I invite anyone who is skeptical of my analysis to check out the incredible speed of the growing wealth gap in America and around the world. I would also STRONGLY suggest reading this very good article from the BBC.

bbc

Hate to tell you this Randy, but under the pseudo Marxist the money people made more than they ever have during the last eight years.  Oh, by the way, when was the last time he associated with any of the poor people even for a visit?

Oh, by the way, when was the last time he associated with any of the poor people even for a visit?

Exactly the point.

Also paralleling Rome, Homer-Dixon predicts that Western societies’ collapse will be preceded by a retraction of people and resources back to their core homelands. As poorer nations continue to disintegrate amid conflicts and natural disasters, enormous waves of migrants will stream out of failing regions, seeking refuge in more stable states. Western societies will respond with restrictions and even bans on immigration; multi-billion dollar walls and border-patrolling drones and troops; heightened security on who and what gets in; and more authoritarian, populist styles of governing. “It’s almost an immunological attempt by countries to sustain a periphery and push pressure back,” Homer-Dixon says.

Meanwhile, a widening gap between rich and poor within those already vulnerable Western nations will push society toward further instability from the inside. “By 2050, the US and UK will have evolved into two-class societies where a small elite lives a good life and there is declining well-being for the majority,” Randers says. “What will collapse is equity.”

From the linked article. Sound familiar? It IS already happening. The collapse is nearly inevitable.

That greatest threat to scum sucking leftists is Donald Trump. They thrived under Obama and were expecting that the leeches could multiply under Hillary. Trump is pouring salt on these leftist leeches and they are desperate for something to milk. Get a job bums and quit trying to steal what others have. 

I was talking with a guy a couple days ago, whose kid lives in Australia and works as a nurse.  I mentioned how those who have been there frequently say that Australia the top place they'd like to return to, of all the places they've travelled to, and he agreed.  He talked about the huge difference in their society versus the US.  There, doctors make about the same salaries as lawyers and engineers, and healthcare is provided by the government to all citizens.  Here, those who are fortunate to earn enough money to afford health insurance, pay the highest premiums in the world for mediocre care so that doctors can have yachts and mansions.  Anyone who sees that at as an admirable quality of the US is a moron.  Randy is right, we have geared our society to stamp out the have nots, by holding their health hostage and extorting from them the kind of money that is required to outfit doctors with mansions and yachts.

There's a shortage of doctors in America now, and you want to cut their pay?! I'm sure that will help with recruiting...

As I said,

Anyone who sees that at as an admirable quality of the US is a moron. 

So you want less doctors. Or do you want to indenture people and force them to be doctors? Do you understand economics? 

Do you understand that doctors and the entire medical industry is overpaid, because the US has allowed it to hold the health of the citizenry for ransom? I didn't say that I have the answer in how to undo the mess we are in, so you can quit deflecting and comment on the observation I made.  Funny how you are the king of strawman, since it's the word you use most frequently.

The issue here is we are comparing two different paradigms and they are incomparable. 

My cousin in England, who of course is with national health, went to college and medical school for free. He does 10 years as an orthopedic doctor in the national health and then he is called a Mister (which is the highest level of doctor in England), which means he is allowed to see private patients who have insurance. So he does well for himself, but he's not rolling in it.

On the other hand, my daughter finish premed, and if she didn't get a full ride, would have owed over $240K. Now, because she is studying neurology, which needs a lot of research, she has to take a masters, which is another $65K for a year and a half and this time there is no such thing as scholarships for upper classmen so she is taking out loans. Then she has to go to med school, which will be another $260K and more loans. So if she had not gotten the scholarship for her undergrad, she would be starting her career being $565K in debt. Lucky for her, it will only be $325K in debt... that is huge.

Neurology doesn't make big bucks. This is a labor of love for her as my uncle died of ALS. That is what she specializes in already.

Peds pays nothing. Neither does your internist, gastro, neurologist,... the people you see for your general health. 

The big bucks are in general surgery, cardiothoracic surgeons, neurosurgeons, anesthesiology (yeah that one bugs me) and plastics (another one that bugs me). 

So no, most doctors make a nice living for giving up years of their lives, but a fraction of what a wall street guy makes, for 4 years of college.. maybe an MBA if he wants better than that. 

Maybe if doctors like your daughter weren't 500,000 dollars in debt they wouldn't need to make such high salaries to pay down that debt. The medical schools shouldnt cost that much. 

Health care should be paid for through a progressive income tax, just like the other expenditures of the government are paid for. It is inhumane to not provide health care for all. 

If you are paying 1000 dollars a month for health insurance now, your cost would probably go down in a nationalized health care system. 

They say health care eats up 1/6th of the national economy.  Which means that if everyone's income tax was raised by 20% it would cover health care for everyone. People could afford it because they wouldn't need individual insurance any more. 

I'm already paying far too much in taxes and have no desire to pay even more so beach bums can get free healthcare on my back. I believe a flat tax rate is the only fair tax rate and oppose all progressive taxes. 

Healthcare costs rise faster than inflation, so it's hard to imagine the gouging of the citizenry leveling off until it is unsustainable for even the upper middle class.  Every year premiums either go up, or companies downgrade their policy selections to leave employees with worse coverage at the same cost.

Bernie Sanders did a poor job in his campaign, in this regard. When asked the question, he told people that their taxes would go up to pay for national health care, but he didnt explain well enough that their individual expenses would go down because they wouldnt have health insurance costs any more. 

I saw him explain this on more than one interview.  The problem is that when people hear the first part (taxes go up), they quit listening and start complaining.

We just rejected single payer in my blue state with eighty percent voting against it. The reason is the tax increase was substantially higher than what they currently pay for healthcare. It also died in Vermont for the same reason once the cost is examined it ends up costing more. 

It should be national, and a progressive tax. People subject to a higher tax because they have the highest incomes might pay more, but others should not. 

And john , I can think of a very good reason why it hasn't and wont catch on.

what if any control do we have over someone elses lifestyle choices?

a person could , under the proposed plan pay not a dime in ( based on income and subsities) smoke 3 packs a day , drink a gallon of rum a day enjoy any number of risky health behaviours and be covered , for their own self destructive habits. That's not even taking into other matters like genetic or economic predispositions that coukld cause medical issues to arise.

So what to do? wrap everyone in bubble wrap , outlaw everything proven bad for a person and control their every waking moment ?

granted I'm pushing an extreme here , but in one way or another , these things do exist.

drink a gallon of rum a day

A gallon of scotch a day is OK though. Right? Please say right?

LMAO, whatever floats the boat , its your liver, pick ones own poison.

LMAO, whatever floats the boat , its your liver, pick ones own poison.

I wouldn't have to worry about my liver. My wife would kill me! LOL!

that's why I choose to stay single , but doesn't matter , I quit drinking totally in jan, and actually feel better for it. only vice I have now it tobacco and even then not that often , not doing bad for going to be 55 in a month , 6'4" 185 pounds , about 8 % body fat, low blood preassure and weight is down from 230 in jan.

$10 an hour times 40 is 400 a week times 52 would be 20,800 at  10% federal income tax that would be 2080 dollars in taxes. 2080 *.2 is 416.  $416 would be this person's share of the bill yearly for national health care. 

I see what you did there John , I did my math 400 a week  times 4 and then times 12 to get my 19000 figure , but I also see that you made the 20% as an add on to taxes paid, not on  total income, which is what I based it on , and frankly for the pittance of $400, all that might cover is an annual physical , maybe a bout of the flu, and possably to take care of some aches and pains and some scripts. Unless your thinking of nationalizing and controlling what healthcare providers will be charging. and that is taking into account getting the for profit aspect out of healthcare , but with those numbers there is no way $400 a year would cover anything more . certainly not catastrophic or life altering.

last physical I had cost me $80 out of pocket , no insurance involved.

Unless your thinking of nationalizing and controlling what healthcare providers will be charging. and that is taking into account getting the for profit aspect out of healthcare

Which is exactly what we should do for the general population and still allow for a free market of medical insurance providers for those who choose to buy it and can afford the rates.

