"Hard-Working Americans"

DGS49

Diamond Member
Apr 12, 2012
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Pittsburgh
It makes me nauseous when I hear any politician refer to “hard-working Americans.” Almost invariably the speaker is a Democrat, and in most cases the speaker has never been gainfully employed in his or her own life, so what would they even know about hard-working Americans, other than rumors they might have heard about them? But on to my point…

Our Beloved President has been quoted recently at numerous friendly venues on the subject of “raising the minimum wage,” and in at least one case he used exactly the following words:

“I believe that every hard-working American should be able to earn a living wage.” When he says this, the audience of Democrat partisans invariably breaks out into spontaneous applause.

As stated, the point is inarguable. Of course, people who work hard should be able to earn a living wage. But let’s look a little closer.

The President with his statement creates a class of people that he calls “hard-working Americans” (hereinafter, “HWA”). Unless these are just empty words, there must be people who are excluded from that classification; otherwise, why create it? He could as easily have said, “…people who are employed in the United States,” but he chose to use, “hard-working Americans.” For the purposes of clarity I will refer to those outside the group of HWA as, “slackers” and “foreigners.” They are either not “hard-working”, or not “American,” or both. And obviously our working population includes tens of millions of slackers and foreigners. In fact, I think we can say conservatively that at least 25% of high school graduates, and everyone else who failed to legitimately graduate from high school is most likely a slacker or a foreigner, and thus would be excluded from the President’s vision for the new, higher minimum wage. The total of slackers and foreigners is AT LEAST 30% of our working population.

So what about those slackers and foreigners? Should they be able to earn a living wage? The President doesn’t say explicitly, but presumably not, since he must have created the class of HWA for some purpose and not just to pass gas through his mouth. Clearly, in the President’s vision the ability to earn a living wage should be limited to "hard-working Americans."

Should there be a separate minimum wage for slackers and foreigners? Who gets to decide who is a slacker and who is a HWA? Obviously, we can’t allow EMPLOYERS to make this crucial decision; the rich-but-selfish EMPLOYERS are the whole reason why “we” think we need a minimum wage in the first place. If it were up to them, everybody would be either a slacker or a foreigner. I think we need a new Federal Government agency to classify prospective employees into HWA, slacker, or foreigner.

Should it be possible to be promoted from slacker to HWA? How? It just gets complicateder and complicateder the closer you look at it.

Moving on…what about the expression, “…should be able to earn a living wage”? What does the expression, “to be able,” mean? As a golfer, I can truthfully say that I am “able to” hit a perfect shot every time I address the ball. I know that I am able to do it because I have done it countless times in the past. In fact, about half the time I hit a perfect shot and the rest of the time my shots are imperfect. So if I want to ascertain whether HWA’s are “able to” earn a living wage, that doesn’t necessarily mean that all HWA’s ARE earning a living wage at all times, but only that s/he is able to earn a living wage. And one need only look at the fact that there are about a hundred million people in America who ARE earning a living wage to conclude that any HWA “is able to” earn a living wage. He may have to educate himself in a useful trade, form his own company, re-locate to a more promising geographical area, or apply for work at a hundred different firms, but obviously it can be done; it is done every day all over America. If s/he is already employed in an unsatisfactory job, s/he may even have to go out and FIND A BETTER JOB! This possibility is lost on Democrat politicians, I assume because none of them have actually experienced gainful employment in the private sector. Lacking this experience and any common sense, they seem to think that if you start your career stocking shelves at a grocery store, your only possible path to a living wage is for the grocery store owner (or McDonald's franchisee) to eventually pay you a “living wage” for stocking his shelves (or flipping burgers). But in the real world, there is no question that every HWA is able to earn a living wage. Hell, I’m a slacker and I earn a pretty good wage myself!

But what does any of this have to do with the MINIMUM WAGE? The minimum wage doesn’t just apply to those who are hard working, and it doesn’t just apply to Americans. It applies to every lazy, inexperienced, incompetent, youthful, unproductive, illegal-alien, counterproductive, non-English speaking, “differently-abled,” or comatose human who is lucky enough to talk an employer into hiring him. So even if I agree with Our Beloved President that “every hard-working American should be able to earn a living wage,” what the hell does that have to do with the statutory minimum wage?

Nothing. It is a vacuous statement, uttered by an incorrigible liar.

So what else is new?
 
That's a lot of wordage just to say "fuck the American working poor".
 
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This tactic has been wildly successful for the Democrats.

