Protest Erupts In Charlotte

[IrishBroker]

Rebuilding of schools; fixing toxic water systems and other infrastructure; refurbishing run-down housing; fixing roads and bridges; opening of youth centers ... there are numerous things that we could do to improve the condiitions, opportunities, education of poor people.

Wait? Aren't those all government facilities?

Doesn't government solve all of our problems? Especially in dominated by democrat districts and cities????

Hell has frozen over

 

[calvegas04]

Rebuilding of schools; fixing toxic water systems and other infrastructure; refurbishing run-down housing; fixing roads and bridges; opening of youth centers ... there are numerous things that we could do to improve the condiitions, opportunities, education of poor people.

who pays for that?

 

[IrishBroker]

who pays for that?

The people being blamed for everything, of course.

Which is an odd dynamic, to say the least.

I know when I want the wife to put out, I don't set her makeup on fire then tell her she's ugly and to fix her face.

 

[Wingman Ray]

The people being blamed for everything, of course.

Which is an odd dynamic, to say the least.

I know when I want the wife to put out, I don't set her makeup on fire then tell her she's ugly and to fix her face.

Good stuff this.

 

[Polish Leppy 22]

GoIrish41 blames disenfranchisement on poor schools, poor infrastructure, poor water systems, poor roads and bridges, and lack of youth centers. Who's responsible for all of the above? Government.

Solution? Let's tax people more and give more money to the people who created the original problem...government. Perfect! Hahahahaha

 

[kmoose]

I know when I want the wife to put out, I don't set her makeup on fire then tell her she's ugly and to fix her face.

Of course not! You just go visit the girlfriend!

Maybe Black people should trade up and get different White people?

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gOmdVGrQUlA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Wingman Ray]

You gotta see this crap:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/nation-of-islam-rep-calls-for-economic-boycott-of-charlotte-172023582.html

Hmm lets see. How about not spend money on anything owned by white people? So basically, dont spend any money then right?

 

[IrishBroker]

You gotta see this crap:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/nation-of-islam-rep-calls-for-economic-boycott-of-charlotte-172023582.html

Hmm lets see. How about not spend money on anything owned by white people? So basically, dont spend any money then right?

Hey! It's their right not too. I'm all about freedom to choose where you spend your money.

That's fine. Good for them.

 

[kmoose]

You gotta see this crap:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/nation-of-islam-rep-calls-for-economic-boycott-of-charlotte-172023582.html

Hmm lets see. How about not spend money on anything owned by white people? So basically, dont spend any money then right?

Black cop shoots Black man..........

A Nation of Islam leader in North Carolina responds:

“Don’t spend no money with no white folks that don’t respect us,” he said at a press conference with black leaders Wednesday

Apparently logic is biased, as well......

 

[drayer54]

You gotta see this crap:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/nation-of-islam-rep-calls-for-economic-boycott-of-charlotte-172023582.html

Hmm lets see. How about not spend money on anything owned by white people? So basically, dont spend any money then right?

Universities Are Embracing Segregation Again (Just Don’t Call It Segregation) | Intellectual Takeout

I've never liked the BLM movement because it is divisive and pointless (at least in its methods). The push towards less policing, seperate spending, boycotts, is spreading into a bigger change. I think this is all in a downward spiral and the ships course needs to be redirected promptly.

 

[ulukinatme]

Yeah, looting and rioting is horseshit. They're not doing it because they're outraged, they're using it as an excuse to take stuff and destroy property. It doesn't solve anything. It's both sad and pathetic. Calling it "protesting" is an outright lie.

 

[ACamp1900]

I was looking for the threads to pop up with the Tulsa shooting happened but I guess it didn't fit the narrative for some of the people on this board but I'll just add my $0.02. The real movement is against police brutality of any kind, f*ck the race of any person involved. Whether it be that officers are incompetent and/or racist, they shouldn't be on the streets, period. There shouldn't be a process in these situations that is much different to what you and I would face in the same situation. Why are such laws on the books allowing more than 30 days before an officer can be questioned in an on-duty shooting? If any of us were involved in a shooting today, 95% (or a high percentage) of us are being arrested and charged. Now, whether those charges stick or not is another thing.

