LABOR

[Serf]

Florida law didn't let him off, Florida prosecutor Angela Corey did when she decided to have him charged with murder in the second degree. They did not have the case to support that charge but they did it to quell the public outcry on what was portrayed by the media as the death of a 12 year old black boy by a white man. They might have gotten him on manslaughter, but instead Florida loses another high profile trial.

I love it when people use FACTS to justify their position. Not FEELINGS. Good post.

 

[59 Dano]

Unemployment isn't "free money". Its a tax paid for the employee by the employer and before you go there, almost all economist agreed that those are dollars that would have gone into the employee's paycheck.
So back to your hypothetical. Would I want my family that was used to his pre layoff check of 750 to live off 300, (assuming he could find a FT job flipping burgers. (Not very likely.) or would I want him collecting the unemployment benefits he earned while he looks for work that would support our family. Yea, I think the smart thing is for us to take unemployment.

Exactly. The smart thing is to take what he is legally entitled to have because that is what will benefit him the most in his situation.

That's precisely what I'm advocating.

 

[59 Dano]

Give a buck to a corporation and the only thing they create is larger compensation packages for the executives and artificially high stock prices. Then he will turn around and ask for another buck.

All of that after he puts 90 or 95 cents of it into his operation to turn a profit.

Give a buck to an unemployed mother and she will feed her child.

So will an employed mother.

 

[59 Dano]

It is the norm. In fact it is so commen that there is a publication called "Tax Incentives Alert" that has all of the details to help corporations fleece communities of every possible dime.

Oh, goody!

You're the governor of a state. An auto plant is interested in building a plant in your state that will employ 800 people. A neighboring state has offered to spend $5 million to assist with site acquisition and preparation. It will also, for 10 years, forgo the difference in property taxes. If the plant doesn't operate for 15 years or more, they have to pay back the difference. The auto company likes your state better and will build the plant there if you'll match the other state's offer.

Yes or no, and why.

 

[59 Dano]

No, I don't know him, nor would I want to. Do you? He's a real class act, between touring the factory where the gun he used to kill Martin was made, to his apparent penchants for abuse and a real love of weapons. Florida law let Zimmerman off. If he had done the same thing in California, he'd be in prison where he belongs. The legal precedent for deadly force is that you can only use it when your life is in imminent danger. His incessant phone calls to the PD show he was a cop wannabe and was probably playing "Profile Cop" when he came across Martin and started following him. Zimmerman initiated contact with Martin, not the other way around.

The precedent in most states is that you reasonably suspect that you will suffer death or great bodily harm. He initiated contact with Martin. What of it?

Did you watch the trial? The prosecution's star witnesses were dominated by complete dopes who supported Zimmerman's story in the few instances that they made any sense at all.

 

[59 Dano]

Florida law didn't let him off, Florida prosecutor Angela Corey did when she decided to have him charged with murder in the second degree. They did not have the case to support that charge but they did it to quell the public outcry on what was portrayed by the media as the death of a 12 year old black boy by a white man. They might have gotten him on manslaughter, but instead Florida loses another high profile trial.

Even manslaughter would have been a stretch. By the end of the trail, the prosecution's narrative was toast. The star witness for the defense was a nationally renowned forensic pathologist. The prosecution had star witnesses. One was a medical examiner who kept changing his mind and was fired not long after the case. The other was a racist girl who was illiterate.

 

[59 Dano]

Bashing? Please. If that was factual Zimmerman would've had serious head wounds, not the little scratches he had.

Forensic pathologists disagree.

 

[vantexan]

Whoa .. hold on. You don't want Mexicans coming over here ...

... so why would they LET you come there?

Priceless.

Who says I don't want Mexicans coming over here? A guest worker program that helped meet the needs of industries short on labor would be a good idea in my opinion. That way the Mexicans and other Latinos wouldn't be risking their necks crossing the border and could legally get something back from Social Security someday.

Since there are about a million U.S. citizens living in Mexico now I think they'll make room for a couple more. Or we might go to Nicaragua or Ecuador, countries where we can live comfortably on less than $1000 a month.

Countries with beautiful scenery, low costs, modern medical, theaters playing current movies in English, can stay in touch with everyone on the Internet, download books and newspapers on the Internet, can say sayonara to the insanity the U.S. has become: Priceless. And I would recommend to any young person to find a company with a real pension so that someday you could do the same.

 

[MAKAVELI]

Who says I don't want Mexicans coming over here? A guest worker program that helped meet the needs of industries short on labor would be a good idea in my opinion. That way the Mexicans and other Latinos wouldn't be risking their necks crossing the border and could legally get something back from Social Security someday.

Since there are about a million U.S. citizens living in Mexico now I think they'll make room for a couple more. Or we might go to Nicaragua or Ecuador, countries where we can live comfortably on less than $1000 a month.

Countries with beautiful scenery, low costs, modern medical, theaters playing current movies in English, can stay in touch with everyone on the Internet, download books and newspapers on the Internet, can say sayonara to the insanity the U.S. has become: Priceless. And I would recommend to any young person to find a company with a real pension so that someday you could do the same.

