LGP Political Discussion Thread

[MWB]

So unions are all made up of unskilled laborers?

[doublem]

Oh, how I do love the political beauty of envy!

Fact is, the problem with unskilled labor is that anyone can do it. CEOs make what they make because they've acquired a skillset.

I don't think the recent economic troubles we have been in is a good case for CEOs having an acquired skill set. They are managers.

[tonysoprano]

Oh, how I do love the political beauty of envy!

Fact is, the problem with unskilled labor is that anyone can do it. CEOs make what they make because they've acquired a skillset.

I don't think the recent economic troubles we have been in is a good case for CEOs having an acquired skill set. They are managers.

I don't think you have a very good handle on the cause for the recent economic troubles. The problems wasn't a lack of a skillset. The problem was an abuse of the powers provided by said skillset.

[tonysoprano]

So unions are all made up of unskilled laborers?

I definitely made a generalization. The NFLPA certainly isn't made up of unskilled laborers.

[MWB]

So unions are all made up of unskilled laborers?

I definitely made a generalization. The NFLPA certainly isn't made up of unskilled laborers.

Many unions require that you have some sort of skill to be a member of, not just football or baseball or hockey. Being skilled at something doesn't always equate to having the most money.

[ExPatriatePen]

They're an antiquated abrasive cash grab, and nothing more.

Exactly! If it weren't for unions, we could go back to the glorious days when only ownership and management made abrasive cash grabs! Why, as recently as 1965 CEOs made an average of 24 times the salary of an average worker. By 2005, thanks to the pernicious money-grabbing power of our union overlords, that figure had been cut to a mere 262 times what an average worker makes! ARGH! It makes me so MAD!

So because Management abuses the system, everyone should be able to abuse the system.

Fix the management abuse, Fix the Union abuse. Hell, just fix the abuse regardless of who it is.

[HomerPenguin]

So unions are all made up of unskilled laborers?

Sure, bunch of goon hacks. They couldn't possibly figure out how to to all the...things a CEO does, whereas I'm quite certain that, say, the CEO of GM could go down on the line and put together a complete car with his bare hands. No wonder these peons are only worth 1/262 of a CEO, if that.

[doublem]

Oh, how I do love the political beauty of envy!

Fact is, the problem with unskilled labor is that anyone can do it. CEOs make what they make because they've acquired a skillset.

I don't think the recent economic troubles we have been in is a good case for CEOs having an acquired skill set. They are managers.

I don't think you have a very good handle on the cause for the recent economic troubles. The problems wasn't a lack of a skillset. The problem was an abuse of the powers provided by said skillset.

Okay, but maybe it isn't a great time to make a spirited defense of the mega rich.

[pittsoccer33]

I've never been hired for a job by a poor person.

[doublem]

I've never been hired for a job by a poor person.

And? So that is always why I hear middle class people defending actions of the criminal mega rich. Even when it could cost them.

[doublem]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/09/ ... 7326.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Godfather of the Neocons died. Important figure in the second half of the 20th century.

[tonysoprano]

Okay, but maybe it isn't a great time to make a spirited defense of the mega rich.

Your problem is that you confuse a defense of capitalism as a defense of the mega rich.

[tonysoprano]

I've never been hired for a job by a poor person.

And? So that is always why I hear middle class people defending actions of the criminal mega rich. Even when it could cost them.

Actually, people defend the idea of the rich. The fact that a few CEO's make horrid selfish decision isn't an indication that the overall population of these CEO's do these underhanded things, despite what CNN would have you believe. In fact, one of the biggest concerns of a CEO is keeping their company's taxes down. One of the ways to go about this is by taking your profits and paying out a discretionary contribution to the employees of the company - it happens day in and day out. Amazingly, this is never reported on by anyone.

It's time to realize that employees and higher ups live a pretty symbiotic relationship, and that most CEOs in this day and age realize that. You can't be a successful business if you don't treat your employees right.

[doublem]

Okay, but maybe it isn't a great time to make a spirited defense of the mega rich.

Your problem is that you confuse a defense of capitalism as a defense of the mega rich.

No, I don't. I am a capitalism. I don't know many people that aren't, it works, but it needs some regulation to keep the self interest of people from destroying the entire thing. People seem to think that maximizing self interest is good, but it won't lead to greed or huge inequalities if let under the magical invisible hand.

[doublem]

I've never been hired for a job by a poor person.

