Income inequality in America

[RandomGuy]

I agree they have some real honest feelings out there. Still, they have a bunch of nut jobs also. I think they are more likely to have trouble from within than from outside.

I would agree.

Leftish protests tend to be more diverse, less disciplined, and more raucous.

That is a lot more room for error and over-reaction.

[byrontx]

On the contrary, the 51/49 ratio is extremely relevant if you morally support taking from the haves to give to the have nots. When the have nots (many by their own choice) become the majority ALL the working/producing minority will have targets on their backs.

So you think 51% represents the haves and 49% the have-nots? I think what we are talking about here is the 1% that represents the haves and 99% who see their portion of the pie shrinking. The shrinkage is a progressing number so those that are in a comfortable position now will have their ranks thinned over time. This is not a movement to "take" from hard-working folks, it is a peaceful protest against the erosion of the middle-class.
I am a entreprenuer and definitely a "have-not." My concern is that a strong America depends on a strong middle class. The disparity in wealth as a growing trend and shrinking middle class will likely lead to an economic collapse. There is a class war going on but it is the fat porkers on the top slaughtering the sheep.

[DarrinS]

Because the best way to convince young people that your ideas are good ones is to insult them and belittle them for having the temerity to doubt those ideas.

Aha! Please apply this line of thinking to AGW skepticism.

[ChuckD]

Aha! Please apply this line of thinking to AGW skepticism.

FOX news is not a person, and RG is not a news media outlet.

[DarrinS]

FOX news is not a person, and RG is not a news media outlet.

Non sequitur

[boutons_deux]

"they have a bunch of nut jobs also"

like a black guy carrying an assault weapon to tea bagger rally?

childish fake-patriot assholes in leggings, vests, muskets, tricorner hats?

tea bagger rallies had plenty of assholes, flakes, nuts, spittle-spewing screaming jerkoffs.

[DarrinS]

"they have a bunch of nut jobs also"

like a black guy carrying an assault weapon to tea bagger rally?

childish fake-patriot assholes in leggings, vests, muskets, tricorner hats?

tea bagger rallies had plenty of assholes, flakes, nuts, spittle-spewing screaming jerkoffs.

How many arrests?

[The Reckoning]

[Ignignokt]

The solution is simple.

Lets have a society that has civil law to where no one can use force or fraud to obtain wealth or happiness, and we have voluntary mutual transactions free of govt. The govt would be only there as a retalliatory force against force, fraud and coercion.

Anyone who wants to redistribute wealth, and doesn't want to live by their own means can go off to Guyana and drink cyanide laced purple Flavor-aid.

[Ignignokt]

Show the world that you'd rather commit revolutionary suicide rather than live from the rational capabilities of your mind.

I will just laugh as you choke to death and convulse like the vermin you are.

[Drachen]

The solution is simple.

Lets have a society that has civil law to where no one can use force or fraud to obtain wealth or happiness, and we have voluntary mutual transactions free of govt. The govt would be only there as a retalliatory force against force, fraud and coercion.

Anyone who wants to redistribute wealth, and doesn't want to live by their own means can go off to Guyana and drink cyanide laced purple Flavor-aid.

Sounds great! What happens when a mutual transaction between group A and group B harms group C?

[ChuckD]

Sounds great, Iggy. How do you go about changing 7 billion humans so that there's no force used and no fraud/deception, though? That's kind of human nature.

[Drachen]

Sounds great, Iggy. How do you go about changing 7 billion humans so that there's no force used and no fraud/deception, though? That's kind of human nature.

Imagine . . . .

[ElNono]

What do we do with those that want to live by their own means, but are either temporarily or permanently unable to do so? Charity? More cyanide?

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Thats the whole point of the political forum!

Has anyone ever REALLY changed someone elses mind? If ChuckD REALLY wants to believe the revolution is just weeks away and the barrios are going to empty en-mass and slaughter the middle and upper class will anything I post in here change his mind?

