Times seem to be getting bad

[supertuff]

   ^^^    "If you can't dazzel them with brilliance, baffle them with bullsh*t"

this is no bull. Fellas' , its not  the media. Oh sure they dont help matters any but all you need is 1 finger to point with and it should be directed right at our government. i keep saying it, until they are out of power and the people are back in  this will only get worse.   you have a bunch of f*&%kin loser  crooked azz  lawyers running the country. 
better get real mad or start learning to eat with chop sticks. 

 

[heminut]

   ^^^    "If you can't dazzel them with brilliance, baffle them with bullsh*t"

this is no bull. Fellas' , its not  the media. Oh sure they dont help matters any but all you need is 1 finger to point with and it should be directed right at our government. i keep saying it, until they are out of power and the people are back in  this will only get worse.   you have a bunch of f*&%kin loser  crooked azz  lawyers running the country. 
better get real mad or start learning to eat with chop sticks. 

 

[71chally416]

Hmmm.. let's see. 35 front page stories about the horrible treatment of Gitmo prisoners in the NYT paper, but you couldn't find one on anything ever going good in the war. Then when the war turns around you can't find a single story about the War anymore, just stuff about the Great Depression that was coming, every day, non stop. Some might even construe that as the Media having "An agenda" to influence the election.  

[ragtopdodge]

Wow, I really feel for your friend.  They're blessed they have such a good friend as you.

You folks blaming the media are wrong.

What caused this mess is the greed of banks/mortgage companies giving people home loans, home equity loans, etc they cannot afford.  W/credit drying up, no one can do business, which then results in layoffs.  Layoffs cause a downward spiral in the economy b/c other jobs are affected.

I do agree we DO need HEALTHCARE socialism.  Go to Austria or Germany and EVERYONE will get 1st class healthcare for not ONE PENNEY!  My friend told me of her friend over there...heart bypass, one mo. in the hospital, 3 months in a luxury spa/resort in Austria for therapy.  Again, not one penney he spent!

What morals do we have here in this country that we can't take care of a sick child who needs work on her heart?

[priderocks]

Sure, socialized medicine is possible, if your ok with paying 45% income tax.

[ozrt4406]

IN AUSTRALIA WE HAVE A 1% MEDICAL TAX ON OUR TAXABLE INCOME (CALLED MEDICARE LEVY) EVERYONE PAYS IT , YOU DONT NOTICE IT ,SO WE HAVE FREE MEDICAL BASICALLY EVERYTHING COVERED EXC DENTAL , SURE THERE IS A WAITING LIST ON NON URGENT STUFF (SURGERY) BUT IF ITS SERIOUS YOU GET FIXED. YOU CAN ALSO TAKE EXTRA HEALTH INSURANCE BUT I BELIEVE MOST PEOPLE DONT. ITS A FAIRLY GOOD SYSTEM I BELIEVE , NOT PERFECT BUT IT WORKS .

[71chally416]

I wonder if the typical doctor overseas gets sued twice a year and if they all need to carry super expensive malpractice insurance?   

[dutch]

nope... and it saves a lot of money... 

[Chryco Psycho]

try it here , we have over 50% taxation & a medocre med system that is under staffed & covers very little , if you think the governemnt will run medical better than fre enterprise think again

[bb71challenger]

Soialized medical care is just another name for the same old crap. It just means the rich dodge taxes, the poor pay none and the middle class takes it up the tailpipe for everyone.

[quapman]

I'll add to this later, but a quick question...

When/why did higher education and health care become profit-making businesses?

Doctors have to take the Hipocratic oath, but the scumwaffles who own/run the hospitals and universities apparently do not.


A few of the factors that have put the economy in the toilet and continue the conspiracy to eliminate the middle class:

1.  If you eliminate my job making spatulas (or whatever) by moving the manufacturing overseas, how am I supposed to buy the spatula? No job, no cash.

2.  CEO's, boards of directors and the top white collar people in any company do not need to make 1,000 times the wage of the average "regular" company worker. EVERYONE's job is IMPORTANT. Yours is not 1,000 times more important. Why do these guys get a BONUS while these companies are bleeding cash by the billions?

