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Originally posted by DevilDogUSMC Just what we need, more drunk driving accidents and death... Plus higher insurance rates for everyone... Hey if young idiots want to die, they shouldn't take the rest of us out with them.

So, by your logic, the US drinking age, as compared to other drinking ages around the world, is put in to place because this country is full of idiots? The views on alchohol are the way they are because people in this country are more stupid than in other countries? That's the only logic I can find from your post. It's like, the US needs protection from its own stupidity while the rest of the world seems to not need such rules. Are people around the world just generally less stupid than the US?

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Originally posted by OurManFlint Are people around the world just generally less stupid than the US?

Yes.

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Originally posted by Marc Summers "Capitalism does not give people opportunity to everyone, only to the go-getters"

Hate to break it to ya fella...but that's life. It's true...Everyone will NOT succeed under a free market system.

The "go getters" to generally have more opportunities and more success in life, because they are the ones willing to put in the extra effort to achieve their goals.

Do you think small business owners only put in a 9-5 day?
F*ck no! These people make sacrifices, both personal and financial...They put everything on the line and work their asses off to build a business. And if by some miracle they happen to succeed in their efforts, people like you are eager to slap them in the face and impose as many taxes as you can imagine on the wealth they have earned..

I think your definition of "fair" is severely wacked friend.
You lefties seem to believe that everyone is entitled to a job and a salary simply because they walk and suck air.
The sad fact is that there are many people in this world not willing to put in the extra effort required to succeed...to work beyond a typical 9-5, or to educate themselves in any new areas that may make them more valuable to an employer. They are perfectly content with mediocrity and this is why they don't prosper...NOT because "the system" didn't give them a fair shake at things.

I would wake up every morning and take a loooong piss.

___________________
spacetribe!

Well, as opposed to the entitlement whore that doesn't want to "go-get" anything for himself but expects to be given "something" for "nothing." Furthermore he expects that "something" to afford him a living standard on-par with the mid-to-upper range go-getters, if not greater. Moreso, the harder it gets for the looter to keep up with the go-getter, the harder he pushes for more looting. "They're making more than their fair share!" he'll say. "I can barely afford to make ends meet (though I just got a new cellphone with a PS3 to boot). The go-getters aren't playing fair! Make them pick up the slack!" So, corrupt politicians who exist for the sake of getting re-elected pander to the highest bidders and target the masses where they will have the most influence. Taxes are levied and the "somethings" flow. The go-getters get fucked and the looter sits on his couch playing a PS3.

Or something like that...

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Originally posted by Capitalizt Do you think small business owners only put in a 9-5 day? F*ck no! These people make sacrifices, both personal and financial...They put everything on the line and work their asses off to build a business. And if by some miracle they happen to succeed in their efforts, people like you are eager to slap them in the face and impose as many taxes as you can imagine on the wealth they have earned..

You need a serious reality check. You should take a dose of sympathy and find the balls to check out the people that work their asses off and make minimum wage. I never said I didn't respect the small business owners. And to tell you the truth, your precious capitalism makes it MUCH harder for them to succeed. Look at the facts and you will see that the majority of small businesses fail over the first 5 years. You're free market just put people into debt for trying to make an honest living.

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I think your definition of "fair" is severely wacked friend. You lefties seem to believe that everyone is entitled to a job and a salary simply because they walk and suck air. The sad fact is that there are many people in this world not willing to put in the extra effort required to succeed...to work beyond a typical 9-5, or to educate themselves in any new areas that may make them more valuable to an employer. They are perfectly content with mediocrity and this is why they don't prosper...NOT because "the system" didn't give them a fair shake at things.

Lazy people are in every economic class. The effort comes from the individual.

___________________
"You won a new refrigerator, great! Where you gonna put it?" - Tony Danza

Marc Summers, the human windbag: Once again your assumptions baffle me. You yourself state that you cannot know what it's like to claw your way up from the bottom, and i believe that, but then you tell me that i don't know what it's like? Where do you get that information?

I started working fulltime when i was 13 for less than minimum wage so that i could learn a trade. I then proceeded to continue along that route for the next nine years, working after school and during the summers busting my ass to get ahead. Now i'm paying my own way through college and running my own small business full time. Just because you feel the urge to discriminate against people because their daddy wasn't as wealthy as yours doesn't make you compassionate. I would be offended by your egotistical arrogance: that you think people can't pass your station in life starting below you, but all i really feel is pity for you.

I sit in class everyday with people like you, on pell grants and government assistance doing the same classwork load i do and claiming that they can't hold a job. Liberal students who think they have the world figured out before they even try to do an honest days work. So believe me when i tell you taht i underdstand your entitlement mindset, everything has been given to you your entire life and you're afraid to exist any other way. It really was that your mother held your hand too long.

You talk about the problems in the ghetto? the disadvantaged underclass of America? Where did they come from? Did culture spontaneously achieve a welfare class that breeds the attitude of "I'll just stay here because it would be hard to move and find a job and someone else will take care of me?" or did we create it with entitlement programs?

