patrick.net

Just to be clear, looks like he's using "Food Stamps" and other recipents as "welfare". Some of those persons do work. E.g. the oft quoted 40% of Wal-Mart staff number.
http://www.statisticbrain.com/welfare-statistics/
Socialism for 88 million. Plutocracy for the select few. The rest of us? not represented much. :-(

Its happened before. Read one of the tomes on the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire.

The US quit getting science degrees and quit manufacturing starting in the late 1980s. My EE dept chairman shared with me the challenges in the Engineering department. He was not happy.

When I was in my 20s, many of my cohorts jobs were related to manufacturing or a more technical alighned job.

Now all we can see is paper pushers in the Government, and about 70% of the private sector are pushing paper.

Is anyone paying attention?

Correction, Outsourcing started in mass in the 1970s, and is aligned with the rise of the foreign auto industry.

Wake me up when something original is mentioned.

Comparing people who work for the government with those who don't work and mooch off the system is thoroughly intellectually dishonest and betrays a fundamentalist capitalist approach to tax/fiscal matters.

Entitlemented says

Correction, Outsourcing started in mass in the 1970s, and is aligned with the rise of the foreign auto industry.

If I were dictator anyone who owns a car whose final assembly point is not in the US or Canada would not be eligible food stamps, welfare, unemployment payments, obamaphones, section 8 housing, and I would go back 10 years on auto records on this as well.

maxweber21 says

Some of those persons do work. E.g. the oft quoted 40% of Wal-Mart staff number.

The old Walmart argument is stale. It is a generalization to victimize Wal-Mart associates. Many work there to supplement other household income or are actually making a career of it and see working on the floor as a stepping stone into management or in some other area of their lives (ie night school, first job out of school, etc...). Wal-Mart is an excellent company whose supply chain management system is a wonder to behold.

Wal-Mart moves the product that Americans demand, in the most efficient and cost effective manner possible and pass the savings on to their customers. Blaming our trade or food stamp policies on a retailer is like blaming drunk driver deaths on liquor store owners. There is nothing wrong with Wal-Mart's business model. What they sell is merely a reflection of the products demanded by the public that are sold by most other stores anyway, only at lower prices.

Has nothing to do with Obama, neither with American workers.

It's Banladesh workers who produce stuff for you being paid 21 cents/hour or $1200 for human life.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/1200-life-clothing-company-pays-peanuts-families-factory/story?id=17814618#.ULe6MOQ71ew

All the rest is just a redistribution of goods, services and wealth made thru printed money.

We got a consumption bubble at the end of Clinton's. Since than every President and every FED char did everything to reinflate the bubble.

Absolutely the worst one was GWB.
Obama only follows his path.

dublin hillz says

Comparing people who work for the government with those who don't work and mooch off the system is thoroughly intellectually dishonest and betrays a fundamentalist capitalist approach to tax/fiscal matters.

Either (a) you never worked for the government so don't know what its like or (b) you always worked for the government and don't know any better.

Then for Romney, you workers are just slaves. And if you are 47%, you are just milking the system just like himself.

I don't understand how everyone misses the outcome of the tax increase for over $250k income.

It is a long term tax increase for the whole "middle class". Similar to AMT, but starts much lower.

With the pace of printing money we should expect a real inflation of about 10%-20%. In case it works, whatever is $250K today will be $125K in just 5-6 years. I bet the $250K won't be inflation adjusted, so soon we all pay the increased taxes.

JohnLaw says

dublin hillz says

Comparing people who work for the government with those who don't work and mooch off the system is thoroughly intellectually dishonest and betrays a fundamentalist capitalist approach to tax/fiscal matters.

Either (a) you never worked for the government so don't know what its like or (b) you always worked for the government and don't know any better.

Yes, I have never worked for the government, however, I know people who do and there's plenty of pressure there - caseloads, working with clients, overall stressful situations that come up rather frequently. How can this group be compared with some unemployed bums who sit around and watch tv all day at home and don't do shit but collect welfare?

michaelsch says

With the pace of printing money we should expect a real inflation of about 10%-20%.

