DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus Social Justice- We need to face some facts

That is backwards. Prices go up as a result.

We had this discussion a few years ago my friend. Wages went up and here we are a few years later having the same discussion.

Understand that inflation is caused by government spending. Every dollar in your pocket becomes less valuable. Gold is the standard. Nothing has happened to gold over the last 1000 years to make it more valuable. Our currency has become less valuable, thus requiring us to spend more to buy an ounce of gold.

This janky forum is still slow as f and crashing.

Lower Class are lower class for a reason. They have problems. Life problems. Addiction. Mental Health issues. Disabilities. Things they can't escape.

No Bernie Bro govt is going to save them from themselves other than to give them handouts. Those people are not climbing the social ladder.

They are the ones age 35 working at McDonalds making minimum wage. The libtard extremists think they need to make 30 an hour but they are delulu

Anybody who is functional in life can find a hustle that suits them and has no problem getting ahead. Stop being blind to it.

There isn't really a need for lefty extremists. They have to invent a cause to fight for. Eat the rich's lunch and give his lunch money to the homeless druggy on the corner. So he can buy more drugs and poop in the gutter.

Any normal person can easily get a job and climb the ladder. People with extra ambition can go farther.

This society structure is not hard. Due to libtards, the bar is pretty low.

That isn't true at all.

Here is the deal with minimum wage some of you have to get through your skulls. I don't care what level you take minimum wage. Minimum wage is always going to provide a crap standard of living. That is unless you are for equal wages for everybody and also want to regulate business.

State control is what you folks are pushing even if you don't know it yet. That is communism.

The inverse side of that is corporate control of the state, which, given the vast amount of lobbying and campaign contributions, we are witnessing heavily right now. Ideally, I am with you that the state should stay out of corporate dealings, but the level we have of the opposite right now is insane. We are seeing the world's richest corporate figure actively influencing our politics as I type this, and after he spent hundreds of millions on a presidential campaign, which is creating its own non-governmental committee for him to.....influence the government.

Corps also need to not overplay their hands as well and behave as though they did pre-Jack Welch. Otherwise, we see the gouging which is still somewhat prevalent. When that happens, people start getting louder for the Government to step in, like it or not.

See, that's the problem. Gov't waste is terrible. But to make meaningful cuts, people that rely on the gov't. to live get upset. Upset enough people, the people that make the laws don't get elected.

Well, I guess you could say that I rely on the Government, if by that you mean I work for the Government??? I don't think that's typically the context people have when they talk about those who "rely on the Government." But yes, I do work for the Government. I negotiate large acquisitions with contractors. To date, I'll bet the average tax payer has paid me fractions of fractions of a cent during my career and I have provided the average tax payer with around $10 in savings resulting from my negotiations. Not a bad return on investment....

I do think waste is a problem. I see it constantly. I have also mentioned ways to fix the gaping holes, a couple of which I discussed on this very forum. What DOGE wants to do is clear-cut the Government. I have not actually seen a legitimate plan or even a concept of a plan from them. All I have really seen from them is to try and sensationalize the situation by making a straw man enemy out of me. That was my reference regarding living the fallout of their rhetoric. They are sharing misinformation pinned on making federal employees look like villains, because that's what you need in Modern Politics 101, is a villain, regardless of whether or not they are one.

The biggest area of waste I've seen isn't with John Q Taxpayer relying on the Government, but where congressional reps and senators direct money to special interest groups or campaign donors. Very early on in my career, my eyes were opened on that front. It's always funny whenever Congress brings the DoD Chiefs of Staff in for a hearing where they finger point and cry out "Wasteful!" when the Department is typically spending money in the manner that Congress mandated the Department spend the money...

Sorry. I was more trying to make a statement about how 'cuts' in gov't. don't work, because any group that gets a cut complains. Not you specifically.

More like, let's cut defense spending. Oh, wait, can't cut defense spending because, well, it's our defense. Too many people and corporations would get hurt.

Let's cut s.s. Oh, wait, we can't do that.

Let's cut gov't. construction. Oh, wait, we can't cut that cause bridges, and roads, etc.

We're at a point where the whole country relies on gov't. spending. And the amount taken off the top??

Yeah I agree completely. There's so much waste embedded in all of that, a lot of which can be easily remedied, but it would still mean less money routed to places that grease palms.

We will always have the Bell Curve- those who overachieve, those who underachieve- but as I stated at the beginning of this discussion- society SHOULD ensure the minimum wage is updated more often than it has been done in the past. SS has yearly updates for decades-- EVE, you and I have been taking advantage of the poor for decades.

Government waste- here is a PERFECT ancient example of Government waste- Orlando Naval Training Center- it was closing (decades ago)- built brand new buildings, but NOT to Southern Building Code- the buildings/ brand new and never occupied were delivered and then torn down because they weren't build to code for civilian use- ie good enough for government employees, but not for the average American.....Congressmen/women providing jobs five years ahead and can't turn off the taps as bases/forts close-- that system needs fixing...should be a way out.

Somehow people think it makes sense to cut your income while you're not making enough now to pay your bills. That seems to be the republican mantra. Give out tax cuts while complaining about the deficit. As even trump ballooned the deficit in his first term.

It would be hard to make that crap up if you tried.

One of the biggest issues we have with wasteful spending is the DoD telling Congress that it doesn't need certain systems anymore and Congress replying with "Yes, you do."

Goes back to what I said: Politics and more so politicians - wanting votes. It's a dang circle jerk. How can an elected official go back to his constituents and say "know what? Those millions upon millions I've brought back to you? We don't need what you're doing, so we're cutting that program."

That would get that official not voted back in. And if that official isn't voted back in, guess what? The largess doesn't fall into their laps.

