Terrible Editorials, Opinion Pieces and Letters to the Editor

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Terrible Editorials, Opinion Pieces and Letters to the Editor

«‹›106 »

Bradylama: Jun 10, 2007; by I Ozma Myself

Bruce Leroy posted:

The most interesting part of this is a letter Franklin wrote to his daughter about the issue.

How eerily prophetic. I wonder what we'd pick as our national bird if we got to re-do it? I'd pick the albatross, which appropriately enough was also known as a "Gooney bird."

# ? Oct 10, 2011 07:53

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 20, 2024 19:20

Mr Interweb: Aug 25, 2004

quote:

The President�s idea is to pay for new government spending and temporary tax cuts by permanently raising taxes by $467 billion over 10 years.

How is that permanent if it's only for 10 years?

# ? Oct 10, 2011 09:52

Deleuzionist: Jul 20, 2010; we respect the antelope; for the antelope is not a mere antelope

CrushedB posted:

This guy has always had an incredibly childish and simplistic outlook on life in all his writing but today's took the cake:

drat "hyenas" and "sloths" used to know their goddamned place in society.

And what of the poor Young Lion. He was so well meaning...

Who's the old lion in this ridiculous thing? LBJ?

# ? Oct 10, 2011 10:05

Terror Sweat: Mar 15, 2009

Mr Interweb posted:

How is that permanent if it's only for 10 years?

The taxes don't get raised all at once. They get raised over 10 years, I presume.

# ? Oct 10, 2011 17:34

duck monster: Dec 15, 2004

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/frame_game/2011/10/mitt_romney_s_mormon_cult_controversy_anti_mormonism_is_the_prej.html

quote:

Latter-Day Sins
"Why don�t we challenge anti-Mormonism? Because it�s the prejudice of our age."

On the side bar its listed as "Is anti-Mormoinism a bigger problem than racism".

Total whitepeople.txt territory here.

# ? Oct 10, 2011 17:50

Salvor_Hardin: Sep 13, 2005; I want to go protest.; Nap Ghost

Terror Sweat posted:

The taxes don't get raised all at once. They get raised over 10 years, I presume.

Except that makes no sense since the figure cited is a fixed amount, not a rate. This means that once the fixed amount is obtained, the original rate would be resumed.

# ? Oct 10, 2011 19:10

Taerkar: Dec 7, 2002; kind of into it, really

Deleuzionist posted:

Who's the old lion in this ridiculous thing? LBJ?

Reagan of course. It's ALWAYS Reagan.

# ? Oct 10, 2011 19:21

Strudel Man: May 19, 2003; ROME DID NOT HAVE ROBOTS, FUCKWIT

Mr Interweb posted:

How is that permanent if it's only for 10 years?

Raising taxes permanently by a percentage that will yield $467 billion per decade, or $46.7 billion/year.

# ? Oct 10, 2011 19:37

redmercer: Sep 15, 2011; by Fistgrrl

duck monster posted:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/frame_game/2011/10/mitt_romney_s_mormon_cult_controversy_anti_mormonism_is_the_prej.html

On the side bar its listed as "Is anti-Mormoinism a bigger problem than racism".

Total whitepeople.txt territory here.

"Those poor persecuted Mormons!" --Someone who has never been to Utah or Idaho

# ? Oct 11, 2011 00:57

Amarkov: Jun 21, 2010

I mean, anti-Mormonism is a problem, as any form of discrimination is. I think that editorial would be perfectly reasonable if they didn't have the "and also look at how much better black people have it" message.

# ? Oct 11, 2011 01:01

Urban Space Cowboy: Feb 15, 2009; All these Coyote avatars...they make me nervous...like somebody's pulling a prank on the entire forum!

From the Occupy America thread, a student-written editorial that starts off

quote:

The very exclusive 1 percent that Occupy Wall Street attacks became that 1 percent because it worked hard.

And thus, I have not so endearingly nicknamed the protesters the "Wall Street Whiners."

and just keeps getting worse from there.

# ? Oct 11, 2011 01:01

duck monster: Dec 15, 2004

Urban Space Cowboy posted:

From the Occupy America thread, a student-written editorial that starts off
and just keeps getting worse from there.

It could be worse. The occupy perth group, which is part of organizing the CHOGM convergence's facebook pages etc have been completely run over by oval office libertarians and larouchite conspiracy theorists.

