About The Free Stuff
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Subject: Fwd: Fw: The Truth About The Free Stuff
The folks who are getting free stuff, don't like the folks who are paying for the free stuff, because the folks who are paying for the free stuff, can no longer afford to pay for both the free stuff and their own stuff.
And, The folks who are paying for the free stuff,
Want the free stuff to stop. And the folks who are getting the free stuff, want even MORE free stuff on top of the free stuff they're getting already!
Now, the people who are forcing people to PAY for the free stuff, have told the people who are RECEIVING the free stuff, that the people who are PAYING for the free stuff, are being mean, prejudiced and racist.
So, the people who are GETTING the free stuff, have been convinced they need to HATE the people who PAY for the free stuff because they are
selfish. And they are promised more free stuff if they will vote for the people who force the people who pay for the free stuff to give them even more free stuff.
And - - - - - that's the truth!
Posts
25 comments:
This e-mail does show the truth: Nobody can understand society anymore except as a stand-in for MY CHECKBOOK.
It is astounding that after so many decades of workers and the rich fighting, it's the rich who finally won economically and in the court of public opinion.
Social Security is not free. Medicare is not free. Unemployment is not free. We pay into the system so it will be there when we need it down the road.
Government is not free. All the things we love and benefit from: the military, infrastructure, disaster relief (hello Irene!), scientific research, an education system, police, courts, etc etc, all that shit costs money. EVERYONE benefits from it in one way or another and EVERYONE pays for it in one way or another. This idea that there are "payers" and "moochers" and that they are seperate groups is utter crap.
Are RWFs getting dumber? Does this stupidity pass as a thoughtful forward from the Right? This message is completely devoid of substance. It is a mere call to the emotions of scapegoating and fear.
The message here is "blame other people for my unhappiness." Congrats on not taking responsibility for yourselves RightWingers, while simultaneously complaining about others for the same thing. You are what you hate.
What the heck is the free stuff?
George Carlin's ghost is going to rise up and murder the stupid RW bastard who wrote this forward.
His ghost doesn't need to rise up. Someone who has grown up in a poverty-ridden home in a drug infested neighborhood with no hope for a decent job and no help from overburdened and underfunded schools and communities will do the job. I'm fairly sure of that. How is it that people with such a narrow vision and anti-social ideals have come to be listened to and promoted by the right? My God people are stupid.
"Are RWFs getting dumber?"
To Thx 4 Fish: no, I wouldn't say RWFs are getting dumber *overall,* but this one is particularly stupid and lacking in any substance.
Yes, it's all about fear-mongering and scapegoating. The subtext - not particularly subtle - is that some dusky-hued non-person is somehow ripping you white person off personally.
What "free stuff" indeed? WTF is this even talking about?? Who knows? Let's just focus on how someone, somewhere is somehow getting "free stuff" and it's massively *unfair* to some white person who, no doubt, piously and self-righteously goes to church every Sunday.
What about corporate welfare? What about all the massive tax breaks and loopholes and tax incentives that the super wealthy and the mega-corporations enjoy?
Oh: look over there!!! There's some dusky-hued slacker who *must be* getting "free stuff." Get MAD about that!
Get the picture?? Distractions abound... the easily amused are easily distracted by bullsh*t and hype.
@Anonymous who said
"Social Security is not free. Medicare is not free. Unemployment is not free. We pay into the system so it will be there when we need it down the road."
Actually...employERs pay 50% of Social Security and Medicare and 100% of unemployment. So all of the unemployed people out there are not collecting money that they themselves actually paid into the system, they are collecting money paid solely by employERs. So this is a good example of "payers" and "moochers". As for SS and Medicare - I take it that you believe the employee should only be able to collect what they actually paid into those programs...and not the amounts that are paid by the employERs on behalf of the employee?
So there are in fact "payers" and "moochers" even though you don't want to believe it.
Actually...employERs pay 50% of Social Security and Medicare and 100% of unemployment.
And those calculations are taken into account when deciding whether or not to hire employees and how much to pay them. It does affect hiring and compensation decisions. Just as company health care plans aren't actually paid exclusively by the employer but are paid from the compensation pool for employees.
This is economics 101.
"Just as company health care plans aren't actually paid exclusively by the employer but are paid from the compensation pool for employees."
So with that reasoning, every employee owns a piece of everything the company owns. The company has a total cost that they can afford to incur for the year, and compensation is just a part of that total pool. So if my company plans to buy a building and budgets accordingly, I should have ownership in that building because even though I didn't directly pay for it, the company clearly took compensation away from me to pay for that building.
This might be too advanced for your economics class.
So with that reasoning, every employee owns a piece of everything the company owns.
False. Health care expenditure fall into the compensation pool, or labor expenses. Money spent on employee health care is a labor expense, just as employee salaries are a labor expense. Its not perfectly fungible, but they are both part of compensation.
Money the company spends on things like buildings comes out of the capital budget, which is a separate pool of money. Capital and labor are both inputs. They might be interchangeable in some ways (ie, you can buy a machine and therefore higher fewer workers), but they are not the same. Your example fails.
This is Economics 101, day 2.
