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Behold: the most insane article ever
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https://splinternews.com/...yer-money-1819658902

I've read a lot of stupid shit in my day but this takes the cake. Public funds is not, in fact, 'taxpayer money'...somehow. Putting aside the argument about the government being the issuer of money--which they are, but ultimately taxes are the one source of revenue to pay back any public debt...the rest, my god the rest of it!

It's this mentality that people of any color or creed aren't beholden to be good citizens and be wage earners and provide for their family and thus, be taxpayers, that is breaking apart this country. Yes you should be ashamed if you're not a taxpayer, with the exception of the truly disabled you should be earning a real wage and paying taxes and contributing to society. No, it's not RACIST to talk about 'taxpayer money'. Holy shit the delusion of this person...
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Re: Behold: the most insane article ever [Brownie28] [ In reply to ]
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I think you might be happier if you spent less time on the internets. I mean like "splinter news" how'd you even find that.

They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

Last edited by: len: Oct 19, 17 17:05
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Re: Behold: the most insane article ever [len] [ In reply to ]
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With tweezers
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Re: Behold: the most insane article ever [len] [ In reply to ]
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len wrote:
I think you might be happier if you spent less time on the internets. I mean like "splinter news" how'd you even find that.
I like Deadspin, they have a lot of good sports-culture blog posts. But they're part of Kinja or whatever it's called, which includes Splinter, The Root, Jezebel, etc, and those show up on Deadspins main site. I get a kick out of reading most of these and I'm seeing more and more articles like this, writers tripping over themselves to point out how racist and sexist we are.

This just happened to be my favorite for today and I'm bored :)
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Re: Behold: the most insane article ever [Dan Os Fan] [ In reply to ]
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Dan Os Fan wrote:
With tweezers

Lol
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Re: Behold: the most insane article ever [Brownie28] [ In reply to ]
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I can't even imagine how ridicules so many people in the media have become.
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Re: Behold: the most insane article ever [Perseus] [ In reply to ]
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Perseus wrote:
I can't even imagine how ridicules so many people in the media have become.

What does that even mean?
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Re: Behold: the most insane article ever [Brownie28] [ In reply to ]
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Yes you should be ashamed if you're not a taxpayer, with the exception of the truly disabled you should be earning a real wage and paying taxes and contributing to society.

That's telling all those stay-at-home spouses. Start earning a real wage! You are breaking apart this country! And get off of my lawn!
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Re: Behold: the most insane article ever [oldandslow] [ In reply to ]
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oldandslow wrote:
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Yes you should be ashamed if you're not a taxpayer, with the exception of the truly disabled you should be earning a real wage and paying taxes and contributing to society.


That's telling all those stay-at-home spouses. Start earning a real wage! You are breaking apart this country! And get off of my lawn!
Household income. Stay-at-home parents are dwindling in numbers but their job is certainly no less important than their spouse. If you can still afford to have one parent staying at home than more power to you, I think the kids benefit in the long run but it's become almost impossible for people to swing it these days.
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Re: Behold: the most insane article ever [Brownie28] [ In reply to ]
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Brownie28 wrote:
oldandslow wrote:
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Yes you should be ashamed if you're not a taxpayer, with the exception of the truly disabled you should be earning a real wage and paying taxes and contributing to society.


That's telling all those stay-at-home spouses. Start earning a real wage! You are breaking apart this country! And get off of my lawn!

Household income. Stay-at-home parents are dwindling in numbers but their job is certainly no less important than their spouse. If you can still afford to have one parent staying at home than more power to you, I think the kids benefit in the long run but it's become almost impossible for people to swing it these days.

The article made my brain hurt...I would argue one parent staying at home is by choice more so than economics. My wife stayed home and still does with my youngest in college. It has benefited our household greatly and I think has made me more successful in my career. Maybe it is economic; she was thinking of going back to work this year and I did the math and it silly for her income to be taxed at close to 50% ( 39% for Fed taxes, 7.65 for Fica) and this doesn't include the expense side of working.

