Stop being poor!
In case you haven't noticed, in our country there's this thing going on called "poor". Someone brought this to my attention this morning. I think it's because I work for the government and I do make a good wage for the job I do. My job has good benefits, too, thank God. I can tell you I'm blessed to have health insurance right now.
Anyway, I heard something our beloved(?) Senator Hatch said on the Senate floor the other day. I didn't hear his entire remark, but pat of it was essentially blaming a lot of what's happening with government spending on the poor. If you'd stop being poor, then we wouldn't have to spend all this money on you. So, get off your lazy butts and stop being poor!
You union people, too. It's your fault also because well, you've fought for all these job killing benefits like a decent wage and health insurance. Stop belonging to the unions because they're killing jobs. The minimum wage? Another job killer.
We have a 9.2% unemployment rate in this country. I don't know how you stop being poor in this economy. For ten years now, we've heard that when we tax the job creators, we hurt the economy. Since the '80s, we've been waiting for things to "trickle down" and for most of us, that hasn't happened. Where are all these jobs that should have been created?
This country can't support a service-based economy because when things get bad, we start doing things for ourselves, like washing our own cars and dogs. We mow our own lawns. We don't hire people to fix things around the house. We either do it ourselves or put it off. We don't eat out like we used to. Those things kill a service based economy and when the service sector loses jobs, what does that leave us with?
So, what are the answers. First, we're all gonna have to sacrifice some. We can't spend our way out of this, even though the government tried. Second, we can't keep borrowing our way out of this either. Sooner or later, we're gonna have to pay more in taxes, and not just the rich. We're gonna have to have a serious debate about healthcare because those costs are killing everyone's budget, not just the government.
We have things we have to spend money on. Our Air Force has been fighting wars since 1990. Think about that... when we enforced the no-fly zone in Iraq after the first gulf war, our AF was racking up hours on airplanes, deploying folks, doing their thing. That takes a toll on equipment. We have to replace airplanes and they ain't cheap. Wanna know what else ain't cheap? Maintaining 50 year old airplanes. At some point, it becomes cost effective to buy new. Same with the army's equipment, and the marines. Ten years of fighting wars takes a toll on equipment. (The human toll will never be measured and there's no amount of money to compensate for it!)
At home, the baby boomers are gonna start retiring. The good news is that it'll help the jobs picture some. The bad news... we gotta start paying them their social security. Forty years ago, you got a job, stayed with that company, and got a pension. That didn't work out so well. Almost everyone's 401(k) got hurt in the crash. As a federal employee, social security is a major component of my retirement. And we gotta start paying out what these people were promised.
So, what's the answer? There isn't just one. But I know this... telling someone to stop being poor is about the dumbest thing I've heard. If you want folks to stop being poor, it's time for those that control the wealth to have a meeting and figure out what they can do to make things here, to create jobs here, and help people stop being poor.
And don't hand me this garbage about regulation. Government regulation exists because it's been a response to companies taking advantage of people, to try and separate them from their money. In the news today, a story about telephone companies hidden fees that the just charge us. It's all profit. Look at what happens when we don't regulate bankers, investment salespeople, etc... Insurance companies would do the same. When we quit worrying about how much we can make as a return on investment, and start focusing on what we can do to fix our country, maybe, just maybe things will turn around.
Greed is good, was a famous line from a movie. Look around you: Greed got us into this mess. The answer isn't "Stop being poor". The answer, honestly will come when people adhere to this principle:
Stop being greedy.
Anyway, I heard something our beloved(?) Senator Hatch said on the Senate floor the other day. I didn't hear his entire remark, but pat of it was essentially blaming a lot of what's happening with government spending on the poor. If you'd stop being poor, then we wouldn't have to spend all this money on you. So, get off your lazy butts and stop being poor!
You union people, too. It's your fault also because well, you've fought for all these job killing benefits like a decent wage and health insurance. Stop belonging to the unions because they're killing jobs. The minimum wage? Another job killer.
We have a 9.2% unemployment rate in this country. I don't know how you stop being poor in this economy. For ten years now, we've heard that when we tax the job creators, we hurt the economy. Since the '80s, we've been waiting for things to "trickle down" and for most of us, that hasn't happened. Where are all these jobs that should have been created?
This country can't support a service-based economy because when things get bad, we start doing things for ourselves, like washing our own cars and dogs. We mow our own lawns. We don't hire people to fix things around the house. We either do it ourselves or put it off. We don't eat out like we used to. Those things kill a service based economy and when the service sector loses jobs, what does that leave us with?
So, what are the answers. First, we're all gonna have to sacrifice some. We can't spend our way out of this, even though the government tried. Second, we can't keep borrowing our way out of this either. Sooner or later, we're gonna have to pay more in taxes, and not just the rich. We're gonna have to have a serious debate about healthcare because those costs are killing everyone's budget, not just the government.
We have things we have to spend money on. Our Air Force has been fighting wars since 1990. Think about that... when we enforced the no-fly zone in Iraq after the first gulf war, our AF was racking up hours on airplanes, deploying folks, doing their thing. That takes a toll on equipment. We have to replace airplanes and they ain't cheap. Wanna know what else ain't cheap? Maintaining 50 year old airplanes. At some point, it becomes cost effective to buy new. Same with the army's equipment, and the marines. Ten years of fighting wars takes a toll on equipment. (The human toll will never be measured and there's no amount of money to compensate for it!)
At home, the baby boomers are gonna start retiring. The good news is that it'll help the jobs picture some. The bad news... we gotta start paying them their social security. Forty years ago, you got a job, stayed with that company, and got a pension. That didn't work out so well. Almost everyone's 401(k) got hurt in the crash. As a federal employee, social security is a major component of my retirement. And we gotta start paying out what these people were promised.
So, what's the answer? There isn't just one. But I know this... telling someone to stop being poor is about the dumbest thing I've heard. If you want folks to stop being poor, it's time for those that control the wealth to have a meeting and figure out what they can do to make things here, to create jobs here, and help people stop being poor.
And don't hand me this garbage about regulation. Government regulation exists because it's been a response to companies taking advantage of people, to try and separate them from their money. In the news today, a story about telephone companies hidden fees that the just charge us. It's all profit. Look at what happens when we don't regulate bankers, investment salespeople, etc... Insurance companies would do the same. When we quit worrying about how much we can make as a return on investment, and start focusing on what we can do to fix our country, maybe, just maybe things will turn around.
Greed is good, was a famous line from a movie. Look around you: Greed got us into this mess. The answer isn't "Stop being poor". The answer, honestly will come when people adhere to this principle:
Stop being greedy.
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