The 36-hour work week/3-day weekend

[Andylusion]

It didn't work in France. It won't work in America.

France has higher growth than most of the rest of the EU. And the thing holding the EU back is the euro.

So, does Europe have a shrinking economy?


Sent from my iPad using an Android.

You can in fact have a growing economy, even while the standard of living is dropping.

China proved that by having a growing economy, even while 63% of it's population lived below the poverty level of $2 a day.

 

[Andylusion]

Fair is a matter of perspective and circumstance. Ultimately, it's an idividualj judgement

And what rights are the individual afforded in the negotiations process again ? I bet there hasn't been an interview that afforded the worker the respect that he or she is deserved in a very long time, and this especially if negotiations are out of play somehow in an interview. The field has been controlled now for quite a long long time. The worker has been told just to be glad if they have a job, and if they are given a job by the employer then take it no matter what the circumstances are. This is supposed to stop the worker from thinking he or she has any chance at any kind of negotiations in an interview for a job, and if it doesn't then they are passed up for the next potential voiceless drone that is supposed to be considered an American worker, but only if he or she stays in line no matter what the situation is. It is true that they can just quit yes, and that they can find them something else of course, but it should also be true that people can boycott a bad employer wouldn't you say ? Hey fair is fair right ?

You have a twisted view of businesses that doesn't fit with any of the companies I've worked for.

The majority of people, at least around here, are pretty decent. That includes management, workers, VPs, everyone.

That has been my experience too. I can count on one hand, the number of truly bad management I've had. Normally it's the employees that are terrible.

 

[Andylusion]

There should be no such thing as working poor, If you are working full time then one should have enough to eat, own a reliable vehicle, own a house, and have enough to raise a family. That's the way it should be. The so called American dream is empty margin.

So if I work really really hard, at digging holes in my yard, then I should make $100,000 a year? Who is going to pay me to dig pointless holes?

 

[Andylusion]

Growth is not the point. Their unemployment rate is over 10%. And like here that does include the huge amount of underemployed or the 1.4 million in the halo who aren't counted in the numbers.

Speaking of France, and Socialism.... This was just released.

French President Francois Hollande’s government may have made a housing slump worse, pushing the construction market to its lowest in more than 15 years.

Housing starts fell 19 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, and permits -- a gauge of future construction -- dropped 13 percent, the French Housing Ministry said yesterday.

The rout stems from a law this year that seeks to make housing more affordable by capping rents in expensive neighborhoods. To protect home buyers, the law also boosted the number of documents that must be provided by sellers, leading to a decline in home sales and longer transaction times. While the government is now adjusting the rules, the damage is done, threatening France’s anemic recovery that’s already lagging behind those of the U.K. and Germany.

“Construction is in total meltdown,” said Dominique Barbet, an economist at BNP Paribas in Paris. “It’s difficult to see how the new housing law is not to blame.”

Housing Market in France in ?Meltdown? After Hollande Rent Caps - Bloomberg

In order to help the public afford housing, the Socialist run government pushed rent control laws.

Shockingly, the entire industry is in free fall. Arn't you shocked? Because I'm shocked. Totally shocked. You mean socialism didn't work? AGAIN? Wow... shocked I say.

 

[beagle9]

Fair is a matter of perspective and circumstance. Ultimately, it's an idividualj judgement

And what rights are the individual afforded in the negotiations process again ? I bet there hasn't been an interview that afforded the worker the respect that he or she is deserved in a very long time, and this especially if negotiations are out of play somehow in an interview. The field has been controlled now for quite a long long time. The worker has been told just to be glad if they have a job, and if they are given a job by the employer then take it no matter what the circumstances are. This is supposed to stop the worker from thinking he or she has any chance at any kind of negotiations in an interview for a job, and if it doesn't then they are passed up for the next potential voiceless drone that is supposed to be considered an American worker, but only if he or she stays in line no matter what the situation is. It is true that they can just quit yes, and that they can find them something else of course, but it should also be true that people can boycott a bad employer wouldn't you say ? Hey fair is fair right ?

