I remember when my dad worked at Western Electric and made $75 bucks a week. My mom did not have to work and stayed home with the kids. We had a decent car. We had a nice house in a nice neighborhood. My father was able to pay all his bills and still bank enough money every week so that 50 years later he is still supporting my mom from the grave. As a realtor I have young families come to me where both the husband and wife work full time and they can’t afford the going rate for a decent rental.
What the heck happened to this country? In my opinion what is wrong with this country is a real life reversal of Robin Hood. The rich stole from the poor. The rich control 85% of the wealth in this country while 95% of Americans share the remaining 15%. The wealthiest Americans stole all our retirement money by cooking the books, insider trading and all other sorts of illegal activity on Wall Street, by shipping all of our jobs overseas, by de-unionizing thousands of jobs and stripping us of our rights, by creating tax loopholes and other types of corporate welfare that saved the wealthiest Americans more money annually than the rest of us earn in total income. And now they have the audacity to be mad at these same people because they need food stamps, medical and rental assistance. We are hating the wrong class of people here. The ultra rich want us to hate the poor so it takes the spotlight off what they have and are doing to us. They want us to focus on the welfare money the government is spending on the bottom 47% rather than know how much money they are spending on corporate welfare given to benefit the top 5%. In my opinion this new Republican Party is bought and paid for by the ultra rich as Republicans refuse to even discuss ending tax cuts and other corporate welfare. If this keeps us we will no longer have a democracy and instead we will have a Plutocracy. I don’t care if you like Obama or not, it's not about him, it’s about protecting and preserving the middle class.
I was a staunch republican for most of my adult life, but I can no longer look at what they are doing to the poor and the middle class and be OK with it. I cannot stand with a party that throws the sick, the elderly and the poor under the bus while protecting the wealthiest people in America. I cannot stand with a party who refuses to make the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share of taxes while the middle class struggle to pay their taxes. I did not leave the Republican Party, they left me.
“There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” ― Warren Buffett, New York Times, November 26, 2006”
I also believe that both parties are corrupt, but at least the dems are not hell bent on destroying everyone, the whole planet, and everything on it. We definitely need another party, to represent the occupy movement, but its too late for this election. now we must choose the lesser of two evils. I do believe that Obama himself cares about the people and started off as one of us. he is limited by his party. the occupy movement is world wide and it is the beginning of a whole world revolution. If we can all come together to agree on our similarities and forget our differences, we will succeed. We all want to stop destroying the planet, world peace, have nice places to live, nice schools for our kids, enough food, water, medical care and send our kids to college, and be able to retire some day. If we all focus on these basics and forget our silly differences like religion, social issues, cultural differences, we can succeed. But if we let our differences divide us, then they win. that is what they want, so the media keeps stirring up the pot over our differences so we will willing to go to war and then the war profiteering wins.
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a monied aristocracy that has set the government at defiance. The issuing power (of money) should be taken away from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs." -- Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President I weep for the liberty of my country when I see at this early day of its successful experiment that corruption has been imputed to many members of the House of Representatives, and the rights of the people have been bartered for promises of office. ~Andrew Jackson "When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." ~ Thomas Jefferson
Microsoft employs 135,000 people, Buffet's companies employ over 24,000 Larry Ellison's companies employ about 150,000 people Walmart employs 1.3 Million people in America Amazon employs 51,300 people. These employees pay income tax and these employers also pay payroll tax for every one of those employees. All of these contributions are the result of the vision and drive of these business leaders. The contribution to our economy is quite adequate. I am sure many 1.5 million people that work for these companies don't hate them, as you suggest we should.
FACT: Since 2001, defense spending approximately doubled, from $316 BILLION to $708 BILLION. FACT: profits for defense corporations almost QUADRUPLED (400%) .. from $6,700,000,000 to $24,800,000,000 FACT: Extra Pay to service men and woman for being shot at, blown up, or being in imminent danger .. LESS than $8 per DAY. FACT: In 1970, average executive pay was 28 times greater than average worker pay at Nation's top companies. FACT: In 2005, the gap grew by over 560% from 28 times to 158 times greater than average worker pay. FACT: During the same period, despite increased average worker productivity, average wages remained flat. FACT: Romneys top 8 donors are BIG NY / International Banks (Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Barclays) FACT: BIG NY / International Banks also contributed heavily to Obama's campaign in 2008.
Why don't you blame the progressive liberals, such as yourself for the real cause of the America's Financial collapse... Real estate agents & mortage brokers would do everything & anything to sell houses during the housing boom. The democrats forced the lending institutions to make a certain percentage of Non Documented Loans, if they refused they were threaten with fines of up to $500,000 this was the liberals attempt to supply every tom dick and harry with a house whether they could afford it or not. This pushed the market too high and so it collapsed. The lenders fell in line because they were assured Freddie and Fannie, (we the tax payers) would bail them out of the bad loans. The reason the media companies are in trouble is they are trying to make the news instead of reporting it as a proper news media should do..... Don't be like the media Ms. Acevedo.... Report the truth
FACT: Since 2001, defense spending approximately doubled, from $316 BILLION to $708 BILLION. FACT: profits for defense corporations almost QUADRUPLED (400%) .. from $6,700,000,000 to $24,800,000,000 FACT: Extra Pay to service men and woman for being shot at, blown up, or being in imminent danger .. LESS than $8 per DAY. FACT: In 1970, average executive pay was 28 times greater than average worker pay at Nation's top companies. FACT: In 2005, the gap grew by over 560% from 28 times to 158 times greater than average worker pay. FACT: Romneys top 8 donors are BIG NY / International Banks (Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Barclays) FACT: BIG NY / International Banks also contributed heavily to Obama's campaign in 2008. My point is, that's pretty slippery dung you're slinging -- it won't stick. But nice try.
