The War on Work
The War on Work
Lawmakers from the House and Senate are now finalizing negotiations over this year’s budget bills.
Most of the criticism has focused on how these bills push the government’s checkbook further into the red, while delivering tax cuts to the wealthy and cutting programs for the poor. But another crucial aspect of this year’s budget battle has received little attention: the conservative efforts to slash programs that provide incentives for work, by offering poor working Americans benefits like health care and child care.
As Robert Gordon and I argued in a column last week, progressives would be better off in our budget battles if we focused on how encouraging hard work and self-reliance is no longer a conservative principle.
Many of the right’s proposed cuts — to Medicaid, food stamps, and child care, for starters — punish working Americans by undermining incentives to hold down a job, or by essentially classifying them as “too rich” to collect assistance.
Take food stamps: Some parents who have transitioned from welfare to work can still currently receive food stamps, even if their income rises above the poverty line. Many of these folks still struggle to put food on the table: consider the single mother who works full-time for less than $9 an hour, but pays so much in child care that her disposable income falls below the poverty line.
Yet under the House bill, this working mom and more than a hundred thousand other working poor Americans would be punished, cut off from food stamps altogether.
Liberals are right to point out that conservative budget policies take from the poor and give to the rich. But what is more striking, and ultimately more saddening, is that these policies betray the deepest commitment conservatives claim to honor: hard work. That’s one of the scandals in this year’s budget.
- Josh Lynn
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What ever happened to work in this country?
December 13th, 2005 at 7:50 amMy boss was complaining about the welfare system. He claimed that it only made people less likely to work and more likely to ‘ride the system’.
When I agreed with him, he was somewhat surprised. Then I said: Oh, wait! You are talking about corporate welfare, right?
For some reason, he wasn’t as opposed to corporate welfare as he was citizen welfare. Go figure.
December 13th, 2005 at 8:37 amOne thing that is obvious there are no “Conservative Principalsâ€!! These people complained about the deficit constantly when Clinton was in power in the US. Conservatives even mocked the size of the surpluses when things started to turn around.
I found it interesting that when Bush started running record deficits none of the financial papers even cared or seriously pressed the issue. I also see these same companies fighting to keep the US market open to countries that use sweat shops and or have no real labour standards. They honestly do not care that you are losing a number of industries or that they are helping some brutal dictatorships as long they make money nothing else matters.
Now you are telling me that they want to cut off the working poor. Conservatives never cared if these people were working or not they just wanted an excuse at that time to cut benefits so that they could justify more tax cuts to their friends.
December 13th, 2005 at 9:04 am“No longer a conservative value” is a losing slogan. The meme that will get votes is that the cons punish work so that their cronies get big bonuses. Maybe use Dick Grasso ($137 million) as a poster boy for the excesses of the rich.
The right has been accusing us of class warfare for years- let’s finally fight the battle.
December 13th, 2005 at 9:15 amExcuse me, I’m foreigner (european) and I don’t understand completely the social and welfare system in the US.
As I think, living in a human society, and therefore in a given country, people, village or community, is on the purpose of helping others and being helped in times of need. So, I don’t understand your system, where hard work is lauded, yes, but where help to those in need of it is given only drop by drop, in a enormously intricate and micromanaged system, and a poor in need of help need a degree in echonomics and law, a lot of time and a good bunch of luck to gain some help, and then must fear to be dropped from the system in the first round of welfare cuts, where billions are royally pardoned to ultrarich people and enterprises, and while wars of choice are (not) declared. And, in plus, if you live thanks to the welfare system, you are treated like a pariah. This really seems more a pool full of sharks and piranhas than a HUMAN society, sorry.
By the way, the USA is one of the countries in the developed world with less % of the earnings in its economy dedicated to welfare.
December 13th, 2005 at 9:18 amWell, yea Spaniard, poor people are loathsome people hated by God, because if God loved them, they would be rich now wouldn’t they? (and some of them are black too, and Jesus hates them). /sarcasm
Actually, Spaniard, sounds like you understand the US perfectly.
