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Author Topic:   American Budget Cuts
xongsmith
Member
Posts: 2574
From: massachusetts US
Joined: 01-01-2009
Member Rating: 5.4


Message 36 of 350 (605752)
02-21-2011 11:44 PM
Reply to: Message 35 by RAZD
02-21-2011 5:21 PM


Re: Budget Cuts & Reality
RAZD writes:
The Military-Industrial complex has grown like a tumor on the american economy, and needs to be cut down to size.
It's far, far worse than that. Like the mice who want to bell the cat - who's gonna do it? They got nuclear weapons. We got maybe some mail-order AK-47s and an old gatling gun or 2. Some grenades. They got cruise missile and smart bombs. They even have dirty bombs and germ warfare weapons.
International corporate collusion has strangled the whole world.
Over 90% of all the world's criminal activity is done at the behest of the Top Fortune 500 corporations. When the profits of corporations have been and still are held so much more important than the citizens of the United States, we got Trouble, and that starts with T which rhymes with P and that stands for Pool. Too big to fail? They can have you killed for maybe 10 bucks. With a mere flick of the wrist, if you so much as look like you are in their way. Democracy? Federalism? Justice? Constitution? Freedom? All long, long gone into the dustbin of history. It was a nice idea, until greed got in the way. Sundown on the Union. This country's ruled by violence, better get that through your head.
Look at all these liberal whiners in the media complaining about a future disaster that they haven't even recognized has already occurred in the past. Where's my man Dronester?
You want a budget cut? Maybe better to Hope for the Singularity to eat them alive...maybe cut them open on live TV.
I'd watch that. With fries.

- xongsmith, 5.7d

This message is a reply to:
 Message 35 by RAZD, posted 02-21-2011 5:21 PM RAZD has seen this message but not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 37 by Phage0070, posted 02-21-2011 11:56 PM xongsmith has not replied

xongsmith
Member
Posts: 2574
From: massachusetts US
Joined: 01-01-2009
Member Rating: 5.4


Message 41 of 350 (605771)
02-22-2011 12:24 AM
Reply to: Message 38 by Phage0070
02-21-2011 11:58 PM


Re: Budget Cuts & Reality
Phage0070 writes:
Thats because corporations *are* workers. Organized workers dedicated to a common goal, but its all just workers.
WTF are you smokin'? I want some.

- xongsmith, 5.7d

This message is a reply to:
 Message 38 by Phage0070, posted 02-21-2011 11:58 PM Phage0070 has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 42 by Phage0070, posted 02-22-2011 12:27 AM xongsmith has replied

xongsmith
Member
Posts: 2574
From: massachusetts US
Joined: 01-01-2009
Member Rating: 5.4


Message 43 of 350 (605775)
02-22-2011 12:37 AM
Reply to: Message 39 by Phage0070
02-22-2011 12:07 AM


Re: Budget Cuts & Reality
Phage0070 writes:
Historically the public sector is significantly more wasteful than the private sector, due to the lack of any meaningful competition....[deletia]...
Historically the public sector is doing all the important work. They are not making pet rocks or hula hoops or french fries. They are teachers, firefighters, policemen, soldiers, highway repairmen, snowplowers, librarians, garbage collectors and so on.
You are arguing that making pet rocks is less wasteful than teaching our children. You are arguing that running American Idol is less wasteful than the providing our soldiers with adequate protection from IEDs. You are arguing that a computer store is less wasteful than a firestation.
Good luck with that.
If a public sector job can be transferred to the private sector without compromising its execution then its always going to be a good idea.
That has never happened.
Ever.

- xongsmith, 5.7d

This message is a reply to:
 Message 39 by Phage0070, posted 02-22-2011 12:07 AM Phage0070 has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 45 by Phage0070, posted 02-22-2011 12:46 AM xongsmith has not replied

xongsmith
Member
Posts: 2574
From: massachusetts US
Joined: 01-01-2009
Member Rating: 5.4


Message 44 of 350 (605776)
02-22-2011 12:45 AM
Reply to: Message 42 by Phage0070
02-22-2011 12:27 AM


Re: Budget Cuts & Reality
Phage0070 writes:
Do you disagree? A corporation is simply an organization of workers which is tailored to certain types of investment.
A corporation is nothing less than a dictatorship, dude. The minions at the bottom get shit on by the overlords on top. The more unions are broken, the more the overlords shit on them.
C'mon this is easy shit. I've seen a lot better from you elsewhere. You are disappointing me. Maybe employee-owned companies. But what, Avis Rent-A-Car, SAIC,...some others...possibly The Green Bay Packers - but by far in the extreme minority here. They are tolerated exceptions.