Seriously crazies, nobody gives a poo poo if Rothwell owns some dumb american bank. Its not very important.

Needless to say the local activists are despairing a bit over it.

# ? Oct 11, 2011 01:13

Kieselguhr Kid: May 16, 2010; WHY USE ONE WORD WHEN SIX FUCKING PARAGRAPHS WILL DO?

(If this post doesn't passive-aggressively lash out at one of the women in Auspol please send the police to do a welfare check.)

duck monster posted:

It could be worse. The occupy perth group, which is part of organizing the CHOGM convergence's facebook pages etc have been completely run over by oval office libertarians and larouchite conspiracy theorists.

Here's my conspiracy theory: The government makes up conspiracy theories to short-circuit activism by flooding protests with utter drips.

# ? Oct 11, 2011 01:37

Huitzil: May 25, 2010; by elpintogrande

Kieselguhr Kid posted:

Here's my conspiracy theory: The government makes up conspiracy theories to short-circuit activism by flooding protests with utter drips.

The only conspiracy is the conspiracy to make it appear as if there is only one conspiracy.

Also thinking that any time a bad thing happens it must have been deliberate and covert action on behalf of a powerful malicious party is the definition of paranoia, and even if you're making a joke it's something people here constantly say in total earnest. It's paranoia, AND, a horseshit cop-out to avoid addressing the possibility your "side" might have any flaw.

# ? Oct 11, 2011 03:00

1stGear: Jan 16, 2010; Here's to the new us.

quote:

For example, investment banking, the heart of Wall Street, is notorious for its grueling hours, a fact I experienced while working at an investment banking internship this summer. And with an investment banker in the family, I can personally attest that for people in the financial industry, all-nighters and weekends spent in the office are common.

I have to say one of the cruelest lies foisted on Americans is that literally living to work is both good and noble.

# ? Oct 11, 2011 04:07

duck monster: Dec 15, 2004

Kieselguhr Kid posted:

Here's my conspiracy theory: The government makes up conspiracy theories to short-circuit activism by flooding protests with utter drips.

The old joke goes: The CIA invented conspiracy theories to stop stupid hippies from learning about economics.

Forgot if I posted that already. Dunno.

# ? Oct 11, 2011 14:26

CellBlock: Oct 6, 2005; It just don't stop.

Terror Sweat posted:

The taxes don't get raised all at once. They get raised over 10 years, I presume.

Except no Congress can bind the actions of a future Congress, so even if this passes, it'll just get rewritten or repealed later when Congress decides jobs aren't important anymore.

# ? Oct 11, 2011 18:26

OatBoy: Nov 18, 2004; What can I say, it's my nature

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/opinion/theres-something-happening-here.html?_r=1&hp

Thomas Friedman posted:

When you see spontaneous social protests erupting from Tunisia to Tel Aviv to Wall Street, it�s clear that something is happening globally that needs defining. There are two unified theories out there that intrigue me. One says this is the start of �The Great Disruption.� The other says that this is all part of �The Big Shift.� You decide.

Paul Gilding, the Australian environmentalist and author of the book �The Great Disruption,� argues that these demonstrations are a sign that the current growth-obsessed capitalist system is reaching its financial and ecological limits. �I look at the world as an integrated system, so I don�t see these protests, or the debt crisis, or inequality, or the economy, or the climate going weird, in isolation � I see our system in the painful process of breaking down,� which is what he means by the Great Disruption, said Gilding. �Our system of economic growth, of ineffective democracy, of overloading planet earth � our system � is eating itself alive. Occupy Wall Street is like the kid in the fairy story saying what everyone knows but is afraid to say: the emperor has no clothes. The system is broken. Think about the promise of global market capitalism. If we let the system work, if we let the rich get richer, if we let corporations focus on profit, if we let pollution go unpriced and unchecked, then we will all be better off. It may not be equally distributed, but the poor will get less poor, those who work hard will get jobs, those who study hard will get better jobs and we�ll have enough wealth to fix the environment.

