People Power

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Originally Posted by chuck34

So you have absolutely no ideas, proposals, solutions. Just more b!tching and moaning. Great, just what we needed, thanks for the input. :rolleyes:

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You are hardly bursting with them yourself, let's be honest.

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Originally Posted by chuck34

Why do you seem to be against hard work, educating yourself, doing everything you can personally do to get ahead in life?

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Hard work should be appropriately rewarded. An education should translate into better opportunity. But increasingly it does not, while those who have been promised that it will are becoming increasingly frustrated and angry.

You want an answer to what you call a "simple" question, but there are no "simple" answers. There are steps that could be taken, addressing corporate greed & abuse of position might be one, but we're told that will cripple economic recovery. Giving private enterprise the freedom to create wealth is the way out of this "mess" apparently but excuse me if that doesn't fill me with confidence.

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Originally Posted by chuck34

Where does moaning get you?

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Why do you think we have seen an increasing number of "occupy" protests?

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Originally Posted by chuck34

Why do you seem to be against hard work, educating yourself, doing everything you can personally do to get ahead in life?

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You're too old-fashioned.

Ever met a trader? The guy on the floor who actually buys and sells shares and makes a handsome commission? These guys are hardly educated. The banks specifically go for guys who haven't been to university as they are cheaper and don't need to think, they just need to have a knack for good timing.

Most are highly unpleasant yobs high on cocaine looking for the next rush.

These guys get bonuses of hundreds of thousands for essentially clicking at a screen and calling up all day.

Meanwhile people in 'normal' trades and businesses slave away for pay packages that are gradually declining in value.

Yet its the latter that are perceived to be bailing out the former, keeping them in a job. See where there might be some resentment building up?

It doesn't surprise me that the main protests are in NY and London, the two cities where the financial sector have completely skewed the property market to make it unaffordable for those with normal jobs.

These protests aren't just about layabouts wanting more for nothing, its a legitimate protest against a financial sector that is causing damage to the livelihoods of the rest of the society and economy, yet behaves as if it didn't have any constraints at all, buying politicians at whim.

I am by no means badly off but my sympathy lies with those on the streets.

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Originally Posted by ArrowsFA1

Why do you think we have seen an increasing number of "occupy" protests?

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Because most are, or are as wealthy as trust fund babies who have the money and time to kill.

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Originally Posted by race aficionado

No confiscation of wealth but for example: how about start by paying their fair share of taxes and deny their special loopholes that permit them to cut curves that precisely protect them from again, contributing their fair share of taxes:

Thirty Of America's Most Profitable Companies Paid 'Less Than Zero' In Income Taxes In Last 3 Years
Thirty Of America's Most Profitable Companies Paid 'Less Than Zero' In Income Taxes In Last 3 Years: Report

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So you don't call it confiscation of wealth you call it "paying their fair share". Ok I'll play along. How much more would you like "the rich" to pay. Earlier I linked to an article that spelled out how even if you tax "the rich" at over 100%, you will still not come anywhere close to balancing the budget. So what exactly is "their fair share"?

I'm fine with elimiating loop holes, if needed to "get" those evil companies. But you do realize that corporations don't actually pay taxes, they pass them on to consumers.

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Originally Posted by BDunnell

So you too have no objection to the endless march of the big chains on the high street, even if it brings about bland corporate uniformity everywhere one goes?

What a depressing world some people seem to want to live in.

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If I do not want what the big chain stores offer, I simply do not buy it. It seems that many people do want what the chain stores offer, otherwise they wouldn't exist.

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Originally Posted by BDunnell

I do not want to have to make commercial choices relating to every aspect of my life. Shopping around for anything is no fun, and I prefer to use my time for other things.

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Hmmmmm. So you don't want choice, but you also don't want bland depressing chain stores. What exactly are you advocating? Taking many people's choices away, so that we are left with the one that you would like instead?

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Originally Posted by BDunnell

I have worked hard and educated myself, and haven't done badly. I still side with the protesters. What exactly is your point?

You seem to have one definition of 'getting ahead in life' only — it has to be within the corporate system as it stands. At no time have you ever considered that some people might find the modern corporate world a depressing, not to say sometimes worrying, entity?

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I do not think that the only definition of "getting ahead in life" is to be in the corporate system. I have never said that. I know many people who live "off the grid". They're quite happy. I know many lower middle class to poor folks who are quite happy in their lives. Heck I would consider myself smack dab in the middle of middle class, and I'm pretty happy.

The difference is that I and most people I know don't go around protesting how "unfair" the system is, or how we should "get the rich", or even tax them more. The people I know are not jealous of what others have.

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Originally Posted by BDunnell

You are hardly bursting with them yourself, let's be honest.

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But I am not the one claiming that there is a problem that needs solving.

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Originally Posted by ArrowsFA1

There are steps that could be taken, addressing corporate greed & abuse of position might be one, but we're told that will cripple economic recovery. Giving private enterprise the freedom to create wealth is the way out of this "mess" apparently but excuse me if that doesn't fill me with confidence.

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Ok how do you address corporate greed and abuse? A government program that will be full of greed and abuse so fast that it'll make your head spin?

Why does freedom scare you?