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What are social justice warriors losing their shit about today?

Started by bateman, June 12, 2015, 06:46:40 PM

albrecht

Quote from: onan on November 13, 2015, 01:32:01 PM
I'm for guillotining the 1%.
You and the Waco prosecutor. Man, bikers can't get a break anywhere.

chefist

Quote from: onan on November 13, 2015, 01:32:01 PM
I'm for guillotining the 1%.

Vacation to France!

Ok, so I finally get my dream job of $1,000,000 a year! Then, at 90% tax, I earn $100,000 net.  Who would want the responsibility of a $1,000,000 a year job if you can get the same net working say a $250,000 a year job at a lower tax bracket?

onan

Quote from: chefist on November 13, 2015, 01:37:17 PM
Vacation to France!

Ok, so I finally get my dream job of $1,000,000 a year! Then, at 90% tax, I earn $100,000 net.  Who would want the responsibility of a $1,000,000 a year job if you can get the same net working say a $250,000 a year job at a lower tax bracket?

First, no one is worth 1,000,000 dollars a year. That is pure bullshit. Unless you can miraculously raise the dead, a million dollars is just exploitation.

chefist

Quote from: onan on November 13, 2015, 01:44:18 PM
First, no one is worth 1,000,000 dollars a year. That is pure bullshit. Unless you can miraculously raise the dead, a million dollars is just exploitation.

So you would implement governmental wage control? That failed in the former Soviet Union and the Chinese abandoned it in order to build their economy.

albrecht

Quote from: onan on November 13, 2015, 01:44:18 PM
First, no one is worth 1,000,000 dollars a year. That is pure bullshit. Unless you can miraculously raise the dead, a million dollars is just exploitation.
Why not? If you are providing someone (share-holders, investors, customers, etc) with something they want and/or makes them money? Hollywood spends far more for worse products than many businesses who might pay their executives high-salary. Sports stars? Forget about it but, I guess, they entertain and, supposedly, make their owners (or investors) money. So they are paid.

Morally, I guess you are right but I could counter that human life can't be quantified economically on a moral scale (certainly it can in the economic world and there are whole actuarial tables to do so and the 'market' pays what it thinks it is 'worth'- assuming knowledge, logical decision making, and openness) but would agree that some people's salaries seem excessive, particularly when the business fails, steals pensions, is leveraged to buy out, bilks investors, etc.

If the million/year is made from investment and dividends etc? Why not? That is capital that is being used to create or expand businesses, which provide jobs for workers (and tax revenue for the EBT cards, government bureaucrats, politicians, and regulators.) I wouldn't be above though, some regulation on timing, more regulation of investment banks, laws to encourage 'holding' assets and long-term planning versus short-term profit, discourage short-selling, etc.

onan

Quote from: chefist on November 13, 2015, 01:52:55 PM
So you would implement governmental wage control?

I don't have the power or the acumen. However, where does ethics come into play? Most the docs I know make over 200k a year. most of them see their patients 3 to 4 times a year. The guy that picks up my trash and the guy that cleans my septic tank both make around 30k a year. If I don't see my doc for 6 months, more than likely I will be OK, If I don't see my trash man for 6 months I have a significant problem.

Yeah being a trash guy doesn't take the energy and time that a physician has to invest. But both of them are much more important than the guy that tells your wife she needs a different wardrobe every three years, more important than a newer faster version of Windows sucks.

VtaGeezer

Quote from: pyewacket on November 12, 2015, 07:28:01 PM
Break out the antacids to watch this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmji36q8E4o#t=135
A 50-something professional TV pundit like Cavuto against a 21 yr old undergrad is no contest; especially when she doesn't know tax history and Cavuto isn't going to volunteer it.  He should be ashamed of himself.  The 90% rate he kept referring to is a BS straw man. When it did existed (ended 50+ yrs ago), it applied to taxable income over $400K ($3M+ in 2015 $), and the avg total income for Fortune 500 CEOs was under $900K. Hardly anyone was in the 90% bracket. And no one's talking seriously proposing bringing rates that high back.

