State of the Union Address - 24 Jan 2012

[satellitedriver]

I was there in NY, now you can off course you can say there are this and that, but simply saying 1% of them like actually working... Give me a break....I said, 1% actually had a legitimate complaint. Maybe, I should have clarified that I was making a pun upon the "slogan"/"rallying cry", of the OWS.
You said this in your post;
"Give me" a break.
Gimmie, should be the slogan of the OWS.
Then, you show a picture of people blocking the roadway of people trying to earn a living.
It's not 60's, it's the 21st century and banksters are robbing us blind....
I lived the 50's and the "revolution" of the 60's.
The "banksters" loaned me the money in the 70's to try and build a life in the country.
Average rate of 14%.
Guess what? I paid back every penny.
Jeez, how did I do it. I freakin' worked and ate beans.
You asked this direct question;
I mean no offense, but where did you get your theory,
No theory involved, I have lived in poverty, but I was never poor, in spirit.
Here is one snap shot of my life in 72'.
I was 19rs old.
Working 47.5hrs a week for $1.90hr.
Sharing an apartment, with two friends.
Going to college, pulling 12hrs.
Here is the snap shot;
Friday night, I was broke and hungry. I had just enough gas in my car to get to work the next day.
-(which was payday)-
All I had was two hotdog wieners in the fridge and a packet of lime Kool-Aid.
Did I blame the rich?
Nope.
What I did was set the table for a proper meal.
I sliced the wieners thin and pan fried them.
I got my best jelly jar glass out and filled it with lime Kool-Aid.
I spread out the slices of wiener, to fill the plate.
I ate that meal like I was eating Prime Rib, at a fine restaurant.
Yes, it was a mind game, and it worked.
It steeled me for the next day.
Flash forward to today;
4 decades later, I am debt free.
I have a deep, sincere sympathy for people in need, and I put my money "where my mouth is.".
I have no sympathy for people bitching.

 

[brown bomber]

perhaps.....the state of the "onion".....the more layers peeled away. the more it stinks

 

[brown bomber]

They-(the OWS people)- are in the streets, because they want what other people have earned.
1% of them have a legitimate complaint, the other 99% just want to mouth off, eat free food, party, and complain.
Fair weather friends, but, the Spring will let them pop their heads out of the ground, once again.
This is not the 60's.so we have Woodstock x 3, awaiting us.......not a problem......let me know of the venue, I'll buy tickets and then overcharge the non-working slackers
s

 

[Just_another_day_at_work]

http://www.browncafe.com/forum/members/satellitedriver/satiellitedriver,
I lived under of Slobodan Milosevic, so I got a pretty nice experience what is it mean to be poor. Snapshot water, 2 kind of pasta to choose from... Let's not make it who did what, when.
For economics, if the private central bank leave interest rate to 0 (which they will, 16Trillion debt is lot), that means whoever saves money gets back a whopping 1-2% but if you have (real)inflation of around 5-10%, you basically loosing money overtime by putting into the bank. So for banks who borrow money(winners) at 0. some % from the FED can get cheap money, while middle and poor income try to save it(losers). Once inflation gets out of control, which it will they cannot raise the interest rate, not even 1% because we are broke already, the interest on the debt would be impossible to service.
In the 70's Nixon took the US off the gold standard...
The system that works on the whole entire country is screwing the bottom and the middle class. The poor gets hit the worst.
What I see that you made 1.92 USD in 1972, that's today over 10 USD per hour counted with inflation used a couple of calculators Inflation Calculator | Find US Dollar's Value from 1913-2011
So you made over the today's minimum wage.
I don't think most people blame the rich, it's people who did cheat and got rich and no jail for them, since 2007's the crash how many actually landed in jail. I like this saying for this:
"Give a man a gun and can rob the bank, give a man a bank and can rob the world"
And there is the fractional banking system, but won't go into there.
Look I live good, I have what I need, but I already know that I will get screwed, only a matter of time...
If you think we are really on the right direction take a look at the national debt chart, how much the dollar lost it's value since 1913, what's the price of gold chart, last years home-sales/price, real unemployment rate.

 

[klein]

I just bought $60 US dollars today for $50.49 Canadian.
Who would have ever thought that US dollars are no longer accepted in Canadian stores ?
So these 2 people that only had American cash, asked me if I could pay for their $50.49 cent purchase, and they'll would give me $60US for it.
I did it !

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

I just bought $60 US dollars today for $50.49 Canadian.
Who would have ever thought that US dollars are no longer accepted in Canadian stores ?
So these 2 people that only had American cash, asked me if I could pay for their $50.49 cent purchase, and they'll would give me $60US for it.
I did it !

You didn't "buy" the money---the tourists were in a pinch and you just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

 

[klein]

They called moneymart actually, and got quoted for $52 Cdn for $60US (there are always fees).
I took it for $50.49. No big difference.

They thanked me big time, even wrote my phonenumber down. I guess I'll be getting some very cheap cigs in the future, if they do call back.

 

[moreluck]

I just bought $60 US dollars today for $50.49 Canadian.
Who would have ever thought that US dollars are no longer accepted in Canadian stores ?
So these 2 people that only had American cash, asked me if I could pay for their $50.49 cent purchase, and they'll would give me $60US for it.
I did it !

Is that capital gains???

 

[klein]

Is that capital gains???

As far as I know, if I hang on to those US bucks too long - could be capital losses !
They are no good in Cuba, besides the transaction fees, they take another 10% for exchanging US currency.
Meaning right of the get go, it's 10% less than the Canuck Buck !