You have a twisted view of businesses that doesn't fit with any of the companies I've worked for.

The majority of people, at least around here, are pretty decent. That includes management, workers, VPs, everyone.

Not sure where you are from, but yes I have worked for companies that were straight out corrupt in their management teams, and in their structural ways of doing things, and I have seen some companies and people who worked in high positions do some bad stuff in my time. In fact I was called on to be a Federal witness in a case against corrupt individuals in my time (not by my choice, but by being in the wrong place, and many of us seeing the wrong things in which we didn't want to see or here but did). Twisted Views is what you call it, but I call it big time reality checks in life. The innocence was now gone, and the real world became clearer to me and others as we witnessed what corrupt men are capable of in life.

The men in the case that I mention plead guilty , and it was due to the overwhelming circumstances along with the evidence in which the FBI had mounted against them over a long investigation period. This happened without me even having to take the stand nor did anyone else for that matter in which we would have been called in as witnesses to these men's characters, and/or their actions taken. Me and the others were just workers who saw many things while working that had us scratching our heads big time, and when the feds investigated these guy's due to their own slip ups, then the feds began looking all around for potential witnesses to help them out. I was called in as were others who may had been close enough to the defendants in the work place to maybe know something, or had seen something. I was reluctant to want anything to do with such stuff as this in life, but I felt I had a duty to do the right thing if I was asked too. Lucky for me I didn't know enough to be that much of a help to them or that I was that important to them, but they kept my name available if they needed me in the case. The day I was thought to have been called upon as a witness to corruption, just like the others were, well they (the corrupt) plead guilty. I was relieved as so were the other workers who didn't need such stress or aggravation as this was in their life.

So I guess American greed is a made up show, and Occupy Wall Street was a made up story, and Bernie Madoff was a fictional character, and on and on it all went or goes right ?

Good for you that you have worked for great and decent people throughout time, and I just wish that I could say the same in life also. Now it is true that all shouldn't be thought of as bad or as corrupt just because they have money or own a business in life, but what people should always recognize, is when it all goes wrong, then who exactly is behind that wrong?

 

[Mathbud1]

And what rights are the individual afforded in the negotiations process again ? I bet there hasn't been an interview that afforded the worker the respect that he or she is deserved in a very long time, and this especially if negotiations are out of play somehow in an interview. The field has been controlled now for quite a long long time. The worker has been told just to be glad if they have a job, and if they are given a job by the employer then take it no matter what the circumstances are. This is supposed to stop the worker from thinking he or she has any chance at any kind of negotiations in an interview for a job, and if it doesn't then they are passed up for the next potential voiceless drone that is supposed to be considered an American worker, but only if he or she stays in line no matter what the situation is. It is true that they can just quit yes, and that they can find them something else of course, but it should also be true that people can boycott a bad employer wouldn't you say ? Hey fair is fair right ?

You have a twisted view of businesses that doesn't fit with any of the companies I've worked for.

The majority of people, at least around here, are pretty decent. That includes management, workers, VPs, everyone.

Not sure where you are from, but yes I have worked for companies that were straight out corrupt in their management teams, and in their structural ways of doing things, and I have seen some companies and people who worked in high positions do some bad stuff in my time. In fact I was called on to be a Federal witness in a case against corrupt individuals in my time (not by my choice, but by being in the wrong place, and many of us seeing the wrong things in which we didn't want to see or here but did). Twisted Views is what you call it, but I call it big time reality checks in life. The innocence was now gone, and the real world became clearer to me and others as we witnessed what corrupt men are capable of in life.