Cavuto judiciously avoided mentioning that the golden era of the American economy that the Tea Party conservatives yearn for was when individual rates for extremely high incomes were at their highest and the tax code was incentivized for long term investment instead of speculation, flipping residential real estate, and moving assets offshore, and the govt could actually afford to take care of vets, have affordable universities, maintain a huge active duty military, and fund a huge infrastructure programs.

chefist

Quote from: onan on November 13, 2015, 01:58:25 PM
I don't have the power or the acumen. However, where does ethics come into play? Most the docs I know make over 200k a year. most of them see their patients 3 to 4 times a year. The guy that picks up my trash and the guy that cleans my septic tank both make around 30k a year. If I don't see my doc for 6 months, more than likely I will be OK, If I don't see my trash man for 6 months I have a significant problem.

Yeah being a trash guy doesn't take the energy and time that a physician has to invest. But both of them are much more important than the guy that tells your wife she needs a different wardrobe every three years, more important than a newer faster version of Windows sucks.

You are right, but freedom means people vote with their wallets as well. If I start a dress company with my own personal savings or money borrowed against my house, and I get lucky enough to have a lot of women want to buy my dresses, I should be punished for that?

Also, if my business fails, like most do...can I expect the government to pay back all my capital that I lost?

No one will invest capital or start new businesses, pay for higher education, or strive to move up if they are looking at a 90% tax or wage control...

onan

Quote from: albrecht on November 13, 2015, 01:54:31 PM
Why not? If you are providing someone (share-holders, investors, customers, etc) with something they want and/or makes them money? Hollywood spends far more for worse products than many businesses who might pay their executives high-salary. Sports stars? Forget about it but, I guess, they entertain and, supposedly, make their owners (or investors) money. So they are paid.

Morally, I guess you are right but I could counter that human life can't be quantified economically on a moral scale (certainly it can in the economic world and there are whole actuarial tables to do so and the 'market' pays what it thinks it is 'worth'- assuming knowledge, logical decision making, and openness) but would agree that some people's salaries seem excessive, particularly when the business fails, steals pensions, is leveraged to buy out, bilks investors, etc.

If the million/year is made from investment and dividends etc? Why not? That is capital that is being used to create or expand businesses, which provide jobs for workers (and tax revenue for the EBT cards, government bureaucrats, politicians, and regulators.) I wouldn't be above though, some regulation on timing, more regulation of investment banks, laws to encourage 'holding' assets and long-term planning versus short-term profit, discourage short-selling, etc.

Investments are in many ways unethical. Why should you making an investment in a brick making company, make more than the guys that make the bricks? Simple answer is you shouldn't.

Look it is simple. Either you do work, or you do not. If you do not then your money making is imaginary. It is a con that devalues actual work.

albrecht

Quote from: onan on November 13, 2015, 01:58:25 PM
I don't have the power or the acumen. However, where does ethics come into play? Most the docs I know make over 200k a year. most of them see their patients 3 to 4 times a year. The guy that picks up my trash and the guy that cleans my septic tank both make around 30k a year. If I don't see my doc for 6 months, more than likely I will be OK, If I don't see my trash man for 6 months I have a significant problem.

Yeah being a trash guy doesn't take the energy and time that a physician has to invest. But both of them are much more important than the guy that tells your wife she needs a different wardrobe every three years, more important than a newer faster version of Windows sucks.
I blame US, not the 1%, government, Hollywood, the bankers etc. Sure, we are victims of propaganda but ultimately we buy the crap, we want the crap, we elect the crap, and we work for the crap. (I use the 'royal' we as I know not everybody does, but all, to some extent or another do.) I might not buy new fashions or watch Hollywood crap but I will watch or attend a ball game so I'm, basically, supporting the idea that some Dominican or Cuban who can barely speak English, who is not even a citizen, who might not have come here legally (maybe even aided by a cartel or coyote-type operation,) should make multi-millions for a 1% who had the public finance his stadium and, at the same time a Dominican working washing dishes for less than minimum wage will be deported (if caught) and someone taking their kid to a game has to spent a $100.

