If your life is bad, who is most at fault: YOU, a corporation, the government?

[Photonic]

You are doing the cop out.

We blindly support partisan politcs being led to believe that anyone in our party is better than the other party.
We are being used by the machine to their best interests not ours.

...What?

Did you just say I was making a cop out at the same time as parroting what I just said?

Think about it.

What if we had an election and virtually no one showed up?
Or most wrote in Jon Stewart for president or somesuch.

But noooo we keep voting for the same bunch of liars and their lying cronies.

No, I understand this quite well. But candidates lie. Unfortunately, you don't find out about it until they are in office most of the time.

 

[yidnar]

I'm in the "99%" I suppose. Earn about 60K a year. Very modest. Own a home and a car. Have no debt except 30K more on my home. I graduated high school and college. Avoided having kids out of wedlock. Never committed any felonies. Worked a lot of crappy, low pay jobs after college and kept working and applying, and eventually got better jobs. I workout and stay fit. I'm not in the richest 1%. Yet....I'm happy. I'm fed. I'm healthy. I have no gripes. No ill will towards any rich person or corporation.

So I must ask....if you are in the 99% AND you are pissed about it, who is more at fault for your circumstance?

- Yourself?
- A corporation?
- The government?
- A rich guy?

I think some of you folks need to join "Occupy Myself" and realize your unhappiness is almost 99% your own fault. Stop blaming others. Work low level stuff until you earn your way up like the rest of us did.

Because I bet if you graduate, don't make kids out of wedlock, stay out of debt and out of jail, stay employed no matter how much you think you are "too good" for a job, and keep yourself fit........I bet if you do all that you'll be happily among the 99%. Like me.

You have exactly as much as the owners of this country want you to have. They let you have just enough to keep you content and sedentary, to where it's still cheaper than hiring the guns to control you.

spoken like the loser crybabies that libbs are !! they just gota blame somebody else for their mistakes !!

 

[MikeK]

I don't know what my percent is. I had a little business, made a comfortable living. Hired a couple of employees. Life was pretty good. I could make plans for the future. Maybe expand a little in two years or so.

Then came obama.

After obama told me how rich I was, he raised my taxes, regulated, fe'ed and permitted me to the point where I had to let the employees go.

Then my accountant had a serious talk with me. I was just marginal enough to have the government put me under completely. I would not survive the financial requirements in the health care bill ALONE! I was advised to sell the business take my retirement and go someplace cheap to wait out his administration then start when this regime was over.

Because of the financial instability caused by obama's policies, a buyer was impossible. Everyone wanted to buy, but after this administration was over and they had a better idea of what the nation's financial picture was going to be like.

I closed the business, sold off the assets and am now waiting it out in the desert. My hope is that obama is gone at the next election and takes all his criminal friends with him.

If you would like to know who and what actually is responsible for the circumstances you've described (not that Obama is without some guilt) you need to watch a video called, Inside Job, which you can either buy, or pay to watch on NetFlix, or you can even watch it free by signing up for a free month there. But whichever means you choose you will be doing yourself a favor and acquiring a considerable education by watching this two-hour video because it shows and tells you exactly what has gone wrong with our economy, who did it and how it was done.

I tell you this because you are rebuking the wrong people for their problems. The reason you are doing that is you are ignorant of some very critical facts. And as an intelligent, educated citizen you owe it to your country, to your countrymen and to yourself to make such a slight effort to learn some very important truths.

Having read what you've written I believe if you watch the video through one of the free methods you will end up buying it -- as I did. In fact I bought three copies which are being passed around to others close to me.

Go here for more info about this video: Netflix - Unlimited TV Shows & Movies Online

 

[OohPooPahDoo]

I'm in the "99%" I suppose. Earn about 60K a year. Very modest. Own a home and a car. Have no debt except 30K more on my home. I graduated high school and college. Avoided having kids out of wedlock. Never committed any felonies. Worked a lot of crappy, low pay jobs after college and kept working and applying, and eventually got better jobs. I workout and stay fit. I'm not in the richest 1%. Yet....I'm happy. I'm fed. I'm healthy. I have no gripes. No ill will towards any rich person or corporation.

