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How Both the Republicans and the Democrats Have Joined Forces to Screw You

Trailblazer

Veteran Member
I agree that neither party cares but the problem isn't them its us. We still support them as if they are Gods.
I do not believe you can say a party does not care. People make up that party and those people either care or not.

I am not for a two party system because it creates so much rancor and division, and I think this system is on its way out.
 

Trailblazer

Veteran Member
They would be content, I agree. But our culture does not allow one to keep what they have without a constant struggle. Because we have allowed our culture to raise up and enable those who want it all. Those who want their own share, and your share, and my share, and everyone else's share. And who won't rest until they get it all. And still they will not have enough. They will want more. And as long as we keep enabling these pathological parasites, they will continue to take whatever we have, and whatever we get.
I do not know who you are talking about. What is the constant struggle? Why do you think some people are trying to take what others have? How are they doing that?
 

Saint Frankenstein

Here for the ride
Premium Member
He lost. He's a "loser" now in a culture that worships the "big winners" and despises the losers in life (as Trump, himself, does). They don't care about Trump or anyone else. They only care that we keep worshiping the "big winners", and despising and blaming the "losers". Because that's what they need to keep us turned against each other.
What are you talking about? The mainstream media and entertainment industry has been heaping scorn on Trump and his followers ever since he announced his candidacy in 2015. It's been a non-stop hate-a-thon to this day.
 

PureX

Veteran Member
I do not know who you are talking about. What is the constant struggle? Why do you think some people are trying to take what others have? How are they doing that?
The goal of a capitalist business enterprise is to create a commercial monopoly that can then charge the consumer the highest price it can bear to pay for the cheapest goods and services that can be reasonably produced. Because the one and only goal of capitalist commerce is to gain the maximum monetary return on the capital invested.

We used to have laws against creating commercial monopolies, but in the last 50 years they have all but been eliminated. And as these laws were struck down, the corporate monopolies increased in size and power. And as they have done so, they have increased their profit margins by charging more for products and services, while cutting costs in terms of quality, wages, environmental care, community responsibilities (taxes), honest and fair advertising, and in any and every other way possible. The result being that consumers pay more and more and more, and get less and less and less, in every aspect of commercial exchange.

How is it that you don't see this? It's been going on persistently for 50 years, or more! And as the citizenry has been squeezed of every 'extra' penny, they struggle and compete with each other for a smaller and smaller percentage of the nation's wealth. While a small number of very wealthy criminals get richer and richer, and use their great wealth to even further corrupt the government and eliminate even more of the laws protecting us from such economic exploitation and abuse.
 
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Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
For most of my life I rarely talked about or listened to politics, but because of what has been going on on this country lately I have become interested in politics.

I do not think that jealousy and envy are motives for politics. The reason I thought some people might be jealous of the super rich is because I analyze things from a psychological point of view, given that is my academic background.

That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the clarification. It's possible that I am underestimating the degree to which jealousy and envy play a role in American politics, but so far, my impression is most people are not inclined to it.

I see the notion that jealousy and envy are decisive or significant factors as being smoke and mirrors to distract people from the legitimate grievances they might have with the trends of the past 40 or so years, during which the middle class has grown poorer and poorer while the elite top 1% of the top 1% have grown richer and richer. For example, within the past 40 years, there has been a transfer of wealth from the middle class to the uppermost upper class of around 500 trillion dollars. That's a real concern -- and charges of "jealousy" and "envy" will not make it go away.
 

PureX

Veteran Member
What are you talking about? The mainstream media and entertainment industry has been heaping scorn on Trump and his followers ever since he announced his candidacy in 2015. It's been a non-stop hate-a-thon to this day.
This is just right wing media blaming the left wing media. It's silly gibberish.
 

Yerda

Veteran Member
America's elites feel they owe you nothing, and that your only value and worth in this world is to consume their products and services in order to make them even wealthier than they are. You're not a citizen to them, you're a consumer.
I think that for the most part we're cattle to them. All they want from us is our labour. They need us to turn up to work and they need us to do it as cheaply as possible. This is why unions have been treated as if they are Satan's greatest achievement by the corporate press for the past four or five decades and why union busting is so crazily intense, entrenched and professional in the USA.

It is also why strikes are pretty much the only weapon left for those who live by selling their labour.
 

Saint Frankenstein

Here for the ride
Premium Member
This is just right wing media blaming the left wing media. It's silly gibberish.
Wtf. You have to go out and seek "right-wing" media. I'm didn't say anything about "left-wing" media, as the MSM isn't really left-wing. It's owned by the same corporations you love to complain about. It's there every time you turn on your TV.
 