VtaGeezer

Quote from: chefist on November 13, 2015, 01:21:01 PM
Either way the student was completely in agreement with a 90% tax. My best friend is a business professor at Rutgers, and worships at the alter of the Democratic Party.  I have asked him on numerous occasions, what percent do Democrats deem "fair"...he never answers the question...why, because like this student many want to take all the wealth from the 1% and are too scared to openly admit it...
Well, when 20 yr old kids take over Congress we may some reason to worry, but it probably won't be about fantasy tax rates that will impact virtually no one anyway.

onan

Quote from: albrecht on November 13, 2015, 02:04:33 PM
I blame US, not the 1%, government, Hollywood, the bankers etc. Sure, we are victims of propaganda but ultimately we buy the crap, we want the crap, we elect the crap, and we work for the crap. (I use the 'royal' we as I know not everybody does, but all, to some extent or another do.) I might not buy new fashions or watch Hollywood crap but I will watch or attend a ball game so I'm, basically, supporting the idea that some Dominican or Cuban who can barely speak English, who is not even a citizen, who might not have come here legally (maybe even aided by a cartel or coyote-type operation,) should make multi-millions for a 1% who had the public finance his stadium and, at the same time a Dominican working washing dishes for less than minimum wage will be deported (if caught) and someone taking their kid to a game has to spent a $100.

Well, there I kind of agree with you (although, I don't give a shit about baseball). We all buy cheap. We all are guilty of setting up a dynamic that made it attractive to move manufacturing to other countries. And there is plenty of blame all around for the erosion of our perception of what work really is. However, those with wealth and power have much more opportunity to make things better in this country.

We as a country favor the concept of domestic tranquility. Most of us do not think past our needs. The cheap produce you enjoy is brought to you by countries that are controlled by major manufacturing in this country. Hell, almost a hundred years ago people in Costa Rica were killed to bring a cheaper banana to our breakfast tables.

albrecht

Quote from: onan on November 13, 2015, 02:03:30 PM
Investments are in many ways unethical. Why should you making an investment in a brick making company, make more than the guys that make the bricks? Simple answer is you shouldn't.

Look it is simple. Either you do work, or you do not. If you do not then your money making is imaginary. It is a con that devalues actual work.
So, ideally, we should all be making bricks? Who is going to buy those bricks? Who is going to invest in that brick-making business so that maybe us brick-makers get some new equipment that makes it easier or more productive? Who is going to market our particular brick? Who is going to invent a better brick composition that maybe makes our brick more competitive or more durable? And what about brick-makers who come from other countries or brick-firms are will work cheaper? Should they be paid as much as us brick-makers or should we be paid at their level? What of the brick-maker who workers harder than us other brick-makers? Or is more skilled as a brick-maker? Or works more efficiently or invents a new method in the brick-making system and improves the brick-making process, making it easier, or cheaper, for all the rest of us brick-makers- should he got a least get a little bonus?

onan

Quote from: albrecht on November 13, 2015, 02:13:44 PM
So, ideally, we should all be making bricks? Who is going to buy those bricks? Who is going to invest in that brick-making business so that maybe us brick-makers get some new equipment that makes it easier or more productive? Who is going to market our particular brick? Who is going to invent a better brick composition that maybe makes our brick more competitive or more durable? What of the brick-maker who workers harder than us other brick-makers? Or works more efficiently or invents a new method in the brick-making system and improve the brick-making process for all the rest of us brick-makers, should he got a least get a little bonus?

