How much should people take

[terryl965]

I was just at the grocery store from Saturday morning and noticed the prices jumped an average of 15-22 percent in just two days. The gas station went down to 2.16 a gallon and my normay presription that insurance will not cover jumped 28 percent since last month. Why is it the middle class or ordinary person always seems to get it in the ***, with everything. I mean if you are kinda poor they have help and if you are really rich you do not care. My medicine went from 112.00 to 147.00 in one month and the pharmasist says expect more of an increase and I should look at getting three months at a time and I told him that I simply could not offord to pay for three months even though it will save me about 26.00 per month. The milk went up from 1.99 a gallon to 2.79 a gallon and my kids drink 5-7 gallons a week. I am just venting and pissed off because I work and I still am having financial problems qith food, medicine and the little things that you need to keep a house going.

 

[Frostbite]

I've been noticing this myself. I remember when the amount of money I make now seemed like a lot of money. Now it just seems like I'm just another working class schmoe because my pay hasn't increased much but the cost of living has.

 

[jetboatdeath]

People will take as much as is given. The United States people have gotten weak....
13 trillion debt? no problem let’s get that health care reformed...
And after that lets get the guns...
And tax the hell out of them
Let’s take over the factories that the work in and the banks that they use.
What’s that Constitution thing they keep talking about?

Just go get your food stamps and get in that soup line.
everything will be OK...

Sad aint it....
Makes me want to cry...

Change ... great....

 

[Darksoul]

I've been noticing this myself. I remember when the amount of money I make now seemed like a lot of money. Now it just seems like I'm just another working class schmoe because my pay hasn't increased much but the cost of living has.

-I think thats a big part of the problem right there, wages have stagnated or fallen in the last 30 or so years. Businesses have gotten away with paying crap wages for so long now and thats not likely to change. And who would tell them they have to? The gov't? We the people? The consequences are too severe. Yet the cost of living keeps going up. I find I can cover my bills but little else. Certainly don't have money to invest in anything.

-Guess I'll just go find some bootstraps...haha!


Andrew

 

[Phoenix44]

And it isn't going to get better.

Our biggest threat, in my opinion, is so-called "free" trade and the resulting increasing trade deficit. This country no longer produces anything, and we export very little--not machinery, precision equipment, airplanes, clothing, shoes, not even much food anymore. Our car industry is on the verge of disappearance. And what little we do produce is dependent on high tech parts and precision equipment from Japan or Korea. Think we can survive on a "service" economy? Think again. When was the last time you reached an American when you called tech support or customer service? Services are much easier to export than products. The only thing we export really well is debt. No wonder our salaries don't go too far, and we get no raises.

And stop blaming the poor--are we really that stupid? Multinational corporations--that's right, they're very proud that they're not American anymore--close American factories, putting Americans out of work, and then build factories in China where they can pay pennies to the locals where there are no protections for workers. Then they export "cheap" products back to us, creating a few billionaire CEOs in the process.

But don't worry about those American-multinational companies--in a few years they'll be put out of business, too, by Asian cartels protected by governments that are smart enough to actually protect their manufacturers. No "free" trade from their point of view. China, Korea and Japan don't allow foreigners to flood their markets with cheap products.

Then China skims its population of 2 billion for their best and brightest, and sends them here where we give them scholarships to Harvard and MIT, so they can then go back to China, taking with them even more of our intellectual property. We're training our own competition, and we're paying for it, too!

Ross Perot was right when he referred to the "Giant Sucking Sound" of American jobs leaving the country when the "free" trade agreements were signed. We need to protect our markets, our workers and our jobs by getting rid of these "free" trade practices. We need tariffs to protect American products and American workers, and you'll start to see higher wages and better standards of living again.

I'm not holding my breath. Those CEOs aren't looking out for the longterm success of America--they're looking to make as much as they can as fast as they can wherever they can.