Originally Posted by CosmicTang

Rich people and poor people have one very big thing in common...they're human beings. To say that all rich people are rich because of hard work and all poor people are lazy scum and are victims of their own circumstance is about as ignorant a thing as one could say on the subject.

If you don't think the wealthy cheat to become and stay wealthy then you've been sleepwalking through the last two years. Bailouts anyone? Do we need to trace that sordid affair again?

So it's okay to claim our country is distinct from all the others and that's why we do things differently but when it comes to letting the plutocrats run the show at our expense it's okay since every country is run that way? Hypocrisy anyone?

If you want to wave a flag about this being a great country and a free country how about starting by breaking this nasty habit we picked up from our European ancestors.

The government has not been truly hands off since before WWII. After that little fiasco we call the Great Depression they stepped in and put all kinds of regulation in place and guess what, the US enjoyed the best decades in the history of Western Civilization in terms of increases in standards of living. People got educated, infrastructure and manufacturing skyrocketed, you yourself said that the 1950's were a great time. In many ways they were...if you're willing to overlook that entire segments of the population didn't really count.

The economy has been on course to derail since the 1980's when we started deregulating everything and the greed factor took over and eventually crashed the system and the same people who deregulated our economy then looted it for billions (and counting) and people have the GALL to pick on poor people for being lazy???

You should be ashamed of yourself.

You like to say "you don't know anything about economics"...A LOT. You usually follow it up with colorful pejoratives which I can't help but interpret as a limited vocabulary or a shortcoming of acumen on the subject.

The game is most certainly fixed. The economics work however they set up the rules to reward people. If hard work was all you needed to get ahead there would be a lot of people getting ahead. The shortage in this country isn't wealth, or hard work, it's a fair shot. If you don't see where banks and the plutocrats have been feasting on what people don't know or taking advantage of their circumstances than you're naive. You've purchased a great big lie.