Oh, this is amazing. Now the conservatives are going to start creating liberals. The regular folks who've voted for them, believing...whatever regular people who vote for people who want to screw you believe..are now being told they're just not paying enough.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/847999.asp?0cl=c3#BODY

Using the new government math this all seems very proper and logical to me.

Get less votes, win the presidential election.

Get money from people who don't have it.

Use your Visa to pay your Mastercard.

What don't you understand about this Pat??

Unbelievable. Them damn poor folks--they're just keepin the rich folks down. I think we're going to start seeing some major Repub overreaches in the next year. The pendulum hopefully will stop around 04.

Gore No More. I was really surprised. Now I guess the Dems will have a fresh face. PLEASE GOD, anybody, but please NOT Joe Lieberman! That slow, whiny, patronizing speech of his is just guaranteed to be un-electable under any circumstances.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
Them damn poor folks--they're just keepin the rich folks down.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I do believe you've come up with GW's next campaign slogan, lcj. <img src="http://www.arlo.net/ubb/smilies/smile.gif" width=15 height=15> Nice of you, but even nicer is the Republicans taking time out of their busy schedules to write the Democrats' platform plank by plank.

I don't know who I'm hoping will get the nomination now. I'm not sure who I was hoping for before Gore dropped out for that matter. I just know it's got to be someone dripping with lowbrow good ol' boy charisma. It can be a smart person, but not someone who sounds too smart.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by pat:


It can be a smart person, but not someone who sounds too smart.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Well, it sounds like Larry's got the election sewed up! <img src="http://www.arlo.net/ubb/smilies/smile.gif" width=15 height=15>

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Pat Rainey:

Well, it sounds like Larry's got the election sewed up! <img src="http://www.arlo.net/ubb/smilies/smile.gif" width=15 height=15><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Exactly! He only seems to want to run for the Senate, though.

I'd vote for Larry for Mayor of the USA... that's what he's running for, isn't it?
Or is that what he's running from?

To elect a dumb guy that sounds dumb will give us what we already have, George W. Bush.

To elect a smart guy that sounds smart will give us a boring guy that people might have a hard time understanding, and we can't have that.

To appear somewhat smart and talk not so smart and even stupid at times is not only the strategy of The Confusion Party, it's part of our platform.

goddam I love a good party!!!!!!!

what the world needs now is a chicken in every pot, and confusion in every mind!

Chicken soup for the stomach...
SO for the soul...

as the behind of the candidate, I can assure you that he will grab the bull by the tail and face the situation!!!!!
<FONT size="4">Vote Larry! Vote Often!!</FONT s>

damn! If we don't have some of the best elections around here!!!!!!

<img src="http://www.arlo.net/ubb/smilies/naughty.gif" width=15 height=15>

Now for something back on the topic.

A fair tax system would work for everyone, but what makes for a fair tax?

Which then begs the other question, what is a fair wage?

I know that the federal goverment pays it's workers less here in the south then they do in other parts of the country, they say it is based on the cost of living and the fact that they must pay the workers a wage suitable for the area in order to gain employees.

It seems to me that there are any number of people who are being overpaid. The movies and sports stars are making millions and every cent of it comes from the pocket of the working class.

Perhaps there ought to be a cap placed on earnings, a point that is reached where any other income is returned to the people.
Bill Gates earned a good life but when he is so very rich, it seems that his income is beyond reasonable, and all that income again is coming out of the pockets of the working class.

There should be an accounting of the tax dollar spent, perhaps instead of million dollar bombs, we could spend only nine hundred thousand on the bomb and a little more could be paid to the man who puts his life on the line. It seems fair to me that such a man deserves to feed his family without food stamps.

The war on Terror is way over budget, security is over rated, over priced and what the terrorist were unable to do, the goverment is trying to do for them. that being making the american people less free.

The war on drugs is killing the working class, but if we made drugs legal our prisons would be empty, our courts would be clear and the cops could walk the beat without a gun. What to do with all rhose unemployed prison staff?

