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Post by Kliquid on Feb 18, 2011 11:13:10 GMT -5
The biggest problem is, everyone wants our debt to go away, but nobody REALLY wants to do anything about it. False. |
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Post by T R W on Feb 18, 2011 11:16:37 GMT -5
The biggest problem is, everyone wants our debt to go away, but nobody REALLY wants to do anything about it. False. It was really more of a sweeping generalization. Your average person is not willing to sacrifice their social security, their pension, their healthcare, their tax breaks, their raises, and many other things. People are selfish. Sure, some people are willing to. But not a lot. Most people are not willing to sacrifice to make the debt go away. |
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Post by slappy on Feb 18, 2011 11:29:36 GMT -5
One of the lawmakers was on Parker/Spitzer last night. (No, I don't have a link to the interview)
He was saying that the budget hole that needed to be filled was $133 million dollars. Yet the Governor just gave businesses a total of $150 million in tax breaks.
I'm pretty sure if he hadn't done that there would be no need to have this bill.
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Post by Kliquid on Feb 18, 2011 11:42:33 GMT -5
It was really more of a sweeping generalization. Your average person is not willing to sacrifice their social security, their pension, their healthcare, their tax breaks, their raises, and many other things. People are selfish. Sure, some people are willing to. But not a lot. Most people are not willing to sacrifice to make the debt go away. What we need is a change in philosophy. We have to stop RELYING on the government to provide us with things. Anything, really. They have proven to be completely incapable of providing almost every service they have been put in charge of doing, with the exception of national DEFENSE (and no, not national OFFENSE). |
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Post by T R W on Feb 18, 2011 11:49:15 GMT -5
It was really more of a sweeping generalization. Your average person is not willing to sacrifice their social security, their pension, their healthcare, their tax breaks, their raises, and many other things. People are selfish. Sure, some people are willing to. But not a lot. Most people are not willing to sacrifice to make the debt go away. What we need is a chance in philosophy. We have to stop RELYING on the government to provide us with things. Anything, really. They have proven to be completely incapable of providing almost every service they have been put in charge of doing, with the exception of national DEFENSE (and no, not national OFFENSE). We are completely in agreement. What used to make America great was the opportunity to be able to provide for yourself and your family. Now people seem to think that by being born here it's like a lottery ticket for a grab bag of free crap. People are more interested in spending their money on luxuries and unnecessary items than on essentials for their well being. When did we become a nation of children dependant on our parents (government) to provide us with everything? It's frustrating, and I only see things changing if something catastrophic happens. |
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Post by slappy on Feb 18, 2011 11:57:39 GMT -5
What we need is a chance in philosophy. We have to stop RELYING on the government to provide us with things. Anything, really. They have proven to be completely incapable of providing almost every service they have been put in charge of doing, with the exception of national DEFENSE (and no, not national OFFENSE). We are completely in agreement. What used to make America great was the opportunity to be able to provide for yourself and your family. Now people seem to think that by being born here it's like a lottery ticket for a grab bag of free crap. People are more interested in spending their money on luxuries and unnecessary items than on essentials for their well being. When did we become a nation of children dependant on our parents (government) to provide us with everything? It's frustrating, and I only see things changing if something catastrophic happens. I was at Wal-Mart a while back and this woman was complaining on the phone to someone that she couldn't afford to do something because her government check wasn't big enough that month to get whatever the person on the phone wanted. Now the worse part. She had one of those flat bed carts and she was pushing a very large flat screen TV. So apparently her government check was big enough to buy her a flat screen TV. |
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Post by Kliquid on Feb 18, 2011 12:12:47 GMT -5
I was at Wal-Mart a while back and this woman was complaining on the phone to someone that she couldn't afford to do something because her government check wasn't big enough that month to get whatever the person on the phone wanted. Now the worse part. She had one of those flat bed carts and she was pushing a very large flat screen TV. So apparently her government check was big enough to buy her a flat screen TV. And meanwhile, my best friend, who is basically one step up physically from Stephen Hawking, gets about $750/mo. Unreal. |
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Post by T R W on Feb 18, 2011 12:17:04 GMT -5
Yeah, I do remember that when I was 16, and my mother was in the hospital unable to work, they wouldn't even give us food stamps so I could have groceries. SO I went out and work. I have been providing for myself since that day. I was working at a grocery store, and would see people come in all the time with food stamps that were driving mercedes and had designer clothes. But there I was 16, working for $4.25 an hour to try and pay the bills in the house and put food on my plate with no available assistance. Drove me nuts.
