-- Because being "rich" doesn't mean you made your money illegally, "crushed the little man" to get it, haven't done your part, or don't deserve what you have earned.
Ok. What does Christ tell us about saving up riches? And since when do Christians believe that we earn anything? I thought it was God that provided?
Yes, there are some dirtbags, but as I said, there are scores who earned what they made and pay their fair share in taxes.
And there is nothing wrong with paying out more for the privilege of earning more money.
The top 1% pays 38% of all taxes
The top 10% pays 70%.
Half of all Americans pay no income taxes.
Because half of America is poor. If you have the privilege of earning more and living a luxurious lifestyle, there is nothing wrong with paying more for the privilege.
A blanket condemnation of this group serves no one.
Neither does this comment
-- The latest is in Venezuela. Food shortages. Hoarding. Supression and jailing of opposition. Closing of opposition newspapers and TV stations.
Nationalizing (stealing) of foreign resources in the country.
All because of redistributing the wealth, right? Has nothing to do with being forced to live under the rule of a ruthless dictator? One who restricts freedom of speech and uses terror to control the people? This is the slippery slope that you are accusing me of introducing?
I am curious if you can name one society (short of a monarchy) where it HAS worked.
I can tell you what God wanted Israel to do. Every 7 years God called for a year of Jubilee - a redistribution of the wealth - including land. God understands that allowing greed to go unchecked is not healthy for anyone. In the past, many of the American rich contributed the equivalent of billions of dollars in today's money back to the country that allowed them to prosper - Carnegie build our library system, for example. With the exception of Bill Gates (he actually built the social service building I work in), all I am seeing is greed run amuck.
-- Then why don't they? I am not making this up.
If you insist on only focusing on dictatorships then I am sure you will never see a successful example. Keep ignoring Norway, Sweden, and other successful countries that enforce everyone to pay 50% of their income in taxes.
A simple Google search shows that Obama has collected (and is currently collecting) more campaign contributions from Wall Street than any other politician in history.
What does that have to do with anything? Are you switching the topic to campaign reform?
-- I do not recall any Tea Party protests outside the White House, but as you said, that is a person's right.
The Tea Party has never protested the White house for pressuring the rich to pay taxes. And unlike OWS, they have done it peacefully and with no criminal activity.
What is the purpose of the TeaParty? They are rich people who do not want to pay as much money as they are paying for taxes. They are not looking for tax reform - they are looking for tax cuts. Do you realize that we pay less taxes then most democratic nations - we are in the bottom 1/3. We have a real greed problem in this country and it is shocking that Christians seem to be in favor of the welfare of the rich - shocking! Shame on us!
The Tea Party HAVE protested about government waste, politicians not doing the will of the people, opposition to ObamaCare, etc. but NOT about pressuring the rich to pay taxes. The rich ALREADY pay taxes. As I said, the top 1% already pay 38% of all taxes.
They do not want to pay for the wars republicans got us into, They do not want to pay for healthcare they are already able to afford. You are viewing their wealth as a reward for hard work! You are not taking into account that everyone works hard - some people get paid ungodly amounts of money for their work - others get next to nothing. Your view of the poor is like the contempt of a successful student looking down on the screw up in class that are constantly flunking out, not taking into account that he is damn lucky to be able to organize himself well enough to succeed in school. That is not how Christ viewed the poor. I work with the poor everyday. Most work hard - 2-3 fastfood jobs, janitorial, customer service, light industry, etc - those are the lucky ones. The rest live at the shelter - if they can get a bed for the night. They are often mentally ill and suffer from all kinds of physical illnesses. They are real people - they work hard just trying to stay sane and survive. They certainly work harder than I do. I am privileged - I have a higher degree - my wife is a doctor. We have it pretty good. We worked hard for our degrees, but not as hard living in grinding poverty. If I had to trade places with any of my clients, I would really suffer. I am grateful for everything God has given me and I want to make sure I help as many people possible because I am responsible for my brother. It is shocking to me when Christians look at me as a bleeding heart liberal - it is called Christianity, folks.
As far as "100s of thousands of dollars in school debt" I find that a specious argument.
First off, it is about personal responsibility. You sign to accept a loan, paying it back at such-and-such percentage over such-and-such number of years. Same as a car loan or a mortgage. NO ONE was surpised at the size of their loan or how much it would cost to pay back.