So I must ask....if you are in the 99% AND you are pissed about it, who is more at fault for your circumstance?

- Yourself?
- A corporation?
- The government?
- A rich guy?

I think some of you folks need to join "Occupy Myself" and realize your unhappiness is almost 99% your own fault. Stop blaming others. Work low level stuff until you earn your way up like the rest of us did.

Because I bet if you graduate, don't make kids out of wedlock, stay out of debt and out of jail, stay employed no matter how much you think you are "too good" for a job, and keep yourself fit........I bet if you do all that you'll be happily among the 99%. Like me.

Most people got to where they are at mostly by luck - good or bad.

Just look at Wall St. Some investors make "poor" choices and wash out - others make "smart" choices and make a fortune - funny thing is though, we can't tell who made the "poor" choices and who made the "smart" choices until AFTER the fact.

 

[LoneLaugher]

I'm part of the 99% as well. I work hard, make a good living, and have a decent savings for retirement.

Unlike the original poster, though

I stand with Adam Smith who, famously, in his Wealth of Nations, conditioned the success of capitalism on the tight control of speculators with borrowed money; he called them “prodigals and projectors” and warned that they would deflect capital away from the job growth economy. Adam Smith is rolling over in his grave because of Wall Street, which destroyed the job prospects of a generation of Americans through the greatest, most criminally leveraged derivative-ponzi-scheme in world history. (Does the OP know how much say Bear, Lehman, AIG and Goldman burned in the derivatives market? This has nothing to do with moronic welfare queen home owners and everything to do with a financial sector which methodically and systematically placed bets that it could not cover)

If Smith were alive today he would vomit at the growth of financial services from 4% to 40% of the economy. He would vomit on a financial system which directs investments away from the manufacture of goods into a speculative casino which merely pushes up stock values so a small group of investors can parachute to safety before the bubble crashes and destroys the economy.

When the activity of the investment class becomes so radically de-coupled from job growth - because a small group of special interests has captured our political system - people have a right to be mad.

Except for AIG, I'd bet your examples made money on derivatives.
The crash wasn't caused by derivatives, it was caused by defaulting mortages.
And worsened by attacks on the banks after.

This is what a pimple on the ass of common sense looks like.

 

[editec]

I'm in the "99%" I suppose. Earn about 60K a year. Very modest. Own a home and a car. Have no debt except 30K more on my home. I graduated high school and college. Avoided having kids out of wedlock. Never committed any felonies. Worked a lot of crappy, low pay jobs after college and kept working and applying, and eventually got better jobs. I workout and stay fit. I'm not in the richest 1%. Yet....I'm happy. I'm fed. I'm healthy. I have no gripes. No ill will towards any rich person or corporation.

So I must ask....if you are in the 99% AND you are pissed about it, who is more at fault for your circumstance?

- Yourself?
- A corporation?
- The government?
- A rich guy?

I think some of you folks need to join "Occupy Myself" and realize your unhappiness is almost 99% your own fault. Stop blaming others. Work low level stuff until you earn your way up like the rest of us did.

Because I bet if you graduate, don't make kids out of wedlock, stay out of debt and out of jail, stay employed no matter how much you think you are "too good" for a job, and keep yourself fit........I bet if you do all that you'll be happily among the 99%. Like me.

Well then, a GOLD STAR is in order for you, my boy.

 

[JoeB131]

Yes, there are hard stories out there. I kinda went through the same deal. Got hurt bad in police work, and they "suggested" I take an early out (medical bills). It worked out and I did leave. Had to completely change careers, start over, etc. But that was my situation. Bill Clinton (prez at the time) didn't have anything to do with it.

