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PoliGAF 2013 |OT3| 1,000 Years of Darkness and Nuclear Fallout

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B-Dubs

No Scrubs
We've got a hidden door in our lower-middle class house.

It leads to our super secret laundry room.

That's pretty cool. My dream of a secret room isn't insane then. Turning my future home into a labyrinth or secret rooms and hallways probably is though.

My laundry room actually does have a freaky little Alice in Wonderland door that leads to my "crawl space."

Only my crawl space is 20 feet deep, so it's more like opening a door onto a fathomless void.

I can only imagine what that looks like....

That, or...

image.php

Well played good sir. Well played.
 

Chichikov

Member
That, or...

image.php
Rich white guy fighting poor purse snatchers in order to keep the status quo?
Yeah, that's Romney alright.

p.s.
Does Batman drinks?
[goes to wiki]
Wayne abstains entirely from drinking alcohol, though he presented Bruce Wayne, his alter ego, as a borderline alcoholic (he created this illusion by drinking ginger ale and pretending it was champagne).​

YES! it works even better!
 

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
I checked the last few pages and was surprised this wasn't posted:

The McResources staffer offers her a number to “ask about things like food pantries” and tells her she “would most likely be eligible for SNAP benefits” which she explains are “food stamps.” After Salgado asks about “the doctor,” the staffer asks, “Did you try to get on Medicaid?” She notes it’s “health coverage for low income or no income adults and children.” [...]

In the full, fifteen-minute audio, which was provided to Salon by the campaign, the McResources counselor can also be heard telling Salgado she “definitely should be able to qualify for both food stamps and heating assistance.” She tells Salgado that having food stamps “takes a lot of the pressure off how much money you spend on groceries.” She also tells Salgado she may possibly qualify for Medicaid, though “I wouldn’t want to get your hopes up.”

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/...orker-a-budget-solution-Apply-for-food-stamps
 
I'm a socialist that believes all businesses should be cooperatively owned and managed by the very workers who cooperatively operate them, and I'm pretty sure Chichikov has specifically quoted and agreed with my opinion on that topic in the past.

thisispoligaf.gif
I'm with ya. I'm bored out of my ass when we have quarterly meetings and old people who I never met talk about profit margins and EBITDA in millions of dollars. It's not like I'm gonna get a cut.
 
I'm with ya. I'm bored out of my ass when we have quarterly meetings and old people who I never met talk about profit margins and EBITDA in millions of dollars. It's not like I'm gonna get a cut.

Exactly. It's the same shit at my job, only this is a much smaller business, so I can watch with direct eye contact as my boss (the owner's son) makes a few phone calls from his office that substantially increase my workload while substantially increasing his pocketbook. Never mind that I and the other guy making $12/h like myself haven't gotten raises since we started (in my case, since August 2012), despite being tasked with designing a method to map out all inventory in the warehouse in addition to the duties we were hired for.

/bitter
 

KingK

Member
Speaking of this(massive, massive) problem: I really wish Obama had made raising minimum wage a priority while he had the house and senate. It could have made a real difference with the economy.

When he had the house and senate we were still freshly into a recession and had just increased the federal minimum wage 2 years earlier in 2007. It wasn't going to happen, even if it would have been nice.

My biggest beef is with people who can't see their own privilege I have a real aversion to that and those who confuse it exclusively with ability or merit. Here in DC its worse and more overt at least with some of the social circles I've run into (TBH its mostly republicans). Their complete lack of morality (and out loud embrace of it) and disdane for the real city of DC just represents the kind of ideas I'd like to think I'm trying to change. They feel like they're the smartest people in the world and their presence here is proof. They are smart but a bit more modesty about the help they've had would be appreciated.

I've got a friend at college who's like this sometimes and it's really annoying (he's also conservative, though idk if he actually votes Republican because he's turned off by the racism and homophobia, and he's an atheist). His parents are literally millionaires yet every time anyone mentions him being lucky for that, or talks about the advantages of being rich in general, he gets really defensive.

"My parents worked hard to build their business," "They only pay for this and this, I have to pay for this and this. I still have to work over the summers," etc.

He's just never comfortable admitting that he's had certain advantages over less privileged people, and it can be pretty annoying.

I checked the last few pages and was surprised this wasn't posted:



http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/...orker-a-budget-solution-Apply-for-food-stamps

But we can't raise the minimum wage because INFLATION!
I just got a job at McDonald's making $7.25 3 weeks ago. It fucking sucks.
 