3.  "We need to please the shareholders" should be a phrase punishable by public stoning.

4.  Real estate agents' comissions should be based on their level of service, NOT the price of the house. This is a factor of the real estate crash that the media seem to have missed. This really goes for almost any commision based sales job. No personal offense intended to anyone here who has this type of job. I make the mold that makes the parts you sell. I get paid hourly and do not share a percentage of the sales. Yet, without the mold that makes the parts, you would have no job.

5.  When a stock tanks and you sell it at a loss, the jackass who recommended that you buy it should share in the loss. He didn't seem to have a problem taking the comission up front, while taking on NONE of the risk.

6.  Credit card companies should not be allowed to raise my interest rate to 27% based on my standing with ANOTHER banking institution. Congress has passed a law "eliminating" this practice. I believe it goes into effect in 2012. Huh?

7.  Lobbyists need to go, along with corporate campaign funding. Hell, fire Congress and start over while we're at it. Realistically, limit Congressional terms to two. They did it to the President. Additionally, elected officials should not get pay raises until the budget is balanced and the national debt is ZERO. How about as the debt clock goes up, Congressional pay goes DOWN?

8.  The rich, no matter what they tell you, do NOT need to be richer. (Did you know that Donald Trump is a paid actor who is backed by a cartel of rich investors?)


I will add more, but the basics are that we need more:

Oversight,
Regulation (self-regulation obviously does NOT work),
Accountability,
Truthiness(thanks, Stephen Colbert),
Honesty,
Integrity
and a bunch of other words ending in "y".

I really don't think this was what Thomas Jefferson and company had in mind when they founded this great nation. What is happening to us now is tenfold of what stirred a revolution 200+ years ago.

That Australian health care sytem sure sounds good. Don't let the naysayers con you into thinking that your taxes would go up with Socialized medical care. How many doctor's visits could you have made with YOUR share of the Trillion dollars that the banks got? Banks produce nothing but DEBT. Oh, and bonuses for CEO's. Almost forgot that one. HEALTHY people go to work and produce things. Sick people stay home, get sicker, go broke getting healthy and die.

Steve

[hemi71]

Wow, I really feel for your friend.  They're blessed they have such a good friend as you.

You folks blaming the media are wrong.

What caused this mess is the greed of banks/mortgage companies giving people home loans, home equity loans, etc they cannot afford.  W/credit drying up, no one can do business, which then results in layoffs.  Layoffs cause a downward spiral in the economy b/c other jobs are affected.

I do agree we DO need HEALTHCARE socialism.  Go to Austria or Germany and EVERYONE will get 1st class healthcare for not ONE PENNEY!  My friend told me of her friend over there...heart bypass, one mo. in the hospital, 3 months in a luxury spa/resort in Austria for therapy.  Again, not one penney he spent!

What morals do we have here in this country that we can't take care of a sick child who needs work on her heart?

 

Oh, it cant be the people who got those 0% down, 5 year ballon mortages making 5K a month with a 3K mortage. Or all the greedy corpoprate types who sell out our jobs in this country so the company can pay an extra 1.00 dividend on every share to the stock holders.

Gotta be the media, or the EPA for doing it's job. Now i admit the EPA has gone overboard and needs to be reeled in, but to eliminate it so we can compete with mexico or china? No thanks.

[hemi71]

I'll add to this later, but a quick question...

When/why did higher education and health care become profit-making businesses?

Doctors have to take the Hipocratic oath, but the scumwaffles who own/run the hospitals and universities apparently do not.


A few of the factors that have put the economy in the toilet and continue the conspiracy to eliminate the middle class:

1.  If you eliminate my job making spatulas (or whatever) by moving the manufacturing overseas, how am I supposed to buy the spatula? No job, no cash.

2.  CEO's, boards of directors and the top white collar people in any company do not need to make 1,000 times the wage of the average "regular" company worker. EVERYONE's job is IMPORTANT. Yours is not 1,000 times more important. Why do these guys get a BONUS while these companies are bleeding cash by the billions?