The inference, obviously, is that someone who has more than you didn't earn it and doesn't work hard. No appreciation is considered for the hard work, sacrifice, failures, risks and self-discipline it took to get there, of course, because that doesn't feed the narrative.

Seems to me we've passed the tipping point, though. Say words like "discipline" or "sacrifice" or "responsibility" and the scoffing begins, as if those things are negative attributes and practices. A clear vector is drawn from those words to greed. Have you ever heard Obama talk about the hard work that was needed to get to a place of achievement and/or high income? Of course not. Do you ever see the Democrats raise expectations for their voters to work harder? Of course not.

Now, everyone is entitled whether they work hard or not. But Obama will certainly SAY they work hard.

.
 
This isn't worth it's own thread because our resident dimocraps live in denial and will totally ignore it and lie about it.

But if you want to know what it is our dimocrap scum are aiming for, if you want to understand the life they want us to lead, if you want to see the future that dimocraps have in mind for us, you need to read this.

The Once Great City of Havana | World Affairs Journal

--snippage-- “Do you want ice cream and dulces (sweets),” his sister’s teacher, a staunch Fidelista, asked the class.

“Yes!” the kids said.

“Okay, then,” she said. “Put your hands together, bow your heads, and pray to God that he brings you ice cream and dulces.”

Nothing happened, of course. God did not did not provide the children with ice cream or dulces.

“Now,” the teacher said. “Put your hands together and pray to Fidel that the Revolution gives you ice cream and sweets.”

The kids closed their eyes and bowed their heads. They prayed to Fidel Castro. And when the kids raised their heads and opened their eyes, ice cream and dulces had miraculously appeared on the teacher’s desk.

“Notwithstanding the murders and assassinations and tortures and such,” Prieto said, “the indoctrination and exploitation of children is the worst thing the regime has done and continues to do to this day. A student’s file in Cuba doesn’t just have information on their attendance and education. It’s more like a dossier on that child’s family and their revolutionary ‘ardor.’ Kids are made to spy on their families. They’re questioned as to whether the family speaks ill of Fidel and the Revolution, on whether or not they attend meetings, or whether they have more than their allotted share of milk, etc. This is why the Cuban American community created such a ruckus over Elian Gonzalez. Kids don’t belong to their parents in Cuba, they belong to the state. Period.”

He says the worst thing about the CDR spies is that they don’t even work for the government. They volunteer to rat out their neighbors for an extra handful of beans every month. “It is literally citizen spying on citizen,” he said. “I’ve heard of cases of a brother snitching on a brother, or a son snitching on a father. Once the regime comes to an end, things in Cuba are going to get ugly and bloody, especially with and against those CDR bastards. If I were a father living in Cuba trying to feed my family and had the CDR make my life a living hell every time I happened upon a black market piece of meat, or milk for my children, you can bet your ass that the first guy I’m coming for once the government goes down is that CDR SOB that’s been snitching on me for years. People are always talking about reconciliation when it comes to Cuba, how Cubans outside of the island are going to have to reconcile with Cubans still on the island. There will, of course, be some of that. But the real reconciliation needed will be between those ‘haves’ like the CDRs and the ‘have nots.’”--snip--

Edge:
I have tried for years to tell you people what dimocraps and their political masters are like but I'm not a writer, so I'm not very good at it.

This guy is.

Although you may not draw immediate parallels to this story and what our dimocrap scum pals are doing, once you read the story things will start to mesh in your mind. Not right away but over a period of time.

I just hope it's not too long of a period of time. We don't have a lot left.

Read it. Understand it. Fear it
 
.

This tactic has been wildly successful for the Democrats.

The inference, obviously, is that someone who has more than you didn't earn it and doesn't work hard. No appreciation is considered for the hard work, sacrifice, failures, risks and self-discipline it took to get there, of course, because that doesn't feed the narrative.

Seems to me we've passed the tipping point, though. Say words like "discipline" or "sacrifice" or "responsibility" and the scoffing begins, as if those things are negative attributes and practices. A clear vector is drawn from those words to greed. Have you ever heard Obama talk about the hard work that was needed to get to a place of achievement and/or high income? Of course not. Do you ever see the Democrats raise expectations for their voters to work harder? Of course not.

Now, everyone is entitled whether they work hard or not. But Obama will certainly SAY they work hard.

.

Americans are hard working people. They get less vacation time, less paid sick leave, less paid maternity leave, less personal leave, no health care and less public assistance than any other industrialized nation. They LIVE "discipline", "sacrifice" and "responsibility" EVERY DAY.