When he had the house and senate we were still freshly into a recession and had just increased the federal minimum wage 2 years earlier in 2007. It wasn't going to happen, even if it would have been nice.



I've got a friend at college who's like this sometimes and it's really annoying (he's also conservative, though idk if he actually votes Republican because he's turned off by the racism and homophobia, and he's an atheist). His parents are literally millionaires yet every time anyone mentions him being lucky for that, or talks about the advantages of being rich in general, he gets really defensive.

"My parents worked hard to build their business," "They only pay for this and this, I have to pay for this and this. I still have to work over the summers," etc.

He's just never comfortable admitting that he's had certain advantages over less privileged people, and it can be pretty annoying.



But we can't raise the minimum wage because INFLATION!
I just got a job at McDonald's making $7.25 3 weeks ago. It fucking sucks.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business...donalds-pays-15-an-hour-its-australia/278313/

Also, Democracy Now! did a good segment on this topic several days ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueQrIZGKiAU
 

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
But we can't raise the minimum wage because INFLATION!
I just got a job at McDonald's making $7.25 3 weeks ago. It fucking sucks.

This problem would be solved if just eliminated the min. wage.

And food stamps.
 
When he had the house and senate we were still freshly into a recession and had just increased the federal minimum wage 2 years earlier in 2007. It wasn't going to happen, even if it would have been nice.



I've got a friend at college who's like this sometimes and it's really annoying (he's also conservative, though idk if he actually votes Republican because he's turned off by the racism and homophobia, and he's an atheist). His parents are literally millionaires yet every time anyone mentions him being lucky for that, or talks about the advantages of being rich in general, he gets really defensive.

"My parents worked hard to build their business," "They only pay for this and this, I have to pay for this and this. I still have to work over the summers," etc.

He's just never comfortable admitting that he's had certain advantages over less privileged people, and it can be pretty annoying.



But we can't raise the minimum wage because INFLATION!
I just got a job at McDonald's making $7.25 3 weeks ago. It fucking sucks.

you want McDonald to pay you $30 an hour to flip burgers?
 

Chichikov

Member
I've got a friend at college who's like this sometimes and it's really annoying (he's also conservative, though idk if he actually votes Republican because he's turned off by the racism and homophobia, and he's an atheist). His parents are literally millionaires yet every time anyone mentions him being lucky for that, or talks about the advantages of being rich in general, he gets really defensive.

"My parents worked hard to build their business," "They only pay for this and this, I have to pay for this and this. I still have to work over the summers," etc.

He's just never comfortable admitting that he's had certain advantages over less privileged people, and it can be pretty annoying.
CEO Worked Way Up From Son Of CEO
 
I had already spent 3 years bootstrapping my way up from $7.25 to $8.05 at a retail job but then I moved to a different town when I transferred schools.


There are a lot of numbers between 7.25 and 30.

I'm sure, but then what number is good enough? Look at countries like Switzerland or Norway. A McDonald worker in Norway makes about 24 USD an hour, and look at how inflated their cost is over there.

Norway is 64% more expensive than the US to maintain the same standard of living.

I'm fine with raising the minimum wage to $15, but let's not argue that it will not raise the total cost of living for everyone. Because it will.
 

bonercop

Member
When he had the house and senate we were still freshly into a recession and had just increased the federal minimum wage 2 years earlier in 2007. It wasn't going to happen, even if it would have been nice.

As we've seen, the democrats were going to lose the house anyway. The politics of making the move might have given the Republicans even more ammo for the horse race in 2012, but I imagine outrage over that policy would dissipate pretty quickly once it went into effect and make up for any negative perception the dems would have gotten.

More importantly, raising it would have really helped the average person. I think tackling healthcare was a much more suicidal move(one worth making, though). Might as well have done both.

I'm fine with raising the minimum wage to $15, but let's not argue that it will not raise the total cost of living for everyone. Because it will.

let's also not pretend like there is anywhere close to a 1:1 relationship there and that the average Norwegian doesn't have much stronger purchasing power than the average American.
 

leroidys

Member
I'm sure, but then what number is good enough? Look at countries like Switzerland or Norway. A McDonald worker in Norway makes about 24 USD an hour, and look at how inflated their cost is over there.

Norway is 64% more expensive than the US to maintain the same standard of living.

