Rush Limbaugh pulled himself up by his own bootstraps?

[weaver2]

That stupid, dishonest and hackish. The liberal posting trifecta.

Stupid? Rush's behavior? Possibly, but it made him rich.
Dishonest? No, what I posted is pretty much what happened. Rush got fired from about 10 jobs between 1971 when he started working and 1988 when the Fairness Doctrine was abolished. After that Rush could indulge in his brand of name calling, insulting and political lying without the station getting fined, losing their license to broadcast and having to pay for equal time rebuttals.
Hackish? I had to look-up that one:
hackish: adjective
a hack or involving a hack. (Both in the "poor solution" sense.)

My solution is kind of hackish, but it will work for now.

• See more words with the same meaning: bad, poor, sucks, common, generally displeasing

So sorry you were displeased with the truth and thought the post sucked, but he's yours. Own him and his set of bad ethics.

 

[Nuber]

You have it in reverse.

The social programs rose as a result of iinequality.

Moreover, the socialist countries which have more of such programs have lower inequality.

Gini coefficient - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Your map proves my point - inequality exists in every nation on Earth regardless of system. This fellow Gini merely confirms my position. I fail to see what is reverse about my accurate position.

What Gini is doing is confirming that socialism takes from producers and gives to others. A basic staple principle of all socialistic policies and systems. That is their intent. This does nothing to prove that such systems are good ideas for national policies.

Now this thing is interesting - claiming that in 2000 (over 20 years ago) around 3% of the US population was making less than $500 a year. At a time when the median individual income was around $30k https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_States and the US population was about 281 million https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_United_States_census.

That means that almost 8.5 million people in the US made less than $500 a year? Insert laugh track here.

Now I couldn't really find the internals to determine where the statistics were manipulated, and I concede that I am interpolating data, but the secret to this graph lies here -

"this is measured by ADJUSTING for price changes over time and for price differences between countries"

Try this one out as a start as to why "adjusting" is a poor choice for analysis of the poor across nations - https://www.heritage.org/poverty-an...le-tv-and-xbox-what-poverty-the-united-states

Before you decry me insensitive - when was the last time you served anyone a meal at a soup kitchen? Personal generosity is more honorable than advocating for governmental system that fail to achieve their goals. At least that is my view.

 

[weaver2]

Your map proves my point - inequality exists in every nation on Earth regardless of system. ............. Before you decry me insensitive - when was the last time you served anyone a meal at a soup kitchen? Personal generosity is more honorable than advocating for governmental system that fail to achieve their goals. At least that is my view.

Nobody expects equality in every aspect of life. Inequality is the natural state of the world. However, inequality that has been artificially imposed, such as slavery or oligarchy or 17th century kingdoms or the Church in medieval times reaches a tipping point where it is longer tolerated and destructive rebellion results.

When the the laws have created great financial advantages for the wealthy and big corporations and made inequality endemic as it has in the US the poverty, joblessness, lack of education, homelessness, drug abuse, incarceration are political creations and require political solutions. Serving a meal in a soup kitchen will never solve the problem because it doesn't address how the problem was created.

 

[calamity]

That stupid, dishonest and hackish...

You inadvertently described Rush Limbaugh to a T.

 

[calamity]

...When the the laws have created great financial advantages for the wealthy and big corporations and made inequality endemic as it has in the US the poverty, joblessness, lack of education, homelessness, drug abuse, incarceration are political creations and require political solutions. Serving a meal in a soup kitchen will never solve the problem because it doesn't address how the problem was created.

It doesn't even require great wealth to provide your kids with an advantage others would not have. Due to his dad, Rush got a start in Radio at 16. As a result of that early experience, he had a leg up. He's not alone.

I, myself, got an early start in engineering, landing my first job in the field at about the same age as Rush, for much the same reason: I had a dad pave my way into the business. Because of that head start, by the time I graduated college, I earned about 50% more than my peers who could show only their diplomas to the interviewer while I had a portfolio filled with prior design work. From there, I moved into a leadership role at least a decade sooner than my classmates.

It doesn't take a genius to see how inequality shapes our society.

 

[pamak]

Your map proves my point - inequality exists in every nation on Earth regardless of system. This fellow Gini merely confirms my position. I fail to see what is reverse about my accurate position.

What Gini is doing is confirming that socialism takes from producers and gives to others. A basic staple principle of all socialistic policies and systems. That is their intent. This does nothing to prove that such systems are good ideas for national policies.



Now this thing is interesting - claiming that in 2000 (over 20 years ago) around 3% of the US population was making less than $500 a year. At a time when the median individual income was around $30k https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_States and the US population was about 281 million https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_United_States_census.

That means that almost 8.5 million people in the US made less than $500 a year? Insert laugh track here.

Now I couldn't really find the internals to determine where the statistics were manipulated, and I concede that I am interpolating data, but the secret to this graph lies here -

"this is measured by ADJUSTING for price changes over time and for price differences between countries"

Try this one out as a start as to why "adjusting" is a poor choice for analysis of the poor across nations - https://www.heritage.org/poverty-an...le-tv-and-xbox-what-poverty-the-united-states

Before you decry me insensitive - when was the last time you served anyone a meal at a soup kitchen? Personal generosity is more honorable than advocating for governmental system that fail to achieve their goals. At least that is my view.

So you speculate. Of course measures about poverty must take in consideration things like the effects of inflation (over tme within a particular country) and the change of price from country to country ( Purchase Power Parity). Not adjusting is worst choice.

What Is Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)?