- xongsmith, 5.7d

This message is a reply to:
 Message 42 by Phage0070, posted 02-22-2011 12:27 AM Phage0070 has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 46 by Phage0070, posted 02-22-2011 12:50 AM xongsmith has replied

xongsmith
Member
Posts: 2574
From: massachusetts US
Joined: 01-01-2009
Member Rating: 5.4


Message 47 of 350 (605780)
02-22-2011 12:58 AM
Reply to: Message 46 by Phage0070
02-22-2011 12:50 AM


Re: Budget Cuts & Reality
Phage0070 writes:
This anti-company attitude makes me think you have never been meaningfully employed.
Well, you would be wrong.

- xongsmith, 5.7d

This message is a reply to:
 Message 46 by Phage0070, posted 02-22-2011 12:50 AM Phage0070 has not replied

xongsmith
Member
Posts: 2574
From: massachusetts US
Joined: 01-01-2009
Member Rating: 5.4


Message 146 of 350 (606112)
02-23-2011 8:11 PM
Reply to: Message 84 by cavediver
02-22-2011 7:20 PM


Re: Budget Cuts & Reality
cavediver a while back here said writes:
......can you think of ways in which this would lead to growth of the company, hence enabling it to capitalise on economies of scale, hence further improving efficiency?
I've been thinking about The Economy Of Scale for awhile, and originally was thinking it was a terrible, terrible thing to inflict upon humans. The mom & pop stores cannot compete with the megacorporations because of this. If nature had just been different here, we'd still have our warm neighborhood centers.
But now I am also have thinking that it is a clever way for megacorporations to shove the cost of business onto the general consumer in the form of hidden costs. The very process of harvesting millions of acres of corn at once, for example, cannot be seen immediately. Everybody is buying the cheap corn. But what are the environmental costs that someday down the road the average dude on the street is going to have to pay for? Take the fast food's reluctance to convert over to eco-friendly wrappings. Here was a blatant "not our problem - it's up to you to pay to clean up that shit" way of saving oodles of cash. Just packaging in general - it's all cost passed on to the consumer in more ways than the price of the item. The landfills getting filled will eventually be an enormous cost. I'm thinking it might turn out that the more you use economy of scale, the more you are creating a bigger problem later on down the road. Sort of a principle of conservation of total inefficiency across the whole system. Food for thought.
In other words, economy of scale might improve local efficiency, but the system as a whole is more inefficient....

- xongsmith, 5.7d

This message is a reply to:
 Message 84 by cavediver, posted 02-22-2011 7:20 PM cavediver has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 147 by cavediver, posted 02-23-2011 8:30 PM xongsmith has not replied

xongsmith
Member
Posts: 2574
From: massachusetts US
Joined: 01-01-2009
Member Rating: 5.4


Message 152 of 350 (606179)
02-24-2011 3:10 AM
Reply to: Message 150 by crashfrog
02-23-2011 11:56 PM


Re: Budget Cuts & Reality
crashfrog writes:
And no, most stock market activity is not "gambling".
Yes, it is. In any stock market, somebody is selling and somebody is buying. The sellers are selling to the buyers. Since trading stocks doesn't create value, trading stocks is a zero-sum game.
It's even worse, Crash. The deck is stacked against the average middle-income investor. It another casino-house-wins-again game. Stockbrokers and Derivative Traders have managed to prove themselves worse scum than Lawyers and Politicians - and - hey, that's very hard to do.
It's one thing to be addicted to gambling with your money to the point where you lose your house and your family. That's bad.
But it doesn't compare to gambling with somebody else's money and losing their houses & families, such as we saw come to a head right at the end of the 8-year ripoff of the USA by the Bush-Cheney cronies.
It's a negative sum game for all but the top 2%.
The only guy they caught was Bernie Madoff. And Bernie wasn't even a player in the big ripoff! Thousands of vicious venal criminals got away truly scot-free.
"Oh, Bernie Madoff
What are you made of
That you went & made off
With all their money?"
as opposed to:
"The gang with the cash put your bonus parachute
Into your offshore accounts & left the country destitute"

