bscar 2,finally got to listen to Dr.Ben Carsons,speech,IMO awesome-Kevin
bscar2,finally got to listen to Dr.Ben Carsons speech,in my opinion it was awesome.Had no idea the Bald Eagle got its name that way.
He seemed to be pretty fair(with a conservative leaning{I just cant bring myself to take up for the Ultra Rich} ) -Kevin
I liked his ideas too.
The “rob the rich to give to the poor” idea we have going on now just seems to invite laziness from both ends. Why should the welfare people bother trying to get out of poverty when the rich will pay for their stuff. And why should the rich/big businesses strive to be successful when they’re just going to get their money taken by some lazy shlubs who don’t want to earn their keep. Not to mention the swiss cheese tax laws we have now that businesses can pretty much not pay much, if anything, in taxes.
Should this country be considered the “land of opportunity” by applauding the minuscule few who overcome the adversities of poverty to become professionals? Does the good doctor now believe that all those who were unable to find success equal to his are lazy, irresponsible crack heads?
Until the economy offers recognizable opportunity for worthwhile employment to the children of the ghettos we will continue to see a growing underclass that fills our prisons and fulfills LaPierre’s predictions of ‘Helter skelter.’ The doctor is now just another member of the “I’ve got mine” crowd. And he will, of course, work diligently in an effort to reduce income taxes at the level of his earnings and hope that capital gains taxes will be eliminated as he sees his investments grow.
Hmmm, I believe I disagree @RodKnox The older I get, the more I believe in the US, poverty is more a cultural issue than a lack of opportunity. Ghetto products with no way out? When I worked in Minneapolis, I used to marvel at the 70,000 cars a day that drove into the inner city to work. This was the same inner city that claimed no opportunity to the residents. There was opportunity but required skills and education. Nobody paid my college but me but I started saving when I was 15 and borrowed the rest from the bank where I had an account since 13. I bought a car at 17 to make sure I was mobile and went to school 200 miles away. No one in my family or neighborhood had ever been to college but my road was not blocked, you just had to go down that road.
In this country, everyone has access to a free high school education where they can be exposed to educated and helpful teachers that will go out of their way to encourage their students. Some choose to make no use of this. In addition, state colleges, community colleges, and vo techs offer very cheap educational opportunities. And unlike in my day, if you have no money there are grants and scholarships galore.
Just take a look at what the Vietnamese have accomplished when they came here with nothing or many of the Mexicans or Central Americans. Yes some are gangs now but by and large they pooled their resources, started businesses, worked hard, saved, and succeeded. Other groups for years sit and wait for opportunity and walk around with the pants down and hats on side ways and complain about no opportunity. If you don’t finish school, or go on to higher education, have kids before marriage and finishing education, chances are you will struggle all your life, but that doesn’t mean there is no opportunity.
"Rob the rich …invites laziness"
The only people that showed net gain in their income the last 15 years were the top 5%. The system has been rigged in their favor. Do you actually believe we should have a 0% tax rate on capital gains as proposed by Romney - and friends which just happens to be how most of these tax avoiders get their income.
I believe that one of the best investments a person can make is to invest in himself/herself. Back in 1965, I was hired as an instructor at a state university on a year to year basis. There were four of us in these year to year positions and our salary was $6000 for the academic year. One day after a gripe sessions with my other three colleagues about our low pay and heavier loads than the tenure line faculty, I decided that as well as me working for the institution, the institution was going to work for me. There was a young faculty member who was teaching a year long statistics sequence in the evening. I had not studied this branch of mathematics, so I signed up for the course and paid the tuition. The next year, this same professor offered a year long probability sequence, so I paid the tuition and signed up for the probability courses. At this point, I decided to go back to school and earn a doctorate. After the probability sequence, I had enough credits beyond the masters degree to qualify for the assistant professor rating. My salary for my fourth year was raised from $6700 to $8300. The spring before I went away to a major university to pursue the doctorate, I was called in by the department chair and offered the opportunity to teach all the statistics courses that the professor I had studied with normally taught. This professor was on a research grant. I jumped at the chance. All the work I did took a year off the coursework for my doctorate. When I had completed my doctoral coursework, I realized that the job market was becoming tight. I called my department chair and was offered a job over the telephone. Ten years later when my institution needed computer science faculty, I did coursework and study in tht area.
I told my students that taking a job with an organization is a two-way street. You work for the organization, so make the organization work for you. Look for the organization’s needs and then educate yourself to be the person who fulfills the organization’s needs. Doing this makes you not only valuable to your employer, but valuable to other employers as well.
There are jobs that go begging for lack of employees with a particular skill. My hope is that we can motivate people to work for the needed skills to be potential employees.
By and large we shouldn’t judge a person till.we have walked a mile in thier shoes,so what if others make it big with the same oppurtunities that some have,it just doesnt work out sometimes,but almost invaribly if a person is willing to work hard and extend themselves they can do better,they may not make a mint,but can usually make a fair living and some peoples version of a good living is less complex then others.
