- Joined
- Mar 11, 2009
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Hold your breath, maybe it'll happen.
I know better...
Hold your breath, maybe it'll happen.
The exceptions might do so, but expecting everyone to bootstrap themselves to riches when they have neither boots nor straps is cruel far beyond being unrealistic.
Individualism also promotes personal responsibility... One is responsible for ones own actions, individual politeness/class/golden rule all fall under this, otherwise you are viewed as rude/etc. and deserve whatever is coming to you.I would usually write off a statement like this as hackery, but really, the Ayn Rand philosophy teaches the literal "virtue of selfishness." Liberalism is a collectivist philosophy, whereas modern conservatives favor individualism over the collective.
I would argue self importance falls under individualism, not collectivism. No responsibility to anybody but yourself is not collectivism, but more of an individualist mindset.
I am not going to argue these people are liberal or conservative. I am just pointing out the flaws in your post.
Yeah, you know I grew up what many would call a somewhat privileged childhood...Father that owned his own business, went to private schools, yet still managed to throw it all down the tubes, and take the hardest possible path....My Dad was very old fashioned, and as a result, when I made the choices I made, in his eyes, I was a man, so I was on my own...Still, even though I had some, hell, a lot of really tough times, I managed to catch on, and make a respectful living, own a home, and send my kids to college...It can be done....I learned when I stopped thinking that the world owed me something, I did better.
Agreed. And I don't know if that's a viable option or not. I'm mostly here to just constantly poke, prod, and bitch about the current system.
Yeah, you know those evil liberals who go around telling kids to give up on their hopes and dreams.
Because you have no actual solutions of your own. :roll:
Hopes and dreams don't improve one's life, hard work, commitment and responsibility do. You can dream all you want, it isn't going to do a damn thing unless you get off your ass and make it happen.
Then why do you whine so much?
Where was I whining?
*Edit:
FYI, I wouldn't consider me pointing out your simple ideas about value and the free market to be just that, simple, to be whining.
I would, considering you seem to have no better ideas of your own. You're just complaining.
maybe you shouldn't use such boilerplate talking point blather, and you might get some better replies...
Contempt? not at all...Hell, I used to be the epitome of 'working poor'.... Hell, at one point the Church gave us Thanksgiving dinner, and that was all we had in the house...So don't tell me...Those "poor people" you speak of also have things like EIC's on their taxes at the end of the year, that all but ensure that not only do they get whatever they paid in income taxes back, but an additional couple thousand as the credit...So, in terms of net taxes paid, they don't, they in fact get money back, or more welfare if you will.
I don't get it. How can we have a problem with single women with kids not making enough money and at the same time not have any sort of problem with people getting back more money then they pay in?
I sorta agree.
I'd much prefer a higher minimum wage, the elimination of all forms of means tested welfare (including the EITC, food stamps, etc), and huge tax cuts on the bottom three income tax brackets (which would also provide a tax cut to the working rich). With the higher minimum wage and lower tax rates, lower income workers wouldn't really need for welfare, all they would need is to get a full time job.
Why do you think you're entitled to someone else's earnings? Because the government took your property to pay other people while you were working? Is that it?
Whereas I did it the other way, I worked hard, I chose to go to a private school and I worked hard to pay for it myself. I went to college and paid every red cent of it out of my own pocket. I worked multiple jobs while going to school full time, I sacrificed because I knew what was important and I ended up being a lot better off than my parents ever were. It can be done because I did it. Of course, the liberals don't want to hear that...
From whose pay am I drawing? And for what purpose? And you don't believe in paying taxes to better your society?
Well, I don't know that at all...It is behavior that drives redistribution. And further, I don't think it is nonsense at all. While I am all for helping those that are down, our current social welfare system is not only bloated, but inefficient at rooting out fraud. How long do you think a society can afford to take care of nearly half of its citizenry while they produce nothing?
SS is NOT a pension, and wasn't supposed to be ever. It was, as far as I understand, supposed to be a supplement to retirement savings. It has however, become many peoples sole retirement income, while the COLA goes up, the contributor pool decreases. Primarily because the investment involved only returns 1% or less over the course of years...We'd be much better off had we just put the money in the stock market and taken our chances...Oh, and don't give me that crap of the recent crash BS. The market has traditionally paid out over 8% even with the downturns.
No, the two are separate. Unless the government is investing in the stock market with our money, and only giving us the scraps...Which I know you know better...Try as you might Jet, you are projecting an anti capitalist screed that would in real world realization fail miserably....We may not have a perfect system in this country, but it is among the best in the world.
Maybe you need a shower?
See, here's where the "hard work and responsibility" argument starts to unravel.
Did you make the choice to attend a private school, pass the entrance requirements, and get enough work to pay for it right after you sprung, fully functional, out of a test tube? Of course not. You had to LEARN how to work hard, and you had to LEARN responsibility. And at least in the beginning, someone had to teach you, didn't they? Most conservatives don't seem to have any idea how many children never get an opportunity to learn any of those things. They can't even conceptualize the world outside their social vacuum.
And why don't they have the "opportunity" to learn any of those things? Who isn't teaching them, and why is it my fault?
Lot's of reasons. Many of which have nothing to do with the individual. That's why us old timers used to say walk a mile in someone's shoes before you criticize that person. And when you are able to see possibilities, they don't really exist for you. I've known that blindness. It's not an easy thing to overcome. Impossible until the vision improves.
Oh, I thought it was so you would be a mile away, and have their shoes. :mrgreen: All joking aside, I see your point. I just wish people would learn to be more responsible and teach their kids these basic principles.
Have a link where I said that?
Didn't think so!
Who's won the messaging war since the election of 2014, US Conservative ?
So you have never shopped at a discount retailer?