Why is America so screwed up?

[Maryland Patriot]

If he wants his 6 pack in the privacy of his house and he worked hard to earn it then he can have it.

Is that any less of an addiction to a drug?

 

[initforme]

Considering the god awful rat race the us is, its no wonder people need a 6 pack. Americans love their booze and I for one dont blame em. Gotta survive somehow.

 

[initforme]

Nope, its an addiction.

 

[Maryland Patriot]

Considering the god awful rat race the us is, its no wonder people need a 6 pack. Americans love their booze and I for one dont blame em. Gotta survive somehow.

but its still an addiction to a substance.
thinking of it, a hard core alcoholic can die during detox.
a hard core opiate addict might wish they were dying during detox, but they wont.
alcohol is a much worse drug to be addicted too.
and lets refer to it as an addiction, because medically speaking, thats what alcoholism is, an addiction to a chemical.

 

[initforme]

Agreed. Its a big problem.. Prohibition could never fix it. One thing Americans are good at...getting drunk and stoned. We are experts. That and eating junk.

 

[SassyIrishLass]

If he wants his 6 pack in the privacy of his house and he worked hard to earn it then he can have it.

Is that any less of an addiction to a drug?

 

[the_human_being]

If he wants his 6 pack in the privacy of his house and he worked hard to earn it then he can have it.

Yes but he damned well had better not drink a large sugary soft drink or we'll put his sorry ass in jail.

 

[Unkotare]

I agree. $12 an hour means no paycheck. But people stay on those jobs. Why? Those jobs hurt people yet they stay on.

Leave it to a lefty to see honest work as 'harmful.'

 

[Maryland Patriot]

Corporate powers and wall street controlling legislation to their advantage. Crony capitalism a close second. Its all intertwined. Greed is the overall culprit. That and jobs that pay $10, even $12 per hour.

The jobs that only pay $10.00 to $12.00 per hour are only worth that much. What's your complaint? Should industry overpay their workers because you think it's the right thing to do? How about the worker making themselves worth more money than the government making them worth more money?

10 and 12 dollar an hour jobs are pretty much meant for high school/college kids and retired people.
They are not meant to be a means to support a family of 4 in a million dollar home with 5 new BMWs in the driveway.
If you are working a job at that pay rate and are not retired or a student, then you really need to examine your life and find out what it is that went wrong... and fix it.

 

[Maryland Patriot]

If you are a worker that has skills that are in demand, you use those skills as a chip against your employer. Simple economics. Work smarter, not harder. Be on the lookout for better jobs constantly. Make your employer nervous you might walk away at any time.

I cant think of a single low paying job that the employer is going to care if you walk away at any time.

 

[initforme]

Agreed. Well said

 

[Little-Acorn]

Why is America so screwed up?


Because it's made up of imperfect humans.

And recently, a number of them scraping the bottom of the barrel, trying to change the country's laws and customs and making it legal to steal stuff if you can get a 51% vote. Namely, modern liberals.

 

[Iceweasel]

Ummm.. yeah the working poor pay payroll taxes.

Can you source that?

Not true, the federal government imposes excise and sales taxes as well (although the feds like to call sales taxes "user fees");
For example : the federal government imposes an excise tax on every gallon of gasoline (currently around $0.18), they impose fees on airline tickets, hotel rooms (and a plethora of other services) at the point of sale.

Gasoline is special, it's supposed to cover road work. Then you mention hotels, airfare, etc. You have a really unique definition of working poor!

Not only to support government but to subsidize those that are NOT poor, the big lie that the left tells itself is that the welfare state is a boon to the poor when in fact the lions share of the subsidies and entitlements it hands out go to the middle and upper income brackets, in other words under the current system government is the single biggest creator of income inequality and these douche bags want to make it bigger and more powerful, while at the same time bitching about income inequality; Talk about cognitive dissonance.

Do you have specific examples?

 

[Iceweasel]

I don't do drugs other than blood pressure. But the illegal drug war is lost. Why fight it? Losing proposition. People will do what they do. What are the reasons to make them illegal?

So more people don't do them. It always cracks me up when I hear some idiot declare the war on drugs is lost. I guess we should give up on the "war" on murder and rape too.

 

[the_human_being]

 

[the_human_being]

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Because we have enough people on our welfare system as it is. It's my experience that people who do opiate type of drugs can't work. They just sit there staring out in space wondering where their next fix will come from.

Well then perhaps government should stop forcing tax payers to subsidize drug users that refuse to work, just because the welfare state is a complete bunk doesn't justify government telling adults what they can and cannot put into their own bodies. Do you think you own your own body? or do you believe that government owns your body?