 

[moreluck]

Obama's Misstatements on the Union - David Limbaugh - Townhall Conservative

 

[moreluck]

President Obama, If You'll Take On Insider Trading Will You Also Deal With Crony Capitalism? | Fox News

 

[satellitedriver]

satiellitedriver,
I lived under of Slobodan Milosevic, so I got a pretty nice experience what is it mean to be poor.
There is no sin in being poor.
When I told my poor man story, I forgot to mention I had a guest stay over at my apt around that time..
We celebrated his third birthday, as he called it.
The day he made it to America.
Prague Spring - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is what the internet tells, but his telling was horrific.
Woman and children stood in the streets trying to slow down the Russian tanks to buy time for the men fighting in the hills to get home.
The tanks ran them over in the street.
He escaped Czechoslovakia in 1969 from a 3ft by 5ft by 4ft tall concrete prison cell.
The underground had a plan to get him out, then send his wife and child later.
The Russians found out and executed his wife and child.

If you lived under Milosevic, you know the difference between poverty, oppression and survival.


If you think we are really on the right direction take a look at the national debt chart,,
First off, I know we are heading in the wrong direction,

Taxing the rich will solve the national debt?
You state this;
"take a look at the national debt chart,,"
I have.
The OWS wishes to tax the rich and blame Wall Street, to solve the problem.
If government took every single dollar from Warren Buffet, Bill Gates and all the other billionaires.
Plus, take every cent from all the millionaires in America.
Guess what?
That would not even cover the interest on our debt.
Here is a link to look at the numbers.
Kinda wacky site, but the numbers are real.
Top Five Myths about Reducing Our $15 Trillion National Debt-Defeat The Debt

I have a thread bare spiral note book that records all of my investments over the decades.
The Header on the first page is a quote from Thomas Fuller.
"Debt is the worst poverty."
I blame no one for my financial situation, except myself.

 

[Just_another_day_at_work]

The debt will NEVER get paid back. We will pile it up and up until music stops. If you tax every single person and corporation for 1 year at 100% still cannot pay it back. The (debt base)currency itself is a Ponzi scheme. I can't make a conversation with you on OWS, you have your bull eye on the movement, but maybe you should go down one weekend and talk to them, watch some interviews on youtube. Yes of course there are people who say tax the rich (in my opinion not the majority).
Wall St caused the 2007 crash, nobody is in jail yet...I don't want anybody to get taxed more, I want to see people getting sentenced some serious time. The rule of law should apply to everyone. And now we have Corzine from MFin Global over 1.2 billion "lost" customer segregated accounts.
If you read the previous post I did say the system will get everyone, starting from poor, then middle income, high, then the banks and in the end the FED will be left alone.

 

[bbsam]

First, let's be rational and realize that debt is not a bad thing. Out of control debt is. Now is the time to take on more debt (trillions if possible) for one thing and one thing only: infrastructure. Roads, bridges, etc. Get the money now, 'cause there is no debt cheaper than 0%. Think about that for a minute the next time someone complains about paying back the interest on the debt. Not on debt taken out these days.

 

[trplnkl]

First, let's be rational and realize that debt is not a bad thing. Out of control debt is. Now is the time to take on more debt (trillions if possible) for one thing and one thing only: infrastructure. Roads, bridges, etc. Get the money now, 'cause there is no debt cheaper than 0%. Think about that for a minute the next time someone complains about paying back the interest on the debt. Not on debt taken out these days.

That is why so many people are screaming to stop the increasing debt. It is OUT OF CONTROL. Having debt isn't too bad as long as it is interest free but sooner or later there will be interest to pay along with the original debt. Sure, if we could acquire a new interest free debt to pay off the old interest laden debt, things would get better. Is that happening?

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

There is good debt and bad debt. Debt incurred for the improvement of our infrastructure would be good debt, especially at current bond rates.

Bringing US jobs back to the US by lowering corporate tax rates and scrapping our current system of taxation and replacing it with the Fair Tax should be near the top of President's Obama "to do" list when he is re-elected.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

That is why so many people are screaming to stop the increasing debt. It is OUT OF CONTROL. Having debt isn't too bad as long as it is interest free but sooner or later there will be interest to pay along with the original debt. Sure, if we could acquire a new interest free debt to pay off the old interest laden debt, things would get better. Is that happening?

What benefit would China gain by refinancing our debt and reducing the interest rate to zero?

 

[bbsam]

That is why so many people are screaming to stop the increasing debt. It is OUT OF CONTROL. Having debt isn't too bad as long as it is interest free but sooner or later there will be interest to pay along with the original debt. Sure, if we could acquire a new interest free debt to pay off the old interest laden debt, things would get better. Is that happening?

But are there things (like infrastructure) that we can't ignore? If so, then adding debt is the alternative as long as Washington (and let's be honest, the country) can't stand cutting and in that case, 0% interest is a good deal.

 

[trplnkl]

There is good debt and bad debt. Debt incurred for the improvement of our infrastructure would be good debt, especially at current bond rates.

Bringing US jobs back to the US by lowering corporate tax rates and scrapping our current system of taxation and replacing it with the Fair Tax should be near the top of President's Obama "to do" list when he is re-elected.

Can't say I disagree with this premise but there are lots of IFs involved. As we have seen lowering corp tax rates alone do not guarantee a return of jobs, unfortunately. I agree that a major overhaul on the tax code is way overdue, but I'm not sold on the Fair Tax idea yet. Sure it sounds rosy at first, but will it stand up to muster? I need to do more looking at that before biting.
Plus, I don't think the system would allow the Fair Tax to ever get off the ground, much less fly.

 

[trplnkl]

But are there things (like infrastructure) that we can't ignore? If so, then adding debt is the alternative as long as Washington (and let's be honest, the country) can't stand cutting and in that case, 0% interest is a good deal.

Yes, if you have to borrow more, 0% is the way to go, that's a no brainer. The question is, would that fix anything but the infrastructure?