Capitalism America style:
A system by which a small, privileged class are allowed to use resources, run businesses, and accumulate a vast quantity of wealth and power by any means necessary, rent free, while taking credit for everything, thus benefiting everyone.
Isn't the legal paradox defining totalitarianism the idea that while the rule of law is total at the bottom, their is virtual lawlessness and excess at the top?
That being said, this whole discussion is only necessary because most Americans don't understand several simple things:
-We live in a society. The purpose of society is to eliminate the brutality of natural selection, not create a lawless economic facsimile of it.
-Capitalism is an economic theory that was criticized by its creator. It's not a religion.
-Paying half your paycheck in taxes may sound horrible until you realize that until you get to crazy British top income tax rates (over 100%), your purchasing power is directly related to tax rates. It's fine to only bring home $5 an hour if $5 can buy you $23 worth of groceries in today's money. Having mandated paid vacations, worry-free healthcare, less work hours, guaranteed retirement, and mandated maternity/paternity leave aren't exactly bad deals either.
-You may hate paying taxes for fire protection for everyone's house, not just yours but if your neighbors house catches fire, it can easily spread to yours. Also letting your neighbor buy fire insurance on your house, have a monopoly over firefighting equipment, or run the firehouse for a profit may motivate him to start a fire.
-If someone tells you that society is made up of talented, intelligent gods and slovenly parasitic clods, you're going to be motivated to resent the clods and view them as inferior while considering yourself a god even though your probably just a clod yourself.
^ Ditto.
@Darth J: Interesting how you brought in natural selection. I've been saying for years that, just as humans spread across the planet, reshaping the natural environment for their benefit - and to the detriment of other species - so the 'financial elite' have been doing likewise with the financial environment: shaping it so they benefit most, to the detriment of those who don't worship the Almighty Dollar but instead just want to live 'naturally', comfortably, with other nongreedy 'species'.
Originally posted by Darth Truculent
I guess it's time to reveal where I live:I live in California where we have a fool for a governor who believes that raising taxes will solve our problems. He signs a bill to build a 200 million dollar high speed railway that we don't need, but then proposes a law that will raise my taxes. Does that make sense? I live in a county where unemployment is around 16% and virtually everyone is on EBT cards. Most people could care less about health care - what they want is work.
I'm not made of wealth. I refuse to use EBT due to my personal pride. I refuse to abuse an entitlement program. Many here think I'm a cold hearted bastard, but I'm a firm believer on the "stand on your own two feet, make it on your own" theory. I don't want to see a kid sick and suffer, but I don't want to pay his health care. My state has already bled me enough. And now I'm being forced to pay for a Federal health care system? I got a friggen idea . . . how bout Obama, the Supreme Court and all the other idiots who believe free health care is great accept the individual mandate?
Oh yeah, what was it that Obama said?: "You didn't build that! Somebody else made that happen." Doesn't that seem a bit socialist to you? I guess Obama designed the first computer or built the plane. Tax the 1%? Who creates the jobs? - the 1%. Just found out today that Obama . . . I mean the government now owns Manchester United indirectly through GM motors. Sorry soccer fans in Europe . . . an American socialist now owns the team. Look on the bright side . . . at least Arsnel is still European.
You stupid ignorant child.
You know what's a damn good barrier to work when you're poor? Your health. It's really hard to keep a job when you get sick and can't afford to see a doctor, and so you try and work through it and get worse and worse until you wind up in the ER.
You know what's a damn good barrier to remaining poor when you're already not well off? Medical debt. As of 2007, 41% of American adults owed medical debts. Even if it's a (relatively) small amount like $2000, that's a lot of money if you're uninsured and working for minimum wage. And even if you do have insurance there's no guarantee that medical care won't drive you into debt - due to things like the shitty cheap insurance that's offered by a lot of companies, network/out of network fees, and the fact that it was legal to do things like refuse to pay for preventative care, women's care, and discriminate against pre-existing conditions meant that of those in debt, 60% had insurance [1].
You refuse to use EBT due to your own pride, because you don't want to "abuse" a program? Good for you. Number one, those programs are there to be used by those who need it. Number two, this attitude of "I'm too proud to stoop do that (which means if you do you're shameless)" keeps a lot of people from searching for and finding the help they need. Personal pride doesn't keep food in your stomach, or a house over your head, or your health in good order.
NO ONE in this country makes it on their own, and I love that you, like so many Fox News conservatives, completely and totally took that one line of Obama's out of context. Here, have the full speech:
"There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me -- because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t -- look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something -- there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there."If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business -- you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.
"The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together. There are some things, just like fighting fires, we don’t do on our own. I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service. That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires.
"So we say to ourselves, ever since the founding of this country, you know what, there are some things we do better together. That’s how we funded the G.I. Bill. That’s how we created the middle class. That’s how we built the Golden Gate Bridge or the Hoover Dam. That’s how we invented the Internet. That’s how we sent a man to the moon. We rise or fall together as one nation and as one people, and that’s the reason I’m running for President -- because I still believe in that idea. You’re not on your own, we’re in this together."
What he says is absolutely, 100% true. No one gets where they are on their own. They've had help in every quarter from someone. You didn't build the roads you drive on, someone else did it. You didn't learn everything on your own, many many people have taught you what you know. If you've started a business, it's because either you've 1) been given money (meaning someone else earned it), 2) earned it yourself (meaning you got it from someone else), or 3) got a loan (again, you got it from someone else). It doesn't just spring into being.
