 March 5, 2014 - 2:26pm | Hhmm.. The Dec of Independ. says we have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Obama just announced that the minimum wage should be raised because people who work full time should not live in poverty. That actually sounded like he was making it a right. Its interesting that there is a qualification on that: working full time but what if you company doesn't let you work full time and you average 32-35 hours? And there are a lot of reasons for poverty and raising the minimum wage will not fix. I can remember a family that won the lottery up in Maine and a year latter after the husband and wife had already quit their decent paying jobs they were broke and having a tough time finding work. Should someone who wins the lottery live in poverty? Probably not but they can end up there through their "pursuit of happiness" as they make choices that lead to poverty. The same is likely just as true for poeple who have not won the lottery but work for a minimum wage. Will we legistlate away poverty? I suspect that the above minimum wage position I hold along with the 3 raises I've had in 4 years will not mean much when the minimum is suddenly raised to within a quarter or two of what I make. And since my company employs a host of workers that make less then me the massive wack to the payroll is not going to put them in the mood to raise my wage to keep pace so I'll suddenly become a minimum wage worker with little prospect for advancement. Clearly my company will need to raise its rates on catering and I expect that to dry up some of our business. and what about all the contracts we have with the state? Will the sudden increase jephardize those contracts. From a social standpoint I'm sure that raising the minimum wage sounds like a good idea but i rather suspect that its going to have a lot of negatives that impact everyone's life. And since tipping has not returned to what it was before O'bama was President this move is sure to dry up tips even further. I suppose this is what we get for electing a known socialist to the oval office. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 March 5, 2014 - 4:15pm | What galls me is how the unions rallied to the McDonald's workers' rights to $15/hour when their own dues paying employees don't even make that much working in gourmet rooms. Because, you know, a burger flipper that mans the automated burger press should definitely make more than a wine steward or a broiler cook. |
 March 5, 2014 - 5:07pm | I think the minimum wage should never be more than what soldiers make. For that matter, the politicians shouldn't make more than the soldiers either... |
March 5, 2014 - 5:08pm | @ Shadow I suspect its because he's been a long time socialist and this is actually about leveling the lower and the middle class. Apparently the founders didn't realize that people have the right to an outcome not simply the right to opportunity. Affordable Health Care and the right to not live in poverty simply because you work 40 hours. This is attempting to enforce outcomes instead of opportunity. Opportunity is the responsibility of the individual to do something with it but outcome strips responsibility making the government responsible for you poor little baby that you are you need the government to mind you and take care of you. We are witnessing the fall of the American Empire in another generation the barbarians will be at the gates. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
March 5, 2014 - 5:13pm | I think the minimum wage should never be more than what soldiers make. For that matter, the politicians shouldn't make more than the soldiers either... I remember my father, who was military, griping about congress passing a bill that attached their pay raises to the military so that if the military got a pay raise so did Congress (This was back in the 70s or 80s that I remember him going on about this- not sure exactly when just remember that I was young.) Saddly if they didn't make good money the temptation to listen to special interest would be higher? scratch that they already care more for their campaign coffers. Perhaps you're right they should not make more than the military then going into government might be more about serving you country. Or better yet you have to first serve in the military before running for Congress. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 March 5, 2014 - 7:04pm | Or better yet you have to first serve in the military before running for Congress.
Service guarantees citizenship. Would you like to know more? Movie reference aside, it would be nice if there was a system in place that held leaders to a higher standard. For that to happen though, we'd probably need to start with voters that think rather than allowing themselves to be guided by the sound bite of the day. |
March 5, 2014 - 7:30pm | Or better yet you have to first serve in the military before running for Congress.
