• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Consumers Use Credit Cards for Necessities as Inflation Cuts U.S. Incomes

lpast said:
Your the one in for a surprise taylor...the teaparty supporters couldnt get rand paul elected to used prophylactic picker upper....the rich collectively have nothing for votes...when the working class turns on ya...its all down hill....and trust that they WILL eventually...then your teaparty is over
Click to expand...

Isn't the tea party mostly working class?
 
tessaesque said:
I'm not talking about respect. I'm talking about hyperbolic attacks against whomever we feel like attacking because some people have it "rough" right now. Without knowing the circumstances or choices of those who have it rough, it makes no sense and serves no purpose to go around with torches and pitchforks looking for people to blame.
Click to expand...

You were one of the people making judgment calls about those living on credit cards though, so this post is ironic
 
Taylor said:
If you think the tea party is raging now, you're in for a big surprise because you ain't seen nothing yet. This administration's repeated attempts to stimulate the economy have failed to produce significant results and are partly at fault for rising prices. QE has weakened the dollar, and Obama's unprecedented spending and the still lifeless recovery has us in a debt crisis.

Prices are going up and wages are going nowhere (hello 70's?). So what to do about inflation? Typically, you raise interest rates to combat inflation, but that will only exacerbate the debt crisis -- we're already running trillion dollar deficits and an uptick in interest rates will only make things worse. And if you think home prices suck right now, how much do you think climbing interest rates are going to help?

Maybe things will go your way and social security will be "saved" as it keeps paying that $1200 each month. Your delight may be short lived though when you find out that $1200 doesn't buy nearly as much as it used to, your house is worth even less than it is now, and... dare we bring up that nest egg that you were promised would bring a comfortable retirement over decades of compound interest?

I wouldn't want to be Obama right now. Hell, I wouldn't want to be Obama's replacement, either.
Click to expand...

The TP isn't going to get anybody elected either though...
 
Taylor said:
If he's willing to put in a little overtime, he can pull in over $100,000 driving a bus in SF.
Driver salaries fueling deficit | Joshua Sabatini | Local | San Francisco Examiner

Though if he's not much of a people person, I hear the average trash collector still pulls in $75k:
Lockout by Oakland garbage company / Replacement workers hired to pick up trash

Or, if he likes to live dangerously, he can make $150-200k as a firefighter:
San Francisco Firefighter Salaries Grew During Recession « CBS San Francisco
Click to expand...

That's ridiculous and so is your post. Highly doubt there is an opening for her husband to take there, and furthermore, those are very extreme examples.
 
Baralis said:
Lets not forget 120K to be a lifeguard.

Union Defends 13 Calif. Lifeguards Making Over $120,000: ‘Very Fair & Very Reasonable’ | Video | TheBlaze.com

I see greed from both ends of the spectrum. Unions will often inflate wages/benefits beyond a reasonable level imo and corporations will keep wages/benefits as low as possible for the working class while those at the top receive ridicules packages.

They both come out as self serving at the expense of others.
Click to expand...

Most politicians make over 100k too... any of those tea partiers taking pay cuts?
 
Henrin said:
I wasn't. I was telling you pretty bluntly to know where to put blame. You can't expect inflation to be under control when the value of the dollar is falling faster than ever before. When the government just goes around playing with market like its a play thing, and in the process cause everything to cost more you can't just say Oh, its the rich. Lets do a history lesson real quick for you.

When the government played with healthcare throughout the twentieth century they caused every part of it to be very expensive even being responsible for the system the insurance companies use. When the cost actually started to hurt the poor and the eldery like never before they just created Medicare and in predictably raised it again.

You see this bull**** over and over and over again. Even some of the bull**** that people bitch about like power companies not moving forward is because the government pays their bill.

I am completely tired of idiots that can't do any reasonable research telling me the rich are responsible for the **** that happens in this country.
Click to expand...

Everybody is responsible.... the voters and both parties.
 
Henrin said:
Then when its over and the country still crashes because none of you people can stop printing money and stop taking loans. I guess as long as the middle class lives in rainbow land its all good. Until economics 101 shows up. I guess at that point its rioting time instead of reflection time.
Click to expand...

Nobody is really preaching economics here... it's class warfare coming from both sides... :lol:
 
The tea party is a trend for the ignorant...
 