No bricks are a metaphor for producing something tangible. And yes a guy that is assembling a computer, car, tire, cutting wood, making paint, should make more than the planners and investors.

onan

Quote from: albrecht on November 13, 2015, 02:13:44 PM
So, ideally, we should all be making bricks? Who is going to buy those bricks? Who is going to invest in that brick-making business so that maybe us brick-makers get some new equipment that makes it easier or more productive? Who is going to market our particular brick? Who is going to invent a better brick composition that maybe makes our brick more competitive or more durable? And what about brick-makers who come from other countries or brick-firms are will work cheaper? Should they be paid as much as us brick-makers or should we be paid at their level? What of the brick-maker who workers harder than us other brick-makers? Or is more skilled as a brick-maker? Or works more efficiently or invents a new method in the brick-making system and improves the brick-making process, making it easier, or cheaper, for all the rest of us brick-makers- should he got a least get a little bonus?

The brick maker is more skilled than the guy that invested money and collects a return without any actual work.

Look, if you need to justify exploitation, by all means go ahead. I am not your dad. I am sick of people with lots of money being framed as somehow better than the actual worker.

albrecht

Quote from: onan on November 13, 2015, 02:15:59 PM
No bricks are a metaphor for producing something tangible. And yes a guy that is assembling a computer, car, tire, cutting wood, making paint, should make more than the planners and investors.
Interesting idea. I think you should start a commune, like the Shakers, Amana Colonies, Anabaptists, etc and see how it goes. There is one I was reading about in VA called Twin Oaks. Some last, some don't. Not all are religious based, though it seems, over time that those have lasted the longest. Actually serious, "intentional communities" fascinate me.

Where do the workers in your community workshops get their designs? In-house? The engineer is paid as much as the assembler? How do they purchase their raw materials and how do you ensure a fair price was paid for them (unless, you are operating the mining, lumber, plastics and chemical industry also 'in house?') I assume your engineers, designers, chemists, etc are also taught 'in house' and are paid the same wage as the assembler. Are people allowed to leave? What if another commune asks your engineer that they will give them a larger hut? Can he leave?

paladin1991

Quote from: albrecht on November 13, 2015, 01:01:23 PM
What the heck is a "Chicanx & Latinx?" The social movements and "self identification" is resulting in so many new alphabet-soup groups and new words I can't even keep up with it.

It's another non-strand in the cloak of diversity. 

paladin1991

Quote from: chefist on November 13, 2015, 01:21:01 PM
Either way the student was completely in agreement with a 90% tax. My best friend is a business professor at Rutgers, and worships at the alter of the Democratic Party.  I have asked him on numerous occasions, what percent do Democrats deem "fair"...he never answers the question...why, because like this student many want to take all the wealth from the 1% and are too scared to openly admit it...

Well shit Chef, you have 5 bux in your pocket and I've only got 3.  Don't you think it's fair that your 'extra' 1 bux should go to somebody like me?  I mean, then it would be faaaaair, we'd boooooth have 4 bux. 
come on, bro, I'll buy you a coffee and a cinnabun with my EBT card.

ETA:  You know, I've been thinking it over.  About the cinnabun on my EBT card.  Why don't we go get the coffee and cinnabun, we can talk about your company, then use your company credit card, write it off as a business lunch and then neither of us pays?   :D  The company pays.
So what are we waiting for?  Let's get that coffee.

paladin1991

Quote from: pyewacket on November 13, 2015, 01:34:03 PM
You bet they won't admit it! As Cavuto tried to point out- even if you take every penny of the 1% it still won't support all the spending programs and government waste.

Comparing the US of 50 years ago to the US of today is like comparing apples to oranges- too much has changed.

Yeah, it used to be E Pluribus Unum.  Now it's Diversity. Everybody gets to be special.

paladin1991

Quote from: onan on November 13, 2015, 01:44:18 PM
First, no one is worth 1,000,000 dollars a year. That is pure bullshit. Unless you can miraculously raise the dead, a million dollars is just exploitation.
....of the masses.  The proletariat will rise up in rebellion against the bourgeois gravy sucking pig capitalist exploiters of the workers! 