December 13th, 2005 at 9:24 amEvil Spaniard,
It’s not our history or even our founders’ intent to be like this. We have always had robber barons here, and since the turn of the last century an inordinant amount of paranoia about social and economic justice as being communistic and Marxist. As a European, and I am an American so I may say this, you should be aware how ignorant and ill-informed many of the people here are. Cuba has a lower illiteracy rate than the USA.
One of our founding fathers, Thomas Paine, would be jailed as a communist today, if they could. Actually, most of the founders and framers of the constitution would be jailed today, as revolutionaries. It’s the idiotic, anarcho-capitalist libertarians fault. They are an evangelistic political cult.
Personal property is the effect of Society; and it is as impossible for an individual to acquire personal property without the aid of society, as it is for him to make land originally. Separate an individual from society, and give him an island or a continent to possess, and he cannot acquire personal property. He cannot be rich. So inseparably are the means connected with the end, in all cases, that where the former do not exist, the latter cannot be obtained. All accumulation therefore of personal property, beyond what a man’s own hands produce, is derived to him by living in society; and he owes, on every principle of justice, of gratitude, and of civilization, a part of that accumulation back again to society from whence the whole came. This is putting the matter on a general principle, and perhaps it is best to do so; for if we examine the case minutely, it will be found, that the accumulation of personal property is, in many instances, the effect of paying too little for the labour that produced it; the consequence of which is, that the working hand perishes in old age, and the employer abounds in affluence. It is perhaps impossible to proportion exactly the price of labour to the profits it produces; and it will also be said, as an apology for injustice, that were a workman to receive an increase of wages daily, he would not save it against old age nor be much the better for it in the interim. Make then Society the treasurer to guard it for him in a common fund, for it is no reason that because he might not make a good use of it for himself that another shall take it.
Thomas Paine, “Agrarian Justice” 1797
… legislators cannot invent too many devices for subdividing property… Another means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, and to tax the higher portions or property in geometrical progression as they rise. Whenever there are in any country uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right.
Thomas Jefferson (in a letter to James Madison), 1785
While it is a moot question whether the origin of any kind of property is derived from Nature at all … it is considered by those who have seriously considered the subject, that no one has, of natural right, a separate property in an acre of land … Stable ownership is the gift of social law, and is given late in the progress of society.
Thomas Jefferson
Every society has a right to fix the fundamental principles of its association, and to say to all individuals, that if they contemplate pursuits beyond the limits of these principles and involving dangers which the society chooses to avoid, they must go somewhere else for their exercise; that we want no citizens, and still less ephemeral and pseudo-citizens, on such terms. We may exclude them from our territory, as we do persons infected with disease.
Thomas Jefferson to William H. Crawford, 1816
Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the Covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment… laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind… as that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, institutions must advance also, to keep pace with the times…. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain forever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.
Thomas Jefferson (on reform of the Virginia Constitution)
Private property … is a Creature of Society, and is subject to the Calls of that Society, whenever its Necessities shall require it, even to its last Farthing, its contributors therefore to the public Exigencies are not to be considered a Benefit on the Public, entitling the Contributors to the Distinctions of Honor and Power, but as the Return of an Obligation previously received, or as payment for a just Debt.
Benjamin Franklin
All property, indeed, except the savage’s temporary cabin, his bow, his matchcoat and other little Acquisitions absolutely necessary for his Subsistence, seems to me to be the creature of public Convention. Hence, the public has the rights of regulating Descents, and all other Conveyances of Property, and even of limiting the quantity and uses of it. All the property that is necessary to a man is his natural Right, which none may justly deprive him of, but all Property superfluous to such Purposes is the property of the Public who, by their Laws have created it and who may, by other Laws dispose of it.
