Moss Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 Isn't that one of the platforms of the republican party? Believe me there are guys i know who would hit that, even without being intoxicated. Like she walked right out of a John Waters film. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
futureage1 Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 A Bank Bailout That Works - http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090323/stiglitz The Big Dither-By PAUL KRUGMAN http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/06/opinion/06krugman.html Quote Link to post Share on other sites
futureage1 Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 Obama and the SystemThe Economy and the Big Picture By FELICE PACE http://www.counterpunch.com/pace02272009.html Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MrRain422 Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 You'd have to kill me first. are you gay or sumthin'? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jff Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 Maybe the problem is our population and we need it to stop expanding. This is obviously true, but it is an unfixable problem, so we'll have to work around it as long as possible. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Good Old Neon Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 GM CEO's 2008 compensation valued at $14.9 million http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Intern...how/4230444.cms I mean it Quote Link to post Share on other sites
John Smith Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 In the long run I am torn on the issue of lobbyists. On one hand we all have the right to petition the government. Lobbyists fill that role for various groups. Oil, clean energy, abortion rights, right to life, automakers, unions, airlines it seems everyone has their lobbyist. It is simply them exercising the right to petition. On the other hand these people are professionals. They live, work, eat and breathe in Washington. They are there all the time. Frequently they move freely between government jobs and lobbying positions. Individual lobbyists become part of the system and in a way block out the rest of the country Quote Link to post Share on other sites
John Smith Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 GM CEO's 2008 compensation valued at $14.9 million http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Intern...how/4230444.cmsI was talking about this in an earlier thread. At what point do the shareholders revolt? Really they have little power because of the relationship between the boards and the institutional shareholders who have the real power in these companies. I know his salary was probably set a while ago before the serious issues hit, but when their parts division blew up last year the board should have acted. Now 100,000 schmoes working the line or working in offices will get the pinch applied and the CEO will probably get a high paying job elsewhere with a huge bonus foor managing the breakup of GM. Roger and Me should be re-released. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Good Old Neon Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 The view outside his master bedroom should look something like this: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Jules Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 Now 100,000 schmoes working the line or working in offices will get the pinch applied and the CEO will probably get a high paying job elsewhere with a huge bonus foor managing the breakup of GM. Roger and Me should be re-released.Why don't the "schmoes" take a little responsibility as well? They also make too much money. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Good Old Neon Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 Why don't the "schmoes" take a little responsibility as well? They also make too much money. What is the annual salary of an average car manufacturing schmoe I wonder? And I wonder by what factor an average schmoe Quote Link to post Share on other sites
calvino Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 Why don't the "schmoes" take a little responsibility as well? They also make too much money. You don't think the union is taking some responsibility? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Jules Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 What is the annual salary of an average car manufacturing schmoe I wonder? And I wonder by what factor an average schmoe Quote Link to post Share on other sites
calvino Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 Irrelevant. Not in this thread. Got it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Good Old Neon Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 Irrelevant. It Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MattZ Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 Right the shareholders are wiped out. That is a FAIR and FREE market. The shareholders deserve to pay the consequences for bad business decisions, not the tax payer. It really is black and white and that simple, but for some reason you seem to put your trust in the same people who got us here. Believe whatever you have to but these guys should be in jail and Sweden is the exact model we should be following for recovery. Yes, and my point is that shareholders are not just hedge fund dudes with yachts and mansions. As I said, shareholders are also lots of Americans with 401k plans that invest in index funds. Indexes made up of the very financial companies that you are demanding go to zero. So understand that lots of panicked Americans who already lost half of their retirement last year, and 25% of their retirement this year, are going to lose (at a minimum, without considering collateral damage) another 10% of their retirement over night. If you think that an action like that is simply black and white, and doesn't cause more panic, and more hunkering down, and more layoffs, then I don't know what to tell you. Notwithstanding what you say, I don't "put my trust in the same people who got us here." Certainly not blindly. I am just not as willing as you are to believe that there's a simple solution here. All solutions -- even yours -- come with much peril and uncertainty. I don't get how you can be so certain that the unknown damage from nationalizing banks is better than the unknown damage of what Obama is or isn't doing. Sweden's economy is the size of Ohio's economy. If you think that's the "exact model we should be following for recovery" then I don't know what to tell you. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Elixir Sue Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 Well said. ^ As an aside, I kinda like Ray Magliozzi's idea, although I'm admittedly a Car Talk fangirl. Gas is less than two bucks a gallon. There's never been a better time to do this. If we added a 50-cent national, gasoline tax right now, and gas cost $2.50 a gallon, would that be the end of the world? Hardly. This new tax would generate between 50 and 100 billion dollars every year for the treasury. That money could be used to help rebuild our crumbling roads and bridges, and develop new technologies for more fuel-efficient cars... further decreasing demand for oil. This is a way for us to get on the wagon, and stop sending money to countries that don't like us. We could become energy independent. The other thing that the gas tax revenue could fund is high-speed-train infrastructure between major cities. And who would build all of the new high-tech, high-speed trains we'd need? GM and Ford! We'd help them start a mass-transit division, convert some of those factories from building inefficient gas hogs to building high-speed trains. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bobbob1313 Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 50-100 billion is kind of a drop in the bucket for the treasury. Not sure what kind of effect it would have. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mfwahl Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 Car Talk is awesome. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bjorn_skurj Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 Irrelevant.Irrelevant, my ass. Shared sacrifice. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Winston Legthigh Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 My platform:1. Legalize it2. Tax it Quote Link to post Share on other sites
austrya Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 You want to know what's wrong with this economy? The family friend who just lost his job about a month ago, just went out and bought a motorcycle. So not only does he not have a job, he has a payment to make on a motorcycle and I'm pretty sure his insurance will be pretty high for that. Also, we're in Michigan and his was a manufacturing type job, so he has no job prospects right now and also has no health insurance right now for his family. People need to quit living beyond their means!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Good Old Neon Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 You want to know what's wrong with this economy? The family friend who just lost his job about a month ago, just went out and bought a motorcycle. So not only does he not have a job, he has a payment to make on a motorcycle and I'm pretty sure his insurance will be pretty high for that. Also, we're in Michigan and his was a manufacturing type job, so he has no job prospects right now and also has no health insurance right now for his family. People need to quit living beyond their means!! Though I agree many people live beyond their means, I don Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Duck-Billed Catechist Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 People need to quit living beyond their means!!I thought we had to do the opposite! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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