I think life and society dictates that we be versatile and able to adapt. Maybe have to change careers. Thats the reality as our society moves from a farming, agricultural one into a modern, technology based one. I don't think rich people, governments or corporations are at fault, it's just where society is going. Versatility and adaptability are gonna be the virtues of success. So long term, steady jobs with good pay and benefits are gonna phase out, and we'll have to be smart and move into the right fields of work at the right time.

I agree, we should all be ready to adapt. But that wasn't the point I was trying to get across.

If I had to change because a marketplace changed, that would be fine. A company I worked for in 1996 went out of business because its business model no longer worked. All companies like it went out of business. That's fine.

But the problem i see is that we have a few greedy people in charge of the economy, who are ultimately self destructive.

When I got my first phone in 1986, I could call up the phone company if I had a question on a bill or a problem with the line. I would be immediately connected with a real American who could fix the problem

Last week, I had a phone problem, I was put through 15 minutes of pressing buttons before I got to talk to a real person, and by the time I did it was some chick in a call center in the Philippines. (I could tell by her accent.)

Now, guess what, phones have not gotten any cheaper. They've gotten more expensive. But somehow, I don't think that gal in the Philippines was making anywhere near what the lady I talked to in 1986 was making. So where did the money go?

We need a revitalization of the middle class, but we seem intent on demolishing the last remnents of it.

 

[tonystewart1]

I'm in the "99%" I suppose. Earn about 60K a year. Very modest. Own a home and a car. Have no debt except 30K more on my home. I graduated high school and college. Avoided having kids out of wedlock. Never committed any felonies. Worked a lot of crappy, low pay jobs after college and kept working and applying, and eventually got better jobs. I workout and stay fit. I'm not in the richest 1%. Yet....I'm happy. I'm fed. I'm healthy. I have no gripes. No ill will towards any rich person or corporation.

So I must ask....if you are in the 99% AND you are pissed about it, who is more at fault for your circumstance?

- Yourself?
- A corporation?
- The government?
- A rich guy?

I think some of you folks need to join "Occupy Myself" and realize your unhappiness is almost 99% your own fault. Stop blaming others. Work low level stuff until you earn your way up like the rest of us did.

Because I bet if you graduate, don't make kids out of wedlock, stay out of debt and out of jail, stay employed no matter how much you think you are "too good" for a job, and keep yourself fit........I bet if you do all that you'll be happily among the 99%. Like me.

Spoken like a true self made man who takes not only credit for success but responsibiltiy for mistakes. More people used to be like this until Americans became cry babies who want to blame everything on someone else.

 

[uscitizen]

Part of the problem as I see it is the unwillingness of corporations to hire despite consistently posting higher and higher profits. They are causing the same political instability that they refuse to hire because of. It's a catch-22.

Not to mention their unwillingness to hire people who have been unemployed even if it was for economic reasons and not unwillingness to work. They make it more difficult for people to get back to work. Welfare does not help either because it keeps them at home instead of out searching.

I was with you up to the ‘welfare’ part, which conflicts with your original correct statement that the issue isn’t an unwillingness to work. ‘Welfare’ is a symptom, nothing more – and necessary considering hiring is anathema to the corporate bottom line.

This is due to the mentality that has existed in corporations for a few decades. Increasing efficiencies which means laying off employees and offshoring more work.

Also due to mergers which reduces the workforce in the combined company.

 

[Mr Natural]

Wow. I strongly disagree. They are demanding ridiculous things.

The society they live in allows them to become billionaires if they should take that path and succeed. It also allows them to live happy, middle class lives.

However, it requires responsible choices, like school, not committing crime, sexual responsibility, debt control, and the humble willingness to work low level jobs and work one's way up.

They seem unwilling to do one or more of the above.

You are wrong. Have you ever thought of that? That you could be wrong about what it is that prevents many from reaching middle class bliss?

Ok. Then WHAT stops someone from becoming middle class?

Other than no education, a rap sheet, lots of kids to feed, big time debt or laziness?

Other than self inflicted issues, what stops a person?

