Whine & Cheese

I wanted to start a topic where anyone and everyone could whine if they so wished. Thus this topic.My basic whine? The demise of the US Middle class...particularly me!
My father worked long and hard to put us squarely in the middle class. We deserved it because of the hard work our country did in WW II to save everyone else's hide.Americans need to stick together. The wealthy sold the rest of us down the river and gave capitalism a bad name. Unable to exploit the third world any longer, (by and large) the people at the top turned on their own and exploited US labor. We were faced with competition. Problem being, the rest of the world was allowed to play the game now, and they were hungrier than we were. While we fiddled, Rome burned. Now, angry at our plight, we seek to find a new scapegoat. Capitalism was never meant to be so unfair.Hence my rant. Edited by AdminPhat, : No reason given.

Im for whatever it will take. Im just mad at the US business graduates who sold out their own nation and went global, taking most of our money with them. Getting us all in debt was a plot. We cant declare bankruptcy since most of the debt is social security and pensions. They have us where they want us. They get to keep the money! Thus, the only opponent left is the third world and the growing global competition.Morally, I suppose they are out-competing us and thus are earning their spot, but nationalistically, im all for preventing them.I deserve it more than they do. Im American, and will not be a second or third class anything.realistically, I dont know how to win this battle without having to go back to school (at inflated prices) get a degree and hope that I get chosen over one of them. It just angers me that my privileged position was taken away. I feel betrayed by the wealthy in my own country and want THEM to be the scapegoat now.Edited by Phat, : No reason given.

you Brits used to have it, then passed it on to us after WW II. Its not that I claim entitlement so much as I claim homesteader rights on the wealth. I'll not fight the competition at my age. If they take my social security, nuking them is a viable option, however...provided Jesus doesnt take away my heavenly entitlements also.

You can't...which makes me even more angry. They took away the money and we cant get it back. Our nukes are useless. Jesus hates whiners and wont help us. We are too old to beat them up. What grinds my gears is that we naively let them do this to us, not knowing what we were doing. They tricked us, fed us infotainment and told us what to believe...and as long as we got our portion of the gravy, we didnt look into the deeper politics. Now, they are welcoming the foreign competition in that it too keeps them wealthy. Again, as I say, modern capitalism exploits itself. The US Middle class is now being bilked out of the money, prestige and position that we thought to be our birthright. Dont be surprised to see many of the worst terrorism coming out of the christian right in the next few years.And I cant blame myself, for it doesn't make me feel any better.Even if I DID go back to school and could afford it, I'm no longer assured of anything. The middle class was fleeced. The CCoI blame Satan and the wealthy. (except for the wealthy CCoI who blame Obama)

Thanks for feeling sorry for a 52 year old who cant run as fast as his competition. We too have ratboys who want our jobs without earning them. They think just having a college degree entitles them to 30 year union wages, yhet would push a 30 year old union worker into the breadline. These problems wont get solved anytime soon, Im afraid.Edited by Phat, : added whine

Yes I know. I was ignorant, however. im not a political conservative, however. I want limited socialism...enough to retire on, at any rate.As for the Christian thing, we all thought Jesus was coming back to rescue us, but now im wondering if God would stop the universe just to help a few whiners on one dust-speck of a planet.
The more I think, the more depressing it all becomes. Now, we cant even count on Jesus!

Im all for it, except that morally, I dont believe in killing anyone. Again im stuck! I have to do evil to win, and I cant do evil. argggh

Yes, I cant blame the immigrants. Ernesto, our floorboy at the store, works as hard as any of us and makes half as much. He seems like a likeable guy. I blame the capitalists who hire him and pay him half his worth. The whole problem is that the wealthy know how to play the divide and conquer game as they exploit poor and middle class alike.Again, I agree with Frako except that morality wont let me kill any wealthy.Which means im still losing.

Obama hit it out of the park with his State Of The Union address. He addressed fairness...which for Americans anyway is mandatory. Globally, im not gonna go that far yet.Edited by Phat, : No reason given.