Service guarantees citizenship. Would you like to know more? Movie reference aside, it would be nice if there was a system in place that held leaders to a higher standard. For that to happen though, we'd probably need to start with voters that think rather than allowing themselves to be guided by the sound bite of the day. Sound bites are better when Johny cant read. or think for that matter. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 March 6, 2014 - 1:16am | Personally, I would like to require that all politicians must get a colonoscopy so we can see the faces of those who we elect, and to get miniature audio/visual installed in their colons so they can know what is going around them. The lottery example is not the best analogy. It is basically about some people who acquired a huge windfall through a jackpot and they thought they could live off of it, but end they got greedy and end up pissing it all away. The increase to one's wage is not like winning the lottery - one still have to work to maintain one's wages. It is not unusual for people who got a sudden boost to their income to live beyond their means, but after dealing with creditors and the like, they learn not to make the same mistake again. Most folks know that the $10/hour or so minimum wage Obama proposes is by no means a huge windfall nor a jackpot, as that amount of money only goes so far. I do not have any issue with a rise to the minimum wage, as it: 1) deals with the longstanding stagnate wages vs. increased worker productivity; 2) provides better wages to deal with the ever increasing cost of living; 3) provide more disposable income to help boost our economy; 4) boost wages to seasoned workers, who would demand more then entry-level pay; 5) will not hurt big business (but they will still whine and bitch about it!); and 6) will make a ton of assholes whine bitch and moan with childish and exaggerated hyperbole, which fills my heart with much delight and schadenfreude. I live in a right-to-work state with a ton of shitty, dead-end hire-n-fire gigs, so I have little sympathy for stingy-ass bosses. |
 March 6, 2014 - 4:03am | You have the right to Life.... Which is this day and age means having affordable health care coverage, which means America should have some kind of national health care coverage, which means after 238 years America has finally gotten around to at least attempting that one, so give the government a little more time with the happiness one. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
March 6, 2014 - 4:42am | I was not equating the increase in minimum wage to a lottery windfall simply using it to point out that poverty is about choices regardless of the ammount of money you have. You have the right to pursue happiness and if smoking makes you happy then have at it but damn the cost of that could make a poor family rich if it was saved for retirement over 30 years it would ammount to a huge nest egg. Though I suspect that most people who quit dont actually save that money. To a certain extent life happens and knocks some people down but I believe a lot of people in poverty are there from decision making. For the government to decide to guarrentee outcomes is rediculous, it cant and its doomed to failure if it tries. But saddly we have a President that is in the final quarter of his game and he has to think about his legacy and with this one that means some sweeping social change so that his legacy is not simply the first black pres. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 March 6, 2014 - 9:12am | Of course the 'unintended consequence' of raising the min. wage is that it will cause more unemplyment and higher prices on goods and services - most notably, food. All of that will impact the poor and middle-class in huge ways. I say 'unitended' knowing full-well that there is nothing unintended about it. The politicians, particularly those in power right now, hold to the philosophy that if someone is destitute, they will vote for the guy promising more handouts. It's by design that leftism creates poverty and, in essence, slavery and destroys wealth and freedom. Similarly, Obamacare was NEVER about health insurance for all as it has become abundantly clear that currently 5-6 million have lost their insurance and (supposedly) 4 million have gotten insurance - a net loss of 1-2 million people insured under this new law so far. That is assuming that the 4 million that the Governemt says have used the system to get insured have actually done that. As it seems that the reality of the situation is that a hefty percentage of that 4 million have never completed the process and are in fact, not actually insured. Indeed, Obamacare was all about getting the government's nose under the tent as it where, so that they can gain more control over our lives by having access to more information on each and every one of us - not to mention having the ability to withhold medical treatment for whatever reason they deem appropriate. Way back in the 1920's & 30's the German leadership understood that if the government controlled education, firearm ownership, healthcare and banking instuitutions then they controlled the people. I am amazed that the current political positions of the left in this country closely mirror that of Germany prior to WWII. But what surprises me most is that people in this country are too blind to see it and seem to be happy as clams to vote their freedom away. I don't have to outrun that nasty beast my friend...I just have to outrun you!  |
March 6, 2014 - 1:12pm | An issue I have with all this is not so much entry-level workers getting big pay raise, but how workers in general - I mean people with years of experience and/or those who had to get a degree to do what they do - have not been benefiting from the economic expansion of the past few decades. Despite the fact that supply-side economics has been a dominant economic force in the U.S. since the '80s, where there has been lot of record corporate profits since the '90s, but there has not been any significant trickle-down all throughout! And yet we our supposed to venerate and put trust in our great corporate benefactors? BULL$#%&!!! If someone has a better idea that would benefit the most people, them I'm all ears. Pardon if I'm a little skeptical about new, untested economic theories - especially ones that like to coin the sort of weird Newspeak that you get from liberal pinkos like Frank Luntz. |
March 6, 2014 - 4:17pm | Movie reference aside, it would be nice if there was a system in place that held leaders to a higher standard. For that to happen though, we'd probably need to start with voters that think rather than allowing themselves to be guided by the sound bite of the day.
