Billionaire profits surge at insane rates and everyone elses wages stay the same,
DEFINITELY NO PROBLEM HERE WE SHOULD BE SO THANKFUL THEYRE GIVING US JOBS (That pay relatively worse and worse to the economy every year while their wages skyrocket at thousands of percentages)
Ha ha. This is somewhat entertaining. Too many posters are responding to me for me to reply to all without risking carpal tunnel syndrome.
I feel like I'm pushing the same boulder repeatedly up the same massive hill, again and again.
Preconceptions and political alliances are very, very difficult to shake.
All I can offer, as I adjourn for the time being, are these few suggestions:
1) Notice who has to resort to personal attack -- and ponder: if strong counterarguments are available, why resort to personal attack?
2) Notice who resorts to name-calling -- and ponder: if somebody's views can be strongly refuted, why resort to calling them a "token"? What does THAT add that's worthwhile?
3) DO SOME RESEARCH and look for HARD numbers, not talking points or "summaries" offered by some with clear political bias.
4) From time to time, get outside -- or at least look through a window -- and notice that the sky is STILL FAR ABOVE US. It is not actually falling.
5) Ask yourself what moral authority you have to demand the income of others for your own personal benefit? And do higher taxes on others ACTUALLY raise YOUR income, unless you are WORKING for government or for some NGO that is heavily funded by government? Does EVERYBODY work for government? Should they?
If you think EVERYBODY should work for government, we'll just have to agree to disagree.
@Noflaps
way to literally say nothing.
We can continue to inference you're in support of low wages, poverty, homelessness and all economic gains being focused on an increasingly small % of americans.
@twighead in #43 responds to me by typing "way to literally say nothing."
Oh? I've "literally" said "nothing" in your view?
My many paragraphs and posts in this thread -- which include careful quotation from ACTUAL sources -- are "nothing" ?
Hmmm. And you don't think that's just simple insult directed at me? Suggesting that I offer "nothing" despite many paragraphs and included quotation from real, apparently bona fide sources?
We'll have to agree to disagree. And I'll have to rely upon others reading and thinking for themselves.
I will say -- I don't take offense. We all try to do the best we can, I think.
EDIT: notice that some name calling quickly followed this very post! -- providing yet another illustration of one of my earlier observations! Sometimes, I feel like a fortune teller! But then I remember that human nature is pretty predictable, and I remain suitably humble.
As one last observation: remember that during the revolution that formed the Soviet Union much wealth was seized! Many were even murdered! How did that work out? Remember the breadlines? Remember the famines? Is the Soviet Union still around? Why not, I wonder, if it was the "worker's paradise" that everybody hoped.
If we don't learn from history, we miss a lot of learning and might sometimes be led around by wildly-over-simplifying but emotionally engaging demagogues. Indeed, we might end up following people who although loudly, like, "for the people" (you know? right?) seem to end up doing pretty well for themselves, by golly! Some can even end with more than one house!
Yet, I still don't take offense. Have a nice evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for your contributions to the discussion, even if we disagree.
call him flapsy boy and/or FLAPSY that's his preferred moniker :)
@Noflaps tell us how you don't think the concentration of wealth in the top .1% is a problem, and how wage stagnation/decline is no big issue then.
Tell us how you think these trends are okay
https://i.imgur.com/KYE9i72.jpeg
@Noflaps said in #44:
> EDIT: notice that some name calling quickly followed this very post! -- providing yet another illustration of one of my earlier observations! Sometimes, I feel like a fortune teller! But then I remember that human nature is pretty predictable, and I remain suitably humble.
>
> As one last observation: remember that during the revolution that formed the Soviet Union much wealth was seized! Many were even murdered! How did that work out? Remember the breadlines? Remember the famines? Is the Soviet Union still around? Why not, I wonder, if it was the "worker's paradise" that everybody hoped.
>
> If we don't learn from history, we miss a lot of learning and might sometimes be led around by wildly-over-simplifying but emotionally engaging demagogues. Indeed, we might end up following people who although loudly, like, "for the people" (you know? right?) seem to end up doing pretty well for themselves, by golly! Some can even end with more than one house!
>
> Yet, I still don't take offense. Have a nice evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for your contributions to the discussion, even if we disagree.
Well, on the topic of communism - why don't we consider the US tax rates on the ultra-rich at that period of time, concurrent with the largest US economic growth and national prosperity. 91% for the top bracket in the 50s.
@Noflaps said in #44:
> As one last observation: remember that during the revolution that formed the Soviet Union much wealth was seized! Many were even murdered! How did that work out? Remember the breadlines? Remember the famines? Is the Soviet Union still around? Why not, I wonder, if it was the "worker's paradise" that everybody hoped.
Comrade noflaps, you are a great disappointment to me. There was actually very little violence during the insurrection that overthrew the Kerensky government in October 1917. More people died making Eisenstein's film "October" about ten years later. Most of the Russian elite fled abroad and were part of the influential White emigre movement in the inter-war period. The real violence started when White Generals attempted to overthrow the new government and were then supported by imperialist invaders such as Britain, France, Germany and Japan. The Russian economy was completely wrecked by the end of the civil war. That is why there were shortages in the early 1920s.
You also seem to be completely oblivious to the fact that there was a Stalinist counter-revolution during the 1920s and by the end of the decade the Russian working class were once again completely excluded from power. There was no socialism left by the time the first Five Year Plan was launched in 1929
Flapyboy (I prefer without the 's', sorry vitamine_water) being really provocative and sarcastic (but with "nice" words) since page 1 and then wonders why they get backlash.
I have to applaud their mental gymnastic though, to be able to see their comment as less of personal attacks than the responses they get...
My dear Flapless , you might indeed be a plane caus you're flying hiiiiiigh in the sky. People giving you "personal attacks" are just people fed up with your permanent use of of irony, sarcasm, desdain, whataboutism, diversions, strawmaning, being pedantic, etc.
I *don't* think you're stupid enough to do all that unconsciously. ( don't come and say I insulted you, I said I *don't* think you're stupid ;) )
It's not uncalled for. it's called accountability. Consequences. Your rethoric doesn't protect you from that. you can cry all you want that people don't want to engage with you and when they give you thumbs down. you are actually the one to blame for that.
As long as you don't change your communication, it's gonna keep happening.
And if people stop answering you with facts and constructed arguments, it's not because your superior logic 'won' the debate, but rather, as the french say, because it's a waste to feed jam to the pigs.
I hope the Dems run AOC and Bernie in 2028. Nothing would make me happier.
This topic has been archived and can no longer be replied to.