With that being said, it's counterproductive to loot and destroy your own community. I would never involve myself in any of that nonsense. However, let's not focus all of the energy on the reaction and put more into the action that caused it. From the article, it is extremely sketchy.

Agreed. This is a deeper dynamic that most who find themselves on either side wish to acknowledge,... there are responsibilities and such to be placed everywhere. A nice first step to create a bridge and start some positive momentum would be a number of improvements and adjustments in overall policy with our law enforcement, we've covered the obvious stuff dozens of times on this board and you touched on more here.

 

[GoIrish41]

Yes, how did anyone in history ever raise their children to be good and decent people without public schools and youth centers?

So, if you had to send your kids to a shitty inner city school and tell them "this is as good as it gets for you." you would just will success out of nothing? OK. In the meantime, just tell the little ones "ignore all the crime around you, and the abandoned buildings filled with meth heads and go to your broken down school with mold issues and the lowest paid teachers and focus on learning. No excuses! Forget that you are at risk of being shot on the street, not just by gangs but also the people that are supposed to keep your neighborhoods safe and secure. Run home from school, especially when you pass the abandoned buildings used by meth heads. But slow down if you see a cop, because if you are running they will assume you did something wrong, and who knows how that ends?"

"Forget the solid manufacturing jobs that employed the residents of the city in that past -- those jobs are gone now, and we don't have the money to buy you the necessities that most kids take for granted. But don't despair ... if you work really hard your whole life, maybe you can make a better life for your children, some day. It didn't work out that way for me, but there is always hope ... even when there really isn't any, right? Don't use your dad's incarceration for a petty weed offense as some excuse, you've still got your mom, who's working two or three crummy jobs to keep food on the table of your run down apartment. She and you and your siblings siblings are going to be left to fend for yourselves and cope with the stigma of being a welfare family when there isn't really anything you can do about it." That is the reality for many many children today.

It's amazing that they grow into adults frustrated by a system that traps them in such conditions. Why help them ... they are doomed, right? ... Or, we could help them to help themselves -- give them jobs that will help to rebuild their neighborhoods and their communities, and make their city better for it, and their country, too. Let's just scrap the weapons systems and equipment that the military says it doesn't want and use that money to begin rebuilding our inner cities. ... Nah, that would involve empathy AND investment ... investment that those who didn't have to struggle through those circumstances themselves don't want to pay for -- they'd rather give their welfare on the corporate level and keep that gravy train flowing for wealthy investors and those of us still lucky enough to have retirement accounts to be more comfortable as we retire. Fact of the matter is that we lack the will as a nation to face this problem, and those living with the results of our callous disregard are victims of a failed system.

 

[IrishBroker]

So, if you had to send your kids to a shitty inner city school and tell them "this is as good as it gets for you." you would just will success out of nothing? OK. In the meantime, just tell the little ones "ignore all the crime around you, and the abandoned buildings filled with meth heads and go to your broken down school with mold issues and the lowest paid teachers and focus on learning. No excuses! Forget that you are at risk of being shot on the street, not just by gangs but also the people that are supposed to keep your neighborhoods safe and secure. Run home from school, especially when you pass the abandoned buildings used by meth heads. But slow down if you see a cop, because if you are running they will assume you did something wrong, and who knows how that ends?"

"Forget the solid manufacturing jobs that employed the residents of the city in that past -- those jobs are gone now, and we don't have the money to buy you the necessities that most kids take for granted. But don't despair ... if you work really hard your whole life, maybe you can make a better life for your children, some day. It didn't work out that way for me, but there is always hope ... even when there really isn't any, right? Don't use your dad's incarceration for a petty weed offense as some excuse, you've still got your mom, who's working two or three crummy jobs to keep food on the table of your run down apartment. She and you and your siblings siblings are going to be left to fend for yourselves and cope with the stigma of being a welfare family when there isn't really anything you can do about it." That is the reality for many many children today.

