General Music Chat

Ok that didn't take that long,let me put my pants back on.
Prevost you hit it right on the head.When you have so many things you have to pay for,AND there are only so many companies to pay for this,,,,
Everytime someone gets laid off , you LOSE a TAXPAYER.
everytime someone gets laid off , you GAIN a govt employee.[unemployment]
everytime a greedy corp. goes under you lose major taxpaying dollars.
everytime a greedy corp goes under and lays off many workers, you lose many TAX PAYERS.
Our govt cannot supply35000000 jobs and have no tax base.
Average national private employee earns $40000 a year.
Average national govt employee earns..ready...$70000 a year.

IM IN THE WRONG BUSINESS

Maybe it is time to renew our tax base by allowing for true growth, cause all I'm feeling right now is the trickle down of progressive taxation, and I am not happy!

Prevost,,,5% of the wealthy in this country pay 95% of the federal tax bill. Most of them are corporations that put other people to work. the other 1% are the Bill Gates that have allready paid taxes on their accumulated wealth.
I hope you are not suggesting that we just CONFISCATE their property[Wealth]

That is some of the crazy whispers I hear.That is why I am such a Protector of OUR CONSTITUTION.

All I know for sure, Glen, is that giving a corporation the same rights that you give a human being is about the stupidest thing a country can do. Of course, this is America, where ANYthing can be a person, even Wal-Frikken-Mart, with ALL the rights any other human has, like making tax-deductable donations of ANY size to the political candidate of its choice!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

You keep singing the praises of the corporations like they are the end-all & be-all of this country's economic resources, & that, sir, is patently BULLSPORT! These outfits may well employ tens of thousends, but I would NEVER put our gov't in thier filthy money-grubbing paws, & yet THAT, Glen, is EXACTLY what our fair-minded Supreme(ly stupid) Court did last week.

When stupidity like this abounds, Glen, you can bet your peter that we will continue to experience an ever-worsening of our life-style as they continue to coagulate into one super corporate/gov't entity, until we ALL only have that fabulous minimum wage position with ZERO bennies, part-time, so that they can continue to reap everything WE work for..."they," of course, being the Sam Walton types who had the forethought to get rich before our children will ever get the chance to.

This is rapidly becoming the United States Of Lo-Ho-Sh-ATT-Mo-Citi-Wal-K-AIG-Bank Of-Phiser-Blue Cramerica, at the expense of your freedom to make enough money to live like a free man. Step off the F*cking Corporate Express for a second & start to look at the SMALL BUSINESSMAN & SEE what's happening to him on a daily basis in our country, let alone what these huge outfits do to thier employees.

Some of the usual day-to-day drudgery work that I do has recently been legislated out of my hands! I cannot legally even DO my preferred job anymore! Meanwhile, Lowes has crews that CAN do it, because those men are under the corporate umbrella, I've heard, even though they have no more experience than I!!!! Of course, they DO have that wonderful corporate-sized insurance plan backing them up, which I simply cannot afford, so tough nuts for me, right? Yeah, I might need that when I'm replacing someone's f*cking TOILET!

What kind of Congressman do you think these companies will buy? Do you think he'll work for YOUR best interests, or for the corporate interest that bought him his position in our gov't?

I guarantee that this single SC decision will prove to be one of the biggest "mistakes" our gov't has ever made, though for some it will prove to ensure thier income will remain in the decadigits for generations.

Oh, & while I'm at it - did anyone notice the LACK of reporting on this landmark decision on our "free" corporate-owned "news" programs? Most ppl didn't even know what Obama was talking about when he wagged his finger at the Supreme Court Justices in attendence at his State Of The Union speach, & said that they'd sold out America to corporate interests. Those bastards didn't even have the decency to look embarassed at what they'd done to us all, prolly cuz they knew that 80% of the country had no idea what he was talking about.

I gotta get outta here before I lose it...