ANd therein lies the catch. THe system is in place, called "voting". The problem is the average person is too ignorant to think for themselves so they pull the trigger for whoever they're told to vote for. |
March 7, 2014 - 9:42am | As far as a massive minimum wage hike, I can only say this much: It isn't going to help anything. Why? Because we're Americans. We're too stupid to learn from our mistakes, let alone live within our means. Do you need an example of this? Look what happened every time the gas prices spiked: we sold our V-8s and when gas went back down, we traded those misers back in for our V-8s. I'm not talking about the 70s either, an era where most of us were either too young to experience let alone in a state of breathing. I'm talking about the more recent Katrina spike in 2005 followed up immediately by the 2008 speculator spike. Toyota dealerships had 6+ month waiting lists for the Prius when gas was $4/gallon, when gas dropped back down to $1.80 those waiting lists were for Tundras. And that happened for BOTH spikes. It's even happening today with gas hovering at just under $4/gallon. If you need further proof of our stupidity, go look at any delivery service and see how many still retained the "fuel surcharge" after the price of gas dropped. We got so comfortable with paying for it that we became blissfully silent when it needlessly stuck around. Which is no surprise when there are people in this country that are stupid enough to buy "Smart Water" with the belief that it will actually make them...smarter. I wish I was kidding when I say I've heard that uttered more than once. I'd love to share some of the conversations I've had with such folk, but I fear this threade will be a long one without such prose (maybe I'll add that to the Dudeman Files). Despite one out of four Americans being out of work (the way the labor department reports unemployment based solely on new claims should be criminal), new car sales are practically at an all time high...because despite the housing bubble that burst we still can't live within our means. You can pay us a thousand dollars per hour and we'll still figure out a way to spend $1500/hr. Why? Because we have a government setting the perfect example for us by spending a million dollars per hour. No wage hike can ever compensate for the constantly increasing cost of living. Not when you have a public utilities commission that approves any and every rate hike that comes down the pipe. Seriously, save your utility bills for a year and compare the base rate from bill to bill, out here our electric bill sees a hike almost every month. My cheapest electrical bill last year was higher than my most expensive power bill from the year I moved into this house...and back then I wasn't using energy conserving appliances or CLF bulbs like I do now. Just more government influence where it doesn't need to be. Anyone that thinks a mandatory wage increase won't hurt business...I encourage you to go work for a small privately owned business and let the owner show you his books. At $30K per year I live in a nice middle class neighborhood, follow that private businessman home and you'll see his $250K+ gross income barely affords a home at a trailer park or distressed neighborhood. Now multiply that private businessman's overhead, inventory, operating expenses, rent, taxes, and a whole slew of other expenses by a thousand to get an idea of what a corporation faces. Seasoned workers with long term seniority getting a hike as well? Yeah right, thank the unions for establishing the "one wage fits all" model. Whatever the unions establish trickles down to the non union jobs. When the union house slacker (who can't be disciplined, let alone fired) gets the same rate as the most productive employee (who often gets punished far more frequently than the slacker), you're just not going to see much in the way of productivity from anyone. Realistically there just isn't a need fo rit. I'll tell you the result right now of an increased minimum wage: fewer people working. A business that has five workers at $8/hr will end up with four at $10/hr. Then they'll counter the increased wages as a reason to hike prices (don't forget, they're also paying into a benefits package per hour as well, and ObungholeCare certainly hasn't done squat to reduce medical insurance costs), and all those people out there that are still working at a higher wage are paying more for the products & services yielding a zero benefit outcome in the annual sales. Speaking of ObamaScare, remember when you could opt out of the insurance in lieu of a higher wage? Oops, cant do that anymore. Yeah, I can see why the self-appointed messiah is so gung ho at increasing the wages, he has to do something to make up for his --- oops, not his...someone else's --- mistake. Seriously, do you think McDonald's will be able to afford giving away products on their dollar menu by keeping the same staff at a much higher wage? All I can say is McDonald's was never meant to be a career. It's a kids' job that teaches them the basics that they are supposed to carry over to a real job. Sure, we can talk about "taking whatever job we can get" in this sour economy (which, ironically, is still being blamed on someone that left office over five years ago while the incumbent continues to pile more mess on top of that existing mess without blame)...but it's still not a career. I had to take a job that pays about half of what I used to make, and I certainly don't plan on doing this for the rest of my life either. The problem is once someone gets "whatever job they can get" they STOP LOOKING FOR A BETTER JOB. Why? Because we're Americans. We did our part, now it's time for someone else to carry us the rest of the way. We all want that cushy desk jockey job that pays a shit load of money but we don't want to work for it either. We don't want to start at the bottom and get out hands dirty. This is why millions of illegals are able to work in this country, because they're willing to do the shit jobs. This is why China and India have both grown to be such industrial giants while the former god of the giants (USA) is a dwarven corpse: because they're willing to do the shit we refuse to acknowledge. |