The men in the case that I mention plead guilty , and it was due to the overwhelming circumstances along with the evidence in which the FBI had mounted against them over a long investigation period. This happened without me even having to take the stand nor did anyone else for that matter in which we would have been called in as witnesses to these men's characters, and/or their actions taken. Me and the others were just workers who saw many things while working that had us scratching our heads big time, and when the feds investigated these guy's due to their own slip ups, then the feds began looking all around for potential witnesses to help them out. I was called in as were others who may had been close enough to the defendants in the work place to maybe know something, or had seen something. I was reluctant to want anything to do with such stuff as this in life, but I felt I had a duty to do the right thing if I was asked too. Lucky for me I didn't know enough to be that much of a help to them or that I was that important to them, but they kept my name available if they needed me in the case. The day I was thought to have been called upon as a witness to corruption, just like the others were, well they (the corrupt) plead guilty. I was relieved as so were the other workers who didn't need such stress or aggravation as this was in their life.

So I guess American greed is a made up show, and Occupy Wall Street was a made up story, and Bernie Madoff was a fictional character, and on and on it all went or goes right ?

Good for you that you have worked for great and decent people throughout time, and I just wish that I could say the same in life also. Now it is true that all shouldn't be thought of as bad or as corrupt just because they have money or own a business in life, but what people should always recognize, is when it all goes wrong, then who exactly is behind that wrong?

I'm sorry that you had such troubling experiences. And I don't doubt for a moment that there is corruption in the world. I do doubt that that corruption is so widespread that every worker in America would be directly affected by it.

 

[Andylusion]

Not sure where you are from, but yes I have worked for companies that were straight out corrupt in their management teams, and in their structural ways of doing things, and I have seen some companies and people who worked in high positions do some bad stuff in my time. In fact I was called on to be a Federal witness in a case against corrupt individuals in my time (not by my choice, but by being in the wrong place, and many of us seeing the wrong things in which we didn't want to see or here but did). Twisted Views is what you call it, but I call it big time reality checks in life. The innocence was now gone, and the real world became clearer to me and others as we witnessed what corrupt men are capable of in life.

The men in the case that I mention plead guilty , and it was due to the overwhelming circumstances along with the evidence in which the FBI had mounted against them over a long investigation period. This happened without me even having to take the stand nor did anyone else for that matter in which we would have been called in as witnesses to these men's characters, and/or their actions taken. Me and the others were just workers who saw many things while working that had us scratching our heads big time, and when the feds investigated these guy's due to their own slip ups, then the feds began looking all around for potential witnesses to help them out. I was called in as were others who may had been close enough to the defendants in the work place to maybe know something, or had seen something. I was reluctant to want anything to do with such stuff as this in life, but I felt I had a duty to do the right thing if I was asked too. Lucky for me I didn't know enough to be that much of a help to them or that I was that important to them, but they kept my name available if they needed me in the case. The day I was thought to have been called upon as a witness to corruption, just like the others were, well they (the corrupt) plead guilty. I was relieved as so were the other workers who didn't need such stress or aggravation as this was in their life.

So I guess American greed is a made up show, and Occupy Wall Street was a made up story, and Bernie Madoff was a fictional character, and on and on it all went or goes right ?

Good for you that you have worked for great and decent people throughout time, and I just wish that I could say the same in life also. Now it is true that all shouldn't be thought of as bad or as corrupt just because they have money or own a business in life, but what people should always recognize, is when it all goes wrong, then who exactly is behind that wrong?

No, Occupy Wall Street was real, but they were idiots. You think smashing windows, and pooping in a park, is what you want to stand for?

Yes, greed is real. It's most real in government, where politicians shake down companies for money. Stop voting for those politicians.

See here's the difference between me and you.... and how we view the world...

You went in under some strange illusion that somehow there was no corruption in the world, and then were shocked and "The innocence was now gone". Since when have humans ever had 'innocence'?

I have never been under that illusion, so the fact you found some corruption is not shocking at all, nor would it be a 'wake up call'.

But more than that, when I read your entire experience, my first thought was.... This is great! They were found out, the government enforced justice, the criminals were caught, Captialism works!

You realize that under a socialized system, they never would have been caught.... right?