It's amazing that they grow into adults frustrated by a system that traps them in such conditions. Why help them ... they are doomed, right? ... Or, we could help them to help themselves -- give them jobs that will help to rebuild their neighborhoods and their communities, and make their city better for it, and their country, too. Let's just scrap the weapons systems and equipment that the military says it doesn't want and use that money to begin rebuilding our inner cities. ... Nah, that would involve empathy AND investment ... investment that those who didn't have to struggle through those circumstances themselves don't want to pay for -- they'd rather give their welfare on the corporate level and keep that gravy train flowing for wealthy investors and those of us still lucky enough to have retirement accounts to be more comfortable as we retire. Fact of the matter is that we lack the will as a nation to face this problem, and those living with the results of our callous disregard are victims of a failed system.

Point is, we do help and send insane amounts of money into our system....and it doesn't work.

Because the problem isn't solely on the system, it's also within the culture. Remember, you are who you are, no matter how much money you have.

The generations of poor have a mindset at this point. Also, the family dynamic has to change. In the black community, in particular, fatherless homes are an insane statistic...upwards of 60% I believe. That's an incredible statistic. And no amount of money is going to change that. It comes from a culture shift.

As much as we think we can step in and fix this, most of the healing and solutions MUST come from within.

 

[kmoose]

So, if you had to send your kids to a shitty inner city school and tell them "this is as good as it gets for you." you would just will success out of nothing?

These people did......

14 Famous Black Celebrities Who Grew Up In Extreme Poverty - Page 4 of 7 - Atlanta Black Star

What you are describing just took place, in the 60s and 70s. The public housing projects that are all run down and substandard now, were the result of thoughts just like yours. The problem is that there were no "strings" attached to the handouts. Therefore, people began to think themselves entitled to them. So many of them that were ok with the lifestyle it afforded, didn't bother trying to get out or to improve their situation at all. Any expensive public project is going to have to take place in conjunction with some kind of mandatory life skills training or mentoring of some sort. And the recipients are going to have to be held to some standard. It's not a perfect solution, but I think it is the only way you can balance compassion and self reliance.

 

[IrishLax]

I was looking for the threads to pop up with the Tulsa shooting happened but I guess it didn't fit the narrative for some of the people on this board but I'll just add my $0.02.

Huh? http://www.irishenvy.com/forums/leprechaun-lounge/259890-police-state-usa-32.html#post1792529

 

[GoIrish41]

Point is, we do help and send insane amounts of money into our system....and it doesn't work.

Because the problem isn't solely on the system, it's also within the culture. Remember, you are who you are, no matter how much money you have.

The generations of poor have a mindset at this point. Also, the family dynamic has to change. In the black community, in particular, fatherless homes are an insane statistic...upwards of 60% I believe. That's an incredible statistic. And no amount of money is going to change that. It comes from a culture shift.

As much as we think we can step in and fix this, most of the healing and solutions MUST come from within.

I don't disagree. However, the deterioration of the family dynamic is partially due to the "mindset" that was created by the culture within the system. Point is, it isn't as simple as saying "work harder" and you can break the cycle. Generational poverty is generational for a lot of reasons. It's harder to fix than the simplistic responses on this thread suggest. We can't blame our way out of this. It will just keep the cycle spinning. My OP was in response to a post that suggested there is nothing that can be done to fix these problems with poverty. I reject that. It is I humane to do nothing. We have to muster the will to fix it, no matter how hard it is.

 

[Wingman Ray]

So, if you had to send your kids to a shitty inner city school and tell them "this is as good as it gets for you." you would just will success out of nothing? OK. In the meantime, just tell the little ones "ignore all the crime around you, and the abandoned buildings filled with meth heads and go to your broken down school with mold issues and the lowest paid teachers and focus on learning. No excuses! Forget that you are at risk of being shot on the street, not just by gangs but also the people that are supposed to keep your neighborhoods safe and secure. Run home from school, especially when you pass the abandoned buildings used by meth heads. But slow down if you see a cop, because if you are running they will assume you did something wrong, and who knows how that ends?"

