Uhhh, so. Huh? "(Update 2 stats removed because they included some comments submitted before Aug 28)"
So what happened?

In reply to this comment by dag:
If you hover your mouse of the when you submitted text, it pops up the actual server date and time - you are in.

In reply to this comment by JiggaJonson:
This comment seems appreciated but by my calculation I submitted it on the 28th at around 11am my time.

It's 5 p.m. right now on the 30th here and the comment says it's been up for 2 days 7 hours (6h 52m to be precise.

I posted it before I realize the contest was going on but then I wanted to make sure that I made the cut and you guys weren't using Aussie time or something :-/ If so no worries but yah I submitted it 11a.m. on the 28th.

In reply to this comment by dag:
But seriously, don't say anything even remotely amusing until the 28th - you don't want to blow your load early.

I'll help by making creepy comparisons between commenting and ejaculation.

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Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

If you hover your mouse of the when you submitted text, it pops up the actual server date and time - you are in.

In reply to this comment by JiggaJonson:
This comment seems appreciated but by my calculation I submitted it on the 28th at around 11am my time.

It's 5 p.m. right now on the 30th here and the comment says it's been up for 2 days 7 hours (6h 52m to be precise.

I posted it before I realize the contest was going on but then I wanted to make sure that I made the cut and you guys weren't using Aussie time or something :-/ If so no worries but yah I submitted it 11a.m. on the 28th.

In reply to this comment by dag:
But seriously, don't say anything even remotely amusing until the 28th - you don't want to blow your load early.

I'll help by making creepy comparisons between commenting and ejaculation.

This comment seems appreciated but by my calculation I submitted it on the 28th at around 11am my time.

It's 5 p.m. right now on the 30th here and the comment says it's been up for 2 days 7 hours (6h 52m to be precise.

I posted it before I realize the contest was going on but then I wanted to make sure that I made the cut and you guys weren't using Aussie time or something :-/ If so no worries but yah I submitted it 11a.m. on the 28th.

In reply to this comment by dag:
But seriously, don't say anything even remotely amusing until the 28th - you don't want to blow your load early.

I'll help by making creepy comparisons between commenting and ejaculation.

Congratulations! Your comment has just received enough votes from the community to earn you 1 Power Point. Thank you for your quality contribution to VideoSift.

Well, it's official: Let them eat cake, after all, they have refrigerators in case of leftovers!

This is the sort of thought process that needs to be discouraged because when enforced you have people that begin seeing it as justified. "See, they can handle it, we can just fuck them over some more! They've already accepted it!" The reason the other classes are struggling is because of policies and business strategies put in place by the upper-class. They fucked our economy, they fuck our pockets, consequently fucking our overall health, liberty & "pursuit of happiness" just so they can keep immense profits for themselves.

Never compare the USA to Africa - Africa is so full of injustice, genocide and cruelty it is just unbelievable. Although, America is covert with their militaristic corruption supposedly as a nation we are peaceful with liberties & freedoms. America is better than our current trajectory but by giving up on the "niceties" of the lower & middle classes & not supporting real living wages you may be creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of even more injustice & cruelty in the US of A. The war in America is of the mind - when they get you thinking the way they want they will be able to exploit everything under the sun... sort of like what they've already done & luck plays no part of their agenda.

>> ^robbersdog49:

JiggaJonson, while your life may be harder than that of others around you it's a whole world apart from the poor of Africa. How far do you and your kids have to walk each day to collect enough contaminated water to survive? What? You get clean water piped right to your house? Yeah. Poor. I see.
I'm not saying we shouldn't be helping those less fortunate than ourselves in our own societies, but I also think those people should appreciate quite how lucky they were to be born where they were born...

this is the right answer

>> ^skinnydaddy1:

My 2 cents, (Because I can't afford any fucking thing else) Why is this even a debate? You have one group that if they miss a pay check they have a safety net. The other loses a pay check and they are living under a bridge.
typical. Only the Rich can have this debate. The poor are to busy trying to survive.

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They real alarm bell should sound regardless of the "juice" of the arguments.

People who once believed in the power of nuclear refrigerators are suddenly comparing their social system to that of a third world country.

>> ^robbersdog49:

>> ^Peroxide:

Shame of shames! You people and your hyper relativistic moral compass. What a load of shit, I mean seriously!
You do realize that one can treat any matter of justice and equity with the extreme relativism that you just have? For instance, I could kill your family and respond to your concerns, "Hey, lets be reasonable, I could have bombed a nursery, It's not so bad in comparison...You've actually got it pretty good."
Do you understand why you do a disservice to the norms of justice and equity by way of your extreme moral relativism? (I qualify it with extreme because of course our physical reality and method of interpreting it demands that we compare or engage in relativism to a basic degree.)
You probably don't, anyhow, I urge to seek the truth regarding how our current economic and political structures are simply, unarguably, morally perverse.

