The guy who made this video really failed to give a thoughtful analysis of the situation. Before I comment, I will clarify that I do not agree with the thought or spirit behind Phils comments. I think they were crude, and fundamentally wrong on a few different levels. I do agree with Phil, however, that homosexuality is a sin. However, so is stealing and lying and cheating on your taxes, and so I do not single out homosexuals for their sins in particular. To do so would be hypocrtical because I fall short of the glory of God daily and I need Jesus just as much as they do.

My comment is that this situation has little to do with Phil or Duck dynasty; it is simply acting as a vehicle for a lot of pent up outrage and angst against the media and the politically correct culture. It's an overreaction, basically, because conservatives in general and Christians in particular feel marginalized by the current cultural climate.

It's an interesting cultural milestone because while Chick-fil-a was popular, it was never in the spotlight of the media or very much in the national consciousness. As a money making and ratings juggernaut, Duck Dynasty is right on the main nerve of it all, and so its fans, typically conservatives and Christians, cannot be easily ignored. Greed has given them a voice because the threat of a boycott is seen as a clear and present danger to many different bank accounts.

So we see two forces now pitted against eachother; one is the real motive of the corporation, which is to milk duck dynasty for every dollar it can. The other is its obligation to appease the politically correct establishment by blacklisting all who have violated the new cultural norms. A&E had no choice in the matter; they clearly had to do something. But, it is all just a facade; they dearly wish they had 100 Phils with 100 hit shows instead of just 1.

So, it is interesting to me because greed is taking the air out of the politically correct atmosphere. Because of Duck Dynastys popularity, the right actually has a louder voice in the culture than the left on this issue. If Duck Dynasty was just an obscure show, Phil would be history. Yet, because it generates so much wealth for shareholders, Phil is pretty much invincible. It all comes back to the bottom line, an idol to which seemingly anything can ultimately be sacrificed, even the progressive agenda itself.

think of it this way. we raise the minimum wage, now that the lower and middle classes have more purchasing power, there will be more demand and businesses will be able to use that demand as an excuse to raise prices more, offsetting by far any extra money they have to pay employees.

I'm fed up with this cycle we have. some douchebag raises prices because they feel entitled to more profit. because of the raised prices workers cannot afford what they could in the past and demand higher wages, eventually, with much contempt and whining, wages do eventually increase, which leads to that same douchebag feeling entitled to more profit and lather rinse repeat.

I want a stable system that doesn't go through this cycle of raising costs. It's the dog chasing it's tail.

Like I said earlier, no one likes demanding raises from their employer, so lets create a system that isn't based on greed, but instead on promoting a healthy and productive lifestyle so people don't have to ask for raises.

I want to live in a world where necessities are cheap and plentiful. you want to price gouge me on the price of an ipad to the point where I can't afford it? that's a luxury item so I don't give a shit.

I want to live in a world where it doesn't matter if I'm a ceo or a janitor, having a decent apt or home, healthcare and healthy food isn't an issue. The rest is extra. We would all be more productive if we didn't have to worry about the basics of a healthy life.

@Shepppard
ah...my young friend.
come over by the fire,your buddy enoch has some things to speak to you about.
are you comfy?
need a drink? beer? coffee?

then let us begin.

1.why do YOU care what another makes an hour?is it YOUR business?

but i understand the basic gist of your point:unskilled labor.

ok.thats a fair point.
but why is 15$ an hr too high?
what arbitrary scale are you comparing their hourly worth to?
walmart workers?

here is a facts that may give you some perspective:
a.if we take the minimum wage from 1978 and factor in inflation and worker productivity todays minimum should average 22$ an hour (yes...you read that right).
b.the workers in these unskilled jobs are in the high percentages in goverment subsidies.to the tune of 7 BILLION a year.so basically we ALL are subsidizing mcdonalds and walmart to pay their workers like shit.

so are you still against them getting a living wage? when you and i are subsidizing their income. the companies they work for get to pocket those profits,you and i get to help pay for their housing and food stamps.

walmart even helps ttheir employees sign up for food stamps! now isnt that adorable.

dont you think it a better idea that these companies pay their help at least enough where they dont need government susbizies? you know.like actually PAY them and not force us to?