"Forget the solid manufacturing jobs that employed the residents of the city in that past -- those jobs are gone now, and we don't have the money to buy you the necessities that most kids take for granted. But don't despair ... if you work really hard your whole life, maybe you can make a better life for your children, some day. It didn't work out that way for me, but there is always hope ... even when there really isn't any, right? Don't use your dad's incarceration for a petty weed offense as some excuse, you've still got your mom, who's working two or three crummy jobs to keep food on the table of your run down apartment. She and you and your siblings siblings are going to be left to fend for yourselves and cope with the stigma of being a welfare family when there isn't really anything you can do about it." That is the reality for many many children today.

It's amazing that they grow into adults frustrated by a system that traps them in such conditions. Why help them ... they are doomed, right? ... Or, we could help them to help themselves -- give them jobs that will help to rebuild their neighborhoods and their communities, and make their city better for it, and their country, too. Let's just scrap the weapons systems and equipment that the military says it doesn't want and use that money to begin rebuilding our inner cities. ... Nah, that would involve empathy AND investment ... investment that those who didn't have to struggle through those circumstances themselves don't want to pay for -- they'd rather give their welfare on the corporate level and keep that gravy train flowing for wealthy investors and those of us still lucky enough to have retirement accounts to be more comfortable as we retire. Fact of the matter is that we lack the will as a nation to face this problem, and those living with the results of our callous disregard are victims of a failed system.

So what you are saying is that the same single mom cant pack up her kids, drive to a new city, get a church to put them up temporarily until she can get a local job? Im guessing if shes in poverty location that her job isnt much better currently than min wage right? Because most restaurants I see are hiring. Walmart and Sams Club is hiring.

Point is MAKE EFFORT! If you want change, it has to come from within not without.

 

[Bishop2b5]

Rebuilding of schools; fixing toxic water systems and other infrastructure; refurbishing run-down housing; fixing roads and bridges; opening of youth centers ... there are numerous things that we could do to improve the condiitions, opportunities, education of poor people.

The Left has been trying this approach without behavior or performance benchmarks from the recipients for decades with disastrous results. You're throwing money down a bottomless hole until you set conditions for receiving that money or the things it buys. Look at any housing project (as someone pointed out earlier). Look at the behavior of all too many welfare recipients. You aren't improving their life or lifting them from poverty. You're shielding them from the consequences of their behavior and life choices, and doing nothing more than incentivizing more poor decisions. It's why 50 years of this has done little more than create a multi-generational underclass who no longer have any idea of how to have a better life or that there is any other way to live.

You can not raise them up or improve their conditions and help them until they are willing to help themselves. Nobody wants to build a new warehouse or factory in an area where it will get torched as soon as the locals get mad. Good teachers won't teach in a school where they fear they'll be raped or assaulted, or have their car vandalized. You can build all the youth centers, schools, housing projects, and parks you want in those areas, and all you'll have 5 years later is a graffiti-covered, trashed, shithole that Godzilla and Superman would fear to visit due to the high crime. I know this because that's what has happened every time these past several decades.

This is a two-way street. Nobody expects the inner city poor to raise themselves out of this without any help, but pouring money into those communities before the people there change and are willing to take advantage of the help and opportunities is equally futile. It can't happen without both sides putting forth effort. Your side's tried the "Let's just throw money at it" approach and look how well that's turned out. Stop! Stop electing officials who keep promoting the same failed methods all to buy the poor's vote. Stop preaching to us about how noble your ideas are. Look at how they've destroyed the Black community and family. Not a damned thing noble about it no matter how much we hear, "But we meant well." Just stop! It doesn't work. Never has. Never will.