Show me where I say our society is fair? I don't think that at all, you're putting words into my mouth. I'm not in any way saying that people in first world countries should live like those in third world countries. I'm not saying anything is wrong with wanting your life to be better. I'm simply pointing out a fact. It's a fact that gets strong reactions, as you've shown. It's an uncomfortable truth that has lead you to attack me and claim I'm saying things I'm not.
If I have a bad day at work it helps me deal with it to remember how lucky I am. That I'm not one of the unfortunate billions who have to live on less than $2 a day (from what I can find, that's 2.7 billion people). I realise I have a lot to be thankful for and a lot of reason to pull my socks up and carry on.
What you're basically saying is that it's wrong for us to try to put things into perspective. That it's wrong for us to recognise the suffering of others. I disagree. I think there are injustices in our societies, of course there are. The tax cuts for the rich and the burden on those who earn less makes for a completely un-equal society and that's not going to help anyone. But it's possible to understand the inequalities in our society and also to be able to see that we have it better than others. It really could be worse.
How about we sit back and look at what we ave got for once, instead of just moaning about what we should have. I'm pretty sure Mahatma Ghandi didn't mean that a nation should ignore the plight of other nations. That people should ignore others because they live in another country or in a different way.
Why is it wrong for me to look at a poor family in Africa and say 'look how much worse off they are than you, be thankful for what you have'? Do you think we shouldn't be thankful? (Please remember this isn't the same as saying we shouldn't want better for ourselves and our families, it means just what it says; that however little we think we have, shouldn't we be grateful that we have that when so many have less).


Did you even read my comment? For your convenience I've highlighted the sections which show that you did not read/comprehend it.

My position is one of Idealism, I will be the first to admit that.

And I recognize that some people are, and will always be, of too small an imagination (or of a heart) to strive for justice within their own borders, as well as around the world.

You present arguments in favor of ignoring genuine socio-political inequity, by comparing extremes.

Of course it is comforting to know that you have access to clean water.

But it doesn't follow that we, as a society should tolerate children lining up at the food bank because they have clean water and a fridge.

You say: "I realise I have a lot to be thankful for and a lot of reason to pull my socks up and carry on."

I say: I realize I have a lot to be thankful for, but just that fact that 2.7 billion people live off of less than $2 a day, does not mean that I should tolerate poverty in my country.

You say: "Why is it wrong for me to look at a poor family in Africa and say 'look how much worse off they are than you, be thankful for what you have'?"

I say: It isn't, of course I'm thankful for what i have you imbecile, but the act of dismissing inequalities simply because you can think of a more unequal situation is a pathetic, often wholly inappropriate practice.

Stuart Varney is the guy who tells the woman who was impregnated by her rapist, that she should be thankful her rapist didn't give her aids also.
Of course shes happy about that, it doesn't mean that rape isn't a rancorous evil.

If you find Stuart Varney's arguments convincing, you are a grade A twat.

The whole argument can be turned on its head and used as an argument for raising the taxes on the rich back to, at least, what they were under Clinton.

Once they (the richest 1%) start bitching about progressive tax rates and acting like the sky is falling, remind them that they have refrigerators and microwaves and Xbox's, etc. so what are they complaining about?

>> ^Skeeve:

I spent 2 years making less than $20,000 CDN annually and I did fine.

Did you have a wife and two kids? I believe Jon Stewart pointed out that "poor", according to the census definition, was a family of 4 living on less than $22k. That's very different from a single adult living on $20k.

[edit: I see now this has already been addressed. I should have read further down the page before commenting.]

I concur, however, that I don't know what to make of "richness of spirit". I'm guessing he's saying poor people are poor because they just don't try hard enough.

>> ^Peroxide:


Shame of shames! You people and your hyper relativistic moral compass. What a load of shit, I mean seriously!
You do realize that one can treat any matter of justice and equity with the extreme relativism that you just have? For instance, I could kill your family and respond to your concerns, "Hey, lets be reasonable, I could have bombed a nursery, It's not so bad in comparison...You've actually got it pretty good."
Do you understand why you do a disservice to the norms of justice and equity by way of your extreme moral relativism? (I qualify it with extreme because of course our physical reality and method of interpreting it demands that we compare or engage in relativism to a basic degree.)
You probably don't, anyhow, I urge to seek the truth regarding how our current economic and political structures are simply, unarguably, morally perverse.


Show me where I say our society is fair? I don't think that at all, you're putting words into my mouth. I'm not in any way saying that people in first world countries should live like those in third world countries. I'm not saying anything is wrong with wanting your life to be better. I'm simply pointing out a fact. It's a fact that gets strong reactions, as you've shown. It's an uncomfortable truth that has lead you to attack me and claim I'm saying things I'm not.

If I have a bad day at work it helps me deal with it to remember how lucky I am. That I'm not one of the unfortunate billions who have to live on less than $2 a day (from what I can find, that's 2.7 billion people). I realise I have a lot to be thankful for and a lot of reason to pull my socks up and carry on.

What you're basically saying is that it's wrong for us to try to put things into perspective. That it's wrong for us to recognise the suffering of others. I disagree. I think there are injustices in our societies, of course there are. The tax cuts for the rich and the burden on those who earn less makes for a completely un-equal society and that's not going to help anyone. But it's possible to understand the inequalities in our society and also to be able to see that we have it better than others. It really could be worse.

How about we sit back and look at what we ave got for once, instead of just moaning about what we should have. I'm pretty sure Mahatma Ghandi didn't mean that a nation should ignore the plight of other nations. That people should ignore others because they live in another country or in a different way.

Why is it wrong for me to look at a poor family in Africa and say 'look how much worse off they are than you, be thankful for what you have'? Do you think we shouldn't be thankful? (Please remember this isn't the same as saying we shouldn't want better for ourselves and our families, it means just what it says; that however little we think we have, shouldn't we be grateful that we have that when so many have less).