Problems Problems

[catocom]

Ok, What is the #1 'domestic' problem issue that affects you directly...

For me it is the rising prices in the stores, and gas.

IMO it is a direct reflection of the politicians corruption by corporate lobbyist,
both foreign and domestic.
China, Corporations in the U.S., and illegal immigration.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,311805,00.html


Also how do you think the problem can be solve? (again with the issue you have chosen...)

 

[Professur]

Cat, the only problem is that people started putting money before morals. And that's nothing to do with China, immigration, or anything else .... other than greed.

 

[chcr]

Yep, greed. Corporate and personal. "Fuck everyone else, give me more."

 

[catocom]

well I know it all comes back to money, and greed, but how to solve it?

 

[2minkey]

my problem is housing. our landlady is selling the place we're in and we're getting the fuck out before the home invasions, er, showings, start.

anything acceptable here is $750k. yeah, we could do that, but obviously the preference would be to, well, have a more trivial mortgage payment.

we're only here for about two more years.

the housing market is going down. even here, eventually.

so it makes no sense to buy, lose 6% of a shitload to sell it in two years on a place that's unlikely to appreciate, blah, blah, blah.

so we're stuck as renters. and that sucks. can't put in cool stainless. can't get rid of &%#$%# carpet and put in wood floors. can't do nothin.

 

[Professur]

Solve it? You can't. Greed is inbred in every species on the planet. Be it feeding grounds, breeding partners, offspring ... it doesn't matter. The only reason people give a shit about money is because they already have all of the above, or money will give it to them.

Take away grocery stores and money loses it's value.
Take away warm, comfy beds, and money loses it's value.


Ask yourself this ... what are people who work in banks doing? Absolutely nothing. They're moving placeholders for goods from one place to another ... that's it. They produce not one damn thing. As yourself another one ... why don't farmers have the biggest houses anymore? Wasn't that long ago that farmers were the ones making all the money. After all ... they produced the single item that noone, anywhere could do without. But today, when the price of food went up .... it wasn't into their pockets. There's farmers working fields across the road from my house. Why is there a warning on the evening news about E-coli contamination at my local grocery store .... on produce from Ga?

You want lower food costs? You want to cut carbon? Start shooting paperpushers who shuttle food 2000 miles to a market that already produces that item. If suddenly they can't move all that cheap food from your market to mine, your food costs drop ... and your illegals problem disappears too. And then my farmers start making some profit, and I'm paying for local produce, not transport.

 

[SouthernN'Proud]

#1 domestic issue on my agenda is none of anybody's business. The most pressing domestic problem we as a nation face IMO is illegal immigration, specifically lost employment opportunities associated therewith. NAFTA screwed the worker, now this. People need jobs worse than companies need trained, seasoned employees. It's cheaper for a factory owner to bring in a new crew every 89 days and train them than to provide benefits to permanent employees after the 90 day probationary period is up. While this has yet to impact me directly, it sure as hell makes it tough for a lot of people to get and keep a job. My dad worked over 34 years at one plant before he retired. That won't happen any more. In fact, when he retired, they shut down the entire department he worked in and outsourced it...more cost effective. But even without his specialized skills, even an assembly line worker in these factories is expendable. Because it's cheaper to train a temp every 3 months than provide benefits to someone who knows how to do the job. I think we should fix that. Provide jobs to American workers instead of government handouts. Bring the manufacturing jobs back from Mexico and let our folks have them instead.

But that's just me.

 

[catocom]

prof, it's my understanding that the E-coli came from the 'bags' that they
put the greens in.
Probably got um out of china....

of coarse I'm probably what some consider an alarmist, but it seems
very strange that we didn't seem to have many of the 'problems'
with food, and disease until the last 5 years or so.


No one seems to want to look at what I consider a plausible cause though.

 

[2minkey]

No one seems to want to look at what I consider a plausible cause though.

dude, which part of all that stuff you listed off do you want to talk about?

i know i'd certainly agree that certain corporate interests have way too much influence.

but all this talk about greed in unamerican. greed is good. capitalism is good. right?

 

[catocom]

nope...
ethical capitalism is good, greed is bad, very bad.

 

[catocom]

dude, which part of all that stuff you listed off do you want to talk about?

that terrorist, specifically Al-Qaeda have said,what they were/ar going to do,
and it is coming to pass as we speak.

Not many seem to remember that they said they'd take us down through economics, and natural disaster heightening.

 

[chcr]

it seems
very strange that we didn't seem to have many of the 'problems'
with food, and disease until the last 5 years or so.

Sorry cat but we've been having similar problems since I was a kid (and probably long before that). Remember legionnaires disease? AIDS started over two decades ago. Christ when I was in my twenties we had people poisoning bottles of Tylenol. Remember "post-traumatic stress disorder?" When I was a kid a lot of vets had it but everyone called it "shell-shock." I don't really think the incidence has increased so much as it's gotten shoved in your face more. I will say this though. The politics of fear has gotten a lot more prevalent over the last ten years or so. There's not more to be afraid of, but there is a much higher percentage of "authority figures" telling you that you should be afraid. It's a way to keep the sheeple in line. If you say it enough it becomes the reality. Don't let yourself fall victim to it, you're to good a person for that.

nope...
ethical capitalism is good, greed is bad, very bad.

For the vast majority of people, ethics are strictly situational.
Here's an example:
Is it okay to kill someone? Depends on the circumstances, doesn't it? Don't the ten commandments say "Thou shalt not kill?" I can't remember any "depending on the circumstances" part but virtually everyone who accepts the ten commandments interprets it this way. I'll bet my criteria for killing someone are similar to yours but I'll also bet that they're not exactly the same. I consider myself ethical and from what I know of you I think you are too. Which one of us isn't really? I don't think there's a correct answer to that question.
Re greed, it's a survival trait. It's not necessarily needed right now to survive but I very much suspect that one day it will be again.