SheWolf said:
That's ridiculous and so is your post. Highly doubt there is an opening for her husband to take there,
Click to expand...
LOL, she wasn't requesting serious leads, you misunderstood the post.
and furthermore, those are very extreme examples.
Click to expand...
God, I sure hope so.
 
SheWolf said:
The tea party is a trend for the ignorant...
Click to expand...
I can see why some might perceive attempts to talk common sense to a bunch of naive, angry leeches as ignorant, but I gotta credit them for at least trying to do something to counter all the spending demanded by the underachievers on the left. You gotta have at least a little compassion SheWolf for people who feel incapable of even buying their own insurance until age 27 and don't know where to turn when Daddy finally takes the credit card away.
 
Taylor said:
I can see why some might perceive attempts to talk common sense to a bunch of naive, angry leeches as ignorant, but I gotta credit them for at least trying to do something to counter all the spending demanded by the underachievers on the left. You gotta have at least a little compassion SheWolf for people who feel incapable of even buying their own insurance until age 27 and don't know where to turn when Daddy finally takes the credit card away.
Click to expand...

The TP message is nothing new, but it's still a trend which is why it looks ignorant to me. It's just the same people with the same damn message, but on steroids. You really think poor, lazy people are to blame for the situation this country is in? I don't know many people who are demanding welfare. I know some people just want to protect medicare and their SS, but instead of having an actual conversation about it, you prefer to scapegoat them, write them off as "leeches," all while dressing up in costumes and waving signs with stupid slogans around.
 
Yeah and I have a question... for all the a damn scapegoating and complaining people do on this board about leeches and the welfare system, when is the last time a Republican ran on actual welfare reform? I honestly think it's just simple scapegoating and distraction. They NEVER propose to do anything about this situation but they always fan the flames, and when it comes to other things like SS and medicare, those are mostly very popular programs that they would NEVER publicly run on destroying. You guys are just being used, and it's the definition of ignorance.
 
tessaesque said:
Really? None at all? People have managed their budgets so well and cut out waste so well and eliminated extraneous expenses SO WELL that they are now so destitute that they cannot pay for "necessities" with anything but credit? Really?

This isn't 1930, stop being a drama queen.
Click to expand...

So tell us all, tessaeque... why is the middle class disappearing? Why are more and more people going into poverty? What is you explanation of this?
Is it because they eat out a lot, have cell phones and drive expensive cars, or is it because their pay has not changed much in the last 25 years?
 
SheWolf said:
when is the last time a Republican ran on actual welfare reform? I honestly think it's just simple scapegoating and distraction. They NEVER propose to do anything about this situation but they always fan the flames,
Click to expand...
In the 90's, with one of the most successful pieces of social legislation in decades. The government was better off, the taxpayer was better off, the economy was better off, and best of all, the former welfare recipients were better off.

All of this despite comparisons to nazi death camps, Ted Kennedy calling it "legislative child abuse," Rangel predicting it would send millions of children into poverty, others democrats proclaiming, "The Republicans! They're coming for the children. They're coming for the poor. They're coming for the sick, the elderly, and the disabled," etc. etc.
 
lpast said:
Consumers in the U.S. are increasingly using credit cards to pay for basic necessities as income gains fail to keep pace with rising food and fuel prices.

Consumers Use Credit Cards for Necessities as Inflation Cuts U.S. Incomes - Bloomberg

The middle class who used to rely on their homes as savings have seen their home value plummet to where their mortgages are higher than worth of their houses..

This is the lowest Ive ever seen the middleclass in my lifetime, the worst postion they have ever been in...and the teaparty keeps RAGING how they need to rip the genitals off public workers and Abolish social security and medicare...

This is the most disgusting display of greed in my lifetime also...and I pray it all backfires and blowsup in their faces.. This is truly dispicable
Click to expand...

well - many issues to point to.

#1: Homes should never be considered 'money in the bank' such as would be literal money in the bank.
#2: Social security and medicare is a different issue than 'the middle class' and 'excessive credit debt' - so comparing the two leads to nowhere pretty quick.
#3: If people are relying on credit cards -then what are they spending their actual money on? Perhaps what should be in order is a willingness to alter ones lifestyle *before* things get bad - a bit of pre-emption might (have) gone a long way for many.
 