 March 31, 2014 - 6:38am | Well said, Shadow. A little long, but well said! Although you may be a little harsh. I don't believe a federal minimum wage makes much sense. The cost of living varies widely depending where in the country you live. Many states have minimum wage laws on the books, each state should handle the issue according to thier local economy. Reasonable men adapt to the world around them; unreasonable men make the world adapt to them. The world is changed by unreasonable men. Edwin Louis Cole |
March 31, 2014 - 9:33am | Yeah I've gotten harsh as a response to the majority that absorbs sound bytes over facts. I also find it ironic how elected officials making six figures per year (for life) decide how the rest of us should live. |
 March 31, 2014 - 2:55pm | Increase taxes on the poor, give that money to the corporations so it can "trickle down" to the poor who are "willing to work" without cost of living increases, and cut healthcare and all other social programs to make sure there's more money to bail out the corporations in their own corporate social program, and repeal laws restricting corporations from ethical violations so they can squeeze more money from the poor through whatever means they see fit. And don't forget to ensure the right of corporations to control elections so that the politicians get their cut. Then trust in the god of this world and the human spirit and it will all work out. Vote GOP! View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
March 31, 2014 - 3:31pm | Right, because the Affordable Healthcare Act did so much to jump start the job market. You know, like killing the option to take a higher wage in lieu of insurance at your job. No wonder the current administration wants a higher minumum wage...it's nothing more than a game of save-ass now. Should I even discuss how much more it costs? My health insurance is almost as high as my mortgage these days. Meanwhile over half of my doctors no longer accept that insurance. So how can I blame the GOP who was the minority in both houses from 2009-2011 when that fiasco was passed? Now if we're back to "saving it" for a political argument, I'll simply ask two questions. Actually, save it or not...the questions still apply: 1> Have you ever worked for a privately owned business and seen the books? 2> Have you ever worked a management job for a corporation and gotten a glimpe of those books? |
March 31, 2014 - 6:06pm | Republicans block any healthcare development for 15 years and then when a president finally forces a defective one through with constitutional authority, the Republicans cry foul and try to remove it instead of get the hint and offer anything better. It is said that any plan is better than no plan at all, but the "genius" Republican politicians say "No plan is better than any plan." Beautiful logic. Who could refute it? I don't think solutions are their strong suit. Taking away the patient's means of survival is not better than insufficient means of survival. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
March 31, 2014 - 8:52pm | 1) Yes. 2) Yes. I also took Macroeconomics, Constitution of the United States, as well as Bookkeeping in college. (Also Critical Thinking, Behavioral Socialogy and other classes.) In the Macroeconomics class, we covered supply and demand, automobile/oil economics, insurance economics, small business vs. corporate economics, savings and loan economics, international trade and the workings of the stock market and turned in a 500 word report on economics reporting in the Wall Street Journal every single day of class. (I was making an A- in the class until I had to drop it for exhaustion. Impressive, considering I preferred my Creative Writing class in which I made a B-, and the writing class didn't ask near as much of me.) View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