 

[catocom]

It's a way to keep the sheeple in line. If you say it enough it becomes the reality. Don't let yourself fall victim to it, you're to good a person for that.

I just call um like I see um.
I won't be caught with my head in the sand.

 

[2minkey]

that terrorist, specifically Al-Qaeda have said,what they were/ar going to do,
and it is coming to pass as we speak.

Not many seem to remember that they said they'd take us down through economics, and natural disaster heightening.

okay, but what does al quaeda have to do with our
china problem,
precarious trade deficit,
excessive corporate influence,
de-ethics-ized capitalism,
unt oot cetera?

seems like maybe they just have to sit back and chuckle while we screw ourselves, eh?

 

[2minkey]

Sorry cat but we've been having similar problems since I was a kid (and probably long before that). Remember legionnaires disease? AIDS started over two decades ago. Christ when I was in my twenties we had people poisoning bottles of Tylenol. Remember "post-traumatic stress disorder?" When I was a kid a lot of vets had it but everyone called it "shell-shock." I don't really think the incidence has increased so much as it's gotten shoved in your face more. I will say this though. The politics of fear has gotten a lot more prevalent over the last ten years or so. There's not more to be afraid of, but there is a much higher percentage of "authority figures" telling you that you should be afraid. It's a way to keep the sheeple in line. If you say it enough it becomes the reality. Don't let yourself fall victim to it, you're too good a person for that.

yeah the sky has been falling since the dawn of human communication. there's another manifestation of the millenarian impulse occurring every .127 seconds somewhere in the world.

in this case... i'm not gonna make a dire prediction like catocom might, but i think we're at least headed for a light recession...

and (as an aside) someday the government is gonna have to live within a budget... that might be *ouchy.*

 

[catocom]

okay, but what does al quaeda have to do with our
china problem,
precarious trade deficit,
excessive corporate influence,
de-ethics-ized capitalism,
unt oot cetera?

seems like maybe they just have to sit back and chuckle while we screw ourselves, eh?

China, trade deficit, nothing that I can see. That's squarely on the current admins head IMO.
unethical capitalism....has, as chic said been around a long time, it just seems
to me that the percentage has gotten worse. That I blame partly on PC, and that
I believe Has been heightened through special interest, some of which may be
backed by our enemies.
The words "we will bury you" come to mind. (only I don't think it's of Russian origin)

Then, I don't even know what that last line is.

I agree all these things are not New. IMO they have just been turned to extreme.
The Judges, and politicians have allowed it to happen, and IMO in some, maybe
most cases, have been paid off to let it happen.
IMO, al quaeda has dangled the carrot, and those groups are running for it wide open.

 

[Gonz]

Don't the ten commandments say "Thou shalt not kill?"

They read "Thou Shalt Not Murder."

Huge difference.

Our biggest problem is our success. Hand in hand with the greed factor. Years ago, when only "the rich" ran the numbers racket (stocks) they paid us peons okay. Then, they decide to get us involved in the market. Suddenly, we're buying huge houses & hummers. Everybody has to work to pay the bills, but don't we have an incredible portfolio? Having a lot of money, on paper, is not the same as having a lot of cash on hand. People live beyond their means. We hire Mexicans to do jobs "Americans won't do" because it helps the stock. We buy $5.00 cups of coffee because it helps the stock.

By helping the stock, in turn raisinng our own worth, we've run ourselves into debt, both publically & privately, to such an extent, we may never dig out.

It's so bad that the cops want to know if you're carrying large amounts of cash & the IRS wants to know where that cash came from. Credit is your friend.

 

[2minkey]

Our biggest problem is our success. Hand in hand with the greed factor. Years ago, when only "the rich" ran the numbers racket (stocks) they paid us peons okay. Then, they decide to get us involved in the market. Suddenly, we're buying huge houses & hummers. Everybody has to work to pay the bills, but don't we have an incredible portfolio? Having a lot of money, on paper, is not the same as having a lot of cash on hand. People live beyond their means. We hire Mexicans to do jobs "Americans won't do" because it helps the stock. We buy $5.00 cups of coffee because it helps the stock.

By helping the stock, in turn raisinng our own worth, we've run ourselves into debt, both publically & privately, to such an extent, we may never dig out.

It's so bad that the cops want to know if you're carrying large amounts of cash & the IRS wants to know where that cash came from. Credit is your friend.

and despite that i think catocoms views are a little extreme here wouldn't everything be better if we all anticipated something ugly, had little economic confidence, and scurried lots of money away for rainy days instead of running absurd levels of debt... or... would that itself tank the economy... hmmm....

it's funny but there's a very recognizable pattern that happens in places like africa when western money shows up. suddenly there's this overconfidence of coming prosperity and people overcommit econonomically, have too many kids, neglect their crops, and pretty soon... they're fuxed. maybe we ain't so different.

well, maybe most folks ain't so different. i applaud anyone smart enough to live within their immediate means.

 

[Gonz]

wouldn't everything be better if we all anticipated something ugly, had little economic confidence, and scurried lots of money away for rainy days instead of running absurd levels of debt... or... would that itself tank the economy... hmmm....

That is the $10,000,000,000,000 question. About halfway between my grandmother saving the little left over pieces of soap & some fool spening fifty grand on an gussied up Army transport vehicle is about right.

 

[2minkey]

yup. and until we figure it out and get that book deal, we can just sit back, relax, and watch blazing saddles for the 36th time.