Topic: I am the 53% - page 2. (Read 3687 times)

Neat graph. It doesn't seem to fit me. And you know what. It is not supposed to fit any body.

Taking my example as a real world use case, I started working just before 1980 way below the bottom line. I was working part time at McDonald's making $3.15 an hour. Then I took a job with the same wage but more hours at a grocery store. I did part-time work as a photographer. (No company, just me) Then I worked in a Target using my photography skills to sell cameras. While doing that I taught myself about computers. Then I invented a better job teaching a small business how to use them. But really I'm too lazy for that kind of work so I went to the university. I had no money and there was a recession so I took out loans to get a degree in computer science. I could have gotten a lamer degree with much less work. I know, I had lots of roommates. But I decided not to throw my money away. After school, I got a better job and paid back my loans. After that a better one. Then a better one because my skills kept growing. So after 30 years I fall between the top two lines.

I'm not exactly Steve Jobs, but then again I didn't re-invent several industries either.

Now, if I was still working the grill at McDonald's doing the same damn thing I was doing 30 years ago, I'd be making about $7.25/hr. That would be more than a 100% increase over those 30 years. Now of course you'll claim that 100% increase hardly matches inflation. Shouldn't I have gotten much better raises over time having 30 years of burger flipping experience. Clearly, after 30 years my burger flipping skills are way more valuable than those of a high schooler starting his first job.

I can only reply, No. Indeed they wouldn't be. I was a pretty fucking good burger flipper. There was very little room for improvement in my burger flipping skills. If I was still doing exactly the same thing, it would be worth exactly what it is worth today. But at least the job would be easier. I watch them, their equipment is way better now.

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Feel free to tell your own tail if you wish.

47% PAY NO TAXES!!!_{(except payroll taxes, state taxes, local taxes, sales taxes, gas taxes, school taxes, property taxes, and utility taxes)}

Wages have only gone up for the upper quintiles

Woot! Another tax payer! If only we were 99% tax payers!



As someone whose worked for more than 30 years. Salaries have gone up. I started working for the minimum wage of $3.15 an hour. I was ecstatic when it went to $3.25.



I'm not anti-99%. But clearly I have no idea what the OWS people are asking for. Except to be in charge. I'm not in favor of that.

If they want to be in charge, they should build an alternative to banks, or wall street, or whatever. As a famous queen once said, "Let them eat Bitcoins."

I have had jobs and payed taxes since I was 13 all the way until now in my mid 20s. I am the 53%.


I will also likely work until the day I die, since the 1% have taken away all social safety nets, lobbied for lower taxes on themselves and higher taxes on me, and increased the price of goods while never upping wages for me and the rest of the 99% over the last 30 years.


I am the 53% and still very much the 99%.

It's been circulating, it's not by me ofc.

The post seems to be deleted by now but it was there (URL is in the picture), I verified myself.

It seems here is the source: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/10/15/1026620/-We-Are-the-53-is-Using-Fake-Images

That is the funniest thing I've seen all day.  Nice trick.

Neat, but I must have missed that original pict. Is there a full scale meme? The article was the first I heard.

@herzmeister That's bloody brilliant. 

I'm not arguing that people *must* make minimum wage and not receive insurance. I've been pretty clear about that.

It also seem pretty clear that Costco is on the ascendancy and Sam's in stagnating. I don't know the cause, but most likely it is related to stupid employees at all levels. (Sometimes a brilliant founder dies and leaves the place to idiots.) I imagine Costco employees would be highly offended by your comparing them to Sam's employees. Similar job descriptions do not similar people make.

If Costco hirers better people, pays better salaries and out competes Sam's... Yay verily! That is a vote for innovation.
If they hire the same people, pay more and go bankrupt... Well that would be less clever.

For the record. I'm in favor of the former not the latter.

Sam's Club is failing like Wal-Mart in general. Wal-Mart's management needs to be updated. It goes to show that paying your employees better can lead to greater profits.

I've honestly never shopped at either, but Sam's and Costco have been direct competitors for many years according to every article I ever read.

Costco is just more customer-oriented and hires better employees. Sam's Club and Costco differ in terms of markets. Costco happens to be more profitable.

You can give your workers a living wage without tripling your prices. Costco employees average $17 an hour and get health insurance, yet somehow they still manage to successfully compete with Sam's Club.

They are useful and compensated for their utility.

Do I want to pay $10 for a Big Mac. No. Will I pay $10 for a Big Mac. No. Will McDonald's replace all those folks with a fascinating Krispy Kreme Machine before they ask me to pay $10 for a Big Mac. Well, they had better or they'll be shit out of luck.

Will I shed a tear that people can't burn their hands on McDonald's grills like I used to? Not a single one.
But I will marvel at the work of the engineers!

Not me, I'm down with the 99%. The republicans were quick to bring up the specter of "class warfare".  I say bring the rain.

Oh, okay. The guys who serve you at basically every business you patronize aren't lazy - just useless, and are best compared to a stereotype of a '60s hippie that you dredged up and dusted off just now. Thanks for the clarification, Nixon.

Ask the prick. He will tell you it's not about laziness. Its about usefulness.

Hippies that weave baskets work pretty hard at it. Even if they are stoned while doing it. But that doesn't mean I have to give a crap they made a basket. I prefer buckets.

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Throws bucket at Hawker!

Proudly pinheaded fat white guys like the one pictured in the article taught me that people who work two minimum wage jobs for 80 hours a week and STILL don't make enough to pay taxes are the laziest pricks in the world.