I noticed you negatized me. Perhaps you think me a brat for rejecting global fairness? Indeed I believe that we in America should take care of our own first. Fairness throughout the world translates into the continued demise of the US Middle Class, sir.Quite honestly, I value my wage and station in life over helping Quan from Indonesia climb into my spot. Yes, im selfish. Yes, I live in the former greatest country the world has ever seen. No, I don't want the whole world to be equal....for that will mean that my spot in life with be down towards the bottom under the category of menial labor.I believe that my father earned my spot for me through his labor. I believe that keeping upstarts like Islamic Iran in check are good for the US middle class. We simply cant and wont share the wealth we deserve with a globe full of competitive foreigners.Wait till we are dead and then perhaps our kids can sort it out with the foreign competition, though I doubt it since they have to pay more for the education that foreign governments subsidize for their youth.

Survival by its very nature is all about self interest, family interest, or national interest over that of inclusion of others.The thinking that you seem to advocate is a sort of global unity, whereupon humans come to believe that teamwork will produce better results for everyone than will self interest.so the next question: Can global teamwork and fairness possibly help everyone better than any of us can do on our own or with our union, lobbyist,party,lawyer etc.

oh stop with the Sally Struthers schtick with the African orphans...sure we should help the less fortunate, but first we have to make enough so that we are not broke after every paycheck. The wealthy fleeced the middle class, and now the poor want to displace the middle class. I have no problem with you and your college degree earning you a $30,000 a year teaching job, but I'll be damned if i'm gonna be a minimum wage grocery worker again to make it happen.The hungry kid in Africa is everyone's responsibility, but that doesn't mean that the few in his country who get to college need to get paid before the many hardworking, though uneducated Americans should be dragged down into the pit with the other scrambling poor who are stepping on our faces to get ahead....Look, all i'm really saying is that the middle class should no longer be victimized...they should unite and get strong again...the poor can get educated and join, rather than displace us. And as long as the sub contractors don't hire minimum wage labor to increase their own profits, I have no problem with your sons success. Unions only want the wealth to be shared...so that the guy at the top doesn't get the lions share of it. Yes, but whats the alternative? Volunteer to be paid less so that the global poor can catch up? This sounds like a great idea...a win/win for every socioeconomic class...except that the wealthy will then insist on cuts in other areas...like labor in order to pay their taxes.Edited by Phat, : No reason given.

People who are not from the US see the world differently than we do. We may be critical of our country for a lot of things, and admiring other less violent cultures at times, but when it comes down to which side we are on in any major conflict, you wont find many Americans fighting each other.As for Onifre, first I might ask how well can you really expect to know another person on the fricking internet!! My guess is that he is experimenting with topics that might play well with an American Audience over ...say...a European Audience. The European Union wishes it were as united as the stars and stripes brats if a major crises ever unfolded. Republicans and Democrats would magically stop fighting...working side by side together...until the crises got resolved. Nations around the globe best stop and think who they really want on their team when it comes time to solve a problem.They don't have to choose the fat McDonalds slob with an arrogant attitude if they don't like him, but damn that kid can break through a line when it counts!(Must see food at the other end of the field!)

And thats sad to see that a company started in the US abandons its own people and embraces the world. People (as labor) have become little more than a bottom line number. Loyalty and nationalism have gone by the wayside and Americans are forced into a common pool with the rest of humanity.This almost leads me into a spinoff for a new topic. Stay tuned.Yes, jar I realize that there is a bigger market in China than in the US. People still have to eat, however. Its sad that the value of grocery workers appears to be under pressure to drop. Whats sadder, however, is that folk like you and Jon almost applaud the change. You place no value on an American any higher than that of any other global citizen. Would you do the same thing to your own children?

Yet its not so exciting and fun to be forced to compete at age 50+ if you have debilitating medical conditions, cant run as fast nor lift as much as the youngsters of the world, live in a nation that has a bill hanging over its head that will likely bankrupt your social welfare, and have few who will vote to help you apart from your peers in similar situations.Looks like the baby boomers who didn't inherit or save enough wealth will be the scapegoats and victims in order to make room for your kids and China's kids. Sad.