But that doesn't 'fit' the right wing narrative of "moocher", "entitlement mentality" and "lazy"

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
President John F. Kennedy
 
When Obama says "hard working Americans" he talking about his victims
 
They LIVE "discipline", "sacrifice" and "responsibility" EVERY DAY.


As compared to which other Americans, precisely?

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As compared to other countries. I don't believe the American people are moochers, have an entitlement mentality or are lazy, do you?


No more than anywhere else. And I don't think that's the problem.

The problem is pitting those with less against those with more for purely political gain, and, as I said, the Democrats have been wildly successful at that.

So I'll ask you a question: How often do you see Democrats applaud the hard work of high earners, or push their constituents to depend on themselves via hard work, sacrifice and responsibility? Especially as compared to the number of times they provide platitudes like "hard working Americans" to people who don't earn as much?

.
 
Never mind minimum wage, people who earn less than say, $12 an hour, work harder for longer and pay a greater percentage of their wages for simple food and shelter than any of us and yet time after time they are made the designated victims of cuts and belt tightening. When is it their turn to be considered in the grand scheme?
 
People who really need to make more money than they do, don't do what they need to do to make more money. They don't get an education, they don't get training. They prefer to stay at the same job they got when they were 18, and expect to make that their careers. If they stay in these jobs because it is easy and made comfortable, they never move on and there is never an opening for the next 18 year old. This is what happened in every country where there is a very high minimum wage and why Europe has such an enormous unemployment rate among young people.
 
Never mind minimum wage, people who earn less than say, $12 an hour, work harder for longer and pay a greater percentage of their wages for simple food and shelter than any of us and yet time after time they are made the designated victims of cuts and belt tightening. When is it their turn to be considered in the grand scheme?


For most of them, that will come as they continue to work hard and move up the ladder at work; or find another job that fits their skills and pays more; or do what it takes to improve their skills and get a better job; or take the big risk of starting their own business.

Pretty obvious stuff. I have faith that people can do that, as long as they're not convinced of their victimhood and that they need someone else to take care of them.

.
 
As compared to which other Americans, precisely?

.

As compared to other countries. I don't believe the American people are moochers, have an entitlement mentality or are lazy, do you?


No more than anywhere else. And I don't think that's the problem.

The problem is pitting those with less against those with more for purely political gain, and, as I said, the Democrats have been wildly successful at that.

So I'll ask you a question: How often do you see Democrats applaud the hard work of high earners, or push their constituents to depend on themselves via hard work, sacrifice and responsibility? Especially as compared to the number of times they provide platitudes like "hard working Americans" to people who don't earn as much?

.

You always like to play the 'partisan' card, but your negative narrative is always targeting Democrats and liberals. Have you NEVER heard anyone on the right portray hard working Americans as moochers, having an entitlement mentality or lazy?

Here's one...the STANDARD BEARER for the Republican party...

"All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it. That that's an entitlement."
 
As compared to other countries. I don't believe the American people are moochers, have an entitlement mentality or are lazy, do you?


No more than anywhere else. And I don't think that's the problem.

The problem is pitting those with less against those with more for purely political gain, and, as I said, the Democrats have been wildly successful at that.

So I'll ask you a question: How often do you see Democrats applaud the hard work of high earners, or push their constituents to depend on themselves via hard work, sacrifice and responsibility? Especially as compared to the number of times they provide platitudes like "hard working Americans" to people who don't earn as much?

.

You always like to play the 'partisan' card, but your negative narrative is always targeting Democrats and liberals. Have you NEVER heard anyone on the right portray hard working Americans as moochers, having an entitlement mentality or lazy?

Here's one...the STANDARD BEARER for the Republican party...

"All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it. That that's an entitlement."


Of course they do, they paint with a very broad and simplistic brush. And as I said above, I don't think that stuff is a problem per se. I also said that America doesn't have more "lazy" people than other countries. Wasn't that clear enough?

Now, what about the very specific (and obvious) point I made about how lower-income workers can improve their own lives, the road taken by millions of others? Are you going to disagree with my point?

.
 
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Never mind minimum wage, people who earn less than say, $12 an hour, work harder for longer and pay a greater percentage of their wages for simple food and shelter than any of us and yet time after time they are made the designated victims of cuts and belt tightening. When is it their turn to be considered in the grand scheme?

Never.

Money.... Wages, are just an exchange for a person's time.

A Brain Surgeon's time is worth more than yours.

