menace

I don't even know if the bottom end is as high as 250K. I'd say more around the 100K mark.

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- Marc

rbohm

you disappoint me.

so you want higher taxes on business? you want higher prices on everything? you want higher jobless rates?

as for CEO's, those guys earned their positions, but i dont think the government should step in and say how much a company can pay a CEO. that sets a bad precedent for the future. if the government can do it now with companies that accept federal bail out finds, what is to stop them in the future for all companies? i suppose you also like the idea of windfall profits taxes also? if that is the case, who is to say what a windfall profit is? this now smacks of the government telling companies how much they can make. next thing you know the government will tell corporation what they can charge for a particular item. wait we did that once, it didnt work, and neither did windfall profits taxes.

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64 falcon
66 mustang
77 olds delta 88

a man's fate is a man's fate
and life is but an illusion

ReyRey

I'll tell you what I have a problem w/, I have a problem w/ our government bailing out big companies who pissed their money away, then they use that money to give the big guys bonuses and throw a lovely ass party.

Yes, I think there should be regulation on how much people make. I think it's ridiculous that there are douche bags who own 5 mansions while someone who wasn't quite so lucky is living in a run down apartment barely making ends meat.

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Tonto-T

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wes

menace

Just what exactly do you think will happen once the government controls the wealth of the nation?? Instead of the private sector companies throwing the parties, it will be Big Brother. Then who are you going to complain to? Go ask the people of the Soviet Union how all of this is working out.

I'm not defending AIG at all. The executives in that case should be dealt with severely. I would support them paying the government back what they spent on their bash plus extra as punishment out of their own pockets.

People are so disillusioned by the idea of the government providing everything for them and spreading around the resources, they forget that the government then has you by the balls. If you kid yourself into thinking that everything will be super-duper when government backed programs are enabled, you will be in for a rude awakening.

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- Marc

FreeBird

yawn

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Therapist

I agree with you on the first part, that shit never should have happened. but I cant even respond to the 2nd part.

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BlackArtemis

The following are facts about persons defined as "poor" by the Census Bureau, taken from various gov*ernment reports:

* Forty-three percent of all poor households actu*ally own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.

* Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, in 1970, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.

* Only 6 percent of poor households are over*crowded. More than two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.

* The average poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)

* Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 31 percent own two or more cars.

* Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.

* Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.

* Eighty-nine percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and more than a third have an automatic dishwasher.



Please, most Americans don't even know what poor is.

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BlackArtemis

Drive down past some shitty row homes and see how many old caddies, audies, bmws, mercs, and lexus' there are. How many have A/C and cable? They buy an old gas guzzler that they can't afford to maintain and put more value into other things than rising up.

Then you have so people in shit situations, but how many of them don't have a decent education and too many kids than they can afford. In America education is free until you graduate and guess what? They even have free university for people who make under a certain amount of $.

Many people are fucked cause they got pregnant and dropped out and other shit life decisions, why should my money go to help people who have proven they can't make good life choices?

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Therapist

it shouldnt... the simple fact is you and only you dictate how much money you make and what you decide to do with it. Sure there are a few rarities like disabled people that are paralyzed from the neck down, that cannot work, but everone else has chosen their career path. If you dont like what you make, go back to school, change jobs, get off your lazy fucking ass and do something about it. dont fucking bitch at the people who work their ass off, and make more money than you because of it.

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BlackArtemis

Ps, if you want to see people not being able to make ends meet, I will gladly go out tonight to take pictures of children being forced to walk through traffic to sell flowers or even nightclubs. As young as 6 years old and they are up til 3am. How about children who have their arms broken and never set or just plain amputated so people pity them more to give them more $ as they beg on the street. Or the mother selling her children off as prostitutes to twisted fucks for less than you make in an hour?

After living here for 3 years and truly seeing what poor is and what trying to make ends meet means I will never feel sorry for those blessed with the chance of an American education and lifestyle, cause no matter how shit the condition is in the US, it will never reach the depravity of the 3rd world.

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Therapist

yup I agree completely people need to shut the fuck up, quit bitching, if they dont like their current situation and their not doing anything to change it, then fuck them

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madmatt

that makes ZERO sense
if someone busts their ass to get where they are, who gives anyone the right to tell them how much they can make.