April 1, 2014 - 4:47am | [soapbox rant] I keep hearing the GOP have a plan that is supposedly better then the Affordable Care Act (which is always presented with the same word-by-word bullet-points), but looking into it, their plan amounted to "Keep it the same, but allow for plans to cross state lines, and should you have the misfortune of becoming killed or maimed by your physician, you're screwed." Its not much of a plan... Its just a shitty plan. I had misgivings about the ACA at first — mostly because I favor socialized health care, and the plan was created by the Heritage Foundation to deal with Clinton's health care, back in the '90s — but seeing have it worked well in Massachusetts, and there is a solid policy to stop dropped coverage over "pre-existing conditions", well I wormed up the idea quickly. Its not perfect, but it is better then nothing, and worlds better then half-ass ideas. I try to be open-minded and politically neutral, but the Republican party does not give much faith in their competent leadership or ability to make things better. Reaganomics was a huge economic failure. Their policy of individual freedoms rings hollow when they put their own fundamentalist moralities above all other considerations, or to put to put the rights of big businesses above the rights and safety of the common man. The Tea Party comes off as Ayn Rand nutcases, and it is hard to take them at all seriously with mouth-pieces like Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann and Sharron Angle. And their stance that government is inherently incompetent and ineffectual seems to amount by leading by example. And most off all, their loudest mouth-pieces (cable news and radio pendents) came off as the vary whinny, bleeding-heart liberal boogie-men they harp on. All they do is whine bitch and moan about trivial issues, twist words around to make them sound more positive (e.g. Job Creator), and the plight of the endangered white man (who's natural enviroment is as documented on Leave It To Beaver and Mad Men) and the ever persecuted religious types (who are somehow deeply effected by gay marriage and the War on Christmas). Don't get me wrong, I see the Demarcates as a link within the whole "Demarcates are the party of no ideas, and the Republicans are a party of bad ideas", in that they are in a drought of new or innovative ideas, that they rehash old Republican policies, give it a spin, and call it their own idea. I also get really annoyed when the two-faced nature of Obama. He specks as a Populist hero with talk about social justice, the evils of invasive surveillance, and the like, but in practice, he is such a centralist, he comes off as a Republican leader but with an ounce of competence. If not for the GOP making buffoons of themselves, I would be going after the Demarcates on their greedy, shiftless nature — a trait shared by both parties, really. My beef is that for all the talk about Obama and the Demarcates as a so-called evil, leftest agency, they are actually center-right on most things, and that there is little or no option for actual left-leaning candidate or parties (and despite would you'll hear from "fair and balanced" sources, they are not all evil, freedom-hating Islamic commi-nazis). It is the point that while I'm politically neutral, both parties are right-wing, with no one on the left to balance things out. [/soapbox rant] |
April 1, 2014 - 4:47am | So you've seen how much extra an employer pays for an employee on top of whatever wage they earn? More so if that employee belongs to a union? |
April 1, 2014 - 7:14am | Yes, unions are a two-edged sword. Corrupt and necessary. I'm not a particular fan, as I think unions need as much regulation as the corporations. But laws governing corporations are also necessary. If left to their own devices, corporations will raid and rape the public like the randy greedmongers they are. (You're going into the realm of corporate economics, which is not as bare as you make it out to be.) But I'm going to let you make your point, though these forum discussions aren't condusive to the debate style you're using. That's a fairly decent rant, Malcadon. Not a 100% from my perspective, but close enough. The conclusion is certainly the same: the two-party system fails when both parties are on the right, and they always go to the right when big business is allowed to pass out cash like candy to politicians. And it's the middle class who pay the price. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
April 1, 2014 - 7:24am | The problem is not with either party but rather with the two party system. There are third, fourth, and fifth parties that look pretty good but all they do is take votes from one or the other of the two and throw off the election. Since there are liberal republicans, conservative republicans, liberal democrats, and conservative democrats...it just seems a one party system would work better and let everyone run for president or congress or state representative or whatever office they're seeking. One election, most approved guy/gal gets it. But since that isn't going to happen I do what I can to enforce term limits and am a proud member of the anti-incumbent party. If it's two new candidates I pick the one I agree with more. Pretty simple concept, I still can't digest why there has to be a party line that everyone feels a need to follow. |
April 1, 2014 - 7:29am | While you're making your point regarding corporate economics, allow me to start one of my own using the same debate style to run parallel to the point you're making. My point will wrap up nicely like a bow around yours. Do you know why a raw diamond is more valuable than a polished one? View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
April 1, 2014 - 3:40pm | Because cutting & polishing doesn't add much more to the value, and you have to pay someone to do it? |
