

It's a lack of compassion and sense of empathy for fellow citizens and it's used as tinder by pundits and politicians that get them to hate down and blame poor people for all the worlds problems.
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But what are you doing to better yourself in the here and now? 50% of the country is kicking ass and taking names, why aren't you joining the party?!

I bet your trophy room is full of participation awards, and I bet you have an excuse for every one of them. Always someone else's fault.
 
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WeeblesWobbles

Well-Known Member
Answer the question. How do you personally improve the lot of the downtrodden and unemployed?

No, everyone is not lazy. Huge swaths of highly motivated, hard working, good people don't even get a chance. Billions. Most don't live in the US, though. If they're not lazy, all these unemployed millenial crybabies with their student loan degrees are at least brainwashed. Look around, find something that needs doing, something that will make a difference, and do it. You may make money and you may not, but at least you won't piss away your life bitching about "not fair!"

Start a business. Work hard. Do good deeds. Maybe even give sabbaticals to your employees who have ideas for more good deeds. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Kant and Marx, lol, figures. The two most thoroughly discredited philosophies I can think of, next to Epicureanism. Capitalism, as thoroughly infuriating as it is, has dragged more people out of poverty than any other scheme.

Jobs, not charity. Dignity, not dependency.
 
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WeeblesWobbles

Well-Known Member
I started a biz to employ veterans...making and installing bed-lofting kits for college students who had loan money burning a hole in their pocket. I just capitalized the startup, kicked it off, lent advice, and backed away. They made it succeed. (They paid me back in two years.) They in turn financed another vet who started a vegan food truck. The "Vegan Vets" helped another vet start a sprout business and became his first customer. That failed but they're starting another business--wiser in the ways of the world--doing flood/fire recovery and cleanup. See how it works?

If you're looking for something to do--other than sharpening your saber in preparation for the always-just-out-of-reach revolution--you could look at the plight of the native Americans. They could use a little capitalism on the rez.

If you're going to man the ramparts in the name of social justice and grabbing your fair share, know that those vets will be on the other side. And they're better shots.
 
Rrog

Rrog

Well-Known Member
What do you suggest in the Deep South or the Congo, South America ?

What sort of food truck works when no one has money? Maybe an associates degree would help them? The bottom half of humanity suffers not from laziness
 
Dr Gruber

Dr Gruber

Well-Known Member
spandy said:
However, stealing from successful people wont solve this problem.


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Why doesn't anyone have a problem with the "successful people" stealing from the "bottom half"?
How do you think they got all that money and why does it keep increasing?
 
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spandy

Well-Known Member
Dr Gruber said:
Why doesn't anyone have a problem with the "successful people" stealing from the "bottom half"?
How do you think they got all that money and why does it keep increasing?
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So all successful people stole their way to the top?

Oh thats right...excuses.
 
Uncle Ben

Uncle Ben

Well-Known Member
Dr Gruber said:
Why doesn't anyone have a problem with the "successful people" stealing from the "bottom half"?
How do you think they got all that money and why does it keep increasing?
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You tell me, how do they "steal".

Keep drinking the Kool-Aid kid and don't forget to vote for Burnedout Sanders.
 
Rrog

Rrog

Well-Known Member
You're a good example of a bad human. Twist the reality to make yourself feel better.

Asshole
 
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WeeblesWobbles

Well-Known Member
Rrog said:
What do you suggest in the Deep South or the Congo, South America ?

What sort of food truck works when no one has money? Maybe an associates degree would help them? The bottom half of humanity suffers not from laziness
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It was pretty clear that was addressing Padawan's unemployed college grad "lazy meme" but ok, I'll bite.