2.if these corporations paid a minimum of 15$ an hr the projected hike in product prices will be......./drum roll.....
...........15 cents per item.........

3.how come it appears to be taboo to point to a CEO of a company who is making billions in bonuses while his/her workers are having to receive food stamps?
when did obscene gluttony and greed become something cool? even praiseworthy? while ridiculing those trying to survive and demanding a little bit of dignity as something to be chastised and cajoled for even having the impertinence to ask for a living wage.

the cognitive dissonance on display is on an epic scale.

who do YOU think you have more in common with?
the dude working at your local burger king?
or jamie dimon?

and dont even get me started on that condescending argument "get an education to get a better job".

i have been seeing many posts of late that reflect the very same flavor of yours @Shepppard and the one thing they all have in common is this judgemental value system that they just pulled out of their ass but in reality was given to them by the very people fucking them,and their children in the ass.

there will come a day when these people will realize they are slaves.
debt slaves.
wage slaves.
and while they were bickering the banksters and the corporate elite cleaned their clock.....
and they didnt notice until it was too late.

those elite fuckers.
they have a small club and you aint in it.
they dont like you.
they will never like you.
me?
im on your side man.

Keep believing the lies there Bob... it's not like if they paid their employees a living wage their workers wouldn't need government assistance...or if they didn't fire over 1000 people so they could have a private jet their wouldn't be lots of unemployed people... oh wait, that is exactly what it is... The bottom 80% have less than 7% of the wealth, and that number is going down as more and more funnel to the top 2%. The gap is growing because of the greed of the top, not the laziness of the bottom.

"Rich Man's World (1%)"

[Arthur Jensen:]
"You get up and howl about america and democracy.
There is no america there is no democracy,
We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies.
The world is a college of corporations... inexorably
Determined by the... immutable bylaws of business.
The world is a business.
And I have chosen you to preach this evangel"

[Immortal Technqiue:]
For all my free market, healthcare robbing, stock stealing, retirement fund
Fucking with niggas. Fuck your little credit card scammin, jewlery stealing,
Crack selling, liquor store robbing mother fuckers (Its a rich mans world)
Hahahaha. Shout to the homies, Carnegie, OG, Willie Randolf Hearst,
Rockefeller, the real Rockefeller, my main bitch Leona, pour out a little Louie the
Thirteenth, Jack Abramoff, hold ya head, my Rothschild niggas, LET'S
GET THIS MONEY

[Verse 1: Immortal Technique]
I spend my day repping america overseas
Pensions for the workers? nigga please
Embezzlement etiquette private settlement
I'm better with confederate rhetoric from my mansion in connecticut
Foreclose and evict homes at the tenement
I twist words like a speech inpedIment
I hope you got good credit bitch
If not better get a new job with benefits
When I play golf with niggasii get cheddar with
New money buys brand new karats
My old money bought your great grand parents
You got grills in ya mouth I ain't mad at ya
I own every gold mine in South Africa
Thanks baby you made me a billion
Plus I own a building for each one of my children's children
That's the shit, snort coke in the whip miss USA sucking my dick
Yea what fuck the law 'cus real jail is for suckas
I go to country club prison you dumb mother fuckers
(I am the 1% fucking bitch)

[Hook]
You know my CEO corporate steeez please
Overthrow governments overseas in a breeze
Politicians in my pocket for a few hundred Gs
So if I'm never in court my assets a never freeze

