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Which Economic Evil is Worse?

Which Economic Evil is Worse?


  • Total voters
    37

The Giant Noodle

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--There are those that say welfare is laziness and sucking on the teet of the government.

--There are those that say corporate head honchos that earn over $175,000 a year that do little actual work and basically just show up for thier job on occasion is a crime. These people make sure the company is profitable generally at the expense of the "little guy".

--There are those who say the Unions that milk tax payers or corporations for more and more, thus making that company less and less efficient are the cancer in America.
 
Yes. Thats the point. But choose which is the WORST! :)

Alright, if I have to pick I'm going to say the Corporate Elite. They're drinking our blood from every possible angle and from every segment of society, while the welfare queens and union bosses only have a handful of ways of screwing us.
 
--There are those that say welfare is laziness and sucking on the teet of the government.

Only a very small minority on welfare use it in an unfair way.

--There are those that say corporate head honchos that earn over $175,000 a year that do little actual work and basically just show up for thier job on occasion is a crime. These people make sure the company is profitable generally at the expense of the "little guy".

Most top employees actually work pretty hard and have crazy hours.

--There are those who say the Unions that milk tax payers or corporations for more and more, thus making that company less and less efficient are the cancer in America.

I have no problem whatsoever with people unionizing and making their work pay more.

My biggest concern are those that influence congress and distort the resolution of issues to their favor in detriment of the majority. If we did have such bad corruption (or campaign contributions), we would have much more sensible laws and a more responsive government I believe.
 
Yes. Thats the point. But choose which is the WORST! :)

welfare because it creates dependency that is trans-generational. corporate elites tend to victimize shareholders who can move their investments. welfare parasites vote for more and more welfare pandering politicians and the malignancy spreads. I can avoid poorly run corporations with overpaid executives. I cannot avoid having to pay taxes for genderations of those addicted to entitlements
 
Alright, if I have to pick I'm going to say the Corporate Elite. They're drinking our blood from every possible angle and from every segment of society, while the welfare queens and union bosses only have a handful of ways of screwing us.

I think that is clearly wrong. and most corporate executives are useful. people on welfare-some cannot help it-don't help America at all.
 
At least a corporation produces something, the other two produce nothing at all.

Sure. I don't have anything against corporations, just corporate executives who get nine figure bonuses for running companies into the ground. The rest of us have to eat what we kill.
 
I think that is clearly wrong. and most corporate executives are useful. people on welfare-some cannot help it-don't help America at all.

Turtle, did you ever think about these "useless welfare recipients"??
How do you think they feel about their situation??
Does mental depression come to mind?
 
Yes. Thats the point. But choose which is the WORST! :)

Oh, definitely unions. In particular, unions in the public venue.

In private business unions are bargaining at the table with management while management keeps an eye on the bottom line. Make ridiculous demands? "No-Can-Do. Don't have the profits."

In the case of governmental unions, the bargaining takes place across the table from bureaucrats that have no vested interest in the outcomes. These disingenuous "negotiators" (ha!) give away the store and just say, "Hey! We gotta' raise taxes."

Puke.
 
Sure. I don't have anything against corporations, just corporate executives who get nine figure bonuses for running companies into the ground. The rest of us have to eat what we kill.

how does that hurt you unless you are a shareholder

and being a major stockholder I agree that some executives are paid way too much-usually out of a sense of Ego from the board.

but letting the government or those who have no ownership interest in the company determine what is fair compensation is assinine.
 
Oh, definitely unions. In particular, unions in the public venue.

In private business unions are bargaining at the table with management while management keeps an eye on the bottom line. Make ridiculous demands? "No-Can-Do. Don't have the profits."

In the case of governmental unions, the bargaining takes place across the table from bureaucrats that have no vested interest in the outcomes. These disingenuous "negotiators" (ha!) give away the store and just say, "Hey! We gotta' raise taxes."

Puke.

AFSCME and SEIU for example are two of the most putrid organizations going. trade unions serve a useful function-teaching a trade. AFSCME, like the NEA only protects the incompetent. SEIU are basically a hive of thugs and criminals.
 
Turtle, did you ever think about these "useless welfare recipients"??
How do you think they feel about their situation??
Does mental depression come to mind?

not at all. I see people who are much like the junkies. I blame the pushers but I note that most addicts are weak. Its the poverty pimps who create many of the entitlement addicts.

some people cannot help themselves. but while they are not to blame they still are a drag on society. we have to take care of them but we certainly do not want to expand their numbers.
 
I'll take one word from one answer and another word from another answer and state my biggest evil - corporate welfare.

does corporate welfare expand on its own?
 
The corporate elite hands down. It used to be that corporations believed in America and American workers. Today the corporate board rooms are quick to ship America jobs overseas.
 
The corporate elite hands down. It used to be that corporations believed in America and American workers. Today the corporate board rooms are quick to ship America jobs overseas.

what silliness. corporate boards exist to make a company profitable. people like you clearly don't understand that so you whine about corporate actions that are based on your incorrect view of the entities rather than reality

its people who don't understand what corporations are about who drive them away.
 
I picked other. The other being "Government" in general. Government programs completely distort the economic process without regards to unintended consequences. Fannie, Freddie, Community reinvestment act, Welfare, (to people and corps) TARP, Bailouts, takeover of private businesses, FDIC, Minimum Wage, importing lower than MW workers, I could go on...

Couple all this with a Federal Reserve led by politicians with no control what so ever and a fiat monetary system and chaos results.

The rest just trickles down.
 
The unions. They are thugs who try to suck power and money away in the name of "standing up for the working class." They care about power, not about workers and the economy. Look at the American Auto Worker's Union. They are destroying America's Auto companies and refusing to compromise on benefits and pay (as it is, their pay and benefits is crazy). Also, look at the New Jersey teachers union, during economic times they refuse to take a temporary pay freeze and give around 1% of their salary to their benefits. Unions are the greatest economic evil among the 3.
 
The unions. They are thugs who try to suck power and money away in the name of "standing up for the working class." They care about power, not about workers and the economy. Look at the American Auto Worker's Union. They are destroying America's Auto companies and refusing to compromise on benefits and pay (as it is, their pay and benefits is crazy). Also, look at the New Jersey teachers union, during economic times they refuse to take a temporary pay freeze and give around 1% of their salary to their benefits. Unions are the greatest economic evil among the 3.


The Detroit Free Press reported that G.M.’s deal with the union called for 40 percent second-tier wage earners at Lake Orion, a percentage that’s considerably higher than the 25 percent allowed under terms of an agreement that goes into effect in 2015. Second-tier earners would make only about half of what the other hourly workers earn.
G.M. has not verified those numbers, but Ms. Normandin said that negotiations resulted in “a very, very competitive agreement.”
Garry Bernath, assistant director for the U.A.W. , said the union recognized that flexibility and cost improvement were paramount to keeping jobs in Michigan and the United States. “Competing in the global marketplace is critical to success,” he said.
A number of speakers at the Lake Orion press conference hailed the union agreement as a first for the auto industry in that it would make it possible to build small cars profitably in Michigan. Lake Orion Township and Oakland County also made concessions that helped convince the company to choose the Orion plant over other contenders.


G.M. to Build Small Cars in Lake Orion Plant - NYTimes.com

It seems the Unions are adjusting to the times fairly quickly.
 
Corporations are the worst, not because they are actually more evil, but simply because they have more power and can cause more damage. Sort of like how a violent sociopath with a gun is worse than a violent sociopath with a knife.
 
Corporations are the worst, not because they are actually more evil, but simply because they have more power and can cause more damage. Sort of like how a violent sociopath with a gun is worse than a violent sociopath with a knife.

really? government has the most power so welfare-which is a government program must be the most evil.

and a psycho with a knife can kill silently.
 
really? government has the most power so welfare-which is a government program must be the most evil.

Except the government is the one giving the money away, not benefiting from it. The welfare recipients are fairly weak. Corporations and unions have both considerable power and the ability to use that power to enrich themselves. I still wouldn't use the term evil, as I am judging based on who causes the most damage not on moral intent.

and a psycho with a knife can kill silently.

True, and unions sometimes can cause more harm than corporations. However, for the most part guns can cause more destruction than knives and corporations can cause more harm than unions.
 
--There are those that say welfare is laziness and sucking on the teet of the government.

I disagree. Most of the time, those who are making this claim are on some form of government welfare themselves. They typically just don't think of it as welfare. I think there is a lot of latent racism in debates on welfare; I've noticed that generally speaking, many white conservatives only think of a program as "welfare" if the primary recipients of it are minorities.

In any case, I don't think that most welfare recipients are lazy. Many people are temporarily laid off work, impoverished for reasons beyond their control (or only indirectly within their control), or hard at work at jobs that simply don't pay enough.

The Giant Noodle said:
--There are those that say corporate head honchos that earn over $175,000 a year that do little actual work and basically just show up for thier job on occasion is a crime. These people make sure the company is profitable generally at the expense of the "little guy".

I don't think so. Most corporations are motivated predominantly by turning a profit, which is fine. That's their reason for existing. While profit motives don't always coincide with social well-being, they very often do. There are some specific companies and industries where I am appalled by the shocking lack of ethics, justified by higher profits...but in general they are exceptions, not the rule. Most companies provide their workers with fair wages and their consumers with fair prices; if they didn't, market forces would bankrupt them.

The Giant Noodle said:
--There are those who say the Unions that milk tax payers or corporations for more and more, thus making that company less and less efficient are the cancer in America.

Yes. I can't stand unions...especially public sector unions. They are essentially anti-competitive monopolies on labor. They all make their organizations less efficient and profitable, and some of them go beyond that and actually harm the public good. The teachers' unions (lobbying to make it impossible to fire incompetent teachers) and the prison guards' unions (lobbying for tougher criminal penalties so they can employ more prison guards) are absolutely disgusting organizations.
 
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