Sorry, Onan, didn't mean to steal your thunder.

albrecht

Quote from: onan on November 13, 2015, 02:20:49 PM
The brick maker is more skilled than the guy that invested money and collects a return without any actual work.

Look, if you need to justify exploitation, by all means go ahead. I am not your dad. I am sick of people with lots of money being framed as somehow better than the actual worker.
Hey, no offense, my many ways I agree with you. With regard to finance versus "making things" but I think there are things made of value that aren't, necessarily, entail simply manual labor- not that manual labor isn't valued. I'm just trying to determine at what point is it 'exploitation' and when it is just people paying other people more because they think they are worth more, worked harder, worked smarter, etc? Also, you ignore that people's capabilities differ- even over time. So at 20 I might be the best bricklayer in our brick-making outfit but I might not be able to do so when I'm 60. But, since I can't move into management, invest my savings I've earned as a brick-maker, or become a brick-making designer I'm still making the same wage as that 18year old brick-maker? Even though now I might have a family to support? Or in our brick-making operation do wages increased based on need (having a wife, having a child) or on seniority? Or not all- since we don't want inequality?

pyewacket

Quote from: VtaGeezer on November 13, 2015, 02:00:01 PM
A 50-something professional TV pundit like Cavuto against a 21 yr old undergrad is no contest; especially when she doesn't know tax history and Cavuto isn't going to volunteer it.  He should be ashamed of himself.  The 90% rate he kept referring to is a BS straw man. When it did existed (ended 50+ yrs ago), it applied to taxable income over $400K ($3M+ in 2015 $), and the avg total income for Fortune 500 CEOs was under $900K. Hardly anyone was in the 90% bracket. And no one's talking seriously proposing bringing rates that high back.

Cavuto judiciously avoided mentioning that the golden era of the American economy that the Tea Party conservatives yearn for was when individual rates for extremely high incomes were at their highest and the tax code was incentivized for long term investment instead of speculation, flipping residential real estate, and moving assets offshore, and the govt could actually afford to take care of vets, have affordable universities, maintain a huge active duty military, and fund a huge infrastructure programs.

Sorry VG, she agreed to appear on a broadcast for a national and international audience. Her group should have chosen a better qualified representative. She gave the impression of being ill prepared and under qualified for the gig. She reinforced the impression I get from these youngsters- they equate their precious opinions with real life, hard earned experience and education that others bring to the conversation.

onan

Quote from: albrecht on November 13, 2015, 02:22:04 PM
Interesting idea. I think you should start a commune, like the Shakers, Amana Colonies, Anabaptists, etc and see how it goes. There is one I was reading about in VA called Twin Oaks. Some last, some don't. Not all are religious based, though it seems, over time that those have lasted the longest. Actually serious, "intentional communities" fascinate me.

Where do the workers in your community workshops get their designs? In-house? The engineer is paid as much as the assembler? How do they purchase their raw materials and how do you ensure a fair price was paid for them (unless, you are operating the mining, lumber, plastics and chemical industry also 'in house?') I assume your engineers, designers, chemists, etc are also taught 'in house' and are paid the same wage as the assembler. Are people allowed to leave? What if another commune asks your engineer that they will give them a larger hut? Can he leave?

Well, you too have an interesting idea. Why not transfer all the wealth to the upper 1% since they make all the important decisions. Let's pay workers what they get in India. And if they complain we can always hire some version of the Pinkertons.


paladin1991

Quote from: VtaGeezer on November 13, 2015, 02:00:01 PM
A 50-something professional TV pundit like Cavuto against a 21 yr old undergrad is no contest; especially when she doesn't know tax history and Cavuto isn't going to volunteer it.  He should be ashamed of himself.

Oh bullshit, Geezer.  Her handlers should be taken out back by their handlers and shot.  She was woefully underprepared.

