Excellent post. This post is 100% truth. I can confirm everything you said as someone(who is very observant) who has spent most of his life in the USA. But of course, these guys will never call themselves what they really are because they want to win. And in order to win, they have to deceive others into joining their ranks or at least deceive others into seeing them as the "good guys". Yeah, basically most Americans don't give a shit about anyone other than themselves and wouldn't care if most of their fellow countrymen were dying on the streets, slowly and painfully. Not only would they not care, they would probably think to themselves "good riddance" or "why can't these people die somewhere else, out of sight". In this country, it's every man for himself... It's like a jungle here. The USA is only a "country" on paper. Too many people here, want all the benefits of society without having to give anything back to society. It's like they want to have their cake and eat it too. And look at the way the USA, treats their veterans... Here is a good music video about the USA's treatment of the men who risked their lives for their country. They go through hell for their country, only to be subjected to their government and countrymen shitting on them, when they are not useful anymore. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_l4Ab5FRwM

I think you'd appreciate this

This too.

Find me one rich person who actually "worked" for a living? Acting? Not working. Lawyer? Not working. Sports start? Not working. Oil giant? DEFINITELY not working, and got there from knowing the right people and happened to get into head office.
How many managers are there?
A few, but enough to replace the people that actually DO the work? AHAHAHAHAHAHA


You can get wealthy, maybe, but not rich.

I think you're making a serious over-generalization here.

The right-wing has never shied away from being called capitalists. That may not be the main descriptor, but they never say "Oh, no we're not!" Far from it.

The right do care about their fellow countrymen. It's just that there is more than one way to show care and concern. One of the main points of the typical rightward-leaning person is that a private sector job is the best social program. Employ people in stable jobs and you solve a whole lot of the 'care for your neighbors' problems. The left tends to look at it from the other side (a generalization of my own, I admit), which is "they have these problems and we need to support them in their time of need." Both of these have their merit, and both sides do agree with both parts: The right wants to concentrate on getting people employed so they don't need the social support in the first place, and then support those who truly do need it. The left comes at it from the other end, after the support is needed.

I'm paying out the wazoo - on the American scale - for taxes, upwards of 35-40% when all is said and done. If you look at the big picture over here you might be inclined to believe that the wife and I are raking in the cash, hand-over-fist. No, not at all. Simply "middle class", and not even on the upper end of that. But our tax system is so arcane and arbitrary, and so filled with special loopholes and perks that nibble all over the edges in order to give favors to this or that industry / cause, that my tax rate looks quite ridiculous - based on my income - compared with those making magnitudes more than my family does. My little business could be farther ahead than it is (and paying more tax on more revenue) if my tax rate was closer to what the much-wealthier actually pay. But I'm a one-man show with no power - beyond a small voice and a single vote - to correct the screwed-up tax mechanism over here. What I'm stuck with is supporting - with revenue that goes to pay taxes - oft-unneeded Welfare on both ends: corporate and social.

The latest thing around here is a new TIF district, which is a special taxing plan to help spur business growth. There is a particular developer around here who does a lot of big projects, and this latest TIF encompasses his next proposal, among other things. All in the name of growing business and jobs. Sounds great. But it's taking money from my business to help him pay for his, and he' a guy with millions and millions in personal assets, let alone business assets and the ability to snap his fingers to get private loans. The right around here are pretty tired of that stuff, which, based on outsiders' perspectives of the American Right, is contradictory. I hear of yet another grant or gov't-backed loan or what-have-you and I can't help but think, "NOW whose business am I stuck paying for, and when can I get a piece of my tax money back? NOW what program am I paying for in order for that person to choose not to work?"

So I look at what society gets for my 35-40% and I have a hard time feeling that we're getting good value out of it. Yes, this causes me to dislike the big national programs (I prefer state and local programs that can focus on solutions based on local factors) that take the lion's share and only maintains people in need instead of lifting them out of it. And yes, it's equally annoying when it happens on the business side. Does this make me greedy? To me, no - I'm just trying to grow my business a little bit to increase its stability while supporting my family and saving enough for retirement so I don't need to be a leech in my later years, and maybe take a short vacation very few years. To you, maybe that is greed.

Anyway, don't confuse the hot air of punditry and politicians with the day-to-day thoughts of the person who leans rightward. Completely different things, and it's not really the monolithic bloc that one might think it is. Sadly, through all of the white noise the middle-left and middle-right don't get much chance to work together to come up with something that works pretty good for everyone.

@HereForTheBeer
It's all well and good to want everyone to have a job, but history and present have proven that the private sector cannot take care of all of society. Otherwise there wouldn't be unemployment, homelessness and poverty would not exist. The US also has a minimum wage of 7.25 USD an hour, which is not enough to live on - even at very low standards of living.

Just because you are paying more taxes than you would like to be paying while people who have a lot more than you are paying less doesn't mean Crosmando is over generalizing. And these people are still pretending to be who they are not even though they never pretended not to be capitalists. If someone pretends to be your friend but is honest about his taste in food or sexual orientation, does that mean this someone is not deceiving anyone? And what good are private sector jobs if they are given to people by those who can not control their selfishness and greed or who just simply hate those that are "beneath them"? A job that makes you work like a slave owned by a Roman in the mines during ancient times for minimum wage isn't really the best social program. Back then, slaves even had free housing and free food. A shitty job today doesn't offer anything close to that. You also need to realize the people you are defending do not care about you at all. If you become homeless one day(I hope that never happens), they will not lift a single finger for you. They are not fighting so HereForTheBeer and his family can enjoy happy comfortable lives. They just want it so it's every man for himself so they can keep taking shits on their toilet seats made of gold and keep fucking a different super model on their yacht every day. If they had to share the money they made with the help of society and good fortune, they would only live comfortable lives instead of getting to live the lives of Kings. And they don't want that. And if the amount of money you pay in taxes, still leave you and your family enough money to live comfortable lives, you should be happy with paying what you pay. Because you are contributing to society and helping your fellow countrymen survive at least(and one day, maybe you will be helping them make their dreams come true). You are also looking at it all wrong. If you are unable to save up enough for retirement in your later years and need to depend on others, that doesn't make you a leech. It makes you a human being in need. It's not good to dehumanize someone just because he or she needs to depend on other people to survive. That is one of the problems with people who are right wing conservatives. They dehumanize people. They reduce people to human doings(bank accounts) instead of seeing people as human beings. And when people are reduced to garbage, then lots of suffering and other evil in this world, follows.

Which Barthes are you talking about ? ;-)
While I see your point, I was more arguing on a scientific level : U.S. is pushing scientific revolutions in a major way since ... long ago ; nonetheless I don't think any other place has such a creationist movement (or in this case, use so much their ignorance to illustrate their point). And maybe I am skewed in my perception, but I don't think in Europe the most nonsensical people get that much media cover.

wish granted

The system right now is very broken so it makes no sense to want to keep it like this or to make ti worse for the majority of people(something that right wing conservatives here want to do). One fact that should be revealed is the fact that most homeless people here are working. So obviously, simply having a job is not the answer. Of course, whenever right wing conservatives want to attack social programs so they have more tax money to use to benefit them, they try to make it look like the average person who needs social programs is a black single mother with 10 kids who simply doesn't want to work. This is very far from the truth though. No other people in the Western world, demonize the poor as much as these right wing conservatives. Demonizing people who are simply being unlucky.

I'm surprised he didn't say Mars is evil because it's the color of Communism(Red) and that we should send our military to destroy it. OR the Martians will invade Earth and unleash a Communist alien robot army on us all. Then after they win, they will make us all suffer because = USSR and North Korea.

There was once upon a time a sad and grim guy that looked critical towards our economy and he said "This form of economy erodes cultural values and it erodes the concept of people working together for each other. And it also could be that companies would become too powerful."
So the sad and grim guy tried to put together a counterweight, a concept how to strengthen the ideas of community and working together for the benefit of all within our society. And no it was not Gene Roddenberry.
Since then, everything that happened with that guys ideas was that some douchebags misused his ideas and produced a lot of shit with them.
And since then everyone blames the guy for that shit, says his concept is outfashioned and complains about corporations taking over and the absence of any values.

Honestly folks, there are times when I think our species does not deserve to survive.

You are not alone.

When you screamed, did it sound like "GRAAAAAAH!!!"?
Rich and wealthy people don't need to work because they discovered, it is much more beneficial for them to make other people work for them instead. And all they have to do is throw these other people some shitty table scraps and these people will accept it because they have been brainwashed first to accept it. And these victims have also been brainwashed to think going from rags to riches is possible for everyone who is a good slave. The rich and wealthy also have so much money, they can just make money with their money. It's sad that so many poor people think "One day, I'm going to be rich." Not going to happen. The people on the top, don't want to share their power. They want everyone outside of their circle to be poor or dead.

I got news for ya, the public sector can't either. If people can't survive on 7 bucks an hour, then it's incumbent on them to work harder to strive for a better life.

These comments are just hilarious. A bunch of socialist wienies proclaiming the joys of collectivism on a private forum owned by a publicly traded corporation doing huge business making money on distributing entertainment software. Good times. Without capitalism, we're not having this conversation.