Amusingly, Walmart does the same thing, 4 times a year. Yet, they are the liberals most hated enemy.
Wisconsin Revolt
- Thread starter Carne Seca
- Start date
Fair share being the lower 50% end up owing nothing and the top 50% pay all? Obviously this is a usage of fair I was not previously aware of.
No they don't. They set a sales goal, after your store reaches the sales goal a percentage of sales over that gets split up among employees, it is usually around $50/full time up to 150 bucks for smaller stores. Sometimes no check. I worked at wal-mart through high school, my sister works there now, she has worked there for 7 years and makes less than $10/hr and she is a model employee.
The top 1% hold 40% of the wealth in this country, the next 20% hold 55%. And just as much of the income. By those numbers, shouldn't the top 20% be paying 95% of the taxes then?
And the talking point you are parroting is talking about income taxes, only income taxes, everyone still pays OASDI and SSI, property, sales, tag and title, business taxes, etc.
If anything it just goes to show how low wages have fallen, not how unfair taxes are.
Rob Roy
Well-Known Member
I think you're obstinate , but if you prefer to be addressed as "stupid", I'll try to honor your request.
Rob Roy
Well-Known Member
If you are concerned with something being "just" ...has it ever occurred to you that how "these people" derive their pay may be from others who do not want o pay for their uh "service" ? Consider that for something to be "just" it must arise from a "just" beginning.
Can you tell me where the "just" is in making a person pay for something they don't use? Should that model be applied in every instance or just in the ones that support your argument?
thesmith
Member
its the fact that they don't give medical benefits, put local and small companies out of businesses, and sell mainly imported crap from third world slave labor countries. they rake in the money while destroying the very foundation that America was built on. wall mart is a prime example of corporate greed.
Even if you homeschool your kid you still use systems/services which you claim to be independent of.
You think all the engineers who designed the parts which your kid used to build your computer were home schooled? You think none of them had a public education? Same goes for just about anything you use. These systems and services that you "don't use" are integral to our society, a society which like it or not you are a part of.
Rob Roy
Well-Known Member
What's your point? That "society" has a right to dictate to peaceful individual people what they will or will not do?
How does society benefit when the first "rule" of society, that which tells us to leave others alone that aren't harming anyone, is broken so frequently?
Rob Roy
Well-Known Member
There's an easy solution....don't shop there. Better yet, start a competitive company, offer better value and prosper.
Rob Roy
Well-Known Member
Careful or he'll sic his government approved Hamster on you !
thesmith
Member
beyond that coolwhip, education directly correlates to the success and stability of most countries. But remember also that an uneducated public is much easier to control through propaganda and force. If anyone here thinks that the unions are unnessesary they should take a look at working conditions where unions do not exist.
I just wish people were as interested in saving their constitutional rights as they are their paychecks.
You see this union distraction continue while legislation such as the patriot act get passed. Where is the public outcry about that.
I just wish people were as interested in saving their constitutional rights as they are their paychecks.
You see this union distraction continue while legislation such as the patriot act get passed. Where is the public outcry about that.
If you refuse to reciprocate your side of the social contract while taking advantage of the benefits of society as you pick and choose, you can hardly say you are being peaceful. You would be peaceful the same way a shoplifter is peaceful.
by the dashboard light
Member
A vote for the Govenor is a vote for the people...after all the people are paying the teachers salery and there is no reason why they should be over paid or receive any benifits that an average doesnt person get...that is just ripping off the general public. Being in a public union does not mean you should make more $$$ or benifits automaticly. Public sector unions should not ever be allowed to strike. Personaly I dont beleive there should be ANY public / State employee unions...Private sector...thats a whole different discussion.
speaking of lies, nobody is 'monopolizing' the system. there's plenty of private schools for the rich to attend.
a monopolized, government-run, health care system could reduce costs, increase coverage, and improve the health care system of a country. it can also reduce quality and all those negative things you keep blabering on about...
but generally speaking people that are covered by socialized medicine are better covered. even in the US, where Medicare can be used as an example.
and the only one that keeps bringing up the Communist Manifesto here is you. you seem to be obsessed with it..... are you a communist???
Rob Roy
Well-Known Member
Ahhhh "the social contract" . Smirk.