Ok Phil, Lets wipe out the Evil corporations and then figure out who is going to support the 14 trillion dollar economy we have right now. you want to really kill the tax base.
I am a small business owner just like you, and I am getting taxed right out of business. Sales are up and we are working more and harder than ever and the bottom line doesn't add up.
I'm thinking it would easier to just go get a govt job.
Last year I actually lost a lot of work to cash for clunkers, people felt it was more important to trade in their old cars than to upgrade their heating systems. I wasn't competing with EVIL corps, I was competing DIRECTLY with MY govt with MY tax dollars,,,,This one program not only hurt me, but my guys,my suppliers , and all the evil corps, that I need to stay in business.
I know you work on your own, but I have other families that depend on our success. I never thought I would say this, but all the rules and laws and regulations are changing so fast I can't keep up. Is it really worth it to me?

Are you saying that you SUPPORT this Supreme Court decision because corporations get taxed so much?

Why did our gov't put the "cash for clunkers" program in effect? To save the corporations! The big 3 car co's needed more help, Glen. It all comes back once again to THEM. And it's STILL at YOUR expense!

The well is running dry, where is the money going to come from?
You got answers,, I' m listening.
I have one customer who has been through 8 business attempts in the last 15 years. Each time he didn't do as well as he wanted,he took the learned lessons and MOVED on.Right now he is doing very well transporting vehicles.
Phil, right now ,you are a talented, and skilled person.You are very smart, and a good musician to boot.
Phil,Maybe it is time to draw yourself out of your negative circle of thought, assess all the talent and blessings you do have, and move on to something that works for you. Or make what you have,right now ,today ,grow and work for you.
Bottom line,do you just want our govt to take away all my stuff,and give it to you?
It's up to you,by this time next year you can be the most succesful person around. You have the talent, the skills,,,,,you have to make the decision.

P.S. just having a job is like wearing handcuffs,it limits who you are ,what you are, and how much you can earn.

After30 years of doing what I do,,,,I make money but I am tired and just need to move on. Failure is allways an option, but if you learn , there is no failure.
Sorry fo trying to help.

I know we're on the same side, here, Glen. I'm not yelling at you. I'm only saying that as long as the gov't is ONLY helping the huge corporate interests, ours, the little guys' interests, will continue to suffer. I'm not asking for anything from anyone, other than a more equal playing field. It's getting very old to continually have our jobs etc taken out from under us, to further the needs & the greeds of the big guys. When will it by OUR turn?

One thing I'm thinking about, is to band together all the local guys I can into a sort of corporation of our very own, so that we can compete with the larger co's like Lowes & Home Depot for the smaller jobs that USED to be our bread & butter. It ain't gonna be easy to get these folks together, though, & that's the biggest hurdle I see going against me in a project like this. (There's also that lil problem of standardized quality of workmanship...eeeeeeek!)

I'm trying to think outside the box, believe me.

Whatever...I stil think it's a huge mistake to allow the mondo-corporations to own any portion of our gov't. It's been happening for decades. Everyone knows it. Now, our Supreme Court has made it LEGAL. It frustrates me to see our own gov't selling us out for free to those who have no soul & no interest whatsoever in our doing well at any level.

Actually that idea you have smacks of brilliance.
You are the independents that will do the right job without any allegiance except to your customers. Sounds like a tall order ,but with proper marketing I bet you could compete with any corp. My largest competitor is "petro" a huge fortune 500 company. I have no problem running them into the ground.
I think you have a great Idea, now run with it.

As far as corps go you have to remember who owns them. It is people like you and me that may have a retirement plan or ordinary stockholders that own $100 of Mcdonalds. We could put that money in the safety of a bank and earn fifty cents interest for the year....or we can invest in an evil corporation that has to answer directly to the stockholders and maybe see a 5,6.7 dollar return for the year. In most ways this is more democratic and socalist than you realize. If they don't succeed investors pull their money and the company goes under. It is being able to vote with you feet.