Its really easy to become middle class in the USA, all you have to do is work 40 hours a week at any retail establishment and then get a second job like Uber for 20 hours a week - all of a sudden your making at least $50K and a taxpayer! If you can manage to stay married, your wife can stay home - Maybe not in LA or NYC but in most of the USA. But with all the "public" money why stay married and why work 60 hours a week when you don't need too.
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Re: Behold: the most insane article ever [Brownie28] [ In reply to ]
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... and non-working spouse without kids (aptly abbreviated "SINK")? Just kidding, tweaking the "taxpayers are the gold standard for virtue" meme... here are my views on this thread:
  • "Splinter"????
  • Articles like this have been around for generations. Take a a look at the "Socialist Worker". The difference is that it is now served up online to tweak the outrage centers of folk's brains. You don't seem to know that this has been around before your parents were born.
  • The thing "breaking apart" this country is more likely the outrage and over-reaction that our endlessly-biased and ubiquitous media is generating.
  • Stop reading and look around at your place. You live in Boston, right? A liberal bastion, where traffic and housing are the biggest problems, due precisely to a preponderance of high-earning taxpayers. Labor participation rates are dropping (mostly due to baby-boomers), but remain very high in urban areas.
  • There actually is a real issue that hourly wages and full-time job opportunities for the working poor have been stagnant for several decades, especially for folks without college degrees, at a time when we are in the midst of an extremely long economic boom.

Again, look around at your environment. Does this article accurately represent your situation?
Last edited by: oldandslow: Oct 20, 17 9:09
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Re: Behold: the most insane article ever [Brownie28] [ In reply to ]
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Pretty much the standard far left approach to any issue: start playing word games.

We might need to redefine "theft" because who says anything in your house is really yours anyway?

And "your" life? That's pretty egotistical, sexist, racist, and probably sympathetic to nazism. You only live because the gov't allowed your parents to procreate.
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Re: Behold: the most insane article ever [blueraider_mike] [ In reply to ]
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Maybe it is economic; she was thinking of going back to work this year and I did the math and it silly for her income to be taxed at close to 50% ( 39% for Fed taxes, 7.65 for Fica) and this doesn't include the expense side of working.


Off-topic, but if desired, she could try to find a job with a 401K program and health benefits. Push almost all of her income (18-24K) into 401K and an extra 5.5/6.5K into a back-door Roth. Totally fine to stay at home and a perfectly acceptable choice, but there are a plethora of ways to avoid/defer really high marginal rates. Not to mention future earnings potential...

Far too many families that would be helped hugely by a second income follow the terribly over-simplified reasoning that, "taxes would be too high."
Last edited by: oldandslow: Oct 20, 17 13:19
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Re: Behold: the most insane article ever [blueraider_mike] [ In reply to ]
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Its really easy to become middle class in the USA, all you have to do is work 40 hours a week at any retail establishment and then get a second job like Uber for 20 hours a week - all of a sudden your making at least $50K and a taxpayer!

Pink?









"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."
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Re: Behold: the most insane article ever [blueraider_mike] [ In reply to ]
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blueraider_mike wrote:
Brownie28 wrote:
oldandslow wrote:
Quote:

Yes you should be ashamed if you're not a taxpayer, with the exception of the truly disabled you should be earning a real wage and paying taxes and contributing to society.


That's telling all those stay-at-home spouses. Start earning a real wage! You are breaking apart this country! And get off of my lawn!

Household income. Stay-at-home parents are dwindling in numbers but their job is certainly no less important than their spouse. If you can still afford to have one parent staying at home than more power to you, I think the kids benefit in the long run but it's become almost impossible for people to swing it these days.


The article made my brain hurt...I would argue one parent staying at home is by choice more so than economics. My wife stayed home and still does with my youngest in college. It has benefited our household greatly and I think has made me more successful in my career. Maybe it is economic; she was thinking of going back to work this year and I did the math and it silly for her income to be taxed at close to 50% ( 39% for Fed taxes, 7.65 for Fica) and this doesn't include the expense side of working.

Its really easy to become middle class in the USA, all you have to do is work 40 hours a week at any retail establishment and then get a second job like Uber for 20 hours a week - all of a sudden your making at least $50K and a taxpayer! If you can manage to stay married, your wife can stay home - Maybe not in LA or NYC but in most of the USA. But with all the "public" money why stay married and why work 60 hours a week when you don't need too.

So, work 60 hours a week with retail and Uber and bring home $50K per year, what are you smoking? So you can get to $31,200 at $15/hr. but what retail job, anywhere pays that amount. In my area, retail pays, at most, $8.75/hr. That's $18,200 per year, assuming you get any vacation pay, if not and you're never sick then I guess the $18,200 is doable. Now again, in my area, there is no Uber, medium sized city, about an hour away from a city large enough to use Uber so that's not going to happen. So now I'm working two retail jobs, 80 hours per week, if you can find even one that gives steady hours, bringing in $36,400 annually. Okay salary for my area but now I'm supporting a wife I never see and if I have kids they will grow up without a father anyway and in most cases, no benefits.

