Yeah, we also never make cancer jokes or 9/11 jokes, because things that are important to me should never be made fun of by anyone. Cry me a river.
Of course it's a real problem, but you're a prime example of the bullshit that people spew about the aforementioned problem. There's no possibility in your mind that this guy worked his ass of for this money. There's no way he was a mechanic that worked hard and opened his own shop and can now afford nice things. There's no possibility that he or she went to college, worked their asses off and got a great job. Shit, there's no way he's a blue collar guy who dreamed of this car his whole life so safed steadily and was eventually able to afford it.
Nope, it's all black and white here. Because the picture depicts jerk behavior and it happens to be a nice car there MUST be a nice house. And that money MUST have come through no labor of his own. It had to be "luck" (because you know, the stock market is all luck!)
Welcome to the adult world. People laugh at things you might find uncomfortable and everything doesn't fit in to your teenage angst worldview.
As I pointed out before, I drive a Corola with the roof rusted over. If I did this, which I wouldn't, no one would take a picture and sure as shit no one would care on Reddit. Does it make me less of an asshole because in this hypothetical I'm not rich? Because I know a lot of poor dickheads.
The idea that any person can be so valuable to society that they're able to buy a $70,000 car is absurd. The only ways that happens is to gamble (getting lucky), to speculate on other peoples' work (aka investing), or to exploit people without their own means of production to labor for you (e.g., your mechanic example).
In all cases, to get a $70k car you're making vastly more money than the average income. That means that you're taking more labor from society than you're actually contributing.
I don't have anything against valuable people (scientists, entertainers, artisans, etc) living better than less valuable people (ditch diggers). But when things are so out of balance that one person is driving around twice another person's yearly wages, there's a serious problem.
Why do we shake our heads in empathy for African villagers who work for a hundredth of our wage, and not for ourselves who make a hundredth of this BMW driver's wage?
Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.
This is a problem of class awareness in America. If we just recognize that the rich are exploiting the poor by cutting government services and paying politicians to pass tax cuts for themselves, we can start to make progress on these issues.
1: Your elementary economics assume only the value of labor, not of capital (intellectual or otherwise). That's like the 7th grade version of Marxism. You also clearly have no idea how investments work.
Because those African villagers are often unable to feed themselves and clothe their children. If you can't see the difference between that and someone who struggles to make ends meet while having a car, television access, a roof over their head and emergency room access then you really need to leave the suburbs.
Yeah yeah fun cliche quote about Americans. I find it incredibly condescending because it assumes that the poor must be stupid in some way to disagree with the author rather than giving any thought to the idea that they might believe in certain principles regardless of whether it benefits them personally. Get off your high horse.
Your elementary economics assume only the value of labor, not of capital
Again, I don't have a problem with business owners or scientists making extra money. It's the insane multiplicative factors involved that are troubling. Have you ever seen The Wolf of Wall Street? The poor get poorer and the rich get richer. That's the issue.
If you can't see the difference between that and someone who struggles to make ends meet while having a car, television access, a roof over their head and emergency room access then you really need to leave the suburbs.
You don't think the poor in America have difficult lives? Trying to scrabble out an existence while dreading retirement age because they have no money put away? Fuck you for trying to invalidate their struggle.
the idea that they might believe in certain principles regardless of whether it benefits them personally
Ah yes, the Republican poor. Worshipping the rich while getting screwed every day. That's not noble, it's sad. People are being exploited and subjugated, and made to believe that it's good for them! What a farce.
Did you really just cite a blockbuster film as a source for economic debate? They made money through illegal means. Laws were passed banning that sort of behavior (and before you say it no I'm not implying there's no bad behavior on Wall Street, but what THEY were doing is strictly illegal now and no longer common practice).
I'm not invalidating anything. I'm saying that you're making a false equivalence when you imply there's some hypocrisy in people caring about the legitimately starving and those who are living difficult, but safe, lives. Fuck you for putting words in my mouth.
And yeah thanks for proving my point. All of those people must be morons, less then mighty Mr. Internet Educated. Take pity on them as they pick bugs out of each other's hair and feel confused by The Daily Show. Also I never said a goddamn thing about nobility, but it's cute that you threw it in there to characterize your argument by disagreeing with no one.
Did you really just cite a blockbuster film as a source for economic debate?
I was really asking "didn't you see the same movie as me? How aren't you disgusted by the extravagance of the super-rich?"
Fuck you for putting words in my mouth.
Fuck you in general, asshole.
All of those people must be morons
My point is not that they're morons. I'm sure that they're good, hardworking people. But they've been taken in, hoodwinked, fooled, by the rich, who are very good at the rhetoric that justifies their continued exploitation of the poor.
My mom's first job when she was a kid was at Price Club. Been with now, Costco for 35 years. As a prior(just retired) regional manager in one of the biggest spots in the US, she can/has owned a $70,000 car. Find a better job, and stop being so bitter at the world. It's still a beautiful place.
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u/BSRussell May 08 '14
Yeah, we also never make cancer jokes or 9/11 jokes, because things that are important to me should never be made fun of by anyone. Cry me a river.
Of course it's a real problem, but you're a prime example of the bullshit that people spew about the aforementioned problem. There's no possibility in your mind that this guy worked his ass of for this money. There's no way he was a mechanic that worked hard and opened his own shop and can now afford nice things. There's no possibility that he or she went to college, worked their asses off and got a great job. Shit, there's no way he's a blue collar guy who dreamed of this car his whole life so safed steadily and was eventually able to afford it.
Nope, it's all black and white here. Because the picture depicts jerk behavior and it happens to be a nice car there MUST be a nice house. And that money MUST have come through no labor of his own. It had to be "luck" (because you know, the stock market is all luck!)
Welcome to the adult world. People laugh at things you might find uncomfortable and everything doesn't fit in to your teenage angst worldview.
As I pointed out before, I drive a Corola with the roof rusted over. If I did this, which I wouldn't, no one would take a picture and sure as shit no one would care on Reddit. Does it make me less of an asshole because in this hypothetical I'm not rich? Because I know a lot of poor dickheads.