Sorry ,I own ,lowes and home depot, not much, but I expect them to make money for me. Otherwise I would just put the money under my mattress.

Well, I hope you enjoy your pitiful slice of the pie that they seem to think is all you deserve at the cost of so many, including yourself.

I don't have any big investments in the stock market. The money I make is through the work of my hands & my mind. I won't begin to pretend to understand higher finances, but even in my ignorance of such things, I can see the writing on the wall for the most of us, & it ain't pretty when these mega corporations own our gov't. It will affect every aspect of our lives, & 99.999% of those effects wil be negative, from environmental concerns to simple economics to fair business practices, so much is bound to be sacrificed for the benefit of so few.

5% of the wealthy in this country pay 95% of the federal tax bill

That's pretty old data ...2000 ... and I bet that if you drilled down into the data ... this is far from the truth.

I'm not suggest to tax the hell out of big corp's, but they must pay their share. They benefit and use, way more infrastructure provided by goverment than you do or a small business.

All I know for sure, Glen, is that giving a corporation the same rights that you give a human being is about the stupidest thing a country can do. Of course, this is America, where ANYthing can be a person, even Wal-Frikken-Mart, with ALL the rights any other human has, like making tax-deductable donations of ANY size to the political candidate of its choice

I agree Phil ... what a stupid move. You can't put a corp in jail for wrong doing.

You keep singing the praises of the corporations like they are the end-all & be-all of this country's economic resources

That's what I said in an earlier post ... and I'm talking big corparations, not small businesses. This is big corp's propaganda and the mid class has bought into it and sing them praises ... I don't get it they don't have any social consensus ... it's all about the money and screw the world.

I am a small business owner just like you, and I am getting taxed right out of business. Sales are up and we are working more and harder than ever and the bottom line doesn't add up.

Glen this is what I'm talking about. You're a small businness owner and you are being taxed to death ... it go to my statement above. It's the big corp's that are making 100 billion a quarter in profit and paying a panrty 1 billion in taxes ... that's not right.

As far as corps go you have to remember who owns them. It is people like you and me that may have a retirement plan or ordinary stockholders that own $100 of Mcdonalds

Well in theory ... but the reality is they have very little say .. if they don't like what's going on in the corp they can always sell their stock, but may don't because greed and doing the wrong thing makes money .. and again screw the world. Most big Corp's are run by megalomaniac's and really don't care about the rest of us.

Most small businesses are run by people that care about their employees and what goes on in their communites. Of course there are alway exceptions.

When somebody like Warren Buffet come out and sez that he pays a very small amount of tax compaired to the rest of us middle class and he sez he should be paying a lot more ... that speaks to me.

I real don't have a dog in this fight, I on the other side of the border, Canada years ago started aggressively paying down it's debt and yes we paid high taxes for a while, but how our taxes are down quite a bit .. and the pain that we had to go though years ago has now put Canada in a better fiscal position. So the country has more options.

I'm a self employed too ... most of my life and have owned manufacturing companies with 50+ employees. Today there is just me ... I sell what I know and make a very good living at it.

I pay my taxes ... and grumble like anybody does ... but if the goverment has to raise taxes because of the current economic times ... I will gladly pay ... because I know there is no free ride ... everyone has to pay their share ... and the more profit you make the more you should pay. Been taxed on my profits has never stop me from growing any business that I've owned as long as it was a fair tax.

Ron

prevost all I can say is you really have not validated one thing you wrote.
You seem to be the one civil canadian around so I am just gonna say our president has finally realized we have to cut spending,he was admonished by the American people for trying to push through expensive bills,without adressing the ever growing problem of our economy,and the loss of taxpayer base.
I feel we just rounded some sort of corner because taxpayer loss,[JOBS] is suddenly more important than healthcare.
WHO THE HECK cares how healthy you are if you can't feed your family or pay the mortgage. What kind of life is that.
When you have a fire in the house, your first concern should't be to watch the end of your fav tv show.