Benjamin Franklin
Nothing is more certain than the indispensable necessity of government, and it is equally undeniable, that whenever and however it is instituted, the people must cede to it some of their natural rights in order to vest it with requisite powers.
John Jay, FEDERALIST No. 2
It cannot have escaped those who have attended with candor to the arguments employed against the extensive powers of the government, that the authors of them have very little considered how far these powers were necessary means of attaining a necessary end. They have chosen rather to dwell on the inconveniences which must be unavoidably blended with all political advantages; and on the possible abuses which must be incident to every power or trust, of which a beneficial use can be made. This method of handling the subject cannot impose on the good sense of the people of America. It may display the subtlety of the writer; it may open a boundless field for rhetoric and declamation; it may inflame the passions of the unthinking, and may confirm the prejudices of the misthinking: but cool and candid people will at once reflect, that the purest of human blessings must have a portion of alloy in them; that the choice must always be made, if not of the lesser evil, at least of the greater, not the perfect, good; and that in every political institution, a power to advance the public happiness involves a discretion which may be misapplied and abused. They will see, therefore, that in all cases where power is to be conferred, the point first to be decided is, whether such a power be necessary to the public good; as the next will be, in case of an affirmative decision, to guard as effectually as possible against a perversion of the power to the public detriment.
December 13th, 2005 at 9:28 amJames Madison, FEDERALIST No. 41
#6 Is really sad to realize it.
December 13th, 2005 at 9:29 amA topic somewhat related to the widening gap between rich and poor:
I heard on The Ed Schultz Show a startling statistic about the stagnant minimum wage versus the astronomical rise in CEO compensation. I don’t know the source, and someone can help me out on this, but the stat showed that, if increases in the minimum wage had kept pace with the increases of CEO salaries, we’d be looking at a minimum of $23.03.
December 13th, 2005 at 9:29 am#5, ES,
December 13th, 2005 at 9:33 amYes, unfortunately, the leadership in this country tries to ignore the existence of poor and/or working class people. They hope that by cutting every program meant to support the weakest of our society, that the poor will simply vanish from the landscape.
Our so-called “Christian” leaders have not devoted their thoughts, energy, and certainly not money toward lifting up all citizens — instead, they prefer to support the fat cats, increasing their wealth by decreasing their obligations as members of society.
Yet, like Pharisees, they pray loudly and complain that their children can’t pray loudly in school.
Their christian charity is remarkable.
Everyone should read this:
Ironically Hayek is one of the main theorists of the conservative movement.
Why I Am Not a Conservative
By Nobel laureate F. A. Hayek
In The Constitution of Liberty (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1960)
December 13th, 2005 at 9:39 amOur House of Representatives, who are representative of no one except the reichwing, are considering a bill to cut taxes for the rich by another 95 billion, but will not even consider a 32 billion request to re-build the levees in New Orleans.
Anybody see anything wrong with that? I sure and the hell do.
December 13th, 2005 at 9:49 am1) they aren’t cutting anything, they’re lowering the rate of growth.
2) Does this idiot really think giving people freebies encourages work? ROFL
December 13th, 2005 at 10:06 amIt is playing out favorably in the print media here in N. Cal. They are portraying it as extending tax cuts to THE MOST WEALTHY citizens at the expense of Medicare, Student Loans and pre-school. So that part looks good.
The talking points I see from the righty sites I visit are that the left wants to take away the tax cuts that have proven to be what has generated the economic expansion and engine that bushco has blessed us with. So, they are whipping themselves into a frenzy by preaching (complete lies) to their choir, but it doesn’t seem to be playing outside that sphere. No doubt some righty TV media is carrying their water, but I don’t watch that, so I couldn’t tell you.
So our side looks good now. But having the public on our side won’t automatically translate into getting the votes we want in congress. Repubs from mixed districts are nervous. We need to light a fire under their asses showing if they want to continue to represent that district, they have to act out their constituents desires rather than follow bushco’s. We also need to keep the pressure on Dem’s as they are kind of wishy washy all too often and we don’t want them to cave too quickly (which we still don’t understand why they do that, but they do that).
