Real World Event Discussions

GWB Approval Rating 4/24/06

POSTED BY: STDOUBT
UPDATED: Monday, April 7, 2025 04:26
VIEWED: 6755
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Wednesday, April 26, 2006 1:08 AM

Rap-

Quote:

The 'rich' EARNED that money.
How does someone "earn" $50 billion? Certainly not by working!

---------------------------------
Free as in freedom, not beer.

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RUE
Wednesday, April 26, 2006 1:10 AM

Unwrapped,

Quote:

Tax cuts INCREASED revenue to the Federal Treasurey, not decreased.

Not according to the GAO.
Quote:

The Debt isn't a result of the War on Terror, but from excessive social spending, entitlements, and the like.
Then how do you explain that Clinton brought a SURPLUS to government accounts, even with a full load of social spending, while bushbaby brought a DEFICIT while cutting social spending?


Nearly everything I know I learned by the grace of others.

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RUE
Wednesday, April 26, 2006 1:10 AM

Unwrapped,

Quote:

The 'rich' EARNED that money,
What work did they do?
Quote:

Trickle down DOES work
It was bush 41 that called it vodoo economics.
Quote:

Oil companies have the smallest profit MARGIN numbers of almost any major corporation.
Due to loopholes in the tax code that allow them to write off pretty much all their profit.
Quote:

Yeah, we've not gotten OBL , yet.
Too bad, too. The US COULD have had him if it simply agreed to turn him over to the ICC rather than the US. And whose fault was that?
Quote:

And it IS correct, no one could have expected the use of airliners as weapons.
When you own friggin' security apparatus tells you it's a problem and you ignore it - whose fault is that?

Nearly everything I know I learned by the grace of others.

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Wednesday, April 26, 2006 1:12 AM

'Cause it's voodoo economics, Rue. heh heh heh

---------------------------------
Free as in freedom, not beer.

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Wednesday, April 26, 2006 1:20 AM

OK, Rap, point by point.

Quote:

I find it near impossible to have a intellectually honest discussion on much if you try to cliam the economy isn't doing very well.
What part of the economy is doing well? Profits? Wages? Spending? Exports? Imports? Agriculture? Savings? Industrial capacity? Value of the dollar? Federal deficit? Please be specific and provide supporting data.

---------------------------------
Free as in freedom, not beer.

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RUE
Wednesday, April 26, 2006 1:45 AM

Unwrapped,

So I read your post again. I tried to figure out how someone could be so deluded. So to borrow an approach from SignyM (and reiterate some of his points):

Quote:

I find it near impossible to have a intellectually honest discussion on much if you try to cliam the economy isn't doing very well.
Be specific. Which part of the economy is doing well. Provide links.
Quote:

Trickle down DOES work.
What does 'it works' mean? Median wages go up? More people work? The government runs a surplus? Production increases? Please be specific and provide links.
Quote:

Oil companies have the smallest profit MARGIN numbers of almost any major corporation.
Please provide links or references to two major oil company's profit margins. Please be specific about what you mean by 'major corporation'. Do you mean automobile, steel, textiles, chips, fast food, chain stores? Provide profit figures for two of them, with links.
Quote:

Yeah, we've not gotten OBL , yet
It's been 4.5 years since the US attacked Afghanistan to get ObL 'DEAD OR ALIVE'. How do you account for the lack of progress finding ObL over so many years?
Quote:

You know little, it seems , about either Alito OR Roberts
WHich one was cited by the ABA for conflict of interest in cases in which he presided? Which one was most often the minority opinion?
Quote:

the Earth's climate has never, and will never be 'stable'.
'Never' and 'stable' are undefined terms. Please define them.


Nearly everything I know I learned by the grace of others.

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RUE
Wednesday, April 26, 2006 1:46 AM

flaky connection ...

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Wednesday, April 26, 2006 1:59 AM

Actually, I think the number just came out today conveniently enough, and the top 3 oil companies posted record profits AGAIN for the first quarter, of about a 19 percent gain. And infact they are well above all other corporations in profits. Wait...didn't you just hear about the CEO of Exxon Mobile getting a 400 million dollar pension plan? Are you going to tell me he got that inspite of his company doing sluggishly?

It's an amazingly good thing when employees get paid well, or I would have thought. They are doing the labor that is making the company money and should get a share of the profits, wouldn't you say?

If getting to privately advise the Vice President in classified meetings about how the government should run their energy policy, if having the access to the government that gets a country to go to war for the sake of profiteering is all hard work, then you are correct...all the rich people have earned their money, handily, not by creating better products and more advances for americans, but by keeping such advancements at bay, by making deals with politicians they helped to put into office, at the detriment of the rest of us.

It's just not the case that these people at the top are earning all of this money. They are stealing it. And when the credit card companies get to write the bill that our congress ratifies into law on bankrupcy, they are stealing too. and when Enron trumps up energy shortages that raped a whole state of its money...yeah...theft.

But lets take the good guys who are rich...because not everybody is as unscrupulous as the parties I'm speaking of. Now be honest.

Did they really earn every penny of that money? Did they do it without the help of this America, its people, its industry, its laws, its infrastructure? Can you really tell me that all of those things can survive for future generations if we keep taking the priority off of education, if we ignore our poor and let that problem fester? if we allow untold ammounts of a finite financial resource to percolate to the top out of the hands of the endangered middle class(which is happening if you look at the numbers).

And how about people who have inherited their money? Should we really have a defacto royal class in this society that is rich only by the graces of their long dead relatives? What contribution are they making to America? How are they helping us to be a great country? Why should we keep saying that they EARNED it?

This mass consolidation of money is killing competition, hobbling free enterprise, honestly destroying the principles of capitalism, smothering democracy, turning us into a society of untrained workers, because instead of training people like companies used to, they are outsourcing for their skilled jobs...oh, why do you not want to see any of this?

I'll save the other points for another day.

On edit, while I agree with Sygm and Rue, links would be helpful, it would be unfair of me to ask for them as I havn't been giving you them either,

but maybe it would be fair to ask you to cite some examples when you make claims.

oh and the bush thing about global warming...I think I remember reading it, but you might be right about that one...He usually doesn't make mistakes or change his policies, so that would be uncharacteristic.

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Wednesday, April 26, 2006 2:16 AM

There's no sense arguing with Auraptor, he drank the koolaid a long, long time ago.

32% approval rating. Now we know how many of the people you can fool all of the time.

The more I get to know people the more I like my dogs.

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Wednesday, April 26, 2006 2:19 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by SignyM:
Rap-
Quote:

The 'rich' EARNED that money.
How does someone "earn" $50 billion? Certainly not by working!

---------------------------------
Free as in freedom, not beer.



Actually, yes. By working and making smart choices.

People love a happy ending. So every episode, I will explain once again that I don't like people. And then Mal will shoot someone. Someone we like. And their puppy. - Joss

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

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