3.  "We need to please the shareholders" should be a phrase punishable by public stoning.

4.  Real estate agents' comissions should be based on their level of service, NOT the price of the house. This is a factor of the real estate crash that the media seem to have missed. This really goes for almost any commision based sales job. No personal offense intended to anyone here who has this type of job. I make the mold that makes the parts you sell. I get paid hourly and do not share a percentage of the sales. Yet, without the mold that makes the parts, you would have no job.

5.  When a stock tanks and you sell it at a loss, the jackass who recommended that you buy it should share in the loss. He didn't seem to have a problem taking the comission up front, while taking on NONE of the risk.

6.  Credit card companies should not be allowed to raise my interest rate to 27% based on my standing with ANOTHER banking institution. Congress has passed a law "eliminating" this practice. I believe it goes into effect in 2012. Huh?

7.  Lobbyists need to go, along with corporate campaign funding. Hell, fire Congress and start over while we're at it. Realistically, limit Congressional terms to two. They did it to the President. Additionally, elected officials should not get pay raises until the budget is balanced and the national debt is ZERO. How about as the debt clock goes up, Congressional pay goes DOWN?

8.  The rich, no matter what they tell you, do NOT need to be richer. (Did you know that Donald Trump is a paid actor who is backed by a cartel of rich investors?)


I will add more, but the basics are that we need more:

Oversight,
Regulation (self-regulation obviously does NOT work),
Accountability,
Truthiness(thanks, Stephen Colbert),
Honesty,
Integrity
and a bunch of other words ending in "y".

I really don't think this was what Thomas Jefferson and company had in mind when they founded this great nation. What is happening to us now is tenfold of what stirred a revolution 200+ years ago.

That Australian health care sytem sure sounds good. Don't let the naysayers con you into thinking that your taxes would go up with Socialized medical care. How many doctor's visits could you have made with YOUR share of the Trillion dollars that the banks got? Banks produce nothing but DEBT. Oh, and bonuses for CEO's. Almost forgot that one. HEALTHY people go to work and produce things. Sick people stay home, get sicker, go broke getting healthy and die.

Steve

 

RIGHT ON

[hemi71]

I am a self-employed cabinetmaker and have been self-employed for twenty-five years. While I am sad to see a lot of people I know hurting, I am also angered by the legions of people who have cush government positions (I won't call it work) who will never feel any pinch. Here in California, which is totally ungovernable by anyone, public unions are fighting the Terminator's proposal that every state employee take two days off per month without pay. Against their contract, they say. In the real world, a retracting economy forces layoffs, reduced spending, pay cuts, inventory reductions, etc. Except in the government, where the talk is tax hikes to cover the drop in revenue. This makes me mad as heck.

I guess i qualify as one of those "cush govenrment job" holders. I work for the local transit authority as a project engineer. Worked the past 4 summers every weekend, 2nd and 3rd shift in the worst neighborhoods in Philly. NO overtime, i get paid 40hrs a week and if i'm lucky i get comp time. About 10 years ago, had to take a day off without pay every 2 weeks because the transit authority budget was in trouble. That lasted about a year. Biggest pay raise I've had in the last 10 years was 3.4%. Had two years where there were no raises due to budget problems. I dont complain about this stuff to anybody, I could double my pay in the private sector, I like the fact i dont have to travel much and i have relative job security. Don't be so quick to lump everyone in the same group. There are bums everywhere in the private sector, and there are hard working, good people who work for the goverment at every level.

[supertuff]

IN AUSTRALIA WE HAVE A 1% MEDICAL TAX ON OUR TAXABLE INCOME (CALLED MEDICARE LEVY) EVERYONE PAYS IT , YOU DONT NOTICE IT ,SO WE HAVE FREE MEDICAL BASICALLY EVERYTHING COVERED EXC DENTAL

  Getting a BJ from a toothless Australian is still not a good enough reason to allow our government create another government bureaucracy. Once we have it , it never goes away, it just becomes another black hole to throw our tax dollars into.