I'm fine with raising the minimum wage to $15, but let's not argue that it will not raise the total cost of living for everyone. Because it will.

Yes, and the only reason is the minimum wage.
 
Yes, and the only reason is the minimum wage.

they don't have a minimum wage. the reason is because even their lowest of the low worker gets paid high wages relative to their skill. as such, everything basic is in and of itself more expensive.

but please, do tell me why things in Norway are 64% more expensive to buy than in the US.

A good example: it'll cost $23 for a Big Mac meal.
 
Question: Why did nearly the entire world seem to have abandoned the left wing push that America and Western Europe made during the 1930s and ended up prospering for so long under? It seems every Western nation has gone right wing and looking at the world only South America seems to be heading more leftward.

You know . . . the GOP's push for more and more corporate and donor money has completely backfired on them. Well, at least under the Citizen's United style system where unlimited money can go to private organizations. What appears to have happened is that zealot billionaires have created a bunch of different outside groups that all squabble with each other and fund extreme crazies. Freedomworks, Americans for Prosperity, Club for Growth, Madison Project, Crossroads, Heritage Action, etc. . . All sorts of crazies that are not under any unified control.

Candidates can get funded from these outside groups and then largely ignore what the party wants them to do since they are beholden to that outside group more than the party. Why do what Boehner wants you to do when Club for Growth (AKA Club for tax cuts to rich people) is footing the bill for your campaign?

The GOP is just not viable national party right now . . . they really have become more of a regional party.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the GOP seems more like a party that belong in South America or Eastern Europe. They are very very extreme.
 

leroidys

Member
they don't have a minimum wage. the reason is because even their lowest of the low worker gets paid high wages relative to their skill. as such, everything basic is in and of itself more expensive.

but please, do tell me why things in Norway are 64% more expensive to buy than in the US.

A good example: it'll cost $23 for a Big Mac meal.

Norway is a tiny economy in comparison that doesn't have anywhere near the unfettered access to resources that the US does. Comparing the countries economies 1:1 is beyond ridiculous. At least cherry pick some US states to compare against each other.
 

Chichikov

Member
I'm sure, but then what number is good enough? Look at countries like Switzerland or Norway. A McDonald worker in Norway makes about 24 USD an hour, and look at how inflated their cost is over there.

Norway is 64% more expensive than the US to maintain the same standard of living.

I'm fine with raising the minimum wage to $15, but let's not argue that it will not raise the total cost of living for everyone. Because it will.
Norway doesn't have a minimum wage.
 

bonercop

Member
they don't have a minimum wage. the reason is because even their lowest of the low worker gets paid high wages relative to their skill. as such, everything basic is in and of itself more expensive.


The reason they get those high wages is because of collective wage agreements.

And in the end, your point is 100% moot. The average Norwegian has access to more services and can buy more stuff than the average American.

Question: Why did nearly the entire world seem to have abandoned the left wing push that America and Western Europe made during the 1930s and ended up prospering for so long under? It seems every Western nation has gone right wing and looking at the world only South America seems to be heading more leftward.

.

Immigration, I'd wager. Sad to consider, but people are what they are. Look at the percentage of immigrants in any given country, and I guarantee you'll find a correlation with a reduced welfare state. people don't want their money going to people different from them.
 
they don't have a minimum wage. the reason is because even their lowest of the low worker gets paid high wages relative to their skill. as such, everything basic is in and of itself more expensive.

but please, do tell me why things in Norway are 64% more expensive to buy than in the US.

A good example: it'll cost $23 for a Big Mac meal.

I'm not sure what you are talking about. First off Norway doesn't have a minimum wage. Second off, the reason why shit food in America is cheaper than other nations is because we subsidies them. Overall food in Norway isn't that much more expensive than America.

Not to mention Australia and Denmark (two nations with some of the highest minimum wages), have Big Mac prices the same as America.

I can't believe you are using Big Macs as a comparison of world economies. I often work with foreign exchange students and when I ask the question of price differences for food between the countries, they say the same thing. You get insanely good deals for pizza and restaurant prices, however if you want something that is actual legitimate real food its more expensive in the U.S. This is because we subsidies the hell out of junk food in this country while they often do the opposite there.
 
I'm not sure what you are talking about. First off Norway doesn't have a minimum wage. Second off, the reason why shit food in America is cheaper than other nations is because we subsidies them. Overall food in Norway isn't that much more expensive than America.