[Verse 2: Immortal Technique]
I got a job and house and a bank account
When I'm out I doubt that's something you could say
And if not then I fake death like Kenneth Lay
Make money every day the world burns
Wanna tax us while y'all struggle to pay taxes
I'm getting my money the fastest
Memos and faxes shredded up documents
Slush funds through the corrupt continents
But they don't want me indicted
'Cause they don't want my dirty laundry aired when I fight it
Don't get my lawyers excited
'Cause what good is a law if you can't rewrite it
I got CIA traders, dictators so fuck y'all whistleblowers and haters
(Its a rich mans world) Shiiieeeaaat
I'll invest money from Al Qaeda
In the bank 911 widows go to later
Capitalism so I pray to fuck the state of the world
Money talks so what the fuck I need to say to ya girl
(I don't pay em to fuck, I pay em to leave)

[Hook]
You know my CEO corporate steeez greed
I'll treat countries like the IMF down on your knees
Real gangsters run the world fuck what you believe
I'll cut down the forest while y'all niggas burning some trees
I'll get your family murdered for a couple of Gs
'Cause your working class money ain't fucking with me
You think rappers are rich 'cause of songs you heard?
My labels make the money and haven't rapped a fucking word

[Verse 3: Immortal Technique]
Y'all in the ocean coastin' with the sails out
Hey America thanks for the bailouts
I made off at the banco ambrosiano
Got away scott free like el Vaticano
Acitvists activist get mad at me
'Cause I'm a tax free charity
80% to the staff and company
And 20% to the homeless and hungry
The country gotta pay the fed reserve
Kick back to the banksters haven't you learned
You protest cops or patrols on the street
But I bought city hall so I own the police
Email facebook and the shit you tweet
On the phone companies so I heard you speaking
My suggestion is no correction no elections, sex with no affection
No invention would benefit the world of man
Will exist till I got the money in my hand
World bank, interest rate damn rape on the spot
But I'm a gangster you gon' take my money like it or not, nigga
(I got your country in my pocket, motherfucker!)

[Hook]
You know my CEO masonic steeez cheese
Only little people pay all these taxes and fees
Since you were born we controlled what you watch and you read
And pretty soon were gonna own the fucking air that you breathe
I take what I want fucker I don't have to say please
I'll convince you that it's good for you, take it and leave
You think presidents are the face of a nation
I put em all where they are, end of the conversation

Hahaha

Seeing as Rikers is a jail and not a prison, is owned and governed by the New York department of corrections, and is only there to house short term sentences and people awaiting trial who were not given, or could not afford bail. This is not a case of greed, as it costs the state more to house this person. This is a question of why someone would have to wait three years for the state to decide if it was going to trial on a case. This is stupid on two levels, it means that someone who should have never seen the inside of this jail spent three years there, but also that someone who should go to jail may have made bail and be spending years free waiting for a court date.

Adding this to the Big Brother list:

GREED IS GOOD. Miniplenty can slogan it, minitrue can enforce it, and minipax will send our drones with this message. They miniluv us for our freedoms. Slavery is freedom.

Freedom is slavery. I mean, for fuck's sake you have ALL the freedoms in the world to enslave yourself with. We must be in a shitty philosophy-Rube-Goldberg machine because all of the obvious dumb shit that we saw coming is happening.

I was taught NOT to be paranoid, which scared the shit out of me. My parents scared the shit out of me by not giving a fuck.

Blame the system, eh? Well, yes, but it's an unthinking machine of cause and effect, filled to the brim with gremlins in our own little kremlin. And it breeds intolerance, depression, guilt, gluttony, greed -- all those things our glorified economists say are actually good.

Oh really? Fuck us in the ass more, master. It feels so good. I love it when you use humanity and then cum on its face. GREED IS GOOD.

@lantern53, basically what @enoch said.

EDIT: Warning.... very long post ahead... I'm sure there will be many TLDRs.

