To be fair, SOME people do work hard honestly to become rich. SOME people are merely lucky, right place right time. But as more and more people simply inherit their wealth, or get their wealth through dishonest means, it stacks the deck against the honest and the lucky to the point where hard work is the exception, not the rule. Which is where we're at now.

I also got a kick out of the difference in monopoly money, where the "rich" player got 2K and the "poor" person only got 1K. If you want to make that more realistic, the "rich" player should have received something like 50K or 100K.

If rich people merely had double what the average person had..and SOME perks, I doubt that people would be complaining as much. I think most people accept that there is always someone more well off. so the issue isn't envy as some of the pundits like to point out. The issue is not that they have more, but that they have EXPONENTIALLY more, and on top of that, they appear to be exempt from certain rules the rest of us have to follow. Justice seems to be in favor of a rich person and their expensive lawyers vs the poor person and their public defender.

We don't have lower/middle/upper class anymore, it's more like lower/middle/upper/very upper/extremely upper/obscenely upper where even the well off are paupers by comparison.

@NinjaInHeat IANAL, but isn't a loophole the exact definition of legally circumventing a law?

My statement doesn't imply concern for Apple, but with our obscene tax burden. Sure, Apple is avoiding taxes, but would paying them make any difference to our hideously massive deficit?

I'd rather see Apple use that money researching a better iPhone, than have government waste it on incompetence, war, and corruption.

Also, what's up with wanting corporations to be heavily taxed? Do you think Apple's profits are obtained at the expense of society? Don't they provide anything of value (like, you know, Apple products) to justify those profits?

If you think they should be punished for being so successful, what kind of message does that send to other businesses, "if you're successful and you grow, we will award you with higher taxes"?

Seriously, it never ceases to amaze me how people sometimes uphold the most blatantly anti-capitalistic views and practices, only to accuse capitalism of being a failure.

Ephesians 5:4

Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather giving of thanks.

Philippians 4:8

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Hahaha! I usually prefer to be addressed as Sir or Mr. p'kitty, but baby killer apologist scumbag has a certain ring to it. You have my blessing to continue addressing me as such, as well as wishing me dead.

You know that screaming obscenities on comment boards and hoping random people die doesn't get anything useful done, right? I feel sorry for your keyboard. And anyone who knows you.

It's on at 11:30pm, on broadcast TV, on one of the major networks. Regulations are pretty vague, but likely would not prohibit 'asshole' at that time of night.

In the case of bleeping things out on the Late Show, it's probably just that it is a hugely popular show, and they want to avoid complaints from people with delicate ears.

It sure seems to me that currently, unfettered "capitalism" is in full swing in the health care industry and what the administration of health care facilities truly fear and lobby so furiously against is the standardization of health care costs based on real world supply and demand, not prices conjured out of thin air from some mysterious Chargemaster grimoire.

The health care industry has no incentive to change the current model. Why would they? Could a CEO or executive board of a hospital get traction for disrupting the current status quo when it is so obscenely profitable? I think the answer is obvious that there will be no systemic changes from within the health care industry which leaves just one possible source for market correction: government regulation.

Leaving aside the argument about whether Medicare is more efficiently administered than private health care and actually costs far less money (it is), don't you think it would be a good thing to have a watch dog organization whose sole purpose is to analyze the "Chargemaster" and make the health care industry actually accountable to the free market?

It sure seems like "Chargemaster" is just a new word for that time tested practice of free marketeers since the Boss Tweed days: price fixing. Anti-trust law actually helps create a true free market and we are in desperate, desperate need of it in the medical industry.

Hicks' bit is funny, but it's also complete horseshit. If I can work a shit job for a few hours to make enough money to allow me to take any one of a number of other jobs that I'll love for weeks/months/years, it's not a question at all.

If anything, that's how you know you are on the global artistic roll call. Work hard, occasionally doing shit you hate for obscene amounts of money. I wonder if Bill had ever had a dump truck full of cash driven to his door if he'd have felt differently.

You should read about Ian Thompsons ordeal. Riveting stuff. Imagine you are 21 minutes away from a police response you call them while 4 guys throw molotovs onto your house and dog kennel. You go and get a pistol, run out (even though they could be heard saying you're gona die) and shoot OVER their heads. Not to kill them but scare them away.

You get charged, 10's of thousands of legal costs, only to be aquited in the end. The 4 guys who firebombed his house barely got any time in jail for attemped murder.

It's obscene.

