“People who dismiss the unemployed and dependent as ‘parasites’ fail to understand economics and parasitism. A successful parasite is one that is not recognized by its host, one that can make its host work for it without appearing as a burden. Such is the ruling class in a capitalist society.”

Jason Read






If wealth was the inevitable result of hard work and enterprise, every woman in Africa would be a millionaire

George Monbiot (Actually from 2011)




You want to talk about values?" "Hard work -- that's a value. Looking out for one another -- that's a value. The idea that we're all in it together and I'm my brother's keeper and sister's keeper -- that's a value."

Barack Obama






When businesspeople take credit for creating jobs, it’s a little like squirrels taking credit for creating evolution. In fact, it’s the other way around......


I’ve never been a “job creator.” I can start a business based on a great idea, and initially hire dozens or hundreds of people. But if no one can afford to buy what I have to sell, my business will soon fail and all those jobs will evaporate.

That’s why I can say with confidence that rich people don’t create jobs, nor do businesses, large or small. What does lead to more employment is the feedback loop between customers and businesses. And only consumers can set in motion a virtuous cycle that allows companies to survive and thrive and business owners to hire. An ordinary middle-class consumer is far more of a job creator than I ever have been or ever will be.


—Nick Hanauer in a TED talk on inequality

great quotes, some people fail to see the subtle gradations of economics. People just don't realize that the economy is us thats why it can never be perfect

I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer. — Ben Franklin

Guess BO doesn't practice any value by his own rhetoric....as usual

I don't think you can rely on Iran. I don't think you can rely on other radicals like the Taliban. They dispatched Al-Qaida to bomb New York and Washington. What were they thinking? Were they that stupid? They weren't stupid. There is an irrationality there, and there is madness in this method.

-Benjamin Netanyahu

so,, did Bens slaves ever become richer?

It is a known fact that some of the founding fathers, and others, were slave owners. Perhaps his slaves were happy with his "ownership" as opposed to someone maybe not so "fair" in their treatment.....but neither you or I can attest to that!

Personally, I would have bought as many slaves as I could to offer them at least a modicum of normality in return for their labors, perhaps he thought similarly, perhaps not.

Why play a race card for this post?

It's a sad fact that they were not considered "human" but rather property to be bought and sold at the time.

Today, war is becoming the slave of old, and people are outraged, but they still beat the war drums despite the foolishness, or inhumanity, of it!

You can't change history, but hopefully we learn from it.

slavery isnt a 'card' , its documented history

his statement was about how people were richer when they had to work harder, I applied his own philosophy to something in his own life,,,

And played the race card doing it!

not sure if you knew

but 'race' and wealth have a pretty long history of correlating with each other

just like race and slavery (Which certainly involved working hard for the wealth of OTHERS but not yourself) did in the US,,,

what question ?

I stated that slavery was a fact, an accepted fact, of the times.

Why it should be brought up as a race issue to the post was my point.

The comment about "slaves" in pertaining to the times was unneeded and irrelevant, simply bringing the race card into play.

I stated my case. You can't change history! The current administration (and many before it) is making slaves of all of us by their policies, and no matter how hard you work, or what color your skin, times are hard for ALL of us!

Savings is a thing of the past, return on investment, free trade and travel, property ownership and rights. We're all slaves to the new form of govt we are being enslaved to, endebted to the banks and corporations.....IT'S NOT ABOUT RACE!

it becomes about race if the speaker owned slaves during a time when RACE was a strong factor in determining entitlement and 'wealth'


to make a statement that those who were given more provisions became poorer and those with less became richer, from such a speaker, is not a quote relevant to the discussion of AMERICA and its belittling of the poor


its a nice quote though, and its actually a promotion for the current welfare/unemployed state,, in which people do have the expectation to 'work themself' out,,,,in order to receive assistance

Race at that time had NO bearing. Slaves were considered property....like cattle...a sad fact!

Today you CAN'T work yourself out of anything! Nothing has value, most who are employed are under employed, benefits are a thing of the past, both parents work to simply put food on the table, their is NO profit to savings and therefore no chance of "saving for retirement". There is only hedge funds, wall street, a casino reality with NO guarantees, only bankers, CEOs and lobbyists get perks and bonuses....

WE'RE ALL SLAVES!

are you serious sojourn? race had no bearing in slavery?

wow


I wonder why you called my initial mention of it a 'race card' then,,,,

yes, current times make slaves of most, I can at least agree with that,,,,

The reference was to BF.... his slaves were black... it was an accepted culture of the times, they could NOT expect anything as slaves....that's why it was called slavery!

That is a race card since it had no relevance to present day culture, and is simply racebaiting for comment!

Someone needs to read before posting

pretty much, the unemployed and poor are seen as people who should not 'expect' anything either

so it was not a 'card', just a relevant comparison of how words dont necessarily match reality

when BF talks about traveling and how 'entitlements' make people poorer, he wasnt looking at the AMerican culture where the entitled were most often the MOST WEALTHY,,,,and those who 'shouldnt expect' were the poorest....

He said that if you give people something without them having to work for it, they will take advantage, become lazy, not appreciate, expect it to continue, and thereby not help themselves for their own betterment, thereby choosing to remain forever poor, and never be all that they can be.

Entitlements create slackers and a drain on society, regardless of which "class" the recipient is born into.

I am not saying that is true in every individual case, but as a whole.

Black slaves were not even the issue of the statement as they were "owned" property and not considered to be anything else in the time of his statement! Your "slaves" comment was uncalled for in that regard, and in poor taste.

I think the point just continues to be missed.

YES. slaves were considered property, but they were obviously humans and some of the ways other humans used to justify treating them as less was similar to any other impoverished people,,

that they should just be 'grateful' for what they were being given (the wonderful room and board afforded on someone elses dime,, sound familiar?)

that they were not good for anything else but hard labor because they werent educated (reminds me of how our system is set up for the 'educated' to move forward and others to just 'try harder')


that if you gave them 'too much' they would become ungrateful and lazy,,,,


a capitalist society has NOTHING to do with how hard people are working, or willing to work,, to survive

its not true that having BASIC NEEDS (that some refer to as 'entitlements') met is gonna make people LAZY or a drain

it is true, that people can work hard and still not get far because they arent a part of the right 'network', and because its an employers market where every opening has AT LEAST six other people who would like the job and the economy is SET UP for some people to not have EMPLOYMENT...


this isnt grandma and grandpas america, where jobs were plenty with decent wages and a good chance at two way loyalty that included benefits and stability for someone to support their family

employees now are more highly expendable than ever before and pay is dropping except for the 'highly' educated

Im not saying success isnt possible, of course it is,, but I tire of the fallacy that people having basic needs causes some huge drain on society and a league of 'lazy' people,, or even that not being somewhere with an income has anything to do with being 'lazy'

For entitlements to exist, somebody is being robbed of their wealth. When there isn't enough wealth collected to satisfy the entitlements there are deficits, when there are deficits, there is debt, where there is debt there is interest, where there is interest there is more debt.

The FED prints money from thin air to pay entitlements because enough wealth is never collected to satisfy those entitlements. They print their phony money backed by nothing but air, loan it to the govt at interest to pay entitlements. The more they print the more the dollar is devalued, the more it is devalued the less it buys.

If that is not a drain on the economy, please tell me what is?

If devaluing money creates wealth, please tell me how.

All it does it make the poor poorer, the middle class taxpayer poorer, and those in control, the wealthy, the corporations and the banks richer.

So please explain how entitlements help anyone other than enslave them to a corrupt system again?