SheWolf said:
The TP message is nothing new, but it's still a trend which is why it looks ignorant to me. It's just the same people with the same damn message, but on steroids. You really think poor, lazy people are to blame for the situation this country is in?
Click to expand...
It has nothing to do with them being poor. It's the victim/entitlement/envy mentality. The belief that they are not in control of their lives, that they are victims, that many of their problems are the fault of others, that those with more deserve to be punished because the success they envy could only have come from their own misfortune.

They are the people born in a country full of opportunity who nonetheless stand on the street corner begging for money while a group of immigrants from truly impoverished backgrounds are hard at work repairing the street behind them. One foreman said it best... "sure I'd prefer to hire American citizens, but they're only looking for a job, I need people who are looking for work."
 
Last edited:
Middleground said:
Is it because they eat out a lot, have cell phones and drive expensive cars, or is it because their pay has not changed much in the last 25 years?
Click to expand...
It's because many of the jobs they were paid to perform have become obsolete. Certainly many of the jobs lost in the past few years are never coming back. It may be another decade before we get back down to 5% unemployment.

Kind of makes you want to do everything you can to support innovation and new business opportunities. At least, that's how some of us feel.
 
Taylor said:
It has nothing to do with them being poor. It's the victim/entitlement/envy mentality. The belief that they are not in control of their lives, that they are victims, that many of their problems are the fault of others, that those with more deserve to be punished because the success they envy could only have come from their own misfortune.

They are the people born in a country full of opportunity who nonetheless stand on the street corner begging for money while a group of immigrants from truly impoverished backgrounds are hard at work repairing the street behind them. One foreman said it best... "sure I'd prefer to hire American citizens, but they're only looking for a job, I need people who are looking for work."
Click to expand...

There aren't jobs right now, and in the long term, there won't be jobs because we are outsourcing everything. Why doesn't the TP address that and focus on making this nation an exporter again, instead of an importer?

Furthermore, take a ficking poll. How many people do you seriously think love the idea of capable people just sitting on welfare and collecting money?

It's really a none issue. NOBODY wants to support welfare bums, and yet, the ****ing TP acts like it's the problem of the century.

You're preaching to the choir, and yet you probably think otherwise because it's just conservative scapegoating and distracting.... you vs the lazy bums, right?

I am less concerned about lazy bums than I am about the long term survival of America's economy.
 
SheWolf said:
There aren't jobs right now, and in the long term, there won't be jobs because we are outsourcing everything. Why doesn't the TP address that and focus on making this nation an exporter again, instead of an importer?
Click to expand...
You clearly have no idea what you're talking about. The tea party has been pressuring Obama since they were elected to follow through on his promise to double exports. Unfortunately for them, Obama, and the rest of the country, the democrat party won't act because of pressure from the unions.

SheWolf said:
Furthermore, take a ficking poll. How many people do you seriously think love the idea of capable people just sitting on welfare and collecting money?
Click to expand...
Well, duh. As is often the case, the issue is not whether to do something but how to go about it.
 
SheWolf said:
You were one of the people making judgment calls about those living on credit cards though, so this post is ironic
Click to expand...

living on credit cards is stupid. just like getting an adjustable rate mortgage on a house you can't afford, and then taking out a second mortgage to serve as the downpayment for a vacation home is stupid. We've become an instant-gratification culture, and it's made us do very, very stupid things. like live on credit cards.

The TP isn't going to get anybody elected either though...
Click to expand...

which must have been why Nov 2010 was such a banner election for Democrats...
 
SheWolf said:
Yeah and I have a question... for all the a damn scapegoating and complaining people do on this board about leeches and the welfare system, when is the last time a Republican ran on actual welfare reform?
Click to expand...

the House 2012 budget.

:)
 
Middleground said:
So tell us all, tessaeque... why is the middle class disappearing? Why are more and more people going into poverty? What is you explanation of this?
Is it because they eat out a lot, have cell phones and drive expensive cars, or is it because their pay has not changed much in the last 25 years?
Click to expand...

to the extent that it is, the single determinant factor seems to be the breakdown of the family. as we move more and more into single-parent households, those are the households that, demographically, drop out of the middle and upper middle quintiles. and their pay has indeed gone up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom