$50.00 lesson

Message boards : Politics : $50.00 lesson
Message board moderation

To post messages, you must log in.

1 · 2 · 3 · 4 . . . 7 · Next

AuthorMessage
Profile Michael Belanger, W1DGL
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 30 Jul 00
Posts: 1887
Credit: 7,441,278
RAC: 49
United States
Message 1058957 - Posted: 23 Dec 2010, 2:03:29 UTC
Last modified: 23 Dec 2010, 2:04:05 UTC

I recently asked my friends' little girl what she wanted to be when she grows up. She said she wanted to be President of the United States.

Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there. So I asked her, "If you were President, what would be the first thing you would do?" She replied, "I'd give food and houses to all the homeless people!"

Her parents beamed.

"Wow...what a worthy goal," I told her. "But you don't have to wait until you're President to do that. You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and sweep my driveway, and I'll pay you $50. Then I'll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward food and a new house."

She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked me straight in the eye and asked, "Why doesn't the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?"

I said, "Welcome to the Republican Party."

Her parents still aren't speaking to me.
ID: 1058957 · Report as offensive
kittyman Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor
Volunteer tester
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 9 Jul 00
Posts: 51468
Credit: 1,018,363,574
RAC: 1,004
United States
Message 1058974 - Posted: 23 Dec 2010, 2:36:39 UTC - in response to Message 1058957.  

I recently asked my friends' little girl what she wanted to be when she grows up. She said she wanted to be President of the United States.

Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there. So I asked her, "If you were President, what would be the first thing you would do?" She replied, "I'd give food and houses to all the homeless people!"

Her parents beamed.

"Wow...what a worthy goal," I told her. "But you don't have to wait until you're President to do that. You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and sweep my driveway, and I'll pay you $50. Then I'll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward food and a new house."

She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked me straight in the eye and asked, "Why doesn't the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?"

I said, "Welcome to the Republican Party."

Her parents still aren't speaking to me.


Now THAT is a little gurl wise beyond her years.
She SHOULD be president one day.

"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

ID: 1058974 · Report as offensive
Profile Sarge
Volunteer tester

Send message
Joined: 25 Aug 99
Posts: 12273
Credit: 8,569,109
RAC: 79
United States
Message 1058995 - Posted: 23 Dec 2010, 3:48:45 UTC - in response to Message 1058957.  

II said, "Welcome to the Republican Party."

Has nothing to do with the party. Keep thinking that & say hello to more gridlock.
ID: 1058995 · Report as offensive
Profile Es99
Volunteer tester
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 23 Aug 05
Posts: 10874
Credit: 350,402
RAC: 0
Canada
Message 1059004 - Posted: 23 Dec 2010, 4:20:24 UTC - in response to Message 1058957.  
Last modified: 23 Dec 2010, 4:22:00 UTC

I recently asked my friends' little girl what she wanted to be when she grows up. She said she wanted to be President of the United States.

Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there. So I asked her, "If you were President, what would be the first thing you would do?" She replied, "I'd give food and houses to all the homeless people!"

Her parents beamed.

"Wow...what a worthy goal," I told her. "But you don't have to wait until you're President to do that. You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and sweep my driveway, and I'll pay you $50. Then I'll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward food and a new house."

She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked me straight in the eye and asked, "Why doesn't the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?"

I said, "Welcome to the Republican Party."

Her parents still aren't speaking to me.

You probably should have explained at this point that the homeless guy most likely had either a mental illness or a drug or drink problem that led to him being unemployed and homeless. You should have explained that because republicans don't like to pay taxes there aren't enough programs to help him and that because of prejudice no one really wants him working for them.