The same thing that stops every kid who plays little league baseball from making the bigs or every kid that straps on a guitar from becoming a rock star:

A lack of talent.

 

[WatertheTree]

I'm in the "99%" I suppose. Earn about 60K a year. Very modest. Own a home and a car. Have no debt except 30K more on my home. I graduated high school and college. Avoided having kids out of wedlock. Never committed any felonies. Worked a lot of crappy, low pay jobs after college and kept working and applying, and eventually got better jobs. I workout and stay fit. I'm not in the richest 1%. Yet....I'm happy. I'm fed. I'm healthy. I have no gripes. No ill will towards any rich person or corporation.

So I must ask....if you are in the 99% AND you are pissed about it, who is more at fault for your circumstance?

- Yourself?
- A corporation?
- The government?
- A rich guy?

I think some of you folks need to join "Occupy Myself" and realize your unhappiness is almost 99% your own fault. Stop blaming others. Work low level stuff until you earn your way up like the rest of us did.

Because I bet if you graduate, don't make kids out of wedlock, stay out of debt and out of jail, stay employed no matter how much you think you are "too good" for a job, and keep yourself fit........I bet if you do all that you'll be happily among the 99%. Like me.

Spoken like a true self made man who takes not only credit for success but responsibiltiy for mistakes. More people used to be like this until Americans became cry babies who want to blame everything on someone else.

Its not about being crybabies dipshit, its about having a future. People under thirty have none unless they were lucky enough to be born into capital.

Your not going to convince me otherwise because ive played your game since 16. Its 16 years later, 4 years shy of where professionals retire. I am not doing much better then when I was 16. There is now more upward mobility in europe then there is here.

 

[Contumacious]

I'm in the "99%" I suppose. Earn about 60K a year. Very modest. Own a home and a car. Have no debt except 30K more on my home. I graduated high school and college. Avoided having kids out of wedlock. Never committed any felonies. Worked a lot of crappy, low pay jobs after college and kept working and applying, and eventually got better jobs. I workout and stay fit. I'm not in the richest 1%. Yet....I'm happy. I'm fed. I'm healthy. I have no gripes. No ill will towards any rich person or corporation.

So I must ask....if you are in the 99% AND you are pissed about it, who is more at fault for your circumstance?

- Yourself?
- A corporation?
- The government?
- A rich guy?

I think some of you folks need to join "Occupy Myself" and realize your unhappiness is almost 99% your own fault. Stop blaming others. Work low level stuff until you earn your way up like the rest of us did.

Because I bet if you graduate, don't make kids out of wedlock, stay out of debt and out of jail, stay employed no matter how much you think you are "too good" for a job, and keep yourself fit........I bet if you do all that you'll be happily among the 99%. Like me.

Spoken like a true self made man who takes not only credit for success but responsibiltiy for mistakes. More people used to be like this until Americans became cry babies who want to blame everything on someone else.

Its not about being crybabies dipshit, its about having a future. People under thirty have none unless they were lucky enough to be born into capital.

Your not going to convince me otherwise because ive played your game since 16. Its 16 years later, 4 years shy of where professionals retire. I am not doing much better then when I was 16. There is now more upward mobility in europe then there is here.

You do realize that you are not a plant, right?

You do realize that you can ******* MOVE - listen to Philosopher [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKNoJ2BzSRU"]Sam Kinison[/ame]

.

 

[Contumacious]

Spoken like a true self made man who takes not only credit for success but responsibiltiy for mistakes. More people used to be like this until Americans became cry babies who want to blame everything on someone else.

Its not about being crybabies dipshit, its about having a future. People under thirty have none unless they were lucky enough to be born into capital.

Your not going to convince me otherwise because ive played your game since 16. Its 16 years later, 4 years shy of where professionals retire. I am not doing much better then when I was 16. There is now more upward mobility in europe then there is here.

You do realize that you are not a plant, right?

