You Know What Really Grinds My Gears?

[Skull]

My whole issue on this subject is this:

Our Congress overspends to the tune of 1.5 trillion dollars a year.  They have shown zero self restraint when it comes to money.  Congress is a junkie, and taxpayer money is its heroin.  You don't dure an addict by saying "Here, have another hit!"
It's time to starve the beast!!!!

As far as the rich go - I find it immoral for the government to take half of anyone's income, regardless of what they make.  What did the government do to deserve half, or a third, or even a fourth, of someone's money, just because that person happens to be wealthy?  Especially when, in America, the bottom 47% of wage earners pay no income tax at all?

My thought is Government are children in the candystore and the taxpayer is the parents...

I dont believe government is addictive to spending they are addictive to winning elections and the way to win elections is pass out freebees (aka buy the vote).

A little known fact about our tax money... 10% is used on the actual programs, 30% going to other programs, 30% is wasted (like: 15 dollar cupcakes, 1,000 toilet seats, etc...) and 30% is spent on corruption (not consider as part of corruption is giving Government Unions money so they can pay the democratic party for relections ~ although that is part of the 30% going to other programs)

[Flick James]

Not all rich people really contributed to the greater good of humanity to gain their wealth.
Not all of them tore down or pirated their way up, but certainly some did.

Dear Lord. Did any of you read any of my posts?

I am not saying rich people are angels. I'm not saying that all of them engage in philanthropy and contribute to society. Did I not make that clear enough?

Live in a rich neighborhood and call the police because someone is breaking into your place, then go do the same in a poor neighborhood and see if the results vary. No matter how you try and twist it, there are different demands on social services by the rich and the poor, and it is NOT always the poor getting more than they pay for. It doesn't take much research to find instances of federal or state money going to things like paving roads and building sound barriers in rich neighborhoods and leaving the poorer neighborhoods alone. A few years back a county in California wouldn't pay to repair a washed-out road that put hundreds of people without a way to get to work, yet spent tens of millions putting in a sound barrier wall, complete with tons of artwork because the rich didn't like the noise from the highway they built their homes near.

Okay. I'm sure the reaction to what I'm about to say will be that I endorse ignoring the poor neighborhoods and catering to the rich, but I'm done caring at this point. Think about what you're saying. They pay the bulk of the tax bill! Shouldn't they expect a little better road-paving service? They pay a larger portion of police salaries! Shouldn't they expect a little quicker response? Goodness gracious. Let's say you're at dinner with a bunch of people. You are the richest person by far at the table. Out of kindness, you decide to pick up the tab for the meal, and say "why don't you guys just get the tip?" You don't expect them to fall all over themselves thanking you, but a quick thank you or two would be appreciated. Instead they start bickering over the tip, complaining about the food and the service, and then say to you "well, we're kinda short, could you throw in on the tip as well?" That's what all of this comes across as. Yes, of course poor neighborhoods should have a reasonable expectation of public service, and maybe they should get more. Fine. But honestly it doesn't bother me that the rich, who pay more, get better road paving and quicker cop response. There, I said it. Revile me all you want.

You talk as of you believe those ports main function is to EXPORT goods. No, they're not. Think about it. . .

So, you're saying that the agenda of Occupy Wall Street is to stop imports? I have to say I am impressed. I didn't think a mob had the capability of that kind of reasoning. I take back everything I said about them.

Please. They still export goods, regardless of the ratio. These mobs are still hurting our businesses. Essentially, they are negatively impacting economic recovery. Sorry. I'm not in favor of that.

Not sure why. Just looking at the numbers. If people can afford to pay taxes and still buy lots of goodies for themselves, I say good for them. But from my point of view, they have much to be thankful for, and not so much to complain about, at least as far as money goes. I doubt that in the case of a very wealthy individual, taxes make that much of a difference in quality of life. For the guy just barely earning enough to make ends meet, taxes make a huge difference. The rich might pay more taxes, but the working poor carry a greater burden.