Perfect example from France's health care, was a company that produced a 'sugar pill' called (roughly translated) "Fatty Legs". It was a like a mid-night cable TV diet pill, for women with 'fatty legs'. The Government, which pays for, and has to approve all drugs, granted this company a contract, worth billions of dollars, and last I checked (which has been awhile) they are STILL selling it. It does.... NOTHING. Complete fraud. Does not help anyone, and costs the tax payers of France millions every year. Total corrupt of the highest level.

Now tell me... you think the government of France is going to investigate that company? Of course not. THEY APPROVED THE DRUG. After 20 or 30 years of a known 'sugar pill' paid for and approved by the French government, there is no way that the government is going to investigate that company, and condemn themselves in the process. So... the drug is still on the market, still helping no one, and still costing millions every year in tax money.

That's the difference. I *WANT* government and business to be against each other. I *WANT* Enron CEO Skillings in prison. I want Madoff in prison.

Your experience in my book, is a positive thing! The did wrong, government caught it, and they were punished. How is that a bad for the American system?

 

[TGN]

No, Occupy Wall Street was real, but they were idiots. You think smashing windows, and pooping in a park, is what you want to stand for?

No those aren't the things they stood for. And they were successful in bringing "1%" and the "99%" into the popular lexicon as well as forcing wealth inequality back into the discourse. AND IT'S NOT GOING AWAY!

But when you can't argue against the other side's position, I guess resorting to broad fantasy stereotypes or fixating on isolated base-level examples is all you have.

 

[Politico]

Bahaha. They couldn't even say what they stood for. That's why the only thing anyone remembers is a bunch of hippies who crapped on cop cars and bailed the minute it got cold and their donated gluten free pizza ran out.

 

[Andylusion]

No, Occupy Wall Street was real, but they were idiots. You think smashing windows, and pooping in a park, is what you want to stand for?

No those aren't the things they stood for. And they were successful in bringing "1%" and the "99%" into the popular lexicon as well as forcing wealth inequality back into the discourse. AND IT'S NOT GOING AWAY!

But when you can't argue against the other side's position, I guess resorting to broad fantasy stereotypes or fixating on isolated base-level examples is all you have.

What you just said, is that they stood for nothing. Bringing "1% and 99%" into the popular lexicon, is nothing. You just said they stood for nothing.

First off, most of them are themselves the 1%. If you make over $30K a year, you ARE the top 1% of wage earners in the world.

Second, class-warfare has always existed, long before OWS existed, long before "1% and 99%" existed. I can remember these exact arguments being used back in the 90s, and the class warfare mantra. Different decade, different spoiled brats, different 'lexicon', same tired old repetitive arguments.

Third, wealth inequality is also nothing new, nothing that hasn't been heard a million times. It too, is a none argument. You can't change wealth inequality, at least not without harming the lower and middle class the most.

So if this is all the OWS stands for, then pooping in the park and smashing windows, is pretty much all there is. You have nothing. It's nothing. Bunch of spoiled brats complaining that life isn't easy. Well duh.

"We're not going away!"

Now there's a shocker. I learned a long long time ago, that stupid people never go away. They either grow up, and grow a brain, and become conservatives (which is what happened to me), or they just sit there and remain noisy and stupid for the rest of their lives. You can't 'fix' stupid. You just have to defeat it, and ignore it.

So yeah, I know you people are never going away. But this is not new, or not something that started with OWS.

 

[alanbmx123]

^^^^Yawn.... No one cares but hipsters that will grow up at some point


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[alanbmx123]

There should be no such thing as working poor, If you are working full time then one should have enough to eat, own a reliable vehicle, own a house, and have enough to raise a family. That's the way it should be. The so called American dream is empty margin.

The non working poor have iPhones, flat screen tv's, and fat bellies. Anyone with a little initiative and basic intelligence can make it in the US. Get off your ass and make it happen. The illegal aliens stand in front of Home Depot and make $100 a day
All the fat asses I see have plenty of food. Walmart is packed every day with working poor buying all kinds of crap


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[dblack]

So I guess American greed is a made up show, and Occupy Wall Street was a made up story, and Bernie Madoff was a fictional character, and on and on it all went or goes right ?