You talk like you think people have it hard today. How? there are more jobs than people to fill them. I can't maintain a full workforce paying ten dollars an hour because the work is "too hard" yet these same college students who won't work for an honest chunk of my money take it willingly as long as it's funneled through the financial aid office. So I AM doing twice the work for half the pay and your claiming that i deserve to be taxed more? what about your daddy? why do you deserve a computer and an internet connection? those seem like luxury items to me.

But that's it isn't it Marc? it's great to be socially active and try to keep up appearances of being compassionate so long as you don't have to take a hard look at what you're really advocating.

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nd relating ourselves to those impoverished people would just be disrespectful to them

Wow, you really are that much better than other people? someone without your mom to hold their hand can't be expected to do an honest days work for an honest days pay? You are a bigot, and you're prejudiced. You think there are people in this world who aren't as good as you. you think that people cannot overcome challenges because you couldn't overcome them, well, let me clue you in on a little secret: you're wrong.

Any street urchin with a desire to improve their situation and a little will power can end up better off than you. I had to blow three years of my life working my hands to the bone rather than going to school so that i could have what i wanted. You know what Marc? I got it. I never took a dime from another man and i earned everything that i have. Don't try to tell me that you're going to reach down graciously and save the downtrodden, all you do is perpetuate society's abuse of the human spirit.

So feel free to call me a half-wit, and i'm glad that you were able to convince yourself that you're right; i'm sure it was difficult. But guess what? this half-wit capitalist got ahead in this world, what are you then trying to say about the people who "can't" ? You ought to be ashamed of the pure scope of your arrogance you egotistical waste of space.

Last edited by Rhuckus on Jan-12-2007 at 03:17

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Originally posted by Marc Summers You need a serious reality check. You should take a dose of sympathy and find the balls to check out the people that work their asses off and make minimum wage. I never said I didn't respect the small business owners. And to tell you the truth, your precious capitalism makes it MUCH harder for them to succeed. Look at the facts and you will see that the majority of small businesses fail over the first 5 years. You're free market just put people into debt for trying to make an honest living. Lazy people are in every economic class. The effort comes from the individual.

First of all, not everyone that starts a small business is going to succeed. That would be impossible. Second, many people don't have what it takes to make it as a small business owners. I've been working in banking for quite some time now and know many people that have small businesses. They're hard working honest people that enjoy having the freedom it gives them despite the fact that it consumes most of their time. People get into it cause it sounds so tempting and wonderful to be your own boss, but not everyone is cut out for it.

As for lazy people it is true that they're everywhere, but socialism only makes the lazy people grow in nubmers. What's the point in exerting effort when everything you could ever possibly need is handed to you? Why go to work when you can make more sitting at home? Why educate yourself when you can get paid $20 an hour to work for the UAW? It's a flawed system, and promoting and fostering these attitudes and habits make a society of inept retards that have no purpose in life.

It's obvious that wealth is handed down, but someone had to go out and earn it. Look at how much effort some of the wealthiest people that ever lived in this country put into earning their fortunes. Look at where they started out in life while you're at it, and you'll find that many of them didn't come from wealthy families.
John D. Rockerfeller is probably the best example. He even spent the last 40 years of his life giving his fortune away. Andrew Carnagie left nearly nothing to his family, and not too long ago Bill Gates pleged $30 billion to his foundation that's actually quite helpful. These people don't just make an obscene amount of money, they tend to give a ton of it away because they came from situations much like the people you would rather codle.

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Originally posted by Rhuckus You talk about the problems in the ghetto? the disadvantaged underclass of America? Where did they come from? Did culture spontaneously achieve a welfare class that breeds the attitude of "I'll just stay here because it would be hard to move and find a job and someone else will take care of me?" or did we create it with entitlement programs?

Well, the black community came from the south, and into the northern cities in a large exodus during the 20th century.

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Separation between blacks and whites in the north was characterized by residential segregation. When blacks moved into northern cities, they first settled down in some neighborhoods with low socio-economic conditions. As the fraction of blacks became higher in a neighborhood, whites began to move out at an accelerating rate so as to avoid contacts with blacks. Some neighborhoods soon became predominantly black. As the black population grew, they need to move to nearby white neighborhoods. However, whites tried many things to resist the "invasion" by blacks. They threatened their potential black invaders; they bombed their first black neighbors (Drake and Cayton, 1945). In many white neighborhoods, landlords signed agreements that prohibited the sale of properties to blacks. These were the so-called "restrictive covenants," which were enforceable by law. The use of restrictive covenants was extensive. For example, in Chicago, it was estimated that eighty per cent of the city was covered by such agreements (Myrdal, 1944). As a result, blacks lived in overcrowded ghettos, where housing cost was artificially high due to limited supply (Hirsch, 1983).

source
^
Racism, that's the reason, and if you are ignorant enough to disagree, I pity you.