You do realize that you can ******* MOVE - listen to Philosopher [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKNoJ2BzSRU"]Sam Kinison[/ame]

.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

I'm part of the 99% as well. I work hard, make a good living, and have a decent savings for retirement.

Unlike the original poster, though

I stand with Adam Smith who, famously, in his Wealth of Nations, conditioned the success of capitalism on the tight control of speculators with borrowed money; he called them “prodigals and projectors” and warned that they would deflect capital away from the job growth economy. Adam Smith is rolling over in his grave because of Wall Street, which destroyed the job prospects of a generation of Americans through the greatest, most criminally leveraged derivative-ponzi-scheme in world history. (Does the OP know how much say Bear, Lehman, AIG and Goldman burned in the derivatives market? This has nothing to do with moronic welfare queen home owners and everything to do with a financial sector which methodically and systematically placed bets that it could not cover)

If Smith were alive today he would vomit at the growth of financial services from 4% to 40% of the economy. He would vomit on a financial system which directs investments away from the manufacture of goods into a speculative casino which merely pushes up stock values so a small group of investors can parachute to safety before the bubble crashes and destroys the economy.

When the activity of the investment class becomes so radically de-coupled from job growth - because a small group of special interests has captured our political system - people have a right to be mad.

Except for AIG, I'd bet your examples made money on derivatives.
The crash wasn't caused by derivatives, it was caused by defaulting mortages.
And worsened by attacks on the banks after.

This is what a pimple on the ass of common sense looks like.

The crash was caused by derivatives? Please explain further.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

I'm in the "99%" I suppose. Earn about 60K a year. Very modest. Own a home and a car. Have no debt except 30K more on my home. I graduated high school and college. Avoided having kids out of wedlock. Never committed any felonies. Worked a lot of crappy, low pay jobs after college and kept working and applying, and eventually got better jobs. I workout and stay fit. I'm not in the richest 1%. Yet....I'm happy. I'm fed. I'm healthy. I have no gripes. No ill will towards any rich person or corporation.

So I must ask....if you are in the 99% AND you are pissed about it, who is more at fault for your circumstance?

- Yourself?
- A corporation?
- The government?
- A rich guy?

I think some of you folks need to join "Occupy Myself" and realize your unhappiness is almost 99% your own fault. Stop blaming others. Work low level stuff until you earn your way up like the rest of us did.

Because I bet if you graduate, don't make kids out of wedlock, stay out of debt and out of jail, stay employed no matter how much you think you are "too good" for a job, and keep yourself fit........I bet if you do all that you'll be happily among the 99%. Like me.

Spoken like a true self made man who takes not only credit for success but responsibiltiy for mistakes. More people used to be like this until Americans became cry babies who want to blame everything on someone else.

Its not about being crybabies dipshit, its about having a future. People under thirty have none unless they were lucky enough to be born into capital.

Your not going to convince me otherwise because ive played your game since 16. Its 16 years later, 4 years shy of where professionals retire. I am not doing much better then when I was 16. There is now more upward mobility in europe then there is here.

Professionals retire at 36?

 

[BDBoop]

Every stupid ass thread where people can only see to the end of their nose ("I did it, therefore ...") needs to have this link dropped in it.

CHARTS: Here's What The Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About...

 

[spectrumc01]

I'm in the "99%" I suppose. Earn about 60K a year. Very modest. Own a home and a car. Have no debt except 30K more on my home. I graduated high school and college. Avoided having kids out of wedlock. Never committed any felonies. Worked a lot of crappy, low pay jobs after college and kept working and applying, and eventually got better jobs. I workout and stay fit. I'm not in the richest 1%. Yet....I'm happy. I'm fed. I'm healthy. I have no gripes. No ill will towards any rich person or corporation.

So I must ask....if you are in the 99% AND you are pissed about it, who is more at fault for your circumstance?

- Yourself?
- A corporation?
- The government?
- A rich guy?

I think some of you folks need to join "Occupy Myself" and realize your unhappiness is almost 99% your own fault. Stop blaming others. Work low level stuff until you earn your way up like the rest of us did.

Because I bet if you graduate, don't make kids out of wedlock, stay out of debt and out of jail, stay employed no matter how much you think you are "too good" for a job, and keep yourself fit........I bet if you do all that you'll be happily among the 99%. Like me.

I'm part of the 99%, but on the low end. I graduated HS, and have some college, I also sevrved in the military during Desert Storm. I have no criminal record and I am madder than hell at my circumstances.

Not everyone is an entrepenuer, and it takes all stations for this economy to work, therefor all jobs are equally important. Those of us who are considered "employees" expect certain things from our employers, just as our employers expect certain things of us. We expect them to provide us a wage that we can live and thrive on. A wage we can raise a modest family on, if we want more than that we are free to take other jobs and work longer and harder to get further ahead. This is the American way.

Our employers are not holding up their end of the bargain. We as employees are not making a living wage, we cannot support our families the way we did ten plus years ago. I now work two jobs and am currently looking for a third, and yet I am still going backwards, who do I blame for this:

80% a rich guy, because the majority of elected officials and corprate execs are rich guys.
10% government, because government rich guys are also corprate rich guys with obvious conflicts of intrest who have become too arrogant and greedy.
08% corporations, because they have been given rights as if they were live people, and now they wield unbelievable financial and political power across the globe.
01% Myself, because I trusted my leaders to move this country in a positive direction.
01% Media for confusing and distorting issues beyond recognition and doing everything in their power to mislead the American public.

The protesters are just posing a question....What is a man to do when he has nothing left to loose? They are also making a point...F@&% us????....F%&* you!!!!!

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

Every stupid ass thread where people can only see to the end of their nose ("I did it, therefore ...") needs to have this link dropped in it.

CHARTS: Here's What The Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About...

Exactly!

Obama, where are the JOBS?

 

[midcan5]

The OP makes no sense to me. Why would anyone frame a question in this manner? Is that the way we live life? Or life is lived? Personal comment before observations on OP: I am always happy, that must be some weird genetic combination along with a great life. I/we want for nothing. Online I hate getting into the personal but often you get drug in because of assumptions such as the OP. Off personal - well really can we ever get completely away from ourselves?

Why would government or a corporation frame a person's thoughts on how they are doing? I'd need to know what 'bad' is? Do people really look at their lives and think, gosh my life is bad? No, of course not, they may have bad marriages, bad luck at the track, bad acne, but I have never meet a person who on reflection thinks their life is bad. Depression is clinical. Bad things happen and some even commit suicide but this isn't the bad the OP references. The bad the author uses is a made up rhetorical device with a hidden assumptive meaning. It is in the words of Henry Frankfort Bullshit, but it is purposeful BS.

And then to top off the BS, there is this self referential nonsense in which 'my life is good and I don't complain. See take example from me.' Hm, one wonders why if that is true, why mention it? Oh, I forgot for a second, it isn't really about what it is about, it is about what has become the right wing pledge song. Please allow me my usual hyperbolic singing, 'we love freedom, we think corporations are good, and we think government is bad, and we want to get rid of Obama, or any democrat, because we love freedom and we are good and you are bad, and once we are back in power it will all be good." Anyone care to elaborate or challenge my song. It needs work but you get the idea, no time now, grandchildren are calling for me. Life is good.


"Philosophers should consider the fact that the greatest happiness principle can easily be made an excuse for a benevolent dictatorship. We should replace it by a more modest and more realistic principle — the principle that the fight against avoidable misery should be a recognized aim of public policy, while the increase of happiness should be left, in the main, to private initiative." Karl Popper

 

[BDBoop]

It's getting to be like white noise, Midcan. "If we make enough noise, if we talk loud, fast, hard and repeatedly enough, making the same points over and over again, we can get people to STOP LOOKING AT THE MOTHERFUCKING PROBLEM, AND FOCUS ON PEOPLE SHITTING IN THE STREET!!11!!eleventy111!!11!"

........ Not working.