Hold people accountable for their behavior. Give them incentives to succeed instead of incentives to make one bad life decision after another. Stop throwing money away on feel good projects that don't help anyone except the bureaucrats administering them. Stop saying you can't teach the inner city poor manners, good decision making, adherence to the law, or how to improve their culture because that would be insulting to them. Letting them live like this and telling them what they want to hear instead of what they need to hear is less harmful and insulting? Really? The Left has sold those people out for their vote. Instead of preaching to the rest of us about what we should do, how about being bloody well ashamed of how your policies screwed those people and put them in that position in the first place just so they'd vote for your side.

 

[Voltaire]

Rebuilding of schools; fixing toxic water systems and other infrastructure; refurbishing run-down housing; fixing roads and bridges; opening of youth centers ... there are numerous things that we could do to improve the condiitions, opportunities, education of poor people.

Lol stop saying poor people. Just say African-Americans. Other communities of color manage to succeed perfectly well and are certainly very socioeconomically mobile despite starting with low incomes and going to public schools. It's primarily a cultural issue, plain and simple. There is no amount of money that could be invested to "rebuild" schools where the students in those schools don't have a sense of respect for their teachers or their learning environment and don't care about working hard to achieve an education that will bring them out of poverty because none of those things are emphasized in any real way by their own communities. Trying to illogically rationalize someone else's self-destructive behavior does not make you a better person. It just doesn't.

The basement-level expectations progressives have for behavior and conduct for African-American communities in this country is inherently incredibly racist and infantilizing. It's just a repositioned white-man's burden concept where African-Americans can only get by if white folks fix them or their situation. It's not about white people. It was in the past, but today it just is not.

 

[Bishop2b5]

I don't disagree. However, the deterioration of the family dynamic is partially due to the "mindset" that was created by the culture within the system. Point is, it isn't as simple as saying "work harder" and you can break the cycle. Generational poverty is generational for a lot of reasons. It's harder to fix than the simplistic responses on this thread suggest. We can't blame our way out of this. It will just keep the cycle spinning. My OP was in response to a post that suggested there is nothing that can be done to fix these problems with poverty. I reject that. It is I humane to do nothing. We have to muster the will to fix it, no matter how hard it is.

It's not that hard. My parents did it. All my aunts & uncles did it. Millions of poor farm families did it. Millions of immigrants did it. Half of us on this forum either did it or our families did a generation or so ago.

1. Get an education. It's free through 12th grade and free beyond that if you apply yourself during those first 12 years.

2. Use every job you get as a way to improve your job skills. Show up early, work late, make yourself invaluable to your employer.

3. Don't start a family until you can support one. When you do, support them. Period.

4. Don't participate in criminal behavior or associate with those who do.

5. Spend your time & money on things of lasting value. Put off immediate gratification in favor of long-term reward.

So yeah, it is that easy & simple. It's worked for millions. It works 99% of the time.

 

[BobbyMac]

So, if you had to send your kids to a shitty inner city school and tell them "this is as good as it gets for you." you would just will success out of nothing? OK. In the meantime, just tell the little ones "ignore all the crime around you, and the abandoned buildings filled with meth heads and go to your broken down school with mold issues and the lowest paid teachers and focus on learning. No excuses! Forget that you are at risk of being shot on the street, not just by gangs but also the people that are supposed to keep your neighborhoods safe and secure. Run home from school, especially when you pass the abandoned buildings used by meth heads. But slow down if you see a cop, because if you are running they will assume you did something wrong, and who knows how that ends?"

"Forget the solid manufacturing jobs that employed the residents of the city in that past -- those jobs are gone now, and we don't have the money to buy you the necessities that most kids take for granted.

Why did you purposely choose using meth heads instead of crack heads? Why did you do that? What inner city neighborhoods that you are describing have buildings full of meth heads vs. crack heads? You brought it up twice, can you explain your thinking?

Secondly... Own the fact that YOU sent those jobs overseas. YOU and Progressives like you infiltrated the Democratic Party and changed it from the party that protected the urban manufacturing worker, to the weak, worthless party that signs trade agreements and replaces it with the urban, socialist teat. Progressivism is a disease, the same as alcoholism.