You should have explained that because of this, even if you found him a home he would most likely have trouble keeping it without some sort of support, meds or treatment for the problems that led to him being homeless in the first place. Of course these programs are usually the first to be cut by people who want tax cuts, those very same people will often blame the homeless guy for his own predicament.
Reality Internet Personality
ID: 1059004 · Report as offensive
kittyman Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor
Volunteer tester
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 9 Jul 00
Posts: 51468
Credit: 1,018,363,574
RAC: 1,004
United States
Message 1059007 - Posted: 23 Dec 2010, 4:32:41 UTC - in response to Message 1059004.  

And with your opinion. everybody on the planet would qualify for welfare.
I have a sickness......
I fight it every day of my life.
But I am not on the dole.

I take my pain and suffering like a man and struggle forth each day.

I piss and moan about it sometimes....but I do prevail.

You may think as much or as little of me as you wish.
It really just slides off my back.
Oh look, there it went.

Yeah, pity the homeless guy.
Who probably had no mental problem other than being gutless and unwilling to get up offa his sorry ass and account for his life.
I realize there are some to whom this does not apply.
I was out of work for almost 3 years after losing my occupation of 18 years.

But every damn day, I got up and looked for a job. At a time when they were few and far between.
God blessed me, and I now have one. At a time when they are again few and far between.

I give my higher power every bit of credit these days.
His saving grace is all that keeps me from being the guy in the gutter.
If it all comes down to it......I will sit in the gutter and pray.
And one day.......
Well....that is the rest of the story.


"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

ID: 1059007 · Report as offensive
Profile Es99
Volunteer tester
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 23 Aug 05
Posts: 10874
Credit: 350,402
RAC: 0
Canada
Message 1059018 - Posted: 23 Dec 2010, 5:48:21 UTC - in response to Message 1059007.  

And with your opinion. everybody on the planet would qualify for welfare.
I have a sickness......
I fight it every day of my life.
But I am not on the dole.

I guess you just haven't hit rock bottom yet.

I take my pain and suffering like a man and struggle forth each day.

I piss and moan about it sometimes....but I do prevail.

You may think as much or as little of me as you wish.
It really just slides off my back.
Oh look, there it went.

Yeah, pity the homeless guy.
Who probably had no mental problem other than being gutless and unwilling to get up offa his sorry ass and account for his life.
I realize there are some to whom this does not apply.
I was out of work for almost 3 years after losing my occupation of 18 years.

But every damn day, I got up and looked for a job. At a time when they were few and far between.
God blessed me, and I now have one. At a time when they are again few and far between.

and I bet for those 3 years there were people who thought you were a lazy worthless bum. Yet didn't you want to take extreme measures against one woman who had been unemployed for only 1 year?

I give my higher power every bit of credit these days.
His saving grace is all that keeps me from being the guy in the gutter.
If it all comes down to it......I will sit in the gutter and pray.
And one day.......
Well....that is the rest of the story.


There for the grace of God.
Reality Internet Personality
ID: 1059018 · Report as offensive
Profile skildude
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 4 Oct 00
Posts: 9541
Credit: 50,759,529
RAC: 60
Yemen
Message 1059098 - Posted: 23 Dec 2010, 14:02:35 UTC - in response to Message 1059092.  

why would milk cost $4 a gallon. Right now its 99 cents because the farmers are over producing. There are several ways to pay $4 a gallon for milk. kill off 3/4 of the cow population(I can't eat that much at one sitting) or have the wholesalers price gouge again. BTW you could always buy Bordens milk. No matter what the store brand cost its always around $3.50 a gallon.

Not to say that Dems haven't had their part in the escalating tax burden but its hard to miss that over 1/2 of the burden simply lies in the Bush tax cuts to the wealthy and additional billions in the decrease in the estate tax. Then we get into the always fun unfunded dual wars that were fought for the last decade and you start to see how some very simple cuts could decrease the burden and make other cutting less drastic. But we needed those wars and the rich, well, they just aren't rich enough are they.


