I HATE, LOATHE ENTIRELY some of the people who work up here. I hate them because they are ignorant, balefully ignorant and happy to remain that way. I hate them because none of them seem to have even a passing familiarity with HOW national economies work, EVEN OUR OWN!!!1!!!1!
Discussion of sub-prime mortgage rates, the bailout, credit, and especially corporate and income tax abounds in the hallways but it is ALWAYS of the fuckwit variety.
According to these people, did you know that:
1. The income tax is a redistribution of wealth scheme whereby your money is taken from you and goes, not to the government budget, but to families receiving the earned income tax credit. The government does not see a penny of it AND this is the way it has always been!
(Despite the fact that this tax credit is a newer invention in our national budget and despite the fact that income tax has always gone to the government to be dispersed between a variety of programs and policies AND despite the fact that the earned income credit is not a "redistribution of wealth" as that term is commonly understood.)
2. Poor people wanting what they can't afford and don't deserve (a house) is what is killing our economy. If they don't make enough money to afford market bearing building loans then they should have never been given the loan. There are plenty of low income public housing for poor people and we shouldn't be bailing them out either. If we bail them out, they'll just try to get more of what they shouldn't have (ostensibly, a nice quality of life).
(I didn't even know where to begin with all of this. I pointed out that those having the most trouble with their mortgages are actually what we would consider middle class people, people who actually make more than the correctional officer [who lives in his mother's trailor house free of charge] bring home. I also pointed out that there is an affordable housing crisis in the US, that there ARE NOT enough public housing or affordable housing to go around for all of the people struggling. And I lastly pointed out that wanting a better life for your family doesn't make you 'uppity', it makes you distinctly American [not to mention Human] and that our own founders came here for better lives.)
3. Making corporations pay their taxes by eliminating tax loopholes doesn't help anyone because it makes the prices for poorly made consumer crap to increase and American's love their crap, are even a little entitled to it because we are, in fact, Ahmerrcans dammit! And if you raise the taxes, why would the businesses want to do business in America at all?
(Corporations in the US only pay 11% of their taxes compared to 50% 50 years ago. It is because corporations are in dereliction of duty that the middle class is struggling under the weight of the enormous tax burden. Further, even if prices are raised, this is not necessarily a bad thing [imho]. I personally believe that Americans are gluttons who buy TOO MUCH CRAP that they don't need and cannot afford. Not to mention that there is no reason why a corporation who has 600 billion profits one quarter should need to raise prices for anything as long as proper consumer controls and oversight are available. It is because we have allowed them to gouge us in defense of the "free" market that has some part of blame in this situation. Businesses will still want to do business in America because the American public is status obsessed, there are little to no controls on marketing and advertising as there are in other countries, and because we still have quite a bit of money over here even if it is resting in the hands of fewer and fewer people.)
4. Our problems are actually a result from raising the (poverty) minimum wage from $5.15 to $6.50. As a result, businesses are raising their prices.
(The minimum wage increase is intended to help low income people eek out a basic survival so that they will be on FEWER social support programs. Businesses are raising their prices because the people running them are greedy meglomaniacs, it has very little to do with the market. In fact, if people were getting paid more of a living wage, it means that they have more money to spend on crap, even crap they are poorly paid to produce. The company makes MORE money when MORE people can buy their crap. That we allow them to raise prices to further fuck the poor is a reflection on how very little we care about anyone's well being but our own.)
5. Well, you just don't understand the economy because all you read is from the liberal media.
(Not to put too fine a point on it, but I actually took economics in college. I do understand the basic theories about the free market which sound really GREAT but in practice produce and encourage corporate greed and unethical behavior. I admit that I may not be an expert on the economy but I have taken more than just my half year requirement in highschool like you. Second, there is no such thing as the "liberal" media any longer. There haven't been for a while. Multiple studies confirm this. Going back to the original issue, however, I believe that what America, and the world as a whole, needs right now is a new approach to financial responsibility and liability. It is obscene, disgustingly obscene that a corporation can make record profits quarter after quarter on the blood and sweat of Americans and not pay for that priviledge. We the people allow corporations to be built among us, to increase or decrease their share which means that WE have the power to tell them they are being greedy bastards and no longer need a treat with their main course.)
6. F-ck you, you uppity bitch.
(Thank you for being sexist as well as ignorant. It's glad I am to know that that train is NEVER LATE!)
Fri Oct 03, 2008 9:01 pm