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The Most Unequal Place In America

Deacon923 said:
social conservatives would scream bloody murder at taxpayer supported casual sex.
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I realize that. It's why I cry for a fiscal conservative/moderate social policy group. Thought we had that at the beginning of the Tea Party, but they were overcome by the Bible thumpers.
 
Deacon923 said:
As PH said, everybody makes poor choices, and taxpayers subsidize shit tons of poor choices. Exxon gets to deduct all its costs for exploring a new oil field, even if it turns out that there's nothing there (i.e., they made a bad choice of targets). Rich people build million dollar homes on coastal barrier islands, and we all pay to rebuild their houses and infrastructure when a hurricane hits. Nobody rails on private industry or rich people for all the subsidized poor choices they make. Only poor people are told that their bad choices disqualify them from any help from society.
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That's really just an ordinary business expense. The government has generally not been in the business of validating the appropriateness of business expenses.
 
Another issue is that access to nutritional food choices is severely limited in lower class sections of most towns.
 
ChrisL68 said:
That's really just an ordinary business expense. The government has generally not been in the business of validating the appropriateness of business expenses.
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That's exactly the point. The government is in the paternalistic business of validating or rejecting personal life choices, usually based not on any individualized determination but on ideological grounds.

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RChildress107 said:
Agree with your overall point but this statement is just false. Nobody railed on wall-street bailouts? Nobody rails on rich people who build houses on shifting sand? (pick up a copy of the N&O next time a hurricane washes out part of HWY 12 and read the opinion section).

As a general policy the government should not bail people out when they make poor choices (rich or poor, but especially not the rich). When they do bail people out for poor choices the assistance should come with strings attached.
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First paragraph- I was using hyperbole to make a point. But while those high profile events get attention, the everyday constant subsidizing of big business and tax expenditures for the wealthy go mostly unnoticed. Got to slash those food stamps because deficits 1!!1!! but 0 attention paid to the carried interest loophole or the mind boggling defense budget. Politicians on both sides are complicit in keeping that gravy train rolling, but poor people don't make campaign contributions.

Second paragraph - seems the bail out for the rich always has a lot less strings than the bailouts for the poor, even though the rich need the help a lot less.

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RChildress107 said:
Agree with your overall point but this statement is just false. Nobody railed on wall-street bailouts? Nobody rails on rich people who build houses on shifting sand? (pick up a copy of the N&O next time a hurricane washes out part of HWY 12 and read the opinion section).

As a general policy the government should not bail people out when they make poor choices (rich or poor, but especially not the rich). When they do bail people out for poor choices the assistance should come with strings attached.
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the point is two-fold. One, people complain less when it happens to those higher on the SES scale, and two, wall street was bailed out in the end right? To be cliche, actions speak louder than words.
 
dmcheatw said:
the point is two-fold. One, people complain less when it happens to those higher on the SES scale, and two, wall street was bailed out in the end right? To be cliche, actions speak louder than words.
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Just to pile on the point, the consequences of screwing up while poor are a million times worse than the consequences of screwing up while rich, even if the rich person's screwup causes multiples more harm to other people. Case in point: grown and sell a kilo of weed, get caught, can't afford a good lawyer - 0 people harmed, but welcome to jail and a permanent criminal record, unemployable and poor for life. Crash the world economic system selling toxic CDS products: keep your job, company pays for your lawyer and your slap on the wrist fine, keep your yacht, keep your house in the Hamptons.
 
Exactly.

jhmd, 2&2, somebody. Justify this.
 
PhDeac said:
Exactly.

jhmd, 2&2, somebody. Justify this.
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They've worked harder to get to that point or have earned their golden parachute, I believe, is the party line.
 
Deacon923 said:
Just to pile on the point, the consequences of screwing up while poor are a million times worse than the consequences of screwing up while rich, even if the rich person's screwup causes multiples more harm to other people. Case in point: grown and sell a kilo of weed, get caught, can't afford a good lawyer - 0 people harmed, but welcome to jail and a permanent criminal record, unemployable and poor for life. Crash the world economic system selling toxic CDS products: keep your job, company pays for your lawyer and your slap on the wrist fine, keep your yacht, keep your house in the Hamptons.
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best poster
 
PhDeac said:
Exactly.

jhmd, 2&2, somebody. Justify this.
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Not a justification, as I would punish the rich guy the same way, but life isn't and has never been fair. The lack of punishment for the rich guy is not an excuse for the poor guy to knowingly and willfully break a completely unrelated law.
 
Who's making excuses?
 
Seems appropriate for this thread. Everyone should watch Park Avenue on youtube or nextflix streaming. Documentary about income inequality and the control of legislation by the uber-wealthy.
 
TownieDeac said:
They've worked harder to get to that point or have earned their golden parachute, I believe, is the party line.
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and they've done all that hard work while racking up thousands of posts on an internet message board during normal business hours. perhaps they practice polyphasic sleep. the "uberman" theoretically sleeps a mere 2.5 hours a day.
 
2&2 Slider To Leyritz said:
Not a justification, as I would punish the rich guy the same way, but life isn't and has never been fair. The lack of punishment for the rich guy is not an excuse for the poor guy to knowingly and willfully break a completely unrelated law.
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deliberately obtuse?
 
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