Topic: Destruction (Read 2598 times)

How is your effort to speak in BE1500 going?

I haven't touched a thesaurus in a long time. My language is fine. You don't prefer it but it's fine.

Maybe plus a thesaurus

OWS are protesting against:
1. Income disparity. Wages have been stagnant for decades. Productivity has risen but the benefits are all going to the top 1% who have had a 300% increase in pay.
2. Tax disparity. See: Warren Buffett.
3. The GFC. Banks gave out stupid loans, sold those loans to 401(k) funds, bet against them, and then took money from the government. The bankers made bank but everyone else got fucked by a trifecta: 401(k)s tanked, shitty economy, and an increased future tax burden.
4. Wealth disparity. See #1. Worse, since no one in the middle or working class has money, the economy is shit because no one can buy anything. Meanwhile the rich are investing but the consumer economy - the driving force behind the US - is weak.
5. Education. You'll find this one out in a few years. The minimum wage has DECREASED but education costs have increased at double the rate of inflation. Remember how people would "work their way through school?" Students cannot pay for school while they study any more. Worse, students loans are enforced by the federal government and not discharged by bankruptcy. Get $70k in debt from a school, find a $30k/year job, eat ramen every night for 20 years. If you can find a job that is! See: http://consumerist.com/studentloanscheme2.jpg
6. "Job creators." There's a lot of bullshit spouted about these mythical people and how we should cut their taxes...except taxes are LOW and there are no jobs. So we need to cut them more! (If we're crazy.)

The "1%" is shorthand for all that.

Why are they so pissed? Why are they occupying cities and will stay even through NYC's harsh winter? Because their votes mean nothing: Obama was a fraud who supports the banks and the only senator who is saying a damn thing about the situation is Bernie Sanders. One guy in 535.

Incidentally, how many "technicians" or scientists are in the top 1%? Exactly none.


PS I love the phrase "a farce of crocodile tears and envy." How can something so original sound so hackneyed? Are all of your posts constructed using Markov chains and romance novels?

Forgive me I only see OWS going on about the 1%.

Who were you talking about?

I did. I understand the whole paradigm. It has nothing to do with this thread. People are arguing against the "1%". I just want to refute that specifically. If you don't believe such a contention exists, so be it.

Read the article I linked please.  And then you will see why people angry about those issues want to occupy Wall Street. 

As I said, I don't agree with them but I don't see the need to fictionalise their anger either.

I am not questioning there are elites unscrupulously earning wealth through government force and the central banking cartel. I am only saying the 1% in the tax code aren't the people we want to hold accountable.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/owss-beef-wall-street-isnt-winning-its-cheating-20111025

Money quote:
"And we hate the rich? Come on. Success is the national religion, and almost everyone is a believer. Americans love winners.  But that's just the problem. These guys on Wall Street are not winning – they're cheating. And as much as we love the self-made success story, we hate the cheater that much more.

In this country, we cheer for people who hit their own home runs – not shortcut-chasing juicers like Bonds and McGwire, Blankfein and Dimon."

Please read the article and stop being so stupid.  No one cares about doctors - they care about being ripped off.

By the way, I disagree with OWS.  But at least I have the sense to disagree with their stance - not some straw man I invented.

This reminds me of a comic of a mental patient wearing a Napolean costume telling the doctors he doesn't belong with all the crazy people.

This reminds me of a comic of a protester holding a sign while a hobo was pulling on his shirt asking for his iPad.

I am not. The movement is calling for the 1% to sacrifice more of their wages. That includes doctors.

Your latter statement is not within the context of the discussion.

Most of the people who call themselves the 99% are still in the top 1% globally.

By their own logic, they should withdraw most of their savings and donate them to slum dwellers in Africa.

You are avoiding the point.  No-one is demonstrating outside hospitals demanding that doctors be fired.  The demonstration is against subsidised institutions like banks.

Don't take my word for it. Look at the tax records. It's mostly doctors followed by people with valuable skills. The whole idea that the true wealthy elite are sitting in this taxable category is a myth; pure red-herring propaganda.

I am not. I am against taxation entirely. The system does need to change. However, we are not talking about banks nor businesses. We are talking about ordinary people like you and me that are currently being demonized by society for the value they provide.

The vast majority of people being subsidized are not in the 1%. They are in a group that is off-the-record, that does not allow their wealth to be shown publicly. The public, accountable 1% are just ordinary, highly-skilled people; not bankers and certainly not corporate accounts.

He's seventeen and he has a Just World complex.  Remember that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people.  The reason poor people are poor is because they're lazy thieves, while the billionaires are all incredibly hardworking geniuses who got where they are because of the sweat of their brow and their desire.

You think there are doctors scientists and techniicians in the 1%?  LOLZ.

The vast majority of the people being subsidised are in the 1%.  The argument is very simple.  If a select group in society is getting huge subventions from the taxpayer, then unless they are doing something to earn that money, the system needs to change.  Currently banks are sitting on a taxpayer guarantee that is worth trillions to them.  New players cannot enter the market as the guarantee only applies to those "too big to fail."

Do you think this is fair?  Are you happy to see your tax money spent on that?

If doctors don't receive their required value, they won't work. The bankers are irrelevant in this equation. Very few of the recorded "1%" are financial profiteers. They are mostly specialists. Why should they punished for the mistakes of others? Why should they be forced to subsidize?