C-SPAN Caller: The Rich Don't Get Rich Because of Government, They Get Rich Because of Themselves
During a call-in session asking viewers what they think the federal government should cut from the budget, here is what a caller from Texas told C-SPAN Washington Journal host Steve Scully this Sunday. This is what happens to your brain after listening to too much right-wing radio and watching Fox.
SCULLY: Next is John from San Antonio. Good morning.
CALLER JOHN: Good morning. How we doing today?
SCULLY: Fine thank you.
CALLER JOHN: I missed a lot. I don't think half the people calling in understand anything about government and how the rich get rich. The rich don't get rich because of government. They get rich because of themselves and when they put a product on the line that the people buy.
Government on the other hand, does not create wealth. They only create debt. Every time you hire one of these suckers, that's one of me too. Every time you hire one somebody in the private sector's got to pay a debt. Think about what we do for government. They are very, very rich and because of the private sector.
They have a generous retirement pay. They have a generous health care pay and because of the private sector, not because of government. Government is like, like old Egypt, when they had the Pharaohs, and everybody else and the serfs had to go out in the field and give 90% of what they earned to government, just like we do in America here during the slave trade, during slavery time.
Those guys are out in the field giving all of this stuff to the slave owner and that is exactly what we're doing right now. We've got the ruling class, government, taking all of the riches of America unto themselves. And then got you believing the problem we have is the rich man who got up off his rear end and went to work and earned what he got today.
I want to be rich one day and I darn sure don't want government telling me when I can be rich and how long it's going to take me to become rich as a result. Now in these budgets they've got, if they're not cutting the costs, the labor costs of government, moving it down to the private sector area, then they're blowing smoke and lying to us all.
SCULLY: Okay.
There are a lot of arguments you could make about how ridiculous and wrong every single thing this man had to say was, including being completely backwards when it comes to large corporations and people getting rich off of our tax dollars. But that aside, I wish someone would also ask this man to read or listen to this (the video is at the original post).
Thom Hartmann: Day in the Life of Joe Middle-Class Republican:
One of my favorites from Thom Hartman. His recital of John Gray's Day in the Life of Joe Middle-Class Republican:
"A Day in the Life of Joe Middle-Class Republican"
Joe gets up at 6:00am to prepare his morning coffee. He fills his pot full of good clean drinking water because some liberal fought for minimum water quality standards. He takes his daily medication with his first swallow of coffee. His medications are safe to take because some liberal fought to insure their safety and work as advertised.
All but $10.00 of his medications are paid for by his employers medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance, now Joe gets it too. He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs this day. Joe’s bacon is safe to eat because some liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.
Joe takes his morning shower reaching for his shampoo; His bottle is properly labeled with every ingredient and the amount of its contents because some liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained. Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some tree hugging liberal fought for laws to stop industries from polluting our air. He walks to the subway station for his government subsidized ride to work; it saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees. You see, some liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.
Joe begins his work day; he has a good job with excellent pay, medicals benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. Joe’s employer pays these standards because Joe’s employer doesn’t want his employees to call the union. If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed he’ll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some liberal didn’t think he should loose his home because of his temporary misfortune.
Its noon time, Joe needs to make a Bank Deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe’s deposit is federally insured by the FDIC because some liberal wanted to protect Joe’s money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the depression.
Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae underwritten Mortgage and his below market federal student loan because some stupid liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his life-time.
Joe is home from work, he plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive to dads; his car is among the safest in the world because some liberal fought for car safety standards. He arrives at his boyhood home. He was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers Home Administration because bankers didn’t want to make rural loans. The house didn’t have electric until some big government liberal stuck his nose where it didn’t belong and demanded rural electrification. (Those rural Republican’s would still be sitting in the dark)
He is happy to see his dad who is now retired. His dad lives on Social Security and his union pension because some liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn’t have to. After his visit with dad he gets back in his car for the ride home.
He turns on a radio talk show, the host’s keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. (He doesn’t tell Joe that his beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day) Joe agrees, "We don’t need those big government liberals ruining our lives; after all, I’m a self made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have".