For a contract to be valid it should have at least two willing parties that are both free to be parties to the contract....or not. Of course a person that leaves others alone has every right to pick and choose what they will participate in as long as they do not use fraud.
Your shoplifting analogy doesn't apply to me, I've never advocated NOT paying for what I use. It is the person or institution that initiates the "must", the force, the "or else" that is the party violating the peace.
The "social contract" relies on word smithing to gain credence. The essay below does a better job than I can explaining this myth...
dd[FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif][FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif][FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif][FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif][FONT=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]javascript:openWindow('../asp-bin/encol0.asp?PATH=http://www.lewrockwell.com/peirce/peirce42.html','Win',true,250,480)[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]javascript:openWindow('../asp-bin/encol0.asp?PATH=http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/s-dutcher1.html','Win',true,250,480)[/FONT][/FONT]
[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]javascript:openWindow('../asp-bin/encol0.asp?PATH=http://www.lewrockwell.com/peirce/peirce42.html','Win',true,250,480)[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]javascript:openWindow('../asp-bin/encol0.asp?PATH=http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/s-dutcher1.html','Win',true,250,480)[/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]by Butler Shaffer[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Myths and lies have been major contributors to the indoctrination of children into the prevailing culture. Our earliest experiences usually included stories about Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy, characters we swore were integral parts of the cosmic scheme. In time – usually with the help of our more skeptical friends or forthright parents – we experienced the pains of disillusionment, and even prided ourselves on how sophisticated we were vis-a-vis our more gullible younger siblings. As young adults in a "bottom-line" world, we managed to discard more lies, such as "the check is in the mail," "user-friendly computer," and "I’m from the government; I’m here to help!"[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]There are some fables, however, that are too deeply engrained in us for us to confront, most of which have to do with how political systems operate. To look such myths in the face and see them for what they are would, in our politically-defined world, be too traumatic, forcing us to face up to the reality that we have been victimized by our own gullibility. (I have, for instance, been intrigued by the recent billboards and bumper-stickers that read: "In God We Trust. United We Stand." If we are trusting in God, why do we need to stand united? Is God incapable of finding and protecting us if we "stand individually?")[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]The myth that meets with the most resistance for examination, however, is that upon which modern "democratic" political systems are founded: the "social contract" theory of the state. According to this view, best developed by John Locke and woven into the fabric of the Declaration of Independence, human beings are free by nature, and may take whatever action is necessary for sustaining their lives, consistent with a like right in all others to do the same. This includes the right to protect one’s life and property from attacks by others. The individual enjoyment of such a right carries with it the right of individuals to join together for mutual protection, creating an agency – the state – to act on their behalf in this regard. At all times, however, this arrangement is understood as one of a principal/agency relationship, with individuals being the principals, and the state their agent. This, in theory, is the rationale for the modern state.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Of course, there is no evidence of any state having come into existence through such idealistic means. Being grounded in force, all political systems have been created through conquest, violence, and disregard for the rights of those who do not voluntarily choose to be a part of the arrangement. Even the origins of the United States of America – which provides us a great deal more empirical evidence – reveals the absence of any "contract" among its citizenry to participate in the system. As best I can tell from my reading of history, the Constitution was probably favored by about one-third of the population, strongly opposed by another one-third, and greeted with indifference by the remaining one-third.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]The sentiment that "We the People" spoke, as one voice, on behalf of the new system; the idea that there was a universal agreement – which a contract theory demands – for the creation of the American state, represents historic nonsense. The Constitution did not even reflect the wishes of a majority of the population, much less all. Those who persist in the "social contract" myth are invited to explain how, once the national government came into being, Rhode Island was threatened with blockades and invasions should it continue to insist upon not ratifying the Constitution. Rhode Island was, after the majority of Americans themselves, the second victim of "American imperialism!"[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]If the origins of the United States government do not persuade you of the mythic nature of the state, then your attention is directed to the Civil War, wherein the southern states made a choice to opt out of the "social contract" by seceding from the Union. Lincoln – in my mind, the worst president this country ever had, including all the McKinleys and Roosevelts and Wilsons and Trumans and Bushes, none of whom could have inflicted their damage without Lincoln’s embracing the principle of the primacy of the totalitarian state – negated any pretense to a "social contract" justification for the United States. (If you would like further evidence on this, I direct your attention to two books: Richard Bensel’s Yankee Leviathan, and Thomas DiLorenzo’s just-published work The Real Lincoln.)