How do we fix America?

Started by Supra5 pages

How do we fix America?

I was over at my friends house tonight and we had a big long talk about the middle class trying to work there way up through investments such as real estate.

With the new bank and lending laws its next to impossible for a middle class worker to buy a second home and fix it up and rent it out.

The middle class is shrinking, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting more poor. Yet the rich and poor pay less taxes over all then the middle class of america who are taxed the most.

With all these new lending laws, taxes, Obamacare. The middle class is shrinking even more. Barley any of this is being reported on in the new, Fox preaches fear, CNN preaches government worship

And the middle class workers, welders, iron workers, military, teachers, fireman, police officers, small business owners, retail workers, waitresses, waiters, sales and marketing, accountants are being left out to dry to continue to work this system in which is doomed to fail

What is going to happen when there is no money left to be made, its harder and harder to get a good paying job, people coming out of school with education degrees to teach can't find jobs to teach kids growing up, teachers are being cut, fireman and police officers are being cut, even doctors and lawyers are going out of business..

Everyone is being screwed except the people enacting these laws, manufacturing has left California, we make no electronics anymore, even Apple has sold out to China..and its only getting worse.

Im afraid for my nation

How do we fix this world

how can mirrors be real if our eyes arent real

America sucks.

Funny how someone always predict the end of the world is lurking just around the corner. Humanity have done that through countless ages and still here we are.

Originally posted by Utrigita
Funny how someone always predict the end of the world is lurking just around the corner. Humanity have done that through countless ages and still here we are.

Where is Galactus when we need him!!!

Wreck this planet lets start over!

Re: How do we fix America?

Originally posted by Supra
With the new bank and lending laws its next to impossible for a middle class worker to buy a second home and fix it up and rent it out.

http://billmoyers.com/2013/09/20/by-the-numbers-the-incredibly-shrinking-american-middle-class/

The middle class, based on income, is defined on that site as household income between $25,500 – $76,500 a year.

Here's the real problem: my household income is well above $76,500 and I can assure you, I CAN'T AFFORD A SECOND HOME. The problem is the mentality that you and millions of others think that you should be able to afford something like a second home.

You can't afford a second home. You shouldn't buy a second home. You should live within your means and stop spending your money until you have nothing left each time you get paid.

Originally posted by Supra
The middle class is shrinking, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting more poor. Yet the rich and poor pay less taxes over all then the middle class of america who are taxed the most.

That website I linked says you're right: the rich are getting richer by the numbers.

And according to this link, the middle class is "shrinking", as well.

However, we are on the cusp of creating AI-Robotics that will pretty much make these "worries" moot. Why does it matter what your income is when farming, housing construction, and cradle to grave materials processing, are almost entirely automated?

Originally posted by Supra
With all these new lending laws, taxes, Obamacare. The middle class is shrinking even more. Barley any of this is being reported on in the new, Fox preaches fear, CNN preaches government worship

The lending laws are probably one of the best things we've churned out in the last 30 years. Obamacare? Shit legislation as everyone on here knows I think.

Originally posted by Supra
And the middle class workers, welders, iron workers, military, teachers, fireman, police officers, small business owners, retail workers, waitresses, waiters, sales and marketing, accountants are being left out to dry to continue to work this system in which is doomed to fail

It's not going to fail.

Originally posted by Supra
What is going to happen when there is no money left to be made, its harder and harder to get a good paying job, people coming out of school with education degrees to teach can't find jobs to teach kids growing up, teachers are being cut, fireman and police officers are being cut, even doctors and lawyers are going out of business..

None of that is true or is happening: Nurses are in demand and more and more private security forces are being hired (private police, if you will). Teachers are always in demand and as long as the population continues to increase in size, so will the number of teachers needed (that's not a perfectly direct correlation, obviously). Not only that, but the number of teachers per student has actually increased in the last ten years* meaning the number of teachers is outpacing the growth in students.

I supported some of your points with real facts but most of your points are inexorably wrong. Since many of your fundamental points (premises) are wrong, your conclusions are illogical. I apologize for how strongly worded my comments are as I intend no offense nor do I wish to verbally (written, really) attack you as a person: just your points. And to your main point about an impending failure, like always, humans will adapt to the changing conditions: no catastrophic failure is in sight.

*"The number of public school FTE teachers has increased by a larger percentage than the number of public school students over the past 10 years, resulting in declines in the pupil/teacher ratio. In fall 2001, the number of public school pupils per teacher was 15.9, compared with a projected number of 15.2 public school pupils per teacher in fall 2011."

No one in politics is on the side of the middle class.