Is it me or does this network take a disproportiate number of calls from confederate wack-os and reactionaries or has this country really gone over to the neo-fascists, bible thumpers, and just plain either misinformed or just plain stupid rubes?
There is a serious stupidity problem in this country. There are way too many imbeciles like this guy.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
No shit ? The incredible stupidity and ignorance of the people in this country , of the electorate , is going to be our down fall . Bottom line , they are the reason this country is in the state it's in . Fox is # 1 in television ? Limbaugh # 1 on radio ? WTH ? Of everything that has gone down the last 10 1/2 years the biggest shock to me was Bush getting enough votes to steal a second term , I knew then that this country was in serious trouble ( gross stupidity ) . Still , even now , it just blows my mind how incredibly dumb and senseless the Republican supporters and Tea Baggers are , and there is no getting through to them , not a chance , they are completely hopeless .
"The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all."
I think that for a few people, the FOX propaganda and the hate radio propaganda is like a drug to them or a hypnotic spell which has them possessed.
Think about the atrocious lies the republicans tell. If you believed those lies you might be furious.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
They feed on that stuff Ape Man , they really do , and as you probably know it is not a new phenomena . Truly , these guys would make Joseph Goebbels proud . Their supporters / listeners are so blinded by their own hate and fear that they can't actually think , they can't reason and see the obvious which is just what the Reich wing propagandists want , they know what they are doing and they are good at it .
"The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all."
marvelled at this...and that so much of the "opposition" party has been put on the defensive, by such pathological bullshit.
I'm sure you guys know, when you try to insert some sanity into conversations withi Republican friends/family, how your insertions are greeted. At least mine are greeted by open-mouthed gaping most of the time as I start to make my point. Progressives are speaking a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT LANGUAGE from FUX News. We're coming from completely different vantage points and so it takes a while for us even to use the same language to discuss common circumstances. These folks who watch FUX continuously really are being brainwashed. They are so completely inundated in propaganda that it's only natural, that if they're exposed to some fact-based information, they'll naturally, instincitvely reject it. If we are to begin breaking down walls, those folks will have to suppress their instinct to reject what we say out of hand and just listen.....and really decide to listen in good faith. If they act like Hannity and just make shit up, well, we might as well all go home coz we can't connect.
the guy in the street does not, so it is not a level playing field, the guy in the street will accept his fate if it is a level playing field, but it is not currently fair.
Yes, the rich ORGANIZE, something they demonize others for doing. I'll stop supporting labor unions when the Chamber or Commerce is dissolved. Until then, explain to me the difference.
I dont understand why bonehead Boehner is always talking about the American people want this or that but he REALLY means the corporations. And why does he continue to get away with it? Why does no one call him out on that. He cares nothing for the American people. His actions speak WAY louder than words.
C-SPAN is clearly moron friendly.
today wealth is generated from public debt............john
He wants to be rich one day. good luck with that.
The mistake this caller makes is that it is neither government or rich people that are the problem. The problem is that a handful of corporations are controlling government from behind the 'curtain'. his analogy of the workers in the field is correct but he appears to have no idea that a few very large global corporations are the 'masters' pulling the strings and fleecing everyone.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
when rich people who own global corporations are controlling our govt?
But yes I agree...that guy is sort of missing the point that there are "two kinds of rich people" in America.
I have a successful trucking company "rich" and I'm a wall st. banker "rich"
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
Seeing that the vast majority of corporations in the US are chartered at the state level, and that, iirc, the majority of those are chartered by the state of Delaware, why are you "original" Tea Partiers not spending more time fighting to reform corporatism at the state level, where it's born?
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
did this come up at a good time... talked a bit with my righty brother... the guy thinks the only things government should do is roads and police... i don't even quite know what to say to such talk...
and i get so flustered... and embarrassed...
..."your" Federal govt spends a trillion dollars a year on bogus overseas wars of empire, or because you need govt to take care of everything for you?
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
You just come to C&L because C-SPAN has your call waiting for so long.
Imbecile.
troll
It doesn't work. Try to ignore him.
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
Know there is nothing conservative of the biggest crook of all the MIC, stealing billions from hard working folks to keep the MIC and its executives stinking rich, corrupt, and considering all the killing truly evil.
to give up his Social Security and Medicare when the time comes....which are run by the Government.
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
This banner at the Wisconsin protest -
"No Longer A Republican"
- just about says it all John.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
I think the rich get rich off the poor and the government. Sam Walton did not open WalMarts to sell to the rich. Ross Perot made his billions with his companies mostly off government contracts. Just to name two.
I think the list could go on for a long while.
The only rich guy I can think of who made his money off the rich was Madoff...and we know how that worked out.
others, mainly the Saudis and the city of Houston.
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
When I get into these conversations and tell people that if these companies do not want the government involved in their business they should not incorporate, their heads explode.
My mom worked for the FDA in the mid-60s and was instrumental in requiring that ingredients in food be listed in order of contents - specifically "peanut butter" that contained more lard than peanuts had to list lard before peanuts. Big step forward at the time.
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
You guys should really just lay off C-SPAN callers. I hardly think pointing out the wrong headness of individual anonymous voters does anything good other than give the writer a smug sense of self-righteousness. The segment of people that call into C-SPAN is ridiculously small. And Washington Journal? Do you know what time that airs? When normal, thinking and sensible people are at work. Who does that leave to call in? Angry people with lots of time, that's who. I watch the show regularly and I'd say 8 out of 10 callers are the edge of the point of no return as far as sanity goes.
The caller is 100% correct, I'll bet every single poster on this board earns almost no money. My old roommate made millions in nutrition, we rented rooms for $200 a month and both drove beaters for years. The government had nothing to do with his wealth. I grew up around opulence, my oldest friend, his family started from the ground up with nothing, after 40 years they have 30 retail stores, the government had nothing to with their success and wealth. I have several online businesses, the government has nothing to do with my success.
Private industry creates wealth based on consumer demand, money is created from a productive business meeting a market need. Money often comes from all over the world for business. Government however looks at what it thinks are needs (sometimes real, oftentimes not) and determines it will spend the peoples money to fill their perceived need. To meet that need they tax the populace placing stress on the peoples resources, worse yet taxes favor those in business, so when the poor left call for more taxes they are punishing themselves. That's right you are hurting yourselves. I'll repeat that taxes favor those in business. Why? Because they create opportunity and jobs and the tax code properly encourages that because more opportunity is an asset.
The government isn't satisfied with just your tax money, so they will deficit spend and debase our currency to get what they want. You guys need to go start a business and learn what is involved in that process.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
Goodnight, indeed. Do you not realize that the entire purpose of gov't is to "spread the wealth" around??? Otherwise, why don't we just go back to the days of Kings and Queens running this place? I'ts by spreading the wealth, we ALL get an opportunity to contribute to the American Dream, you moron. Go back and read the "Day in the Life of Joe Middle Class Republican", over an over and over again, until you finally get it.
Sorry, this was in reply to his comment, titled, "My God, no wonder most of the left are always broke"
When the economy collapsed, who got the wealth spread to them there captain thought process? Hmmm? Who got $800 billion and who got f***ed? Who got trillions more later? Hmm?
The bankers got it.
You go on and keep the faith about spreading the wealth. In the mean time the government will take care of itself and the banks.
Take a long hard look at Greece, they spread the wealth a lot and today they are f***ed!
And I'll bet you are broke
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
to his buddies and defense contractors. It's just that he spread the wealth of the country upward and left the 98% of the American public that built this county in the ditch.
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
Banks got the money. Trickle-down economics. People would spend the money did not get the money. Banks hoarded it and now have some of the largest profit margins in their histories. You really have no idea about government.
Thank you Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.
of royalty.....and he's trying to solidify it by ramming through that union-busting legislation.
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
Really? How did he move his product? Completely privately funded teleporter technology (think Star Trek) or a head bob (think I Dream of Jeannie)? If a renter got behind and owed the landlord money, how was that recouped? Through the public courts or through private courts?
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
Like UPS, DHL, Airborne express. As for my friends, the Internet wasn't there when they made their wealth. Don't be naive into thinking I'm suggesting no government at all. Basic services and infrastructure is good, but we're $14/$15 trillion in the hole today, we're way past basic services now. The government does not create wealth, it is a burden to the tax payer, that is not to say all taxes or all government services are not needed or good.
We in the US already pay roughly 60% of our income to taxes in one form or another, so when I see ignorant positions about the government being the gravy train and spread the wealth, yeah I'm going to call out that stupidity for what it is.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
If that is the case, your "friend" will be shitting bricks since his "wealth" I am sure is measured in "dollars."
BTW, DHL is owned by Deutsche Post. You know, the German Post Office. Its largest shareholder being the German Govt.
The debate is moot anyways. Good luck "creating wealth" (and more importantly) maintain it without a government. I heard that is the reason why Somalia has been booming the past couple of decades, right? Yes, just because our current government sucks it does not mean that it has to be destroyed. It means that it needs to be fixed. We could switch your argument and make a similar case in regards of private enterprise, after all the economy sucks because of them too, no?
Regarding the debt, the lion's share of that deficit comes from the insane military spending, and the fact that the people who have benefited the most from the government, the super wealthy, have not paid their fair share for well over 3 decades (at least). Fix those two items, and most of the runaway deficit problems disappear almost overnight.
Then there is the funny thing about "debt" most libertarians don't seem to grasp: Good luck running a capitalist system without issuing debt, especially without a gov to provide "trust" to the system. The whole "debt = bad" talking point displays a clear lack of understanding of the very system some of you worship. It is like a Christian requesting the church renounces Jesus. If you want capitalism then you have to have debt. You can't pick and choose, sorry. And no, debt is not a good thing... which is why capitalism is neither also (or any ism for that matter).
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
in the last 50 years. The tax structure in the Eisenhower Administration topped out at 91% and went down to the 70% group.
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
of American history.
good union jobs paid enough so that a man could support his family without his wife going to work, buy a car, a home, take a vacation, send his kids to college and put away something for retirement. Now it takes both people in the family working full time with little or no benefits and sometimes older kids have to work, too. The Rethugs are on a campaign to ruin the middle class of this country and bust the unions so that there will be the rich...........and everybody else who is barely scraping by or unemployed and on the road to ruin.
What a country!
Or, more correctly: What? A country?
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
We don't pay much in income tax. Here's a chart listing 2005 tax rates. Note that the US is below 30% in income tax rates. We pay NOTHING in taxes, compared to the rest of the world (and we get what we pay for). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Income_Taxe...
We pay, sales tax, hidden tax, property tax, then beyond federal income tax many states also have income tax, capital gains tax, excise tax, death tax, and on and on. There more kinds of tax than I have time to list here. No we are taxed very high in the states.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
...which use airports and roads built on the public dime.
And something dumbasses like you seem to miss is that if the federal government sank an assload more into the infrastructure right now, it would create jobs, and more money would be out there being spent in the private sector. That's called stimulus, and there wasn't enough of it in the Obama stimulus package to get the economy going again. Not that the infrastructure doesn't need it, but because dumbasses like you do nothing but bitch about something that's a win/win proposition, instead getting hung up on arguments over aesthetic rather than intrinsic value.
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
your rich friend wouldn't be able to keep his wealth. Ask him if he thinks Somalia is a great place to make money and suggest to him that he should consider moving there.
police, fire department, emergency services, absolutely. Where our government is now in spending we are well over those basic services, the notion of spreading the wealth however is just ignorant on so many levels.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
Businesses get rich, in part, because of tax exemptions granted them. If they paid their way like most middle and lower-middle class schlubs, they might not have quite as much money, but we would have more to show for disproportionate percentage of taxes that we schlubs pay.
And no, these days, supply and demand have very little to do with whether a prospective business succeeds in the States. Most economies are duopolies and it's next to impossible for the mythical "small-businessman" to make a dent in the economy because most markets are dominated by just a few corporations. Best Buy dominates because it has thrived on property tax exemptions, low corporate taxes-i.e. favorable treatment from the government that most of us working schlubs do not have.
When corporate tax rates are high, everyone prospers. This is proven historically in this country. When corporate tax rates are low, as they are now, only the uber wealthy prosper, and the middle class dwindles, because the redistribution of wealth flows upward, not downward..
Don't you know he has the gold makes the rules, have you ever noticed tax laws always favor the rich no matter who is in office? Why do you think that is? The rich make the laws in favor of business. It's not government.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
You think that is the government doing good works? How much effort was required for that benevolence? Not much.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
Do you have any comprehension at all of the sheer ignorance of that idea. Government defines the means of ownership, without government you own nothing, absolutely nothing. No government, no cities, no towns, not even villages. No government and your a wild nomadic human living in a cave.
Rule by elders, Tribal Chieftains, Monarchy, all represent different forms of government. Government defines private ownership not vice versa, I have to be honest, you ignorance is just painful behold.
All resources are owned by all citizens, those citizens by forming a government establish the basis upon which the shared resource is put under private control for the benefit of that society.
The insanity of minority exploitation of the majority is just that, the insanity of sociopathy and narcissism. Both are genetic defects, that should in a sane society deny those persons who suffer those defects from positions of governance, control and influence.
You know of the people, by the people, for the people, right. Get real.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
"I'll bet every single poster on this board earns almost no money"
How much are you willing to bet and part with?
That most of the posters who are spewing this financial ignorance make and keep less than I do, and that's not bragging, there are many out there who make a boatload more than me. I say that because if anyone here made money they wouldn't be pumping this psycho-babble. But how are we going to prove that now?
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
The sad irony to statements such as the one made by the caller from San Antonio is that he has a much better chance of being struck by lightning than ever getting rich in any meaningful way. It's a little astonishing how many people sympathize with the wealthy, a group they will never enter and who look upon them with utter contempt.
As the late, great George Carlin said, "It's called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe in it."
1 out of 10 businesses succeed, to a person who does not see opportunity, that means failure, why bother trying. To a person who does see opportunity, that means 100% success is assured if one is willing to fail 10 times.
For the persevering it rarely takes 10 times.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
Usually it requires being in the right place at the right time. But let me ask you something Rage. If no one has any money, then where is demand for your good or service? If all our capital is tied up in mega corporations and mega banks, average people don't have the means to start a whole lot. That is the problem we see now. Corporations sitting on TRILLIONS of dollars. Employees are asked to do more with less and less pay. The more money that concentrates at the top, the further our economy will suffer as what little money people actually have will go to basic necessities. Your view is far too black and white. I applaud your success. Take your wealth and create jobs with it, and also don't forget that despite your giant ego, you couldn't have done it without the help of other people.
BOTH sides want corruption out of government. In a democracy where money buys power (lobbyist/contributions), the more money that's concentrated into fewer hands, the more say those people have in our democracy. They then use the government to seek favor in the laws with great disregard to the general population. Unfortunately, most people are idiotic consumers, and they consume their politics much in the same way they'd buy a television.
Surely we both can agree that the greatest threat to our democracy is that our elections are bought and paid for by individuals of considerable wealth. If a union supports a candidate, then the candidate will be fighting for benefits for an entire work force. If Koch supports a candidate with one of his many "grass root" organizations, then KOCH benefits from the politicians work.
Our government did, both parties bailed the banks out with nearly $800 billion, then the FED injected them sh*t loads of cash so they could buy treasuries and collect the interest. What has Obama done to stop this wealth spreading to the banks? Nothing. He got in bed with them. That's your hope and change right now.
How much of the bailout, or stimulus from QE1 or QE2 landed in your pocket? I don't know about you but all I get is the government asking me for more money. Look at the tax laws what has either party done to change the fact employee's get the shaft in taxes? You do realize when Democrats ask for more taxes that the tax law is always going to tax the poor harder? It's like the poorest who want more taxes enjoy being punishing themselves.
The US is one of the highest taxed countries in the world, roughly 60% of our income goes to tax in one form or another, you think we need to pay more? Have you ever noticed Congress has never not approved raises for themselves? They always do, who pays for these do nothing loafers? We do. Are you really in favor of more this f***ed up arrangement? Neither party is helping the poor or middle class, not the Democrats, the GOP, nor is Obama. It's all lip service and great press but the fine print and the end result amounts to practically nothing.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
If you Google "Average tax burdens global" you'll find that the US tax burden is, in fact, one of the lowest in the world. Perhaps if you did a little research yourself instead of regurgitating right-wing talking points, you may find your perspective altering somewhat, or is your mind made up, don't confuse it with facts?
I'd love to see your source and what they included in there estimates. Honestly though you don't need google to add up how much we are taxed. There are multiple ways we are taxed, Federal income tax, and state income tax accounts for 30% of our tax out the door but if add all that is taken from your check it's really 50%, investors call paychecks 50% money for this reason. You do your taxes each year right? Sales tax alone makes up another 6 to 8.5% alone. Now add in, hidden sales tax, property tax, capital gains, the death tax, no we easily are among the highest taxes nations in the word. Come on think.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
But please, keep contributing to the discussion by implying that all liberals are broke. We're not worthy of your intellectual genius. After all, you feel a little wealthy, and you can't tell a self-righteous ego maniac anything after he's made a few bucks.
Tesla died penniless.
As your means to financial well being, then you're broke. The truth may suck, but someone has to speak up.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
hook, line, and sinker also. Where do you think mega corporations get personhood? Government. Who gives corporations tax protection? Governments. If governments did not protect corporations like this, corporations would not have swallowed up the wealth in the world. We The People don't get that sort of cushy treatment. How about if corporations were not treated like people? How about if they had to pay more taxes? We would be better off and corporations would be only be moderately wealthy. So don't tell me government prevents people from getting wealthy. Governments have facilitated the wealth acquisition of American corporations.
While mega corporations have been using their vast influence ($$$) to perveert the system to their favor, liike a metastasized cancer, government should only be enabling the independent entrepreneur to pursure opportunities to create wealth (as opposed to creating money, which is what the major banks and financial corporations are doing now).
The Banks own the FED and are Capitol Hill's masters. But there are a lot of other businesses out there that didn't get bailed out or helped in this crisis who do pursue opportunities.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
Your going to count having a tax break as the government somehow creating wealth?! Your going to count the leech not sucking blood as benevolence?! Holy sh*t!
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
I don't want government to "spread the wealth." Unless that means out of the hands of the fortune 400. The entire population can't be internet web application developers, Vegas. Did you land that super model trophy wife yet? I hear the new Atlas Shrugged movie is a real doozy as well.
but as a lifelong liberal, I agree with AGold. He didin't say anything about liberal or conservative. I have tried numerous times to start businesses, and failed. I learned a lot from those failures, one of which was that I hate selling, which is a prerequisite to success. So I chose a different path. I'm still a liberal and I like what I do.
And Tesla died penniless because the MIC stole his inventions and patents and ostracized him because he was a revolutionary thinker.
I meant I agree with VegasRage, not AGold.
The ignorance stupidity and complete lack of education from morons like this is the only reason the Reslugs were voted in.
... the majority of Presidents, Senators, and Congresspeople are all very wealthy individuals. In fact when have we ever had a poor president?
So if the government has nothing to do with how one person becomes rich, how come all those rich people want to be part of the government?
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
.
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
thanks.
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
Funny you should mention Truman. Just changed my avatar, I've always considered HST to be one of the finest presidents this country ever had.
He was not born to wealth. He struggled as a farmer and later businessman, and got into politics almost by accident. He saw the Gilded Age and what it did to the working class in this country and decided to do something about it.
He served as a Captain of Artillery in World War 1 France, and was so respected by his men that many of them were lifelong friends. It's true that he went to Washington as an unknown, as a political tool of Tom Pendergast, but he had backbone and never let Pendergast's machine influence his decision. He worked tirelessly to help the working man.
During WW2 he led the Truman Commission, which sought out defense contrator fraud. He once told the President of Martin aircraft, who built the B26 that was crashing and killing pilots and was not doing enough to fix the problem, that if he didn't fix the plane, he'd get Martin's contract cancelled and would make sure they never got another. Martin fixed the problems. Harry would personally drive to many of the military bases to seek out fraud and abuse.
And then, he got handed the hottest potato of all time. FDR, after making him his VP, never told Truman about the A-bomb before his death. This son of a sharecropper had to make the most momentous decision and the future of man ever handed to a President. You can argue right and wrong, but it ended the war.
Then, the Marshall Plan that saved Europe, and the stopping of the North Korean invasion. Plus, HST had proposed national health care as early as 1945.
One of the greats.
Democratic Party progressive, Vietnam veteran and proud Union member for 41 years
"So if the government has nothing to do with how one person becomes rich, how come all those rich people want to be part of the government?"
Republicans have always seen politics as a way to enrich themselves. There are people who enter politics who see it as a way of helping people improve themselves. We call them progressives.
One has become interchangeable with the other. Cheney from halliburton. Paulsen et all from Goldman Sacs. It doesn't matter which party anymore either. Big money and our government are one in the same. The sooner us regular folk figure that out the more we will be able to come up with effective solutions to our problems.
the caller probably got confused by thinking the government and its laws and regulations in favor of the rich had nothing to do with protecting the trust fund his daddy set up for him.
Ignorance is bliss.
what do you expect?
right out of my mouth. They're not too bright down there, and ought to be ashamed.
Sounds like some rich old geezer that's been sucking on the teet of government all his life and doesn't even know it.
Speaking as someone who is not rich, the amount of knowledge that people who are not rich have about becoming rich would fit into George Soros' pinky finger. That guy claims that "wanting to be rich" someday give him insight or knowledge to speak from. That's like claiming you're an expert equestrian because you like horses.
The next time somebody asks me why I consider the modern conservative to be shallower than a tea cup I'll refer them to John from San Antonio. Any minimum of thought would show his comments to be wildly incomplete and unthoughtout , but when the best one can do is think in bumper stickers and repeat what a talking head or email told you wadda ya gonna do?
"Government on the other hand, does not create wealth. They only create debt."
he's correct, as far as he goes, a half-truth is the same as a lie, and this lie get's swallowed whole by most people. labor creates wealth, actual measurable labor in the scientific sense; taking raw materials and crafting something, plowing and planting, mining, harvesting, manufacturing, these activities create wealth. capital would not exist if labor had not first existed, therefore in any conflict between the two, labor must be given the higher priority. you can have all the capital you want, without labor, it is what it is, dead.
this simple lesson needs to be learned by puke and donkey alike. no charge.
didn't get wealthy because of themselves.....
but certainly working is one of the ways to achieve it....albeit the slowest...
The excuses and bad examples to defend the government who just screwed all of us and rewarded the banks in the trillions is simply stunning. But hey you want more of it, right.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
No one here defends the big banks. Stop putting words in everyone's mouth. I would of liked to see them all broken up. Too big too fail means too big too exist.
I don't want government to "spread the wealth." Unless that means out of the hands of the fortune 400. But our government did spread the wealth to the banks, as did the FED, and there are other posters here who are for spreading the wealth. The problem with that is what I just mentioned, the banks got the wealth spread to them, and it the average tax payer that is getting the bill. That's not good no matter how you slice it.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
"Less taxes for the rich! I know I'd want them if I was rich"
"Screw the poor! I'll never be poor!"
Let's see how far to the right they go before they fall off of the edge of this flat world.
Fractional Reserve Banking is really the problem here, that and how the entire system is actually controlled by relatively small circles of people.
Comments are closed on this entry