Not to mention Australia and Denmark (two nations with some of the highest minimum wages), have Big Mac prices the same as America.

I can't believe you are using Big Macs as a comparison of world economies. I often work with foreign exchange students and when I ask the question of price differences for food between the countries, they say the same thing. You get insanely good deals for pizza and restaurant prices, however if you want something that is actual legitimate real food its more expensive in the U.S. This is because we subsidies the hell out of junk food in this country while they often do the opposite there.

I used the Big Mac because it was an easy thing to get info to. But, because you mention Denmark and Australia, both countries have higher cost of living than in the US.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purchasing_power_parity

Look at the OECD index. With the US at 100, Denmark is 54% more expensive and Australia is 39% more expensive.
 

Chichikov

Member
I used the Big Mac because it was an easy thing to get info to. But, because you mention Denmark and Australia, both countries have higher cost of living than in the US.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purchasing_power_parity

Look at the OECD index. With the US at 100, Denmark is 54% more expensive and Australia is 39% more expensive.
Denmark doesn't have a minimum wage either.
And anyway, comparing cost of living without purchasing power is silly, you honestly making the case that a person making median wage in the US has it better than a person making the median wage on Denmark?
 
Am I the only one who doesn't care much about the middle class? I mean I think that's a hyperbole, but I don't see them as the biggest deal in the country, the poor should be the main focus.

Denmark doesn't have a minimum wage either.
And anyway, comparing cost of living without purchasing power is silly, you honestly making the case that a person making median wage in the US has it better than a person making the median wage on Denmark?

I seriously don't understand what he is talking about. He's coming from a bunch of random angles. I think he's throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks.
 

Chichikov

Member
Am I the only one who doesn't care much about the middle class? I mean I think that's a hyperbole, but I don't see them as the biggest deal in the country, the poor should be the main focus.
To a large extent, the democrat party abandoned the poor, that's probably the most substantial legacy of Bill Clinton.
 

teiresias

Member
I am so going to have to block my best friend's fiance's updates on Facebook. The cognitive dissonance associated with someone that espouses standard GOP talking points on the deficit and the debt ceiling and then turns around and complains about the ACA infringing on individual rights and the free market . . . but says we should have single payer instead . . . is literally going to fry my brain.
 

pigeon

Banned
For the record, raising the minimum wage strikes me as a little like rent control -- it's an appealing solution, but it doesn't really address the problem, it just moves incentives around. If we want to guarantee people low rent housing, we should build a bunch more housing at a low rent, and if we want to guarantee people necessities, we really ought to just give them the necessities directly. What's the point of adding a bunch of controls to the free market and then hoping that the market will reach an equilibrium you like as a result? It's much more practical for the government to actively enter the market for infrastructural products.
 
Hahahahahahahahahahahahah

How about this? Apparently the GOPs extreme rhetoric isn't extreme enough.

