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01-28-2006, 01:49 PM | #76 | |
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01-28-2006, 02:29 PM | #77 |
King Of Wishful Thinking
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It really all comes down to children. While any conservative can argue that a mentally and physically able person should be able to find a job, any job, they still do not have an answer for the children.
Because some fiscal conservatives are also social conservatives, it gets even more confusing when sex is factored in. If a woman fails the abstinence test and does not use the contraception which some conservatives disagree with and does not get the abortion that many conservatives disagree with, then a child is produced. Except for some obscure technical issues in some doctrines, most people agree that a child is innocent. He or she did not have a choice and can't 'cowboy up' and get a job until age 14 or older in most cases. The bottom line is that some politicians do not care about starving children as much as they do about aborted fetuses. Recent cutbacks in welfare rules were opposed by some social conservative Congressman a few years back because they were afraid it would lead to more abortions. It costs $20,000 to $30,000 a year to care for a healthy human being, in an orphanage, prison, or mental facility. Parents and foster parents do it for a lot less. Putting a welfare mother in prison and having the state care for her 8 children would cost taxpayers $100-$200,000 a year. One of the reasons we are seeing so many abuse stories about foster care is that a) resources are being drained from social services, and b) more and more children are being placed in foster care, forcing social workers to lower standards. As stated in this post in a recent thread, the 'good old' days were filled with desperate mothers and murdered infants. This does not even consider child labor in dangerous conditions without the benefit of public schooling. True rock-bottom conservative capitalism is social darwinism. The unfit die, and the children of the unfit usually die first. In this case the church may actually serve a practical function in providing some services, at least for members of their faith. They also provide an outlet and promote social order, possibly avoiding revolution. Fortunately, we live in a republic where every adult citizen is guaranteed the right to vote. If voting were limited to landowners or people with household incomes over $75k, it is possible that the safety net would disappear. Since our government is responsible to 'all' of it's citizens, removing the safety net would require convincing citizens that they don't need it. Doing so would require that proof be provided that the game is not rigged against the middle and working classes when it comes to accumulating and keeping wealth for retirement. Anyone reading the headlines would realize that this is not true. The safety net right now is unwieldy, and probably needs to be fixed. However, health care, illegal immigration, and a lot of other topics, some of which the president is avoiding with all of his singleminded determination, are mixed into the goal of universal employment. Taking care of them includes taking on some very big lobbies that have now aligned themselves with the ruling party to prevent reform. For example, to get businesses to hire people off of welfare, non-farm employment of illegal aliens would have to be curtailed Even under pressure by common sense conservatives in the Republican party, there has been no real progress on this. This is because illegal immigrants are the drug of choice for businesses looking at the bottom line. It is cheaper to keep people on welfare and pass the cost along to taxpayers than to make the extra effort to give a job to a citizen with a history of chronic unemployment, or a single parent, or a recovering substance abuser. Part of our welfare system is designed to prop up the people displaced by illegal aliens and allow more corporate profits, which, thanks to tax cuts, are not even taxed sufficiently to balance the cost.
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Exercise your rights and remember your obligations - VOTE!I have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us so long as we have the courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting. -- Barack Hussein Obama Last edited by richlevy; 01-28-2006 at 02:32 PM. |
01-28-2006, 02:39 PM | #78 | |
Come on, cat.
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01-28-2006, 03:43 PM | #79 |
Slattern of the Swail
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richlevy, i bow to your entire post, above. You really ARE the bee king!
You all know I go to a university around here (a rather, ahem, lame one, but! one nonetheless!) you should hear the kids. Pro-life, Anti-AssistedSuicide, Pro-Bush, etc. I worry. I worry. Then I think: eh, what do twenty-somethings know? And then I feel better. |
01-28-2006, 04:17 PM | #80 | |
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Go back and read Rich's post if you want to read something, and if you want to prove me wrong, go research the Federal and US Code yourself. :p |
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01-28-2006, 04:30 PM | #81 |
Slattern of the Swail
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ah, you girls...
I've been (un)happily employed for years and years. If you worked forty, you pulled enough weight to have insurance. If they could stick thirty-eight hours to you, they could claim you were part-time (with the exception of folks they WANTED RE:nurses. As an RN, I could, and DID, work 36 hours/week and carry F/T bene's). Happens everywhere. That's not the Question, though. I am reasonably sure that there is a law about how many employees you have and how much/how many bene's you must cough up. Lots of stuff about this. gads.
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In Barrie's play and novel, the roles of fairies are brief: they are allies to the Lost Boys, the source of fairy dust and ...They are portrayed as dangerous, whimsical and extremely clever but quite hedonistic. "Shall I give you a kiss?" Peter asked and, jerking an acorn button off his coat, solemnly presented it to her. —James Barrie Wimminfolk they be tricksy. - ZenGum |
01-28-2006, 04:30 PM | #82 | ||
Come on, cat.
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I looked. Didn't find anything other than; Quote:
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01-28-2006, 04:32 PM | #83 | |
Come on, cat.
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Crying won't help you, praying won't do you no good. |
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01-28-2006, 05:13 PM | #84 | ||
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01-28-2006, 07:36 PM | #85 | |
trying hard to be a better person
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01-29-2006, 01:28 AM | #86 | |
Victim of gravity
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01-29-2006, 09:01 AM | #87 | |
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Tonchi, are you saying that IBM is being sued for not paying overtime to their salaried-exempt employees?
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01-29-2006, 09:10 AM | #88 |
Slattern of the Swail
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I think so much of it depends on who you're working for and how valuable they think you are to them. In the many hospitals around here it all depends on what STATUS you hired in as. If I was hired AS a part-time employee and they gave me 60 hrs/week, I'd get paid OT for anything over forty,but no benes. I was part time until I found an opening that gave me full time status.
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In Barrie's play and novel, the roles of fairies are brief: they are allies to the Lost Boys, the source of fairy dust and ...They are portrayed as dangerous, whimsical and extremely clever but quite hedonistic. "Shall I give you a kiss?" Peter asked and, jerking an acorn button off his coat, solemnly presented it to her. —James Barrie Wimminfolk they be tricksy. - ZenGum Last edited by Trilby; 01-29-2006 at 09:13 AM. |
01-29-2006, 09:20 AM | #89 | ||
King Of Wishful Thinking
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Location: Philadelphia Suburbs
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__________________
Exercise your rights and remember your obligations - VOTE!I have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us so long as we have the courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting. -- Barack Hussein Obama Last edited by richlevy; 01-29-2006 at 09:22 AM. |
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01-31-2006, 04:34 PM | #90 |
Complex Simpleton
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Location: La Crosse, Wisconsin
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After college in 1975
I worked part time for my city's park department.
At that time part time meant that as a municipality they did not have to pay time and a half for overtime and there were weeks when I worked for 50 hours or more. Quite a deal for the city. They strung me along for 2 years, promising to put me on full time "next spring" or "next fall". Finally the union got it in their contract that after 180 days they would either hire the part timers onto full time or lay them off. No more stringing along. In spite of the city saying they had no money, I got hire that summer. And then surprise, surprise, they hired 4 guys after me. I quit after 4 years--the flat out most stupid thing I have ever done and that choice cost me tens of thousands of dollars in lost pay. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20. P.S., Republicans' concern for life begins at conception and ends at birth. |
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