The Politics of Greed:Molly Ivins

[cal04]

Anyone who doesn't think this is a country where the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer needs to check the numbers-this is Bush country, where a rising tide lifts all yachts."

AUSTIN, Texas—I don’t get it. What’s the percentage in keeping the minimum wage at $5.15 an hour? After nine years? This is such an unnecessary and nasty Republican move. Congress has voted seven times to raise its own wages since last the minimum wage budged. Of course, Congress always raises its own salary in the dark of night, hoping no one will notice. But now it does the same with the minimum wage, quietly killing it.

Anyone who doesn’t think this is a country where the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer needs to check the numbers—this is Bush country, where a rising tide lifts all yachts. (http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0711-22.htm)


(snip)
It is so discouraging to watch this country become less and less fair—“justice for all” seems like an embarrassingly archaic tag. Republicans have rigged the “lottery of life” in this country in ways we don’t even know about yet. The new bankruptcy law is unfair, and the new college loan rules are worse. The system has been stacked so that large corporations have an inside track over small businesses in getting government contracts. We won’t see the full consequences of this mean and careless legislation for years, but it starting to affect us already.

[im10ashus]

1. I love Molly Ivins.

Another snip:

-- One in four U.S. jobs pays less than a poverty-level income.

-- Since 2000, the number of Americans living below the poverty line at any one time has risen steadily. Now, 13 percent—37 million Americans—are officially poor.

-- Bush’s tax cuts (extended until 2010) save those earning between $20,000 and $30,000 an average of $10 a year, while those making $1 million are saved $42,700.

-- In 2002, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, compared those who point out such statistics as the one above to Adolph Hitler (surely he meant Stalin?).

-- Bush has diverted $750 million to “healthy marriages” by shifting funds from social services, mostly childcare.

Could somone define "healthy marriage" for me? :shrug:

[HardRocker05]

2. Greed is a virtue in America, not a vice; it goes like this: my 'greed' en

encourages others to be more industrious and do more for themselves in order to have the wealth i've got. On the other hand, if say an employer pays his/her employees especially well, they will become lazy and complacent and society as a whole will decline as a result. Another case of liberals completely losing on the framing of issues.