�What we now have � most extremely in the U.S. but pretty much everywhere � is the mother of all broken promises,� Gilding adds. �Yes, the rich are getting richer and the corporations are making profits � with their executives richly rewarded. But, meanwhile, the people are getting worse off � drowning in housing debt and/or tuition debt � many who worked hard are unemployed; many who studied hard are unable to get good work; the environment is getting more and more damaged; and people are realizing their kids will be even worse off than they are. This particular round of protests may build or may not, but what will not go away is the broad coalition of those to whom the system lied and who have now woken up. It�s not just the environmentalists, or the poor, or the unemployed. It�s most people, including the highly educated middle class, who are feeling the results of a system that saw all the growth of the last three decades go to the top 1 percent.�

Not so fast, says John Hagel III, who is the co-chairman of the Center for the Edge at Deloitte, along with John Seely Brown. In their recent book, �The Power of Pull,� they suggest that we�re in the early stages of a �Big Shift,� precipitated by the merging of globalization and the Information Technology Revolution. In the early stages, we experience this Big Shift as mounting pressure, deteriorating performance and growing stress because we continue to operate with institutions and practices that are increasingly dysfunctional � so the eruption of protest movements is no surprise.

Yet, the Big Shift also unleashes a huge global flow of ideas, innovations, new collaborative possibilities and new market opportunities. This flow is constantly getting richer and faster. Today, they argue, tapping the global flow becomes the key to productivity, growth and prosperity. But to tap this flow effectively, every country, company and individual needs to be constantly growing their talents.

�We are living in a world where flow will prevail and topple any obstacles in its way,� says Hagel. �As flow gains momentum, it undermines the precious knowledge stocks that in the past gave us security and wealth. It calls on us to learn faster by working together and to pull out of ourselves more of our true potential, both individually and collectively. It excites us with the possibilities that can only be realized by participating in a broader range of flows. That is the essence of the Big Shift.�

Yes, corporations now have access to more cheap software, robots, automation, labor and genius than ever. So holding a job takes more talent. But the flip side is that individuals � individuals � anywhere can now access the flow to take online courses at Stanford from a village in Africa, to start a new company with customers everywhere or to collaborate with people anywhere. We have more big problems than ever and more problem-solvers than ever.

So there you have it: Two master narratives � one threat-based, one opportunity-based, but both involving seismic changes. Gilding is actually an optimist at heart. He believes that while the Great Disruption is inevitable, humanity is best in a crisis, and, once it all hits, we will rise to the occasion and produce transformational economic and social change (using tools of the Big Shift). Hagel is also an optimist. He knows the Great Disruption may be barreling down on us, but he believes that the Big Shift has also created a world where more people than ever have the tools, talents and potential to head it off. My heart is with Hagel, but my head says that you ignore Gilding at your peril.

You decide.

Looks like the American model of capitalism is falling apart. But wouldn't it be really cool if it weren't?

# ? Oct 13, 2011 00:39

Orange Devil: Oct 1, 2010; Wullie's reign cannae smother the flames o' equality!

I don't understand why Friedman is still allowed to write. It's amazing how consistently incoherent that man is.

# ? Oct 13, 2011 00:59

ts12: Jul 24, 2007

Orange Devil posted:

I don't understand why Friedman is still allowed to write. It's amazing how consistently incoherent that man is.

At least he's not Bill Kristol. That man has never predicted anything correctly ever

e: actually they're both basically equally awful

ts12 fucked around with this message at 01:07 on Oct 13, 2011

# ? Oct 13, 2011 01:02

LP97S: Apr 25, 2008

OatBoy posted:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/opinion/theres-something-happening-here.html?_r=1&hp

Looks like the American model of capitalism is falling apart. But wouldn't it be really cool if it weren't?

Things are terrible now but the future's so bright I gotta wear shades? Is this the (even more-so) free-market capitalistic version of Transhumanism?

# ? Oct 13, 2011 01:03

redmercer: Sep 15, 2011; by Fistgrrl

Orange Devil posted:

I don't understand why Friedman is still allowed to write. It's amazing how consistently incoherent that man is.

Milton Friedman's ideas are best conveyed via choir.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3Seg0JE1PM

# ? Oct 13, 2011 01:05

ts12: Jul 24, 2007

Also Orange Devil I think Milton has been dead for like 6 years so the socialists won I guess

# ? Oct 13, 2011 01:08

Orange Devil: Oct 1, 2010; Wullie's reign cannae smother the flames o' equality!

ts12 posted:

Also Orange Devil I think Milton has been dead for like 6 years so the socialists won I guess

Unfortunately Thomas still proliferates.

