First up, I don’t agree that taxes are theft. I would like there to be less of them because of government waste, but its the law. If we change or repeal the law, good.
Still let’s look at this quaint little piece of propaganda:
So bullet point #1: Fraudulent loans. That’s a crime. Its against the law. If there were laws broken people SHOULD have been charged. I’ve never read of any charges. Loan paperwork is all in writing so this would be easy to has out. The fact that it hasn’t implies that this is just another “Progressive” myth.
#2: I agree with this. If you have a contract that should be honored. Of course the instance I hear of this is Detroit’s bankruptcy. I don’t like bankruptcy for this exact reason. Let’s say I blow all my cash on an extravagant vacation, then declare bankruptcy. Courts can seize my assets, but if I don’t have any the creditors who I took a contract out to repay are screwed. I don’t see why Union Contracts can’t be subject to the same risks.
#3: I would just stop at the “Bailout Money”….but I’m not a “Progressive”, “Progressives” see bailouts as fine, they just want to quibble about how they’re spent. That’s bullshit.
#4. Umm contracts. If I agree to work for you at a given wage, that’s our contract. How is this “theft”? The only people bitching about this are 3rd party concern trolls. Also you aren’t guaranteed a living from ANY job. If you don’t have the skills you don’t deserve all the money you want or any job you want.
Thanks for playing!
Can you argue that those union contracts were made under duress (to wit you give us what we want or we will make sure you cant produce your product) and thus are not legally binding. Probably wouldn’t work but I think it is an interesting argument
I actually agree with some of the points, and I have been blogging about the issue. There are times when I agree with the points of the Dems.
As for point #1: Yes, there was a lot of fraudulent dealing in the mortgage collapse. First, there were lenders that were loaning money to people who the banks knew could not pay, using houses for collateral that were not worth nearly enough to cover the paper, and the loans were sold off before they went sour, leaving institutional investors (like retirement accounts) holding the bag. Click here for the story
The reason why no one went to jail is because the banks were buying politicians off on BOTH sides of the aisle. Click here to read about the Gramm-Leach_Bliley Act.
On point two, I will use an example from my own state: During the late 1980’s and into the 90’s, the economy was booming, and the employees of the state of Florida and its subdivisions were being stolen away by increasing pay in the private sector. Instead of paying more, the state offered the employees who stayed a pension. This increased retention.
Now we arrive at 2010, at a point where many of those employees are ready to retire, having worked for years at pay levels lower than they would have otherwise accepted. Only the state is now complaining that the pensions cost too much. The problem is this: The employees have worked there for 20+ years expecting that pension, and that the state is now trying to cheat them out of. It isn’t as though a 45 year old guy that has worked for you for 23 years and is expecting that pension you promised him when he hit 25 years of service can just write off that chunk of his life.
That is what they tried to do to me, and I jumped and took the penalty to retire early rather than lose my pension.
#1 – if you have a loan against your house, you don’t OWN it – it is encumbered property. You bet that you could pay off the loan. The bank bet that if you couldn’t, they could recover their losses through foreclosure. This is not theft. This is losing a bet. Furthermore, some of those borrowers never had a hope or any intention of paying the loan off – they were just going to milk the mortgage for as much free rent as they could, which is REALLY fraudulent.
#2 – The acts of the legislature twenty years ago do not bind the legislature today. It may be bad form, and it may be a broken promise, but what do you expect from governments? If last year’s legislature could bind tomorrow’s, then we are on a never ending ratcheting from power to powerlessness – absolutely no discretion for the lawmakers, and no need for them. A tyranny, in other words.
#3 – I would say that giving government money to any organization that screwed up that badly, without firing at least the top two layers of management, is stupidity. If these organizations are too big to fail, and they fail, then why are they allowed to be so big? If we the people are paying them, then we should have management input into all decisions, including hiring and firing, advertising, bonuses, salaries, and everything else. These so-called bank failures are really an extortion racket – they threaten to wreck the entire economy unless we give them money.
#4 – Willing buyer, willing seller. Most minimum wage jobs are STARTING jobs. I wasn’t paid a living wage for my first job when I was in high school, living with my parents, but I did earn spending money, and learn basic job skills, like show up on time, call in if you’re sick, fill out a time sheet, be polite to customers, etc. Anybody who is only making minimum wage after being in the workforce for five years is either stupid, a charity case, or has a bad attitude. People who hire you want you to make their world a better place. Do a bad job at it, and you will not be rewarded.
Henry,
“#1 – if you have a loan against your house, you don’t OWN it – it is encumbered property.”
That’s true as far as it goes. I spent the better part of 5 years paying off my mortgage. Far from unencumbered, I am required to pay property taxes yearly on my domicile. ~90% of my payment goes to the local school district, which I find cruelly amusing as I have no children.