Sometimes you have to find out for yourself that life isn't always greener on the other side. Each to their own, but I'll take my chances in the US. There really is no other place in the world as diverse as the US , even as dysfunctional as it is.

 

[hypo hanna]

All of that after he puts 90 or 95 cents of it into his operation to turn a profit.



So will an employed mother.

The children of the unemployed are free to starve? Is that what they deserve for making the mistake of being born to that welfare queen?

 

[hypo hanna]

Oh, goody!

You're the governor of a state. An auto plant is interested in building a plant in your state that will employ 800 people. A neighboring state has offered to spend $5 million to assist with site acquisition and preparation. It will also, for 10 years, forgo the difference in property taxes. If the plant doesn't operate for 15 years or more, they have to pay back the difference. The auto company likes your state better and will build the plant there if you'll match the other state's offer.

Yes or no, and why.

I would make certain the value of the jobs equals or exceeds the cost to the taxpayer. Pointless to give 25 million in tax breaks and gifts for 50 jobs that pay 30K a year.
I would also make certain the number of jobs promised materialized and if they don't, that the contract stipulates that the taxing entity is refunded that money.

 

[MrFedEx]

Oh, goody!

You're the governor of a state. An auto plant is interested in building a plant in your state that will employ 800 people. A neighboring state has offered to spend $5 million to assist with site acquisition and preparation. It will also, for 10 years, forgo the difference in property taxes. If the plant doesn't operate for 15 years or more, they have to pay back the difference. The auto company likes your state better and will build the plant there if you'll match the other state's offer.

Yes or no, and why.

Race to the bottom. In right-to-work (for less) states, the governors give away billions in tax revenues and then sell the workers down the river so they can "create jobs". Rick Perry immediately comes to mind. A competition between your RTW maroon and their RTW maroon. Either way, the workers lose, and Big Business and the politicians win. I'm glad I don't live in a RTW state.

 

[MrFedEx]

I would make certain the value of the jobs equals or exceeds the cost to the taxpayer. Pointless to give 25 million in tax breaks and gifts for 50 jobs that pay 30K a year.
I would also make certain the number of jobs promised materialized and if they don't, that the contract stipulates that the taxing entity is refunded that money.

Exactly. But this is the GOP "jobs" formula. They create crap jobs by giving away the store and sticking the taxpayer. Subsidized expansion and subsidized workers are a win-win for them and a lose-lose for the rest of us. Republican job creation at-work.

 

[vantexan]

Sometimes you have to find out for yourself that life isn't always greener on the other side. Each to their own, but I'll take my chances in the US. There really is no other place in the world as diverse as the US , even as dysfunctional as it is.

But what you don't realize is not all developing countries are equal, and even within some poor countries there are cities with a high quality of life. Ecuador has been called the best country to retire by International Living for the last 6 years now. You can live on beautiful beaches there or in a scenic mountain city. Cuenca, the third largest city, has modern malls and beautiful colonial architecture. Modern hospitals with affordable, first rate care by English speaking doctors. Extremely affordable produce. They are currently laying fiber-optic cable from the U.S. so the Internet is about to become much faster. Cuenca has about 5,000 Americans and many other foreigners there and it's just one of a number of places that have sizeable expat populations. The President, Rafael Correa, is a Harvard trained economist who's also a Leftist, determined to make his country better. Ecuador got alot of attention a few years ago for a new constitution that said the environment had rights too. This got alot of conservatives in the U.S. like Rush Limbaugh all riled up because Ecuador is an OPEC nation, and oil companies from the U.S. were forced to clean up their act in the Amazon. Gasoline is subsidized at about $2 a gallon and diesel is half that. They also use the U.S. Dollar as their currency.

Ecuador is one of a handful of places I'm considering. Colombia has an even better infrastructure and Americans are starting to move there in bigger numbers. It has that drug reputation, but a very good President came in and did alot to clean the place up. Medellin has a near perfect climate, has just about anything you'd find in the States. A mall with over 400 stores recently opened there. On the other end of the spectrum there are some small cities in northern Nicaragua with a tolerable climate where my wife and I could live decently on $600 a month. And people want to believe what they want to, but there are many cities in Mexico where a couple can live well for less than $1500 a month. American companies are everywhere. If you had $2500 a month in Mexico you could have a lifestyle that would take $6000 a month in the States.

No place is perfect, but affordability coupled with a great climate and scenery, and the ability to stay in touch on the Internet, as well as fly home on discount airlines like Spirit, make the choice between retiring in my 50's or grinding it out into my late 60's and barely scraping by an easy choice for me.

 

[vantexan]

Race to the bottom. In right-to-work (for less) states, the governors give away billions in tax revenues and then sell the workers down the river so they can "create jobs". Rick Perry immediately comes to mind. A competition between your RTW maroon and their RTW maroon. Either way, the workers lose, and Big Business and the politicians win. I'm glad I don't live in a RTW state.

Texas is about the only place where one can find a job with decent pay unless you want to freeze in a North Dakota oilfield or drive a tractor trailer. Everywhere else the good jobs face alot of competition to get them.