In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope
ID: 1059098 · Report as offensive
Profile Gary Charpentier Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor
Volunteer tester
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 25 Dec 00
Posts: 30608
Credit: 53,134,872
RAC: 32
United States
Message 1059125 - Posted: 23 Dec 2010, 16:24:48 UTC - in response to Message 1059098.  

why would milk cost $4 a gallon. Right now its 99 cents because the farmers are over producing.

I happy for you that you live in a state that doesn't have a milk price board that says milk should be $4 a gallon.


ID: 1059125 · Report as offensive
Profile Es99
Volunteer tester
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 23 Aug 05
Posts: 10874
Credit: 350,402
RAC: 0
Canada
Message 1059129 - Posted: 23 Dec 2010, 16:36:29 UTC - in response to Message 1059092.  
Last modified: 23 Dec 2010, 16:45:35 UTC

The best of humor always includes a bit of truth. What those of you who have responded so far failed to acknowledge is that there are people out there who take handouts in lieu of putting forth the effort to improve their situation. There are some people out there who know if they wait long enough, there will be handouts.

You're talking about the banks right? The ones who got everyone into this mess, then got huge bailouts because they were too big to fail and are now awarding themselves massive Christmas bonuses. Yes, I agree, it's damn shameful.
That's the funny part of this joke. haw haw haw... Some of you get it, some of you don't.

Or some of us 'get it' and think it's pretty stupid.

Now that the 111th congress is over, and they're now claiming to be the "most productive congress since the '60s," we have to ask ourselves, what do they mean, "the most productive?" If "most productive" means they've promised the most stuff to us that they can't possibly pay for by taking even more from us and then giving it back, then, yes, they've been pretty productive.

Isn't it government's job to take stuff from you (taxes) and give it back (services)? I'm a little confused as to your point here.

Now we'll have a republican majority in the house, a democratic majority in the Senate (Ds, Is, and RINOs), and a markist president, things will lock up. Nothing will get done. So, do we call this a failure of government? Or is there going to be a media campaign promoting the idea that the Republicans are just a "party of NO"?

Would this be the same media campaign that has been telling you that you how bad the Obama administration is and tried to tell you that Healthcare for all is a bad idea?

If we look at the last several decades, who's winning? The Democrats or the Republicans? I think it's pretty obvious who's winning. There's no doubt we'll be extending the debt ceiling, yet again, in a couple of months. Before we know it, the debt will be $15T, then $20T, then $25T and on and on... How are we going to pay for this? Well, I tell you one thing, it won't be *only* the rich. We'll pay for it through inflation. Everybody will be paying for it. In the not-too-distant future, we'll be paying $4 for a gallon of milk, then $8, then $20, and then $48 and on and on... All the while, we'll be cheering a "very productive government" as we spiral down into a society where there are tighter individual grips on the economic ladder (less upward mobility) and a super majority of Americans who perpetually believe all the government has to do is raise taxes on the rich a little more and print a little more money to make everything right.

When Bush took power there was almost no deficit. Clinton left your country in a pretty good state financially.
Every company Bush has run he has driven into bankruptcy. He did the same with the US of A when he was running it.
Being president after Bush was always going to be a poisoned chalice because the man made such a huge mess to be cleaned up. I think Obama has done a pretty good job so far.

The Democrats are winning. We are slowly eroding Christan moral values.

What on earth is this statement about? Christian moral values???? You'd have to define them and then explain how they are different from other people's moral values. I seem to remember in the bible that Jesus fellow going on about helping the sick and the poor. These seem to be things you are against. Did the Republicans erode your Christian values? Is that what you are trying to say?
The numbers relying on government to subsist are rising.

Yeah, that's what happens when there are no jobs. Luckily you have a welfare system that will stop things getting as bad for people as it was during the depression.

We are almost totally ignoring the outdated U.S. Constitution. Government employees make twice what their civilian counterparts make.