Look. Rich people are not saints. Money follows the path of least resistance. And so rich people, at least the bulk of them that had to work hard to develop or maintain a fortune, are shrewd and exploit opportunities. It is in their nature as business people. So, if conditions are unfair, if they have an unfair political advantage to protect their profits and minimize their risks, who's fault is that? It's okay, I'll wait.

Yeah, you got it, the government. And so, I'm right back to where I was. Occupy Wall Street is misdirected. They are doing harm, not good.

And how do you know they are not thankful? Do you talk to a lot of rich people? All we hear are the gripes that they make because they know they are footing the bulk of the bill and people are still gnashing their teeth. Where I come from if I'm paying for something and people are calling me an a***ole, at some point I'm going to say "f**k you. Then you pay for it."

I am on the poor side. I think most of us here are. We have absolutely no idea what being rich is like. All we see is extravagance, but that's all we see. These people are very accustomed to paying for things and having the people for whom they are paying do little more than ask for more and complain, and not say so much as a whisper of a "thank you." Like I said, I'm not saying they are saints. In fact, they are far from it. But like I said before, they keep the wheels turning, and they take the brunt of all the world's resentment, hatred, envy, and complaining. I'm glad they are shrewd and calculating. They generate wealth and jobs, people. If I didn't know any better I would think that people believe that government creates jobs and businesses take them away.

I think the initial post that started this suggested that rich people are not entitled, strike that, allowed, to complain about anything. Well why not? I think they are perfectly entitled. And so are we. I just think that the complaining from most poor people is misdirected.

[Flick James]

Oh man, I'm going to catch hell for this. I know it. I just can't resist.

In the interest of providing a little humor to the subject under debate, I took a famous excerpt from A Few Good Men and made some editorial changes. The result is a little dark, but I thought it was kinda funny. And if you can't laugh at it, well, I tried:

Rich man: I'll answer the question. You want answers?

Poor man: I think I'm entitled to them.

Rich man: You want answers?!

Poor man: I want the truth!

Rich man: You can't handle the truth!

Son, we live in a world that has money, and that money has to be made by people with initiatve. Who's gonna do it? You? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for the poor, and you curse the rich. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know -- that the loss of those jobs, while tragic, probably saved more jobs; and my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves jobs.
You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on Wall Street -- you need me on Wall Street. We use words like "profits," "risk," "cost." We use these words as the backbone of a life spent earning something. You use them as a punch line. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the jobs that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide them.
I would rather that you just said "thank you" and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up some initiative and start earning more. Either way, I don't give a DAMN what you think you're entitled to!

Poor man: Did you order the layoff?

Rich man: I did the job I was...

Poor man: Did you order the layoff?!

Rich man: You're God damn right I did!

I think I'm about to be covered with eggs and tomatoes.

[Skull]

lol... I'm all out of eggs and tomatoes...


I wonder if there is no rich then who can government tax?

[Jack]

Decided to cancel the DVD portion of my Netflix subscription today.  Not really because of the price increase, but because - as always - we've got a DVD from them sitting around for two weeks now waiting for my wife and I to be in just the right mood to watch it.  We probably watch 2 DVD's a month at the rate we go, and that's really not worth $8 to us.

But what grinds my gears is this:  Just a week or two ago I was over at their site and couldn't log in until I reset my password.  So I dutifully copied and pasted it into Word, printed it out, taped it to the inside of the cabinet door of my desk.  So today it won't let me log in.  I tried several times, surely I must have typed it in correctly at least ONE of those times, but no.  So after 20 minutes they finally send me an email to allow me to change it.  Again.

Egads. 

[Couchtr26]

Decided to cancel the DVD portion of my Netflix subscription today.  Not really because of the price increase, but because - as always - we've got a DVD from them sitting around for two weeks now waiting for my wife and I to be in just the right mood to watch it.  We probably watch 2 DVD's a month at the rate we go, and that's really not worth $8 to us.

But what grinds my gears is this:  Just a week or two ago I was over at their site and couldn't log in until I reset my password.  So I dutifully copied and pasted it into Word, printed it out, taped it to the inside of the cabinet door of my desk.  So today it won't let me log in.  I tried several times, surely I must have typed it in correctly at least ONE of those times, but no.  So after 20 minutes they finally send me an email to allow me to change it.  Again.