[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Those of a totalitarian persuasion have had to stumble all over one another to salvage the "social contract" myth – without which, the state is seen for what it always has been by its nature: a corporate body that employs force, threats, and deadly violence to compel individuals to participate in whatever suits its interest to pursue. Somehow or other, people are "free" to contract to set up a state as their "agent" but, once established, there is some kind of unexplained conversion by which the state becomes the "principal," and individuals the "agents." [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Imagine if such logic were employed in the marketplace – which, fortunately, does not enjoy the use of coercive force. Suppose that you Suppose that you went to work for the United Updike Company and, after three years of employment, you decided to resign in order to take another job. Suppose Uniited Updike thought that you were too valuable an employee to lose, and so resorted to deadly force to compel you to remain with them. Suppose, further, that such a scheme would have been so transparent that it would have been met with general contempt in the community, and so the company rationalizes its coercive actions this way: "we are taking this action in order to protect the rights of your children, whose security might be threatened were you to quit your job." This was the essence of the Civil War![/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]I continue to get e-mails from readers who either do not understand – or do not want to understand – how the 13th Amendment to the Constitution nationalized slavery rather than ended it. Military and jury duty conscription, taxation, compulsory school attendance, are just a number of manifestations of how government is engaged in the practice of slavery. But the root explanation for this phenomenon is traced back to the rejection of "contract" as a basis for the state. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]One must understand the interconnected nature of "liberty," "property," and "contract." To enjoy a condition of liberty is to have one’s claim to self-ownership respected. Such claims are respected when, and only if, we insist upon contracts as the only way in which to properly deal with one another. I believe it was Blackstone who defined "contract" as an agreement by two or more persons to exchange claims of ownership. Thus, if I wish to secure your services, I will respect your independence by making an offer to you that you will consider attractive enough to cause you to agree to work for me. The arrangement is a contractual one.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]When the state wants our services or the products of our labor, it demands them by force, with no respect for yours or my right to refuse. Taxes are simply increased, conscription ordered, service demanded, and we are expected to obey with the same obeisance as a plantation slave being ordered to increase the rate of chopping cotton. We have so internalized our slave status that most of us take it as a compliment to be referred to as an "asset" of the community; or regard it as an expression of governmental "caring" to refer to our children as "our nation’s most valuable resources." [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Lest you dismiss my observations as hyperbole, consider the dissenting opinion of Supreme Court Justice Harlan, in the 1905 case Lochner v. New York, where he sought to justify legislation that limited the number of hours people could work in bakeries. An excessive number of hours, he argued, "may endanger the health, and shorten the lives of the workmen, thereby diminishing their physical and mental capacity to serve the State" (emphasis added). Do you hear any sounds of retreat from such sentiments in the words of President Bush, or John Ashcroft, or Donald Rumsfeld, as they warn us of our duties of obedience to their will, or threaten us if we seek to find out too much about their military actions? And when Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson, speaks of possible "mandatory" vaccinations against smallpox or anthrax, do you discern any more regard for our free wills in such matters than a rancher would in vaccinating his cattle for cholera or hoof-and-mouth disease?[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]In current efforts to establish a European Union, or to expand the powers – including taxation – of the United Nations, we witness the removal of even a pretense of support for the "social contract" principle. Only in Ireland, I believe, were people allowed to vote on the EU proposal – which was soundly rejected by the voters. Now, apparently, it is sufficient for existing political systems to create supra-political systems, without bothering to consult the rabble, whose function is only to be serviceable to the new regimes. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]I know of no legal principle that allows an "agent" to delegate his or her agency to another, or to create a new agency, without the consent of the "principal." I strongly suspect that, should an agent undertake such authority without being instructed to do so by the principal, all courts would treat this as a fundamental breach of the agency agreement. And yet, agencies of the United States government – as well as other nations – now engage in just such transactions, seeking to bind their own citizenry to political obligations in which none of them has had even a remote voice. Does this not suggest to you a material breach in the alleged "social contract," leaving us free to pursue our well-being in other ways? John Locke and Thomas Jefferson would have said "yes." [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]In their teenage years, my children used to lament "I didn’t ask to be born." I informed them that, as they came to learn more about biology, they would understand that they did ask to be born; that the life force within their particular sperm wanted nothing so much as to be the fertilizer of what was to become their ovum; that they have never worked so insistently for anything in their lives as to come into existence. They soon stopped uttering this plea! [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]What my children probably meant to say was that they had entered into no contract with either my wife or me to be brought into being. While this is obviously true, it is equally the case that "life" was not simply thrust upon them; that while they had no conscious will in the matter, the sense of life that inhered in their pre-conceptual state impelled their actions.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]But all of us – including my three children – are human beings and, as such, each of us is characterized by "free will." This means that each of us has the capacity for self-ownership and self-direction, qualities that men like Locke and Jefferson regarded as so inseparable to life itself that social institutions – particularly the state – must rest their legitimacy upon their inviolability. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]We are long past the day when even intelligent men and women incorporate such insights into their thinking or discussions. The pragmatic demands of Realpolitik – including how to manipulate "public opinion" and put together power-based coalitions – now dominate the conscious minds of most. But as our modern world continues its present entropic collapse into worldwide warfare, police-state oppression, and dehumanizing regimentation, it might be timely to resurrect some earlier notions – born of renaissance and enlightenment thinking – about the centrality of individuals in defining our social systems and behavior.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]At least since the time of Lincoln, our nation has abandoned such sentiments, elevating statist ambitions of empire over the liberty and prosperity of human beings. It is time for us to face up to the myths and other lies by which others have seduced our self-destructive compliance. There is no "social contract" underlying our relationship to the state. Contrary to the high school civics class nonsense in which we have been indoctrinated, you and I are not the government: we have no more say in the course of political decision-making than does our family dog in deciding where we are to take this year’s vacation![/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]There are some fables, however, that are too deeply engrained in us for us to confront, most of which have to do with how political systems operate. To look such myths in the face and see them for what they are would, in our politically-defined world, be too traumatic, forcing us to face up to the reality that we have been victimized by our own gullibility. (I have, for instance, been intrigued by the recent billboards and bumper-stickers that read: "In God We Trust. United We Stand." If we are trusting in God, why do we need to stand united? Is God incapable of finding and protecting us if we "stand individually?")[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]The myth that meets with the most resistance for examination, however, is that upon which modern "democratic" political systems are founded: the "social contract" theory of the state. According to this view, best developed by John Locke and woven into the fabric of the Declaration of Independence, human beings are free by nature, and may take whatever action is necessary for sustaining their lives, consistent with a like right in all others to do the same. This includes the right to protect one’s life and property from attacks by others. The individual enjoyment of such a right carries with it the right of individuals to join together for mutual protection, creating an agency – the state – to act on their behalf in this regard. At all times, however, this arrangement is understood as one of a principal/agency relationship, with individuals being the principals, and the state their agent. This, in theory, is the rationale for the modern state.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Of course, there is no evidence of any state having come into existence through such idealistic means. Being grounded in force, all political systems have been created through conquest, violence, and disregard for the rights of those who do not voluntarily choose to be a part of the arrangement. Even the origins of the United States of America – which provides us a great deal more empirical evidence – reveals the absence of any "contract" among its citizenry to participate in the system. As best I can tell from my reading of history, the Constitution was probably favored by about one-third of the population, strongly opposed by another one-third, and greeted with indifference by the remaining one-third.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]The sentiment that "We the People" spoke, as one voice, on behalf of the new system; the idea that there was a universal agreement – which a contract theory demands – for the creation of the American state, represents historic nonsense. The Constitution did not even reflect the wishes of a majority of the population, much less all. Those who persist in the "social contract" myth are invited to explain how, once the national government came into being, Rhode Island was threatened with blockades and invasions should it continue to insist upon not ratifying the Constitution. Rhode Island was, after the majority of Americans themselves, the second victim of "American imperialism!"