I can see that Randy ,IF and that's a big if, all the national HC is used for is wellness checks and screening , the problem of catastrophic life altering coverage wouldn't even begin to be touched the way stated.

which leads back to the premise of the article of the wealth gap, those that can afford outside plans will stand better as far as care received . in otherwords one gets what they pay for.

I'm on Medicare (I also have a Medicare plus plan from United Health Care at zero premiums per month) and one of the things they really push are wellness checks, annual physicals, free blood pressure meds, colonoscopy (believe me, I know they want you to do that!) etc., because Medicare works on the idea of catching things and treating issue like hypertension so they don't become expensive issues. Wellness checks under a government run health care plan for all Americans would be a great investment too, should be mandatory and would save large mounts of money in the long run by catching serious diseases while it is still possible to treat them with a better success rate and more cheaply.

In a way it is related to the point of the topic of this article. Today there is far too much concern for the next quarter's profits and how much can I make as the CEO of a company, (while paying my employees as little as possible) instead of thinking in the long term. Making decisions based on long term investments IS good business. Greed is destroying that idea.

If poor people could afford to pay as much for health care as wealthier people can we wouldn't have much of a discussion about it, would we? 

Right now someone making 20,000 a year pays less than someone making 80,000, because of the subsidies. Do you want someone making 20,000 to pay as much as someone making 80 or 120, or 200,000 a year?

And how and when did it become others responsibility to subsidize others  simply because they are either better with money or luckier? if they are paying their 20% as you propose , be it added to the taxes they pay or 20% like I figured on all income , then they actually have "skin in the game" as is common to say lately . having no skin in there but dictating what they think they should have at anothers expense and labor ( risk)  does not exactly fly with me for a multitude of reasons , some I already mentioned . other reasons could be that I have been careful with my own personal finances and set aside for such contingencies that I am most likely going to have to deal with as I get older( most would love to have what I set aside while I worked to be used only for medical reasons as their retirement account), that's a lesson learned from my grandparents , some of the first to get medicare. I learned not to count on government when my health could very well be on the line.

remember , your the one touting that 20% figure be it they pay 20% on top of taxes or income , the difference is how much money it would bring in and what could be paid for. if its 20% on all income then then everyone pays 20% irregardless of if some ones 20% is a quarter or an 8th of their total income or less.

Everyone would pay the same rate, as a percentage of their income taxes, to health care. If you pay more in income taxes now, you would pay more for health care. 

You cannot seriously expect someone making 20,000 dollars a year to pay the same raw amount as someone making 10 times that amount of money. 

and that's not what I said john , based on income be that percentage is added to paid tax or based on income , of course some will pay more , some less , the point will end up being everyone will pay in , non refundable or subsidized so some one ends up paying nothing.

hal , as long as profit is part of the equation, the costs will continue to go up , or the coverage will decrease, we discussed this before.

one way to bring down the cost is remove the profit incentive, but good luck with that in this country.

We can agree on that.  Every word of it.

Absolutely. I agree 100% with that.

''as long as profit is part of the equation, the costs will continue to go up , or the coverage will decrease, we discussed this before.''

It's as simple as that.

So many simple solutions to such a complicated matter reveals so much.  As long as profit is involved in anything you will have more of it and when you take the profit away, you will have less of it.  Healthcare is a little different than buying new mobile phones or even new homes.  You don't have to have either one of them, but it's all about cost and I bet not a one of us would want to get up Monday morning and go to work already knowing we were not going to get paid anything for working that day.

Hospitals would not expand their locations or equipment unless they made enough profit to be able to do so.  Students would not be inclined to study medicine unless they felt it was going to be profitable for them someday in the future.  Pharmaceutical companies would not be inclined to study medical solutions to current problems unless they were confident the treatments or cures they discovered would provide future profit.  Who would invest in a company that told them, you can invest, but there's no way you're going to make any money from your investment?

Turn it over to the professionals, the politicians.  They've done such a good job of it so far, haven't they?  Or we can just let the taxes take care of it.

100 taxes we didn't have 100 years ago.

Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL license Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Excise Taxes
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Gasoline Tax (currently 44.75
cents per gallon)
Gross Receipts Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Inventory Tax
IRS Interest Charges IRS
Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Personal Property Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service Charge Tax
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Tax
Recreational Vehicle Tax
Sales Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Telephone Federal Universal
Service Fee T ax
Telephone Federal, State and
Local Surcharge Taxes
Telephone Minimum Usage
Surcharge Tax
Telephone Recurring and
Nonrecurring Charges Tax
Telephone State and
Local Tax
Telephone Usage Charge Tax
Utility Taxes
Vehicle License
Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax

It seems someone is making a profit, but they don't seem to be able to use it wisely.  What is the new found information that would lead anyone to believe they would today?  I know your dog is in a lot better shape because of all those great taxes.

Oh, I almost forgot the biggest tax to date, the Obamacare Tax.  Unless you're making $45,000 you wouldn't be subject to the full extent of it, but all those making $45,000 or more are paying at least part or all of your fair share, plus their fair share and they didn't get that promised reduction either.   Funny how that happens.  Many good intentions are thwart by the end result, which we all should be able to identify by now.

We have to get that cost down.  Now how can we do that without reducing our supply?  That's the difficult part. 

It's a whole lot easier to manage a small classroom than a large classroom.  It's a whole lot easier managing 64 million people than managing 324 million people as well.  Out of all the countries who rank higher than the USA in healthcare cost only one has over 100 million people and that is Japan.  You don't see a whole lot of refugees or immigrants in Japan and if you do they are paying their on way.

Germany is next with 80 million people.  A lot of taxes plus a value added tax in Germany.

You know what?  I think one of the biggest and most beneficial things the USA could do is really promote physical fitness.  It's true everyone can get sick, but it is also true those who take care of themselves are leas likely to become sick.  This nation is in pitiful shape when it comes to physical fitness and the diet of too many Americans is absolutely abhorrent when it comes to healthy eating habits.

It would seem heath care cost is doing exactly the opposite of what the normal supply and demand cost should be considering the health care providers have a tremendous number of subjects to work with and one would expect the cost to go down for each one with such a tremendous supply of patients, but it isn't.  What is the reason for this abnormality in the context of supply and demand?  Could it be health care is the one thing health providers have a monopoly on and no competition?

The solution isn't more government involvement in my opinion, but providing patients more options in order to provide competition the healthcare industry would have to compete with in order to get their fair share of the business.  Too many people are limited in their choices for many simple health problems to seeking out the most costly solutions at the most costly providers.

Keep in mind, nothing is free and someone is making a profit or costing someone for every service you receive, whether it's health care or anything else, whether it is private or government sponsored.  There's always a cost in doing business and a cost for providing a service.  The object is to figure how to promote competition in order to reduce cost.

Unless you're making $45,000 you wouldn't be subject to the full extent of it, but all those making $45,000 or more are paying at least part or all of your fair share, plus their fair share and they didn't get that promised reduction either.  

Generally speaking, people who are poor don't have a "fair share" to pay. People who make a lot of money benefit the most from our economic system and they should pay the most into any government program that requires taxes. 

Now 45,000 is not much , and such people should pay much less than the higher income people. I don't like these dollar amount cutoffs where if you make 44,999 you get the whole break and if you make one dollar more you get nothing. In a computer age we should be able to tailor any and every tax rate much more finely so that the escalations are a gradual slope and not a cliff. 

No John the people that benefit the most are the bums that don't work and get free food and healthcare on the backs of those of us that spend close to half our year working to pay taxes. 

Dean, any tax on poor people literally makes them poorer. It is inevitable with a sales tax because you don't reveal your income when you buy groceries or clothes. It is not inevitable with income tax, and the poor are not required to pay income tax. 

Are you in favor of making poor people poorer Dean? 

Yes if it means taking less from me and people like myself. It's up to them to make themselves of value. I'm opposed to progressive tax rates and redistribution. 

Low wage earners and the unemployed are a necessary part of a capitalist system. Without them we wouldn't have any rich. Why do you begrudge them their pittance? 

Their pittance is their responsibility not mine. 

Are you in favor of making poor people poorer Dean?

Yes if it means taking less from me and people like myself. It's up to them to make themselves of value.

You and people like yourself...

Tell me sugar-bush, what kind of value do you bring to society's table? 

Tell me sugar-bush, what kind of value do you bring to society's table?

None. REAL Americans help look out for each other. That's one of the things that makes us such a great country (and yes, we were already great before Bozo sat down in the Oval Office this past January)

Yes if it means taking less from me and people like myself. It's up to them to make themselves of value. I'm opposed to progressive tax rates and redistribution.

Dean, you don't mind helping someone who is unable to help themselves, do you?  You don't mind helping others who are down on their luck not due to anything they have done, do you?

I bet you believe in helping someone who is unable to help themselves and helping those who can help themselves to do it, so you don't have to carry their load just because they won't carry it themselves, but you see the road we're on and have become skeptical as to the extent of this generosity from yourself and others and afraid of the final outcome of such an ideology.

You see, some people are more into separating people into different classes.  They believe if someone is born poor or of a certain race they can't help themselves and with a feeling of superiority, it is the responsibility of everyone else to take care of them.  These people don't see any potential in those people and think the rest of us should accept them for what they are with no hope of every changing or improving their situation in life on their own.  They have taken the requirement of being responsible for oneself from these people who they see as below them.  They would never admit this and aren't even aware of it anyway.

These people don't think what you've worked for is yours, but it is the family's to be shared according to each person's needs.  Since some people have shown the ability to accomplish more, it is expected they accomplish more and more of the fruits of their labor are to be spread among those who have accomplished less.  It starts out pretty good, but it doesn't take long before you are made to feel ashamed for feeling what you've worked for is yours alone and only to be given to others at your will.

Why do some people rebel against all this morality pushed upon them?  Well, maybe they already see and know where it leads to if not kept in check very closely.  It doesn't take long to realize the needs of others keep growing.  Today it is healthcare.  Tomorrow it is free college.  It's already free food and subsidized housing.

Soon those who have shown they have the ability to produce realize they actually get punished for producing and the people who don't produce realize they get rewarded for not producing.  It becomes a race to the bottom.  You can see it today everywhere you look, it is there carrying a bottle of wine, smoking a joint, buying a bunch of crap food from the convenience store with a government issued card.  The only real production that comes from those who have been rewarded for not producing is production of babies because they have nothing else to do and they get rewarded for doing that as well.

Some of those who have spent hours every day of their lives trying to improve their lives become somewhat like those who have spend hours every day trying to be non-productive.  Why work to improve your life if all it is going to accomplish is pay the way for someone who has no interest in improving his or her life?

It's like a contagious disease.  Those who have succumbed to it are not even aware they have it.  It's the moral thing to do as a human being, they say.  I would venture to agree to an extent, but then we have the immense growth of an attitude and a belief we are our brother's keeper well beyond what we want it to be.  This spread of such a belief is completely opposite to "what we can be" to "what we are".  There's no moral profit in low expectations. 

However almost all people who are in a position to where they can not help themselves are in that position through no fault of their own. Perhaps they were born into crushing poverty, with horrible (or non-existent) health care, terrible schools whose money has been drained away by voucher programs toward religious schools, no jobs in their neighborhoods, no supermarkets only fast food places the serve unhealthy food, liquor stores on every corner, gun stores across the street from them, gangs everywhere with no money for community policing to stop them because of government budget cuts, drugs funneled into their neighborhoods from the outside because they certainly are not going to Columbia to buy them, automatically suspected as criminals simply because of where they live so police records for minor crimes that are not real, but build into real jail time, no real chance at getting out because of a criminal record that they did not earn, bigotry, racism, hate, mistrust, fear, terror and in some cases immigration suspicion and they are not as good as I am because I am WHITE and they are not.

Now of course you would be willing to help someone who was in that situation through no fault of their own, because millions of young men and women are in that position through no fault of their own and if anyone says they have choices or that they can get out or that they are lazy or that they are not trying hard enough that they do not need help or that they are not worthy or our help or the help of the government then they are fucking blind, ignorant and intentionally stupid!! And a racist!

In case you don't know it Randy, everyone doesn't live in the Chicago and other big city slums.

