Draining the swamp

Discussion in 'Blazers OT Forum' started by Rastapopoulos, Nov 23, 2016.

  1. riverman

    riverman Writing Team

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    you just don't get my talking point...it's not what he did to line his pockets...it's how he did it I take issue with.
     
  2. riverman

    riverman Writing Team

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    uh....my crew didn't make minimum wage.....sushi chefs aren't taco bell workers
     
  3. Denny Crane

    Denny Crane It's not even loaded! Staff Member Administrator

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    If minimum wage was $10, you paid $15, and the government came along and raised minimum wage to $16, you were fucked even worse. Get it?
     
  4. riverman

    riverman Writing Team

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    didn't happen, get it? ...not a reality based post Denny....if the law said I had to raise my payroll a dollar an hour, I'd have done that..didn't happen, get it?
     
  5. Denny Crane

    Denny Crane It's not even loaded! Staff Member Administrator

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    Buying buildings and having them appreciate?

    I'm around lots of construction oriented deals. Contractors sometimes are just incompetent. There are lots of lawsuits.

    My neighbor had a house built on his lot. He hired a building contractor to design and build the place. They promised a June completion date. They had a clause that penalized them if they went over. The contractor finished in September, a year later than promised.

    So I wouldn't blame my neighbor for suing, underpaying, etc., that contractor.

    Another neighbor is an architect who designed and built maybe 10 houses within a 2 block radius. He had all sorts of trouble with his subs. Paid some, didn't pay others who fucked him over.

    That's how construction business is.

    If Trump paid some and didn't pay others, it may be better to look at the circumstances.
     
  6. Denny Crane

    Denny Crane It's not even loaded! Staff Member Administrator

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  7. riverman

    riverman Writing Team

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    In my view 15 bucks an hour barely covers basics especially if you live in California or New York....working class wage workers without expendable income don't shop for the goods those businesses provide and the wage workers can't save up to buy a house or send a kid to college in many cases.....so a business owner takes on more overhead but his worker can take his kids to a ballgame once in awhile and buy them a hot dog...expendable income is good for the GNP
     
  8. Denny Crane

    Denny Crane It's not even loaded! Staff Member Administrator

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    Again, if they hiked minimum wage by 50%, it would have killed your business faster, and you wouldn't have taken care of as many of your employees.
     
  9. riverman

    riverman Writing Team

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    Overhead didn't kill my business, weather did....seafood doesn't store well especially raw fish...it was a 3 months of bad snow storms that killed the place and I actually could have saved it if I'd gone in debt to carry through......wasn't willing to do that. Don't regret it at all....couple of the best years of my life
     
  10. jlprk

    jlprk The ESPN mod is insane.

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    So millions should suffer in order to keep inefficient businesses afloat. Let those businesses die, so their efficient competitors can expand and hire their employees, who were working without health insurance (as I did in the 1980s and 90s till I retired).
     
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  11. Denny Crane

    Denny Crane It's not even loaded! Staff Member Administrator

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    The workers can negotiate their own wages. It's silly to take a perfectly capable business and destroy it by mandating the employees be paid more than the business can afford. If the workers LIKE working for the business, let 'em.
     
  12. Denny Crane

    Denny Crane It's not even loaded! Staff Member Administrator

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    By definition, your expenses exceeded your revenues.

    Salaries are likely your biggest expense. By far.

    To balance that profit = revenue - expenses equation, you either have to increase revenue or cut expenses. Or fail.

    No business should require you to go into debt to meet your ordinary expenses. If you are borrowing for capital equipment or other capital expense, that's ok.
     
  13. e_blazer

    e_blazer Rip City Fan

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    It seems to me that what's changed in our national discussion about minimum wage is the notion that a minimum wage job is supposed to be a living wage job. Minimum wage jobs used to be viewed as starter jobs for high school kids or a way for a spouse to make a few extra bucks to bolster the household income. Now we're talking about those jobs as if they're careers. It seems to me that we need some of those old fashioned minimum wage jobs, but that employers shouldn't make permanent career jobs minimum wage positions. Both sides need to get real about this discussion. High school kids flipping burgers to make extra money don't need a living wage. The undereducated minority workers who can't qualify for better jobs do need a minimally livable wage.
     
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  14. jlprk

    jlprk The ESPN mod is insane.

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    Nope. When I was in college, working part-time minimum wage jobs, half of my coworkers were over 25, and a third over 30. There were some over 40, some over 50. Minimum wage jobs have always been like that. A few years ago, my son was in a fish packing plant. Same story, except up here in the Northwest, there are even more older minimum wage workers than there were in California for me.
     
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  15. magnifier661

    magnifier661 B-A-N-A-N-A-S!

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    Most millionaires don't have just a million dollars. Most have anywhere from 6-30 mil net worth. So in your math, they would still be millionaires back then.
     
  16. barfo

    barfo triggered obsessive commie pinko boomer maniac Staff Member Global Moderator

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    Denny, your argument is terrible. You say there were 4000 millionaires when Carter left office, and there are 1800 billionaires today. Trump is in both of those categories, more or less.

    Few go from millionaire to billionaire overnight. Trump didn't.

    You have to compare billionaires now to millionaires then, not billionaires now to millionaires now. So the ratio is more like 1 out of every 2, not 1 out of 500.

    He was born fabulously rich, and he still is today. He deserves some credit for not pissing away his inherited fortune (although he made a credible attempt).

    barfo
     
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  17. Rastapopoulos

    Rastapopoulos Well-Known Member

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    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...director-bahamas-based-us-russian-oil-company

    (Sorry - the link isn't a respectable news source like Breitbart, the Enquirer or Fox, so you'll have to take it with a pinch of salt.)

    Pish. Next they'll say that avoiding taxes goes against Trump's avowal to put America first, and if so, why would people have voted for him?
     
  18. Rastapopoulos

    Rastapopoulos Well-Known Member

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    Things that never need saying.

    Robert Reich says he had this conversation with a Trump supporter. No doubt it's a little self-serving but I'm sure the facts are straight:

    “How do you know he’s a successful businessman?” I asked.

    “Because he’s made a fortune.”

    “Has he really?” I asked.

    “Of course. Forbes magazine says he’s worth four and a half billion.”

    “That doesn’t mean he’s been a success,” I said.

    “In my book it does,” said the Trump supporter.

    “You know, in 1976, when Trump was just starting his career, he said he was worth about $200 million,” I said. “Most of that was from his father.”

    “That just proves my point,” said the Trump supporter. “He turned that $200 million into four and a half billion. Brilliant man.“

    “But if he had just put that $200 million into an index fund and reinvested the dividends, he’d be worth twelve billion today,” I said.

    The Trump supporter went silent.

    “And he got about $850 million in tax subsidies, just in New York alone,” I said.

    More silence.

    “He’s not a businessman,” I said. “He’s a con man. “Hope you enjoy your coffee.”
     
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  19. 3RA1N1AC

    3RA1N1AC 00110110 00111001

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    Not true. MUST APOLOGIZE!!
     
  20. magnifier661

    magnifier661 B-A-N-A-N-A-S!

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    I've seen thousands celebrate your failure on the rooftops of New Jersey. BIGLY
     

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