Another reason why drugs are illegal is so that nobody breaks into my home looking for drug money or merchandise they can sell for the same.

Are you suggesting that the making drugs illegal has put an end to burglary? Drugs are illegal now and because they are illegal they are bought and sold at highly inflated black market prices thus creating a larger incentive for drug users to break into your house to acquire the necessary funds to pay for their unnecessarily expensive habits.

I don't want these losers near my children on the street, nor convincing them to join their lifestyle. That's why drugs are illegal in this country.

In other words you depend on government to raise your children to be drug free? are you incapable of doing that yourself? If that's the case your children are doomed to drug dependency since just because drugs are illegal doesn't mean your children can't get them whenever they want.

This is true, but kids can be influenced easily and parents can't watch them every minute of the day. It's also true that kids can be influenced even though illegal, but the chances are much less than if drugs were legal. Legalizing drugs makes it not as bad to try.

The black market has nothing to do with criminals breaking into your home and stealing your belongings. Even if legal, they would still need drug money and the prices wouldn't be that much lower due to taxes. Colorado and Washington still have black market pot and it's legal there. Just like the mob still operates where gambling is legal. They even use the lottery numbers for their games as well, it's just that the payout is more.

As for welfare, when we fix that first, then I may change my stance on narcotics. But as it is, we will never end the welfare state for those that don't want to work and I see no advantage of putting more people on it. Because when you make something legal that was once illegal, the only result is more people using the new legal substance.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

What some druggie does in his house has zero effect on me. Taking away their drugs isn't going to make them work. Many hard working people use illegal drugs...and they are no less productive. Surprising, but doesn't bother me whatsoever.

That's not true because most good jobs have drug testing for their employees. Employers get an insurance discount if they do.

 

[Timmy]

Half of all American school children are living in poverty.

50 million are on food stamps.

Half of us do not vote.

More than 60 percent of Americans are overweight or obese.

We are trillions of dollars in debt.

We are more divided than ever.

Politics has turned into one big reality show.

The Washington elites don't give a damn.

When will this madness end? Is America the 21st Century equivalent of Rome? How did we get to this point?

Don't be such a drama queen. It's all first world problems .

You should appreciate how good we have it . No worry of Nuke war, the economy is going along , unemployment is low , the country is doing pretty good .

 

[Arizona Willie]

Do the hilarious social commentators who have posted "socialism" and claims of far left leadership as an answer to the question by the OP actually believe that shit? I mean really? Or are they just using a joke which kinda lost its edge half way through the current CINC's first term?

Firstly America is about as far from left wing as it is able to be in this world no matter who is in charge and secondly if you look to the genuine left leaning developed countries in europe they all seem top be doing a hell of a lot better in terms of obesity, national debts and mass shootings (but then they're not allowed guns to do it with)

Countries that are top dog fall because they become complacent but this trend tales decades rather than years and it doesn't matter if Dems or Reps are in charge, the trend is the same and has been for a long time. Chinese simply work harder on average for less pay and so are hoovering up the world's money in a way that the USA did in its hayday. Romne didn't fall overnight and neither will the USA, but it is on its way down as the global superpower. No partisan political whining will stop this and both political parties will do their all to slow it as much as is possible.

That was hilarious. Even moreso since you pretended to be unbiased while making the charge. We are only as liberal as we can be in the modern world? And you dare question others' judgment?

Europe has big problems too, that doesn't make ours better but 19 trillion in debt is inexcusable. And it's those liberal social policies that are running us into the ground. Entitlement spending is way out of control. Regulations way out of control. The size and scope of government way out of control. Education is often not much more than government programming young minds to be good little socialists. Individual responsibility and self determination are swept away in favor of politically correct group think where nothing is more important than feelings.

We are turning into a nation of dependent pussies because America is guided by a media driven agenda to make government our masters.

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Iceweasel bleated this "We are turning into a nation of dependent pussies because America is guided by a media driven agenda to make government our masters. "
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Over 90% of all " media " is owned and operated by SIX REPUBLICAN OWNED AND OPERATED CORPORATIONS.

The Executives are REPUBLICANS.

They tell the Talking Heads what to say and how and when to say it.

You are correct that " media " has had a disproportionate influence in America but it is NOT a Liberal media. The media has been pushing right wing objectives for a long long time. Getting the illegals to stay and work for American business has been a long term goal and the media has been saturated almost daily with sob stories about invading alien families being broken up because a member gets deported.