Isn't that because government employees tend to have unions looking out for them? The low wages of everyone else is a direct consequence of capitalism. An employer will pay the minimum the market will bear to maximise profit. Everyone knows that profit usually comes at the worker's expense because that is often the biggest cost in a company's outgoings and the easiest one to squeeze in hard times. Although I am sure most people will discover that once the economy improves for some reason their wages won't go up. That's the beauty of Capitalism.
We are denegrating the ideas and principles that founded the U.S.

Absolutely, those of us outside are watching the US gradually become a police state where the populace are controlled by fear and propaganda. It's very disturbing to see. You lost so many of your civil liberties under the Bush administration in the name of safety.

We are successfully teaching that individual freedom is bad for society.

Again I agree, you've given up your liberties for the right to low taxes. You fight against the very things that show the measure of a civilised society such as how you take care of the sick and needy. All this so you have the right to shop at Walmart. Something has gone very wrong with America in the last 20 or so years.

And we are creating situations where the people are being fooled into believing they are the ones who are choosing this path.

I think if you took Fox News of the air that would solve a lot of this problem.

So, relax. Enjoy life now. We are moving as fast as we can towards utopia.

And don't worry, the government will take care of you.




No, because you keep voting Republicans in who are just there to line their own pockets and keep the status quo. They just want the poor to stay poor so they can stay rich. They then make you angry at the less fortunate so you won't look behind the curtain and see who the people are who are really screwing up your lives. They use tools like Fox News to stop you seeing the truth and keep you stupid while they run down things such as education so you'll stay ignorant and not question what they do.

Unless your super rich then voting for the Republicans is like turkey's voting for Christmas.
Reality Internet Personality
ID: 1059129 · Report as offensive
Profile Robert Waite
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 23 Oct 07
Posts: 2417
Credit: 18,192,122
RAC: 59
Canada
Message 1059130 - Posted: 23 Dec 2010, 16:41:14 UTC
Last modified: 23 Dec 2010, 16:42:49 UTC

Blah Blah Blah
Republicans, as demonstrated here, care nothing about those worse off than themselves.
"Screw em. It's their own fault they are living under a bridge." seems to be the mantra.
A surprisingly high number of those "useless and lazy" homeless are veterans.
Republicans love the soldier but hate the veteran.
Republicans choose life then support the death penalty.
Republicans, the party of contradiction where Christ is their saviour but if you end up poor it's due to some personal flaw in your own character and are unworthy of help.

Christ, as represented in the bible, was a socialist.
He didn't say "Go forth and amass great wealth."
He said "What you do to the least of my brothers you also do to me."

Merry Christmas

Reposted with offending word removed and my apologies to the mods
I do not fight fascists because I think I can win.
I fight them because they are fascists.
Chris Hedges

A riot is the language of the unheard. -Martin Luther King, Jr.
ID: 1059130 · Report as offensive
Profile Es99
Volunteer tester
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 23 Aug 05
Posts: 10874
Credit: 350,402
RAC: 0
Canada
Message 1059131 - Posted: 23 Dec 2010, 16:43:16 UTC - in response to Message 1059125.  

why would milk cost $4 a gallon. Right now its 99 cents because the farmers are over producing.

I happy for you that you live in a state that doesn't have a milk price board that says milk should be $4 a gallon.


I think you have to decide whether you want to pay people a decent wage or you want to pay 99c for a gallon of milk.

Remember, when you drive prices down the companies have to make savings somewhere to pay for that. Usually it is by cutting jobs or pay. This puts people on welfare which apparently is then their own fault.

