Bernie Sanders

[TobiasFunke]

I was joking MT

[Vegas Halo Fan]

This.  We've got 2 offices overseas and on average those employees take 'holiday' much more regularly and can hop on a plane for a fraction of the cost of what we pay here to go from one state to the other.  Flying from Spain to the UK cost me under $100 and employees in our Asia office told me some of the airlines offer weekend getaways that get you to Thailand and other places for under $200.  You can take a few days off before or after the weekend and take a 4 day trip with a short travel time.  

 

My friends who live in Wales are constantly flying somewhere - Scandinavia, Iceland, the Azores, Greece, Italy. It is one thing that I would love about living in Europe.

[TobiasFunke]

My friends who live in Wales are constantly flying somewhere - Scandinavia, Iceland, the Azores, Greece, Italy. It is one thing that I would love about living in Europe.

Technically Iceland is part of Scandinavia 😇

[Catwhoshatinthehat]

[Adam]

What does a 5 bedroom, 3 bath 2500 square foot pad run in the burbs in Europe?

Edited August 21, 2015 by Adam

[Tank]

What does a 5 bedroom, 3 bath 2500 square foot pad run in the burbs in Europe?

 

$3,600,000 rubles.

[Amazing Larry]

Not sure how they operate so much less expensively than our airlines do.

 

My guess would be unions. It's also the reason why Europe and Asia still have hot flight attendants while we get stuck with 62 year old grumpy hags who can barely fit down the aisle. 

 

Flying in the U.S. sucks.

[nate]

What does a 5 bedroom, 3 bath 2500 square foot pad run in the burbs in Europe?

 

In Italy/Spain reasonable.  In England/Germany/France very expensive.

 

I would love to live in Finland/Sweeden.  Two countries with no crime, strong economies and strong education system.  People there are just happy.

[Adam]

If I didn't hate white people and winter I'd be there with you

[red321]

My guess would be unions. It's also the reason why Europe and Asia still have hot flight attendants while we get stuck with 62 year old grumpy hags who can barely fit down the aisle. 

 

Flying in the U.S. sucks.

 

Airline subsidies for one. But they also have taken the add-on's to the extreme. Your initial fare is cheap but everything on top of that is extra. Seat Reservation, carry-on, if you don't bring your boarding pass and need it at the airport, another fee, etc. etc. etc. We were pricing tickets from Boston to Iceland and the fare was awesome...$99. But once we added a few things, like luggage, seat assignments so we could sit together and some other items that just left me scratching my head how they could be optional...the ticket quickly climbed to $500.

[Jay]

In Italy/Spain reasonable.  In England/Germany/France very expensive.

 

I would love to live in Finland/Sweeden.  Two countries with no crime, strong economies and strong education system.  People there are just happy.

 

They don't allow anchor babies in those countries.

[HeavenlyHalos]

Were you there this year? I was in Munich during this years Father's Day long weekend. First night I was at the Augustiner Brauhaus next to the Hofbahnhof. Met a group of older, drunken German dudes who I ended up hanging out with. Next night I ended up at the Hofbrauhaus. Nothing like a liter (maß) of Bavarian helles bier.

 

2014. I ate at the Augustinerbrau and had a a few beers there. One other thing this group of Germans I spoke to were making fun of this French guy sitting next to us, calling him the Deutsch equivalent of a pussy because he was drinking a half-liter. It's good to know that other countries make fun of those baguette bastards.  Munich was by far my favorite of the three German cities I went to, Berlin and Dresden being the other two. That city really lives up to its drinking reputation, and I loved all the biergartens with the massive barrels that hold somewhere between 5-10 kegs. Did you happen to make it to Prague? That is another amazing city with some great beer, especially the U Fleku microbrewery that has an amazing brown lager. 

[wopphil]

Thanks for speaking for the left. Maybe for an encore you can tell us what black people think.

I wasn't finished educating you on the left. The left also believes everyone can be paid a "living wage" and there will be no inflationary effect whatsoever.

[Angelsjunky]

I wasn't finished educating you on the left. The left also believes everyone can be paid a "living wage" and there will be no inflationary effect whatsoever.

 

I agree insofar as minimum wage is a symptom of a much larger problem, which is illustrated by this Bernie Sanders quote:

 

"The issue of wealth and income inequality, to my mind, is the great moral issue of our time. It is the great economic issue of our time and it is the great political issue of our time. Let me be as clear as I can be: There is something profoundly wrong when today, the top one-tenth of 1 percent own almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent."

 

He isn't exaggerating, by the way, according to Politifact. Here's a quote:

 

The top 0.1 percent was composed of 160,000 families with average wealth of $72.8 million. All told, they owned 22 percent of the nation’s wealth.

 

Meanwhile, the bottom 90 percent -- 144 million families with average wealth of $84,000 -- owned only 22.8 percent of the wealth.

 

In other words, the top 0.1 percent and the bottom 90 percent of U.S. households own virtually the same share of all the nation's wealth.

 

Increasing minimum wage is one part of the picture, but is just the tip of the iceberg.

[Jay]

Good to know I'm not in the bottom 90%

 

I guess that means I'm in the top 10%, pretty cool.

[wopphil]

I agree insofar as minimum wage is a symptom of a much larger problem, which is illustrated by this Bernie Sanders quote:

"The issue of wealth and income inequality, to my mind, is the great moral issue of our time. It is the great economic issue of our time and it is the great political issue of our time. Let me be as clear as I can be: There is something profoundly wrong when today, the top one-tenth of 1 percent own almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent."

He isn't exaggerating, by the way, according to Politifact. Here's a quote:

The top 0.1 percent was composed of 160,000 families with average wealth of $72.8 million. All told, they owned 22 percent of the nation’s wealth.

Meanwhile, the bottom 90 percent -- 144 million families with average wealth of $84,000 -- owned only 22.8 percent of the wealth.

In other words, the top 0.1 percent and the bottom 90 percent of U.S. households own virtually the same share of all the nation's wealth.

Increasing minimum wage is one part of the picture, but is just the tip of the iceberg.

I agree that income inequality is a problem that needs to be addressed, and that the government has a role to play in that. I think creating a more business friendly environment is the biggest step that can be taken. That may mean financial incentives for businesses which provide good jobs here at home. It may also mean low interest education loans and college assistance for low income individuals, regardless of their race.

What it doesn't mean is creating a highly litigious environment where a business can be bankrupted because it's full legal name isn't on a pay stub. In California, our democratic legislature - the very people who so hypocritically claim they want to help the underclass - pass law after law that does little but put money in the pockets of one of their largest donors, plaintiffs' attorneys. They do this at the expense of the worker, who sees lower wages (or worse, his employer run out of business) in part because of the high cost of doing business in this "great" state.

It is all a scam, and the left is more to blame than the right, IMO.

Edited August 21, 2015 by wopphil

[nate]

I prefer penalties for businesses rather than incentives.

[Catwhoshatinthehat]

My thoughts when looking at those numbers is that I know families who have household incomes of 100K or more that fall in the bottom 90% solely because of the choices they make.  These aren't families who have had a tragedy that impacted their finances and everyone is healthy thankfully.  In one family the wife has a degree she didn't want to use so she decided to do something else which led to more student debt but a good paying job.  Instead of furthering her career and getting the certifications she needed to make damn good money (is 90% of the way there) she's now working the same type of entry level job she had during college part time because she wants to be a stay at home mom and doesn't want to work.    

 

Another friend isn't bad with money necessarily but he's always carrying some CC debt and spends money when he doesn't really need to.  His car which ran fine was almost paid off and all of the sudden he decided to trade that in for a new car that comes with a 5-6 year payment plan.  He and his wife can always pay their bills but they're admittedly closer to financial ruin than they'd like and are looking to refinance so they can use equity to pay off CC debt.  The problem is I'd bet money that even if they do that they'll run up some CC debt on something they don't really need.  

 

Maybe I'm just jaded by the stories I hear and I know there are honest hard working people out there struggling but most people I see struggling always seem to have the newest iphones, new cars and the list goes on.  They're their own worst enemies and the biggest thing holding them back is the bad choices they constantly seem to make.    

Edited August 21, 2015 by Catwhoshatinthehat

[Jay]

Bernie Sanders is not going to change your life.

 

The only person who can do that is you.

[mtangelsfan]

The left needs to decide which is more important, having income equality or having open borders.

 

You cannot have both.  Now I am not one to believe that the government can or should be the driving force behind income equality.  There have been a few attempts at that already and they have failed.  To expect any organization to change it's spots overnight is unwise.  Especially one so bloated at the federal government.

 

Crap, most state governments cannot handle money at all.

[Jason]

I prefer penalties for businesses rather than incentives.

Why start a business if there is a way I can be penalized?

[mtangelsfan]

nate's just cranky.

 

[Make Angels Great Again]

exactly, and he is going to achieve that by taxing the shit out of the middle class.  They can claim that isn't the case but that is where the money is.

 

 

I agree insofar as minimum wage is a symptom of a much larger problem, which is illustrated by this Bernie Sanders quote:

 

"The issue of wealth and income inequality, to my mind, is the great moral issue of our time. It is the great economic issue of our time and it is the great political issue of our time. Let me be as clear as I can be: There is something profoundly wrong when today, the top one-tenth of 1 percent own almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent."

 

He isn't exaggerating, by the way, according to Politifact. Here's a quote:

 

The top 0.1 percent was composed of 160,000 families with average wealth of $72.8 million. All told, they owned 22 percent of the nation’s wealth.

 

Meanwhile, the bottom 90 percent -- 144 million families with average wealth of $84,000 -- owned only 22.8 percent of the wealth.

 

In other words, the top 0.1 percent and the bottom 90 percent of U.S. households own virtually the same share of all the nation's wealth.

 

Increasing minimum wage is one part of the picture, but is just the tip of the iceberg.

 

 

I was going to reference this, but AJ beat me to it

 

Sanders is a big proponent of a healthy middle class.

[mtangelsfan]

Except the middle class is where the money is.  Everyone says they are proponents of the middle-class because that is where the votes are but nobody is.

 

If the middle class were really a priority for either party why does it keep shrinking in every part of the country?  It is shrinking in California, bastion of liberal politics and shrinking in Texas home of conservatism.

 

Bottom line is that many talk a good game but so far, nobody has played it and forgive me if I don't believe the next one who says they will.

 

You want a perfect picture look at the issue of immigration.  No group suffers more from it than the middle class and yet big business and liberal groups are in favor of open borders.

[nate]

Why start a business if there is a way I can be penalized?

 

If you do the right thing there are plenty of ways to still make money?

 

Because money runs our government right now, big corps have nothing but incentives.  Look how well that has gone for us.