"The Collapse of the Middle Class"

[:) Smiley]

$18k a year is considered poverty for a family of 4 in the US? sounds like they're not really poor to me. considering my father earns about that over here and has to support a family of 7 (well 5, now that 2 of us are all but self-supporting but still...).

Depending on where you live in the USA the cost of living may be high enough so that 18K ain't enough.

Differences in cost of living are one of the main reasons the world is so F'd up.

[PLATO]

Originally posted by Smiley


Depending on where you live in the USA the cost of living may be high enough so that 18K ain't enough.

Differences in cost of living are one of the main reasons the world is so F'd up.

I think the argument is more about standard of living than being able to survive. $18K/yr is certainly enough to survive in any US city. It is the quality of life that this survival would bring that is the question.

[Timexwatch]

Originally posted by Sava
funny, my dad works for the state and gets more than those 4... but go ahead and *****... all poor people are lazy right?

That's because many state workers work off a different system. NYS workers have to work X numbers of hours per week; anything above that can be deducted later as leave time. That's why a lot of state workers can afford to take time off in the summer when state legislators aren't in session.

That, and states usually have additional state holidays added onto the calendar.


My mother works for the state and from everything I've heard, it's child's play compared to the private sector

[Odin]

Originally posted by Japher

Nope, but most lazy ppl are poor. I am not poor, but I am not rich. It is Saturday, and I am at work after already putting in 50 hours this week, and I don't get paid over time... Some people just don't understand what work is, and that in order to keep a job or to succeed in life you sometimes have to go above and beyond...

BAM! If you are calling my family lazy I will waste your ass! my parents work 12hrs+ a day woth hardly any vacation. That is why I think the "American dream" is capitalist porpaganda keeping workers down because of a false sense of hope. The lazy people are the corporate big-wigs in thier fancy mansions.

[yavoon]

Originally posted by Odin


BAM! If you are calling my family lazy I will waste your ass! my parents work 12hrs+ a day woth hardly any vacation. That is why I think the "American dream" is capitalist porpaganda keeping workers down because of a false sense of hope. The lazy people are the corporate big-wigs in thier fancy mansions.

LET THE PPL REVOLT!

[Sirotnikov]

Odin, nobody lazy would ever get the chance or possibility to become a big corporate big-wig.

And if someone was talented, hard working, and lucky enough to become a big corporate big-wig - then he deserves to become lazy.

There is no where any inherent right to work less or be lazy.

Any person that can afford to do so, is either lucky or was very successfull and hard working before.

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Odin


BAM! If you are calling my family lazy I will waste your ass! my parents work 12hrs+ a day woth hardly any vacation. That is why I think the "American dream" is capitalist porpaganda keeping workers down because of a false sense of hope. The lazy people are the corporate big-wigs in thier fancy mansions.

No, the "American Dream" exists and it exists for poor people. Just as it did for my family, whom but three generations ago were coal miners and farmers from the hills of West Virginia.

Hell, just in the past 20 years my father went from being bankrupt and in jail to being President of his own multi-million dollar corporation. Of course, as I detailed here in other threads, that in itself has brought its own set of unique problems.

And lazy? Only if you define working 60-80 hours a week "lazy." Only one with absolutely no knowledge or experience in upper management can call a CEO "lazy."

One thing about you leftists: You don't, can't, give anybody credit for their success, can you?

[Imran Siddiqui]

You don't, can't, give anybody credit for their success, can you?

I'm starting to believe this as well. I've been hearing this 'lazy CEO' theory for quite a while and I wonder what CEOs do they know?!

I remember that episode of the Simpsons where Homer takes over the nuclear power plant, and suddenly finds himself swamped at work. He takes a vacation in the Caribbean, but finds himself surround by work in the hotel room while his family plays on the beach. It may be a cartoon, but it ain't that far from the truth.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by JohnT
I also like this "alarming" statistic:

According to statistics from the International Labor Organization the average American last year worked 1,978 hours, up from 1,942 hours in 1990 - an increase of almost a week of work.

OMG!!!!! NO!!!!! REALLY?????

Let's do some maths here:

40 (hours per week) X 50 (weeks (assuming 2 weeks off for vacation)) = 2,000 hours!!!!

NOOO!!! People in America are working full work weeks!! What the hell is wrong with us????

Is that an average of all Americans, all working Americans or all Americans in full time employment?

[JohnT]

Haven't the slightest - I was only going by the info provided in the opinion piece.

[JohnT]

I'm starting to believe this as well. I've been hearing this 'lazy CEO' theory for quite a while and I wonder what CEOs do they know?!

Not only do they not know any, they don't know about any, other than what their ideologies tell them.

[:) Smiley]

Those who actually work as CEOs or other management positions aren't lazy. Those who are lazy are people who don't work at all, but live off money made from investing.