April 1, 2014 - 10:55pm | There's more to the value than that. Yes, it is taken from the ground, but not without hundreds of man hours to find it and dig it out. It takes an average of 250 tons of mined ore to produce one carat of finished diamond. As the diamond reaches its destination, more money is spent getting it to the jewelry store case (such as cleaning, sorting, shipping, high dollar security, safety deposit boxes, cutting, evaluating, and many rejected diamonds,) than its asking value. The overhead for each and every diamond is enormous. But the fact that the cost mounts as it gets to the case is only a facet, so to speak, of why a raw diamond is more valuable than a cut diamond. What was the point you wanted to make about corporate economics? I can't finish my point until you finish yours. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
April 2, 2014 - 5:59am | Republicans block any healthcare development for 15 years and then when a president finally forces a defective one through with constitutional authority, the Republicans cry foul and try to remove it instead of get the hint and offer anything better. It is said that any plan is better than no plan at all, but the "genius" Republican politicians say "No plan is better than any plan." Beautiful logic. Who could refute it? I don't think solutions are their strong suit. Taking away the patient's means of survival is not better than insufficient means of survival. A couple things that need to be said about this post. I loathe the Republicans - probably to the point iof hating them. The trouble is, the democrats are a thousand times worse. The Democrat party platform today practically mirrors the Nazi party's platform of the 20's and 30's. Right down to wanting to oppress minorities. The Democrat party leadership doesn't admit to that opression part, but it is very mainstream in their party rank and file. During those 'Occupy Wall Street' rallies that happened here and there around the nation, there were dozens of YouTube clips of democrat rallies where the speakers were directly blaming 'jews' for all the financial troubles of the nation. I notice that you haven't mentioned the high risk insurance pools that the Republicans also support. That seems like a pretty important piece of information to have left out. It seems as though you believe that having forced Obamacare on the nation was a good thing to do. From this post, it seems the reasoning for that is: "Because having dones something, no matter how horrendously flawed it was, was better than doing nothing." If that is your line of reasoning let me note that placing current and future generations of Americans essentially into slavery at the whim of the government is not better than having done nothing. In fact, having done nothing would have been FAR better than this garbage we've been saddled with. Prior to Obamacare, 80% of the country was quite happy with thier health insurance. Now, something like 80% of the country is NOT happy with their health insurance. Contrary to popular Democrat belief, the government does NOT know better how to run my life thank you very much! So you don't think that solutions are the strong suit for Republicans. I agree with you completely. I see that you failed to note the same about Democrats however, implying that thier solution in this case, was a good one when in fact, it was/is not. It is worse than the solution the Republicans proposed and is WAY worse than having simply done nothing at all for a system that only needed tweaking and was never borken in the first place. The fact of the matter is that excessive government is never the solution, it is always the problem. I don't have to outrun that nasty beast my friend...I just have to outrun you! |
April 2, 2014 - 6:17am | My beef is that for all the talk about Obama and the Demarcates as a so-called evil, leftest agency, they are actually center-right on most things, and that there is little or no option for actual left-leaning candidate or parties (and despite would you'll hear from "fair and balanced" sources, they are not all evil, freedom-hating Islamic commi-nazis). It is the point that while I'm politically neutral, both parties are right-wing, with no one on the left to balance things out. I guess on this point you and I will have to agree to disagree. At this point in our history, this country's political leadership has never been more left. Right now, the democrat party is somewhere around where Russia used to be in the 80's politically and the Republicans are about where the Democrats used to be. To attempt to paint Obama as some sort of centrist is a completely foriegn concept to me as the guy is so far to the left that he would make Stalin proud. This country doesn't need any more leftist politicians - nearly all of them (inclusive of both parties!) are leftist to some degree or another. I don't have to outrun that nasty beast my friend...I just have to outrun you! |
April 2, 2014 - 6:28am | So I've been trying to keep out of this thread because this just isn't the venue for this sort of talk. I'd like to stay away from conversations like this when I'm trying to enjoy my liesure pursuits. I've gotten off my chest, what I needed to and will abstain from the rest of the conversation for the reason I've related above. I probably should not have posted the few posts that I did as I'm sure that all I've accomplished is to increase my level of rage at our country's current political climate. I don't have to outrun that nasty beast my friend...I just have to outrun you! |
April 2, 2014 - 7:15am | My point was in my original post for the reasons listed in said post...that raising the minimum wage will hinder more than it helps. |
