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 Sigvatr wrote:
I am well aware of your "Rich people are evil attitude" judging from your usual posts on the topic.

Honestly, you know nothing about me. I don't think rich people are evil at all. I think capitalism if left unregulated will lead to monopolies, cruelty and exploitation. I suppose you could sum that up as evil. Though the problem is with the game, not the players. Although players, such as Martin Shkreli who you might recall recently raised the price of AIDS medication 5000%, illustrate perfectly the kind of behavior capitalism incentivises. While people thought Jonas Salk was crazy to give his polio vaccine away for free, even though that decision lead to the near eradication of the disease. If you like a system that rewards results, then lets reward behavior that actually results in something good.

 Sigvatr wrote:
You only look at people above of yourself and deem them to be evil because they earn a lot of money. Judging by that very post of yours, you appear to have an extremely naive understanding of "work", i.e. "work" only applying to doing something with your hands, doing work that is immediately visible to anyone. What you do not seem to realize is how much actual work managing a company or even parts of it is.

You seem to be making a lot of assumptions. Just because I have a sense of social responsibility does not mean I am myself poor (though I'll admit, I grew up very poor). As it happens, I actually own and run my own company (pay corporation tax and everything), and I give a considerable amount of what I earn back to charities like Unicef, and local projects that I think are worth supporting. You may have noticed I'm even a contributing member here on dakka

 Sigvatr wrote:
Everyone deserves the money he gets. Sometimes, more cash is in order. Period. Anything else is jealousy people should be ashamed of

Yes, it's outrageous that people should want decent food, medical care, and a roof over their heads in their old age. Unfortunately, a lot of people do get squeezed between low wages and high rents, and not just lazy unqualified people. Key workers with careers, like teachers, nurses, police etc... actually aren't getting paid enough, while big businesses cost tax payers trillions in tax avoidance. I don't have a problem with people like you having a nice lifestyle that you worked hard for, but having a HUGE gap between the richest and poorest members of society isn't necessary, and only aggravates social issues like crime, corruption, failing infrastructure, bad service, lack of social mobility, and has even been shown to stifle commerce and innovation. I think Vaktathi really covered most of what I wanted to say on this, which I think you sort of agreed with. So perhaps we can put our differences aside.

 Ouze wrote:
I apologize - that was a bit of snark that I think slid past you unintentionally

I thought it was a little out of character heh! I figured maybe you were asking it philosophically, rather than rhetorically (or as it happens ironically). To your credit, how we define poverty is actually quite an important question, worth responding to.

 SickSix wrote:
So we have just moved the standard of poor up then right?

It is very hard to have any sympathy for people with free cell phones, cars, subsidized housing and air conditioning oh and EBT cards, after watching half naked children run around in the filthy streets of Baghdad.

If we lived in a country that had been the targets of carpet bombing and full-scale military invasion by a First-World Hyperpower over the last 15 years, I might agree with you...

... but we don't. This is America. We are *the* world's superpower. We are the wealthiest nation to have ever existed on this planet, and the fact that we have 15 million American children living in food-insecure houses in this country, right now, today, should be something for which we should be absolutely ashamed. That this continues to persist indicates that we have fundamentally failed as a society.

Ouze wrote:

 SickSix wrote:
So we have just moved the standard of poor up then right?

It is very hard to have any sympathy for people with free cell phones, cars, subsidized housing and air conditioning oh and EBT cards, after watching half naked children run around in the filthy streets of Baghdad.

It's almost like one is a first world country, and one isn't.

Why did I even have to type that

Thanks I just wanted to establish that 'poor' is relative. Thanks. So I can now claim to be poor just because I live in a First World nation where someone makes 1000 times my income. Right?

Psienesis wrote:

 SickSix wrote:
So we have just moved the standard of poor up then right?

It is very hard to have any sympathy for people with free cell phones, cars, subsidized housing and air conditioning oh and EBT cards, after watching half naked children run around in the filthy streets of Baghdad.

If we lived in a country that had been the targets of carpet bombing and full-scale military invasion by a First-World Hyperpower over the last 15 years, I might agree with you...

... but we don't. This is America. We are *the* world's superpower. We are the wealthiest nation to have ever existed on this planet, and the fact that we have 15 million American children living in food-insecure houses in this country, right now, today, should be something for which we should be absolutely ashamed. That this continues to persist indicates that we have fundamentally failed as a society.

Please name one instance of carpet bombing by NATO forces on Iraqi population centers. Also please reference a source for that stat. Food insecure sounds like one of those fuzzy defintions.

Its a terrible terrible place, full of epic floods, droughts, wildfires, tornades, and thats just Oklahoma. No one here is nice and even the child have gun battles in the middle of the street or the back yard.

 Frazzled wrote:
Its a terrible terrible place, full of epic floods, droughts, wildfires, tornades, and thats just Oklahoma. No one here is nice and even the child have gun battles in the middle of the street or the back yard.

Nobody wants to hear about your last family reunion frazz.

 SickSix wrote:

Ouze wrote:

 SickSix wrote:
So we have just moved the standard of poor up then right?

It is very hard to have any sympathy for people with free cell phones, cars, subsidized housing and air conditioning oh and EBT cards, after watching half naked children run around in the filthy streets of Baghdad.

It's almost like one is a first world country, and one isn't.

Why did I even have to type that

Thanks I just wanted to establish that 'poor' is relative. Thanks. So I can now claim to be poor just because I live in a First World nation where someone makes 1000 times my income. Right?

Psienesis wrote:

 SickSix wrote:
So we have just moved the standard of poor up then right?

It is very hard to have any sympathy for people with free cell phones, cars, subsidized housing and air conditioning oh and EBT cards, after watching half naked children run around in the filthy streets of Baghdad.

If we lived in a country that had been the targets of carpet bombing and full-scale military invasion by a First-World Hyperpower over the last 15 years, I might agree with you...

... but we don't. This is America. We are *the* world's superpower. We are the wealthiest nation to have ever existed on this planet, and the fact that we have 15 million American children living in food-insecure houses in this country, right now, today, should be something for which we should be absolutely ashamed. That this continues to persist indicates that we have fundamentally failed as a society.

Please name one instance of carpet bombing by NATO forces on Iraqi population centers. Also please reference a source for that stat. Food insecure sounds like one of those fuzzy defintions.

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/fyi/news/03/22/iraq.war/


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0kcaziP-0o

Thats not carpet bombing. This is carpetbombing.
https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB0QtwIwAGoVChMI7MaUgJWsyAIVhtk-Ch0AlA99&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D88jrZjsNHPc&usg=AFQjCNFhwHIFSlj2uahSoQubZmdp3z1QWQ

 The Wise Dane wrote:
See, I live in Denmark, everybodies' favourite barely-communist state. I've had a happy life, bar a few slippages here and there, and now I'm 19 and should be at my peak... Except I don't feel like it. At my age, most people have found some people they hang out with the most, people they are comfortable with and who the share interests with, but I don't. I never hang out with people (as in, stays at someone's place and relaxing, gaming or whatever), and I'm not a great fan of drinking, so that particular national sport is lost on me.

I've realised that I am, at heart, a gamer, and I love console games, especially multiplayer couch games, alongside many other PC games. I like painting and playing 40k, as a side-interest, and I love comedy, musicals and the sort... But for some reason, I just don't know anyone else who are like me on any of those things. Sure, I have friends who I play TT with, and most people game nowadays, but I know nobody who'd be even remotely interested in sitting down and playing Mario party or something like that. Most people would rather compete in how raunchy and/or cool they can be, forever going to parties to drink (as in, the goal of most parties is to get mad drunk, not talking or getting to know each other) and working to get money for said parties. If I asked someone over to hang out, and I have, people err and avoid it in any way possible, like it's just not the thing to do with your friends. I barely fukken talk with most people - Not about anything serious or simple, nothing.

Honestly being at your peak in life at 19 is really unrealistic and I think it would actually be pretty depressing to have the best moments of your life that early on. For context, I'm 22 and while I have a solid group of friends but building relationships outside of that group is difficult for me, like I

commit to it but often other people aren't quite as responsive so then I feel neglected and start to get resentful. I'm back at university despite not enjoying it (I wish I had more free time to participate in the social aspect, don't feel the school routine of attending lectures and doing homework

is for me, but I fear if I don't go I'm making my career opportunities more difficult) and I have a new job as a card dealer which is a decent job for me (despite being minimum wage) as I get lots of hours, getting tips is like getting an extra 75% on my paycheck. While I enjoy parties I don't go

to them often as I'm not a super popular person. I feel conflicted about getting back into contact with an old relationship despite feeling like it was one-sided, I invited this person out on several occasions which worked some of the time but she would rarely return the favour. I called her out

on it she said I was being clingy I don't know if I agree with that as I wasn't obsessively texting her, like I would call her a few times every few weeks to few months I don't need to constantly be around her all the time but usually if I consider someone my friend I usually expect see them at

least once a month (give or take) and I don't think that is too unreasonable or overbearing. She also said I'm not spontaneous enough and doesn't like I usually plan things but the reason I usually plan arrangements in advance is because I'm used to people and myself having busy lives

where availability isn't always obvious. Anyways I don't know how relevant this is but I guess the point is don't beat yourself up too much if you don't have life your together at 19, I'm 22 and there's certain aspects where I feel like I'm lagging behind in life but whatever I just try to be self

aware and try to do a little better next time (like go to the gym, I'm excited about making new friends at my new work place, the university, going to try online dating, started saving money for emergency situations, pay off car debts, want to move out of the house, etc) a lot of people don't get

things figure out till much later in life (like in their 30's).

So OP, bottom line, if you do move to the US, this is what our political discourse is like right now.

 Ouze wrote:
So OP, bottom line, if you do move to the US, this is what our political discourse is like right now.

Yeah. Roughly half the people will hate you for receiving anything they arbitrarily decide you don't deserve, and the other half think everyone should be given anything they want at the cost of people who deserve everything they have.

At least, that's how each side perceives the opposite, and they keep talking to each other about it like they can convince someone somehow but in reality, they'll each hold on to it like its practically a core tenant of their religion. And this is just one facet of the aforementioned discourse. We're a mad people, really. Dangerously mad.

If you are considering moving to California, you owe it to yourself to research the San Andreas fault line.

Psienesis, I'm sorry but I don't think you know what carpet bombing is.

But anyways, America is the greatest place in the world to live. You get out of it what you put into it.

You get out of it what you put into it.

Demonstrably false.