Sharron Angle made headlines by saying that "we've put in so much entitlement into our government that we really have spoiled our citizenry," regarding Americans utilizing their unemployment insurance.
She's also advocated that we phase out social security and medicare.
She doesn't have a job herself, as we speak. She's running for Senate, of course. Her source of income? Her husband's federal pension.
Her husband worked for Bureau of Land Management for 25 years, and as he provided services for our nation is entitled to all earnings and compensation he was promised. I am not saying they should reject that pension, it is theirs.
I am simply saying that there are millions of Americans who, in service to their employers and in taxes to their nation, have a right to collect all earnings and compensation promised. That includes collecting unemployment benefits when you are unemployed and collecting social security earnings when you retire. They have a right to continue to expect those promises will be kept, despite the immature whims of an aging political movement that are collecting their own social security now but don't want to have to pay for those damn kids to do it in the future.
What's good for the goose is good for the gander, we'd say here in Texas.
Shortstuff, when I hear people complaining about a union, I alway remind them that the union wasn't the only entity signing the agreement. The highly paid company executives, who are supposed to be the smartest guys in the room and make much more than the union people, signed the agreement too. The union didn't design the cars, didn't design the parts made by others; they put all the parts together. The car companies didn't see they were doing things wrong on design and fuel efficiency even while everyone else did and quit buying them.
The $70.00 figure was pure fiction, as I understand it. It included all the benefits (including sick and vacation time because workers are not producting then), as well as the cost of the health insurance for retirees! (Good benefits can equal salary for lower paid employees; at least it did when I worked for a sub of Alcoa.) Attaching other costs to it was apparently their way of calculating how much each car cost them to make on a man/cost/hr. basis, but the big figure got out there and a lot of people believed it as being the pay rate.
I think everyone would love to live in a gated safe place, drive a safe car, eat healthy, and have a health and dental care. I wish everyone could live like this. I give anyone two thumbs up if they accomplish this in their lives. However, most people don't live like this.
I don't have a problem with wealthy people. What I have a problem with is, when they don't become good stewards in helping others when people have more than they really need.
I think being wealthy carries a huge responsibility, and it saddens me when they don't take that responsibly seriously.
Hi ShortStuff,
I agree with you, it is a shame that many factories have shut down.
If everyone would buy USA cars it would help our own economy. I know it is hard to find products made in the US, but we still have cars made here.
I would not even buy a used foreign car because of the parts I would need.
Maybe the cars should have a little plaque on the back that says:
Proudly Made In The USA
To remind the person behind them that we do still make cars.
BTW..I want a percentage on this idea..lol..
Don't worry about it. I knew you meant Brewer; we all get a name or word wrong sometimes. I'm in Texas, and we have our own poor governor, who doesn't know Texas history even though he's lived here all his life. We share your pain. While we don't have as high an employment percentage as Arizona, we have a low paid workforce, and it's getting lower all the time. Many families need help.
GM cut their nose off to spite their face....they shipped jobs overseas and closed down factories.
Lo and behold, all the autoworkers who formerly WERE ABLE TO BUY THEIR CARS could no longer afford to, because they no longer had jobs.
All I have to do to despise the GOP and see the results of Reaganomics, is to go home for a visit. It breaks my heart to see acres and acres of brownfields where once-thriving factories once stood. Where 35,000 people used to make good, middle-class livings. And then I hear teabaggers talk about how UAW members were making $70/hour. (I had someone parrot that line to me just the other day. I called BS on it. A skilled trades worker might pull in close to that IF he or she works a helluva lot of overtime.)
Really? $70/hour! We saw no evidence of that in my family. My dad never made that kind of money at G.M., nor did my stepdad. But they were able to provide a decent living.
The thing is that the rich in this country increasingly find themselves living in gated communities with tinted windows on their cars, secluded vacation homes, ect. They just don't see it. Those that confront it on a daily basis (be it ourselves or those around us) understand that America is a symbiotic relationship. When my neighbor struggles I struggle. I may not suffer economically, but those around us that suffer may turn to crime or other desperate measures to make ends meet. Who pays for all of that? We do of course, but few in their situation think about any of that.
Someone around here (or somewhere else, I've slept since then) was talking about how Henry Ford paid twice the basic wage. He knew his employees would also be customers. All of these "screw the employees" CEOs and stuffed suits don't realize that the stock hike might come now, but eventually you lose customers. Demand has always driven the economy and it always will. You can't increase demand unless you make sure people have their basic necessities taken care of.
Absoliutely. Just need one of those little flashlights they use on CSI. My brother-in-law, did his own.
