flat tax is another giveaway to the rich. Which is precisely why the rich and the ignorant tend to be the ones advocating it.

Either the tax rate is too low and you don't have enough revenue to pay the bills, or it's too high which yeah, the rich can afford, but completely fucks over the middle/lower class

progressive tax is the only actual fair tax since the wealthy have much more need of gov't services than the poor ever will.

The rich depend on infrastructure and education so that their workers can do the job, they depend on diplomacy and the military to ensure profitable and safe overseas commerce.

The poor do not, thus, the rich should pay more.

$460 a week wouldn't guarantee you to get out of the slums in most of the overseas locations you mentioned (don't know about Canada). Pay rates are higher to compensate, but it does sound like you've got a reasonably good set-up!
In reply to this comment by RFlagg:
This. I would love to move from the Canton/Massillon, Ohio area, but being poor makes it very hard. The place I live now costs $460 a month. That is for a nice 2 bedroom town house with a generous communal back yard in a nice child friendly neighborhood with some of the best schools in the state. How many places in the country (heck the state) can you find housing in such a nice area so cheap? Even in areas that pay more it usually doesn't overcome the higher housing costs when you are stuck in minimum to a couple bucks above minimum pay range... ($12k to $18k locally a year)
None of the places I would like to relocate to can get in those price ranges and still be out of the slums... heck most of the places I've considered can't even get into slums for those prices (Austin, Silicon Valley area, Arcata, Portland, Seattle, Fort Collins, Denver are the main US ones). And moving out of the country to New Zealand, Iceland, the UK, Netherlands and even Canada, is impossible since an overly expensive Associates degree means you don't have the skills any of those places would give you immigration.
Add to the housing expense the high price of actually moving...

>> ^Lann:
There are sometimes situations that makes fucking moving impossible.

>> ^Yogi:

It's an eco-disaster? I wouldn't think it could be that bad seeing as it's in a horrible wasteland of a desert. It makes sense it would harm the ocean near it though. I was more concerned as you said about the human rights aspect and the slave labor used to build it.


Wastelands are a result of an imbalance in a biosphere. They are usually a result of human interaction within an ecosystem, or occasionally large asteroids/meteors. Deserts are not wastelands, they have some of the most diverse and adaptive lifeforms on the planet.

Yes, fucking up a desert is still considered causing an Eco-disaster.

As for the slave labor... 95% of our goods in North America are from sweat shops over seas. Who are we to pass judgment on ethical practices overseas when we endorse those same practices in every consumer product we purchase?

There is a good reason I find it harder to sleep as each new night approaches.

Edit: dammit that made me bitter. It's a good video of people having fun.

Considering most of the friends I met in real life are across an ocean, I thought this bit was really dumb. Maybe I should make it more difficult for them to connect with me by deleting my facebook and hitting the gym.
>> ^ChaosEngine:

It would be nice if the privacy settings etc, were better, but all these things are minor inconveniences compared to the ease with which it allows me to keep in touch with friends overseas.

>> ^P1ggy:

This whole video had me rolling my eyes. It just came across as so hollow and high and mighty.

Its also slightly funny that he ends the video with a request to add comments to his youtube page.


Well, I lasted about 1 minute of his whiny sanctimonious nonsense.

"It's better to have real friends"

Really? Wow, what a stunning insight. You are some sort of Plato for the modern age.

Simple fact is that facebook has a net positive effect on my life. Does it do lots of annoying things? Sure, but that is easily controlled through a few browser plugins and with limiting my interaction to people I have or would have been friends with in real life. It would be nice if the privacy settings etc, were better, but all these things are minor inconveniences compared to the ease with which it allows me to keep in touch with friends overseas.

Put your money to good use.

http://www.amazon.com/Scooby-doo-Phonics-Book-Reading-Program/sim/0439664799/2

http://www.amazon.com/The-Spelling-Book-Teaching-Children/dp/0872071928


>> ^bobknight33:

Well it is the truth.
Hear is another. Corporations have Millions and Millions of dollars are sitting idle afraid of OBAMA and his policies. If OBAMA wins that money will stay idle or be invested overseas. If OBAMA looses that money will be a title-wave of economic activity the likes we have not seen in years.

If you want a job vote Romney
If you want to keep you job vote Romney.
If you want to loose you job vote Obama.


>> ^VoodooV:
>> ^bobknight33:
Nothing wrong with what this man said.
Obama - Is always the same. Marxist Socialist Muslim loving anti American.
I rather go with a American flip flopper than a Marxist Socialist Muslim loving anti American.

yeah, because that argument is working out so well for the campaign. Why stop there? I think he has a black top hat and a furled mustache too. Damnit Obmaa! quit tying that damsel to the train tracks and cackling maniacally.
So what are you guys going to do when Romney loses? The Republicans have made it their singular goal to get rid of Obama, when that fails, and you know it's going to happen. That really makes the Reps seem impotent, doesn't it.

Well it is the truth.

Hear is another. Corporations have Millions and Millions of dollars are sitting idle afraid of OBAMA and his policies. If OBAMA wins that money will stay idle or be invested overseas. If OBAMA looses that money will be a title-wave of economic activity the likes we have not seen in years.


