Discussion: The Economy, Fiscal Cliff, National Debt, And Other Financial Issues III

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wiegeabo said:
What's toxic about US capitalism is that it's not capitalism, but they still call it such.

Yet, they've created a very anti-competitive marketplace. Making it impossible to break into an industry, hard to afford to survive if small, and don't allow big companies to fail under the claim of being 'too big to fail', which is what helps create the 'too big to fail' situation. (Why be smart with the company's money and business practices if you know the government is just going to bail you out anyway?)
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Unfortunately, correct...
 
Kelly said:
I'm thinking that you are exactly where you should be in your igloo in Canada.... : )

Telling us how we need to live our lives here, isn't really needed. Thanks I'm happy being an individual.
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Ah, can't wait for the Post-American World.
 
wiegeabo said:
What's toxic about US capitalism is that it's not capitalism, but they still call it such.

Yet, they've created a very anti-competitive marketplace. Making it impossible to break into an industry, hard to afford to survive if small, and don't allow big companies to fail under the claim of being 'too big to fail', which is what helps create the 'too big to fail' situation. (Why be smart with the company's money and business practices if you know the government is just going to bail you out anyway?)
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I think the best way to describe it is corporatism(ie when big corporations dictate policy)
 
Last week, our "great" governor signed a sweeping tax reform bill into law...

http://fayobserver.com/articles/2013/07/22/1270683

Atypical GOP trickle-down nonsense. Expect more harebrained 'austerity' cuts to our public schools and healthcare next year.

Makes me wish Gov. Perdue was still in office...
 
Oh, it would be so sweet if it happens . . . :woot:

Detroit Looks to Health Law to Ease Costs

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/29/us/detroit-looks-to-health-law-to-ease-costs.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=2&

Officials say the plan would be part of a broader effort to save Detroit tens of millions of dollars in health costs each year, a major element in a restructuring package that must be approved by a bankruptcy judge. It is being watched closely by municipal leaders around the nation, many of whom complain of mounting, unsustainable prices for the health care promised to retired city workers.
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I can see it now: Union members/Democratic sheep who blindly supported Obamacare while expecting fat healthcare benefits participating in the Obamacare exchanges because they lost those benefits in part due to their extravagance. Why would they have any complaints, though? Obamacare is going to give them super-awesome, dirt-cheap health insurance!! They should be voluntarily giving up their health insurance plans for a chance at the exchanges! :woot:
 
Pensions only work if people die in a timely manner.

I guarantee that when all these pension and health package deals were created decades ago, they didn't account for people living so long. Hell, they probably didn't even expect so many people to make it to retirement age.
 
wiegeabo said:
Pensions only work if people die in a timely manner.

I guarantee that when all these pension and health package deals were created decades ago, they didn't account for people living so long. Hell, they probably didn't even expect so many people to make it to retirement age.
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I absolutely agree with your entire statement. I don't think the rapid advancement (and thus cost) in health care technology and the expanding lifespan were anticipated at the time.

Defined benefit plans should all die out, if you ask me. If I were a business owner, I certainly wouldn't offer one. As a taxpayer, I certainly wouldn't support any city/county/state/federal government having one for any employee. There's too much uncertainty, and in the taxpayer situation, taxpayers who never elected the politicians who agreed to the pension plans get whopped with the higher taxes to pay for the increasing benefits payouts . . . assuming no bankruptcy, of course.

So, I'm not just harping on defined benefit plans only because I hated that topic more than any other in any of my Accounting courses. :yay:
 
I too am against life time benefit plans. Why should you continue to get paid if you're no longer an employee?

Things like 401ks are the way to go. The employer gets to stop paying when the employee leaves. The employee keeps all that (pre-tax) money so they're not handcuffed to the employer. And, unlike pensions where, if the employer declares bankruptcy, the employee is **** out of luck, with a 401k, an employee can see it starting to lose money and move the investments around to something safer/growing.
 
wiegeabo said:
I too am against life time benefit plans. Why should you continue to get paid if you're no longer an employee?

Things like 401ks are the way to go. The employer gets to stop paying when the employee leaves. The employee keeps all that (pre-tax) money so they're not handcuffed to the employer. And, unlike pensions where, if the employer declares bankruptcy, the employee is **** out of luck, with a 401k, an employee can see it starting to lose money and move the investments around to something safer/growing.
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We do the lifetime crap at our company...but it's only for execs. Us low level people don't get it.
 
Fast food workers are striking because they want $15 an hour? Hahaha yeah right. Who doesn't want to pay $20 for a Big Mac meal? That was rhetorical.

$7 something an hour is barely livable yes and I feel minimum wage is due for another increase of a dollar or so but to feel you deserve $15 an hour when you more than likely have little to no education and your job is dependent upon crappy food for cheap prices...by all means strike for $15 an hour flipping burgers.
 
chaseter said:
Fast food workers are striking because they want $15 an hour? Hahaha yeah right. Who doesn't want to pay $20 for a Big Mac meal? That was rhetorical.

$7 something an hour is barely livable yes and I feel minimum wage is due for another increase of a dollar or so but to feel you deserve $15 an hour when you more than likely have little to no education and your job is dependent upon crappy food for cheap prices...by all means strike for $15 an hour flipping burgers.
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The minimum wage is nothing more than a price control for labor. We've all seen how well price controls truly work....they help a few for a while, yet the ramifications are destructive down the line.
 
I don't know if you are advocating $2 an hour or $15.
 
I think minimum wage needs to be raised to match the cost of living for today. A person shouldn't need two jobs to simply survive. And yet so many do. "Get a better job" isn't the correct response to this situation as not everyone CAN get a better job.

But even so...if it's a job, then it should be required that the pay meets the standard of living...even if it's only the most basic of living.
 
Even that still depends. If you have 3 kids and work at McDonald's...yeah you probably don't make a living wage. If you are single and have a room mate, very doable because I did it for a couple of years in college. But, that's why we have assistance programs for people who need help whether that be from genuine hard times or limitless bad life choices. No one deserves $15 for working at McDonald's, sorry.

I have been saying for a while that minimum wage should increase according to yearly average inflation. If there is deflation, no increase.
 
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I didn't think a recession could be called over until there were two consecutive quarters of growth.
 
craigdbfan said:
I'm sure Greece and Spain would agree with this. :lmao:
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Greece and Spain are in the rut that they're in because of the financial habits of its citizens. Overspending, taking out loans, spending money they don't have, etc etc. It's the other EU countries that keep them afloat because they haven't learned how to manage their money yet.
 
Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal and the slew of other crippling southern European countries aren't bouncing back anytime soon.

I have no idea where you've gotten that idea. That's not denying the crap situation the United States is under but they're a superpower so that type of spending and debt makes sense as for the other countries I mentioned far less so. Plus our unemployment rate isn't anywhere close to those countries either.

OstrichsRevenge said:
Greece and Spain are in the rut that they're in because of the financial habits of its citizens. Overspending, taking out loans, spending money they don't have, etc etc. It's the other EU countries that keep them afloat because they haven't learned how to manage their money yet.
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Pretty sure that's what Kelly was referring to anyway. So I'm not sure exactly what you're disagreeing with.
 
Take a break from here and learn that calling a country the laughing stock of the world isn't something we tolerate around here.

It's clear you misunderstood both Kelly and I and decided to insult the US along with berating the less fortunate European countries who are having difficulties with debt and spending as a reactionary response. I have the same opinion about the US when it comes to our "recovery" process. We're far from it and I'm sure Greece and Spain would say the same when they see reports like that.

That is all we meant by our response.
 
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