Unveiled Artist

Veteran Member
The super-rich pay taxes? Serious question. Did you mean that ironically?

Nope. Really. Here's what I found.

The rich generally pay more of their incomes in taxes than the rest of us. The top fifth of households got 54% of all income and paid 69% of federal taxes; the top 1% got 16% of the income and paid 25% of all federal taxes, according to the CBO.

I don't think people are like the father in duck tails floating over his cash. Probably more in stocks, business, etc
 

Yerda

Veteran Member
It's also not lost on some of us that most of what passes as progressive politics is silly squabling about who is oppressed the most. As if changing the skin tone or gender identities of the people who live off owning the things people need is going to amount to much more than a fart in the wind. It's not a threat to them. This is why wokeness is making its way through the corporate world faster than a vindaloo through a drunk man.
 

PureX

Veteran Member
Wtf. You have to go out and seek "right-wing" media. I'm didn't say anything about "left-wing" media, as the MSM isn't really left-wing. It's owned by the same corporations you love to complain about. It's there every time you turn on your TV.
Trump is a mascot, and distraction. The more they get us to pay attention to him, the more money they make from their advertisers, and the more easily the oligarchs that own them can hide their back-room deals with legislators that are dismantling the laws that used to protect us from them. Stop focusing on Trump and the media. Both are just a big puppet show intended to keep everyone distracted and confused while we're being systematically robbed blind.
 

Trailblazer

Veteran Member
How is it that you don't see this? It's been going on persistently for 50 years, or more!
I don't see it because I have been in my own private hell for most of the last 50 years struggling just to survive. As such, I never had time to pay attention to economic and social issues. But also, as a Baha'i I believe that equity and justice will eventually be established in the world so I do not concern myself with politics.
 

Father Heathen

Veteran Member

It would be an over-simplification to say that American elites of both major parties do not give a rat's butt about the average American's life or well-being, but not much of an over-simplification.

Basically, your leaders are beholden to super-rich billionaires and large corporations, both of which are drunk on asinine political and economic ideologies that absolve them of taking any meaningful social responsibility. So long as Wall Street is doing well, almost no one among the elites cares what happens to you.

The post-World War II social contract that brought about the largest and most prosperous middle class in world history began dying with Jimmy Carter, was kicked to shreds by Ronald Reagan, and buried by the presidents of both parties that came after Reagan.

America's elites feel they owe you nothing, and that your only value and worth in this world is to consume their products and services in order to make them even wealthier than they are. You're not a citizen to them, you're a consumer. They're not in this world with you, they're in this world against you.

So long as you are fighting among yourselves, and not uniting to fight them, you're getting what you deserve.

Just my two cents. Your mileage may vary.

But the unborn, gays, guns, God and The Soviets?!
 

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
Nope. Really. Here's what I found.

The rich generally pay more of their incomes in taxes than the rest of us. The top fifth of households got 54% of all income and paid 69% of federal taxes; the top 1% got 16% of the income and paid 25% of all federal taxes, according to the CBO.

I don't think people are like the father in duck tails floating over his cash. Probably more in stocks, business, etc


I assume you have carefully factored in those billions, if not trillions of dollars the rich park in offshore bank accounts where it cannot be taxed? Or the legal loopholes so many of them use to declare little or no taxable income? And perhaps you have also factored in how large corporations do pretty much the same things, plus a few other tricks, too. It's easy to say you have paid 69% of your income in taxes if you have only reported as taxable income a quarter or less of what you actually made.

UA, there is an economist at Stanford University who heads up a team of people that work almost exclusively on identifying and calculating how much the super-rich and large corporations avoid paying in taxes -- through both legal and illegal means. Now, unless you can tell me you yourself are an economist and the head of a team of economic and financial sleuths, I'm going to take his word that the sum is in the trillions of dollars and growing.
 

Saint Frankenstein

Here for the ride
Premium Member
Trump is a mascot, and distraction. The more they get us to pay attention to him, the mire money they make from their advertisers, and the more easily the oligarchs that own them can hide their back-room deals with legislators that are dismantling the laws that used to protect us from them. Stop focusing on Trump and the media. Both are just a big puppet show intended to keep everyone distracted and confused while we're being systematically robbed blind.
You think I don't know this stuff? It does seem to me that there's multiple layers to what's going on, and I don't feel like getting into that rabbit hole at the moment.
 
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