[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]If the origins of the United States government do not persuade you of the mythic nature of the state, then your attention is directed to the Civil War, wherein the southern states made a choice to opt out of the "social contract" by seceding from the Union. Lincoln – in my mind, the worst president this country ever had, including all the McKinleys and Roosevelts and Wilsons and Trumans and Bushes, none of whom could have inflicted their damage without Lincoln’s embracing the principle of the primacy of the totalitarian state – negated any pretense to a "social contract" justification for the United States. (If you would like further evidence on this, I direct your attention to two books: Richard Bensel’s Yankee Leviathan, and Thomas DiLorenzo’s just-published work The Real Lincoln.)[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Those of a totalitarian persuasion have had to stumble all over one another to salvage the "social contract" myth – without which, the state is seen for what it always has been by its nature: a corporate body that employs force, threats, and deadly violence to compel individuals to participate in whatever suits its interest to pursue. Somehow or other, people are "free" to contract to set up a state as their "agent" but, once established, there is some kind of unexplained conversion by which the state becomes the "principal," and individuals the "agents." [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Imagine if such logic were employed in the marketplace – which, fortunately, does not enjoy the use of coercive force. Suppose that you Suppose that you went to work for the United Updike Company and, after three years of employment, you decided to resign in order to take another job. Suppose Uniited Updike thought that you were too valuable an employee to lose, and so resorted to deadly force to compel you to remain with them. Suppose, further, that such a scheme would have been so transparent that it would have been met with general contempt in the community, and so the company rationalizes its coercive actions this way: "we are taking this action in order to protect the rights of your children, whose security might be threatened were you to quit your job." This was the essence of the Civil War![/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]I continue to get e-mails from readers who either do not understand – or do not want to understand – how the 13th Amendment to the Constitution nationalized slavery rather than ended it. Military and jury duty conscription, taxation, compulsory school attendance, are just a number of manifestations of how government is engaged in the practice of slavery. But the root explanation for this phenomenon is traced back to the rejection of "contract" as a basis for the state. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]One must understand the interconnected nature of "liberty," "property," and "contract." To enjoy a condition of liberty is to have one’s claim to self-ownership respected. Such claims are respected when, and only if, we insist upon contracts as the only way in which to properly deal with one another. I believe it was Blackstone who defined "contract" as an agreement by two or more persons to exchange claims of ownership. Thus, if I wish to secure your services, I will respect your independence by making an offer to you that you will consider attractive enough to cause you to agree to work for me. The arrangement is a contractual one.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]When the state wants our services or the products of our labor, it demands them by force, with no respect for yours or my right to refuse. Taxes are simply increased, conscription ordered, service demanded, and we are expected to obey with the same obeisance as a plantation slave being ordered to increase the rate of chopping cotton. We have so internalized our slave status that most of us take it as a compliment to be referred to as an "asset" of the community; or regard it as an expression of governmental "caring" to refer to our children as "our nation’s most valuable resources." [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Lest you dismiss my observations as hyperbole, consider the dissenting opinion of Supreme Court Justice Harlan, in the 1905 case Lochner v. New York, where he sought to justify legislation that limited the number of hours people could work in bakeries. An excessive number of hours, he argued, "may endanger the health, and shorten the lives of the workmen, thereby diminishing their physical and mental capacity to serve the State" (emphasis added). Do you hear any sounds of retreat from such sentiments in the words of President Bush, or John Ashcroft, or Donald Rumsfeld, as they warn us of our duties of obedience to their will, or threaten us if we seek to find out too much about their military actions? And when Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson, speaks of possible "mandatory" vaccinations against smallpox or anthrax, do you discern any more regard for our free wills in such matters than a rancher would in vaccinating his cattle for cholera or hoof-and-mouth disease?[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]In current efforts to establish a European Union, or to expand the powers – including taxation – of the United Nations, we witness the removal of even a pretense of support for the "social contract" principle. Only in Ireland, I believe, were people allowed to vote on the EU proposal – which was soundly rejected by the voters. Now, apparently, it is sufficient for existing political systems to create supra-political systems, without bothering to consult the rabble, whose function is only to be serviceable to the new regimes. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]I know of no legal principle that allows an "agent" to delegate his or her agency to another, or to create a new agency, without the consent of the "principal." I strongly suspect that, should an agent undertake such authority without being instructed to do so by the principal, all courts would treat this as a fundamental breach of the agency agreement. And yet, agencies of the United States government – as well as other nations – now engage in just such transactions, seeking to bind their own citizenry to political obligations in which none of them has had even a remote voice. Does this not suggest to you a material breach in the alleged "social contract," leaving us free to pursue our well-being in other ways? John Locke and Thomas Jefferson would have said "yes." [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]In their teenage years, my children used to lament "I didn’t ask to be born." I informed them that, as they came to learn more about biology, they would understand that they did ask to be born; that the life force within their particular sperm wanted nothing so much as to be the fertilizer of what was to become their ovum; that they have never worked so insistently for anything in their lives as to come into existence. They soon stopped uttering this plea! [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]What my children probably meant to say was that they had entered into no contract with either my wife or me to be brought into being. While this is obviously true, it is equally the case that "life" was not simply thrust upon them; that while they had no conscious will in the matter, the sense of life that inhered in their pre-conceptual state impelled their actions.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]But all of us – including my three children – are human beings and, as such, each of us is characterized by "free will." This means that each of us has the capacity for self-ownership and self-direction, qualities that men like Locke and Jefferson regarded as so inseparable to life itself that social institutions – particularly the state – must rest their legitimacy upon their inviolability. [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]We are long past the day when even intelligent men and women incorporate such insights into their thinking or discussions. The pragmatic demands of Realpolitik – including how to manipulate "public opinion" and put together power-based coalitions – now dominate the conscious minds of most. But as our modern world continues its present entropic collapse into worldwide warfare, police-state oppression, and dehumanizing regimentation, it might be timely to resurrect some earlier notions – born of renaissance and enlightenment thinking – about the centrality of individuals in defining our social systems and behavior.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]At least since the time of Lincoln, our nation has abandoned such sentiments, elevating statist ambitions of empire over the liberty and prosperity of human beings. It is time for us to face up to the myths and other lies by which others have seduced our self-destructive compliance. There is no "social contract" underlying our relationship to the state. Contrary to the high school civics class nonsense in which we have been indoctrinated, you and I are not the government: we have no more say in the course of political decision-making than does our family dog in deciding where we are to take this year’s vacation![/FONT]
Carne Seca
Well-Known Member
They took out the provision for stripping union rights and made it into a separate non-fiscal bill (once again tell me how this about balancing the budget?) and passed it through the senate. In Wisconsin you don't need a quorum to pass non-fiscal bills. It's unethical and may be illegal. I guess we will find out in the next couple of days. You can bet your ass this little stunt came from the mind of Newt Gingrich.
Ok, a few thing are obvious here. 1) you make things up. 2) you are full of shit.
As someone who knows Wal-Mart in a way none of you do, I have to say you are wrong and completely wrong.
First, Walmart gives yearly raises, and has started associates at 7.00 minimum for the last 7 years. The minimum raise is 40 cents, and 60 is the highest. Thats almost 9% raise a year. Please, someone raise your hand if you get 9% raise regularly? That 7.00 only applies to the lowliest of jobs (like pushing carts). Cashiers make about 8 starting, and have for a while. Also, if you work somewhere 7 years and don't get promoted, you obviously are NOT the model employee. What makes you think she is a model employee? She says so? Welfare recipients think they are model citizens. Doesn't make it so.
Secondly, bonuses, 95% of sales goals (which is usually less than last years sales - losing money) gets you a bonus. Yes, doing worse than last year gets you more than 50 bucks. Full time people can make out at 2500 a year. Thats if you hit 105% of sales, profit, and do good with inventory and customer satisfaction(if you rank them bad on your customer surveys because you hate walmart you are stealing money from the associates, grats on that) Mostly from sales and profit. The average store gets about 750-1000 a year. Sometimes more sometimes less depending on sales and such. I can quote exact policies and procedures for the company - all you can quote is BS.
Most of the taxes in America don't come from the citizens, they come from business and other taxes. This means the poor pay far less than even what the income tax shows. You might actually consider looking at the budget before you say things like that. Also, I don't think many poor people are paying business taxes.
They are paying 95% of the taxes, that's the issue that you don't seem to be understanding. The bottom 50% pay 2.7% The top 25% pay about 87% of income taxes. However, individual income taxes only make up 45% of the taxes the government collects. Where does the rest come from? 36% is payroll tax (half of that is payed by the employee, SSI and the like, the other half is payed by the employer.) That puts us at 81% of total taxes. 12% is corporate taxes(you know the evil rich people you say arent paying their way that own the businesses) and 7% is excise taxes and "other" When all is said and done they are paying trillions in taxes. How much more do you want is the question? Wouldn't you rather get rid of things we don't need? Bases in almost every country in the world and things that make no sense instead of charging more taxes to the people who actually invest their money towards building the country?