December 13th, 2005 at 10:10 amwwallybaby – do you think your talking points, insults and lies work here? I suspect that when we were all standing in lines for our genes, someone cut into the corndog line a few times instead of standing in the lines for brains.
December 13th, 2005 at 10:13 amIgnore the trolls. It is just useless to respond to idiocy. When they have a valid argument and not just stupidity, we should respond in kind. Freebies? Just stupidity with no thought in that statement. Food stamps are great fun. Idiocy.
December 13th, 2005 at 10:16 amkindness — do you think your talking points, insults and lies work here? I suspect they generally do in left-wing circles such as this, since liberals have nothing else to offer.
December 13th, 2005 at 10:21 amTypical
December 13th, 2005 at 10:29 amRight-Winger –
Obnoxious and offpoint,
Ludicrous,
Laughable
kindness — do you think your talking points, insults and lies work here? I suspect they generally do in left-wing circles such as this, since liberals have nothing else to offer.
Comment by wwallace
If it wasn’t for the “insults” (the truth about you) you’d get no attention at all.
December 13th, 2005 at 10:44 amYou’d think that with the GDP up as it is, Americans would feel more secure about their place in the U.S. economy. But, when you consider that the real median income (i.e. the income of households in the middle of the income distribution), adjusted for inflation, has fallen for the last five years, you can understand unease felt by many.
The economic policies of the Bush Administration only benefit large businesses and the affluent.
December 13th, 2005 at 10:46 amThe White House is increasingly frustrated by Americans’ continued pessimism with the President’s handling of the economy. Perhaps President Bush can find some solace that he seems to draw his greatest support in precisely those states where conditions are the worst for American workers.
For the full story, see:
“Bush and the Wages of Spin.”
December 13th, 2005 at 10:49 amThe White House is increasingly frustrated by Americans’ continued pessimism with the President’s handling of the economy. Perhaps President Bush can find some solace that he seems to draw his greatest support in precisely those states where conditions are the worst for American workers.
For the full story, see:
“Bush and the Wages of Spin.â€
Comment by AvengingAngel — December 13, 2005
Proof positive that the GOP agenda breeds a nation of idiots without enough sense to come in out of the rain. They rely on it.
December 13th, 2005 at 10:52 am#19 and this is what they ultimately want here – ATTENTION. They are obviously starved for it. It takes a certain type of person to come to a party they weren’t invited to. Ah well, we will let them in. They are useful tools to show what some folks actually will believe.
December 13th, 2005 at 11:14 amIt’s a war on work. The Pentagon increases its budget by one hundred billion dollars. The money must come from somewhere, three billion here and there from the budget, and voila, instant hundred billion for the Department of Defense.
Americans must make sacrifices to help support the war on terror.
One of those sacrifices is work. Quit working and join the military. That’s where the money is.
It’s like they’re holding a gun on the slave/taxpayers… hey wait… they are.
Support our troops, long live George Bush. Don’t listen to the Evil Spaniards observations, even if they represent the truth, it’s anti Bush and left wing propaganda.
Be a good murkan and support the troops. Fight the good fight and support the war on terror. Everybody must cut back on their consumption of oil, energy, food, money (send the government more money, they need it, they’re running a hefty deficit). Eat less. Make it a mass movement for Bush and the war on terror, Christmas, work, or whatever. Altogether, it’s a war on the American people and the American people support it! The Rich are excluded, of course.
The Bush Cabal is leading us down the road to Hell, and everybody is looking forward to the trip!
Now get out there and send more money to Warshington.
December 13th, 2005 at 11:30 am#19 and this is what they ultimately want here – ATTENTION. They are obviously starved for it. It takes a certain type of person to come to a party they weren’t invited to. Ah well, we will let them in. They are useful tools to show what some folks actually will believe.