You have this habit of calling anyone who wants to promote the idea of self responsibility as being racists.   What's wrong?  Do you not believe people can be better on their own if given the opportunity?  Why steal their future from them pretending you care?

If someone can't accept the fact people can work toward being more than they are today and try to motivate them to do so, they usually feel they are superior to those people and try and use sympathy or guilt as a disguise for their own feelings of being above these people.

I only call people racists who feel that the people who DO live in the slums are just feeling sorry for themselves and have no trouble lifting themselves up because hey, their life is all peaches and cream and great schools and free scholarships! No gangs and no phony arrest records. No violence. No racism and no bigotry!

No I do NOT call everyone a racist who thinks people need to work to lift themselves up. People do need to lift themselves up. But they actually need to have a CHANCE TO! Only those who look at people in places like South Central LA or the South Sides of Chicago or in the inner city of Detroit and tell themselves that THOSE young men and women have the exact SAME chance that they have had to lift themselves up. THEY are the people I rightfully call racists and bigots! Because THEY ARE!!! They are IGNORANT! They are COLD HEARTED! They have no UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT AMERICA IS SUPPOSE TO BE! They have lied themselves into a version of AMERICA THAT IS NOT REAL AND IS WRONG AND SELFISH AND SAYS I GOT MINE SO FUCK YOU AND THAT IS NOT THE AMERICA I KNOW AND LOVE AND IF THEY THINK THAT WAY THEN FUCK THEM!!! THEY ARE IGNORANT OF THE VALUES OF THE NATION THAT WERE BORN INTO! THEY HAVE SHOWN THEMSELVES TO BE STUPID AND UNWORTHY OF BEING TAKEN SERIOUSLY AND MUST BE IGNORED AS MORONS AND IDIOTS!

But you know what? Those young men and women that they spit on and piss on and say that they are lazy and criminals and less human then they are and undeserving of help. Undeserving of government programs to get them out from underneath the chains of poverty that ARE holding them down and holding them back and making it IMPOSSIBLE for them to get ahead are Americans too! They are US god damn it! They are we! THEY are as much a part of the future of our country as young man or woman living in Bel Air or Bloomfield Hills! The question we ALL have to ask is do we still want a nation 20 or 30 years from now, to be right where we STILL are NOW? Or do we want to change that! Trump said he wanted to, but he is as full of shit as is everyone else who looks at social programs and instead of seeing an investment in the future of OUR country, OUR NATION, like the good business men and women they lie and say they ARE, see a pair of scissors to cut those programs and forever strand those young men and women. To forever leave them behind and even worse, to blame THEM for being there, instead of blaming themselves because it is their lack of understanding, of vision, that when ALL Americans look out for ALL Americans then ALL Americans make this a much stronger Nation for EVERYONE NO MATTER WHERE THEY ARE ON THE INCOME LADDER and not just a Nation of haves and have nots!

Mic drop.

Wow!!!!  Have you....  No one is saying anything like you think they are saying.  Imagination is a great thing sometimes, then other times it's your worst enemy.

OH fucking that's Bullshit and you know it Six. Every time that fuck in the Oval Office proposes to cut a Social program like school meals for poor kids or Head Start (which has been proven to reduce adult incarceration BTW. Good fucking investment!) and gets cheered on by people like you, Dean and xx, they are saying EXACTLY what I just said. Every word of it! Every time they cut funding for after school basketball they are saying it! Every time they say stop a turn key kid program, they are saying fuck you. Every time they propose a voucher program in a poor neighborhood that pushes parents to enroll their children in religious schools, which automatically drains money from public schools for the children and teens that are left behind it is a huge FUCK YOU to them! Just ask that bitch who has said, out loud and in public, Betsy DeVos, that she wants to do away with public schools completely and have religious schools ONLY! I am from Southwestern Michigan! I know the Amway con artists intimately! SHE is saying FUCK YOU to those kids.

