quote:
Originally posted by Magness:
I swore to myself that I wouldn't do any replies until after I had read thru all of the new posts.... But Silver Cheetah managed to hit one of my political hot buttons.... so here goes...
(The BOLD was done by me....)
So you do favor screwing the rich!!! How typically liberal!!! Regardless of what side of the big pond people are on, it seems that all liberals have a Robin Hood complex ... i.e. steal from the rich to give to the poor. But then again, descrimination is just fine and dandy if it's a rich person getting screwed!!! (No, I'm not rich. This is simply honest ideolgical anger.) Typical political correctness. It's ok to be bigoted so long as it's against one of descrimination-approved groups, as determined by the high and mighty, best and brightest, liberal intelligensia!!!
IMHO there's one and only one fair method of taxation. A flat income tax with no deductions!!! If I make 10x more than another person, then I should be paying 10x more in total dollars (or pounds). But the rate should remain the same!!! If I made 10x more than you then I would pay 10x more in taxes.
Stop the shaking hands now, Magness... Those flames may have been just a little too toasty...
Magness, I'm not quite sure what you mean by the liberal intelligensia. I'm a working class girl, from a very poor working class background. My dad was a factory worker, my mom a part time shop worker and full time mother. I left school at 16 and went straight into work - which at one time or another has included bar work, waitress, factory work, shop work, taxi telephone/radio operator, and a few other things even less savoury. I first saw the inside of a university at age 30, when I decided to work part time whilst studying to get my degree. I was a writer before I went to university, and I'm still a writer now. These days, I work as a freelance writer for all different kinds of businesses, - so I get to see a lot of different ways of doing things, plus a few of the 'inside stories'.
Now, having got that out of the way... to your point....
Screwing the rich. What a charming phrase. Look, Magness. When someone earns say 100,000 dollars a year, he/she can afford to pay tax without feeling the pinch in terms of living conditions. A wealthier person is not going to have to go without food, warm clothing, heating and other basic necessities just because the tax rate goes up. We are talking about the possibility of a decent life for all here.
From the point of self interest, you might want to consider that the gap between rich and poor is widening, not just in the third world, but in the northern hemisphere also.
Sooner or later all those have nots who have been screwed by completely immoral labour practices by the big corporations are going to get pretty fed up, and take steps.
Why do you think there are so many activists all of a sudden? A lot of these people have lost their good jobs because the corporates have taken production overseas, where labour is dirt cheap and they can cut costs to the bone (thus funding their multimillion dollar ad campaigns and huge executive salary costs, plus divvies to the shareholders.)
So here you are in America with a LOT of people who had good permanent jobs - who all of a sudden don't have jobs, or have been taken on as temporary workers, who can be picked up and dropped according to the needs of the corporations. This is also happening in Britain and Europe.
Not forgetting the fact that companies who can't afford to move production to the third world often can't compete with those that can, and have to cut jobs or close altogether. Exit more jobs. Enter more resentment. Wall Street likes companies with low low labour costs. Move production to the third world and start exploiting, and your stock will soar. A question of being rewarded for treating people like animals are treated who are raised for food. Corporation fodder.
Whatever happened to the idea that businesses are for people? To provide some degree of job security, quality of life? Nowadays, big business seems to be largely about profit, which is no bad thing, we need profit!, however, profit at the expense of people and the environment, no. Exxon Mobile doesn't HAVE to make 17.7 billion dollars profit! Why not go for less, and treat the environment (which belongs to ALL OF US NOT JUST EXXON SHAREHOLDERS, INCIDENTALLY) with respect and concern for our long term future? Who gave these big companies the right to ■■■■ the planet and a large proportion of its citizens? Well, I take it PERSONALLY!!!
So.... anyway, going back a ways.... this is the new face of corporate employment, and it is creating thousands of new activists every day. Useless to target ads for expensive brand products at those very people who you've managed to disenfranchise out of the earning potential to pay for those products. Madness.
So, I'm not into screwing the rich, Magness. I'm into the rich stop screwing the rest of us to get rich and stay rich. Capito?
By the way, don't even think about starting with the argument that we all need to get into being shareholders to reap the benefits of businesses saving those costs by employing overseas. How anyone can buy shares when they don't earn a living wage is beyond me.
(Not to mention that that is a disgusting and flawed economic idea anyway. The notion that we should all just sit on our arses (manufacturing and production having moved to the third world, where costs are dead cheap) and rake in our dividends, earned on the back of their sweat, hunger, tiredness, sickness and pure soul despair, makes me want to throw up.)
If you'd like to know more about transnational labour statistics, working conditions in third world factories producing goods for the big brands, etc, just say the word. This 'bleeding heart' liberal (have I got that right??) will be happy to oblige.