Comment by progressive and proud
There is a good chance some of them are paid to be here. Most are volunteers but there is no doubt some of the bigger sites have paid GOP trolls.
December 13th, 2005 at 11:35 amAvenging Angel
That story and poll seemed to be developed with the end result in mind … here are the vectors.
The Work Environment Index (WEI) rates the quality of Americans’ working lives by a weighting of three factors: job opportunities, job quality, and job fairness. Job Opportunities includes the statewide unemployment rates, the duration of unemployment, and the percentage of “involuntary” part-timers. Job Quality refers to average wages (importantly, adjusted for the cost of living) and the proportion of workers receiving health and pension benefits. Job Fairness measures each state’s percentage of low-wage workers (an indicator of income inequality), pay differential between men and women, minimum wage levels, collective bargaining rules and importantly, whether it is a “right to work” state. (So-called “right to work” states prohibit workers from being required to join a trade union as a condition of employment.)
This WEI is developed by the PERI as a “unique social indicator” to define the qaulity of the nations work life … good enough. However, the inclusion of some vectors reflected the idealogy of the surveyors and are not included in other polls of this nature.
1) The proportion of workers recieving health and pension benefits – this vector can skew results because if there is a higher proportion of a) young workers b) poor workers and c) agricultural workers there will be fewer “hits”. The jobs that offer health and pension benefits tend to be of a “professional” nature … “professional” jobs are not the ONLY good jobs though.
2) Percentage of low wage workers – if your state has fewer poor … your state will score better … but the presence of poor people is not neccessarily proof of a poor job environment. (This vector also produced a curious lack of minorites – top states Deleware, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Vermont and Iowa)
3) Collective bargaining rules and “right to work” (also called “right to fire”) states automatically unfairly hurts the south and the midwest … period … the inclusion of this vector 1) assumes that these ideas are detrimental and 2) effectively limits many of the states that are historically republican.
Most of the other vectors seem fair … if I created a poll that included items that I felt were detrimental to family and included items like 1) number of divorces to popultaion 2) number of abortions to population 3) duration of sentences imposed on child offenders 4) etc. I would likely get a poll that would indeed prove to me that the “blue” states were more detrimental (I just randomly chose those vectors, don’t attack those please).
While this poll is scientific, it is filled with the pre-conceptions and opinions that the pollers.
December 13th, 2005 at 11:37 amOK, OK – I’m sorry I retorted to wwallybaby. He doesn’t merit the kind of coverage we’re giving him.
How about we talk about how we can influence the fence sitters in congress? That’d be way more useful.
December 13th, 2005 at 11:39 amThanks Ryan. My faith is restored.
December 13th, 2005 at 11:40 am#26
December 13th, 2005 at 11:40 amI learned my lesson a couple of days of ago trying to have fact-based discussion w/ Wally: what a waste of time and bandwidth.
#28
December 13th, 2005 at 11:51 amThanks for the link, Ryan.
Liberal states have lower divorce rates – bet you didn’t know that since you formed an ‘opinion’ once again without facts.
1) I believe I said, “I just randomly chose those vectors, don’t attack those please”.
2) That wasn’t the point … as usual, you attack the method and not the point.
3) Bible belt states have some of the highest divorce rates … doesn’t mean that Christians do … In addition, Catholics are Christian too.
Could you, for once, argue the merits of WHAT I’m saying overall instead of nitpicking one particular part? Please?
December 13th, 2005 at 11:53 amOk, Jacko, here is where you lost me
2) Percentage of low wage workers – if your state has fewer poor … your state will score better … but the presence of poor people is not neccessarily proof of a poor job environment. (This vector also produced a curious lack of minorites – top states Deleware, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Vermont and Iowa)
Fewer % of poor people indicates a good environment for jobs, right? If everyone has a job but they are all the $6/hr McJob variety, what good are the jobs?
I don’t understand what you’re trying to say. And I have no clue what the minority thing is all about.