Not at all. But greed isn't the problem. Greed is just a powerful desire for wealth. As long as it's bound by a sound morality, it's a productive force in society.

... people should always recognize, is when it all goes wrong, then who exactly is behind that wrong?

Totally agree. That's why these debates between conservatives and liberals are so excruciating. Liberals railing about income inequality, as though anyone with the nerve amass wealth is inherently evil. And conservatives reflexively defending obvious corruption and graft as though wealth is a symbol of moral perfection. If both sides would simply focus on going after the bad actors, on creating laws that punish wrong-doers rather than manipulating society for some "greater good", we might find some real consensus.

 

[Andylusion]

There should be no such thing as working poor, If you are working full time then one should have enough to eat, own a reliable vehicle, own a house, and have enough to raise a family. That's the way it should be. The so called American dream is empty margin.

This exactly true. In 2012, I earned a taxable income of only $12,000. That was it. Yet I managed to eat, managed to pay my bills.

Now was it easy? Of course not! But that doesn't mean 'little man can't get ahead'. I was not stuck. After 2012, I realized I wasn't making it at that job, and did something absolutely unbelievable.... I got.... another job.

At one of the places I worked, a guy there was working for $10/hr, and he decided to re-tile his Kitchen. Well a friend came over, and was amazed at the quality of his work. He asked him to re-floor his kitchen. Soon he had a bunch of people asking for his work. He got this one job, and when he finished, the guy asked him if he could do his restaurant. Unknown to him, the guy whose house he just finished flooring, was the owner of a restaurant. Next thing he knows, Wendy's and other store chains are calling him up to do their flooring too.

By the time I left that job, he was making more money working one day a week, Saturday, than he was working 40 hours at his regular job. He was planning on quitting and doing flooring full time.

Now do that math on that.... 1 day = 40 hours at $10. If he quits his regular job, and works a full 5 day week flooring, that would be $100K.

Flooring isn't hard. It's not Ph.D required job. Flooring doesn't take super skills. Can you cut tile? Can you measure? Can you fit squares together? Can you put glue on the ground?

But people don't want to do it. It's hard work. It takes effort, and patients, and you have to be willing to get the job done, when it needs done. Wendy's doesn't give you a week to put in the floor. The usually give you ONE day. Why? Because the guys with the grills and friers are showing up tomorrow. So if you have problems, you stay there till 3 AM to finish the floor, or you won't be doing flooring anymore.

But people simply don't want to put in that effort. This is why people come here from other countries, and end up wealthy, while lazy butt Americans whine about the minimum wage.

The non working poor have iPhones, flat screen tv's, and fat bellies. Anyone with a little initiative and basic intelligence can make it in the US. Get off your ass and make it happen. The illegal aliens stand in front of Home Depot and make $100 a day
All the fat asses I see have plenty of food. Walmart is packed every day with working poor buying all kinds of crap

Exactly! If they canceled their 4G LTE, Max coverage unlimited data smart phone, and their high speed internet, and their premium package cable TV, with the Playboy channel, you know what they would have? MONEY.

But they buy all these TV dinners, and frozen pizza, and have all these services and luxury items, and then complain they are the working poor.

Bull.

So I guess American greed is a made up show, and Occupy Wall Street was a made up story, and Bernie Madoff was a fictional character, and on and on it all went or goes right ?

Not at all. But greed isn't the problem. Greed is just a powerful desire for wealth. As long as it's bound by a sound morality, it's a productive force in society.

... people should always recognize, is when it all goes wrong, then who exactly is behind that wrong?

Totally agree. That's why these debates between conservatives and liberals are so excruciating. Liberals railing about income inequality, as though anyone with the nerve amass wealth is inherently evil. And conservatives reflexively defending obvious corruption and graft as though wealth is a symbol of moral perfection. If both sides would simply focus on going after the bad actors, on creating laws that punish wrong-doers rather than manipulating society for some "greater good", we might find some real consensus.

