People fleeing Cuba and Haiti

I would argue that many of the people screaming about "communism".... "socialism"... "marxism"... in online forums don't actually understand these things. As i've said many times on this site in the last 4 or 5 years, you never saw anyone on covers dropping "ism" references until the terms started showing up in facebook threads. Twitter, etc. Most these dudes, not grouping you in this, but most these dudes sound like high school drop-outs half the time but all of a sudden they're experts on communism, etc.

Oligarchy is probably true 

But they need votes because we’re a democracy. 

How do they get the votes? 

Welfare. 

The founding fathers struggled when it came time to define who should be allowed to vote. 

Allow only property owners and peoples rights may be oppressed. Extend it equally to all and the rights of property owners may be overruled by a majority without property. 

Today, the elite have teamed up with the poor and have destroyed the middle class. Obviously the elite have become even more elite and the poor have remained poor. 

Welfare needs to go. Jobs and small businesses should replace it. Or at least this should be the goal or what we’re striving for. 

Democrats want more welfare. Less jobs. Less small businesses. 

There’s no hope in that. 

Definition off Capitalism 

Union Rigger amassed wealth worth “eight figures” picking stocks 

@I_Need_A_Detox

 I think where we differ, and I have said as much, is that you think there are these outliers in government. Anti-establishment politicians. You think Trump in anti establishment. Trump is a pawn off the establishment. A plant. He's there to sell the same jive to poor white folks that the Democratic party has been selling to minorities for years. I mean, it's literally the same rhetoric. This is how lowly they judge the collective intelligence of the American populous. They changed "the man" to "deep state". It's all this very cartoonish representation because, frankly, the minds of the masses are sophomoric. Basic. So you have to dumb it down. "The man is holding you down. He looks like Mitch McConnell." And the masses say, "Sure. That makes sense." Take that same shit. Repackage it as "The deep state" who looks like Nancy Pelosi, and the masses say, "Sure. That makes sense." It's all horse shit. Keep the masses bickering in chat forums instead of calling the government, both sides, on their bullshit. 

Who benefits from things like SNAP? 

People receiving it like it because they can fill their grocery cart with low iq garbage. But they don’t necessarily benefit from it. 

Poor people that work for a living build a resentment. 

And the corporations make a killing. Coke, Kellogg, General Mills, Nestle, Kraft Heinz etc. 

Who benefits from “free healthcare”? Healthcare companies and big Pharma. 

I would love to hear the ways we’re going address wealth inequality in a way that will actually have an impact. 

Democrats aren’t close. They’re basically 180 degrees off. They couldn’t be further off. 

They focus on the poor. The focus should be on the middle class. And then when the middle class is thriving the poor will have something to strive for. 

The way things are now the poor people are laughing at the middle class. They’re wayyyyy too close together. This gap should be the same as the gap between the middle class and the upper class. 

I know union riggers who have amassed 8 figures by just going to work. Making regular ass, basic real estate investments. Living in the second house, renting the starter home. I'll support that all day. Everyone should have this opportunity. Work hard. Make a decent wage. Have the ability to invest. This has been my story. That way of life is falling by the way side thanks to "capitalism". The current iteration. I still support capitalism. I think it's the best system. My stance is just that 1) Our country has always been somewhat of a hybrid system. And 2) The fairytale version of capitalism that politicians claim they love, is not the system this on which this country is currently based. Ridiculous corporate tax breaks in the name of "trickle down economics" is not our grandfathers' capitalism. The insane cost of prescription drugs is not my idea of capitalism. Do you know why drugs are so much more expensive here than, say, Canada? Mexico? Capitalism. In other countries the government says, "You have to be reasonable. You can't take advantage of the sick." In America we say, "Hey, capitalism. Charge as much as you like for that shit." I believe in capitalism but we need some regulation or else the foxes will run amuck in the hen house.

Poor people in America have heat, ac, hot water, cable, internet, flat screen tv’s, decent clothes, plenty of food, a smartphone, a decent car and a decent place to live, a decent education for their kids, and great healthcare. And they’re not working for any of it. 

This is who Democrats focus on helping. 

We need to spend more money to educate these freeloaders kids. They need better sidewalks. They need better parks. The need laptops to take home. They need teachers that look like them. They need better after school programs. They need better summer camps. 

I agree with your opening statement as I have similar story. My point is show me another country where that is possible?

Mexico is a bad example to bring to the table for healthcare and Canada pays plenty through taxes but they definitely has a better system than us.

