you keep talking about "puppet masters" - who do you think those people are? they are the very captains of industry you are so keen on worshiping. tech giants donate to liberals, oil/chemical giants donate to conservatives, everyone in between donates to both sides to buy as much influence as possible. THOSE are the people calling the shots, thanks to the SCOTUS and its merciless razing of sensible campaign finance laws. i can't understand why you're unable to make the connection between the rigged political/govt system and the people actually doing the rigging.
Narrock wrote:I'll still maintain: The government is fucking with us much more than any corporation ever did.
the distinction folks like you insist on drawing between government and the biggest multinational corporations is completely illusory in the year of our lord two thousand fourteen. politicians do whatever their donors say they need to do in order to keep the cash flowing, FACT. who do you think the donors are? not folks like you and me, that's for sure.
Narrock wrote:Look dude, I know life is hard. I know gas prices are way too high. I know housing, food, utilities, EVERYTHING is high, and that leaves us with less cash to have fun with. However, corporations do SOOOOOO much to enhance and enrich our lives. I'm employed by a big corporation. You know what? They give me a salary that allowed me to buy a house, go on cool vacations, drive cool vehicles, buy expensive non-gmo and organic foods, buy nice clothes for my daughter, provide my family with a killer retirement plan, etc etc etc.
mostly thanks to the labor movement, actually, but that's another discussion for another day.
Narrock wrote:If you find you're not getting by, or finding it too hard to get by. Don't rely on the government to punish those who worked extra hard to get where they are. Don't rely on the government for free, or reduced-cost goods and services. Rise YOURSELF up. Find a better paying job.
what is this, the 1950s? it's not that simple. first of all, our manufacturing base has been completely hollowed out thanks to globalization. big corps here don't want to pay americans $20/hr to do something when they can pay poor people in mexico or china $1/hr to do the same thing faster. big corps don't want to hire people and give them benefits when they can just go through a temp service indefinitely, offer zero benefits, and pay half as much (ask leah about the local kawasaki plant). big corps don't want to pay any tax at all, so they hire an army of lawyers and accountants to either a) make sure they find as many loopholes as they can or b) simply park their profits offshore. General Electric has a negative ETR, which means WE pay THEM to do business here. people like to whine about how america supposedly has the highest corporate tax rate in the world, but that's only nominal. effectively, most big corps don't pay a dime.
second, how exactly does one "rise up" when college tuition is far outpacing inflation and real wages? in the 70s you could put yourself through Yale working 4 hours a day at a minimum wage job. know how many hours a day you'd have to work at minimum wage to pay your way through Yale right now? almost 18. per day. every day. all four years long. who's gonna "rise up" and do that? it's impossible, so people go into five-digit debt thinking it'll get them a profitable career...but see point one above: what careers? all the profitable careers are being sent to other countries with next to no labor laws. so you get kids popping out of college with 40k of debt that they can't shake (except via death) and there's almost nothing for them to go do. the unemployment rate for people under 25 is roughly double the national rate, and quadruple if you're a minority.
how does this story end, do you think? what happens if we continue down this road? the idea that you can just "rise up" and overcome such long odds is pretty much a fairy tale at this point, unless you happen to live in the great plains area or your most fluent language is code. and worse, the problem is accelerating: tuition costs are growing exponentially, minimum wage remains flat, jobs continue to stream offshore, etc. but you notice how everything's fine on wall street? dow's back up over 16,000, so everything must be peachy! bullshit. the only reason unemployment is even under 7% is that we keep adding entry-level minimum wage jobs. there is no state in the union where you can afford a two-bedroom apartment by working 40 hours a week at minimum wage. not one.
so let's see... student debt, lack/disappearance of good quality careers, stagnant wages, worsening levels of national health, growing poverty. what are your solutions to these crises?
Narrock wrote:IF we lose these freedoms, we are going to turn into a 3rd world nation.
those freedoms are lies; we are already well on our way. right now, the rest of the 1st world nations are switching to systems which guarantee free university education for ANYONE IN THE WORLD (even you and me), free health care, free public transit, and guaranteed living wages, not to mention extremely favorable national family/maternity leave policies. their spending on health care is a fraction of ours, yet our overall national health is a fraction of theirs. some nations even get more than 50% of their energy from renewable sources, something that sounds like a fairy tale.
basically they already make us look like el salvador, so i don't know what you think we're in danger of losing
Narrock wrote:Note: I'm not being a water-carrier for ANY party
neither am i.