No, this is what makes debates so excruciating.

I have been on forums, for 20 years. I was on forums on Bulletin Board Systems, that you had to dial into with a 'modem'. Most of you likely don't even know what a BBS is.

To this date...... In 20 years of being on forums, I have never once seen a conservative, or right-wing person claim that "wealth is a symbol of moral perfection".

In 20 years, I have never heard a conservative "reflexively defending obvious corruption".

This is the difference.

Liberals railing about income inequality, as though anyone with the nerve amass wealth is inherently evil

This statement here.... is true. You can find threads on this forum RIGHT NOW, that have this statement AS THE THREAD TITLE.

This statement has been true ever since I've been on forums, and likely centuries before I've been on forums.

And conservatives reflexively defending obvious corruption and graft as though wealth is a symbol of moral perfection

Now you show me where people are openly defending obvious corruption? Show me the thread titled "Madoff: False trumped up charges!"? Show me the thread "wealth is a symbol of moral perfection"? Show me the thread "Jeff Skilling is innocent!"?

Where are the people defending obvious corruption? Where are the people claiming wealth is a symbol of anything?

You can't. Because it's not true.

The reason you people make up crap like this, is because we dare to disagree on topics. You extrapolate that if we dare.... DARE to suggest a different view, then you just assume we defend corruption, and think wealth equals moral perfection.

Well... you are wrong, and so are all the other leftards that think the same.

 

[dblack]

To this date...... In 20 years of being on forums, I have never once seen a conservative, or right-wing person claim that "wealth is a symbol of moral perfection".

In 20 years, I have never heard a conservative "reflexively defending obvious corruption".

This is the difference.

Okay. But I have. I see it on here all the time. To be fair, they're usually responding to equally inane charges in the other direction, but it does happen. We push each other into ridiculous corners and make claims we think are protecting our position, when in fact they just make it seem unreasonably biased.

 

[jasonnfree]

There should be no such thing as working poor, If you are working full time then one should have enough to eat, own a reliable vehicle, own a house, and have enough to raise a family. That's the way it should be. The so called American dream is empty margin.

The non working poor have iPhones, flat screen tv's, and fat bellies. Anyone with a little initiative and basic intelligence can make it in the US. Get off your ass and make it happen. The illegal aliens stand in front of Home Depot and make $100 a day
All the fat asses I see have plenty of food. Walmart is packed every day with working poor buying all kinds of crap


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

How do you know so much about the non working poor or the working poor? Do you go around questioning them? If so, ever get knocked on your butt? Same with illegals, you question them or is this what you pay them?

 

[beagle9]

There should be no such thing as working poor, If you are working full time then one should have enough to eat, own a reliable vehicle, own a house, and have enough to raise a family. That's the way it should be. The so called American dream is empty margin.

The non working poor have iPhones, flat screen tv's, and fat bellies. Anyone with a little initiative and basic intelligence can make it in the US. Get off your ass and make it happen. The illegal aliens stand in front of Home Depot and make $100 a day
All the fat asses I see have plenty of food. Walmart is packed every day with working poor buying all kinds of crap

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ok, for some reason your in Wal-Mart, and you see me there with my truck driver fat belly buying some supplies, and you figure by my looks that I am poor and have to be there. Ok meanwhile according to you the illegals who are Mexicans, are over there at Home Depot mopping up on the cash-eola, and I am the fool in the whole deal, so that's how you see it all in your mind?

 

[Andylusion]

There should be no such thing as working poor, If you are working full time then one should have enough to eat, own a reliable vehicle, own a house, and have enough to raise a family. That's the way it should be. The so called American dream is empty margin.

