Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%

• Writerbuckeye

  

  Carlin was a burnt out old hippie who didn't know how to scratch is own ass -- let alone have any idea about who runs the country.
  
  At one point in time, his schtick was hilarious. That time passed him by long before he gave up being a comedian, unfortunately.
  
  However, his 7 words routine was and will always remain a classic.
• CenterBHSFan

  

  George Carlin was nothing more than a mean-spirited, dissatisfied and resentful schmuck.
  
  Yeah, I said it.
• I Wear Pants

  While I'm not a member of the "the corporations are all colluding to keep us down man" group, I think a bunch of you here are way too much in the "the large corporations and mega rich are simply hard working folks who want to help us and provide jobs for Americans but can't because of big mean liberals and their taxes". That's bullshit. Profits have been at record highs for a few quarters in a row. Large businesses aren't hurting at all.
  
  Perhaps we need to cut fees and taxes on smaller businesses and get rid of all the loopholes for huge megacorps and end some tax breaks and shelters they get. Of course that will never happen and you'll all reply that I'm a dirty class warfarist but you're wrong.
• CenterBHSFan

  

  I Wear Pants;740958 wrote:Of course that will never happen and you'll all reply that I'm a dirty class warfarist but you're wrong.

  For what it's worth... I don't think you're dirty.
• Tobias Fünke

  

  I Wear Pants;740958 wrote:While I'm not a member of the "the corporations are all colluding to keep us down man" group, I think a bunch of you here are way too much in the "the large corporations and mega rich are simply hard working folks who want to help us and provide jobs for Americans but can't because of big mean liberals and their taxes". That's bullshit. Profits have been at record highs for a few quarters in a row. Large businesses aren't hurting at all.
  
  Perhaps we need to cut fees and taxes on smaller businesses and get rid of all the loopholes for huge megacorps and end some tax breaks and shelters they get. Of course that will never happen and you'll all reply that I'm a dirty class warfarist but you're wrong.

  
  +1
• Footwedge

  Hip Hop/Logicbomb;740685 wrote:This pretty much sums up my feeling on this Thread.
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYIC0eZYEtI&feature=related

  Carlin's assessment is dead on...the numbers back up his claims. But it's unAmerican and a symptom of class warfaritis....so people clam up and keep their mouths shut.....as the jobs flow overseas, and the purchasing power of those that grunt out 50 hours each and every week declines.
• Writerbuckeye

  

  Footwedge;741024 wrote:Carlin's assessment is dead on...the numbers back up his claims. But it's unAmerican and a symptom of class warfaritis....so people clam up and keep their mouths shut.....as the jobs flow overseas, and the purchasing power of those that grunt out 50 hours each and every week declines.

  
  This line of yours made me laugh out loud. NOBODY is staying quiet. It's been a mantra of the left for a long time -- and you need look no further than the speech TODAY by the President for proof.
• HitsRus

  

  ....and their money is shifted to those that don't produce anything at all.
• sleeper

  

  Perhaps we need to cut fees and taxes on smaller businesses and get rid of all the loopholes for huge megacorps and end some tax breaks and shelters they get. Of course that will never happen and you'll all reply that I'm a dirty class warfarist but you're wrong.

  I'm curious, what loopholes, tax breaks, and shelters would you like to get rid of? Specifically.
• I Wear Pants

  sleeper;741086 wrote:I'm curious, what loopholes, tax breaks, and shelters would you like to get rid of? Specifically.

  
  For example, the ones that allow GE to pay no taxes despite massive profits I'd definitely look at.
  
  https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/business/economy/25tax.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1301944759-tX/FFa4KMMhu0poigCO%20kw&pagewanted=all
  

  In the mid-1980s, President Ronald Reagan overhauled the tax system after learning that G.E. — a company for which he had once worked as a commercial pitchman — was among dozens of corporations that had used accounting gamesmanship to avoid paying any taxes.
  
  “I didn’t realize things had gotten that far out of line,” Mr. Reagan told the Treasury secretary, Donald T. Regan, according to Mr. Regan’s 1988 memoir. The president supported a change that closed loopholes and required G.E. to pay a far higher effective rate, up to 32.5 percent.

  Ronald damned Reagan was even appalled at that type of shit and *gasp* raised taxes. Where is your god now? I kid but if you seriously think our corporate tax code is worth the paper it's printed on you're delusional. Of course, it's nowhere near the only problem and isn't the biggest problem we've got. But we need to fix all the ones we can. We can cut spending and fix other problems at the same time. We don't have to halt every other endeavor to cut spending.
• sleeper

  

  Looks like that loophole is closed.
  