Egads. 

Have had similar problems logging in at times though haven't had to change password.

Edit: Rushed.

[JaseSF]

As I understand it, many government/political party get-togethers feature $500 a plate a dinners, presumably out of taxpayer dollars...seems a colossal waste of resources to me.

[AndyC]

As I understand it, many government/political party get-togethers feature $500 a plate a dinners, presumably out of taxpayer dollars...seems a colossal waste of resources to me.

Those are party fundraisers. People pay for their dinner.

[JaseSF]

Yeah I understand that's how they usually work but I've heard a time or too that for certain conventions, they've used tax dollars as well. Also doesn't that seem a little rich exclusive to you?

[Flick James]

Yeah I understand that's how they usually work but I've heard a time or too that for certain conventions, they've used tax dollars as well. Also doesn't that seem a little rich exclusive to you?

Well, I guess they could rent out a place 20 times as big and charge $25 a plate so we could go.

[JPickettIII]

You know what grinds my gears, our leaders in Washington.  I was watching the Daily Show and saw clips of our leaders debating over whether to keep "In God We Trust".  Apparently they were doing this to get back at Obama because he messed up and thought "E Plurbis Uinum" (spelling ???) was supposed to be used instead of In God of We Trust.  Then they were using their time to debate having the Secretary of State (???) getting the power to make the decisions on commemorative coins for the mint.  I think getting back at the president and make coins are a lot lower priority than our nation's job and debt problems and perhaps the wars.  Maybe we should fire our leaders and put regular people in there.  Could not do any worse.

Later,

John

[AndyC]

You know what grinds my gears, our leaders in Washington.  I was watching the Daily Show and saw clips of our leaders debating over whether to keep "In God We Trust".  Apparently they were doing this to get back at Obama because he messed up and thought "E Plurbis Uinum" (spelling ???) was supposed to be used instead of In God of We Trust.  Then they were using their time to debate having the Secretary of State (???) getting the power to make the decisions on commemorative coins for the mint.  I think getting back at the president and make coins are a lot lower priority than our nation's job and debt problems and perhaps the wars.  Maybe we should fire our leaders and put regular people in there.  Could not do any worse.

Later,

John

Been following some of that myself. Seems like your country's suffering because of partisanship carried too far and an almost childish determination to screw Obama on absolutely everything, right or wrong.

I don't think our parliamentary system in Canada is perfect, but I do like that we have one election at the federal level, and the prime minister is the leader of the majority party. When we give somebody a mandate to govern, they are allowed to govern. Probably the least productive governments we've had were the minority ones, where the parties were constantly fighting each other and thinking about elections. And while opinions vary on whether our governing parties have been good or bad over the years, I have yet to see one do irreparable damage to the country. Actually, the most damage seems to get done when everybody gets fed up with the government in power and elects somebody else in anger, who then fulfills election promises by undoing some unpopular thing at great expense and considerable disruption.

Partisan squabbles should be limited to election campaigns, and the rest of the time should be entirely about getting some work done. Say what you want about the American system's built-in checks and balances, with the kind of people you've got in Washington, it's a hobbled system.

[indianasmith]

It's deliberately hobbled.  Our founders were pretty firm in their belief that the government which governs best, governs least.  Given some of the atrocious legislation that came out when the Democrats had both houses of Congress and the Presidency, Gridlock is FINE with me.

[dean]

The I have a headache thread grinds my gears...

[Flick James]

It's deliberately hobbled.  Our founders were pretty firm in their belief that the government which governs best, governs least.  Given some of the atrocious legislation that came out when the Democrats had both houses of Congress and the Presidency, Gridlock is FINE with me.

Love ya, Indy, but it's NOT fine with me. We can't support this deficit much longer. Republicans are just as much to blame, hard as that is for you to accept. We're seeing a level of partisan polarization never seen before, and it's going to strangle out great nation.