You are shocked that businesses who only have one goal and it is to make money while government is there to serve the people. Who is the villain? It's obvious who the fools are..

Nice try. Free loaders are defined as soldiers, politicians and religious figures. Once we left the hunter gatherer stage we started to add freeloaders. Yes tribes are different but most first areas have not had tribe structures for thousands of years.

What actually does work is 'Trickle Up' economics.

You give a corporation a tax break or subsidy and they pocket it. Because they understand that there is no reason to build a new factory/location or hire employees because there is no demand. Their #1 goal is to increase shareholder value.

You give a tax break to the middle class or working class and they spend it. Either on necessities needed to survive or some crap they probably don't need. Their purchasing power creates demand which in turn causes corporations to expand.

The money ends up in the same spot however it also creates new employment and a stronger middle class in the process.

Thank you for this.

Personally, I think the whole notion of INCOME INEQUALITY only exists as FODDER for political maneuvering and racking up political power.

Someone mentioned the fact here that in 1900, there were 2 economic stars in the Western hemisphere: the US and Argentina. The US went its way, Argentina tried POPULISM and SOCKING it to greedy imperialists and capitalist oppressors.... You know the rest of the story, kids.

You have LOTS of faith in the government. The same government behind the Obamacare rollout? :helpme

Tell that to all the people in this world living under dictatorships.

Funny how you think I'm the one being owned. I think just the opposite. :)

Within the next few years corporations will figure out cost-effective ways to reduce the workforce even further.

As an example, fast food restaurants will develop automated machines and computers to prepare and deliver your order. The only employees they will need at that time, will be a skeletal crew to make sure the machines are functioning properly.

This will happen with or without an increase to the minimum wage, but by increasing the minimum wage first, the corporate owners of this country will say "See, I told you that increasing the minimum wage would result in less employment."

As long as the corporations are allowed to prioritize greed over humanity, and no one is there to force a sensible balance, it is game over.

you view that scenario as a problem, to others it sounds like a golden opportunity for those who choose to get training to become installers, programmers, salesmen, repairmen, etc of these machines...

Which one do you want to be when these machines roll out? one that bitches: "these machines took my job!" or the one that chose to get training in repairing/programming/etc those machines?

Even if we all worked 100 times harder, we'd never be in the 1% ... it's not about that.

You said in that above quote, "Truly successful people"

I believe you ... but they are not in the 1% ....

He didn't say governments.

He said, "properly implemented governments"

Big difference.

Again ... he said a "properly implemented government"

It is about that.
You're so far down from the 1% you're not even aware that there are a number of 1%ers in this thread.

You simply never did anything to become one.

Really?

"The latest numbers from the IRS -- based on 2010 tax returns -- show what it takes to be among the top 1% of income earners: adjusted gross income of $369,691 or more. The 1.4 million Americans with this elite status reported 16.9% of all the country's taxable income.
Read more at http://www.kiplinger.com/article/taxes/T054-C000-S001-where-do-you-rank-as-a-taxpayer.html#rkx1tv0h0rISIMGc.99"

Looks like I and MANY of the people right here on GFY have easily been in the top 1% for years.

The only truly rich thing in this world is the federal govt.

As I told you before...the U.S. govt. spends more in TWO DAYS than Walmart makes in profit in an entire year!

The TOP percent is the Federal Govt.
And they don't do ANYTHING to earn that money.

Why aren't more people pissed off about that?

Generally speaking...you may be right.

Although...

In the 70s my aunt and uncle made it big when the ceramic fad was the 'pet rock' of the era. They started small - teaching classes in a spare room in their farmhouse. Within a few years they expanded to a modest store in a commercial plaza...then opened a large store and distribution warehouse in Toronto. They built a multi-million dollar business out of it, one of the largest in Canada at the time. They sold kilns, greenware, finished ceramic pieces...the works. They even opened a coast-to-coast catalog service.

Along with it, they bought a luxury condo, a huge yacht, luxury car...lavish vacations. They lived high on the hog - demonstrating to the rest of the family just how 'successful' they were.

Trouble was - while they were living the grandiose lifestyle - they failed to realize ceramics was a short-lived fad. Demand died off, creditors came knocking...the business tanked. Yacht was sold, along with the condo...the car.

Sure, they worked hard and took risks and gambles. But they never saw the crash coming before it was too late.

Moral to the story - don't bank too heavily on a fad.

Most of realize we need some form of govt.

Yeah, a govt. that SERVES the people.

Our govt. has moved way beyond that. They now serve themselves.

Did you or I decide to spend trillions of dollars arming and then bombing and killing people in the Middle East? Hell no. Matter of fact, most of the people didn't even understand WHY we were hit on 9-11.

Did you or I decide to have the govt. spend almost twice as much as it brings in? (and it brings in more money than any govt. in HISTORY has ever brought in...and still manages to spend us into a 17 trillion and GROWING deficit)

Did you or I decide to allow the govt. to basically run our lives in many ways from cradle to grave?