Let me be clear. I have no objection to businesses making a profit, or the people who run and operate those businesses to make more income than their workers... where I have a problem is when a bushiness fires 350 people, then tells the rest of the employees the company can't afford to give them raises then the owner goes out and buys a jet on the companies dime, the next year he fired 250+ people, and last year 450+ people, and no raises to anyone but the executives all those years, because the company couldn't afford it. How many jobs did that jet cost? Apparently 1,000 jobs so far, and many more who've made minimum wage for 4 years now so that one man can have a jet? Unrepentant greed is my issue. Where I have a problem is where the 6 Walmart heirs have a net worth over the bottom 30 some percent of the American population, meanwhile they pay their workers minimum wage and give few benefits... All of that would be somewhat acceptable, but for the fact that those on the right get mad at those 1,000 people that guy fired to have his jet for having lost their jobs, they are mad at the employees still there and working jobs like Walmart, Target, McDonalds and the like for not being paid a living wage. People on the right are mad at the people stuck at the bottom rather than saying those at the top should be held mildly accountable. It's like that cartoon where a rich guy, a middle class guy and a low wage worker are all at a table with 100 cookies, the rich guy takes 99 of them, the middle class guy gets 1, and the rich guy points to the poor guy with crumbs and warns the middle class guy that the poor guy wants his cookie... and rather than be mad at the rich guy for taking everything from everyone, the middle class guy (read those on the right, or at least those who vote that way, as those in control know what's going on) gets upset at the poor guy who was left with crumbs. The right are angry at the victim rather than the person doing the crime.

And like Enoch pointed out, it isn't Democrat vs Republican. They are very much the same, especially nowadays. The ideological differences are greatly exaggerated by the media... [And no, there isn't a "liberal media", at least not mainstream. Over 90% of the news is controlled by like 6 companies, none of whom have an interest in making American's aware of just how big the wealth distribution divide is, how fast it's growing, how the income gap is growing at an alarming rate... The fact that if minimum wage kept up with inflation since 1968, it would be over $10.50 by now, and if it kept pace with worker productivity it would be over $21.72 and a bit higher (I can't find the exact figure at the moment, but it was around $24) if it kept pace with executive/CEO pay... but I'm getting way off topic.] The truth is, they are far more alike then the media makes it out to be, especially right wing media. The reason it seems so vast is because that drives ratings, making people angry and distracted. Making mountains out of molehills, keeping people up with the Kardashians, Honey Boo Boo, Miley Cyrus, and other people that don't matter rather than focusing on the stuff that matters... rather than just report the news, they now feed you how to think about it (especially used by those on the right when they go "if you really think about it" then make some logical leap that isn't there, but makes their listeners/viewers think they are being smarter than they are... mainstream media does the same though, so...)

I am ultimately an anarchist. I'd love to see an end to government, but until such point that humanity can grow up, get past the evils of greed, lack of education, lack of empathy, and superstitions, then government is a necessary force to maintain those with greedy motives that want to take advantage of those lacking education, who are superstitious. We need a government of people of empathy who can understand those people, and help those people free themselves of the greedy elite are are pulling way too many strings... sadly they are using government to do so, but that is the thing about democracy, representative or not, we can change the outcome, we can make things better for all, not just a select few.

I get it. I used to be a hardcore Republican. I used to hate the poor, and thought that "teach a man to fish" type stuff, and thought the best way to help them was to kick them in the water and let them sink or swim essentially, some may drown, but many would swim and rise above it all. Then I started to have issues with how the Republican party wanted to control what people did on their own, that wasn't hurting anyone else, and I became a hardcore Libertarian, still belittling the poor (funny as I was poor myself). I stopped watching and defending Fox and Rush and the like, but I held to the Libertarian ideals of free markets being the best solution. Then as I studied God's Word, I started having issues with how the Republican right and Libertarians were sort of contrary to His teachings that I already commented on in my earlier post. At the same time I was learning critical thinking to analyze not just what was said, but who's saying it, and vetting their sources, and I started to see that not only did it conflict with my faith, it conflicted with logic, at least with how man is now... that critical thinking would soon be applied to faith as well, already shaken by the fact that so many people were clearly voting for a party that proclaimed Christianity but was so vastly opposed to the teaching of Christ I had to ask why wasn't God screaming at His people that they were wrong (some liberal Christians would agree that perhaps God was saying something, but making sure the right lost the Presidency, as God is in control, and appoints all leaders, but I was too far off faith by that point). I came to question other aspects of faith, and eventually lost it fully. [I think the Christian Right has been taken over by Christian Reconstructionist who don't admit they are Reconstructionist or even Calvinist, but they clearly are. They try to slightly distance themselves from Rousas John Rushdoony and his ilk, but they are all the same, and they will turn more and more people off Christianity than anything else in this world... save perhaps education and learning to think critically... and ultimately is the true power behind the Tea Party movement... Reconstructionist mixed with a healthy dose of Millennialism...] Anyhow, again getting way off topic, I get it, I was there once myself. I have an old account here on the Sift (I could never resurrect as Hotmail kept losing the password reset requests) where I defended Fox News, where I said something stupid and ignorant about evolution... heck, one look at the old political or religious posts on my blog (personal blog, not a videosift blog) and one would see how far to the right I used to be. I learned though that everyone is closer to one another than the media and politicians and the elite that are pulling the strings would have you believe.