Shows how much Doge is needed. The politicians can't make the cut so people from business are needed to do so. Now at least the politician can say they tried to prevent the cut.

No doubt this isn't going to be easy. People will lose jobs and that isn't a trivial matter, but I think everybody agrees there is massive bloat that needs to be eliminated.

If the President had line item veto rights the crap stuck deep in the 1500 pages could be eliminated from what otherwise is a solid bill.

1. DOGE has not come up with anything effective or thought out, at least yet. From an insider's perspective, what they are coming up with greatly misses the mark, is detrimental, and creates straw men. It also presents a conflict of interest where one of the chairs of DOGE is a government contractor.

2. DOGE can't enact anything. They are not the Government. Nor should they be. It would still take the votes of Congressional politicians to set forth anything DOGE recommends. If politicians threw their hands up in the air and said "We tried!" would, to me, be horribly concerning. That would completely cement the assertion I made earlier regarding corporate/oligarchic takeover of the Government. As of now, no politician can claim they can't do anything because of DOGE. I mean, seriously, that's a scary ass notion to ponder.

3. Regarding the earlier discussion on corporate takeover of the Government and when things reach a fever pitch for the citizens to call on Government takeover, BCBS recently attempted to cut off paying for the complete duration of anesthesia for a procedure:

https://www.asahq.org/about-asa/new...on-of-anesthesia-for-surgical-procedures

BCBS made, I believe, over $7B in net income in 2023, so the "hemorrhaging money" excuse really doesn't come into play. When you have stuff like this happening, you're not exactly spurring people to see the advantage of free market capitalism.

FYI, and I know I have mentioned his name a lot recently, but nothing like this happened in the pre-Jack Welch era.

Perfect example of why we need term limits on all these guys and gals- I'll be naive- Washington never wanted to be a career politician, somewhere along the line our system turned from service in government FOR the people to one where I need to get elected and stay in Congress to gain power so my abstract concept of what is good thru my political party moves to the greater good.....BS, we need folks who can THINK and do best thing for country.....never happen. Power corrupts and Demo just showered their colors-- slide a pay raise in for the pigs at the barrel as the government is about to shutdown.....all the spending crap OUR politicans sneak in to bills is criminal.....but legal.

Raise the minimum wage- have a flat tax so Trump/ Elon pay their fair share, and watch CPS for sure- that is what is really important.

Amen, the Congressmen and women don't want to lose high paying defense contractor jobs or to close bases/ installations in THEIR state.....cut Defense spending as long as it doesn't affect me. Perfect example- the A-10 Warthog...PS, I flew it in 80s.....the aircraft would be great against AFGAN., ISIS, folks who have NO air force or national systems to shoot them down. But, against ANY national air force they are toast. Our USAF would much rather have 10 Stealth fighters than 200 A-10s....I promise you. But those A-10 generate more money for jobs in PEACE and the Congress won't/ haven't given them up....LOTS of other examples- PS A-10s are finally going away MOSTLY. Peace to all.

DOGE is a useless circle jerk “headed” by two idiots. Ramasmarmy’s company was based on a fraud and Musk is nothing but a salesman. Musk’s moronic purchase of Twitter illustrates his unfitness for anything in government.

What is massive bloat? How much of private sector business derives from government research? How many first, second and third tier contractors and suppliers do business directly or indirectly with government? How much federal money goes to state and local governments? How many companies do business with states and local governments because of those dollars?

Tell you what. As an example, cut FEMA. Then Florida, Texas and every other state will have to come up with money when their states are hammered by natural disasters.

Saying business people are better at this is flat out wrong. I have worked in private sector all my life. I have seen multiple “restructurings” usually decentralizing/centralizing and other assorted [censored]. The private sector is every bit as stupid, bloated and inefficient as government because both contain people.

Amen, people are people......and there are idiots in private sector just like in government.....however in private sector they go bankrupt or lose business and fail all the time--number of start up resturants and those that make it...

here is another social justice issue-- OLD PEOPLE, like me, not giving up POWER/ and their jobs-- Tex. Rep. Kay Granger, 81- "found" living in a demenia center- July 21 was her last vote- she took off half a year because she's incapable of serving. OK, OK, so President Biden did same thing.....People enabling others to KEEP Power= this ain't right and we have WAY to many old farts running our country....JMHO, Trump is in same boat- generation X, Y, Z-etc--- where are your generation of LEADERS or are you just happy making money- no time to serve your country in politics......we need young blood in politics.

It seems to me that in that the vast majority of the time "serve your country" and "politics" are two totally different things. Those serving our country are in the military.

I'd say more new blood than young blood. There is something to be said for experience. Not necessarily political experience, but just general life experience. I would say we need more people in politics that aren't motivated by money and the accumulation of power-- Servant leadership rather than self-serving leadership.

While I agree with you in theory, the fact remains that "serve your (my) country" gets convoluted with "Public Service." Politicians, career politicians, claim "I've been a public servant for X years." No, they've been a leach off the public for X years.

Look no further than Joe.

Or McConnell. I agreed with your message right up until you made a feeble attempt to point the finger at a particular person and party. The list is long and a two way street. But you do you.

Wow. Always the last word, eh?

So, pointing out 1 person is feeble? And then, you point out 1 person?

Just say you agree with my point. You can't do that, can you?

People are people in both parties-- you can serve yourself while serving others- police, doctor, dentist, school teacher--lots of other professions, they serve both.

Social issue- money prevents justice....look at Trump and his issues in NY.....another- Gaetz, former Congressman, he of the Father who is a multiple millionaire and in power politics in Florida-- he hooks up with young women, does drugs....and no law problems in Florida and gets elected to Congress- what a country of opportunity.

Pointing out it's a two way street rather than focus on one side isn't feeble. Showing it only works one way is.

I could make a much longer list if it would make you feel better.