I don't think Americans really want "equality."

originally posted by: RomeByFire

Yes, we spend over 600 billion on defense. And we spend over a trillion a year on "anti-poverty." We've done so since the sixties when Johnson started the "War on Poverty."

And that trillion dollars a year has done nothing to stop poverty. If it's a war, we lost. Yet we keep doing it, Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Equality of opportunity is not the same thing as equality of achievement. If you want to do something else, DON'T tell us to squelch the military and put more money into "helping people" because THAT DOES NOT WORK.

I don't want anything from the Federal Government and in return I want to keep my money. I can't name one damn thing the Federal Government does that l need. If DC fell in to the Atlantic we would all be better off.

a reply to: Boscowashisnamo

Can you perhaps link a website to at least one of your businesses?

a reply to: RomeByFire

A simple rebuttal is: The left wants equality at the 'finish line'. The right wants equality at the starting line....

It's rather simple really. Equality is limited to the arithmetical world. it 'exists' nowhere else. Period.

a reply to: nwtrucker

A simple rebuttal is: The left wants equality at the 'finish line'. The right wants equality at the starting line....

BS,The right is very good at talking crap many people eat up, you think Mitt Romney wants or expects his son to start at the same point some poor kid does? Do you think ANY rich kid will start and rise up faster than some poor shlub because he is a harder worker?

The right believes in connections, the Left believes in fairness

a reply to: mymymy

What would you consider a "fair start" for everyone?

Love your avatar btw.

a reply to: RomeByFire

I agree. Many Americans don't want equality for all Americans. They want to go back to the time period when there were separate social classes with separate rights, benefits, and privileges. That's why they freak out when other demographics gain access to the same rights & benefits they have. It makes them feel like they're losing their higher standing (hence the "taking our country back" crap).

Most of the people who complain about "big government" being intrusive don't actually care about an intrusive government. They just don't want government to intrude on them. They have no problem with governments intruding on the Americans they don't like. Just look at their policies towards American minorities, American Muslims, American LGBTs, American unions, etc. They love passing laws and policies that intrude on us.

It's the same for the social safety net. They have no problem collecting welfare, food stamps, or other government subsidies and benefits. They just don't want other demographics to receive them. They honestly still believe they're better than the other demographics and that they "earned" those benefits. But somehow, the other demographics of Americans haven't earned them, and therefore, don't deserve them. Even if we've also paid into Medicare, FICA, and the such.

Things become a lot clearer when you look at it from that perspective.

Well said. You are my hero of the week

a reply to: RomeByFire

I have to disagree with your assumption,
even though I can clearly see how you and many
others including myself can be coerced into such
a troublesome standpoint.

I have been to every state in The United States, and
numerous countries on this wonderful planet.
Yet to stay to form, I will keep to the topic of Americans.
In my travels through the states, I have heard the phrases,

"Life sucks and then you die"
"They get you coming in, and they get you going out"
"Nothing is certain but death and taxes"
"The rich get richer and the poor get poorer"
"Politics is a dirty business"

My favorite at this moment in time would be,
"There isn't nothing better than 40 acres and a mule,
thank God for Uncle Sam".

At any rate, my point being is that most Americans understand
instinctually ( is that a word?) that life is short and a struggle
for Everyone alive on this planet.
I can clearly infer that Equality is inherent in these observations.

Now, it may be true that the majority of people I have encountered
believe this, it is also true that there is a great respect for those
who pull themselves up by their bootstraps and achieve a level
of non-dependence and self sustainability, or even greater, no
matter what their socioeconomic background is.

In fact, I have witnessed the highest respects for those who have
done their best to sustain themselves and their families ( if they have dependents)
who have actually been born with the odd's stacked against them.
For at every turn, there is the temptation of crime,drugs,hopelessness and
other unmentionable pitfalls set for them.

Equality is the human experience of being born , living, and dying.
What you do with your time on this planet as an individual
is your own free will. Who is the judge that will decide if we have
lived an exemplary and impeccable life?
History? Time? Your fellow man? God?

All of the above.

Thanks for energizing me to write.

S&F

a reply to: RomeByFire

Not to mention, some Americans want slavery back

a reply to: starwarsisreal


And some want women back in the kitchen where they belong.
Don't take the nuts seriously.

i am definately not a hypocrite. have been homeless. have been at the bottom. and i can tell you, from first hand experience that people need a hand up. they don't need a hand out. making college free is a great idea. but then you come to the question of paying for it. let's grant amnesty to all the illegals and make the usa a beautiful utopia. it can not happen. not in a realistic world. there are just not enough jobs for the people who are living here legally, let alone illegal immigrants. yes. i am all for making them legal and taxing them. i think a lot of them would leave. the gravy train would be over. and to all the people that say that the illegals do jobs that no american wants....haha i know so many homeless people, men and women, american citizens who would pick fruit or work in a garment factory for substandard wages and long hours just to be able to say that they made a dollar themselves because they are judged and put down by mainstream employment. i live in a city that has been taken over with illegals and they all live with 15-30 in a house, every one of them has 4-5 children per woman who were born in the US and therefore all 10-20 children living in the house qualifiy for food stamps, TANF and medicare. when the factories (i.e. decent jobs) get raided by INS 95 percent of the workforce is gone. replaced by temps until the very same illegals crawl right back over the border with new names and SSNs and get their old jobs back. it's a running joke around here. if you get hired at the frozen food factory (one of the best paying jobs in town) count the days until they fire you to hire the old employees "that worked here before and have experience" (ALL ILLEGALS). america is going so far downhill. i am starting to hate it. and obamacare is awful. yes i agree that universal healthcare is important, but obama had to make too many concessions to the insurance companies to get that bill to pass. i should not have to pay 170 dollars a month for insurance that i will never use because i have gone to a doctor one time in my life and will probably never go again. (the first time was a legitimate emergency.....i cored my eyeball.....)