If corporations acted with honor as Glenn Beck likes to argue, we wouldn't need to raise the minimum wage. But we keep attempting this time and time again, we give corporations all this influence and power hoping they use it wisely and fairly. But they don't. They never have. They use it to make themselves more wealthy than they need to be, masking their selfishness under the banner of "rugged individualism"

I guarantee you that no one *wants* to artificially raise the minimum wage, but it's a necessary step to lessen the income gap and offset inflation.

The right wing talking point is always "a poor person never offered me a job" Well my response is "I never met a rich person who didn't get their money from poor people buying their stuff"

where do you think any business who makes a product gets their money from? Do they just will it into existence because of the power of their ego? They get it from a poor person buying their stuff. But yeah, the corporate apologists don't like to talk about that particular reality.

There is always going to be poor people and always be rich people, but we can be a nation that decides as a whole that we're not going to piss on our poor people so that even the poor can led happy healthy lives.

The right wing talking point is that the poor have rich people envy. The poor don't envy the rich, they don't want McMansions and Hummers and all the stupid bling rich dolts buy. they just want to have their needs met. They just want to not go broke if there is a major illness

If corporations acted with "honor" then the free market idea *might* work, but as long as greed rules the day, there will always be the need to put measures in place like raising the minimum wage and other regulations.

It seems that most innovations driving profit are new ways of exploiting people. Its not hard to see why some would see it as a dirty word when it breeds a greed that pillages.

You are bang on my friend. They have never been and will never be interested in the welfare of the plebs. This has been building for decades and now we are truly seeing the inherent greed and evil that comes corrupt capitalism.

I do not know as much as you do about how things work and the structures of the economy etc. but my eye is on the ball and all I can think of doing now is to highlight this shit as much as possible to people, not because I think it will change much at this point, but because people need to have a heads up before they ultimately end up head first in shit. This country is terribly fucked and it won't be long at all before everyone is deeply affected.

Thanks so much for keeping me in the loop with these things. I'm loving your work

Rae

Just the facts, ma'am: Your son is a drug peddling, user, dope fiend, dredged stoner deranged mentally maladjusted offender of this God fearing, drug regulating, fear inducing, hammer driving country. Down with the communism.

Kill yourself if you can't compete. And certainly an austistic child has no place in this society of sociopathic greed mongerers.

There's always going to be some form of capitalism. Want all the latest toys, bigger house, luxury car, yeah you're going to have to have a high paying job for stuff like that.

It will take a long time, but people will eventually draw some lines and decide that certain things are immoral to make profit off of or at the very least regulate such things heavily to keep greed in check.

We have to find a better mix of capitalism and socialism.

You're right - but the same could be said of every historical social collapse. The English aristocracy had a hundred years warning before the kings head came off. The Romans had it made till they started choosing leaders by who their daddy was. Greed is not a philosophy and it's not a plan.
'Capitalism contains the seed of its own destruction'.