If you want a job vote Romney
If you want to keep you job vote Romney.

If you want to loose you job vote Obama.





>> ^VoodooV:

>> ^bobknight33:
Nothing wrong with what this man said.
Obama - Is always the same. Marxist Socialist Muslim loving anti American.
I rather go with a American flip flopper than a Marxist Socialist Muslim loving anti American.

yeah, because that argument is working out so well for the campaign. Why stop there? I think he has a black top hat and a furled mustache too. Damnit Obmaa! quit tying that damsel to the train tracks and cackling maniacally.
So what are you guys going to do when Romney loses? The Republicans have made it their singular goal to get rid of Obama, when that fails, and you know it's going to happen. That really makes the Reps seem impotent, doesn't it.

*promote

Some overseas love...!

Ya I can't tell if it's an elaborate fake, or if the video is just set in that strange Japanese humor I don't always get. Some of it looks very real and some of it is just too campy to be true. If it is real it seems like a very early prototype. @spoco2 is right about a few things though the OS shown in the video is a fake it was CGI for sure. And some of it just seemed very unfinished and very rough around the edges to be a complete product. Not to mention the weapons sanctions for selling something like that overseas.

Trust me I want this to be real soooo bad and I think if anyone will pull it off first it will be the Japanese. They have a morbid obsession with Gundam's but this just reeks of a fake to me.

Obamacare makes them less likely to hire people. What was keeping them from hiring people prior to Obamacare?

And why is that Rmoney is associated with coming into companies, gutting the workforce and abandoning it to die under it's crushing debt and he's now supposed to be a job creator? He is known for increasing profits. Increasing profits does not mean more jobs. In fact it usually means shipping jobs overseas so they can increase their margins and maintain the past price.


It's like some magical code they speak in where everything sounds like what you want to hear but means something entirely different to people who have lots of wealth. Namely, what he says means I get richer while everyone forms a nice human stair case to the top....never mind the guys at the bottom of the crush who are starving for air due to the press of bodies. The guys Im walking on are pretty damn lucky and they know it...they get first dibs on the less profitable ventures I ignore.

Whats the point of the wtf and terrible tags if were not going to use them? Also how many people knew they attempted a US version of the show? I didn't until now. Plus it's a great example how America likes to grab something from overseas that was already good to begin with and completely trash it. And I feel sorry for Richard Ayoade look at him he's now dead inside.

oh and wiki says this - "On 30 July 2010, Linehan confirmed that a US version of the show is back on, with possible changes due to negative reactions."
>> ^BoneRemake:

So if the point of the sift is to showcase the best of the internet, and you obviously think this is shit via the terrible wtf tags not to mention you have a decent head on your shoulders. Wtf is it doing here ?

I'm gonna bet Billie Joe Armstrong was an English teacher for kids overseas of the most awesome kind.

But lost his teacher edge with "Now go fucking hang out with your fuckin' friends out there."

The fact is that the rich do provide the capitol to create jobs for products that consumers demand.
That's not the problem.

If companies would jut pay all a fair salary instead of the near zero increases every year for the last 20 years, as the one graph indicates, we would not be having this discussion.

Those above get payed very well and those on the bottom get jack.



But one could argue that the reason for stagnant wages are 2 fold.
1. Woman's rights. Women entering the workforce since the 70's causing more people fighting for the same job. ( I'm not complaining about this, just saying it)
2. Global manufacturing and outsourcing and such causing jobs to move overseas.

>> ^Porksandwich:

I wasn't referring to stock as a bonus, they give these people pure cash as bonuses. Hell they used the bailouts to pay bonuses, that's not "performance based" anything and it was using tax dollars to pay them.
But it's still a race to the bottom for the majority of businesses, they pay less and less and move the jobs overseas when they can no longer lower them here. And yet at the top, the salaries continue to go up or at least be maintained to create the larger multiplier.
And we should be complaining, because they continue to complain about "free market", lower taxes, and subtly implying they are creating more jobs than they are eliminating in the pursuit if higher and higher profit margins. Lots of companies are posting record profits while using the same arguments. The CEO margin is just another indicator that what the people have spent their lives and tax dollars on are being coopted by business interests and funneling the money into the hands of a few. It's not trickling down, it has steadily been cut back.


*promote

I wasn't referring to stock as a bonus, they give these people pure cash as bonuses. Hell they used the bailouts to pay bonuses, that's not "performance based" anything and it was using tax dollars to pay them.

But it's still a race to the bottom for the majority of businesses, they pay less and less and move the jobs overseas when they can no longer lower them here. And yet at the top, the salaries continue to go up or at least be maintained to create the larger multiplier.

And we should be complaining, because they continue to complain about "free market", lower taxes, and subtly implying they are creating more jobs than they are eliminating in the pursuit if higher and higher profit margins. Lots of companies are posting record profits while using the same arguments. The CEO margin is just another indicator that what the people have spent their lives and tax dollars on are being coopted by business interests and funneling the money into the hands of a few. It's not trickling down, it has steadily been cut back.