What's new
By:

Romney Fundraiser - Secret Taping

HipHopAnonymous said:
We should hit reset and start over right?
Click to expand...

lol

The post office will never be "fixed". Our society is simply moving away from a need for post offices. Everything is startign to revolve around electroni communitaction. Wether it is videochat, email, fax, text message. This will only increase which decreases the amount of revenue the post office brings in.
 
dalamon said:
b) my purpose wasn't trying to concoct a feel-bad story to try and get people to sympathize with the poor.

I just feel like way too many poor people are stuck in socioeconomic 'ruts', and we have to try and devise a few ways to coax people out of them, particularly inner-city youth, African-American youth, and so on.
Click to expand...

Fully agree. The trouble I run into on the policy front is the effectiveness of the tough love in a stable environment where opportunity is visible, & the failure & corruption of sympathetic policy in unstable environments where hard work never seems to pay off. My question isn't whether or not to help but where to target resources & how to deploy them for maximum benefit.

dalamon said:
Interesting report I;ve read, that you would probably be interested as well frank (as well as anyone else who's interested):https://www.pewstates.org/uploadedFiles/PCS_Assets/2012/Pursuing_American_Dream.pdf

Yes, >80% of people make more money than their parents; however, pay attention to what it says about the stickiness at the sides. I dunno, maybe I shall look further into this issue.
Click to expand...

I've read several such studies & never leave with any answers. I expect the stickiness on both ends & can't fault parents for leaving a better life for their children anymore than I could fault a nation for doing the same. I also see where much more should be done at the poor end, whether it's more focus on stronger families or more help lifting children up the education chain in other ways. I'm also a huge fan of financing these programs with a very progressive inheritance tax structure that skips over the bottom rung 1%ers like PKM and heavily hits the real players at the very top. I'm almost comfortable with a 90% hit on anything over something like $100mm while extending the deduction up to $40mm or so to protect the family owned businesspeople who tend to be closer to their employees.

One Brow said:
I agree that we need to improve graduation rates for all poor people. Do you acknowledge that being severly poor, having hunger issues, etc. will pull down graduation rates?
Click to expand...

Yes.

One Brow said:
I also think you underestimate the effects of example. Let's say that in group A, your probability of acheiving a cdertain level of income are 80% when you matriculate to a certain college, and 40% when you don't. In group B, those numbers are 30% and 15% respectively. Even thought a college education doubles your chances for both, can you see why group B would be less inclined to pursue it, why the "benefits of education" have less meaning for them?
Click to expand...

That hasn't been overlooked. You accused me of playing devils advocate but haven't put up any policy that you believe would help poor children see & realize the benefits. What do you think the answers are?

One Brow said:
Finally, you did not respond directlhy to my questions on whether there was such a thing as too much income mobility. However, I will answer one of yours that I have given some more thought. Income mobility is a measure, not a goal. Unless you're a professional weightlifter, you don't lift weights for the purpose of lifting more weight, and lifting more weight is not the primary goal. It's a measure of general, overall strength increase.
Click to expand...

How is the measure the goal but not the goal?

I do think income mobility is the goal but it can't be measured on an individual basis or optimally defined very easily.
 
Stoked said:
lol

The post office will never be "fixed". Our society is simply moving away from a need for post offices. Everything is startign to revolve around electroni communitaction. Wether it is videochat, email, fax, text message. This will only increase which decreases the amount of revenue the post office brings in.
Click to expand...

Unless you're old or poor.

Does anyone use fax machines anymore. I have one in my office that I've used maybe 3 times in 6+years.

Perhaps we should just do away with the post office and give recycled fax machines to the elderly old and poor people and let them have at it.
 
candrew said:
Unless you're old or poor.
Click to expand...

Define poor. Is it the woman in line at DWS trying to renew her food stamps? Good thing she has her iphone to keep her company. As for old...well when our generation is old we will still be electronically savy. Or do we suddenly revert to letter writing once we turn 60? That is some fine print for you.

Also I deal with elderly people every day. Some are certainly clueless when it comes to computers but some are certainly capable with technology.
 
franklin said:
That hasn't been overlooked. You accused me of playing devils advocate but haven't put up any policy that you believe would help poor children see & realize the benefits. What do you think the answers are?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure answers exist. After all, we are not Canada nor Sweden. That said, I think removing some of the degree of uncertainty and fear from the minds of people regarding their future. It's one thing to be worried about paying for a soccer team fee, another entirely to be worried that your neighbors will steal your food.

franklin said:
How is the measure the goal but not the goal?

I do think income mobility is the goal but it can't be measured on an individual basis or optimally defined very easily.
Click to expand...

If income mobility were a goal in and of itself, we could achieve it by setting up a job lottery or some similar random measure. I see it as an indicator of our support for allowing people to rise and fall based on their own decisions and abilities, as opposed to outside circumstances.
 
I can't kill him for saying he was completely wrong - especially since he was

But I found it interesting that he spent the capital he earned through his debate win to come out and correct himself over this 47% thing. You have to admit it was somewhat decent of him.

Maybe he's not such a big douche after all.
 
candrew said:
I can't kill him for saying he was completely wrong - especially since he was

But I found it interesting that he spent the capital he earned through his debate win to come out and correct himself over this 47% thing. You have to admit it was somewhat decent of him.

Maybe he's not such a big douche after all.
Click to expand...

Do you think he flip flopped to disarm this potential weapon that could have hurt him?

I think the issue here is flip flopping.

Has Romney ever had a consistent thought or desire other than to do and say anything to get him elected? He's constantly changing his viewpoint, his policies, his ideals, and now his speeches.
 
I think whatever damage that can be done has already been done. The political NEWS cycles move on and by the time the election has come around most people will have forgotten about the fact that he apologized for it.
 
One Brow said:
Romney has said he was wrong, and I respect him for acknowledging it.
Click to expand...

Fair point, although it is interesting to see the theme of the week continues to be "ignore everything I said when I was trying to win the primary."

Where's Santorum with his etch-a-sketches?
 
One Brow said:
Romney has said he was wrong, and I respect him for acknowledging it.
Click to expand...

What are his motives for his admission? For all of his flip flops?

That's the issue.

anti_mitt_romney_flip_flops_pancakes_waffles_button-p145390000147411013en8go_400.jpg


A few months ago when this was filmed, he was a tea party nutcake. The other night, he was a moderate.

What will he be in the White House? And what happens if he wants to pass some moderate legislation and the tea party obstructionists oppose?
 
Stoked said:
Define poor. Is it the woman in line at DWS trying to renew her food stamps? Good thing she has her iphone to keep her company. As for old...well when our generation is old we will still be electronically savy. Or do we suddenly revert to letter writing once we turn 60? That is some fine print for you.

Also I deal with elderly people every day. Some are certainly clueless when it comes to computers but some are certainly capable with technology.
Click to expand...

Enough the with lady on food stamps that has an iphone. Every single income bracket has gross examples of how we overspend. It's not a food stamp thing. It's a problem with our society.
Of course there are people that blow their money. Shame on them. We should make the qualifications a little tougher, and drug test people. However, how people spend their money is on them.

Isn't a computer more important than a TV in society nowadays anyway?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page
Back
Top