Laker_Girl said:
If the people you know have lost their entire life savings in the last 6 years well then, I'd call them lousy investors or I'd summize that they didn't have much in savings to begin with.
Tell that to the workers at Enron.
The economy thriving trickles down, if the rich are doing well so are the not so rich and worker bees.
Funny that I don't see that-- I'm one of those worker bees. If I were working full time at my maximum possible pay, I'd be grossing under $30,000 a year a most. Because I'm in school, and I'm several years off from my maximum pay WITHOUT going into management, which I refuse to do because it is unneeded stress in my life, my top yearly gross at my current amount of hours is half that.
Most corporate ethic I am aware of-- including mine-- focuses on the customer and the bottom line. My corporation is finally waking up that they've been screwing their employees over, and it will take a lot of time before things can get marginally better.
You're just so quick to believe everyone living more than paycheck to paycheck is greedy. Try being more realistic. Taxes are getting paid by the well to do, trust me.
But they're the ones that push most for a tax cut. Tax cuts don't do me a lot of good-- if anything, they'll lower my tax refund. I look forward to that refund.
If you're making less than $50,000.00 a year, which I do by the way, and you've saddled yourself with a bastard factory or choose to live beyond your means (i.e. credit card debt) and can't afford the essentials, whose fault is that exactly? Hm, not mine. I've been hit by everything you've cited but not so much that I couldn't afford to pay them, it's called sacrifice. There are an awful lot of people in this country trying to live champaign lives on beer budget.
And some of us will be straddled with school loans for years after leaving school. Up until now, I've paid for my own schooling, and have for the first time taken out a loan. I hate the notion of owing somebody money. But I can't afford my degree by what I make now-- my parents don't pay for my school, I don't have any scholarships.
My particular degree demands that I have additional expenses-- big ones. I've had to by my own clarinet, the school doesn't have loaners, and my old one is a piece of crap. I bought my own soprano sax, and am paying off an overhaul for another sax. My lessons are another $100-200 per term ON TOP OF tuition.
And I'm at the least expensive public university in my state.
...[W]hat that is is pride. My parents had nothing but an idea and built it and built it and made it successful, so successful they can now afford to live, save, and invest off of it. So successful that they were able to raise four children with it, live in an exclusive neighborhood because of it, belong to an exclusive cuontry club with it, buy each one of their children a car at 16with it, send those kids to the finest colleges they could get into without ever a loan being mentioned. No my friend that's the sweet smell of the American dream realized. If you work hard enough you can achieve it too. The problem we have here is people wanting things handed to them and people like you validating that.
Good for them. Some of us have those dreams but will have much harder time to achieve it.
I've worked for minimum wage and lived on my own while doing it and while it sucks and doesn't afford many luxuries it is absolutely possible. You might have to get a cheaper place,
Still out of my range.
Not a feasible choice for everyone.
eat brown label brand foods,
That I'll agree with.
spend a few more nights home than you'd like,
And pay
them $250/month for rent :roll: (And that's cheaper than anywhere around here)
and not have children you can't afford
That can't be said enough-- different topic, though.
but that's the sacrifice you make when you choose not to get an education or go into a trade such as I did back in the day.
Or the sacrifice that needs to be made even by some people getting an education.
No, no Sarek, after the last fiasco during the Clinton Administration my parents have taken the advantage of having a Republican president and shored up their business, slimmed down the product line and the chow line. My parents' business will provide exactly what it needs to provide for them... and me if I continue to be so lucky. Once again, it's called HARD WORK. You should tell your friends to hop down off of their pity pots and try it sometime.
Or tell them not to get useless degrees like in teaching or music... :roll:
Call it a lifestyle choice if you like, but some of us go into these fields because we genuinely enjoy it, then get screwed over by loans just for the tuition. For the instruments. For the lessons. For the tests.
Education is getting screwed over up here, thanks to both inept school district administrations and private interests screaming 'lower taxes'. State funding of the University System has been slashed.
Our roads are in an abysmal state, from obsolete freeways to deteriorating bridges and roads. One freeway needs to be completely relocated-- where's the money going to come from?
That's right-- taxes.
The measures in our state that would put a cap on state spending and to allow people to use the same tax structure on their state income tax as the ferderal both failed. (70% against spending caps; 63% against tax deductions)
Both the library and school levies in my county passed.
I guess we said yes to more taxes. Hmmm...