Hell no.

The U.S. always had a govt.
But it wasn't always as "all powerful" as the current version.

And up until a few decades ago...it didn't have this much money.

Hell, even in the late 1960's /early 1970's, Howard Hughes was able to make the U.S. govt. stop nuclear testing in Nevada by threatening Richard Nixon in a handwritten note with cutting off money to the U.S. govt.

Now? If you took every billionaire on the planet and put them all together...the U.S. govt. spends more money in a week than all of their wealth combined.

Think about it. If you can't see that it's out of control, then I don't know what to say.

I'm not promoting anarchy. I'm simply saying the govt. needs to be reigned in HARD.

There's another side to that story too...

You only live ONCE in this world. If you can't enjoy the things you worked for, then what is the reason for even being alive?

That happens to a lot of people from the poor to the rich. On the rich side of things I saw a story a while back about a guy who worked for a Wall Street hedge fund for several years then left it, moved to Florida and started his own fund. For a few years it did fantastic. They bought a big house, he had a membership at the local country club and golf course and they blew through money. Then the housing collapse hit and with it his business was destroyed.

At the time of the story they were in foreclosure and he was working as a delivery driver for Dominos so he could make enough money that the family would be able to move into a small apartment when the foreclosure went through.

On the lower side of things I know a lot of people who spend every dime they make. Right now my brother and a friend of mine are both in the same situation. They both make about $100K a year and both have daughters that are juniors in high school and want to go to college. Both can't understand why their kids to qualify for financial aid/need based grants. They both say the same thing, "I know I make a good living, but I have a lot of bills so the money is gone." It is because they live in expensive houses, have cars that they are financing, my friend has a time share and they pay for crap they don't even use like they both have every cable channel you can get even though they both admit to not watching it very much. I point out to them that they make twice the average household income and they still think that bills and expenses should be taken into consideration.

13 of the top 30 richest counties in America are Ina circle around Washington DC.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/...ton-dc/282457/

I should have been clearer, my bad.

The 1% are really a metaphor for those who have so much money they own politicians. I'm talking hundreds of billions here. I guess technically that would be 0.01% or threabouts.

Sorry ... see my reply above.

That's not true at all. The section 179 depreciation has been responsible for 2013 being one of the strongest years in decades for the machine tool industry. And those machines are used for only one thing. To manufacture goods.

My company is no different than any other business our size. We made good use of those tax incentives. We added well into the 7 figures on new equipment and added 60 jobs..with benefits. Plans are already underway to do it again in 2014 and I believe we will be able to add nearly 100 more full time employees. Business went through the same recession as everyone else. We can't afford to retool and pay higher taxes.

China is losing it's edge. Wages there are increasing, shipping costs are also going up. And doing business with them has never been easy. Only cheap. This is the best opportunity for growth that I've seen in years. Large corporations that have been purchasing in China are coming back to the US for their production needs.

What's more important. Rebuilding manufacturing jobs or giving more money to the government to waste.

There are no people with hundreds of billions of dollars. Nobody.

The richest FAMILY in the world is in Mexico City. They are worth 73 Billion Dollars. About what the U.S. Govt. spends in less than a week.

THE richest guy in the U.S. is Bill Gates. He's worth 67 Billion. I say WORTH...not has 67 billion dollars in his pocket.

I think you guys have it backwards. It's the politicians who OWN everybody. THEY decide the laws. THEY dole out the winners and losers.
Of course they take bribes. Why not? They are crooks.

But make no mistake about it...The U.S. Govt. is a gigantic monstrosity that dwarfs every "giant" corporation put together and has more corruption than ANY business in existence.

We are being misled by the media to think that somehow Bill Gates can control the U.S. Govt. when his entire net worth is less than what the U.S. spends in a week.

Didn't you just point out that we aren't owned? True we have issues in the govt but you have travelled a bit and know the USA is a long ways from a disaster.

No, I didn't point out that we aren't owned.

I have said over and over that in the last few decades the govt. has pretty much ruled our lives from cradle to grave.

And yes, I have traveled a bit. Not as much as some of the guys on here who go to every damn show on the planet (JFK heh-heh).

But enough to see that when I come back to the U.S. it's like a damn police state.

It was bad enough BEFORE 9-11. I remember coming back from St. Martin in 1998 and landing in Atlanta. When I got my luggage I had one of those tags saying my luggage had been searched!!!

That REALLY pissed me off. And then I opened my luggage. They had taken and poured all of my shampoo, conditioner, and cologne all over my suits!

Only in America. :(

And the biggest contrast was going to Amsterdam. I fly into Amsterdam in 2007. They wave us through in the airport. And the whole time I was there I felt...FREE.

When I flew back home? When we first landed they had military looking guys with dogs sniffing us as we walked off the plane.