Where did you get that number? I thought the 1% was making the inflation look like 0%, so the rest of us may feel but think there is no inflation. The 1% needs you to feel happy being where you are, slaves.

Work is for suckers in my world as well

dublin hillz says

Comparing people who work for the government with those who don't work and mooch off the system is thoroughly intellectually dishonest and betrays a fundamentalist capitalist approach to tax/fiscal matters.

--------------------------------------
Dub, I agree w/ your comment to a degree. That statement is painted w/ a broad brush....However, the growth of gov't (ie, jobs/positions) is far outstripping the growth of the "DPS", Dreaded Private Sector. I happen to be friends of some state workers, the 'worker bees' if you will, and even they shake their head when i bring up some examples of the sloth/slop of state gov't bloated idiocy. I think smaller gov't at the state level would reduce some of the stories of waste and nepotism/corruption listed below....

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view/20221129no_casino_but_16m_for_taxpayer_gamble/srvc=home&position=2

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view/20221129gov_burgess_records_gone/srvc=news&position=also

michaelsch says

I don't understand how everyone misses the outcome of the tax increase for over $250k income.

It is a long term tax increase for the whole "middle class". Similar to AMT, but starts much lower.

With the pace of printing money we should expect a real inflation of about 10%-20%. In case it works, whatever is $250K today will be $125K in just 5-6 years. I bet the $250K won't be inflation adjusted, so soon we all pay the increased taxes.

Congratulations, you win dumbest comment of the day.

zzyzzx says

If I were dictator anyone who owns a car whose final assembly point is not in the US or Canada would not be eligible food stamps, welfare,

That's not how the general economy works. You have to trade to trade. The only way the US and other economies can survive is to cycle money in and out of the country. Closed economies simply don't work.

Specifically when it comes to cars and trucks, flip open the hood on most any car made by any company and there's going to be a very good chance that its going to have a multitude of parts from dozens of parts suppliers- some of whom make parts for totally different brands and brands both foreign and domestic. There's quite a few European, Asian, and American cars that have parts made by European, Asian, and American parts suppliers. Cars these days are designed, engineered, and marketed in multiple countries. A perfect example: The Buick Lacrosse. The exterior was designed in the US, its interior was designed at a Shanghai studio, and the drivetrain was developed in Germany. Simply put, even if a car's final assembly point is in the US, that doesn't automatically mean its "more" American than a car made outside the US. Its about the total number of American workers who put a hand into that product's creation. Even cars that are assembled here might be heavily foreign sourced. The latest trend in auto manufacturing is whats known as "Knock-down kits". As in cars might arrive from Korea, Germany, or some other place as a sort of quick to assemble kit and in the US factory that sticks it together, mostly what they're doing is simply assembling out of a majority foreign-produced parts.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/11/27/grayson-walmart-is-the-largest-recipient-of-public-aid-in-the-country/

woppa says

michaelsch says

I don't understand how everyone misses the outcome of the tax increase for over $250k income.

It is a long term tax increase for the whole "middle class". Similar to AMT, but starts much lower.

With the pace of printing money we should expect a real inflation of about 10%-20%. In case it works, whatever is $250K today will be $125K in just 5-6 years. I bet the $250K won't be inflation adjusted, so soon we all pay the increased taxes.

Congratulations, you win dumbest comment of the day.

To put it another way:

http://www.WtNHuqHWefU

I used to work for the Federal Goverment. After getting in trouble for working overtime for free, because I felt that as a Civil Servant, I had a high duty to the Citizens - I got in trouble.

There are a few civil servants, but more takers. I saw so much unspeakable waste, mostly pushing paper, never making anything. So I felt like me working 70hours per week for the Government, and most others checking out at 5 everday was a bit too much.

There are some very dedicated people working in government. But in my experience in DC, they are the minority.