# ? Oct 13, 2011 02:02

pangstrom: Jan 25, 2003; Wedge Regret

OatBoy posted:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/opinion/theres-something-happening-here.html?_r=1&hp

The best part of this, by far, is the title. I just imagine Friedman pensively rubbing his chin and typing out "Something�s Happening Here"

# ? Oct 13, 2011 02:03

A Fancy 400 lbs: Jul 24, 2008

For our first time players, "You decide" is code word for "I know the point I'm trying to make stick in your mind is wrong, so I'll pretend like I'm not really endorsing it".

# ? Oct 13, 2011 02:52

GottaPayDaTrollToll: Dec 3, 2009; by Lowtax

That's some classic Friedman metaphor mixing there. I, for one, can't wait to tap into the Rich Seismic Flow Shift.

# ? Oct 13, 2011 03:26

Bubbacub: Apr 17, 2001

ts12 posted:

At least he's not Bill Kristol. That man has never predicted anything correctly ever

e: actually they're both basically equally awful

Yeah, but Kristol's columns were funny. Friedman's are just dumb.

# ? Oct 13, 2011 13:23

FactsAreUseless: Feb 16, 2011

It's been deleted, but the LF goldmine had a pretty fantastic Friedman.txt thread going. I wish I still had some of the quotes they found. Friedman is great if you've ever wanted to see someone use every metaphor at once forever.

# ? Oct 13, 2011 20:02

Doctor Butts: May 21, 2002

quote:

Revolution in the October air: Kevin O'Brien

Re-enactors have their place.

The ones who cart their horses and cannons off to Civil War battlefields a couple of times a year, don blue or gray and charge one another amid the rattle of musket fire do so to develop a deeper appreciation of a momentous period in this nation's history.

Participants and spectators alike know that it's not the 1860s and that a sprained ankle is about the gravest wound anyone is likely to suffer, but the re-enactors remind us of history worth remembering.

We've got another re-enactment going on right now, in the streets of cities all across the United States.

For weeks now, a handful of Americans has been re-enacting the late 1960s -- beating drums, waving placards, chanting slogans and otherwise making minor nuisances of themselves in U.S. cities. Their claim is that people who have money aren't forking it over fast enough to people who don't.

They want things like health care and college degrees for free, and they say "the rich" -- "the 1 percent" -- should be forced to provide them.

But freebies for me via taxes for thee isn't really the point, just as ending the war in Vietnam wasn't really the ultimate goal in the 1960s. Those are just tools employed to recruit enough sign-carrying dupes to garner media coverage.

(If you wonder what is meant by the well-worn term "useful idiots," Google "YouTube, Occupy Atlanta, John Lewis" to see them in hilariously ironic action.)

The real goal of Occupy Wall Street, etc., is the destruction of constitutional government and capitalism. Where we'd go from there varies according to whichever true believer is on camera or holding the bullhorn. Pure democracy? Anarchy? Socialism? Communism? They're all on the menu.

In New York, where it began, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has proclaimed that Wall Street's occupiers can stay as long as they like, providing they beat, wave and chant within the law. He knows the first cold wind to whistle through Manhattan's concrete valleys will blow away his troubles.

But the protests will continue in warmer climes and it will be a surprise if they don't turn violent -- a perfectly natural course for a movement that springs from a destructive impulse.

Until that happens, the rest of us should keep score, taking careful note of which politicians support these people who despise our Constitution and preach revolution. Democratic Reps. Dennis Kucinich, Marcy Kaptur, Tim Ryan and Betty Sutton have all disqualified themselves from a return to Congress on that score. They should be judged by the company they keep.

Whatever complaints Americans have about Wall Street -- and there are legitimate complaints -- should be based on cold, hard logic, not dewy-eyed emotion.

The problem isn't "unbridled capitalism." This country has never had any such thing. The problem is government's perversion of capitalism.

The problem isn't that Congress is in Wall Street's pocket. The problem is that Wall Street is tucked away in a fortress called Congress, which works overtime writing laws to protect the favored from competition and that discourage innovation and entrepreneurship. From bailed-out banks to "green energy" pipe dreamers, they all ought to rise or fall on their merits.

The problem isn't that "the rich" are sitting on their money out of some weird malice toward 99 percent of the country. No one knows better than a person with money that active money grows, while idle money shrinks. The problem is a presidential administration with an insatiable appetite for confiscation and redistribution.