June, I meant Governor Jan Brewer..not our Mayor
Showing my old age...lol
Hi June,
I don't know what other States are like, but you just described AZ.
It would not surprise me that eventually, you will either be rich or poor.
People can only live on their savings for so long without a job.
Most people go from week to week saying a prayer that they make it.
People even with a Master Degree are having a hard time getting jobs in their fields.
You are so right, shelters are full and the food banks are getting low.
It might be getting better in some States, I haven't seen it here.
Thanks to our Mayor, I believe company's are boycotting us.
Thank you carguy for the nice comment, I appreciate it.
It is very interesting to read all the postings on here.
Thanks, carguy. Can people who have their heads up their asses perform their own colonoscopies? Sure would save a lot of money.
Bobo, I know people just like the ones you describe. Don't get me started on "small business owners," who expense everything, including cars for their whole family and work performed in their residences. Some are the biggest tax cheats in the country, and billions in tax revenue are lost each year. I know a couple of former business owners, now retired, who complain about their small Social Security checks. I reminded one recently that she did everything she could to reduce the amount of SS taxes she paid in, and she admitted that was true.
People like Sharron Angle have no soul.
WindorSolarPlease, you're right there aren't enough jobs now, and certainly not enough good jobs where many of the employed can afford to help others. Donations to food banks and charities are way down. The middle class of this country has been losing ground for a number of years and will be completely destroyed soon if there are no changes. It's hard not to believe that this is a plan of the large corporations and a large number of the Rebiblicans and Tea Party types who either do not realize or care about the devastation they are causing.
"Head in ass", a condition that affects some 18-20 million Americans, is reported on the rise by the Journal of the American Medical Association. The CDC reports ever increasing incidences among upper class, white Americans. Dr. Jonas Hutchison, spokespeson for the CDC, says, MOST if not all of these cases go untreated. The only real cure is for people to quit listening to conservative radio and TV talk show hosts and quit getting their news and opinions from FOX.
June and WindSolar - Excellent comments. Nice to have you here at TDH.
I think the republicans should drop the elephant as their "logo" and adopt Marie Antoinette as their "symbol" and "Let them eat cake" as their motto.
How is it the republicans don't understand that, were it not for the poor, THEY wouldn't be rich.
"Spoiled".
That really annoys the hell out of me. Unemployment benefits pay less than HALF of what your salary was.
That's spoiling someone?
Angle needs to get her head out of her ass.
These morons, like most morons, don't realize that it IS NOT entitlement if you pay into it...
This is what is wrong with our country, stupid ass idiots spewing whatever their corporate masters tell them to say.
IT IS CALLED A PAYOUT!! NOT AN ENTITLEMENT!!
june wrote:
some people, who are well provided for, don't believe others should be
I don't understand, either. Of two raving conservative friends, one has a government job and in a couple more decades may actually amass close to $1M in a retirement account; the other runs a small company and has his health insurance completely paid for by that company -- after most of his daily expenditures are "expensed."
They long for no government and raw capitalism, they say, but, truly, I think they wouldn't be able to withstand its rigors because they've had so little practice.
Hi June,
Exactly...
People don't think or use their heads when they want to take away the little bit of help that some people get.
The economy would be worse if that happened.
We need jobs right here in the US. Miss the days when products would say made in USA.
Lets' face it, there is not enough jobs here for everyone. The ones who can't find work, children, older people, the sick, need help.
The ones who can help, need to bite the bullet and help, or else this Country will probably eventually look just like another deprived Country.
No one person needs many millions or billions to live on. Shame that some people don't understand that there is enjoyment in helping others.
Since Sharron Angle's husband is retired on a gubmint pension, I'd bet they also receive medical insurance at a very reduced price, which will continue as a "gap" insurance when they are eligible for Medicare. I know this was true about 10 years ago because I helped an elderly woman, retired from the gubmint, with her finances.
It's always been a big mystery to me how some people, who are well provided for, don't believe others should be. Worse, these people think they are good Christians.
Does she want the children, older people, sick people, people who want jobs on the streets starving eating dog food when they can get it?
As long as she is doing ok then why not take everything away from the people who need help. I would love to see her live off of what most people have to.
I am sure she would not want her husband pension to be taken away.
How does she sleep at night or look in the mirror wanting to do this? Were is her heart or her conscience?
It is ok to bail out big business, but not help the every day person?
Prov. 14:31 Anyone who oppresses the poor is insulting God who made them. To help the poor is to honor God.
I would like to provide "the good goose" to Sharon Angle every time she tries to part us from our wisdom. That would be a full time job though, I fear...