  A lot of tax breaks, so called loopholes, etc, are designed by the government to incentivize corporations to do business in the US. Closing them will only make it easier for corporations to pack up and move their entire operations overseas.
• I Wear Pants

  Um, they're already doing that and we're paying them to do it. Obviously the tax breaks aren't working. Doing the same thing and expecting different results is, well you get the point.
• sleeper

  

  I Wear Pants;741101 wrote:Um, they're already doing that and we're paying them to do it. Obviously the tax breaks aren't working. Doing the same thing and expecting different results is, well you get the point.

  
  I suppose liberals would be happy with the companies just going out of business. Americans are too expensive, welcome to reality.
• I Wear Pants

  No, but I would be happy with them paying taxes if they do business in the US and not being able to shift profits around to bullshit tax shelters.
  
  You don't have to be some anti-corporate hippy to want gigantic businesses making billions in profit to pay a fair tax amount. These companies take advantage of our roads, courts, airports, etc, etc to make and deliver their products to make money. Seems reasonable that they should have to pay into them like the rest of us. I want companies to do business in the US and I want our companies to do well, but that doesn't mean we need to let them take advantage of us.
  
  http://businessagainsttaxhavens.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/TaxHaven.pdf
• gut

  sleeper;741098 wrote:Looks like that loophole is closed.
  
  A lot of tax breaks, so called loopholes, etc, are designed by the government to incentivize corporations to do business in the US. Closing them will only make it easier for corporations to pack up and move their entire operations overseas.

  
  People just don't get this. They also don't get that the largest shareholders in most corporations (outside of Bill Gates types) are mom & pop through pensions and mutual funds.
• I Wear Pants

  And boy have those tax breaks really worked miracles to keep companies from shifting profits and jobs abroad. Oh wait...
• sleeper

  

  I Wear Pants;741125 wrote:And boy have those tax breaks really worked miracles to keep companies from shifting profits and jobs abroad. Oh wait...

  
  You do realize that a company can pay a Chinese worker $3 a day whereas he has to pay a worker in the US a minimum of $7 per hour to do the same job. Why wouldn't companies move jobs overseas?
• Manhattan Buckeye

  HitsRus;741075 wrote:....and their money is shifted to those that don't produce anything at all.

  
  The official term is "spending reduction in the tax code", please get with the program. The money you earn isn't yours, it is what the government determines is yours as a result in a reduction of spending.
  
  Just watched the speech again. Nauseating.
• Tobias Fünke

  

  sleeper;741129 wrote:You do realize that a company can pay a Chinese worker $3 a day whereas he has to pay a worker in the US a minimum of $7 per hour to do the same job. Why wouldn't companies move jobs overseas?

  
  To be fair the the American worker, they are considerably more productive than foreign workers. Productivity in the US is great, it's the cost, which no one can fix, that is the issue. You obviously understand that, everyone gets that. The problem is if you simply say "work harder to get into the upper echelon" you're lying to yourself to think everyone can. It's like you're on the fucking Titanic and there aren't enough lifeboats and you say "well you should have worked harder to get into my position on this lifeboat, now go away and die this is the survival of the fittest at it's finest. " Now in the real world they don't freeze in the Atlantic, they riot, then revolt,, then capture the bourgeoisie and bury them in an abandoned mineshaft somewhere.
  
  Now someone brought up a great point that our poor drive cars, have cable, eat McD's....and generally don't know what's good for themselves. That's why I don't think we'll witness a revolution. But still, the stratification of our society that is currently happening is worrisome to those who know a thing or two about history and realize our current course is a bit unsustainable.
  
  Should I pose the question again. Can someone please tell me how taxing the CEO of a corporation, who rarely uses his own money to help the company create (American) jobs.....would negatively impact job creation? I don't see why would shouldn't raise the taxes on people making $500,000 annually in salary/benefits (that is to say, you didn't sell a house or something you simply make that in pay every year).
  
  Even John Stossel points out that GE is a piece of shit corporation that simple goes where the government funding is. A fucking joke.
  
  [video=youtube;icS5eLWYv0w][/video]
• believer

  

  Tobias Fünke;741138 wrote:Should I pose the question again. Can someone please tell me how taxing the CEO of a corporation, who rarely uses his own money to help the company create (American) jobs.....would negatively impact job creation? I don't see why would shouldn't raise the taxes on people making $500,000 annually in salary/benefits (that is to say, you didn't sell a house or something you simply make that in pay every year).

  I agree. Punishing the eeeeeeeeeevil rich because the idiots we elected to run DC don't know how to balance a budget is ALWAYS the politically correct thing to do.
• fish82

  

  Tobias Fünke;741138 wrote:To be fair the the American worker, they are considerably more productive than foreign workers. Productivity in the US is great, it's the cost, which no one can fix, that is the issue. You obviously understand that, everyone gets that. The problem is if you simply say "work harder to get into the upper echelon" you're lying to yourself to think everyone can. It's like you're on the fucking Titanic and there aren't enough lifeboats and you say "well you should have worked harder to get into my position on this lifeboat, now go away and die this is the survival of the fittest at it's finest. " Now in the real world they don't freeze in the Atlantic, they riot, then revolt,, then capture the bourgeoisie and bury them in an abandoned mineshaft somewhere.