The non working poor have iPhones, flat screen tv's, and fat bellies. Anyone with a little initiative and basic intelligence can make it in the US. Get off your ass and make it happen. The illegal aliens stand in front of Home Depot and make $100 a day
All the fat asses I see have plenty of food. Walmart is packed every day with working poor buying all kinds of crap

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ok, for some reason your in Wal-Mart, and you see me there with my truck driver fat belly buying some supplies, and you figure by my looks that I am poor and have to be there. Ok meanwhile according to you the illegals who are Mexicans, are over there at Home Depot mopping up on the cash-eola, and I am the fool in the whole deal, so that's how you see it all in your mind?

First off, the average truck driver, earns $46K.

Truck Driver - Tractor Trailer Salary | Salary.com

The lowest earns $35K.

We are the 1%: You need $34k income to be in the global elite... and half the world's richest live in the U.S. | Mail Online

If you earn $34K.... you are in the top 1% of wage earners in the world.

You are not poor. Sorry. You are disqualified from that label.

This is 'poor' in America.

Notice the power lines? The Air Conditioning? The Car? The plethora of clothes? The Satellite TV? The Telephone wires?

That's poor the rest of the world knows. That's northern India I believe.

Notice the power lines? The Air Conditioning? The Car? The plethora of clothes? The Satellite TV? The Telephone wires?

Oh wait.... these people are ACTUALLY poor, and don't have such high tech devices as a "door" to their 'home'.

If you work a full 40 hours a week in America, there is no legitimate way to claim you are 'poor'. By any reasonable definition, you are not poor.

 

[Desperado]

The 36-hour work week/3-day weekend
It is already here, many hospitals have their staff on this type of schedule.

 

[beagle9]

The non working poor have iPhones, flat screen tv's, and fat bellies. Anyone with a little initiative and basic intelligence can make it in the US. Get off your ass and make it happen. The illegal aliens stand in front of Home Depot and make $100 a day
All the fat asses I see have plenty of food. Walmart is packed every day with working poor buying all kinds of crap

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ok, for some reason your in Wal-Mart, and you see me there with my truck driver fat belly buying some supplies, and you figure by my looks that I am poor and have to be there. Ok meanwhile according to you the illegals who are Mexicans, are over there at Home Depot mopping up on the cash-eola, and I am the fool in the whole deal, so that's how you see it all in your mind?

First off, the average truck driver, earns $46K.

Truck Driver - Tractor Trailer Salary | Salary.com

The lowest earns $35K.

We are the 1%: You need $34k income to be in the global elite... and half the world's richest live in the U.S. | Mail Online

If you earn $34K.... you are in the top 1% of wage earners in the world.

You are not poor. Sorry. You are disqualified from that label.

This is 'poor' in America.

Notice the power lines? The Air Conditioning? The Car? The plethora of clothes? The Satellite TV? The Telephone wires?

That's poor the rest of the world knows. That's northern India I believe.

Notice the power lines? The Air Conditioning? The Car? The plethora of clothes? The Satellite TV? The Telephone wires?

Oh wait.... these people are ACTUALLY poor, and don't have such high tech devices as a "door" to their 'home'.

If you work a full 40 hours a week in America, there is no legitimate way to claim you are 'poor'. By any reasonable definition, you are not poor.

Now why would you make a claim that you know what the average truck driver makes, and this especially if you are an advocate of the free market system ? You see if the free market system was running independently and great just as it is supposed to be, then you wouldn't be able to make such a claim as this would you, and why is this, because it wouldn't be true would it? Example if a truck driver worked for FedEx, and another truck driver worked for J.B Hunt, do you think that the two would average out to your theory of a truck driver making on average $42,000 dollars a year ? To be able to come up with such numbers like you do, means it doesn't fit well with the free market system does it, and it doesn't fit well with it operating free and independently like it is supposed to be, so who is in favor of rate controls here for all drivers regardless of their companies worked for, is it you or is it me ? If a certified truck driver lived in your first picture, then who would have caused that to happen ? I bet you could come up with a million excuses as to why it would be the driver that caused it, and not you and your way of thinking about what he or she should be making, and this regardless of their company worked for.. Will the real socialist/communist please stand up.