Trickle-down is a scam, extending the Bush tax cut is wrong:

[mrplunkey]

There are no damned jobs, not even crap jobs. How the hell do you work if you can't get hired? Companies are cutting, and it's cut bait or row and if you can't double or triple your workload, I can find some desperate bastard who will and will be happy. Employment has become a "buyers market." Shit, retailers have already started letting their christmas help go, used to be they hung on to them until after the 1st of the year to get past the returns.

So the choice is, extend unemployment or strain the welfare system further and watch even MORE houses go into foreclosure.

That's a false choice. There's a plan C -- let the private sector do its job and provide employment and benefits for more people.

Here's what Barry & Co wrestle with: In order to create those jobs, they're going to have to let a few people get wealthy (or even more wealthy). Providers of capital create jobs when they see an opportunity to make money. If Barry wants to keep kicking capital providers in the shins, they're going to deploy that capital elsewhere.

 

[musclemom]

That's a false choice. There's a plan C -- let the private sector do its job and provide employment and benefits for more people.

Here's what Barry & Co wrestle with: In order to create those jobs, they're going to have to let a few people get wealthy (or even more wealthy). Providers of capital create jobs when they see an opportunity to make money. If Barry wants to keep kicking capital providers in the shins, they're going to deploy that capital elsewhere.

OBAMA DID NOT CREATE THE CURRENT MESS THE ECONOMY IS IN and it took the previous administration eight years to create it, so why does everyone expect the new guy to fix it in less time than that?

As far as the private sector fixing it, lemme guess, you're an advocate of the Milton Friedman school of economy. Frankly, I believe if left to its own devices, the private sector will just be an absolutely greedy pig. A perfect epitome of "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." It needs SOME neutral oversight. You need an impartial third party otherwise, I'm sorry, greed overcomes all. If money is your motivating factor, what motivation do you have for making sure other people have it? And really, if you are rich, you ARE motivated by money.

It's like asking a heroine addict to become a good pharmacist, let's be realistic here.

You know who are the worst tippers (i.e., you go to a restaurant, get a meal, tip the server)? Rich people, seriously. I never worked restaurant, but I've heard the same from numerous people who have. The best tippers are Joe Everyman. The rich are stingy bastards. Really, how the hell do you think they got that way? They only grease a wheel if it will eventually line their pocket. In other words, the motto of the rich is: "Fuck the other guy, I got mine, let him figure out how to get his." Trust me, that philosophy applies to EVERY aspect of their lives. They treat an employee worse than a rental car.

There are people in this world who do believe that the greatest way to achieve greatness is by helping another achieve their own greatness, first.

Anyway, 80 years or so ago I would have been a New Dealer, and I think Milton Freidman should have kept his opinions to himself.

 

[digimon7068]

yeah i have to agree...i think a better statement is, the jobs available don't pay as much as the person's last job, and therefore they feel above that and chose to collect UE instead.
cause i can get anyone a job that doesn't have felonies...a pretty good fed job...if you are physically fit and not a dumbfuck i could set things in motion as quick as next week.
but the money isn't gonna be engineering/IT/etc sorta money...and folks can't come to terms with that

i'm self-employed, i have a bachelors degree, a masters degree and several professional certifications and, for the most part, i work 7 days a week...for 2010, my take home will be around $15-grand less than it was in 2009 and around $20-grand less than it was in 2008...that's life under the new world order.

however, i am not sitting idly by and watching my gross receipts languish in mediocrity...over the last 3 months, i've identified 80 attorneys in my geographic region (some that i've worked with and some that i haven't) that do divorce work, estate planning, employee theft work, etc. and, i've begun to reach out to them with a quarterly news letter dealing with valuation, forensic accounting and litigation support topics...i've also reached out to and established working relationships with a couple of larger firms in my area...as a result of my extra effort, i now have a book of projects that will probably carry me through the end of june and i have more stuff coming through the door on a weekly basis.

i guess what i'm trying to say is that we've all suffered as a result of this economic disaster...but, it's time to suck it up and get the frig back to work...the sooner you do, the sooner you can get back to your regular standard of living.

 

[miplank]

You know who are the worst tippers (i.e., you go to a restaurant, get a meal, tip the server)? Rich people, seriously. I never worked restaurant, but I've heard the same from numerous people who have. The best tippers are Joe Everyman.

lol...

 

[75th]

So you're be for letting all of the Bush tax cuts expire? The ones that affect every single bracket?

Ill put it this way...

If completely reforming the tax code (as you and I have discussed before) wasnt an option, and I was forced to chose between having all the tax cuts extended "for 2 years" (but lets be honest, chances are 2 years will become 6, then 10, etc) or letting them all expire, I'd go with the latter.

Letting them expire would allow me the flexibility to lower the brackets I felt should be lowered or using it as an excuse to go the reform route.

IMO thats the difference between a leader and a politician. Obama is definitely the latter.

 

[digimon7068]

Ill put it this way...

If completely reforming the tax code (as you and I have discussed before) wasnt an option, and I was forced to chose between having all the tax cuts extended "for 2 years" (but lets be honest, chances are 2 years will become 6, then 10, etc) or letting them all expire, I'd go with the latter.

Letting them expire would allow me the flexibility to lower the brackets I felt should be lowered or using it as an excuse to go the reform route.

IMO thats the difference between a leader and a politician. Obama is definitely the latter.

i kinda think that they ought to expire too...and i'm a conservative republican...but, we have a lot of responsibilities now in the middle east and they are damned expensive and they aren't gonna go away anytime soon...and we can't allow the chinese to continue to finance all of our efforts.

 

[Mr. dB]

You know who are the worst tippers (i.e., you go to a restaurant, get a meal, tip the server)? Rich people, seriously. I never worked restaurant, but I've heard the same from numerous people who have. The best tippers are Joe Everyman.

The rich are all over the map on tipping. You'll get one asshole who tips $5 on a $200 ticket, and then you'll get someone like Jerry Jones who walks into the bar at closing time, buys a round for the 20-30 stragglers who are still there, pays with his Amex and then palms the bartender a $100 bill.

The worst tippers are school teachers and Blaques. Even the Black waiters don't want to wait on Black customers, they're bossy and high-maintenance and don't tip. The best tippers are other restaurant/bar workers.

The rest of your post is 100% accurate. Business must be rode hard with a heavy-handed regulatory environment or else the only people who benefit will be mgmt and stockholders. They would gladly go back to Pre-WWI work conditions if they could get away with it.

 

[ortiz34]

boy, there is here! and most of them are not bs, minimum wage jobs either...and the people that used to occupy these positions??? they don't wanna go back to work because they are making 75% of what they did before and they're sitting on their asses...or they're out in the woods hunting deer...but, they aren't taking their fucking jobs back, even though the hr person calls them once a week trying to drag them back to work...it's fucking horseshit.

THIS^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

There are fucking jobs out there
go to Lowes or Home Depot and STFU

 

[EnderJE]

Absolutely!

Look at these happy taxpayers:

Choose your response:

A) That would depend on why that particular group is angry.
B) Stop posting up pictures of my parties. I promise that I'll invite you next time.

 

[EnderJE]

i kinda think that they ought to expire too...and i'm a conservative republican...but, we have a lot of responsibilities now in the middle east and they are damned expensive and they aren't gonna go away anytime soon...and we can't allow the chinese to continue to finance all of our efforts.

Perhaps it would be wise to pull out of the ME while the entitlements are trimmed down?

There's a game I saw around here that talked about that premise.