The right advocates less government. Really?

Quote from pspr:

I thought you said "prepare for bloodshed" if anyone came to push you into the sea. No?

I'm old, too, but I still have my guns and can still load and squeeze a trigger. I don't believe in hand-to-hand combat. I prefer hand-to-bullet in those instances.

OH, I can go there if need be. Just really wouldn't want to get all primal again. Been there, done that! Hard to square it all when the dust settles.
 
So you are in the top 2% of wealth, good for you. Your lifestyle and what you can do isn't going to change by going back to the previous rates.

Before the Bush tax cuts, people did okay...didn't they? Was there greater prosperity before the tax cuts? Yes, the tax cuts were supposed to create greater prosperity and jobs, and strengthen the economy...well, did that actually happen?

Nope.

The post war period was one where the labor unions were strong, and corporations did not have the type of control over the political process they do now.

Also following WWII, corporations would have been crucified by the patriotic American public if they pulled the shit they pull now. Imagine American corporations doing business post WWII with the Godless Communists of Red China, just to make more money for themselves, and put Americans out of work in the process...

Quote from tomdavis:

If I wasn't in the top 2% I wouldn't be paying at the current rates. It's my taxes you want to raise and I'm already paying well over 40% of my income in taxes.

Let me be clear that I'm not against paying taxes. We need a way to finance government. I don't mind paying taxes for public schools even though my kids are in private schools because I know its a necessity. But how much is enough? The fundamental problem is that our governments (federal, state and local) have insatiable appetites. Democrats and Republicans alike are profligate spenders. The only way to stop them is by cutting off the funds.

Regarding the strong middle class of the past, that was primarily due to the aftermath of WWII. The period of 1945-1965 established the US as the leading manufacturing country in the world, not because of our manufacturing prowess, but rather because of our military might. At the end of WWII, the US had 5% of the world's population and almost 70% of the world's intact manufacturing and transportation infrastructure because most of Europe and Asia had been bombed to ashes during the war. For about 20 years, the US had the highest manufacturing price/wage structure in the world, from which the American middle class benefited greatly. By the mid-1960s, the rest of the world had rebuilt and the US had to actually compete against countries like Japan and Germany. Our market dominance began to erode in the 1970s, and the erosion increased in velocity during the 1980-90s as India and China entered the world markets. When hundreds of millions of people enter the global manufacturing workforce and are willing to work for fifty cents an hour, wages are going to fall, manufacturing is going migrate, and there's nothing anybody can do to stop it. It's inevitable that the economies of China and India will overtake the US because China's population is 4X the US and India is 3X. Simple math. The economic forces of gravity in action.
 
Quote from omegapoint:

+10
- 11 net - 1
Quote from AAAintheBeltway:

The main issues in Wisconsin, other than money of course, were:
1. No more union shop for government employees. Is it fair that a citizen of a state has to join a union and pay mandatory dues to it just to hold a job with the state government his taxes fund? I don't think so. It is a form of government-mandated extortion, no different than having to pay mob protection money so they don't trash your store.
2. Unions have to collect their own dues. As part of the above, the state government was deducting union dues from state workers' paychecks to save the union the trouble of collecting. Is that a proper role for government? To act as a debt collector for unions? Unions have their own goons they can use to force defaulting members to pay up.
3. Annual certification. No more one vote, one time, africa-style democracy. Workers would be free to leave the union or decertify it every year. Why should corrupt union thugs have a license to steal for perpetuity?
4. No mandatory bargaining on non-pay issues. We elect officals to run the government. They should answer to us, not union bosses.
Bottom line is no one is being forced to take these jobs. If Wisconsin is like most states, government jobs are highly prized. No layoffs, easy work conditions, lavish benefits. What's not to like? The union culture is to insulate their members from any of the competitive pressures the vast majority of workers face. I understand why they want to keep that, but welcome to the real world.
Correct and extremely well put.
 
Quote from CaptainObvious:

So let me see if I have this straight. You guys on the right have no problem with the government dictating whether people have the right to organize, at all, anywhere? The right to have some opportunity to negotiate working conditions, wages and benefits? The right to freedom of expression on labor issues?...

Did I mention I'll be glad when you get a job? :)


I'm pretty far right, and I'm not opposed in principle to the right for labor to organize. BUT I am opposed to union thug tactics and demanding benefits and pay their employer simply cannot afford. I am opposed to union workers being insulated from getting canned over poor job performance. I say unions have the right to strike AND their employers have the right to replace them if they choose to in the event of a strike.
 
Once taxes get raised, they will continue to be raised. There's no stopping the politicians.

If you want to deny that the aftermath of WWII created the large American middle class, that's your perogative, but you're denying history, economics and mountains of evidence against you. After WWII, the US was a virtual monopolist. Labor unions were strong because there was little international competition, few sources of cheap labor, and no sophisticated technology that could substitute for labor. (The typical auto plant today has over 900 robots and less than half the number of employees that they had fifty years ago to produce the same number of cars.)