Then we went to the "U.S. Citizens" line to re-enter the country. I was so embarrassed watching people from other countries having eye scans and being fingerprinted in the other line.

And of course once we jumped through hoops and had to answer "questions" about why we were out of the country (like it's anybodies goddamn business what I do)...we retrieved our luggage to find....you guessed it: the tag saying our fucking luggage had been searched!

It's like being violated and raped by the authorities. All to ride on a glorified bus with wings. lol

So yeah...when I think of "freedom" and "land of the free" and all that other jingoistic bullshit we were taught in school, I do not think of the United States.

I feel much free-er in Mexico, Jamaica, The Bahamas, St. Martin, and of course Amsterdam.

I shouldn't....From everything I was taught as a child, I should never feel anymore free anywhere in the world than here in the United States.

I don't think people are mad on people with good ethics who worked hard to become rich.

Problem are those who take shortcuts, stepping on a lot of people getting to the top. And there are a lot of those unfortunately. And when you are first at the top, it becomes even easier to fuck over other people.

The government does waste a ton of money... on corporate interests...

https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/...50332727_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.n...52316145_n.jpg

The corporate owners of this country have perfected ways of convincing people to hate each other, rather than the real culprits...

https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/...18501196_n.jpg

Good lord BTK...lol

You are so obsessed with Fox News you bring it up in every discussion. If people don't fall in line with your thoughts that it's the people who are evil and the govt. is great, then you automatically start insulting us.

Take it down a notch and join an intelligent discussion without name calling, stupid pictures, and Fox News.

I don't know if you noticed it, but the rest of us are giving honest opinions based on what we all have seen in life experience.

Dumb pictures and insults don't really belong in a grownup conversation bro.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qyqe2-nYvm.../196552716.png

:stoned

ADG

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Q7970wxUvQ...itics+1192.jpg



:stoned

ADG

He doesn't seem to realize that he has become exactly what he hates.
The FOX News of GFY.. Loud, opinionated blasts of slanted, biased mostly irrelevant garbage.

do you support "equality" in the world? or just the US? do you realize the fact that if world income was equally distributed, our standard of living / income / etc would be fraction of what it is now? we would be considered the 1% when looked at the world scale, we would be considered the "exploiters", everyone would say that we are living in excess, many would even say that we are the 1% simply by dumb luck because we got born in the US, instead of some village in china, etc?

so when this "equality" is preached, are we discussing world scale or just the US?

(by US I mean your own country)

Gallup just did a poll and 72% of Americans view Big Government as the biggest threat to the future of the U.S. 21% view Big Business as the biggest threat.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/166535/re...utm_term =All

While all you fuckers keep bitching.... I have a vacation house in Hawaii.

Pawned
 

Big Business OWNS Big Government.

Again... I keep saying over and over...I don't know why people think like that.
The Govt. is GIANT.

It's bigger than all the "big business" put together.

So how do you figure that the biggest big businesses like Walmart (which profited 15.7 billion dollars in 2012) can "own" a Govt. that spends more than Walmart made all year...in TWO DAYS?

Do big businesses pay off Congressmen? Hell yes. I would too if they would take my money from porn.

But you can't buy what's not for sale.

It's Govt. that is the problem. It's full of crooks on the take. And it DWARFS every "big business" put together financially.

The Govt. is so big that it has made itself "The Decider" when it comes to which businesses succeed and which ones fail. And then the individual Congressmen and Senators put their votes up for sale.

If Govt. were not so big and powerful...that would not be possible.

Need to reverse citizens united ruling, would help to start cleaning things up. Seems more likely to go the other way though

It was already bad way before that ruling too. That's not a magic pill...it would be a start. But the Supreme Court doesn't generally change it's mind that quick, so I'd say that ain't gonna happen.

I think step one would be to get all those career politicians OUT of there.

We need to vote them ALL out. One and done. These guys in Washington D.C. aren't geniuses who have become "experts" in anything. They are simply a bunch of people taking full advantage of power.

They need to GO.

I know the argument is that they have "experience" and "knowledge". Bullshit.

The new guys get briefed and are up to speed in a few days. The only people who count for "experience" and "knowledge" would be the Presidents Appointees. Like the Secretary of State for instance.

Congress is supposed to represent the PEOPLE. Not be a bunch of lifetime politicians making bank and stealing money.

It should be one term and DONE. Guy is your Congressman? Then let him serve ONE 2 year term. Then if he wants to, he can run for Senator next time around...or President.
Or better yet...GO the fuck HOME.

We the people still have the power to do this. But we live in a very apathetic age. Not many people give a damn as long as they have their smartphone and Ipad and cable television. :(

The aids and bureaucrats would end up running everything. This might not be a good thing either. According to what I have read, this is what we have now. The politicians have to put many hours a day of fundraising to stay in office so the underlings run the govt for them.