Purchasing power parity (PPP) is an economic theory that compares different the currencies of different countries through a basket of goods approach.

www.investopedia.com

One popular macroeconomic analysis metric to compare economic productivity and standards of living between countries is purchasing power parity (PPP). PPP is an economic theory that compares different countries' currencies through a "basket of goods" approach...

So, In essence, you argument becomes one of imperfect comparisons which of course exist in all economic comparsions among countries, including when people compare the GDP to argue that Americaans are number one

Workers produce also, and in some case (like in my field) the ideas come from engineers who are employeed by companies based on contracts which give the company the right of pattent. When policies like support of strong unions give wrkers more power to negotiate and get wages closer to those of the CEOs, ths reduces the Gini coeeficient

Pay gap between CEOs and average workers, by country 2018 | Statista

The United States topped the list in 2018 for the country with the highest gap between CEO and worker pay.

www.statista.com

The United States topped the list in 2018 for the country with the highest gap between CEO and worker pay.

And before you try to compare actual numbers of average earnings , be sure to take in consdieration the fact that the average German workers works wayyyy less than the average US worker. It seems the German lifestyle (and I will say the EU in general) is aiming at balancing family and business obligations

Loading…

scholar.harvard.edu

Americans average 25.1 working hours per person in working age per week, but the Germans average 18.6 hours. The average American works 46.2 weeks per year, while the French average 40 weeks per year

 

[Nuber]

Nobody expects equality in every aspect of life.

I understand your sentiment, but I bet you can find some. I would look to committed socialists who actually believe in equality of outcome forced by government.

Inequality is the natural state of the world.

We agree.

However, inequality that has been artificially imposed, such as slavery or oligarchy or 17th century kingdoms or the Church in medieval times reaches a tipping point where it is longer tolerated and destructive rebellion results.

Agreement, once again. Yet I submit that freedom, capitalism, and personal property rights combined with limited federal government is the best possible system for human kind. At least the best system we have seen in human history. A system that we have been turning away from for over a century - to our detriment.

When the the laws have created great financial advantages for the wealthy and big corporations and made inequality endemic as it has in the US

I don't care about the perception of advantage created for the wealthy or for the corporations. These "advantages" you speak of also create the wealthiest poor of any nation on earth. For a simplistic term - the tide of capitalism raises all boats.

the poverty, joblessness, lack of education, homelessness, drug abuse, incarceration are political creations and require political solutions.

These things always exist, in every society. Many of your items are the result of personal choice, or poor choice - the trade off for freedom. My position is for you to do something about it yourself. Help your fellow man, don't take away my freedom (and income) and restrict me from helping those who I deem are worthy of assistance.

Serving a meal in a soup kitchen will never solve the problem because it doesn't address how the problem was created.

The problem is created by individual humans, categorized by society as a group. Groupthink solutions do not solve the individual's problem.

 

[weaver2]

....... I submit that freedom, capitalism, and personal property rights combined with limited federal government is the best possible system for human kind. At least the best system we have seen in human history. A system that we have been turning away from for over a century - to our detriment.

Capitalism is a fantastic system, but unfettered, like any system it is destructive and we have been loosening the fetters since about 1970. The wealthy are using the system today not to expand the production of goods and services but to transfer wealth out of the lower and middle classes.

I don't care about the perception of advantage created for the wealthy or for the corporations. These "advantages" you speak of also create the wealthiest poor of any nation on earth. For a simplistic term - the tide of capitalism raises all boats.

It is not a perception of advantage. The wealthy have been legislated real financial advantages for themselves that are doing actual political damage to us. The wealthiest "poor" are not in the US but in the countries that use their taxes to make services like higher education, medical and health services, public transportation, medical and recreation leave time, libraries, internet service and early child hood education affordable for everyone. These are not socialist countries. The governments do not control the production of goods and services. They are capitalist countries.

These things always exist, in every society. Many of your items are the result of personal choice, or poor choice - the trade off for freedom. My position is for you to do something about it yourself. Help your fellow man, don't take away my freedom (and income) and restrict me from helping those who I deem are worthy of assistance. The problem is created by individual humans, categorized by society as a group. Groupthink solutions do not solve the individual's problem.

There are individuals that are poor because of bad personal choices but when great inequality is endemic in huge populations as it is in the US it is the result of public policy and law, not individual choices.

For 40 years I watched corporations and the wealthy lobby state and federal legislatures to pass banking and financial laws that took income, savings, homes, pensions, jobs and lives away from the people that worked in the forests and paper mills of Maine. When no more wealth could be extracted from workers, towns, the state or federal sources, the corporations declared that mills making a profit every year were bankrupt, closed the mills and left Maine taking with them the mill machinery they said was so outdated it was causing the bankruptcy. They also took workers pension funds and left years of unpaid taxes . It was a scenario played in town after town in northern Maine. It destroyed 150,000+ jobs in a state with only 1M population. It destroyed towns and created a poverty the state may never recover from. Do not try to tell me this was the result of workers bad personal choices. This is the result of a conscious manipulation of Congress, laws and financial regulations to give corporations and the wealthy that control them the financial ability to transfer wealth out of the working class and middle class into the hands of a very few very wealthy people and the paper industry isn't the only industry this has happened in.

The US provides corporations and the wealthy with one of the safest, most efficient, most transparent and honest venues for money and investment. With that benefit comes a responsibility for corporations and the wealthy to accumulate wealth in ways that don't damage people and eventually the trust in the soundness of the American economy. Republicans make big noises about individuals accepting responsibility for their actions. Corporations need to do the same. They are currently not playing their part in maintaining American honesty and fairness in business or politics.