Regarding your comment that corporations today are corrupt, we agree. All large organizations are corrupt. Businesses, governments, unions. All of them. If it's big, it's rife with corruption.

The combination of international competition, cheap labor and sophisticated technology (none of which existed in the 1950s-1960s) reshaped the entire economic landscape. There's no way to put that 1950s genie back in the bottle.


Quote from OPTIONAL777:

So you are in the top 2% of wealth, good for you. Your lifestyle and what you can do isn't going to change by going back to the previous rates.

Before the Bush tax cuts, people did okay...didn't they? Was there greater prosperity before the tax cuts? Yes, the tax cuts were supposed to create greater prosperity and jobs, and strengthen the economy...well, did that actually happen?

Nope.

The post war period was one where the labor unions were strong, and corporations did not have the type of control over the political process they do now.

Also following WWII, corporations were be crucified by the patriotic American public if they pulled the shit they pull now.
 
"Once taxes get raised, they will continue to be raised. There's no stopping the politicians."

Sure there is, its called free elections...

You admit strong labor unions were part of the process, which allowed the workers to enjoy the spoils of victory, right along with the corporations. A balance.

Now things are harder, but what do we see? Reduced corporate profits?

Nope. We see increasing corporate profits and reduction of wages and benefits.

So we agree that since every group, including corporations, unions, and government are corrupt...then it is ever more important to have a check and balance system.

The unions and corporations are always in conflict, which keeps them in check.

Eliminating the power of unions throws more power to the corporations, which makes them even more corrupt.

I'm just talking about the need for balance, the Ike did in his final speech to the American people.

We are clearly out of balance, and the right wing is not going for a method to restore balance with their measures.

How patriotic is is for the republican party to spend the next two years doing nothing...just to make things bad come elections time, so that a republican can be president?

That is a good thing for the American people during this particular time?

The party of no is a solution to our problems?

Quote from tomdavis:

Once taxes get raised, they will continue to be raised. There's no stopping the politicians.

If you want deny that the aftermath of WWII created the large American middle class, that's your perogative, but you're denying history, economics and mountains of evidence against you. After WWII, the US was a virtual monopolist. Labor unions were strong because there was little international competition, few sources of cheap labor, and no sophisticated technology that could substitute for labor. (The typical auto plant today has over 900 robots and about half the number of employees that they had fifty years ago to produce the same number of cars.)

Regarding your comment that corporations today are corrupt, we agree. All large organizations are corrupt. Businesses, governments, unions. All of them. If it's big, it's rife with corruption.

The combination of international competition, cheap labor and sophisticated technology (none of which existed in the 1950s-1960s) reshaped the entire economic landscape. There's no way to put that 1950s genie back in the bottle.
 
Quote from OPTIONAL777:

"Once taxes get raised, they will continue to be raised. There's no stopping the politicians."

Sure there is, its called free elections...
Theoretically yes, in reality it's not working out very well, now is it?
 
Quote from Lucrum:

Theoretically yes, in reality it's not working out very well, now is it?
Once a NEW tax is initiated it is almost impossible to remove it. Have you looked at your phone bill lately? I can remember when mine was just one page. Now it takes two pages just to add up the taxes.
 
Quote from pspr:

Once a NEW tax is initiated it is almost impossible to remove it. Have you looked at your phone bill lately? I can remember when mine was just one page. Now it takes two pages just to add up the taxes.

Bingo.
 
Quote from tomdavis:

Once taxes get raised, they will continue to be raised. There's no stopping the politicians.

If you want to deny that the aftermath of WWII created the large American middle class, that's your perogative, but you're denying history, economics and mountains of evidence against you. After WWII, the US was a virtual monopolist. Labor unions were strong because there was little international competition, few sources of cheap labor, and no sophisticated technology that could substitute for labor. (The typical auto plant today has over 900 robots and less than half the number of employees that they had fifty years ago to produce the same number of cars.)

Regarding your comment that corporations today are corrupt, we agree. All large organizations are corrupt. Businesses, governments, unions. All of them. If it's big, it's rife with corruption.

The combination of international competition, cheap labor and sophisticated technology (none of which existed in the 1950s-1960s) reshaped the entire economic landscape. There's no way to put that 1950s genie back in the bottle.

You are making some great points.

The thing that makes me crazy is how politicians try to justify raising taxes on the grounds of "shared sacrifice," as if wasteful spending and taking a person's hard-earned money from them are morally equivalent.

Talk to me about raising taxes when every possible wasteful, useless, counterproductive, unconstitutional, immoral and just plain silly spending program has been--not trimmed--but repealed.

Obama has made it about as clear as possible that he sees this in purely class warfare terms. He wants to borrow a zillion dollars, raise taxes on people who won't vote for him and give it to his union financiers.
 
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