Thread: Occupy Wall Street

tl;dr


Brian... sum it up in 3 sentences.

Originally Posted by NegativeOne13

tl;dr


Brian... sum it up in 3 sentences.

Its not that easy. Its not one problem, with one solution.

The banks and the Federal reserve had a huge play in things, if you really care to understand how this happened, take a look at The Crisis of Credit Visualized - HD - YouTube

The banks are now finding other ways to take from their customers such as fees to use checks, and fees to use debit cards, which are $5 a month. $60 a year to use a check or debit card. If you don't hold a $15,000 balance month to month with citibank, your account will be charged $20 a month. I don't know how many of you have $15,000 in your bank account, but I surely don't.

The richest 1% is getting richer while the other 99% is getting poorer. The banks got their bailouts, where are the bailouts for the rest of the country?

These people's stories tell it all We Are the 99 Percent

wow it is truly great to sit back and look at all the LEFT AND RIGHT wingers out there... It is just awesome.. All I can say is that there is a point that the problem ISN'T that the companys make their product overseas and then ship it here to sell it.. THAT is called good business. Make cheap, sell pricey. That is how a company stays afloat. But we should be asking HOW are they doing it. Maybe it is because the UNIONS made the wages sooo over inflated. Look at the price of a new chevy car today compared to 20 years ago. Then take into account inflation and it is still out of whack.
Now before anyone takes a shot at me for hating the unions, I don't hate them. But they have made their own bed. I work in a manufacturing plant, I am not union. We are one of the last ones around this area because we are NOT union. TRUE i don't make $30-$40 an hour. But I never expected to without a college degree. They pay me a fair wage. And since they don't pay a laborer 50k a year they can keep their prices down and stay in business. And thus i get to keep my job. You want Americans to go back to work.... Tell them to lower the expectations if they have no degree. Be happy with middle class. You wont get to drive a BMW but you will still be able to make your house payment.

One last thing.... This health care CRAP is REALLY REALLY bad for the economy. But no one wants to talk about all the money(and thusly jobs) that will be lost in the private health care market.

A company can make money without charging up the ass to sell the product!

I can't believe you're even saying that.

Take a look at this example. My friend owns a business where he sells knives. He get a specific knife for two dollars. A chinese made knife cost him 2 dollars. He sells it for 10-12 bucks. You know how much it cost the company to produce? No more than 50 cents.

Same thing with big companies. There's absolutely NO reason to mark up a product so high unless your main goal is to maximize completely on profit, which everyone in this world wants to do.

The Union is NOT what's causing inflation, don't even get to that.

How is it that you're NOT ok with the price of a Chevy Silverado now, but when it comes to other products being made overseas, it's called a "good business" plan?

Now in my opinion, it is a good idea to produce things overseas, because it's costing you less to do it. What I am not ok with is the fact that it's ok for those people working overseas to get paid crap, just so we can make a profit out of it here. Then you have people who ***** about buying things produced overseas and that they're low quality. It's not that they're low quality, they're more than capable of producing an item with good quality, however, no one's willing to pay the price for good quality.

Again take a look at this, friend sells these american made brand named knives called Kershaw, they go for about $70, compraed to $12, $20, or $30 dollar knives. They ***** about products not domestic made, but when they see the price on domestic made items, they ***** again.

This debate isn't about the left or the right, it's balanced.

I ask you Ice, if you had a degree (or degrees) and college education debt, but could find no job in your "career field" which your degrees were for and ended up in your current career field, would you be as content as you are with your situation?

What if you started out at your job 50-100 thousand dollars in debt?

Originally Posted by Explicit_Spade

This debate isn't about the left or the right, it's balanced.

I ask you Ice, if you had a degree (or degrees) and college education debt, but could find no job and ended up in your career field, would you be as content as you are with your situation?

Well i guess that would depend... It still is not the Governments fault I have no job prospects. It really is not anyones fault. Would I be excited about it. No. Would I be happy to still support my family, yes. I would take what I can get and keep trying to get something better. I just don't understand what all the "protesting" is going to accomplish. It won't make the economy any better. All they are doing is "*****ing and moaning" Not ACTUALLY doing something about it. If you can't make what you consider a decent living doing one career, then try another one. Don't blame everyone else.

Originally Posted by Iceman6669

Well i guess that would depend... It still is not the Governments fault I have no job prospects. It really is not anyones fault. Would I be excited about it. No. Would I be happy to still support my family, yes. I would take what I can get and keep trying to get something better. I just don't understand what all the "protesting" is going to accomplish. It won't make the economy any better. All they are doing is "*****ing and moaning" Not ACTUALLY doing something about it. If you can't make what you consider a decent living doing one career, then try another one. Don't blame everyone else.

And what about when you can't provide for your family? When you have more bills than income and have to decide between rent and food? Then you get malnurished and get sick, but refuse to go to a doctor because you have no healthcare. This is reality. We have people in america who get evicted from their homes and apartments because they chose to eat instead of pay rent. People are dying and committing suicide over the lives they are forced to lead, because there is no end in sight.

The richest 1% of the country is getting richer and the other 99% is getting poorer.