You don't get to throw up straw men. Weak. I understand fully well that billions don't have the opportunities that a huge number of Americans piss away. To whit:

WeeblesWobbles said:
<snip>
No, everyone is not lazy. Huge swaths of highly motivated, hard working, good people don't even get a chance. Billions. Most don't live in the US, though.
<snip>
Jobs, not charity. Dignity, not dependency.
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I note that you've left India and China off your list of basket cases--maybe because of the huge strides those countries have made since they embraced various market reforms. When I was a kid I remember going door-to-door collecting for Unicef to fund food shipments to India. And 20M-45M died in the Great Chinese Famine circa 1960. The level playing field and "to each according to their need" didn't work out so well there. Capitalism seems to be a better alternative.

As to that snakepit of corruption, degradation, and ignorance, the DRC: reinstitution of colonial rule is my recommendation. Not those Belgian fucks again, though. Maybe Germany. And before you get in a tizzy, speak to 10 Congolese and ask them what their preference would be.

South America is being destroyed by cult of personality (Venezuela), failed socialism (Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil) and rampant corruption (Venzuela, Brazil, Ecuador...well, most of them). Colombia and Chile are doing a bit better, mostly because they have actual working markets.

As to Africa...tell me how things are going for the Zimbabweans. How is their little experiment in land reform and income redistribution going?

The concentration of wealth is troublesome to me as well. Buffet, Gates, and Zuckerman are giving theirs away as responsibly as they can. Kudos. That's the correct path. Not stealing it and handing it out to corrupt despots in Africa.

I'll ask you the same question: what are you doing about it? Personally, I mean.

If you want to actually do something, look into the 'appropriate technology' movement and microloans. You can accomplish something there. A $50 loan for a peanut huller, rolling water tank, rocket stove, or rope pump can transform a family's or village's future. Look at India's telemedicine initiative and the $1 rural physical exam. Some people wrote the software for that and, gasp!, are making a profit from it. But a lot of rural Indians are getting healthcare for the first time.

It's easy to complain. Harder to put your money where your mouth is.
 
see4

see4

Well-Known Member
spandy said:
But what are you doing to better yourself in the here and now? 50% of the country is kicking ass and taking names, why aren't you joining the party?
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That is an outrageous claim that certainly needs citation to support.

To be exact, you claim that 50% of the United States population, eg. roughly 160,000,000 individuals are, "kicking ass and taking names".

You most definitely need to substantiate that claim.
 
OddBall1st

OddBall1st

Well-Known Member
see4 said:
That is an outrageous claim that certainly needs citation to support.

To be exact, you claim that 50% of the United States population, eg. roughly 160,000,000 individuals are, "kicking ass and taking names".

You most definitely need to substantiate that claim.
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Didn`t more than half this Country re-elect Obama, the greatest president that ever lived ? Is that not kicking ass and taking names ?
 
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WeeblesWobbles

Well-Known Member
Dr Gruber said:
Why doesn't anyone have a problem with the "successful people" stealing from the "bottom half"?
How do you think they got all that money and why does it keep increasing?
Click to expand...
You do understand that capitalism isn't a zero sum game? If I make $1 it doesn't mean someone else lost a dollar. Well, sometimes it does if I steal a sale from a competitor, but it doesn't have to. The money supply inexorably grows as the economy becomes more efficient and productivity increases. The pie should be growing if the economy is healthy.

These guys don't have a secret room where they toss their money up in the air and cackle with glee like Scrooge McDuck. They invest it in municipal bonds to build the schools and make the airports and roads and water distribution systems. They buy the corporate bonds and equities that businesses use to expand their manufacturing and conduct research and development. And they buy the treasury bonds that the Federal govt uses to spend more than it takes in.

Their money grows because they get a return on their investments. They're betting that Chicago will actually pay them back for the $6.8 billion they loaned those thieves to build a sewer system. And for that they get a bit over 4%...$285 million, give or take. It adds up. As Everett Dirkson said, "A billion here and a billion there and pretty soon you're talking real money."

Gates and Jobs didn't steal money from anyone. They made products that improved efficiency and productivity and people wanted to buy them. No one forced you to buy an iPhone or Windows computer and make them rich.
 
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