2020 Politics Thread - Enter At Your Own Risk - RULES IN OP

[coachnip13]

Originally Posted by Alvarez09

We are the richest country in the world. Should we resell compare our standard of living to the third world and use it as a success and say we are doing better?

Do what you want. Just telling you that the people you're trying to save actually have it pretty good, comparatively speaking.

[Chris Lyle]

Originally Posted by Alvarez09

Hey all, just pull yourself up by your bootstraps! If you are living paycheck to paycheck you are a lazy piece of dirt!

You say you're not unhinged on this topic, come on man. No one is saying this.

So here is a full disclosure story for you from my personal life and reasons I don't agree with anything that you are trying to push.

My wife stays home with my 2 children and we home school (my choice)

I went to college and paid for my own or took out loans to better myself (my choice)

I worked full time through my college and was even married with children when i finished my Bachelor's Degree while working (my choice)

The only time I asked for any assistance of any sorts was when i was laid off while just having the one child. The lay off wasn't my fault I was one of thousands laid off in the 07/08 crash

I choose to make things work by the clothes i choose to wear or not to wear, my cell phone doesn't have to be the latest and greatest, etc. (my choice)


the only reason that i am in some trouble financially is because of bad choices in my own life, nobody made me do it or should bail me out. Once those debts are paid off my family and I will be able to move on in life and get a nicer car, etc. but for now I work as hard as I can to clean up my choices and still have a decent house and 2 decent cars.

If you want to talk about poor, ask my wife who spent 9 years of her life in Malawi Africa. Our worst days in America is their dream!

what it comes down to is choices and it shouldn't be someone else's responsibility to bail you out or prop you up.

[ucLAkers]

Originally Posted by Alvarez09

I keep hearing that trump couldn’t have saved lives, but a freaking national mask mandate would have helped tremendously.

Oh but wait....I cant because I might choke on my own carbon dioxide

[Chris Lyle]

Originally Posted by ucLAkers

Oh but wait....I cant because I might choke on my own carbon dioxide

And not to mention if the mandate would've been made he would've been deemed a tyrant.

[JustRachel]

Originally Posted by Alvarez09

We are the richest country in the world. Should we resell compare our standard of living to the third world and use it as a success and say we are doing better?

Being American doesn't entitle you to what you seem to think it does.

You are not entitled to a job. You are not entitled to a living wage. You are not entitled to a home or a car. You are not entitled to free money.

You are entitled to opportunity. That's it. What you do with that is up to you.

This sense of entitlement is disturbing.

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[Onions]

Originally Posted by mike1498

Okay, if it's not labor costs, then why can't we start making stuff in the US now? Why is it every time I watch shark tank, the first question, "Is this being made oversees?". Investors/companies want the lowest input costs. You want to make quality goods in america, charge a premium. Some are successful. The lowest income will not benefit from manufacturing in china. Wages are considered "sticky" which means they will adjust in the long run. Maybe over time they would be fine, but in the short term, they would be killed by inflation.

I'm not saying labor cost is not an issue. It certainly is, but they were always able to make stuff cheaper there. Why did we all of a sudden decide to wipe out 60k factories and millions of jobs? What allowed them a market to undercut? A willing partner in Wal-Mart to sell all their cheap goods to us?

We let them steal our lunch money.

[Chris Lyle]

Originally Posted by JustRachel

Being American doesn't entitle you to what you seem to think it does.

You are not entitled to a job. You are not entitled to a living wage. You are not entitled to a home or a car. You are not entitled to free money.

You are entitled to opportunity. That's it. What you do with that is up to you.

This sense of entitlement is disturbing.

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It's very disturbing, especially when in the list of must haves there is internet and a cell phone.

[Alvarez09]

Originally Posted by JustRachel

Being American doesn't entitle you to what you seem to think it does.

You are not entitled to a job. You are not entitled to a living wage. You are not entitled to a home or a car. You are not entitled to free money.

You are entitled to opportunity. That's it. What you do with that is up to you.

This sense of entitlement is disturbing.

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And again, why in the 60’s could my grandparents raise families, but houses, own cars, and put kids through colleges on jobs that today you can barely support one person on?

[coachnip13]

Originally Posted by Chris Lyle

It's very disturbing, especially when in the list of must haves there is internet and a cell phone.

And insisting on living alone.

[JustRachel]

Originally Posted by Alvarez09

And again, why in the 60’s could my grandparents raise families, but houses, own cars, and put kids through colleges on jobs that today you can barely support one person on?

Why do you think this matters? It's irrelevant.

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[Chris Lyle]

Originally Posted by coachnip13

And insisting on living alone.

no sacrifice what so ever, but I want the best of everything and you have to give it to me.

[JustRachel]

Originally Posted by Chris Lyle

no sacrifice what so ever, but I want the best of everything and you have to give it to me.

Yep. And I want things to be like they were in the 60s...except cell phones and internet.

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[coachnip13]

Originally Posted by Alvarez09

And again, why in the 60’s could my grandparents raise families, but houses, own cars, and put kids through colleges on jobs that today you can barely support one person on?