All of these public systems have their place, but are so loosely regulated, and the people receiving the benefits have no accountability for it. Just drives me crazy.
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hbkrules
Main Eventer
WF 10 Year Member
Joined on: Jun 18, 2002 11:49:32 GMT -5
Posts: 2,115
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Post by hbkrules on Feb 19, 2011 23:33:20 GMT -5
I have respect for teachers but in todays world with all the overspending that local governments have done everyone has to cut back. Teachers work 40 hours a week, never work weekends, get 3 months off for summer, 2 weeks at christmas plus every other holiday. The average teacher makes between 50k-60k a year plus 15 to 20k in benefits for a grand total of 65-80K. I'm sorry but that is not reasonable pay for 9 months of work. Also teachers are given tenure and cannot be fired after working for three years. Seriously if you do a good job for three years it becomes almost impossible to fire you. After you have tenure what incentive is there for you to continue to do the best job possible. What is so unreasonable about having performance reviews every 5 years to weed out underperforming teachers. No private sector company would ever grant someone lifetime employment based on three years of service. Also unlike everyone else who is going to be out of luck when it comes time to collect on social security, teachers have guaranteed pensions. The current model of teachers pay is simply not sustainable. The options are to break the unions power and cut pay or go bankrupt.
I personally think all schools should just be private anyway. The gov does a poor job. Private schools spend less money per student while at the same time generating higher test scores.
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Post by slappy on Feb 20, 2011 2:55:20 GMT -5
Well, teachers here starting out make $25,000.
You have to be here decades before you even make close to $40,000.
Their job doesn't end when the school day does.
We are fine here, we had a budget surplus of $133 million for 2011. Scott Walker came in and spent it for the sole purpose of fighting this fight.
It's not impossible to fire a teacher with tenure.
Teachers are also going to school to further their own education to keep with the times so they can continue to teach the children.
Also kind of hard to have the greatest teachers ever when they have to teach to a test that determines funding. It's bullshit.
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Post by becausethenight on Feb 23, 2011 0:13:16 GMT -5
I have respect for teachers but in todays world with all the overspending that local governments have done everyone has to cut back. Teachers work 40 hours a week, never work weekends, get 3 months off for summer, 2 weeks at christmas plus every other holiday. The average teacher makes between 50k-60k a year plus 15 to 20k in benefits for a grand total of 65-80K. I'm sorry but that is not reasonable pay for 9 months of work. Damn, I should tell all of my near-poverty teacher friends to move out to wherever you live, because most of them have been teaching for 5 years or more and are still making only about $30k including benefits... not to mention the fact that one of them is an 8th-grade history teacher who works from dusk until midnight on her students' assignments. Most of them also take summer jobs that they have to work while also preparing their curriculums for the upcoming year. I'm not a college graduate and am currently interviewing for jobs where I would be starting at closer to $40k. And that is for entry-level jobs without prior experience. To me as a father, teachers are among the very most important resources in the country. With literacy rates near an all-time high and graduation rates near an all-time low, I feel that public school teachers need to be taken care of way better than they are now. If the job paid in proportion to its importance, more talented people would be willing to do the work, and our sons and daughters would have much brighter futures than they might currently have. I would personally be willing to pay higher taxes if I knew the money was being distributed directly to public education. |
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