How stupid is the GOP? They still don’t get it.
We told them 5 years ago, 2 books ago, a national bestseller ago ("The Ultimate Obama Survival Guide "), and in hundreds of articles and commentaries, that ObamaCare was never meant to help America, or heal the sick, or lower healthcare costs, or lower the debt, or expand the economy.
The GOP needs to stop calling ObamaCare a “trainwreck.” That means it’s a mistake, or accident. That means it’s a gigantic flop, or failure. It’s NOT.
Message to the GOP: This isn’t a game. This isn’t tiddly-winks. This is a serious, purposeful attempt to highjack America and destroy capitalism.
This is a brilliant, cynical, and purposeful attempt to damage the U.S. economy, kill jobs, and bring down capitalism.
It’s not a failure, it’s Obama’s grand success.
It’s not a “trainwreck,” ObamaCare is a suicide attack. He wants to hurt us, to bring us to our knees, to capitulate- so we agree under duress to accept big government.
Obama’s hero and mentor was Saul Alinsky -- a radical Marxist intent on destroying capitalism. Alinksky’s stated advice was to call the other guy “a terrorist” to hide your own intentions.
To scream that the other guy is “ruining America,” while you are the one actually plotting the destruction of America. To claim again and again…in every sentence of every speech…that you are “saving the middle class,” while you are busy wiping out the middle class.
The GOP is so stupid they can’t see it. There are no mistakes here. This is a planned purposeful attack.
The tell-tale sign isn’t the disastrous start to ObamaCare. Or the devastating effect the new taxes are having on the economy. Or the death of full-time jobs. Or the overwhelming debt. Or the dramatic increases in health insurance rates. Or the 70% of doctors now thinking of retiring- bringing on a healthcare crisis of unimaginable proportions. Forget all that.
The real sign that this is a purposeful attack upon capitalism is how many Obama administration members and Democratic Congressmen are openly calling Tea Party Republicans and anyone who wants to stop ObamaCare “terrorists.”
There’s the clue. Even the clueless GOP should be able to see that.
They are calling the reasonable people…the patriots…the people who believe in the Constitution ... the people who believe exactly what the Founding Fathers believed…the people who want to take power away from corrupt politicians who have put America $17 trillion in debt…terrorists?
That’s because they are Saul Alinsky-ing the GOP. The people trying to purposely hurt America, capitalism and the middle class…are calling the patriots by a terrible name to fool, confuse and distract the public.
ObamaCare is a raving, rollicking, fantastic success. Stop calling it a failure. Here is what it was created to do. It is succeeding on all counts:
1. ObamaCare was intended to bring about the Marxist dream -- redistribution of wealth.
Rich people, small business owners, and the middle class are being robbed, so that the money can be redistributed to poor people (who vote for Democrats).
Think about it. If you’re rich or middle class, you now have to pay for your own health care costs (at much higher rates) AND 40 million other people’s costs too (through massive tax increases).
So you’re stuck paying for both bills. You are left broke. Brilliant.
2. ObamaCare was intended to wipe out the middle class and make them dependent on government.
Think about it. Even Obama’s IRS predicts that health insurance for a typical American family by 2016 will be $20,000 per year. But how would middle class Americans pay that bill and have anything left for food or housing or living? People that make $40K, or $50K, or $60K can’t possibly hope to spend $20K on health insurance without becoming homeless.
Bingo. That’s how you make middle class people dependent on government. That’s how you make everyone addicted to government checks. Brilliant.
3. As a bonus, ObamaCare is intended to kill every decent paying job in the economy, creating only crummy, crappy part-time jobs.
Why? Just to make sure the middle class is trapped, with no way out. Just to make sure no one has the $20,000 per year to pay for health insurance, thereby guaranteeing they become wards of the state. Brilliant.
4. ObamaCare is intended to bankrupt small business, and therefore starve donations to the GOP.
Think about it. Do you know a small business owner? I know hundreds of them. Their rates are being doubled, tripled and quadrupled by ObamaCare.
Guess who writes 75% of the checks to Republican candidates and conservative causes? Small Business.
Even if a small business owner manages to survive, he or she certainly can’t write a big check to the GOP anymore. Money is the “mother’s milk” of politics. Without donations, a political party ceases to exist. Bingo.
That’s the point of ObamaCare. Obama is bankrupting his political opposition and drying up donations to the GOP. Brilliant.
5. ObamaCare is intended to make the IRS all-powerful.
It adds thousands of new IRS agents. It puts the IRS in charge of overseeing 15% of the U.S. economy. The IRS has the right because of ObamaCare to snoop into every aspect of your life, to go into your bank accounts, to fine you, to frighten you, to intimidate you. And Obama and his socialist cabal have access to your deepest medical secrets.
By law your doctor has to ask your sexual history. That information is now in the hands of Obama and the IRS to blackmail GOP candidates into either not running, or supporting bigger government, or leaking the info and ruining your campaign.
Or have you forgotten the IRS harassed, intimidated and persecuted critics of Obama and conservative groups?
Now Obama hands the IRS even more power. Big Brother rules our lives. Brilliant.
6. ObamaCare is intended to unionize 15 million healthcare workers.
That produces $15 billion in new union dues. That money goes to fund Democratic candidates and socialist causes -- thereby guaranteeing Obama’s friends never lose another election, and Obama’s policies keep ruining capitalism and bankrupting business owners long after he’s out of office.
Message to the GOP: This isn’t a game. This isn’t tiddly-winks. This is a serious, purposeful attempt to highjack America and destroy capitalism.
This isn’t a trainwreck. It's purposeful suicide.
It's not failing, it's working exactly according to plan. Obama knows what he’s doing. Stop apologizing and start fighting.
Oh and one more thing…Conservatives aren’t “terrorists.” We are patriots and saviors. We represent the Constitution and the Founding Fathers. We are the heroes and good guys. Unless you get all this through your thick skulls, America is lost…forever.
 
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