Every time the government drops funding for drug diversion programs instead of jail or prison, which stains these young men and women forever making it nearly impossible for them to have a successful life, it is a FUCK YOU! It is EXACTLY what I said in my other post! EXACTLY! That is what they are saying to these people. To these human beings. That you are worthless! That you, from pre-school, are not worth a fuck! Are not worth a chance to get up and out of the poverty that you were born into and that is not your fault, but we are going to keep you in because you are Black or you are Latino or because there are gangs in your neighborhood or because you scare us in our pristine White "Leave it to Beaver" homes. YOU are not worth the effort and we don't give a shit because we know every freeway and highway and street to take where we will not have to see your ass anyway. Oh and BTW, we have your prison cell waiting for you.

I have had a full time (and I mean full time) job from the time I was 15 until I was 54 and tried to kill myself. I am a second generation American. All of my grandparents immigrated here from somewhere else. All of them taught me how lucky I was to be born here and what my duties are to be a citizen here. I repaid part of that by serving in the Air Force. It was my DUTY to do so. I owed that debt. I did not have a choice in my mind but to do so.

I always hoped that in paying my taxes that at least some of it (and hopefully a big part) was going to social programs that helped these other people and the elderly and the disabled and the poor and those held down through no fault of their own, that I could not help personally, because I had an obligation as an American to do so! It was taught to me and I believe it like a religion even though I am an atheist, that America is my religion, My country is my religion. what it stands for is my religion, that I have to do whatever I can and I know it's pitifully small because of here I am now, but I have to do whatever I can as an American because that IS WHAT AMERICANS DO FOR EACH OTHER! WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER! I DO NOT HAVE A CHOICE BECAUSE I AM AN AMERICAN! NONE OF US DO! WE ARE HERE TO HELP EACH OTHER BECAUSE IF WE DON'T, WHO WILL?

I honestly do not know how some people can look at themselves in the mirror and call themselves an American without  feeling that they owe a part of their time, their life, their money, their heart and their soul to their fellow Americans. That they don't understand that all of us, no matter the color or race or religion or even today sexual orientation are all one people. We are all just Americans. If you can think of that as just a "just". I know it's stupid in today's world and maybe I was born 50 years too late, but I honestly believe that we are all judged by how the least of us is living. I am sorry if others don't get that in today's seemingly greedy world. I guess I was just taught old values by old people that I loved and believed in what they were teaching me.

Please forgive me if I am wrong.

Consider yourself forgiven then.  

Your forgiveness on anything is worthless, maningless. You are a phony, hollow, hypocrite.

Still you know XX I have a sincere suggestion for you to keep you out of trouble here and I honestly do mean this sincerely. The problem you are having with control is that you are simply trying to hard. I stay up late at night, mostly because I don't have a life or at least I didn't until Mac introduced me back into photography which I had put down in college more the 40 years ago. Anyway as I was saying you try too hard. Almost every night I see where you have at least 5 and sometimes more, articles ready to post as soon as you pass some time limit or hour or when there are only just so many people on the site and then you dump them on all at once.

This creates two problems for you. The first one is that almost all of them are ignored because they run off the front page very fast unless you respond to them a few times later in the day which just looks sad and desperate so most people just let them die a slow death. Or you get one or two or even three that get a lot of responses and there is no possible way that you can keep up with monitoring all of them the way you should so at least one or sometimes two of them turn into a sloppy mess. And once in a great while trolls take over one and Perrie shuts it down. You can complain all you want about why it happened or why you think it shouldn't have happened or how mad you are that it did happen, but the simple truth is that it did happen so drop it and move on to a better way of posting your articles.

Separate your articles. Do NOT dump them all late at night in a group! That looks like a desperate cry for attention! That goes for always giving your own posts a thumbs up! I know it is maddening to see something you posted in your article or in someone else' not get a thumbs up! It really grates on a person! That "o" makes one crazy, but deal with it! Don't thumbs up your own stuff! It looks like an amateur! I have been online since 1995 and I was part of the first email and "internet type exchanges" in the Air Force in the mid-1970's so I know. Take my word for it!

Only post 3 or 4 articles a day and post them at separate times. Maybe 2 or 3 hours apart during the time you have to be online. That way people "see" them. They don't get lost in a bunch of ones that you post all at once or respond to all at once to pull them all up to the front page at the same time, that people will not take the time to sort through the titles of. Also, do not post an article right after you have posted several comments. It looks like you are trying to hog the front page. That is fine if there are very few people online (in fact it's hard not to), but it is poison during a busy day when there are 10 or 12 members on.