Somehow it just seems wrong that so many CEO's are making millions of dollars a year while the company is going bankrupt, then during the bankrupty, accountants are getting still more millions while taking over what is left of the company, and who pays for all this, the working class.


Pimps and drug dealers have had it easy for way too long, make these things legal, tax them, empty the prisons and let us reduce taxes to the working class big time.

It is also my belief that no one should make more then say, one million dollars a year, I mean really, is'nt that fair? We could take the national average wage of the working class and then say that no one could earn more then the total lifetime earning of the working class in any one year. Again it limits the income of the rich, but so what?

Okay, I have had mmy say, now I will go along with the rest of you and vote for larry.

Nathan, IMO most of your points are valid, particularly about CEOs raking it in while the company is going bankrupt, however some of your other statements are not.

You seem to be assuming that this vast working class has the same skills, abilities, and work ethics. Tain't so. Fair wages should take into account a number of factors--including the cost of living in a given area. I think maybe you've lumped the working poor--which is a whole 'nother issue, with the working class (of which I'm part) and confused fair wages with living wages.

Anyway, it isn't only the government that uses a different pay scale depending on the part of the country. Ever notice how many manufacturing plants are in the boonies?

From reading your post, I get the feeling that you think there is a finite pot of money out there and that if the rich get richer, it leaves less money for the taking for the working class.

It does seem that certain folks (movie, TV, and sports stars for example) make too much money ... but then again, so what. No one forces me to buy tickets to sports events, watch Friends, or buy whatever is being the sponsor's products.

And sorry, my friend, no one gets to tell me that I can't dream big. No caps on my salary please. If I someday discover that something wonderful that just everyone has to have (like Bill Gates did), cool. I will truly enjoy being rich. I will also have created jobs, paid fair wages, etc.

And speaking of earning a fair wage, I'd better get back to work ... more later, probably.

No salary caps, fine, but we definately should have a progressive tax system where the wealthy pay higher rates, similar to some of our wiser Euro friends. And the very wealthy pay MUCH higher percentages. This doesn't cap anything. Norway still has VERY rich people. They still have businessmen who want to work hard and innovate. And get rich. Not everyone is lazy, a charge that conservatives love to make about such a system.

Meanwhile, they have societies where people actually have a safety net. They consistantly have a higher standard of living than we do. And before someone says "well then go there if you like it so much!", all I can say is, I'd love to. But I have family commitments here. And frankly, I'd rather work at changing America to be more like our wiser Scandy friends. I want to work to save America from destructive conservative policies.

Also, for an excellant book about the plight of America's invisable working poor, I again recommend Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickel and Dimed."

Where do we go from here? Is it possible to get people to stop patronizing sporting events where athletes are way way overpaid? What about concerts? I guess some people think of sports events the way we think of Arlo shows--worth the price being asked, whatever that price is. There are performers I would (and have) pay quite a bit to see in a live show, but it bugs me to pay $30 to go see a mediocre sports team. I don't have an answer, just an observation.

I agree with pam that we shouldn't necessarily cap salaries, but I also agree with Nathen that there is a point at which someone wouldn't need any more money. I don't want to be the one to decide what that point is, though.

Yes, well, I guess, that if a person wanted to be reasonable, they would have to agree with both lcj and pamramadama, however since when have we decided to be reasonable?

I have seen in history many times where the very rich got that way on the backs of the working poor, they then offer up great gifts to show how generous they are.

I have no objection to the rich but I think that any enterprise should reward each according to thier deeds. Never should the owner of a company be making millions while his workers (the source of his weath) are living in poverty.

I think teachers are underpaid, I think the nurses are also underpaid, and many others who work so hard and still live payday to payday, it just does not seem fair.

I look at a company like United Airlines and the wages paid to the pilots just seems so very unreasonable. The company is going bankrupt and it is still paying it's pilots over $800.00 an hour, more the twice the rate paid at other airlines.

but what the heck, I sell my walking sticks for a lot more then anyone else does so who am I to talk.....okay the quality is better, and each is unique, but I can understand that sometimes quality does merit a higher cost, but I am going to draw the line at $10,000 a stick, no matter what.........