GameboyRMH said:
z31maniac said:
Ok, frenchy has proven why his first account was banned. I would say more, but I don't want to be banned.
Now to the original topic, I can't believe it's lasted this long of people saying the same thing over and over knowing they aren't going to convince the other person. Perhaps pheller and his above average lifestyle and gameboy who left his country to go somewhere else should give up the shtick.
Lets worry about real problems. Look up how polluted the ganges or the Citarum rivers are, look at the squalor the vast majority of people live in, and you're worried about people who have a home, cell phone, cable TV, car, easy access to food and medicine.
A country that isn't interested in fixing poverty inside its borders will have even less interest and means to fix poverty outside of them. A lot of that pollution and poverty comes from the first world exporting its garbage and outsourcing its environmentally destructive industry in an effort to make goods cheaper to compensate for falling purchasing power of their middle and lower classes. Treating first world problems as not-real problems that should be ignored will only worsen those pressures - ending those problems requires giving more people in the first world enough purchasing power that they can shop for more environmentally-friendly and ethically-sourced goods.
Also, just curious, does the fact that I've migrated make me too wealthy or privileged to have anything to complain about? That would be a new angle.
I almost agree with you. The first couple sentences are dead on. For me it gets a little murky after that. I think it goes way beyond what Im assuming you mean by "more purchasing power." I assuming you mean they need more money, that lines up with your other arguments about the working poor, and the workers being entitled to more of the profits, if thats not what you mean then disregard the rest of my comment, and Im sorry for misunderstanding.
Giving people more money is just inflationary. Every single person that makes more money, leads to higher costs for everyone who uses their industry, then your extra money historically ends up having less buying power than what they were making before.
Im real close to what your saying, I just think their are way to many variables for one thing, like more money, will do anything but make it worse. An easy way for the average American to have more buying power is a reduction of regulation and taxes, even though half of Americans dont pay income taxes, their income is still chipped away at by things like gas taxes, sales taxes, and the costs of regulation and corporate tax rates being passed on to the consumer. I think it should be everyone's goal that every American gets to keep as much of their hard earned money as possible. I also think a cultural shift away from consumerism and towards fiscal responsibility would fix a lot of this. Im sick of the argument that people dont make enough, I bought my first house, had two cars (a truck and a toy) and never worried about money when I was making what most would consider a very low wage and I was a part of the "working poor," in an expensive market. Most people have a spending problem not a revenue problem, notice I said MOST not all. I was frugal and I saved and when something mattered I bought quality. I think the throw away culture we have hurts everyone, and is about as far away from environmentally friends you can get. The federal government and the Fed are also killing the middle class, the massive amounts of spending and printing money, hurts everyone except the rich. The rich are the group that put their money to work, so their "savings" are more likely to keep up in an inflationary period. The middle class and the working class are less likely to have a large investment portfolio, and more likely to have money just sitting in a savings account making less interest than the cost of account maintenance. Inflation makes them considerably poorer. You can go on and on about all the things that are squeezing the E36 M3 out of the middle class and keeping the poor from moving up the economic scale. I dont think anything youve said would make it better, most of the things would just pile one more barrier on top that make it even harder for the poor to move up. Most regulation and higher taxes is very good for established corps, because they create another barrier to entry, and really bad for people and businesses trying to start out. You think a minimum wage of 20 an hour would have any effect on Amazon? Absolutely not, but its very likely to keep people from starting a company that may one day compete with Amazon. We want competition (yes even you, to achieve the things like higher wages and reduce the supposed "wage collusion"), regulation and higher taxes leads to less competition.
Just an side note, the vast majority of "environmentally-friendly" goods are a complete ruse, they just move the waste/pollution/emissions to a poorer area, or they dont consider the actual cradle to grave impact. We have a very narrow view of what "environmentally friendly" in everything from energy production to consumer good packaging.
Now I say all that, but I also believe at the end of the day, you only have one life and one chance to make the most of it. So I agree with a lot of people who think the deck is stacked against them, but I can not get on board with the people who say the deck is stacked against them and thats a reason not to try. You MUST work within the world your given to make the best of it. When a third or fourth of your income is immediately sent to the government, or you can afford to buy a home, but not pay the massive tax bill, or you cant quite afford gas because its artificially inflated so the govt can get their cut, yah it sucks, but suck it up, do your best, hustle and better your life, do whatever it takes you only get one chance.