They probably did the unthinkable: saved money, spent wisely. That craziness doesn't fly in 2020. I have to have internet access, a cell phone, my own apartment, and then I'll need another $1,000 every month to buy more stuff.

[Wade Mulroy]

Originally Posted by Alvarez09

And again, why in the 60’s could my grandparents raise families, but houses, own cars, and put kids through colleges on jobs that today you can barely support one person on?

Originally Posted by gopherfan

I've seen posts like this in various forms over the years. If you want to live like they did in the 50's, you certainly could do that today. Eliminate cell phones, only have one car. No family vacations. One tv, no cable or internet. Eat out once a month at most. Kids wear hand me downs, and play in the neighborhood instead of on one of their 4 electronic devices. Home is a 3 bedroom one bath. Boys in one bedroom, girls in the other. (Think Brady Bunch).

gopher provided a pretty good response to this.

[ballhawkdawk]

Originally Posted by coachnip13

Some of these people have no idea what "poor" really looks like. The poor around the world live five people to a box and have raw sewage running down the streets. The poor in America have pizza and rent a movie from Redbox on Saturday night.

Yes! The village my wife is from in Russia... that's the sewer system. It runs down the street. My one Ecuadorian buddy just bought his mother a refrigerator last year. She didn't own a refrigerator! Anyone know any Americans without a fridge? I don't. Never been in a house without one.

I have friends who came here with nothing and only knew "yes" and "no." Now they can speak fluent English, own businesses, own houses, drive nice cars, live in safe areas. Incredible what America has done for them.

[Alvarez09]

Originally Posted by coachnip13

And insisting on living alone.

I thought the American dream was owning your own house?

As far as living alone, I saw an article that 50% of millennials are in fact moving home because they can’t feasibly live on their own...though of course that is another insult the right throws around about my generation...”stop living in your parents basement”

[Alvarez09]

Originally Posted by coachnip13

They probably did the unthinkable: saved money, spent wisely. That craziness doesn't fly in 2020. I have to have internet access, a cell phone, my own apartment, and then I'll need another $1,000 every month to buy more stuff.

The average mailman makes 53k a year. There is literally zero chance you can support a family of 5 to the level I mentioned today on that sort of pay.

[JustRachel]

Originally Posted by Alvarez09

I thought the American dream was owning your own house?



As far as living alone, I saw an article that 50% of millennials are in fact moving home because they can’t feasibly live on their own...though of course that is another insult the right throws around about my generation...”stop living in your parents basement”

Home ownership is part of it, yes. But the American dream is not a given. It must be earned.

49.9% of millennials are below average.

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[Boo]

Originally Posted by Alvarez09

The average mailman makes 53k a year. There is literally zero chance you can support a family of 5 to the level I mentioned today on that sort of pay.

Again, who told them to have 3 kids?

[JustRachel]

Originally Posted by Alvarez09

The average mailman makes 53k a year. There is literally zero chance you can support a family of 5 to the level I mentioned today on that sort of pay.

Then don't have 3 kids. Or don't be a mailman. Duh.

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[coachnip13]

Originally Posted by Alvarez09

I thought the American dream was owning your own house?

As far as living alone, I saw an article that 50% of millennials are in fact moving home because they can’t feasibly live on their own...though of course that is another insult the right throws around about my generation...”stop living in your parents basement”

That's a noble dream. But if you're making minimum wage and whining about not being able to survive, get a roommate.

[coachnip13]

Originally Posted by Alvarez09

The average mailman makes 53k a year. There is literally zero chance you can support a family of 5 to the level I mentioned today on that sort of pay.

Of course you can. Plenty of people do that. You just want to be able to support a family of five while having all of the luxuries that everyone else has.

[irv]

Originally Posted by Alvarez09

I think that it would give people more disposable income to do so and take that risk. I am not 100% sure what would be the cutoff for UBI though so that is a valid point, but if you invest in one start up at 500-1000 a year it shouldn't be too much of a burden.

THis has veered off topic a lot, but in general I think a large chunk of money that would go to people for UBI would go back into the economy in one way or the other, and I think you could argue likely a much larger chunk of money would make its way into the economy than what happens when we give tax breaks to corporations and the wealthy, unless you consider stock buybacks truly being money working its way into the economy.

Again, for me it comes down to that I would rather give the poor that money than the mega rich who have shown that they will not reinvest most of that money.

Food for thought, but I assume you already knew this?

[Alvarez09]

Originally Posted by JustRachel

Then don't have 3 kids. Or don't be a mailman. Duh.

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You’re missing the point. We have devalued so many jobs that there are fewer and fewer jobs available that you can do this on. 50 years ago if I worked in a warehouse I could provide for a family. You could work as a bank teller or at sears. You could be a milkman. Now all those jobs MAY provide for yourself but not a spouse let alone a family.

[coachnip13]

Originally Posted by Alvarez09

You’re missing the point. We have devalued so many jobs that there are fewer and fewer jobs available that you can do this on. 50 years ago if I worked in a warehouse I could provide for a family. You could work as a bank teller or at sears. You could be a milkman. Now all those jobs MAY provide for yourself but not a spouse let alone a family.

You have a distorted view of living if you think you can barely survive by working as a bank teller. You actually believe that "surviving" includes vacations and massages.