The only thing I ever have to say to these kinds of questions is what Martin Luther King, Jr. said. Which is "We have to fix ourselves before we attempt to fix others."

But I think it would help if everyone with a livable income would realize what dadudemon mentioned - you have to live within your means, you can be happy that way. I get SSI, so I get around $764 a month. Taking out rent, groceries or other products that need to be bought, I still have enough for - like a chai tea every other week or so, and if I want to get something big I have to save.

But I'm a happy person. I love my life, and I like myself. With more money, sure, I could afford to take people out to eat more than once a month, but as long as those first two things are true, all the rest is just icing on the cake.

Originally posted by siriuswriter
The only thing I ever have to say to these kinds of questions is what Martin Luther King, Jr. said. Which is "We have to fix ourselves before we attempt to fix others."

I don't know the context of that, but I feel like we can do both concurrently. Both seem like lifetime endeavors.

How do we fix America?

Get rid of "reality" shows.

Re: How do we fix America?

Originally posted by Mindship
Get rid of "reality" shows.

YES! That would be a great start.

Originally posted by Mindship
Get rid of "reality" shows.
Originally posted by Shakyamunison
YES! That would be a great start.

Sounds like misplaced priorities.

Originally posted by Bardock42
Sounds like misplaced priorities.
Sounds like someone is thinking of auditioning for one. "Survivor," perhaps, the evil progenitor of it all?

Reality tv does make us worse people, but there are better measures to fix ourselves. Living within our means is a big deal. A lot of us here at KMC are of the generation that lived large in the 80s or our parents did, and thus we've inherited both bad spending/saving habits and debt. Even worse are those on fixed income, since the cost of living goes up quicker than the cost of living adjustments do.

Originally posted by siriuswriter
The only thing I ever have to say to these kinds of questions is what Martin Luther King, Jr. said. Which is "We have to fix ourselves before we attempt to fix others."

But I think it would help if everyone with a livable income would realize what dadudemon mentioned - you have to live within your means, you can be happy that way. I get SSI, so I get around $764 a month. Taking out rent, groceries or other products that need to be bought, I still have enough for - like a chai tea every other week or so, and if I want to get something big I have to save.

But I'm a happy person. I love my life, and I like myself. With more money, sure, I could afford to take people out to eat more than once a month, but as long as those first two things are true, all the rest is just icing on the cake.

Sometimes we forget that we don't need much to be happy in life, but at the same time it helps to have some spending cash. I feel best when I can get gifts for friends, or take them out to eat, or help them out in need. But that's sometimes more for my benefit too, since I know that they are having a hard time and whatever I can do to alleviate that is appreciated.

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@dadudeman, I'm not disagreeing with your statements really, but about the idea of teachers and nurses being in demand, that's rather misleading. With regards to the former, Science and Math teachers are in demand, but some other teachers are not except in areas with high turnover or far-flung outposts. It's a lot of work for median pay really. And even still, some of the larger urban areas are suffering. There was an article in the paper just this past month about Philadelphia area schools who have 30+ students to a teacher because of layoffs that occurred during the economic crapfest of '08, and they still haven't recovered from the impact.

Regarding the latter, nursing is ridiculously competitive, to the point where most institutions have as little as ~60 seats per semester four or five times that many eligible applicants. Competition aside, many major hospitals are having hiring freezes due to financial issues with expansion, hiring new medical billing staff for the health care changes, and general bureaucratic sluggishness. While the industry is growing, it's not growing everywhere at the same rate, and there are still a lot of obstacles to overcome such as 1 year minimum experience requirements (which is fun when every place in the city requires the same thing). Areas near me like Charleston, SC, are flooded with nursing students looking for jobs, and CNAs are likewise much in demand, but not easily hired.

Just saying, they may be growing, but neither field is handing out easy jobs. A lot of people in both areas are still struggling to find work because despite growth, there's not enough positions available to accommodate everyone that's eligible to be hired.

On a more serious note, what would really fix America, and everyone else, imho? Mutual respect, honesty and kindness, as well as long-term thinking and planning. Not greed, not "every man for himself," not every quarter having to show a bragging-rights profit. We either come together as a species, or we perish as promising has-beens.

*dismounts soapbox*

After reading this thread, I've come to the conclusion that the best way to fix America is simply to annex Canada.

Let's kill them all, guys. Free syrup and oil for everyone.

But then we couldn't have the record holder for world's largest relatively undefended border, eh?

Originally posted by Stealth Moose
But then we couldn't have the record holder for world's largest relatively undefended border, eh?

We would have to first destroy our economy. Wait?! We are destroying our economy! 😱