There obviously needs to be some regulation but trickle down Reaganomics works IMO. There is always going to be shady business going on with large corporations but ya gotta take the good with the bad

How many poor people do you interact with? Gross exaggeration 

The US spends more per student than any other country in the world. And they’re ranked like 40th in math and science. 

Why? 

Because these idiots are learning about a bunch of nonsense. 

This is what you need to learn — HOW TO MAKE MONEY WHEN YOU BECOME AN ADULT. 

What on the list is an exaggeration? 

@I_Need_A_Detox

Everything. Plenty of food? Nice cars?

Shit I’m well off and my kids education sucks. You just eluded to it in your follow up post.

You should know better than to think that any government system (welfare included) works the way it should. It’s not like you just dial a number and say I’m poor give me a bunch of money now. Sure, some people know how to game the system but you make it sound like being poor = living on easy street

That’s the type of gross exaggeration Trump would make on Twitter while dropping a deuce at 3 am. If that egomaniac would’ve dropped his phone into the shitter a couple hundred times instead of tweeting out crazy shit at all hours of the night we wouldn’t be dealing with Joe and his useless cackling sidekick 

Poor people have plenty of food in the US on average. And poor people have decent cars on average. You had to switch ‘decent’ to ‘nice’ because you know I’m right. I don’t think what I said is a gross exaggeration. 

I have no idea why someone that is well off in this country would send their kids to a public school. 

Yeah being poor isn’t easy street. But people on welfare are doing fine. There is too much time spent trying to figure out how the government can use tax dollars (other people’s money) to improve the lives of poor people. 

The easiest way to not be poor is to work hard. 

How about we stop taking so much money from the middle class through taxes? Federal income tax, state income tax, property tax, sales tax, excise tax, gas tax, tax, tax, tax, tax, tax. 

A person that has never earned any money would not have more money if Jeff Bezos had less money. 

This is another thing that people can’t seem to grasp. 

Anyways, back to Cuba. I propose a trade of 100,000 crusty Antifa socialist Democrats for 60,000 Cubans and a box of cigars for every Trump supporter. 

Private schools cost 30k a year per kid in my neck of the woods. Not gonna happen. Private or public the teachers are all cut from the same cloth

We are running out of jobs for stupid people and I say that in all seriousness. I’m not talking about jobs that “Americans won’t do” like picking berries. I hate that saying by the way.Im talking about manufacturing jobs of yesteryear where a guy makes sure the same spot weld happens 4000 times a shift. It’s all been replaced with AI or sent overseas

Kids who had no business seeking higher education put themselves in massive debt because our College system is a racket and what else were they going to do?

No wonder we have a bunch of idiot cops doing dumb shit every other day. It’s one of the last unskilled labor professions that pays well

@I_Need_A_Detox

@Doja45

 You guys both hit on a lot of good points that I won't have the time to address until later. Tox missed the mark with the "poor people having it good" comment but I believe what he meant was in relation to the poor in other countries. Many of the poor in our country, not most or all but many, do live like the well off of some other countries but this tends to be the working poor. Not those reliant on welfare. There was meme some years back about this that shows a housing project with satellite dishes on the rooftops. And it said some nonsense about people on welfare affording cable. People who create these memes, certainly those who share them, think that everyone in the projects is on welfare. Hell, some of them, even with government subsidy, are still paying market rate. In the rural parts in the south, that rate might be a bag of beans. In some of the bigger cities it can be pretty ridiculous when you consider what they are paying for. Then there are the downright destitute. I digress. It's neither here nor there. Focusing on that comment takes attention away from his next two comments, both of which really makes some good points.

There are basically 3 ways to get rich and they’re all basically the same thing. 

1. Start your own business  

2. Real estate 

3. Investing 

Yeah a handful of people will make $250k a year working for someone else. But that road is nearly impossible. 

If you can do 1,2, or 3, you can go from poor to rich. This is what should be taught. 

Imagine saying “just do what makes you happy” to a kid being raised in poverty with no real understanding of the world? It’s borderline criminal. 

My argument for “poor people have it good” is basically that the quality of life of the person on welfare is too close to their neighbor that paints for 50 hours a week or the other neighbor that works at McDonald’s. 

Their quality of life is even too close to the average Americans. 

There is no incentive. 

We reduce the benefits of people on welfare and also reduce the taxes that the middle class pays. The quality of life of the middle class needs to be improved. 

This will be an incentive to poor people. 

But also, and this is important, if a poor person is willing to work for it there needs to be a path towards the middle class for them.