Wilbur, thanks for the thoughtful response. It didn't piss me off because I probably agree with you more than you realize. And I'm not bitter because I heartily agree that life isn't fair, get over it.
For instance, I agree with you that business owners are in it to make as much money as they possibly can. More power to them. It is the backbone of our system. But I am also in it to make as much money as I can. I don't have the acumen to be a business owner, so I'm a wage slave. I realize that limits my ability to make boat loads of money. But there are a lot more of me than there are of them. So I will use the tools as my disposal, such as government, unions, and my own ability to take my experience and ability elsewhere. Right now it is a battle between owners and employees (or jobless) and the government is the referee. A lot of people on both sides feel like the ref isn't calling a fair game and they're trying to get a few more calls to go their way. That is also part of our system.
However, it is a myth that many of the ultra wealthy got that way off their own hard work. For instance, the owner of my company is the third generation owner and doing his damnedest to run it into the ground. In my humble opinion, a big part of that is because he puts less value on the people of his corporation than his father did, sacrificing skilled people for the bottom line. It is a well-known business rule that you can't cut your way to success. So he cuts and cuts and the business dies while he keeps his fat pay. Completely his right. But I don't have to like it. And I don't have to like it that his money counts for more of a vote than my vote.
Other business owners really did do it on their own. Good for them. But they didn't work more hours a week than I did, they just worked smarter. I wish I was smarter like them and I don't begrudge them that. But I still provide the labor for their success, I pay for the roads and the infrastructure that makes their business possible, I pay for the schools that keep the kids off the street and away from vandalizing their business, I pay for the social benefits of a well-running society. I don't think it is unreasonable of me to want them to pay more for the society that makes their success possible. As you say, if they don't like the costs, they are welcome to try to run their business in another country. And you will answer that many have done just that. So maybe we should stop rewarding companies that are so disloyal to us with massive tax breaks and rules bent in their favor.
And I'm not unhappy being a piece in the machine. I actually like my job. But I don't like what's being done to it. Again, life isn't fair, I know it, but I'm not one to just lie down and take it. I respond with the tools at my disposal.
no my friend, the system seizes up when people are spending money they don't really have, and when the collector comes to call it in...everything collapses. And that plays into the whole entitled idea. We are told we 'deserve' everything, so we go buy it. Even if we cannot pay for it.
Economists will actually tell you you are wrong here. There is tons of economic research that shows when the savings rate goes up, the economy suffers. While it is good for the individual to live within his means, it is not a sustainable economic model. The high savings rate is what has killed Japan for more than a decade. Our economy runs on enough people being stupid with their money. So if you want to be smart with yours, be thankful someone else is killing themselves with credit cards.
You got me fair and square about the having to work three jobs to support my life. I'm not happy about that. But at the start of this we were working 2 jobs and putting more than a grand a month in the bank with the expectation that buying a house would freeze our housing costs somewhat while our income continued to grow. Instead we had a kid and our income decreased by 20 percent. I'm not whining or crying. As you say, that's just life. But my bad decisions were somewhat built on faulty information.
Finally, I agree that the Occupy people probably aren't accomplishing much. But I don't understand the hate against them. They are fighting the system, an impulse I would think you would understand. They are refusing to be pushed around anymore. So what if they are camping in a park that almost nobody uses. So what if they use drugs or drink. So do we. And the fact it has been a beacon for the homeless and the mentally ill shows just how badly our system has failed some of the most vulnerable people. We should praise them for tackling with minimal resources a problem that the rest of us just ignore.
"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming -- 'WOW, what a ride!!!'"