A skilled tradesman's time is worth more than yours.

When I go to a Grocery Store, what I'm giving the people there is not my money, but an exchange of my time.

I got paid for my time based on what it was worth when I was working.

You want to get paid more? Be worth more.

Like that's ever going to happen :lmao:

Not......

You and your kind don't want equal pay or fair wages, what you want is forced poverty. You, quite possibly, don't know it but it's what your political masters want.

Read the last bit of that article I posted..... You won't unless I serve it up to you on a platter, so here it is......

The Once Great City of Havana | World Affairs Journal

In Havana I met an elderly Jewish couple from Austin, Texas. They travel a lot, especially now that they’re retired.

She escaped Nazi Germany when she was a child. She’s old enough to remember Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, the prologue to the Holocaust when mobs of rampaging brownshirts shattered the windows of Jewish-owned buildings and stores.

Her family fled to Cuba, of all places, before moving again to the United States. She and her husband have been married for more than sixty years now.

“I’ve seen poverty in other countries,” she said, “but here it bothers me more. I’m not sure why.”

“It bothers me more, too,” I said. “And I know why.”

She has personal experience with totalitarian governments, so I wasn’t surprised when she agreed with my analysis after I shared it.

“In most countries,” I said, “no one has to live in a slum. It’s difficult to get out, but it’s possible to get out. Here people get twenty dollars a month and a ration card and that’s it. They’re forced by law to be poor. Exile is the only way out.”

She nodded and thought about what I said. I could see from the look on her face that she was remembering terrible events in her own life that I can never relate to.

“I’m glad I came,” she said. “It has been quite an experience.
 
Never mind minimum wage, people who earn less than say, $12 an hour, work harder for longer and pay a greater percentage of their wages for simple food and shelter than any of us and yet time after time they are made the designated victims of cuts and belt tightening. When is it their turn to be considered in the grand scheme?

Minimum wage for minimum skills. Want more than the federally mandates 7.50 an hour then get an education or a skillset that employers want.
 
.

This tactic has been wildly successful for the Democrats.

The inference, obviously, is that someone who has more than you didn't earn it and doesn't work hard. No appreciation is considered for the hard work, sacrifice, failures, risks and self-discipline it took to get there, of course, because that doesn't feed the narrative.

Seems to me we've passed the tipping point, though. Say words like "discipline" or "sacrifice" or "responsibility" and the scoffing begins, as if those things are negative attributes and practices. A clear vector is drawn from those words to greed. Have you ever heard Obama talk about the hard work that was needed to get to a place of achievement and/or high income? Of course not. Do you ever see the Democrats raise expectations for their voters to work harder? Of course not.

Now, everyone is entitled whether they work hard or not. But Obama will certainly SAY they work hard.

.

Americans are hard working people. They get less vacation time, less paid sick leave, less paid maternity leave, less personal leave, no health care and less public assistance than any other industrialized nation. They LIVE "discipline", "sacrifice" and "responsibility" EVERY DAY.

But that doesn't 'fit' the right wing narrative of "moocher", "entitlement mentality" and "lazy"

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
President John F. Kennedy

lol.

Hard working people do not care about how much vacation time they get; sick time they get; entitlements they get.

Hard working people do what they need to do to support their families and get ahead for they are well aware that they will be able to dictate their terms when they become indispensable to their employers.

Those that care about the other crap?

Are not hard working people. They are people that work hard at getting as much as they can with the least amount of effort.
 
Never mind minimum wage, people who earn less than say, $12 an hour, work harder for longer and pay a greater percentage of their wages for simple food and shelter than any of us and yet time after time they are made the designated victims of cuts and belt tightening. When is it their turn to be considered in the grand scheme?

Minimum wage for minimum skills. Want more than the federally mandates 7.50 an hour then get an education or a skillset that employers want.

or simply make yourself standout.

If Jim uses all of his sick days, personal days and vacation time; cant make it to work because of 2 inches of snow on the ground; ...and leaves at 5 on the nose because the law allows him to?

He will not stand out.
 
Never mind minimum wage, people who earn less than say, $12 an hour, work harder for longer and pay a greater percentage of their wages for simple food and shelter than any of us and yet time after time they are made the designated victims of cuts and belt tightening. When is it their turn to be considered in the grand scheme?

Minimum wage for minimum skills. Want more than the federally mandates 7.50 an hour then get an education or a skillset that employers want.

Next time I see an ad in the paper for "Whiny Crybaby Wanted; $50 per hour" I'll be sure to let him know
 

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