Regardless of what you believe, it is becoming less and less easy to be middle class in the USA. If you are of lower intelligence and no help from your family then it becomes almost impossible to even come close to middle class. There are cases where it happens but they are few and far between. Hell, even construction laborers in my area struggle to get $12/hr. and that is without any benefits.

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Re: Behold: the most insane article ever [blueraider_mike] [ In reply to ]
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Its really easy to become middle class in the USA, all you have to do is work 40 hours a week at any retail establishment and then get a second job like Uber for 20 hours a week - all of a sudden your making at least $50K and a taxpayer! If you can manage to stay married, your wife can stay home - Maybe not in LA or NYC but in most of the USA. But with all the "public" money why stay married and why work 60 hours a week when you don't need too.

Wow, as several folks have pointed out that is very unrealistic, and really poor financial planning. First, you don't make 20K on Uber, and don't even get an Uber job in most places. Second, most retail jobs pay sub-$15/hr. You are working 60-80 hrs/week at near minimum wage jobs so your wife can work ZERO? Pretty much a recipe for divorce or estrangement for most couples.
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Re: Behold: the most insane article ever [oldandslow] [ In reply to ]
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oldandslow wrote:
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Its really easy to become middle class in the USA, all you have to do is work 40 hours a week at any retail establishment and then get a second job like Uber for 20 hours a week - all of a sudden your making at least $50K and a taxpayer! If you can manage to stay married, your wife can stay home - Maybe not in LA or NYC but in most of the USA. But with all the "public" money why stay married and why work 60 hours a week when you don't need too.


Wow, as several folks have pointed out that is very unrealistic, and really poor financial planning. First, you don't make 20K on Uber, and don't even get an Uber job in most places. Second, most retail jobs pay sub-$15/hr. You are working 60-80 hrs/week at near minimum wage jobs so your wife can work ZERO? Pretty much a recipe for divorce or estrangement for most couples.

I know Uber drivers here in Nashville making a lot of money ($20-30 an hour)...in two cases I know men who to this 20 hours a week in addition to their regular job in order for their wives to say home. They live a middle class lifestyle. About 15 years ago when I hit a hard patch due to a business failing I took a job I didn't want and it didn't pay enough, I cleaned carpet at night and on the weekends and made $25 a hour.

I think a big issue many folks don't really want to work hard enough. We have created this mythical 40 hour a week, which really is 35 hours of work a week...I don't know anyone who is really successful who only works 35 hours a week.
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Re: Behold: the most insane article ever [blueraider_mike] [ In reply to ]
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blueraider_mike wrote:
We have created this mythical 40 hour a week, which really is 35 hours of work a week..



Does your employer (if you have one) know that 40 hours is 35 hours?

In any case an hours-competition isn't the right way to look at it, in my opinion. Amount-of-shit-got-done is the right way. Norwegians get it right: work hard, play hard. Mexicans do it all wrong (which is why we adore their illegal field and construction labor - insanely hard workers).

But in terms of "countries I'd like to work and live in," they kind of start around the U.S. and work left.



Last edited by: trail: Oct 21, 17 17:19
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Re: Behold: the most insane article ever [blueraider_mike] [ In reply to ]
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You’re going to double down? Seriously?

Uber drivers don’t even gross $25/hour anywhere other than nyc. Maybe. Let’s not even talk about net. And if you were making 25/hr cleaning carpets 15 years ago, you were involved in a money laundering scheme.

Give me a break, man.








"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."
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Re: Behold: the most insane article ever [blueraider_mike] [ In reply to ]
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Okay, let's start where we agree. If a members of a household work more hours, they'll make more money. From there, we diverge:
  • Anecdotalism is great, but Uber drivers average at most $20/hour after expenses, and make far less in most areas, and don't even exist in most of the country. There is tons of data: http://time.com/...eally-make-per-hour/

  • Folks don't work hard enough? Disagree, lots of folks work 40-50 hours/week AND travel an hour each way. Folks all over are striving, but there are a lot of places where jobs are scarcer and less than full-time and worse-paying. Two jobs, each 30/week @ $12/hour and you make 36K. A couple both working? Now you can move up. Which leads to my biggest disagreement....

  • Two guys working a full extra job so their wife can stay at home??? We've been discussing folks struggling at low-end jobs. The best ways to rise into the middle class is a.) find much better paying jobs (way over minimum wage) and b.) get two folks working. I totally understand the stay-at-home goal, and it can work if one person is pulling in big bucks, but it becomes much less desirable when the prime earner is toiling for 80 hours at ~$10/hour ($40K/year).

Last edited by: oldandslow: Oct 22, 17 0:41
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