..but at least you get cheap milk I guess.
Reality Internet Personality
ID: 1059131 · Report as offensive
Profile skildude
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 4 Oct 00
Posts: 9541
Credit: 50,759,529
RAC: 60
Yemen
Message 1059192 - Posted: 23 Dec 2010, 21:42:47 UTC - in response to Message 1059131.  

just a reply from a few lines up. Gov't employees do NOT make more than their civilian counterparts. In fact they make substantially less. see the chart here
there is no great paying job in Gov't. That is unless you're a gov't contractor for haliburton or Black water.
Which is more dangerous. a food sweetener that is pushed through the FDA quickly and was heavily lobbied for by Nutrasweet. or the FDA official that immediately quit his job at the FDA and started working for Nutrasweet after Aspartame was approved as a food additive. It seems to me that, the Gov't is severely lacking in regulations prohibiting Gov't employees from taking private sector work in something that they personally worked on as a GOV't offical.[/url]


In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope
ID: 1059192 · Report as offensive
Profile skildude
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 4 Oct 00
Posts: 9541
Credit: 50,759,529
RAC: 60
Yemen
Message 1059298 - Posted: 24 Dec 2010, 3:11:53 UTC - in response to Message 1059241.  

what other purpose is a tax than to spend it. reread this wikipedia article pay a little closer attention to article 1 section 8 it specifically mentions that congress is able to tax. Quit worrying about the spending. its all there. next turn off Beck, rush, oreilly and the whole gang and think for yourself. It may hurt at first but you'll feel better in the morning[/url]


In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope
ID: 1059298 · Report as offensive
Profile Gary Charpentier Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor
Volunteer tester
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 25 Dec 00
Posts: 30608
Credit: 53,134,872
RAC: 32
United States
Message 1059301 - Posted: 24 Dec 2010, 3:26:35 UTC - in response to Message 1059192.  

Gov't employees do NOT make more than their civilian counterparts. In fact they make substantially less.

How to lie with statistics.

At the very top end of the scale, government employees make significantly less than the private sector. So much so it skews the entire table. Compare POTUS and the Cabinet with Bill Gates or Warren Buffet.

In the middle layers of Federal Government the employees make significantly more in total compensation than those in the private sector.

At the very bottom rungs the compensation is about equal.

One example, a close friend of mine, worked in a nice Federal Government job. Private sector pay for this job was around $12.50 an hour, no benefits. My friend is now retired and pulling in pensions of just north of $60,000/yr, with benefits, not counting his Social Security from when he was in the private sector. Don't you dare tell me that Federal Government workers get less than private sector.

There is a reason the Federal Government is called sugar bear by its employees.

Now maybe you want to look at the pay for the City of Bell California. Mayor was getting $800K/yr.

Now on average for municipal workers, they might get less than private, but you have to look at total compensation, that includes pension plan and medical. In general government jobs give much better benefits than private sector.

ID: 1059301 · Report as offensive
Profile skildude
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 4 Oct 00
Posts: 9541
Credit: 50,759,529
RAC: 60
Yemen
Message 1059305 - Posted: 24 Dec 2010, 3:36:43 UTC - in response to Message 1059301.  

that city and others in Cali are being questioned about their salary and pensions. That again is california. Remember California, the state that owes so much they make the fed look good.

You also made my point. you claim I lied through statistics. Would you work as a CEO or executive for Gov't salaries. Probably not. However, what we consider excessive in gov't is only the menial jobs. Seems like the Gov't is a bit more equitable towards unions and its laborers than the general populous. Lets also not forget that the Gov't salaries really haven't kept up with the inflation of executive jobs. I recall that executives didnt always cash in on the labor of the masses as they do now. Salary workers were just that and bonuses went to all workers and staff. Not anymore. the first thing after pensions to be cut for working stiffs is the Bonus. It just goes to show how much executives really care about their staff. I recall a saying. A happy worker is a productive worker. Now it's "A fearful worker will do just about anything to keep from getting fired."


In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope
ID: 1059305 · Report as offensive
Profile skildude
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 4 Oct 00
Posts: 9541
Credit: 50,759,529
RAC: 60
Yemen
Message 1059408 - Posted: 24 Dec 2010, 16:12:49 UTC - in response to Message 1059402.  

so you'd like everyone opinion on where to spend tax money. That seems a stretch. so we have elected individuals to take care of that for us. these elected officials are called "representatives" if you have a dictionary handy you can check that word and your find that a representative. Heck lets a dictionary define it for you REPRESENTATIVE

This is certainly a coy wonderful game to make seemingly ignorant statements to detract from what is simple fact.