My college cost me 13,000 dollars a year, 20 years ago. It is now 45,000 dollars a year. When other institutions have suffered, my college grew into a university, built a new science center, field house, dinning hall, classrooms, a law center, and bought 25 houses in the surrounding neighborhood. They beg me for money every month - the professor earn on average, 50,000 dollars a year. It is a Christian University, which provides a liberal education. On average, graduates who remain in the city, usually in ministry positions earn on average 25,000 to 30,000 dollars a year. There is something very wrong with our education system. In fact, what is happening is that only the rich and foreign students are going to be able to afford higher education. Bill Gates has told the government that he is trying to hire Americans, but he is finding himself forced to go to other countries to find skilled candidates. There colleges are cheap and they get huge price breaks for attending our colleges. What our students are left with is no higher education or stifling debt. Believe me, my wife and I both work in social service - we chose to do it, but we know we will be paying for our school loans for the rest of our lives. There is something very wrong with the system.
Second, I worked my way through college. I had one scholarship for $1500.00 which covered less than one quarter. I worked as a salesman at a discount store while going to classes. I saved my road construction money from over the summer, etc. etc. etc.
It took four years and four months, but I graduated. No college loans. No money from the folks. Nothing.
You are privileged to not have to worry about debt. You are privileged to have a clear, intelligent mind that you could rely on to carry you through school and your career. You are privileged that your hard work pays off. You are privileged that you were about to work and go to school - I was not able to do both and had to make sacrifices. I have a sister who is brilliant - she works hard raising her children - she plays the violin in a community orchestra and acts in community theater. She writes and plays the piano by ear. She is currently in college to become a teacher. The only problem is that she suffered a brain injury when she was a kid and has lost much of her executive functions - she can't organize, plan - she is impulsive and her attention is poor. Based on her energy level and executive functioning deficits, she will not be able to be an effective teacher. She can work as hard as she possibly can, but she will never hold down a full time job or have the privilege of experiencing success in a career. You are privileged and so am I. Therefore, I am driven to give back.
College loans are not a "rite of passage" in order to graduate from college.
Also, if you are set on using loans, put them towards a major that will actually help pay them back.
$70,000 in loans to get a History or Women's Study or Music degree is hardly going to afford you the opportunity to stay on top of your payments.
If you have to take a quarter off to work flipping burgers it will help you pay cash, not ring up huge loans, and you will actually have some work experience to put on your first resume' after college.
Not everyone is good in math or science. Some people are privileged to be intelligent enough to be engineers and computer programmers - most people are not. BTW, having a educated population is going to be mandatory to compete with the rest of the world and to fill the important jobs that are going to be left vacant after the baby boomers retire.
Those whining about their college loans are the same ones who willfully signed up for those loans.
My sympathy meter pegs out at zero for those guys. It's called 'responsibility.'
I call a college education mandatory in today's world - factory jobs are a thing of the past - if you want to earn a living, you have to get a college degree - it has become today's high school diploma. The only difference is that today's high school diploma is overpriced, especially compared to the average income that you can expect to make in your career. Professionals have it worse - doctors have residency and even I have to provide 3500 hours of social service, low wage hours before I could be licensed. Everyone in social service and the healthcare field are having to comply with insurance companies that dictate services and diagnosis. College is mandatory / does not pay off in the long run / the middle class is fading into the educated working class.
-- And if Mr. Obama had used more than 6% of his initial $780 Billion "Jobs Stimulus" for necessary infrastructure work (bridges, roads, dams, etc.) instead of the tripe it actually went to, then his promise of it ensuring that unemployment would not exceed 8% might have actually turned out to be true.
Partisan gibberish.
As it is, unemployment has been at or above 9% for 28 of the last 30 months.
The...Longest...Stretch...Since...The...Great...Depression.
And of course that is all Obama, right?! Please......
Still, I find it strange that you would select FDR as a role model since his failed policies extended the Depression for the United States seven years longer than it should have been:
http://newsroom.ucla...ssion-5409.aspx
If it wasn't for WWII, it would have taken even longer.
Well FDR did inherit the failed policies of two Republican Presidents - Harding is perhaps the worst President we have ever had - I believe Bush has been compared to him because of his love of hiring cronies. I think FD was great and he was facing impossible odds - it is strange to me that you would criticize a man who was president for four terms. I would love to see Obama start a Domestic Corp, dedicated to rebuilding our infrastructure. I bet it would cost a fraction of rebuilding Iraq. It is about time we focused on our own country instead of paying cronies to build up countries we decide to invade without provocation.
On a side note, I've realized that I love it when good things happen to people who do not deserve it! I volunteer in a program that has been running for 20 years for street kids. Many of them have real reasons for being in the circumstances that they are in, but some of them are just spoiled brats would have bitten of more than they can chew and are drowning. I love them all. I want all of them to succeed. I love to see God's unconditional grace become realized in their lives. Over the years hundreds of kids have come back to the one place that accepted and encouraged and pushed them to pick themselves up and succeed. God is preached through word and action in this ministry and it is a transforming experience to be apart of.
not the best translation...)
