....of Detroit that is. Things are expected to get worse before they get better there and it's already worse than when I sold my home over a year ago at the same price that I paid in 1992: "4. Detroit, Michigan Expected price drop: -13.4 percent Median family income: $49,000 (47th lowest) Unemployment rate: 12.7 percent Median home price: $42,000 (the lowest median home price) Projected to hit lowest level: Q2 2012 Since the recession began, Detroit has been the horror story for plummeting home values, foreclosures, vacancies, and unemployment. To date, Detroit’s median home price of $42,000 is the lowest among all 385 major metropolitan areas. While the motor city has been languishing for some time before the recession, the drop in home value has been more steady, as opposed to the rapid drop-offs seen in cities in Florida, Nevada, and California. Detroit’s already record-low values are expected to drop an additional 13.4 percent by the first quarter of 2012. I'll bet there will be many retiree aged families over the next few years virtually stuck in their Detroit area homes for retirement because they cannot afford to sell them and move elsewhere. I felt when I lost my job a couple of years ago that I could be one of those people if I didn't get the hell out of Dodge.....so fortunately I did.
Like millions of other economic refugees, you fled to a state with no state income taxes that's run by the Republicans. Smart move.
But Dave, think of how many jobs could be created by you and all the other Florida residents adding to the tax revenue that could be generated from this income tax. That's what you believe in right? Taxation to spread the wealth?
uh......Rick Scott supposedly has a bead on that.........right.... :lol: And I don't believe in "spreading the wealth".... I just want to get what I have earned.....what I have already paid for. And I think if somebody needs to pony up more it should be people that have it to pony......not from those barely getting by. That seems like a no brainer to me but the logic of it just doesn't fly here. As I said......the inherent discord is that some on the right look down their noses at people who barely get by.....who don't make $250,000 plus per year. I would hate to work for those kinds of people.
Where in the heck do you come up with this crap? If that's what you believe, you are in a sorry state of mind.
Sid, Go back and read all of the generalizations made here about just about anyone left of center. They ( Dems ) all don't work.....sit around all day with their hand out....etc etc. etc.. It's obviously ridiculous tripe but still it's offered with such regularity here on this board that I think these guys are believing it.
Nothing like that has been said. What was said is that the Democratic party use the poor, the "undocumented", the people that either can't make an honest living OR choose not to, as a slave nation. They dole out a flow of cash to BUY the votes of that segment of the population. They are creating and maintaining a pool of votes using the threat of that money drying up if they are voted out of office. This tends to convert people into being lazy and sitting around with their hand out. <i></i> In effect, people that are on that fine line where "being on the dole" provides as much food on the table as working for it, will chose to take the cash. You said yourself: "Why should someone work for minimum wage when unemployment pays just as much." Dave, in the 80's, Cindy and I were poor as church mice. I had the same opinions then as I do now. Let me make my own way and don't expect me to carry someone else's weight. We now do very well. We contribute to charities because we do so of our own free will. When a government demands that I pay the way of someone that is sending my money to another country, I will do all in my power to vote that piece of trash out of office.
What I said was that minimum wage and unemployment both equally leave the bills unpaid in a household where the job loss is substantial as happened to me and has happened to so many families in this deep recession. When you have those kinds of bills to pay it is economic suicide if you take the first low paying job that comes along vs. collecting unemployment while continuing to look for a decent job. That wouldn't bother you so much if you just put yourself in that position for a moment.
re: minimum wage The higher the minimum wage goes, the more unemployment you create. That's Econ 101. re: $250,000 per year or above are "rich people." In many states, including here in California, a husband and wife who work as a highway patrolman and a school teacher make a combined $250,000 per year. Are they "rich?" Are they flying around in corporate jets to Obama fundraisers like their union bosses? Or is every successful person an exploiter who should be punished? The real exploiters are the government elites who wield power without consequence. This political class have set themselves up as a self-sustaining, oligarchy ruling over rich and poor alike. It is they who are the great threat to the middle and working class.
Amen JO'Co.....there likely have been few laws more racially and economically discriminatory and contrary to the interests of the lower income and less skilled workers in this country than the minimum wage.....it is indeed Econ 101.
Grin If you make $250k or more in rural central Florida we name the town after you because you probably employ most of the town already.
Yes but you have bridges George, we had to wait 4 days to bring the mule in from the next town to pull the barge across the river!!
re: Marxist analysis of conservative views on liberal elites. The great advantage of being a conservative is that we actually read Karl Marx. We don't need to create the concept of "liberal elites" in order to explain what they're up to. Marx himself already did that. Please refer to his ideas on the "vanguard of the proletariat." By definition, they're the "elite" who will lead the party to victory over the entire society and set up a "dictatorship of the proletariat" which will force everyone...not just the rich...to share the wealth. The problem with this sytem, of course, is that once the elite vanguard set themselves up as dictators, they don't share the power; or the wealth; or anything else that they've stolen. They make disagreement itself a crime and punish all who dare to oppose them, as they become the permanent, irreplaceable, elite. Here is what Lenin thought about this: http://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/111len2.html His replacement, Stalin, had a few ideas himself, once he became dictator of the permanent elite: "Death solves all problems - no man, no problem.” “A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.” “It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.” “Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas?” - I've seen these people in action. When I was in graduate school in 2002, a professor in a class called "Culture and Schooling" told us, "When you get your own classroom, I want all of you to follow this simple rule, "From each according to his abilities and to each according to his needs." He then asked if there were any questions or comments. I raised my hand and interjected, "That's a quote from the Communist Manifesto." He was quiet for a long time, knowing that I had caught him red-handed, slanting his teaching toward a single point of view. Finally he got defensive and said, "prove it." I got out of my seat and walked toward him. He looked scared- I'm not sure what he thought I was going to do- and I handed him a copy of Marx's manifesto. He stalled around for awhile and finally said, "thank you" and I returned to my seat. After class, all the young kids were amazed, as if they had seen some magic trick for the first time. Some were angry and defensive, but many thanked me for pointing out what they hadn't realized: the professor wasn't using his position to create educators, he was using it to create propaganda salesmen for his particular political viewpoint. I just laughed at all of their reactions as I explained that I was a Poli Sci major from the '60's and I always come to class "armed and dangerous." It was a slight exaggeration, but I think I made my point: there are no elites who deserve to rule over anything; least of all a teacher; who is paid to help students understand, not parrot their politics. All artificial, political elites are un-American and Marx can't change that.
All this talk of communism brings back memories and I hate to admit it but the great propaganda that went with it....