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what about your daddy? why do you deserve a computer and an internet connection? those seem like luxury items to me.

My daddy is a vegetable.

I used my computer throughout the elections in november, and several months beforehand to prepare. It's a necessity, not a luxury, nice try though. My family isn't wealthy.

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Wow, you really are that much better than other people? someone without your mom to hold their hand can't be expected to do an honest days work for an honest days pay? You are a bigot, and you're prejudiced. You think there are people in this world who aren't as good as you. you think that people cannot overcome challenges because you couldn't overcome them, well, let me clue you in on a little secret: you're wrong.

That's not what I meant. Disrespectful to them because they have harder lives, and we should not compare ourselves to them. Read more carefully, you'll learn to do that if you are ever in the public eye.

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So feel free to call me a half-wit, and i'm glad that you were able to convince yourself that you're right; i'm sure it was difficult. But guess what? this half-wit capitalist got ahead in this world, what are you then trying to say about the people who "can't" ? You ought to be ashamed of the pure scope of your arrogance you egotistical waste of space.

I will, halfwit. You can continue to have the blinders on, and make your precious money. It won't be long before the democrats start to increase taxes a bit, no skin off of my back. Lets just hope there will be some FDR type social programs along with these taxes.

___________________
"You won a new refrigerator, great! Where you gonna put it?" - Tony Danza

Last edited by Marc Summers on Jan-12-2007 at 05:31

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Originally posted by Marc Summers Well, the black community came from the south, and into the northern cities in a large exodus during the 20th century. source ^ Racism, that's the reason, and if you are ignorant enough to disagree, I pity you.

that actually made me laugh. what's the matter? when i said i pitied you did it offend you so much you had to pity me back? You've made a neat point about social constructs for ghettos themselves, but you still refuse to address the issue of the the construction of the entitlement mindset. Congratulations on a successful google search, but kindly remain on topic in the future.

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My daddy is a vegetable. I used my computer throughout the elections in november, and several months beforehand to prepare. It's a necessity, not a luxury, nice try though. My family isn't wealthy.

and i thank you for making my point in your special, special way. Simply because your computer and internet connection are "necessary" does not preclude them from being a luxury item. The reverse is also true: just because there is a wealthy class within our society that leads a luxurious life style does not preclude that class from being necessary. Someone has to purchase the products, provide the venture capital, invest, shop, and otherwise provide the demand for an economy to function.
In your society with no wealthy to provide the business loan, and subsequently purchase the products, how does one better her situation? The list of options would seem to preclude starting a business and being productive.

Furthermore, note that you failed to supply a warrant relieving said computer from the prescription i placed upon it as a luxury item. This failure illuminates the fundamental flaw in your original plan to utilize a governmental actor to unduly tax "luxury" items. If I see your computer as luxury, and you see it as a necessity, which one of us has provided the correct description? If it is you, then you claim the individuals right to discretion, and have no right to tax, if it is I, you admit the caprice and injustice of your own system, and have no right to tax. Imagine that, educated in one's own error by a halfwit.

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That's not what I meant. Disrespectful to them because they have harder lives, and we should not compare ourselves to them. Read more carefully, you'll learn to do that if you are ever in the public eye.

You, as a person of great importance in the public eye , may want to focus on communicating your position more effectively rather than complaining that everyone ELSE can't read carefully enough. We can't relate to them as fellow human beings because of their situation? here again you are claiming that man cannot rise above his station. If the point your feeble mind is attempting to convey is different than the position your rhetoric is repeatedly advocating, please! enlighten me!

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I will, halfwit. You can continue to have the blinders on, and make your precious money. It won't be long before the democrats start to increase taxes a bit, no skin off of my back. Lets just hope there will be some FDR type social programs along with these taxes.

Ah, once again i cower before your superior intellect, cptn fullwit. you are correct, i can continue to make my precious money. It's precious to me because i create that wealth honestly, it is a product of my ability to think, and my will to better my station, and the fact that I live in a country that still claims to allow every individual the chance to do what i have done makes my achievement all the sweeter.

You are also correct that democrats (and i do appreciate that you didn't capitalize that vile name )will likely raise taxes in a short while, but as long as we are maintaining the appearance of reasoned debate, do not attempt to cheaply further your position with falsified personal testimony; it will be skin off your back very soon.

Why are there so many corporations headed overseas? or, didn't you notice the corporate dash for the border past the scope of your blinders? When labor and tax rates are lower in a certain area, that area becomes profitable. Corporations do speak precisely, and i read what they state very carefully. They are out to make money, the same evil, selfish, greedy money that you hope to liberate from their clutches to fund your FDResque socialism. When your strategy for forced equality has made it economically sound for all corporations to abandon this country, who will foot the bill for your "compassion" ?

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When your strategy for forced equality has made it economically sound for all corporations to abandon this country, who will foot the bill for your "compassion" ?