And? So that is always why I hear middle class people defending actions of the criminal mega rich. Even when it could cost them.

Actually, people defend the idea of the rich. The fact that a few CEO's make horrid selfish decision isn't an indication that the overall population of these CEO's do these underhanded things, despite what CNN would have you believe. In fact, one of the biggest concerns of a CEO is keeping their company's taxes down. One of the ways to go about this is by taking your profits and paying out a discretionary contribution to the employees of the company - it happens day in and day out. Amazingly, this is never reported on by anyone.

It's time to realize that employees and higher ups live a pretty symbiotic relationship, and that most CEOs in this day and age realize that. You can't be a successful business if you don't treat your employees right.

Who exactly is attacking capitalism on any mainstream networks? Def. isn't fox news, msnbc, cnbc, cnn? It's an indication that people need checks, just like we have checks in government, so things don't get out of control we need checks in the private sector. Really? Yet, the inequality between the rich and the poor keep getting larger. The symbiotic relationship between other CEOs and government keeps getting closer, but the gap between employees, and CEOs I'm pretty sure is widening.

[tonysoprano]

Who exactly is attacking capitalism on any mainstream networks? Def. isn't fox news, msnbc, cnbc, cnn? It's an indication that people need checks, just like we have checks in government, so things don't get out of control we need checks in the private sector. Really? Yet, the inequality between the rich and the poor keep getting larger. The symbiotic relationship between other CEOs and government keeps getting closer, but the gap between employees, and CEOs I'm pretty sure is widening.

I wonder how much of that "gap" between the CEOs and the employees has to do with their being...more frigging employees. Amazingly, there's still only 1 CEO. I'm sure at one point when there were 3,000 employees at GM and a CEO and 1 CEO, the discrepancy may not have been quite as big. Now that there are 250,000 employees, holy hell! Ther nervoe of them not paying everyone $80k a year to work an assembly line. Nevermind that there's any extra how many people not making minimum wage thanks to the growth of the company.

And I'm not sure anything in that second post you quoted mentioned anything about capitalism. I think it was talking more about generalization, whereby CNN reported that this one CEO was a real scumbag, so they must all be out to screw the employees. It's a joke.

I'm sure it's much better to assume like HomerPenguin that a CEO couldn't figure out how to bolt on the same part 800 times a day on an assembly line though.

[doublem]

The numbers just keep going up.

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNe ... W520090917" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[bh]

The numbers just keep going up.

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNe ... W520090917" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

They sure do!
http://www.usdebtclock.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[eddysnake]

I'm not picking on Fox News, because cable news are all bad and they all do this I'm sure, but it's pretty funny...

[youtube][/youtube]

http://gawker.com/5363771/relatively-in ... eo-scandal

http://mediamatters.org/blog/200909180037

[DelPen]

And I am proud to say that the United States has done more to promote clean energy and reduce carbon pollution in the last eight months than at any other time in our history.

Come on man, really? In what way is this even close to being true? Can anyone point to even one single inovation or policy enacted that has done aything close to doing what he is claiming? How many times is he going to be allowed say whatever pops into his head and when it's as absurd as this, when is the media going to call him on it?

Anyone want to argue that the invention of the catalytic converter has done the most to curtail carbon pollution in the histry of the world all the way back in 1975? Maybe Barry was off in a madrasa in Indonesia where they didn't have a lot of cars so maybe he missed this.

[doublem]

I'm not picking on Fox News, because cable news are all bad and they all do this I'm sure, but it's pretty funny...

[youtube][/youtube]

http://gawker.com/5363771/relatively-in ... eo-scandal

http://mediamatters.org/blog/200909180037

Don't worry he was punished.

[eddysnake]

Don't worry he was punished.

I'm not worried about punishment, I'm worried about how the news media is losing (or lost) the integrity it should have for the people who watch it. It is really sad and pathetic

[doublem]

Don't worry he was punished.

I'm not worried about punishment, I'm worried about how the news media is losing (or lost) the integrity it should have for the people who watch it. It is really sad and pathetic

Well, I mean look at what "news" channel you are talking about here.

[doublem]

oh no, we are under attack from the Hollywood liberals.

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Ron`]

Damn the unions! If it weren't for them we could be living in a nineteenth century UTOPIA!

Some people are living in the past, unions are weaker than ever. Nobody represents the working class people anymore in this world. They just scheme to skim their incomes....