3) Collective bargaining rules and “right to work†(also called “right to fireâ€) states automatically unfairly hurts the south and the midwest … period … the inclusion of this vector 1) assumes that these ideas are detrimental and 2) effectively limits many of the states that are historically republican.
Aren’t these things “quality of work life” issues? If you can’t get a decent job and can be fired on a whim, and have no union protection, doesn’t that mean that the job environment is of lesser quality? I think it quite fairly penalizes the south for its anti-labor bias.
December 13th, 2005 at 12:08 pmThat’s because the GDP has to do with industrial output, and not income for the entire nation.
GDP = C + I + G + NX
or
GDP = Private Consumption + Business Investments + Government Expenditures (on final G & S) + Net Exports
While Ryan is correct that GDP is not a measure for standard of living and, instead, a monitor for certain types of economic growth or decline, he’s incorrect that the growth is “centered” in housing (housing certainly has grown though) and that the GDP is about industrial output.
Current factors influencing GDP are services (79%), industry (20%) and agriculture (1%) … please note industry is 1/5 of our GDP. Professional, technical, sales, office, and other are the “services” most growing. Government spending, as we all lament, is also way up (but only includes final goods and services (like military equipment). Business investments is also close to all time highs.
December 13th, 2005 at 12:14 pmTrolls are funny. Thanks for the FACTS, Ryan.
December 13th, 2005 at 12:23 pmAll Bush wants to do is widen the gap between rich and poor so he can get even more millionaires behind him against the ever louder cry for government assistance from the poor. Paul Krugman, another critic of Bush’s policies already described it as Shutzpah. Shutzpah’s origin definition means pleading for clemency cuz you’re an orphan, after having murdered your parents.And so Bush and Cheney try to kill social security by first making sure the government doesn’t even get the money they need to give this social security to the poor, and using this as the excuse for cutting back government spending. “The rich don’t need to pay taxes but the poor can’t expect any more support from the government now, the big beast hasn’t got any money left!”, says Bush to undereducated America.
December 13th, 2005 at 12:24 pmYou are correct, Ryan. My mother is out of work, but IS NOT on unemployment. One reason is because the effort and michigas that goes into trying to get unemployment benefits is ridiculous. The other reason is she left her job. She was in a position that was quite dangerous and I would rather her not continue such a career. So, another slipping through the cracks.
To sum up, she is not counted as umemployed, but her income is greatly missed during this HOLIDAY season.
Trolls have no clue what is really going on as they sit in front of the tv or peruse sites like this one to hurl some insults and try to make themselves feel bigger and stronger than they actually are.
Always a pleasure hearing the trolls talk of unemployment. Keep up the intelligent works, gang.
December 13th, 2005 at 12:43 pmMBA, huh? Down here at UT they have classes on barbequeing. I’m unimpressed with degrees, any dumbass can get one. Hell, look at our admin.
December 13th, 2005 at 12:45 pmI think Giacomo is a decent Christian, Ryan. He’s not as bad as IRI who is a crypto-dominionist. All dominionists are crypto, but Giacomo is a decent Christian. Lighten up on him a bit on that score. His economics are the place you can school him. Just my opinion.
December 13th, 2005 at 12:52 pmThe pugs want it both ways. They want us to spend our money on x-mas gifts at their lousy stores while making it impossible for folks to afford their lousy products.
Sorry pugs, you can’t profit from folks who have nothing to spend.
December 13th, 2005 at 1:12 pm#45 P&P, I too am not counted in the unemployment statistics. When I was laid off over a 1 year ago I collected unemployment for 6 months. I’ve had zero income since, yet, statistically I am employed. I’m not alone either, I can count at least 10 people I know personally who are in my position.
I wish someone would tell me where I work and how much I earn. When is my paydate? I need some food.
December 13th, 2005 at 1:17 pmLoud and clear, Susan. Ah well, I’ll take care of my own -a lesson this admin needs to learn.