THE RICH CREATE THE JOBS THAT KEEP AMERICA STRONG !! Company Employees 1. Wal-Mart 1,800,000 2. McDonald's 447,000 3. United Parcel Service 407,000 4. Sears Holdings 355,000 5. Home Depot 345,000 6. Target 337,000 7. IBM 329,373 8. General Motors 327,000 9. General Electric 316,000 10. Citigroup 303,000 11. Ford Motor 300,000 12. Kroger 289,000 13. Albertson's 240,000 14. United Technologies 222,200 15. Verizon Communications 217,000 16. FedEx 215,838 17. Safeway 201,000 18. Altria Group 199,000 19. Aramark 195,000 20. Berkshire Hathaway 192,012 21. AT&T 189,950 22. Delphi 185,200 23. Bank of America 176,638 24. JP Morgan Chase 168,847 25. Yum Brands 165,920 26. HCA 165,450 27. Lowe's 164,794 28. PepsiCo 157,000 29. Walgreen 155,200 30. Wells Fargo 153,500 31. Boeing 153,000 32. Darden Restaurants 150,100 33. Hewlett-Packard 150,000 34. Gap 150,000 35. JC Penney 150,000 36. Starwood Hotels and Resorts 145,000 37. Marriott International 143,000 38. Sara Lee 137,000 39. Lockheed Martin 135,000 40. Walt Disney 133,000 41. Alcoa 129,000 42. Northrop Grumman 123,600 43. Electronic Data Systems 117,000 44. Honeywell 116,000 45. Johnson & Johnson 115,600 46. Lear 115,113 47. Starbucks 115,000 48. Emerson Electric 114,200 49. CVS 114,000 50. Tyson Foods 114,000
None of the establishments you mention can be basically good, because they are big. Since they are big, they must have hoodwinked vulnerable individuals to get where they are. They stole. So, they should pay. After all, they didn't build what they have and who they are in the marketplace. The government did it. ;-) Trickle-down government will save us.
29 Major Corporations Paid No Federal Taxes, 2008-2010 The Companies include corporate giants General Electric, Verizon Communications, Wells Fargo (WFC), Mattel (MAT) and Boeing (BA), 29 of them managed to pay no federal taxes from 2008 to 2010. Only FedEx, which raked in about $4.2 billion in profits during that period, paid a three-year tax rate of 1 percent -- totaling $37 million -- far less than the statutory federal corporate tax rate of 35 percent. http://www.webcitation.org/64D9GyQG0
(ex. I earn $100K, pay 30% in taxes. After I pay all my bills I invest $20K in the market with the money left over) That $20K is my money after my taxes have been paid. I have a choice, I can buy an Xbox, Ipad, Big screen tv, cigarettes, lottery tickets, etc. or I can invest it in a business that will create jobs. There is as good a chance that my $20K investment loses money and my money disappears and I am left with nothing. (not even a brand new ipad) But, if that same $20K turns into 25K you want me to pay 85% of that 5K in taxes? Why would I invest again?
You did say we should hate them... "We are hating the wrong class of people here."
Without the private sector, their would be no money for the government to build the roads, and schools, and pay the teachers and the fire fighters, and military to protect this great country. The system is perfectly designed for harmony between business and government where business is allowed to pursue their version of the American Dream while supplying the government the resources they need to feed the machine, and provide the things necessary for everyone to contribute. Unfortunately, our government officials on both sides of the aisle would rather forget that. They too smart for their own good and make enemies out of allies. I love your passion for the issues, and even though we have opposing view points, the problem doe not lie in a difference of opinion. It lies in a leadership model that has strayed from it's purpose. Politicians concerned only about the next election. I know you support our President, and I am not saying any other politician is better, but when our embassy is being attacked and he decides to go on "The View" and smile for the cameras... we are all in trouble.
"Then in 2000, right before Romney gave up his ownership stake in Bain Capital, the firm targeted KB Toys. The debacle that followed serves as a prime example of the conflict between the old model of American business, built from the ground up with sweat and industry know-how, and the new globalist model, the Romney model, which uses leverage as a weapon of high-speed conquest. .... Bain ended up earning a return of at least 370 percent on the deal, while KB Toys fell into bankruptcy, saddled with millions in debt. KB's former parent company, Big Lots, alleged in bankruptcy court that Bain's "unjustified" return on the dividend recap was actually "900 percent in a mere 16 months." Patnode, by contrast, was fired in December 2008, after almost four decades on the job. Like other employees, he didn't get a single day's severance. Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/greed-and-debt-the-true-story-of-mitt-romney-and-bain-capital-20120829