 

[GoIrish41]

Didn't mean to strike a nerve with the meth heads remark. Substitute any hard drug you wish. Makes no difference to me or the children who are around it all the time.

And you are wrong. I have been against every free trade deal that has been pushed for by the right or signed by the left. Never voted for a Clinton, my friend. Although this year there is no other sensible choice. Even so, it wasn't trade deals that siphoned off American jobs, it was corporate greed and the lust for cheap foreign labor. Trade agreements might have opened the doors but greedy corporations rushed through them to the detriment of American workers.

 

[IrishBroker]

Didn't mean to strike a nerve with the meth heads remark. Substitute any hard drug you wish. Makes no difference to me or the children who are around it all the time.

And you are wrong. I have been against every free trade deal that has been pushed for by the right or signed by the left. Never voted for a Clinton, my friend. Although this year there is no other sensible choice. Even so, it wasn't trade deals that siphoned off American jobs, it was corporate greed and the lust for cheap foreign labor. Trade agreements might have opened the doors but greedy corporations rushed through them to the detriment of American workers.

Unions....and highest corp tax in the world.

That could have something to do with cheap labor.

 

[Bogtrotter07]

Why is Clinton unqualified? Because she's a liar? Shouldn't she be more "qualified" than Trump?

Actually, I cannot disagree with you if you call Clinton a liar. She is practiced at the art of political deception.

Nor an I disagree that she is more qualified than Trump.

I don't buy into the stupidity that presidents have to be liars. Her husband was, for example and because of it he looked like a shit-for-brains, and lost a lot of support.

I am thinking that Reagan and W., who also lied regularly, but looked tough and hawkish, and appealed to Patriotic zeal, helped grow the perception that lying was an important tool in the President's arsenal to protect freedom.

In fact, that isn't true so much. Proof is in the pudding. Obama so outperformed either the Regan or W. Bush Administration on intelligence that it isn't funny. And of course of the three of them, his administration was by far the most transparent.

But the same kind of prejudice rules this election, as far as individuals views of the candidates.

Clinton has released decades of tax returns; despite them showing her net worth go through the roof during her years in public service. Trump, for no good reason, other than their being something similarly negative in his returns, nada.

That constitutes a major lie of omission not attempted by any candidate for the office in what? Nearly 40 years? And some of those candidates that have released without fanfare have been real doozies!

As far as health, Clinton has still released nearly what? 20 times the information that Trump has. She released it in a pretty straightforward manner, as she did in 2008. But Trump has yet to release any significant or verifiable date, let alone without manipulation and controversy.

And his statement on the birther situation. His request to 'get back to business of the campaign' included his new claim that Hillary Clinton was responsible for the whole thing! What massive bull shit! How less educated Caucasians can't see this, and further, how they can't see a candidate who lies like this, panders to an unseemly nationalistic element, based upon fallacies of race and religion, totally makes the minority with-outs totally feel hopeless, I cannot fathom!

 

[Buster Bluth]

Secondly... Own the fact that YOU sent those jobs overseas. YOU and Progressives like you infiltrated the Democratic Party and changed it from the party that protected the urban manufacturing worker, to the weak, worthless party that signs trade agreements and replaces it with the urban, socialist teat. Progressivism is a disease, the same as alcoholism.

Do you even history bro?

The Progressives "infiltrated" both parties during the Progressive Era and gave us many great things as they fought corruption and sought modernization. Great things like direct election of Senators (see: fought corruption), or the forty-hour work week, or women's suffrage all come from that era. As with all movements, some things weren't so great, like eugenics or in general Woodrow Wilson.

As it pertains to trade deals, the exact opposite of what you claim to have happened is how it actually what went down. The Democrats weren't infiltrated by progressives, the Democrats took a hard right under administration of Bill Clinton, who worked with Republicans to pass NAFTA.