I would have been better prepared in my HS freshman debate class than she was for Cavuto.  Cavuto was cool about it.  He knew she had been thrown under the bus and he didn't go for her throat.  She made statements, he asked questions she 'Absolutelied' her way through her stammering and simplistic returns.   He would ask questions that she couldn't answer and she would return to bleeding out the top %.

This chick couldn't have argued her way out of supersizing her meal at Mickey D's. 

And her statement of, 'My family is incredibly working class' or some such.  WTF is that?  'Incredibly working class?  Is that btwn middle class and upper class?  Middle class and lower class?   Where exactly does 'Incredibly working class' fall in terms of 'class?'

As to taxing?  Fuck, that's for smarter ppl than me to figure, like my wife, for instance, a Cost Accountant. She always tells me, 'Honey, if you can't pay cash, you really can't afford it.' 

albrecht

Quote from: pyewacket on November 13, 2015, 02:45:16 PM
Sorry VG, she agreed to appear on a broadcast for a national and international audience. Her group should have chosen a better qualified representative. She gave the impression of being ill prepared and under qualified for the gig. She reinforced the impression I get from these youngsters- they equate their precious opinions with real life, hard earned experience and education that others bring to the conversation.
Considering how poorly some of our professional politicians and government bureaucrats do under questioning sometimes, she did a pretty good job! She didn't get to consult with the press, limit and vett the questions, demand special lighting, fans, etc. She likely didn't even have a professional makeup artist or staff giving her all the talking-points. Kidding, sorta.

VtaGeezer

Quote from: chefist on November 13, 2015, 02:02:52 PM
You are right, but freedom means people vote with their wallets as well. If I start a dress company with my own personal savings or money borrowed against my house, and I get lucky enough to have a lot of women want to buy my dresses, I should be punished for that?

Also, if my business fails, like most do...can I expect the government to pay back all my capital that I lost?

No one will invest capital or start new businesses, pay for higher education, or strive to move up if they are looking at a 90% tax or wage control...
When business owners talk about being "punished" for their success they sound to me exactly like the entitled "Our-feelings-are-hurt" brats we've seen on campuses lately. If US taxes are too much of a burden, go back to being an hourly mook.  Don't worry, someone else will gladly take up the slack.  Or try to have a small business in almost any other country.  I can't count how many weekends I've spent over the years on boats and at condos that were write-offs for suffering business owners being "punished" by taxes.  Boo-f'ing-hoo. 

chefist

Quote from: onan on November 13, 2015, 02:20:49 PM
The brick maker is more skilled than the guy that invested money and collects a return without any actual work.

Look, if you need to justify exploitation, by all means go ahead. I am not your dad. I am sick of people with lots of money being framed as somehow better than the actual worker.

Part of my $100,000 paid a crew if brick layers to build my store.

Your straw man that the rich person is more valuable than the laborer is just not the opinion of the majority of investors...both are symbiotic in nature...I'm no "better" than anyone else...regardless of my net worth...

onan

Quote from: paladin1991 on November 13, 2015, 02:49:00 PM
She always tells me, 'Honey, if you can't pay cash, you really can't afford it.'

Your wife is probably what the credit companies call a deadbeat.

chefist

Quote from: VtaGeezer on November 13, 2015, 02:49:58 PM
When business owners talk about being "punished" for their success they sound to me exactly like the entitled "Our-feelings-are-hurt" brats we've seen on campuses lately. If US taxes are too much of a burden, go back to being an hourly mook.  Son't worry, someone else will gladly take up the slack.  Or try to have a business in any other country.  I can't count how weekends I've spent over the years on boats and at condos that were write-offs for suffering business owners being "punished" by taxes.  Boo-f'ing-hoo.

What is a "fair" tax rate then?

albrecht

Quote from: onan on November 13, 2015, 02:50:36 PM
Your wife is probably what the credit companies call a deadbeat.
Ha, yeah, they HATE people who keep zero balances. In their mind those are the real deadbeats.

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