I just cant take people serious who work" hard" taking other peoples money,there is too little parity for some people to even consider saving money.For awhile at least I can come out ahead not working and catching up on the jobs around home that need doing,that I cant afford to pay the “Pros” to do-Kevin
Apparently I live close enough to some of the long term, hard core, cultural poverty and recognize the utter futility that is often the result of some grand efforts. Although I have seen a few individuals find their way out of poverty as a result of their efforts and the efforts of family and friends, they are such a small minority as to be seemingly insignificant while those who have struggled and found the brick walls and pitfalls they encountered were far beyond their financial and cultural limits were the rule. And I believe that federal efforts to help the poor have been well intentioned but poorly conceived and terribly monitored. Housing projects have become as counter productive and debilitating as Indian reservations.
The old adage" wrong side of the tracks" is unfortunately true. Color is a barrier,but you better believe that “class " is as bad or worse,you go to a party and try to mingle with the big boys and absorb the quiet snubs and snickers and even sometimes they ignore you completely,I’ve found some of the seediest characters to be true “diamonds in the rough”(beware the yes men-gangbangers,brownnosers,wannabes,etc) sadly dis crimination will always be with us-never underestimate the power of the “commonman” watched a reality show a few times calles “fearfactor” and oft times the common folks beat out the buffed studs,you you never know what an ordinary “mortal’ can offer.
Over the years I’ve come to to respect a belief called “karma”.used to be I didnt give it any creedence,but I’ve seen so many times were the bad actions come back to bite people in the #$%@. So treat your neighbors as you wish to be treated and be as honest as you can in all dealings, for” No man is an island unto himself”-Kevin
Mr. Wayne L.I have a solution for the gun lobby,destroy a gun everytime a new one is purchaed,and destroy all confiscated weapons,rather then let them fall into the hands of the Judges and commonpoorth and district attorneys-Kevin
@Triedaq
I would go one step further. The best investment we can make, is in our people. In a personal sense, I believe most of us invest time, effort and gobs of money in our own kids because we KNOW it’s worthwhile. Then, for some reason, 50 % don’t believe we should invest in kids who don’t have the resources (us) that our kids have. In the case of someone else, they " have to be motivated", pull them selves up by the boot strap and suck it up.
I feel many of those 50 % forget how much cajoling, begging , threatening, bribing and finally reasoning even the best of kids in th best circumstances need to succeed.
I’ll keep repeating it till the cows come home…focus on money and you fail more often then not, focus on people, and the opposite is true.
We have enough imperical evidence to see how well govt. supported programs that help kids early on, work. Some how, the naysayers still want 4 year olds to be self motivated beyond help.
This country has fostered a defacto caste system that will likely be the most significant of all causes for America’s decline. Turmoil is currently being avoided by the lack of demarcation of the castes and the vague connectivity of the Christian denominations.
@Rod
And to top it off, the serfs who populate the lower/middle class of this system, actually have a significant number of people who buy into their lot in life. The only salvation for the rest of us is to actually import fresh ideas in the form of immigrants who have lived it and get it. I can live comfortably in a world of the conservative vs the liberal as both have ideas worth considering…but the “haves” have highjacked the conservative brand in the name of fear. Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon would be considered wild eyed screaming liberals on many issues today.
As far as immigrants reforming the system, the GOP is intent on keeping the illegal aliens here to keep wages depressed and rent demand high but not allow them to vote. It’s a win-win for the GOP, dagosa.
I haven’t seen the studies but in the paper today from a reprint of the Times it talked about what a dismal failure Head Start was over the past 48 years. The kids that come from dysfunctional homes where the parents don’t or can’t care for the kids that they have, continue to fall behind throughout elementary and high school. Sounds good to invest in people but how can any program make up for families that continue to have no care for threir kids but continue produce thousands more babies?
Methinks many of the programs put in place over the past 30-50 years have actually contributed to the current problems rather than preventing them and have enabled the baby factories that now others need to deal with. Have we learned nothing? I believe its a culture thing not a money thing.
Well its time for the bleeding hearts to step aside and make the “baby factories” go on birth control as long as they are feeding at the public teat-Kevin
Where do you send the lazy, irresponsible “baby factories” and their progeny to starve?
"I haven’t seen the studies " Then until we have, it’s just an argument.
Here is a synopsis;
You have a computer and access, I say to anyone who hasn’t seen studies to go for it…
Now if you just listen to Fox, the prime representative of the “haves”, you will get NO studies from sources other then FOX.
“Well its time for the bleeding hearts to step aside and make the “baby factories” go on birth control”
Well, the congress and state level conservatives have cut access to birth control and has cut planned parenthood, access to abortion and everything you say is the real solution, that is, keeping the poor from propagating. If we spent half the time we do on blaming the poor for hording all the money and more on the Madeoffs and Romney types who singlehandedly, bilk more money out of the system than all those on welfare, maybe you could balance the budget.
I guess from my other unanswered question, you all favor a zero tax rate on capital gains. When the next conservative congress gets voted in and that happens, you will have a reason to cut YOUR Medicare and YOUR Social Security completely. Is that what you really want to do ? It’s on the conservative “haves” hit list you know.
"Where do you send the lazy, irresponsible “baby factories” and their progeny to starve? "
@Rod
There will be no answer from the haves to questions like this…just a “ya but…”
I would enjoy the opportunity to ask Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannety, Mark Levin and the full lineup of GOP White House hopefuls what they propose doing with those “lazy ghetto baby factories.”