NAFTA House voting:

Republicans: 132 AYYYY. 43 NO
Democrats: 102 AYYYY, 156 NO (plus a NO from Bernie Sanders, so 157)

Even today with TPP, which isn't much of an actual trade deal, Barack Obama--a centrist, is having to ally himself with the Republicans to get it passed.

Even more damning to your theory though, a simple graph depicting the percentage of jobs that are manufacturing in a given year:

Tell me, when did the infiltration begin? When did free trade destroy manufacturing (hint: it didn't)? Because that looks like a remarkably consistent decrease in job share, likely due to the gradual improvement of technology. In other words, the same thing that happened to farming in the 1800s happened to manufacturing. It ain't the Progressive boogieman mon frere.

 

[Bogtrotter07]

Unions....and highest corp tax in the world.

That could have something to do with cheap labor.

I would like to see you prove either part of your first statement, or any of your second.

I don't believe you can, because it is more propaganda we are all fed daily.

Cheap labor isn't what has killed American jobs. For cheap labor itself to do the deed, someone would have had to import these work starved people to our factories, and kicked out our higher paid employees, right?

But what happened? Tariffs, political back room deals, unfair trade agreements, and the unfettering of the wealthy to move their assets to places where they can make a higher return, by exploiting the workforce by bribing officials, while still enjoying the protection of the United States, as afforded by its military.

Of course it is getting so bad that some companies expect to be able to become foreign corporations to avoid American taxes, and still operate as American companies under international rule of law!

Neither unionized labor, or corporate taxes keep products from being competitive. The real reason that many jobs have moved from American production to production abroad (in addition to the wonderful post that BB has provided) is strategic positioning for production in emerging markets.

And a big reason that American corporations have moved production abroad, is because the US Government has paid them to do it.

 

[GoIrish41]

Unions....and highest corp tax in the world.

That could have something to do with cheap labor.

American unions are responsible for the highest standard of living the world has ever known. Access to a market in which everyone has more money is a good business practice. Free trade agreements allowed corporations to have their cake (access) and eat it too (no tax penalty for doing so). Even if our tax is higher, they are getting a better deal. I say close all the banking loopholes that allow tax evasion by hiding profits is overseas banks and make them choose between exploitative labor or the US market. I bet I know which they'd choose. And don't be fooled, they would pull the same crap if the tax was 15 percent. After all the free trade laws strongly supported by Republicans and signed by a Democrat were written by neither. They were written by corporate attorneys employed by the very companies who profit most from our insane system.

 

[IrishBroker]

American unions are responsible for the highest standard of living the world has ever known. Access to a market in which everyone has more money is a good business practice. Free trade agreements allowed corporations to have their cake (access) and eat it too (no tax penalty for doing so). Even if our tax is higher, they are getting a better deal. I say close all the banking loopholes that allow tax evasion by hiding profits is overseas banks and make them choose between exploitative labor or the US market. I bet I know which they'd choose. And don't be fooled, they would pull the same crap if the tax was 15 percent. After all the free trade laws strongly supported by Republicans and signed by a Democrat were written by neither. They were written by corporate attorneys employed by the very companies who profit most from our insane system.

LOLOLOLOLOL

 

[Bogtrotter07]

It's not that hard. My parents did it. All my aunts & uncles did it. Millions of poor farm families did it. Millions of immigrants did it. Half of us on this forum either did it or our families did a generation or so ago.

1. Get an education. It's free through 12th grade and free beyond that if you apply yourself during those first 12 years.

2. Use every job you get as a way to improve your job skills. Show up early, work late, make yourself invaluable to your employer.

3. Don't start a family until you can support one. When you do, support them. Period.

4. Don't participate in criminal behavior or associate with those who do.

5. Spend your time & money on things of lasting value. Put off immediate gratification in favor of long-term reward.

So yeah, it is that easy & simple. It's worked for millions. It works 99% of the time.

Did the following phrase appear in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, or The Charter of The Commonwealth of Virginia?

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs"