I've been in the nightclub business for well over thirty years, Bulldog and I've started many "projects" and then been forced by circumstances to cut the budget for that project. That's part of life in the Private Sector. Only in the Public Sector can you come in with a cost proposal of a million dollars...have it end up costing three million...and not lose your job!
I've never said that I don't want programs to help the poor. I'm all for helping the poor. Where we differ immensely is how you should go about "helping". Liberals love to propose help that comes in the form of government entitlements that do things like give the poor a "living wage" whether or not they work...but then they scratch their collective heads when entitlements encourage the poor to stay poor rather than work to enter the Middle Class. The truth, Bulldog is that we've had a "War on Poverty" in this country since Lyndon Baines Johnson was President of the United States...spent a whole lot of money on programs to combat poverty and we now have more poverty then we did then! It's obvious that what you espouse hasn't worked...yet you want to double down on it!
I'm curious...since I'm a conservative and according to you the only way we can express ourselves is by being "nasty" I'd like you to find the posts where I've been "nasty" and show them to me. While you're doing THAT...I'll go back and I'll show you the posts where YOU were less than pleasant! Who do you think is going to win the Nobel Peace Prize in THAT competition?
I have no desire to research everything you have posted. You could possibly be the most reasonable and non confrontational person here, but that is certainly not representative of right wingers here. If you care to, I would invite you to show where I responded to anyone in a manner that didn't match what they had already said. Play nice, and I'll play nice. Be an asshole, and I'll give at least as good as I get. Out of curiosity though. Exactly what programs to help the poor, or anybody else for that matter, do you advocate that don't involve massive giveaways to the rich, or degrading the people you claim to want to help? Further, which of those hopeful programs are generally embraced by the right? Killing healthcare with nothing to replace it helps no one. Demeaning immigrants, especially refugee children, helps no one. Educate me if you can.
I have only to point to how you've responded to me, Bulldog...
You say that if others play nice that you will as well but your actions I'm afraid don't back that claim
I've been in the nightclub business for well over thirty years, Bulldog and I've started many "projects" and then been forced by circumstances to cut the budget for that project. That's part of life in the Private Sector. Only in the Public Sector can you come in with a cost proposal of a million dollars...have it end up costing three million...and not lose your job!
I've never said that I don't want programs to help the poor. I'm all for helping the poor. Where we differ immensely is how you should go about "helping". Liberals love to propose help that comes in the form of government entitlements that do things like give the poor a "living wage" whether or not they work...but then they scratch their collective heads when entitlements encourage the poor to stay poor rather than work to enter the Middle Class. The truth, Bulldog is that we've had a "War on Poverty" in this country since Lyndon Baines Johnson was President of the United States...spent a whole lot of money on programs to combat poverty and we now have more poverty then we did then! It's obvious that what you espouse hasn't worked...yet you want to double down on it!
I'm curious...since I'm a conservative and according to you the only way we can express ourselves is by being "nasty" I'd like you to find the posts where I've been "nasty" and show them to me. While you're doing THAT...I'll go back and I'll show you the posts where YOU were less than pleasant! Who do you think is going to win the Nobel Peace Prize in THAT competition?
I have no desire to research everything you have posted. You could possibly be the most reasonable and non confrontational person here, but that is certainly not representative of right wingers here. If you care to, I would invite you to show where I responded to anyone in a manner that didn't match what they had already said. Play nice, and I'll play nice. Be an asshole, and I'll give at least as good as I get. Out of curiosity though. Exactly what programs to help the poor, or anybody else for that matter, do you advocate that don't involve massive giveaways to the rich, or degrading the people you claim to want to help? Further, which of those hopeful programs are generally embraced by the right? Killing healthcare with nothing to replace it helps no one. Demeaning immigrants, especially refugee children, helps no one. Educate me if you can.
As I pointed out earlier, Bulldog...you seemed to take great pleasure in continually referring to the conservatives who made up the so called Tea Party as "tea baggers". How many times did you post your video of the people singing about the tea party that are oblivious to the OTHER meaning of "tea bag"? Three times? Or was it four? Who does that? MSNBC continually referred to the Tea Party people as tea baggers as well and then snickered about it amongst themselves like Beavis and Butthead. What major news channel does THAT!
Here's a newsflash for you. I'm a conservative. I have a degree in history. I have an MBA. I've worked in the Private Sector for a very long time. I'm not crazy. I'm not a religious nut. I don't listen to Rush Limbaugh. I'm not even Pro-Life. As a matter of fact I'm an agnostic! Yet liberals like YOURSELF assume you know who I am and what I believe in simply because I point out that the Progressive policies that you've advocated in the past didn't work and that the ones you're advocating now won't work either!
You're not alone.
The New York Times:
Tea Party supporters are wealthier and more well-educated than the general public, and are no more or less afraid of falling into a lower socioeconomic class, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
What do "I" think we should do to better the lives of the lower classes? For starters I would suggest we get back to doing what this country has always been better at than anyone else...namely being self sufficient and being innovative. As a people American have always been a compassionate people but we have also been a competitive bunch whose winners win big and losers get off their asses and try harder.
"As a people" Americans built America into a world colossus, then liberals decided to erase the people and introduce multiculturalism. The people who made America great came from lands which have also done well, the overseas cousins of Americans built Europe into a First World continent, but our people were just better at the economy building game. Now we're importing millions of people from the lowest rungs of the economic ladder of 3rd tier and lower societies, who come from peoples who can't build successful societies.
"The people" who made America great are dying off, their children are now weighed down in a multicultural society with the burden of trying to uplift people who can't compete in the race for greatness. With this handicap it's no wonder that America is slipping and often failing compared to other nations.
"As a people" is a reference to a no longer relevant past. We in America are no longer "a people" we're just all co-residents who live next to each other in one big national Folk Fest.
This concept that everyone should get a trophy when you play sports whether you win or lose is symptomatic of a society where mediocrity is now the desired normal and people who are exceptional are told they need to not embarrass those who can't keep up. Income inequality sucks! Being poor sucks! DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! Don't wait for someone to take things from the rich to give to you so that you aren't so poor. Do the things that successful people do to become successful.
That worked in the past because our society was working with good raw material (look at what those left behind in Europe did) and we made "our people" better by running them through American culture. Our raw material these days is much degraded. Saying "do something" and expecting the same outcomes as we saw in the past is the same as saying "speak" to your dog and expecting him to speak as your children did when young.
So you think anyone who is not doing well is only in that position because they are lazy bums. Typical right wing statement.
New York Times:
Since 1980, the number of men in the bottom fifth of the income ladder who work long hours (over 49 hours per week) has dropped by half, according to a study by the economists Peter Kuhn and Fernando Lozano. But among the top fifth of earners, long weeks have increased by 80 percent.
I couldn't find easy data on American time use studies but this
Canadian study popped up. The lowest income quintile reports a 39.2% rate of watching 15 hours or more of TV per week and the rate drops as we climb the income quintiles and in the top quintile only 22.1% watch 15 hours or more TV per week.
The same pattern repeats for computer usage. 15.7% of the lowest quintile uses the computer for more than 11 hours per week compared to 14.1% for the highest quintile.
45.4% of HS drop-out men and 49.2% of women of HS drop out women report watching more than 15 hours of TV per week compared to 25.1% of postsec-grad men and 22.2% of postsec-grad women.
More:
A new study offers evidence that higher-educated (and therefore higher-earning) Americans do indeed spend more time working and less time on leisure than poorer income groups. In fact, while income inequality may be growing, “leisure inequality” – time spent on enjoyment – is growing as a mirror image, with the low earners gaining leisure and the high earners losing.
The paper, by Orazio Attanasio, Erik Hurst and Luigi Pistaferri, finds that both income inequality and consumption inequality (the stuff that people buy) have increased over the past 20 years.
The more surprising discovery, however, is a corresponding leisure gap has opened up between the highly-educated and less-educated. Low-educated men saw their leisure hours grow to 39.1 hours in 2003-2007, from 36.6 hours in 1985. Highly-educated men saw their leisure hours shrink to 33.2 hours from 34.4 hours. (Mr. Hurst says that education levels are a “proxy” for incomes, since they tend to correspond).
A similar pattern emerged for women. Low-educated women saw their leisure time grow to 35.2 hours a week from 35 hours. High-educated women saw their leisure time decrease to 30.3 hours from 32.2 hours. Educated women, in other words, had the largest decline in leisure time of the four groups.
(The study defines leisure as time spend watching TV, socializing, playing games, talking on the phone, reading personal email, enjoying entertainment and hobbies and other activities.)