So this whole idea of "bootstraps!" and "stand on your own two feet!" is bullshit, because it's just simply unrealistic and not possible in any manner. No matter what your situation is, you got there because of others. Someone - many someones - along the line helped you in some manner.
By the way, no, the 1% does not create jobs, nor did any taxcuts on the top tax brackets result in any sort of significant job growth. Instead it resulted in more bonuses for the top CEOs and nothing trickling down for the people doing the real work. Trickle-down economics does not, never has, and never will work, despite people claiming so. What creates jobs is the 99% being able to afford, and hence creating a demand, for items, which then requires the supply to increase. [3]
Obama is not a socialist. And by the way, most European countries have far more socialist policies, and wonder why the **** the US is so damn backwards when it comes to things like social policies. Because, frankly, we are. This country has a majority group that wants the country to be a theocracy while ignoring what their own religion teaches while crying non-stop that Christians are being attacked and persecuted (newsflash: "not getting everything I want, when I want it" is not an attack. It's simply not getting everything you want!). The US is the only developed country to not have universal health care, and as a result, most bankruptcies are caused by medical debt. [4] There is something seriously wrong with that fact.
And yes, this shit makes me angry. I have a huge personal stake in these sorts of things. My family was poor when I was growing up, because of a lovely deadbeat father taking off and refusing to pay a cent until my mom managed to borrow enough money for a lawyer to take him to court. We were on welfare and foodstamps. She worked as much as she could with three young kids to take care of. We only didn't wind up homeless because of my aunts and my grandfather. And even still now, my mom can't afford proper health insurance and is on medicaid, has just turned 50, and is developing the same health issues that killed her mother in her mid-50s. I'm ****ing terrified, and pissed off, and sick to death of hearing about how people don't want to pay for someone else's healthcare.
Even if it did increase taxes (which, right now, for most people it will not), I'd rather pay extra to make sure that everyone is able to get the help they need, because no one should have to go through this crap.
1. http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/08/20/us-medicaldebt-idUSN1932186920080820
2. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2012/jul/18/context-obamas-you-didnt-build-comment/
3. http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-12-12/news/30504074_1_tax-cuts-jobs-rich-people
4. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/06/05/earlyshow/health/main5064981.shtml
What Peach said.
And my own bit to add - I am disabled from a childhood illness, so I can't work. If I do work, and get more than sixty dollars a week, I have to report it to Health and Human Services, so they can detract that amount from my SSI [a check for disabled people] which is my only income.
I'm lucky, I'm still 'young' enough to be able to be attached to my dad's insurance, so I use Medicaid as my second insurance. Even more luckily, I have EBT which is a lifesaver, and I live in a HUD - state appointed for disabled people, apartment, which puts my rent at a reasonable rate for someone only getting $674 a month.
Now, I've still been rejected from some government programs, I actually went to trial to try to keep a benefit that I still lost in the end.
Without SSI, I would be a. living with my parents and being an extra burden or b. homeless.
Let people share the wealth, especially that one percent that can waaaay afford it.
Originally posted by Lord Lucien😂 You Americans.
Hey! We don't take kindly to insinuations 'round here. If you don't like a bloated military industrial complex, then you can just git outta 'Merica.
Maybe if you stop bragging about how awesome everything but your penis is, you might bother to look at my location. 😉
Originally posted by Tzeentch._
Our dicks are pretty amazing too, to be fair.
The question is; why you'd fend for your neighbor in this regard? I've always seen people that cling to patriotism as a defining trait as shallow. The same goes for sexual orientation or religion. Usually when I introduce myself I speak of my ideologies and interests to then explain what communities I'm associated with and why.
Back to the question. I personally would never defend Sweden, or any other country for that matter. I only care for less than a per mil for the people living here anyway.
Originally posted by Mindset
Did you even listen to the speech or did you hear this sound bite from fox news?facepalm
Jon Stewart did a fairly good bit on this, showing Romney making essentially the same speech (the same point of needing help from others for sure) like a week later
Originally posted by Astner
Actually, the U.S. is beneath average. Source.
ZOMG, science that conforms to previously established racial and ethnic biases?!?!?!?!?!?!
there are as many penis studies that show no difference between race, ethnicity, geography, etc, and the methodologies are suspect in most.
Originally posted by parenthesis
So paying for military weapons and nuclear arms, good. Paying to save your neighbours life, bad?
Bad comparison and poor wording.
"So being forced at virtual gunpoint to pay for military weapons and nuclear arms, good? Being forced at virtual gunpoint to save your neighbours life, bad?"
Answer to both questions: both are bad...but being forced to save your neighbor's life is much much better than the weapons payments.
Originally posted by siriuswriter
What Peach said.And my own bit to add - I am disabled from a childhood illness, so I can't work. If I do work, and get more than sixty dollars a week, I have to report it to Health and Human Services, so they can detract that amount from my SSI [a check for disabled people] which is my only income.
I'm lucky, I'm still 'young' enough to be able to be attached to my dad's insurance, so I use Medicaid as my second insurance. Even more luckily, I have EBT which is a lifesaver, and I live in a HUD - state appointed for disabled people, apartment, which puts my rent at a reasonable rate for someone only getting $674 a month.
Now, I've still been rejected from some government programs, I actually went to trial to try to keep a benefit that I still lost in the end.
Without SSI, I would be a. living with my parents and being an extra burden or b. homeless.
Let people share the wealth, especially that one percent that can waaaay afford it.
You have it tough. I know that's not why you posted that, but I do not want your situation. This is why it is nice to have a spouse that takes care of your financial needs.