Corporate media will always defend the rights of the corporations, always has and always will. So when all you have is corporate media Guess who's interests will be promoted and defended.

a reply to: enlightenedservant

Why don't you just come out and say what you really mean?

Since you're racist, everyone else must be racist too, right?

a reply to: enlightenedservant
Yes! This!

And considering how they have historically treated minorities....they hope like help that they are never the minority. Either their scared of karma, or they deep down inside know they really have been discriminatory, hateful and bigoted in their treatment of others. They fear their own behavior, thus they project their own behavior on others.

United States is based on individualistic values. It's not how you can help your fellow man but how you can crush him and be more successful.

I love the "I'm the American Dream! You can do the same exact thing, no excuses!" Yeah right because everyone lives the same exact lives.

Private property, money, and paranoia run this nation.

If Americans wanted equality they wouldn't try to achieve it by treating each other unequally to "make up for the past."

a reply to: RomeByFire

I believe and hope that most American's DON'T want equality. Because the equality being forced down our throats is basically taking from those that worked for it and giving it those who didn't and won't. Don't get me wrong...helping someone down on their luck, etc. is a different story. Having the government steal money from your pocket to give it to someone else who refuses to support themselves and votes for the left who promise to steal it from the not-so-poor and give it to them to support whatever habit (drink, drugs, laziness) they wish to persue.

Equality is not taking from one to give to another. It is assuring that everyone has a fair chance and an equal chance to succeed. Failure isn't inequality...it is destiny.

a reply to: RomeByFire

We have talks of spending half a trillion to round up, and deport 11 million people. Most don't care, but the army is typically called in for this.

That has exactly nothing to do with 'equality' I guess we should just ignore those who willfully break they law, and think they are ABOVE it, while the rest of us are subjugated by it.

We have talks of raising our minimum wage - that is being shot down left, right, center, above, and below. Yet the corporate socialism and giant tax breaks are good for the American people and the economy, even after Alan Greenspan said himself his ideology was flawed.

Wage has exactly nothing to do with equality because ALL work is not created equal. Work is different so pay should be different.

There is, and has always been, and will always be a difference between skilled, and unskilled labor.

We have talks of nationwide healthcare, for everyone - and again, it is being shot down. You want healthcare? Pull yourself up from your bootstraps, you filthy bum.

We already have 'nationwide healthcare. They are called medicare, and medicaid. That have more people on them than more European countries entire populations. That runs massive deficits that create debt, and again has exactly ZERO to do with equality.

Might want to read up on the EMTLA by the by.

www.cms.gov...

We have a new term many Americans have never heard before, "Democratic Socialism," and for some those words clearly spell out "Full-fledged government tyranny and totalitarian regime state," which is simply absurd. People are talking about Pol Pot, and Mao Zedong, and comparing them to Bernie Sanders?

Sometimes the shoe fits. and AGAIN has exactly NOTHING to do with equality.

We have talks of free tuition for public universities - again, this is being criticized. We are not customers, as much as some of you would like us to be. EDUCATION - what's that again? Where certain privileged individuals are allowed to go depending if they can afford it? Go Education!

Heres a thought? How about people pay their own way like our parents, and grandparent,s and their parents before us ?

Do people today think they are better than them ?

All things being EQUAL. They would bite the bullet, and do it themselves like our parents did.

I am not even gonna bother with the rest.

Because it is nothing but a false equivalency.

a reply to: RomeByFire

Honestly education isn't a pathway to a better job for a lot of people. People pick absurd degrees and then complain about their student debt. Some people lack the social skills to get anywhere. Equality is impossible because all people are not equal. The simple fact that a immigrant can make it further in our country than many citizens already explains the problem here.

You complain about corporate welfare while the most people in history are on some kind of government assistance. Half the people in the country are not working. 1/4 of this country or maybe even less actually pays federal income taxes. The difference between our system and true socialism is everyone in a socialist country pays into the government.

Here people use their ability to vote as a method to pay themselves more money via benefits from a government which is in debt. Socialism doesn't work for long. Almost every country in Europe has a worse debt to GPD than us. Australia has a worse debt to GDP than us. The only countries are countries that don't offer near the social systems we already have.

I have no college education but I still earn 6 figures, purely because I've created a skill set the market will always want.

I don't agree with just about anything you've said, but I do appreciate the fact that you can say it.