Anyway, I am not trying to put you down or insult you and these suggestions are honestly and sincerely given and I will be more then happy to help you with anymore if you like. If not, then please never say I never really tried.

Randy

XX. I don't know if you saw this before I locked the article for the night last night, but it is sincerely meant. I will be going to bed in a bit and will be closing this for the night, so I hope you will take the time to read it.

OK, so ignore it. All I was trying to do was to help you become a better and more respected member just as a gesture of friendship, but if that's not what you want then don't. I tried. Bye.

Locking up for the night to keep the many, many, many trolls on here out. Especially the ones that are disguised as long term members...or new comers.

so john using your original statement that EVERYONES taxes be raised 20% isn't true? it would only be on a set cut off amount to be determined before someone has to kick in that added 20%?

Now according to my math , using someone that earns $10 an hr and gets 40 hrs a week , their annual pay is $19,200.00. 20% non refundable  off the top before fed and state taxes would be $3840.00 that would be their share of your proposed HC tax of 20% that everyone would be required to pay if they have an income. but now your saying those that make more , and will be paying more even if its 20% will be subsidizing those others, wealth redistribution?

 and can anyone think of ways to get around that type of unequal and basically unfair redistribution , assuming one thinks it is unfair and unequal ?

Sixpick : 100 taxes we didn't have 100 years ago.

There are 53 items on the list. 

Fake News? lol. 

Sixpick : 100 taxes we didn't have 100 years ago.

There are 53 items on the list. 

Fake News? lol. 

You're absolutely correct John.  Give me a break. LOL 

I was up Thursday night until 4am Friday morning wasting time and then drove 360 miles Friday.  That comment was at 305am Saturday morning.  My dyslexia is spreading to my fingers from my eyes.

What I meant to type was "These are taxes we didn't have 100 years ago".

You know what?  I think one of the biggest and most beneficial things the USA could do is really promote physical fitness.  ...  This nation is in pitiful shape when it comes to physical fitness and the diet of too many Americans is absolutely abhorrent when it comes to healthy eating habits.

Hmmmm ... who tried to do that and was rounded criticized by conservatrolls?

OK, so I went to bed and this went off topic. Could we please get back on the topic of the incredibly shrinking income gap and the damage it will eventually do to society as a whole and perhaps it's destruction as we know it? Thank you.

Back on topic. From the attached article from the BBC:

Safa Motesharrei, a systems scientist at the University of Maryland, uses computer models to gain a deeper understanding of the mechanisms that can lead to local or global sustainability or collapse. According to findings that Motesharrei and his colleagues published in 2014, there are two factors that matter: ecological strain and economic stratification. The ecological category is the more widely understood and recognised path to potential doom, especially in terms of depletion of natural resources such as groundwater, soil, fisheries and forests – all of which could be worsened by climate change.

That economic stratification may lead to collapse on its own, on the other hand, came as more of a surprise to Motesharrei and his colleagues. Under this scenario, elites push society toward instability and eventual collapse by hoarding huge quantities of wealth and resources, and leaving little or none for commoners who vastly outnumber them yet support them with labour. Eventually, the working population crashes because the portion of wealth allocated to them is not enough, followed by collapse of the elites due to the absence of labour. The inequalities we see today both within and between countries already point to such disparities. For example, the top 10% of global income earners are responsible for almost as much total greenhouse gas emissions as the bottom 90% combined. Similarly, about half the world’s population lives on less than $3 per day. 

Bold highlighting by me. This IS, undeniably , happening right now in America, in all Western nations and around the world.  And it is getting worse every single day. Doesn't anyone care?

Article reopened. Any off topic comments will result in a 2 day suspension. 

Thank you very much Perrie. I appreciate the hard work it took to clean that mess up. I hope there is not a repeat of it.

I am going to bed now so I am going to lock this article until I get up. The last thing I want is some jerk complaining about how I handle my postings. Good night.