  I've not seen a study or other source to back this claim. If there is one, I'd be interested to read through it.
  
  
  

  Tobias Fünke;741138 wrote:Now someone brought up a great point that our poor drive cars, have cable, eat McD's....and generally don't know what's good for themselves. That's why I don't think we'll witness a revolution. But still, the stratification of our society that is currently happening is worrisome to those who know a thing or two about history and realize our current course is a bit unsustainable.

  The "poor" in the US enjoy a much higher standard of living than the "poor" in any other country. Their standard of living is significantly higher than the previous generation, and the one before that, and the one before that. The only thing wrong with society is they're being spoon fed the class warfare bullshit how they're somehow entitled to their "fair share" of Mr. Rich Guys' money.
  

  Tobias Fünke;741138 wrote:Should I pose the question again. Can someone please tell me how taxing the CEO of a corporation, who rarely uses his own money to help the company create (American) jobs.....would negatively impact job creation? I don't see why would shouldn't raise the taxes on people making $500,000 annually in salary/benefits (that is to say, you didn't sell a house or something you simply make that in pay every year).

  It probably wouldn't. My issue is the group you single out already pays the lion's share of the tax burden, and at almost twice their share of income.
• Writerbuckeye

  

  People complain about corporate profits and want to go after them -- when it's those very profits that keep stocks rising and 401 K and similar retirement plans for TENS OF MILLIONS of Americans healthy. So yeah, let's go after them hard, take the money, tank the market and hurt ourselves more in the process. Makes perfect sense.
  
  Again: We don't have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem. Stop trying to figure out more ways for the government to steal people's money. It doesn't belong to the government; never did. Stop acting like they're entitled to it.
• wkfan

  Writerbuckeye;741243 wrote:People complain about corporate profits and want to go after them -- when it's those very profits that keep stocks rising and 401 K and similar retirement plans for TENS OF MILLIONS of Americans healthy. So yeah, let's go after them hard, take the money, tank the market and hurt ourselves more in the process. Makes perfect sense.
  
  Again: We don't have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem. Stop trying to figure out more ways for the government to steal people's money. It doesn't belong to the government; never did. Stop acting like they're entitled to it.

  Wait a second......on another thread you said:
  

  Writerbuckeye;740826 wrote:The numbers were off the STRS site. Blame them for not updating, if that's the case. And my main point stands: even with the changes, the retirement being offered for teachers is STILL BETTER than what most people have access to -- and it will still be an incentive for people looking for a more secure working environment. Most private companies don't even offer retirement plans, anymore. They leave it all up to the individual.

  Which is it?????
• Hip Hop/Logicbomb

  

  Here's a good question for you well educated folks.
  
  Who broke the economy? The middle class?
  
  Who is shipping jobs overseas?
  
  Who is making a profit right now?
  
  Y'all just don't get it...Your vote means nothing!!! Obama =' corporate puppet for the left....Republicans ='s corporate puppets for the Right.
  
  And you and I have no voice, because our government is bought and paid for, they do nothing for us, we are just their life-blood that they feed off of. Talk about working hard all you want, but when there are no JOBS and you have no Voice in anything that goes on in government, What exactly do you have? A confused public that has no idea of what way is up, because we have been played as fools!! Who fights these wars and dies in them? Thats right we do!! Who helped build this country? Thats right we did!!! But decade after decade they continue to take more and more away from US! and what do we do? We listen to there lies and there 24hr News cycles on both sides Left and Right. We're so damn confused in this country anymore that we argue amongst ourselves in regards to what they feed us. I don't hate the wealthy as much as I don't hate the poor, but god damnit something has to change....and I'm about tired of arguing with my fellow americans about talking points that have been fed to us by both the Left and Right wing biased media....Wake the FUCK UP FOLKS!!!!
• sleeper

  

  To be fair the the American worker, they are considerably more productive than foreign workers.

  I disagree if we are talking about manufacturing jobs, which are the jobs going overseas.
  

  Which is it?????

  You should be embarrassed that you don't know the difference, but I'll let Writer explain it if he chooses.
  

  Who broke the economy? The middle class?
  
  Who is shipping jobs overseas?
  
  Who is making a profit right now?

  I would argue every class has broken this country, with regards to endless amounts of entitlements in which we could never pay for.
  
  Companies are shipping jobs overseas because the labor is significantly cheaper. This isn't a bad thing in the sense that companies need to remain profitable in order to stay in business to keep people employed.
  
  Companies are making profits, but profits aren't a bad thing and I don't understand why people are so upset about profits. They aren't charities, their goal is to make a return for its shareholders.
  
  It's much easier just to call you a whack job, and if you are taking George Carlin seriously, it makes it even easier.