Money is fungible. Whether capital budget, compensation budget, etc. Take it from one pocket and put it in the other. The budget looks at the big picture, one area affects the other. Fire your professor. Go back to collecting your unemployment that you think you paid for.
Sigh...
Lets try an example.
A firm has unfilled demand it wants to fill in order to increase profits. In order to do this, it must higher a new employee. A machine can't fill the need, it has to be an employee.
So they find someone they think is right for the job, and they offer him what he's worth according to the marketplace. Lets say its 50K a year, plus health benefits.
Lets also say those health benefits cost the company 5k a year.
Under a theoretical free market without any employer provided health care, the employees market value is 55k, not 50K. The money that goes to pay for his health care is money taken out of his theoretical compensation (as does the cost of his unemployment insurance and half of his SS withholding). The firm knows this going into the hiring and deducts those expenses from the theoretical amount they would be willing to pay him based on his market value.
This is a very simple concept, and pretty much the only thing that economists will agree on.
So why accept the 50K plus health care instead of just the 55K? Because in most cases it would be more expensive (not to mention a lot more of a hassle) for him to pocket that money and then go shopping for health insurance as an individual. The company provides something of an economy of scale which drives down the price of his health insurance, while also saving him the aggravation of spending his personal time shopping for health insurance.
So all of the unemployed people out there are not collecting money that they themselves actually paid into the system, they are collecting money paid solely by employERs.
This is an awfully nitpicky point, given that unemployment insurance "is 100% funded by employers who pay taxes on wages paid to employees." Likewise, Social Security and Medicare are funded through payroll taxes -- taxes on actual working people's wages.
That only makes the unemployed "moochers" if they never worked at all (and were thus ineligible for Social Security and unemployment benefits).
This is so true and I see this every day. Multiple generations go into the "family business" of obtaining state and federal assistance for their sustenance with no plan or desire to work and contribute to society, or the work a few years then fain an injury and obtain disability for the rest of their lives. If you worked for a year and payed in a little does this entitle you to a lifetime of government checks in the mail every month? If you read above I guess it does. You do have a choice to improve yourself even if you come from meager beginnings but it takes hard work and persistence which unfortunately much of the populace sorely lacks. I hear all the time "I didn't have the opportunity/money...to go to college", "my upbringing was bad so I can't do anything", etc. Just endless excuses. If you do not have a congenital mental retardation and have use of your arms or legs(many people who are handicapped are very gainfully employed)get your butt doing something to contribute to society.
Anon, I'd love to see any proof that your anecdotal government leeches are even remotely real. And if you have a solution for the seven million jobs that evaporated from the U.S. economy and have not returned, I'm all ears.
This is so true and I see this every day
What kind of people do you hang out with? And in what fantasy land can you collect unlimited disability or welfare just by "feigning" an injury? Sounds like total bullshit to me.
I hear all the time "I didn't have the opportunity/money...to go to college", "my upbringing was bad so I can't do anything", etc.
Ya! Who cares if we have shitty schools and college is a luxury many can't afford? Who cares if our economy has shifted drastically over the last generation to destroy quality middle class jobs in favor of lower wages in order to push wealth ever upward? Who cares that the rich get richer and everyone else is hanging on by their fingernails? That's no excuse! The American Dream is within your reach! All you have to do is be born into a privileged family and use your family ealth and connections to go to fancy schools where you can socialize with other go getters, then you can get jobs on wall street screwing over the rest of us for fun and profit!
You see it every day. Sure you do.
Ok, so some people game the system.
Therefore the system is imperfect and should be dismantled.
Is that what you're saying?
Bottom Line: The system IS broken. Many people do "mooch" off this system; however, there aren't as many as most believe. The exaggeration undoubtedly comes from those who have had a hard time, seen loss of jobs, lost income or finances due to the economy, live in close proximity to a mass population of these "dead beats", etc. That's not to say it doesn't happen, a lot. Our tax system is broke. The system only taxes those with income (yes there are tax laws that exempt extremely low or no income families), does not tax illegal activities (the question being, how? Fair tax?), and doesn't consider families who have lost jobs or income. There are numerous issues with the system. Simply put we're broke. History lesson: average democratic society lifespan 250-275 years without change.
The system only taxes those with income (yes there are tax laws that exempt extremely low or no income families)
How do you tax (the income of) someone with no income? That's nonsense. But there's still sales tax, etc.
We also tax capital gains and investments at a much lower rate than income, so the rich have a huge advantage over the middle class there. It's not the folks too broke to squeeze blood out of who are the problem here.
does not tax illegal activities (the question being, how? Fair tax?)
You don't tax illegal activities. You punish them. And yet we do almost nothing to punish businesses who hire illegal immigrants, while those same workers pay into Social Security and taxes whose benefits they will never collect on.
History lesson: average democratic society lifespan 250-275 years without change.
We just had an e-mail claiming this a week ago. There is no historical truth in it. Snopes
History lesson: average democratic society lifespan 250-275 years without change.
False. You might try a bit of reading: http://www.snopes.com/politics/ballot/athenian.asp
Shoot, Valeyard beat me to it!
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/low_concept/2011/10/the_republican_war_on_halloween_trick_or_treating_kids_shouldn_t.html
@ Ken
I wouldn't put it past them.
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