Poor Bob, punching stuff into google doesn't qualify as "research"

But let's give you the benefit of the doubt. Hrm, I wonder why THE BOTTOM 50 pay so little. Hrm...maybe it's because they're in THE BOTTOM 50 and don't have as much to give?

SHOCK!!

If only we had a strong middle class to even things out a bit. Congratulations Bob, you're demonstrating the point of the video. The Rich get taxed more, because they can afford it. When you have such a large disparity in incomes such as we have now. flat taxes don't fucking work dumbass. It would be nice if they did, but reality just doesn't work that way.

The bottom 50 pay little or no tax because there is really no point in taxing them more. a higher percentage of a small amount is still a small amount silly. Meanwhile you have the top 1 percent. You can take over 90 percent of their entire wealth and they'd still be extremely wealthy. No one's even asking for that much in taxes. The amount extra they are being asked to pay is paltry. They spend many multiple times more than that on political campaigns so they can continue to keep their taxes low. Imagine if that money actually did something more than just buy fucking ugly billboards and lawn signs and commercials.

We don't live in a world of 3 classes anymore. lower/middle/upper. It's more like lower/middle/upper/VERY upper/OBSCENELY upper.

When your upper class is poor compared to the obscenely wealthy. you've got a problem. Money must flow for an economy to work. Money doesn't flow when it's being hoarded at the top. Trickle down economics might actually work if money actually trickled down. Problem is, it doesn't. It stays at the top.

You really should have just watched the video bob, then I wouldn't have to repeat it for you. We all know you have comprehension problems, but still.

I am mesmerised by that obscenely large gut. My got that is a lot of localised fat... seriously scary.

>> ^direpickle:

@Yogi I wrote this big long reply, but screw it. Synopsis:
I don't blame the replacements. They're making understandable mistakes based on what their actual jobs are. I blame the people causing the lockout.
I agree they're not as bad as the media is making them out to be. I have been curious about seeing the exact same sort of studies you mention. I'll have to Google. I do find it hard to believe that they're not measurably worse, though.
Bad penalty-calling aside, they're almost definitely breaking the flow of the game as they try to figure out the rules. There's frequent overlong stoppage of play for no real reason. Again, not totally their fault. Maybe this happens with the regulars and I just don't remember, but it seems way worse.


Here's my reply to all of this. I don't really care all that much. What pisses me off is that this is a big deal when our country is fucked. People don't have jobs everywhere, our economy is shit, and the government is giving the rich everything. So why do we care about these millionaires not getting calls in their "Game." I played football all my life, and I like the NFL, but they're expecting me to care about people with soo much money it's obscene. Fuck Them. They need to shut the fuck up.

>> ^kir_mokum:

this is pretty dishonest "journalism". interesting how obscenely reason TV will ignore major details to make an obtuse ideological point.


Which ones?

this is pretty dishonest "journalism". interesting how obscenely reason TV will ignore major details to make an obtuse ideological point.

It's a scary and stupendously stupid mindset. There is the rich, greedy shit way of looking at it:

* I can get impoverished countries to work for me for pittance, making me even more stinking rich. I don't give a fuck if that means I'm paying those workers essentially slave labour costs. They'll do it for that, so I'll use them.

VS the sensible, rational, compassionate way of looking at things:

* You know, I can STILL make obscenely huge profits WHILE paying people a good wage and giving them good working conditions here in Australia. My companies will STILL be worth BILLIONS I will still become more disgustingly wealthy, BUT I will also be providing good lives for thousands of people.


That a person can have zero need for money. ABSOLUTELY ZERO need for any more money, be the RICHEST IN THE WORLD and yet not think "I'm in a position I can mike life better for thousands of people, I could probably afford to give these people raises". But instead think "Why are these fuckers not working harder to make me richer for less money, fuck them all"

Absolutely, utterly, disgusting piece of rubbish she is.

Although that was made very evident during her battles with her children to stop them getting any of her money, she's bred vile creatures, and doesn't want them to get any of 'her' money.

According to her wikipedia bio, she is a trust funder that inherited her riches from daddy and has never had to engage in any kind of difficult labor in the entirety of her life. >> ^oritteropo:

She is Executive Chairman of Hancock Prospecting Pty Limited, and is known for being totally ruthless with companies wanting to do business with her.
She could have chosen not to work and still led a fairly comfortable life, but didn't and has become obscenely rich as a result.
I'm pretty sure that Marie Antoinette never actually offered cake, either, but wasn't there to personally verify this (in either case).
>> ^dystopianfuturetoday:
So a woman who has never worked a day in her life or earned a wage is asking others to work harder for less. At least Marie Antoinette offered cake. This beast appears to be made of cake.