- xongsmith, 5.7d

This message is a reply to:
 Message 150 by crashfrog, posted 02-23-2011 11:56 PM crashfrog has not replied

xongsmith
Member
Posts: 2574
From: massachusetts US
Joined: 01-01-2009
Member Rating: 5.4


Message 213 of 350 (606661)
02-27-2011 3:48 PM
Reply to: Message 198 by Straggler
02-27-2011 7:08 AM


Re: Budget Cuts & Reality
Straggler writes:
cavey writes:
So, again, if stocks never pay dividends, then their value is zero.
Well I don't claim to know anything about this stuff. And I haven't even bothered to google it (because I thought I would ask here instead).
But I had always thought the main point of wheeler dealering in shares was to do with short term selling of them for more than you bought them for. Dividends being a safer longer term thing or (primarily) a way of those who own companies (i.e. majority shareholders?) paying themselves fat packets.
Is it true that no dividends = worthless shares? Doesn't the share price reflect the overall value of the company? Or something like that.....
You want my point of view? In the United Stes....
Everyone that plays the Stockmarkets are Addicted Gamblers.
The powers that oversee this whole scene are raping those who do not. This whole structure is the biggest ripoff in the world! Fuck them all! Your money, your decision. Just like the poor Republican voters who kowtow to their gods of the MegeBillions in riches, thinking" Someday me too!", the roll of the dice, oooooooo i could WIN! - fuck that shit! Anyone whose is not making $250,000.00 a year has to be absolutely STUPID in voting for Republicans. BUT WAIT!! It gets even worse than this! Anyone who is poor and votes for the Democrats has to BE ABSOLUTELY STUPID too! Until the Democrats get someone up there who has some BALLS, forget it.
Take care.
Edited by xongsmith, : No reason given.

- xongsmith, 5.7d

This message is a reply to:
 Message 198 by Straggler, posted 02-27-2011 7:08 AM Straggler has not replied

xongsmith
Member
Posts: 2574
From: massachusetts US
Joined: 01-01-2009
Member Rating: 5.4


(1)
Message 291 of 350 (606884)
02-28-2011 7:46 PM
Reply to: Message 279 by Omnivorous
02-28-2011 3:19 PM


Not Attica! Attica!, but Attilla! Attilla!!
Omnivorous writes:
Most of the poor are working poor, laboring away at jobs (often more than one) that their employers feel need not pay a living wage because there are always more poor people desperate enough to take them.
Or employers ship the work overseas where people will work for almost nothing. Or they will bring in cheap workers willing to live in squalid conditions and work more than 80 hours a week for a pittance via the H1B visa program. Or they gradually replace the salaried workers with sub-contracted workers, who then have to find their own benefits because their rights are signed away as a condition of taking the job, while the company pockets the savings. Then later on they emphasize how important it is to work extra unpaid hours, because, hey, you are a professional - you went to college and got a degree and all. They put up propaganda posters about how their company was voted "best place to work". They give you little trinkets, awards and occasionally throw a company dinner - all to lull you into thinking things are great. Then they give you a 2-weeks notice because you might be wising up and there are plenty of others on the outside who will readily jump into your seat.
There is a growing groundswell of rumbling anger in this once great country, a groundswell of alarming potency. When the Tea Partiers and Libertarians figure out that the people they've been heartily, religiously championing are, in fact, royally ripping them off - when the redneck poor rightwingers figure out that the Republican Party has been USING them as tank tread fodder to roll over as they proceed to carve up the landscape - then look out!
The ruling class allows the poor in America to pay little or no taxes because the alternative would eventually topple their oligarchy.
And meanwhile, the richest 1% get richer & richer, not realizing how unstable they have made the country. When the hundreds of millions of newly minted American Visigoths, Ostrogoths and Huns gather pitchforks and torches and swarm over the 1%'s precious McMansions with their precious trophy Stepford Wives, it will not be pretty. It will NOT be covered fairly by Faux News or even by MSM. The coverage we see will be sanitized. The Military will be called in, but cannot drop smartbombs on the Wealthy 1% properties. They will use other techniques, but lose to the guerrilla warfare so effective way back in the late 1700's when this country was born. Some of the 1% will flee to their rich mansions on their offshore tax shelter islands, but by then, the now very strong Somalian Pirate Organization, funded by Al Queda, which is funded by Saudi Oil, in cahoots with the hoards of angry Americans, will be waiting for their planes to land and slash them to ribbons on arrival. It will not be pretty. Marie Antoinette was lucky! The real revolution will not be televised.
Frankly stated, they would deserve all this unspeakable carnage, raping, pillaging and plundering that they would be subjected to. This is the inevitable consequence of concentrating wealth into a tiny few, as history has shown over and over again.
They still have time to change the choices of their future that they have made. Unless they do, they will have to face to fact that they are really, really, pissing off 95% of this country
...
Damn!, it's fun writing for the Left. You on the Right just don't know what you're missing!! I love this country!!!

- xongsmith, 5.7d

This message is a reply to:
 Message 279 by Omnivorous, posted 02-28-2011 3:19 PM Omnivorous has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 292 by Omnivorous, posted 02-28-2011 8:23 PM xongsmith has seen this message but not replied

xongsmith
Member
Posts: 2574
From: massachusetts US
Joined: 01-01-2009
Member Rating: 5.4


(1)
Message 299 of 350 (607010)
03-01-2011 12:30 PM
Reply to: Message 297 by fearandloathing
03-01-2011 9:17 AM


Re: Is there any other ways to get out of debt?
fearandloathing writes:
Phat writes:
Jon writes:
If its just China, I think we have a valuable trump card.
And that would be...?
If they get feisty, don't pay them back. We need the money more than they do.
Wouldn't that cause nations that owe us money to do the same??Then what, send in the military and repo something? lol
Oh - I would think the USA comes out way ahead in that scenario!
Maybe, if China wants their money, the USA should suggest they get it from those other nations first. Yunno, eliminate the middle man, and all. But after that little bookkeeping item is dealt with, China would still come right back & demand the remaining lion's share.
No - the primary problem with this strategy of reneging is the effect on the value of a dollar in the international market. China already owns in significant, but hard to itemize, excess of some 1.1 trillions dollars of the USA already. Indeed, the difference between Made In China and Made In The USA is probably just a column on a corporate spread sheet for income tax purposes.
In World War II Pacific theater, Japan was losing (before the Bombs) because they were using Go game strategy and couldn't cope with the US being able to fly in and establish island bases that were sustainable. Now, while China has made great strides in the expertise of Wei-chi enough to knock off the Japanese supremacy there on many occasions, they also learned from the US WWII strategy and have established bases of power within the US borders. They are NOT dumb.

- xongsmith, 5.7d

This message is a reply to:
 Message 297 by fearandloathing, posted 03-01-2011 9:17 AM fearandloathing has not replied

xongsmith
Member
Posts: 2574
From: massachusetts US
Joined: 01-01-2009
Member Rating: 5.4


(1)
Message 317 of 350 (607097)
03-02-2011 12:18 AM
Reply to: Message 312 by RAZD
03-01-2011 10:36 PM


Re: simple
RAZD writes:
Hi Phagee0070
WTF do I do with my money?
Retire, give to charity, fund hospitals, create scholarships to schools for disadvantaged kids that can make use of a good education, etc etc etc. I could fill a page.
Nobody says you need to keep making money, instead you can ...
Enjoy.
Enjoy indeed.
In order to keep it, you have to give it away.

- xongsmith, 5.7d

This message is a reply to:
 Message 312 by RAZD, posted 03-01-2011 10:36 PM RAZD has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 318 by RAZD, posted 03-02-2011 12:32 AM xongsmith has not replied

xongsmith
Member
Posts: 2574
From: massachusetts US
Joined: 01-01-2009
Member Rating: 5.4


Message 334 of 350 (607305)
03-03-2011 3:07 AM
Reply to: Message 333 by Taz
03-03-2011 12:54 AM


Poor Phage0070
Poor Phage0070....
Everybody kicking him when he's face down in the gutter.
It's tough to defend hardened, ruthless criminals.

- xongsmith, 5.7d

This message is a reply to:
 Message 333 by Taz, posted 03-03-2011 12:54 AM Taz has not replied

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