And if we have a greed problem, it's more than counterbalanced by an envy problem embodied by the people occupying this, that and the other thing, and claiming a right to the fruits of someone else's labor.

Encouraging that attitude has long been a pillar of Democratic Party politics, but Democrats who care about this country must repudiate this pernicious movement while it's still just an irritating re-enactment of the 1960s. Because the radical trade unionists, socialists and communists pulling the strings want to replay something even more evil.

It happened 94 years ago this month, in Russia.

I loving hate this guy.

He name drops communism/socialism. Gets everything wrong. Assumes that all democrats are behind this, and all democrats are socialists.

# ? Oct 13, 2011 21:59

ts12: Jul 24, 2007

That's some freep level poo poo there, holy poo poo. The 60's anti-war protest name drop is a nice touch too

I didn't know people actually believed that anti-war protests weren't actually anti-war but welp

e: weren't not were

# ? Oct 14, 2011 08:12

skaboomizzy: Nov 12, 2003; There is nothing I want to be. There is nothing I want to do.
I don't even have an image of what I want to be. I have nothing. All that exists is zero.

Yes, there are two narratives at play here. Only two. No more. Don't dare try to create any more, there are ONLY TWO choices here. Just the two. Never ever think there are any other possibilities in this big, hot, flat, modern world of ours.

Just two narratives. That is all. Pick one NOW. And do it within the next six months, because that is the crucial time period that will decide EVERYTHING.

# ? Oct 14, 2011 08:18

Fodder Cannon: Jan 12, 2008; I love to watch Fox News and then go club some baby seals

quote:

It happened 94 years ago this month, in Russia.

If he's going to draw parallels to history he could at least try to get the dates right. :ussr:

# ? Oct 16, 2011 11:16

Jump King: Aug 10, 2011

http://www.thespec.com/news/local/article/609860--10-myths-about-immigration

This is actually a very nice article explaining the myths of immigration. That news site allows comments though, and people don't like being told that their stereotypes are wrong.

guy posted:

I'm sorry but 16% of immigrants receiving social services benefits is 16% too many. We should be taking care of our own Canadians. It's not discrimination, it's plain and simple, there is not enough money to be handing out to people who are not from Canada. I'm sure if we went to their countries, we wouldn't get a penny!

same guy posted:

And then there are the criminals and I know it's probably a small percentage, but why are they allowed to continue committing crimes and rarely get deported! We should be tough on immigrant criminals. They are given an opportunity to live in Canada and if they commit crimes, they should be deported...no ifs ands or buts! But our good old legal system, lets them stay here and get free legal aid for years and years.

quote:

Why do we need a larger population? What would be the perfect population size for Canada? I do not see any advantage for me in having a population density here of egz. Hongkong. If we reduce the number of newcomers and save on the support services there will be enough for taking care of the aging population. There is no such thing as sustainable growth. This world has a problem of overpopulation already and only China recognized it. So who benefits from large imigration? Not the people who compete for jobs, housing a place on the beach or park. It is the large businesses and corporations that benefit and the imigration policy is dictated by them. What better way to reduce your employees salary than to put ten unempoyed imigrants in a que to take there job. It is also a great way to divide your population and rule.

quote:

Many Canadians would rather spend tax money on building roads or health care rather than multicultural funding. Many feel this balkanization of Canada is counterproductive and is keeping us from accomplishing other things.

quote:

If we want to increase the population of Canada but not change who we are, just drop the current immigration requirements from Britain and France allow anyone from there who wants to come as in the past. Better yet, any EU country so Italians, Polish, Germans, etc are eligible as well. We could double Canada's population yet not cause social disruption if we simply ensure they speak English/French and don't have criminal records. Current immigration restriction would still apply to the rest of the world.

I like it better when we only let white people in!

quote:

Who would feel happy with an Indian PM ??

Not me, it would be time to move somewhere else.

quote:

Nice advertisement from Hamilton Immigration Partnership Council. Trying to protect and advance their cash cow the immigration industry. Pad their wallets while they sell out the rest of us.

# ? Oct 16, 2011 16:25

Nintendo Kid: Aug 4, 2011; by Smythe

Fodder Cannon posted:

If he's going to draw parallels to history he could at least try to get the dates right.

Hey that did happen in October until the evil godless communists instituted their evil godless Gregorian calendar. :v:

The funny thing is, he wrote that article on September 30th, old style. If he had waited a day, it would have in fact been published in October (old style) just as the October Revolution happened in October (old style). He was almost correct in spite of himself!