December 13th, 2005 at 1:32 pm“I think Giacomo is a decent Christian, Ryan.” KC
People like GeoMetro are the worst, because they’re like the ‘closet rascists’, who don’t mean to be, but are by self induced ignorance. As an educated person, he should know better, and yet seems to be largely as ignorant and opinionated as the psycho trolls.
I’d love to ‘educate’ him, but unfortunately he’s shown that he’s ignorant by choice, and even in the face of overwhelming evidence that discredits his whacko values, he doesn’t admit he’s wrong, or become less ignorant. That in my opinion in many ways is worse than the whacko troll like MizzWrong that you know is psychologically disturbed. At least I can write him off as a medical illness, and not just a self induced sociological moron like GeoMetro is.
December 13th, 2005 at 1:36 pmP&P,
I told him that a “McBurglerAssociate” was not an MBA, but I don’t think he found it very funny :()
December 13th, 2005 at 1:37 pmPeople like GeoMetro are the worst because they’re like the ‘closet rascists’, who don’t mean to be, but are by self induced ignorance
I have to take issue with this last statement since it is beyond the pale.
1) Saying someone is “like” a racist doesn’t make the statement any better … believing someone to be ignorant is fine but likening that to a vile level of delusional hate is in very bad form.
2) Many times, I have conceded points when those points were made in a reasonable, scientific and or logical way (the statue in the square of Saddam being “toppled” being a show is the most recent example) … to say that “evidence is overwhelming” is just a turn of phrase and only reflects your opinion on such evidence. I can be perfectly intelligent and informed AND arrive at a different conclusion based on same or similar facts (as those that you have to arrice at your conclusion).
3) Why is it so hard to conceive that I can be intelligent, informed AND arrive at different conclusions than you …
To be fair, I did laugh at the McBurglerAssociate = MBA comment.
December 13th, 2005 at 2:05 pmPeople like GeoMetro are the worst, because they’re like the ‘closet rascists’, who don’t mean to be, but are by self induced ignorance. As an educated person, he should know better, and yet seems to be largely as ignorant and opinionated as the psycho trolls.
Ryan Neat
I just think, (to use the parlance of espionage, or dare I say it, Star Wars, if you like) that he can be turned, if you are a bit more patient with him and respectful of his world view, which we can agree we don’t share. He is not like the others, in my opinion, he just shares part of that world view and that, our view of things, is not something that any of us give up lightly or easily. It’s a major change.
December 13th, 2005 at 4:34 pmI could be wrong. I’m not like Bush. I do make mistakes.
December 13th, 2005 at 4:39 pm#54
December 13th, 2005 at 5:10 pmWhile I don’t agree with Giacomo on most issues, I do appreciate that he refrains from launching personal attacks when he posts. As Pooty Tang’s dad says, “You have to give respect to get it, Pooty.”
After viewing “The High Cost of a Low Price” (The Walmart Movie) I have to wonder how Walmart feels about the pugs cutting food stamps and child care benefits.
Around 50% of Walmart employees depend on these benefits.
Would a job at Walmart be attractive if Walmart personel could no longer guide employees to the Department of Human Services?
December 13th, 2005 at 5:56 pmNot to mention where those food stamps end up- in the cash registers at Walmart.
Food stamps are not only a welfare program for the poor- they are a welfare program for farmers and grocery stores.
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I have to say, that I could not agree with you in 100%, but it’s just my opinion, which could be wrong.
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April 5th, 2008 at 6:30 amDimple
It is unfortunate to see how many blog comments and forum posts that instead of focusing on what someone said the discussion turns into an off topic conversation about nothing.
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April 7th, 2008 at 12:25 amCatherine
One should guard against preaching to young people success in the customary form as the main aim in life. The most important motive for work in school and in life is pleasure in work, pleasure in its result and the knowledge of the value of the result …
April 8th, 2008 at 4:21 am