Right On The Right

-What was the ratio of middle class bankruptcies occurring due to medical bills? Half?

Average Americans have been sold a false bill of goods by the culture and corporations. People are using credit cards to buy boats and were mortgaging houses to buy SUVs and to go on vacations. Again, I have no sympathy for them.

You're right. I forgot about the dishwashing thing. It happened so quickly and so long ago it was easy to forget. But you were paid above minimum wage, who ya kidding?

Since the only one who consistantly reports on the war against the middle class is Lou Dobbs, the theory that the media always focuses on them is absurd.
Aside from Dobbs, I haven't heard another mainstream television show bring up NAFTA in four years! The only time it was mentioned was when there was the primaries in Ohio and Michigan and then it was quickly forgotten.

The video is a crock. It's propaganda.
There is no way an auto mechanic or a gardener is making $60,000/yr. to buy what they have. They're not making half that! Or even a third of that.
The middle class is "doing well" by using their credit cards to buy what they can no longer afford. That's why Americans are in over there head in debt.
The average American has over $8,000 racked up on there credit cards. And it's not for big screen tv's and computers. It's on car repairs and groceries.
The video conviently leaves out information to paint a far different picture than reality.

Using this same logic I could make the argument that homeless people today have it great. The homeless people from 400 years ago had to deal with the plague and today's homeless don't. Therefore the homeless have it great and we shouldn't worry about them.

The middle class is being decimated and the apathetic American populace is sitting back letting it happen.

Yeah, who is using Chomsky? A tool is used by someone. Who is pulling Noam's strings? And to what ends?

And how about responding to the content of what he said, rather than bitching about being disapointed by the choice of subject line.

How is Chomsky a tool? Could you please provide some evidence to show Chomsky as a tool, rather than just asserting? Did Chomsky say anything in the clip that is wrong?

Hmmm, yes, the title is perhaps somewhat inappropriate since Justin didn't literally say "Slavery Okay", but then again the video he posted up was ridiculous. If you actually listen to the entire clip I posted you will see that the argument Justin was advancing in his original post can be used to justify slavery. Therefore Justin, implicitly, justified slavery. If I'm wrong in my logic please provide a counterargument.

On a side note, I've tried to change the title of my post to "Justin Unknowingly Justifies Slavery", but I can no longer edit it.

First off, Chomsky is a tool, but the argument you're making withstanding, you're showing a lot of disrespect by picking up one of meatbrain's tactics and posting a ridiculous comment title. I thought you were better than that.

Two quotes from the featured economist, Michael Cox, "Well that is America's middle class. It's amazing the amount of stuff they are able to own and their consumption levels that they're achieved today compared to the past."

And, "But if you're willing to, uh, settle for living standards of the 1970s, its easy to make ends meet."

This comparing the poor of today, some of whom have computers and dishwashers and a car, to wealthy people a hundred years ago, none of whom had said items (since they weren't even invented yet!), is a silly argument. People compare themselves to their contemporaries, not to anonymous people of yesterday.

The following is a audio clip of Noam Chomsky refuting this type of argument (the poor and middle classes' standard of living have been increasing so everything is great). I strongly encourage everybody to listen to the entire clip: near the end Chomsky's relates an interesting argument that was made for slavery.

-We'll see how they shake out now that the ATM machine of the easy mortgage is gone.

I have no sympathy for those who fell into that trap. If someone making 80,000 grand a year felt the need to live like someone making a quarter of a mil a year (cough, cough, Packard people), they deserve the raping they're getting now. I mean, you know those ads 'Get a 200,000 mortgage for only 1,800 a month?' Why does someone need a mortgage if they can afford a 1,800 a month payment?

I do have sympathy for someone who had their job shipped to India or China, and the free marketers in the media are still selling that false bill of goods to the masses.

Take away the credit cards and the mortgages that the middle class has been 'living on' the past twenty years, how well are they doing?

The message is that overall the middle class is doing better than the media reports. Our area is a bit of an anomaly, and it's not to say everyone is doing amazing. I washed dishes and bussed every Friday for about a year, 8 hours of dishwashing, which isn't exactly a cakewalk. I made minimum wage. I didn't work for one day ever? Get your facts right before you slander your nephew.

-Justin works real hard. You ever try to read STACLU and Malkin???? It is hard, real freaking hard, going through those pages without putting a gun in your mouth. Imagine doing it 5 times a day!

And imagine going through the Republican talking points everyday, and then having to come up with content to reflect those talking points. I could never have come up with all that Obama snob stuff so fast.

I will defend Justin to the death on this. Little guy works real hard!

According to this video auto mechanics can buy boats! SWEET!
Justin, I don't know what the hell your grandpa's been blowing his fat checks on. I'll let him know he has it good.

I'll also let him know that his grandson, who has refused to get a real part time job himself, believes auto mechanic get paid great money. Maybe in your infinite wisdom you can help him better spend his enormous paychecks! For him to be this far in debt he obviously must be wasting his money, correct? Otherwise this whole video would be a crock of shit.

I can only assume you agree with the sitcom star since you posted the video, right?

You seem to have so many answers considering you have never worked a day in your life. NOT ONE. EVER.

I'll relay the message that he has it good. Maybe he can stop over and you can show him why you obviously know more than he does.