# ? Oct 16, 2011 18:20

Yeast Confection: Oct 7, 2005

MildManeredManikin posted:

http://www.thespec.com/news/local/article/609860--10-myths-about-immigration

This is actually a very nice article explaining the myths of immigration. That news site allows comments though, and people don't like being told that their stereotypes are wrong.

I like it better when we only let white people in!

This is my local paper

Don't ask them about red light cameras ("shoot them in the head, then you won't have any repeat offenders.") or improving public transit (downtown needs car lanes, not bike lanes, gently caress you got mine.)

# ? Oct 17, 2011 15:08

Dr. Tough: Oct 22, 2007

You heard it here first, OWS is both communist and Nazi at the same time!

quote:

Gateway Pundit reveals a fact that some people will find astonishing: The American Nazi Party and the American Communist Party have endorsed the Occupy Wall Street movement, albeit for different reasons.

The Nazis equate capitalism, which the demonstrators are opposed to, to their hallucinations of a Jewish conspiracy. This may be reflected in some of the anti-Semitic rhetoric coming out of the "Occupy Wall Street" demonstrations.

The communists see the current demonstrations as a beginning of an American Bolshevik Revolution and the establishment of a Soviet-style government in the United States. Occupy Wall Street also appeals to their sense of class warfare.

While an alliance between the Nazis, the communists and wannabe student radicals may seem bizarre on the surface, no one who has read "Liberal Fascism" by National Review writer Jonah Goldberg would be very much surprised. Goldberg found similar strains of ideological thought between Nazis, fascists, communists and modern American liberals. Goldberg concludes that one does not have to be in favor of death camps or world wars to be a fascist. All one has to believe in is the primacy of the state over individual rights.

The agenda of Occupy Wall Street such as can be determined, meshes pretty well with what Goldberg considers to be "liberal fascism." Unlike the tea party, the movement is geared toward demanding that the government give people things, such as free education, free health care and guaranteed employment because they have a right to them. That Americans have a right to free stuff, given from the government, was articulated in Franklin Roosevelt's "Second Bill of Rights," championed by Obama adviser Cass Sunstein.

The propensity of Occupy Wall Street for violence also meshes pretty well with Nazi and communist practices. Unlike the tea party, the current demonstrators are not shy about brawling with the police.

Finally the fingering of scapegoats is a common threat between the Nazis, the communists and the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators. The Nazis hate Jews, especially Jewish bankers and financiers, the communists hate all wealthy people, including bankers, of all religious persuasions. Occupy Wall Street hates bankers and financiers, occasionally the Jewish ones. All of these rich people are seen as cash cows for all the free stuff the demonstrators are demanding. The Nazis and the Communists would kill the rich folks after taking their wealthy. Opinions vary among Occupy Wall Street.

http://news.yahoo.com/why-nazis-communists-occupy-wall-street-191900304.html

# ? Oct 17, 2011 16:00

Saint Sputnik: Apr 1, 2007; Tyrannosaurs in P-51 Volkswagens!

Dr. Tough posted:

You heard it here first, OWS is both communist and Nazi at the same time!

http://news.yahoo.com/why-nazis-communists-occupy-wall-street-191900304.html

Jonah Goldberg is smug human garbage.

e: Also I'm glad Mark Whitington could pull himself away from correcting Michael Bay, recapping TV shows, and exploring the possibility of a Mr. Ed movie to write that poo poo.

Saint Sputnik fucked around with this message at 16:34 on Oct 17, 2011

# ? Oct 17, 2011 16:04

Hieronymous Alloy: Jan 30, 2009; Why! Why!! Why must you refuse to accept that Dr. Hieronymous Alloy's Genetically Enhanced Cream Corn Is Superior to the Leading Brand on the Market!?!; Morbid Hound

It's amazing to me how hard the right wing media seems to be pushing the "OWS is anti banker, and therefore, anti semitic" angle.

# ? Oct 17, 2011 16:10

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 20, 2024 19:20

Unlearning: May 7, 2011

David Henderson, blogger at the Koch funded GMU and self professed 'Randite', proving that he is a complete moron:

David Henderson posted:

Presidential aspirant John Kerry likes to discuss "the wealthiest one percent". In this he is following in the footsteps of Al Gore who, when running for president, excoriated the one percenters to drive a wedge between them and the rest of us, hoping that enough of the rest of us would vote for him. Fellow demagogue Paul Krugman also often attacks the top 1 percent.

