Holy Ballz!

[Zim]

So Malcolm, outside of the forums, how often and stridently do you express these views?

[MalcolmSmith]

Originally Posted by Zim

So Malcolm, outside of the forums, how often and stridently do you express these views?

Did I say anything stridently? I mean, we've been talking about economics. I don't know how strident we can get about economics. I did say that thing about living by our rules, and I see how someone could take offense at that, but, really, our society is based on a rule of law. That's the deal. And when I said I was aggravated, I don't mean angry or anything like that. I guess frustrated might have been a better word. I'm frustrated that some people (maybe me included, to some degree) messed up our economy, and that is making my work and our employees' work a lot harder. It's just making it difficult to get things done in general.

[dzagama]

Originally Posted by MalcolmSmith

Did I say anything stridently? I mean, we've been talking about economics. I don't know how strident we can get about economics. I did say that thing about living by our rules, and I see how someone could take offense at that, but, really, our society is based on a rule of law. That's the deal. And when I said I was aggravated, I don't mean angry or anything like that. I guess frustrated might have been a better word. I'm frustrated that some people (maybe me included, to some degree) messed up our economy, and that is making my work and our employees' work a lot harder. It's just making it difficult to get things done in general.

I had a hunch. It's easier having a discussion here than with Republicans on hannity.com. The only reason you're getting contention in this thread is because during a crisis like this, there's a natural tendency to seek retribution, to objectify 'the enemy', and try to punish it. That's fine, but indiscriminately directing animosity towards the 'rich', is completely wrong. It's collectively punishing people who often add enormous value to society.

When you talk about 'punching holes', that seems like a good idea, but how do you do it without disturbing the very current that makes this country great? We agree that it's a huge and complicated problem.

I like Obama, as a person, but he's really digging his heels into the populist outrage against the rich. He seems to be forgetting that 'the rich', don't get rich in a vacuum. They do it by starting industries and creating jobs. They create self-sustaining systems that money gravitates towards, and give otherwise unemployed people, a wage. To take money from 'the rich' simply because they are rich is short-sighted. The rich become rich by PROVIDING a service that apparently very few people provide. ie. an entrepreneur is just a unemployed bum until and *IF* their company takes off.

I haven't read the book you recommended, but in this country, I believe that EVERYONE is a potential entrepreneur, a potential 'rich' person. It's just that few are willing to put in the effort and accept the risk to do it. Chemda's brothers started a feedback loop that provided jobs for people; IN THEIR 20's. That's amazing. They're rich, why not?

I understand where you are coming from, I can easily rearrange words and say that it's the unemployed people providing the service, but by saying things from the perspective of the 'worker' and the 'rich', we fail to see that there is no line separating the two. And I want it to remain that way.