I have seen quite a few young people come around to the ideas I presented of the legacy and worth of the baby boomer generation as a whole earlier this year in the 'where have all the good men gone' thread over the last 6 months.

Thats what you seem to fail to grasp. For the younger generations the perception is changing very rapidly. The behavior of their predecessors is pretty hard to ignore and they have less ties to party or other ideological constraints.

People such as yourself, Darrin, WC and the elder crowd are of course intractable. That does not make the whole like that at all.

[Ignignokt]

Sounds great! What happens when a mutual transaction between group A and group B harms group C?

You have the courts to enforce against fraud and coercion or damage of property. Are you a stupid or not? I already stated govt's role in this in my posts.

[Ignignokt]

Sounds great, Iggy. How do you go about changing 7 billion humans so that there's no force used and no fraud/deception, though? That's kind of human nature.

I don't know, i'm not an ancap nor do I advocate no govt. This question does not apply to me.

[Ignignokt]

What do we do with those that want to live by their own means, but are either temporarily or permanently unable to do so? Charity? More cyanide?

Do you need progressive taxation and wealth redistriubtion schemes to be charitable? To you it seems so.

I guess we took the premise that you actually give a about poor people. You only give a about poor people when you don't have to contribute and you force others through the arm of govt to do so. There's no virtue in that, and you're a big piece of for thinking so.

[RandomGuy]

You have the courts to enforce against fraud and coercion or damage of property. Are you a stupid or not? I already stated govt's role in this in my posts.

"the courts" will solve all the problems if information and resource asymmetry.

Multibillion dollar corporations A and B with legal budgets of hundreds of millions of dollars and armies of experienced legal specialists will be completely cowed by group C of middle-class layman land-owners with a legal budget of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Wow, why didn't I think of that?

[RandomGuy]

What do we do with those that want to live by their own means, but are either temporarily or permanently unable to do so? Charity? More cyanide?

Spirit of Christmas Present: If it's too hard a lesson for you to learn, then learn this lesson!
[opens his robe, revealing two starving children]
Ebenezer: [shocked] Spirit, are these yours?
Spirit of Christmas Present: They are Man's. This boy is Ignorance, this girl is Want. Beware them both, but most of all, beware this boy!
Ebenezer: But have they no refuge, no resource?
Spirit of Christmas Present: [quoting Scrooge] Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?"

[RandomGuy]

Getting rid of governments will not get rid of economic cycles.

The problem with simply waving your hands and saying "private charity" will take care of people who would literally starve or become homeless in a downturn, is illustrated rather starkly by the plight of the private charity food pantries, i.e. when need is most, donations are least.

[Ignignokt]

"the courts" will solve all the problems if information and resource asymmetry.

Multibillion dollar corporations A and B with legal budgets of hundreds of millions of dollars and armies of experienced legal specialists will be completely cowed by group C of middle-class layman land-owners with a legal budget of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Wow, why didn't I think of that?

How is legislating law any different? I know you're not so naive..

[boutons_deux]

"How is legislating law any different?"

legislators and regulators do the bidding of the UCA/capitalists, not Human-Americans.

And the unCons utional 60-vote-rule in the Senate combined with the bad-faith, smash-mouth Repug strategy of (threatening to) filibuster every Dem bill creates obstructed/dysfunctional legislature.

iow, the power of NO is much greater than the power of YES

[RandomGuy]

How is legislating law any different? I know you're not so naive..

Asymetry problems still exist with our current system, yes.

But throwing the baby out with the bathwater, and trying out a vast libertarian experiment, seems a bit extreme to me.

Wouldnt' it be easier to find a solution to the corrosive effects of corporate cash than going off the deep end?

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Getting rid of governments will not get rid of economic cycles.

The problem with simply waving your hands and saying "private charity" will take care of people who would literally starve or become homeless in a downturn, is illustrated rather starkly by the plight of the private charity food pantries, i.e. when need is most, donations are least.

You have to love how they willfully ignore 1750-1930. Private charities did not do and economic cycles were exacerbated. Corporate sucking gets old.