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BlackArtemis

So my grandfather came here and never finished 8th grade, got a job at a pawn shop and became one of America's best dealer in coins. He was one of three people called upon by the Smithsonian (sp) to verify if a coin was real or not. He ran a very successful antique shop. My father never graduated for college and now runs his own business making above Obama's tax bracket for the "rich".

Fuck that type of thinking that there should be a cap on how much one can make. This is America where you can make as much as you want if you strive for it. Yeah there are corrupt people here, just like everwhere else. If you can't make it here, then move to a country where the socalists will take care of you like a handicap child. That is until they collaspse faster than we would.

1.7 trillion ($2.4T) euros vs 700b dollars what?

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pinski

Glad there's still some sense and reason 'round these parts!

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Hamburglar

once you get out into the real world you will realize you're retarded
i did it, then came back to school because F living with little education.
Since you work for tips
what if you were busting your ass and kissing the customers ass to get good tips. Then your boss comes in and takes a big chunk of it?? wouldn't that piss you off???
same basic idea

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BlackArtemis

I was being polite but I was laughing about invisioning poor people playing with sausage ends.




typos are fine reyrey

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rbohm

i agree, and i think that the people who screwed up here should be nailed to the wall. people like barney frank and chris dodd who said there was nothing wrong with freddie and fannie, and the CEO's of these companies, and others, that bought and sold the bad paper, and organizations like ACORN who pushed for this sub prime crap in the first place.

does this include you also? you think the government should come to you and say, "reyrey, we think you are making too much money as a waitress, and some of your coworkers are not making as much so we are going to add a windfall profits tax on you, and give them the money". would THAT be ok with you? would it be ok with you for the government to tell you where you can work also? "sorry reyrey but we dont need waitresses here in the 5 star section of town, so we are going to move you to the waffle house in the slums". would THAT be ok with you? or how about where you can live. "sorry reyrey, but the apartment you war living in has too many middle class renters, so we are moving you to the run down area, you know the place on 5th and broadway? the one that rents to hookers by the day? that place next to the trash dump?" would that be ok with you?

once we start down the slippery slope of the government telling the top people how much they can make, and how much corporations can make, it is a short distance to telling EVERYONE how much they can make, and where they can work and live, and when they can travel, and where they can travel. imagine driving to your parents house for the weekend, and having to stop at several check points and have some jackbooted thug ask to see your papers, including your transit authorization.

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64 falcon
66 mustang
77 olds delta 88

a man's fate is a man's fate
and life is but an illusion

FreeBird

if that starts up... im gunna be killing some foo's no joke... imma straight up kill me some congressmen and senators.. pres may be hard but god dammit if we start having civil libertys like that gone i WILL go V all over there asses...






















J/K

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340.29m/s

I do love the folks on this forum. Why can't we have more of you all?

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I don't believe in signatures. Well, except for this one.

ryanrule

when a corporation has grown large enough to have considerable impact on the status of our country, it is in the interest of the people of our country to have some form of control or influence over this corporation

no?

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You think you're hot shit in a champagne glass, but you're really cold diarrhea in a Dixie cup!

stang_lover69

seriously? i'm not sure i'd want more of any of us?

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The Dond


(\__/) This is bunny. Copy and paste bunny
(='.'=) into your signature to help him gain
(")_(") world domination.

menace

I don't think anyone here is arguing against regulations and checks. I do think that most everyone here is arguing against GOVERNMENT CONTROL.

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- Marc

FreeBird

well, in the form of having our government messing with them... NO, good GOD NO!!!!. leave govt. out of situations like that. dont like walmart, dont shop there. enough of the american people band together there will be change, but to allow the govt. to change whatever they want WHENEVER they want no thanks goodbye civil liberties, goodbye free speech, good bye good ol' USofA.

you want to influence a company do it THROUGH your community, scene it alot just in my neck of the woods people dont like something band together get it resolved, WITHOUT big brother stepping in to "control" the situation cause no matter what..

power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely
i do

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FreeBird

BINGO, im all for having RULES (read: regulation and checks) for buisnesses to go by, and if we the people suspect foul play, or "cheating" then we call on those WE elected to check into our claims and get to the bottom of it, and punish those who do cheat. but for them to step in the way they have and some would have in the future (obama) is just way to scary and BS

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