So now that we know that we elect Representatives to speak on and for our behalf or behest, lets look at how we get to where you want your money spent. Perhaps it has to do with calling your local repesentatives office and filing a complaint about how taxes are spent. Perhaps you give money to any number of Lobbying organization to help influence your Representative. Either way your voice is duly noted. Then you get to see how this really works because Your Representative then has to decide how many voters want his yea or nay vote on a bill. Its that simple.

Pensions are not crushing anything. You take the instance of 1 corrupt city council in California and extract an entire nation as being burdened by it. It's funny how we forget that during the Reagan years corporations were allowed for the first time in history to actually "borrow"(steal is a better word) from their employees pension funds. Needless to say somehow most if not all Corporations failed to pay them back and with all the buying and selling of corporations that has gone on in the last 30 years , pensions disappeared. Not surprising is after all this pension rape, the US gov't gets to step in and guarantee failed pensions from bankrupt or fiscally irresponsible corporations. So you may be partially right. Pensions are a burden on us but only because of corporate malfeasance.
LOL So you do admit to actually being spoon fed nonsense. More like the ministry of Dysinformation. I guess I can stop typing now. Nothing like a giant spoonful of hyperbole and half truths to get the White, republican, palin drooling, talking head, vast right wing, ditto head, non fact checking portion of our society all bent out of shape.
I beg you to actually look beyond your single source information backroad(no super highway on fox). Consider for a minute that when 5 people say the exact same thing on the exact same day that perhaps you are listening to more propaganda. I require more information than from a news source that glosses over the line of news and opinion. fact and fiction. How many times did fox report finding WMD's in Iraq. 100's of times. How many times did they redact or correct the statements when the statements were found to be utter rubbish. No need to check. It was never. No apologies just keep listening because we still think those WMD's are there. don't we?
It certainly looks like the country is crumbling especially when those living in the Ivory towers look down at the people that feed them the money to keep them in their places of power.

We have wage stagnation and decline. we have abundant poverty. we have more people in prisons and jails than any other country in the world except china.

What really gets me is this wage stagnation/decline. real workers are getting paid less and less every year. inflation is at and has been around 3% annual. what happens when employers no long adjust their workers wages to inflation and give them performance pay raise that is at or less than the inflation rate? wage stagnation. We've been doing this for 30 years now. While the wealthy bitch and complain about how they pay to much of their mounting wealth to taxes the common folk are being pressed into paying more and more of their inflation depleted wages for taxes in one form or another. Is it any wonder we are doomed to fail as a society.

what we are dealing with now is no better than what we had a revolution to get out of, no better than what the French dealt with to get out from under the aristocracy. We are in trouble big time just not the way that you think. Perhaps by telling common folks that its not the wealthy peoples fault that country is in a bind but more the impoverished multitude. Maybe if they weren't so lazy and so unlike us(who are we kidding they'll never be like the wealthy) then the country would be better off.

Its amazing that in 1980 my friend was a carpenter making $16/hour in a non union job. in 2010 they now make $12/hour and the only guy that speaks English is the job foreman. Why have the wages dropped $4/hour when it should have gone up to $20-@24/hour. Why have housing costs skyrocketed in lieu of the very cheap labor? I think you know the answers. You just need time to think.

Sorry THINK

Its so much more enlightening than verbatim regurgitation


In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope
ID: 1059408 · Report as offensive
1 · 2 · 3 · 4 . . . 7 · Next

Message boards : Politics : $50.00 lesson


 
©2024 University of California
 
SETI@home and Astropulse are funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, NASA, and donations from SETI@home volunteers. AstroPulse is funded in part by the NSF through grant AST-0307956.