This may not be a sight you see everyday, depending on your city, or what part of that city you are in, but IT IS HAPPENING. Most of these protesters are without jobs, wellfare, or health insurance. A lot of them have lost their homes to the banks who have caused a majority of the problem, but they got their bailouts. Where are the bailouts for the other 99% of the country?

When "American" car companies have to pay their employees so much more then what other companies do they HAVE to raise prices. Who insists that they Raise prices...The unions. Don't buy it if you don't want to. But I work in manufacturing and have stood by and watched all the other plants go out of business because they couldn't compete with the non union shops. It is a fact when you HAVE to pay someone more they their job is worth you HAVE to charge more for your product. And when someone can pay their employees less they can charge slightly LESS... And in a free market economy guess which company wins...

Originally Posted by Iceman6669

When "American" car companies have to pay their employees so much more then what other companies do they HAVE to raise prices. Who insists that they Raise prices...The unions. Don't buy it if you don't want to. But I work in manufacturing and have stood by and watched all the other plants go out of business because they couldn't compete with the non union shops. It is a fact when you HAVE to pay someone more they their job is worth you HAVE to charge more for your product. And when someone can pay their employees less they can charge slightly LESS... And in a free market economy guess which company wins...

They're not paying their employees so much more, they're paying them according to the standard of living, and they live in the world's #1 economy.

Still much better than getting paid a few cents a day if that.

Originally Posted by Remnant King

They're not paying their employees so much more, they're paying them according to the standard of living, and they live in the world's #1 economy.

Still much better than getting paid a few cents a day if that.

They are paying them WAY to much in most cases. We have had people come through our shop that had worked at the "UNION" shops and made TONS more then me. But they didn't seem to know a DAMN thing. I am not saying pay everyone Minimum wage..... But if you are not an Exec. or have a college degree please dont expect to live in a 300K dollar house. Live in you means.

Originally Posted by Iceman6669

They are paying them WAY to much in most cases. We have had people come through our shop that had worked at the "UNION" shops and made TONS more then me. But they didn't seem to know a DAMN thing. I am not saying pay everyone Minimum wage..... But if you are not an Exec. or have a college degree please dont expect to live in a 300K dollar house. Live in you means.

The thing is though, I mean yeah they might be getting paid a little too much, but they are some of your lesser problems. It's something that will need to get fixed eventually, but since you're talking about overpaid, take a look at athletes, or celebrities. Athletes don't deserve HALF they pay they get.

Originally Posted by Iceman6669

They are paying them WAY to much in most cases. We have had people come through our shop that had worked at the "UNION" shops and made TONS more then me. But they didn't seem to know a DAMN thing. I am not saying pay everyone Minimum wage..... But if you are not an Exec. or have a college degree please dont expect to live in a 300K dollar house. Live in you means.

Do you know why unions pay more? Because union workers get laid off a lot. I have a friend who has been laid off over a month now. He is living on his savings account.

Thing about the price of houses. There are people who have already paid more than their homes are worth, and still owe a hundred thousand dollars or more.

Living within your means is an unrealistic statement when the banks are robbing the citizens.

Spade I dont doubt for a SECOND it IS happening. And also don't think for a sec. i haven't ever had to chose between food or bills. I moved out right after highschool and did my own thing. I know how much of a pain in the ass it can be. All I am saying is that no matter what your Utopia is there is never EVER going to be equal for everyone. There will always be the Upper class and the Lower class. It will always be that way.

I will agree to that... BUT the athletes don't make YOUR bills any higher. The problem with our economy STARTS with our work force. If the companies can't compete they will have to cut costs. If you want people in america to work sooo bad STOP buying ANYTHING made overseas regardless of price. That would just be silly on your part. If our economy is ever going to recover we have to start being able to compete on a world market. And I also agree that tariffs on incoming goods need to be raised...Make it less profitable for companies to make their stuff overseas.

There's no reason for me to pay twice or three times the amount of a product, when another product can do the same thing for much less.

And the ways things are now, like I said earlier, how can you buy domestic when you can't afford it? Grow money on a tree?

I don't know why you guys are discussing other countries... This is a world wide protest.

October 15th the world will be Protesting with Occupy Wall Street.

There are groups called Occupy Together and Occupy Globally.

I think people in this thread need to do more research:

1. Saying the top 1 or 2% (Rich) people in this country "Earned" it is a joke. Do research on how many of those people actually built a business from the ground up or received their money from other means. The other FACT is that those people are actually paying LESS tax than people who are making much less than them. You ask what the reason for this is? The Republicans say they are paying less tax so stimulate those businesses/companies to create jobs. If that is true then where are the jobs? It's pretty much a no brainer that their tax break should be eliminated but for some reason the majority of republicans keep fighting it.

2. About China. Take a look at this:

http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5700.html

We import WAY more than we export. The US imports more than it exports in general also, not just with China.

3. The main reason this country is going down the tubes is corruption and the two party system. If you ask me we are heading for civil war in the next 5 years.

4. I agree with the fact their should be stricter regulations on welfare and other government funded assistance. Drug testes should be mandatory.

5. I think its good to see a group of people actually doing something about the state of this country. If it were up to politicians they would just argue and get paid and never actually solve anything.