Whom do you picture as the wealthiest one percent? Many of us think of the famous athletes and entertainers earning $10 million a year, trial lawyers wearing expensive suits, and heads of multinational corporations making important decisions in exquisite wood-paneled boardrooms. To be in the top one percent in 2001, the most recent year for which the Internal Revenue Service has released statistics, you had to have an adjusted gross income of $292,913 or more.

But if you take a wider and longer view, you reach a striking conclusion: virtually every American who has heard John Kerry or Al Gore speeches is in the top one percent. This includes the middle-class family from Indiana, the barber in Florida, the K-mart clerk in Oregon, and the Virginia junkyard worker.

Here's why. Carl Haub, senior demographer at the Population Reference Bureau in Washington, D.C., has estimated that 106 billion humans have been born since Homo sapiens appeared about 50,000 years ago. That means that the richest one percent in history includes 1.06 billion people. There are currently 6.2 billion humans alive, leaving approximately 100 billion who have died. Who among the dead was rich by today's standards? Not many. Royalty, popes, presidents, dictators, large landholders, and the occasional wealthy industrialist, such as Andrew Carnegie and Leland Stanford, were certainly rich. All told, it is difficult to imagine more than 20 million of these people since ancient Egyptian times. This leaves 1.04 billion wealthy alive today, or 17% of the world's population.

The World Bank counts 900 million people living in 28 "high-income countries," like the United States, Japan, Canada, and much of Europe, where the annual gross national product per capita is $9,361 or greater. If we include the 140 million richest people from all the remaining countries, we have 1.04 billion rich people. On the other end today are 3.5 billion of the world's 6.1 billion who live in countries whose per capita GNP is less than $760. The poorest of the poor, more than 1.2 billion, live on less than $1 a day. Now that's poverty.

The poor in the United States, by contrast, live on up to $23.50 a day. Except for the few hundred thousand who are homeless, the Americans whom the U.S. government defines as poor live exceptionally rich lives. In most ways, their lives are better than those of kings and queens just 200 years ago. Consider the quality and quantity of our food, clothing, refrigerators, televisions, washing machines, stereo systems, and automobiles. King Louis XIV of France had a greenhouse so he could eat oranges. The poor in this country can eat an orange every day, regardless of season. King Edward III of England could summon the royal musicians to play music. The poor in this country have a wide variety of music at their command, 24 hours a day, played note-perfect every time. Edward III lived in a dark, smelly, cold castle. Even the worst houses in this country are more comfortable and have electric lights, too. Care to live without showers and flush toilets? The kings of England and France had to. Next time you see a Shakespeare play in which kings and princes cavort, remember that royalty in Shakespeare's day had rotten teeth, terrible breath, and body odor that would make you keel over.

Finally, who can ignore the dramatic increase in lifespan that we enjoy? This is due to better food, clean water, and sewage systems that work. It is also due to technologically advanced drugs and surgeries that are available today even to poor people, medical treatments that even a king 60 years ago would have envied. Even what we casually throw away is better than the objects that most humans treasured throughout history: plastic utensils; resealable, leakproof glass drink containers; resealable plastic bags; jeans with a hole in the knee; leftover lasagna and week-old bagels; newspapers for insulation and starting fires. Many magazines have photographs and artwork better than the average human could ever hope to own just centuries ago. The poor in today's society throw them away without a thought.

Count yourself as one of the luckiest and most successful humans ever. Celebrate your wealth and ignore politicians who preach the gospel of the haves and the have nots. They try to divide us when in fact what we have in common exceeds our differences. While you're counting your blessings, take a minute to honor the system that created it: the system of property rights, free markets, low taxes, and the rule of law. And if you want to help people who are in the bottom, then urge your politicians to stop blocking imports from India, Kenya, Peru, Cuba, Bulgaria, and other poor countries around the world. While charity has its place, few of the wealthiest one percent got rich from charity, and neither will today's poor. We moved from poverty to wealth through economic growth. Let's allow the rest of the world's poor to do so also.

Hurrr durr people are starving in Africa so CEO pay is justified.

# ? Oct 17, 2011 20:32

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Terrible Editorials, Opinion Pieces and Letters to the Editor

«‹›106 »