Slashdot Mirror
A Tale of Two Countries
theodp writes "Over at TechCrunch, Jon Bischke is troubled by the growing divide between Silicon Valley and unemployed America. While people who spend most of their days within a few blocks of tech start-up epicenters are enjoying a boom/bubble, the number of unemployed now eclipses 14 million nationwide, labor under-utilization is 16.2%, and the mean duration of unemployment has spiked to 40 weeks. 'Which bring us to an important question,' writes Bischke. 'Should Silicon Valley (and other tech clusters throughout the country) care? After all, as long as people in Nebraska or the Central Valley of California have enough money to buy virtual tractors to tend their crops in Farmville, should the tech community be worried about whether those same people are getting paid to do work in the real world? Is what's best for Silicon Valley also good for America?'"
The housing market in & around DC has continued to fall
- ORLY? That's not what the data says.
And who the hell said we don't pay income tax? If not, then something screwy is going on in payroll; at least a third of my check is gone before I ever see it
- your salary is 2/3rds of what you think it is.
In private sector one produces something to make money off the sales of some sort, the money comes from other private individuals, this money is then raided by the government. THAT is income tax.
In public sector the money is already collected by raiding incomes of others, by borrowing and printing. Now they just have to distribute it, including to their employees. Since it doesn't make sense to give you money just to take it away immediately, they make it look like you are paying a tax, but in reality it's your salary that's 2/3rds of what's on paper.
just like every other American worker out there.
- right. Like all those other Americans, who actually have to work for near half the year to pay their taxes, is that what you are saying? All those Americans who can't have a decent economy, because there are near 30 million people working directly or indirectly for US government? All those Americans who are not allowed to do what they prefer with their money and are forced by the government to give it up for all the things, including SS and Medicare and Wars, while the gov't is printing the money and destroying the savings capital, so that the dollar is truly left being worth nothing, so while they are paying their taxes today in more expensive dollars, when it's their turn to get the SS back, they'll either get nothing (or more likely) will get checks with many zeros on them, but nothing to buy with them?
this myth of "the luxury of government work" really pisses me off.
- happy to piss you off. Hope you get fired, and 99.99% of the others like you too. The sooner you get fired, the better. The sooner you get fired, the quicker the economy will start healing.
The sooner the government is fired, the freer the people will be, the freer the economy will be, the more valuable the currency will be, the more savings there will be and more business will be created.
And you will get fired and you will have to then do something else, something that others in economy will actually find useful. I am sure you think you are doing something important and useful, but as long as you are a government employee, the economy needs to you cease and desist.
Yes, I've got a great job, and good job security. But I also ride crappy public transit, sleep in a crappy one-bedroom apartment, eat lunch in a room of coworkers eating PB&J or last night's leftovers, watch TV on a CRT with the beginning stages of burn-in, and sleep on a crappy freecycle mattress because I had to choose between buying a couch or a bed.
- that's why economy needs you out of that and into something productive.
I'm not asking for pity. Hell, I'm not even asking for a raise. I'm just asking people to quit the public-sector bashing.
- reduce the government to be under 1% of spending, reduce it to under 1% of taxes, then it'll stop.
You can't handle the truth.
Any industry that had as much demand for increased services as the government has would be growing at the same rate.
- government does not produce anything, and whatever it distributes, it collects from others, who are compelled to contribute by force. So when you say 'demand', I say - sure. There is always demand for free stuff.
Free stuff is always in demand. Too bad there is no such thing as free stuff, somebody ACTUALLY produces it.
Who said that? We just aren't taking YOU seriously when you make assinine statements like "government workers don't pay income taxes" and "the workers are famous, they are swamped by armies of lobbyists". Tell that to the DMV person at the counter the next time you renew your driver's license.
- why would I go to DMV? Besides which, I am against any government taxes and subsidies, I am surely against subsidies to infrastructure.
Or the census worker who stops by your door when you refuse to return your census paperwork.
- oh yes, a world wonder of government productivity - the census worker.
Or the letter carrier. The only thing I don't know, in this case, is which one will punch your lights out first.
- well, they don't say 'going postal' for nothing, do they? AFAIC this government monopoly also shouldn't exist.
Anyway, I have to split, it's late night, sleep is, after all, something we all need.
You can't handle the truth.
Anyone who doesn't save enough to maintain themselves for long enough to find themselves another job is financially illiterate. Then again, that describes most of America, unfortunately.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
wtf you want me to pay out of fear? That's the worst reason of all....where did you get that idea, listening to Bush?
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
incredulously false claims.
- you do realize, you are like a twentieth commenter here with the same BS? You should have read what is written already.
Gov't workers do not pay income taxes because the money that they get from gov't was money that gov't already collected, it's money gov't already had. It pays you the money so that it can collect it back from you, that's not income taxes, that's an illusion created to make it look like gov't workers pay income taxes.
To pay income taxes you have to genuinely earn the money, not from gov't, but from private trade, so that gov't can come in and raid whatever you made via income taxes. Income taxes is money, raided from real workers in real economy (though by the looks of it, now the only economy left in US is gov't, which is my point.)
Any money that you get from gov't as an employee, which then ends up shuffled back to the gov't is not real income taxes, because it doesn't come from any real income. It's gov't shuffling the money it already has to create an illusion.
You can't handle the truth.