Not if you live in the same place. You might decide to start spending more, but that doesn't meant that the cost of living has increased.
How so? If I get a raise, my house payment doesn't go up, my car payment stays the same, my utilities stay the same. I'll pay more income tax, but still see a net gain in salary.
I know glynch just trolled with the "Let's hear it conservos and libertarians. Defend the system." statement. But if this story is true, you can't simply say he needed to be more fiscally responsible. Very very few of us know about medical costs. But ya, if he made $100k a year for several years, I would expect that he would have a helluva insurance plan.
So why the 'Only in America' ????? Very sad story. I know of dozens similar due to the layoffs in our region and across the nation. It could happen to me tomorrow...heck today! Would I BLAME America??!!! Nope. Bad Luck sucks for everyone. Heck, I'm happy I was fortunate enough not to be born in the desert living in a house made of dung and sticks. I'm LUCKY to live here. The OP is too. He just doesn't have enough common sense to realize it. What would the outcome be in Glynch's 'Utopia'??? Give us solutions or quit b****ing....geeez!!!
lol I can only hope that this is from one of those 14 year olds who just read Atlas Shrugged for extra credit over the summer.. If not, oh well. Fox News strikes again.
I am not sure you understand Atlas Shrugged. My comment has nothing to do with Objectivism. What does Fox News have to do with anything?
I cannot defend a system that allows a skilled machinist to expect to be paid $100,000 U.S. dollars a year. That kind of system could bankrupt a whole nation when other nations start competing in the same businesses.
Assuming you are being sarcastic... If it makes you feel any better, given the shortage of skilled machinists when the economy is hot, he probably was working a lot of overtime so we don't have to worry about him lacking the moral fiber of say a bond salesman for Goldman Sachs.
No, let people believe it is the system that screwed this guy over. Never mind the personal responsibility that comes with being an adult and making decent money. 100k for 30 years? Did the guy employ a financial planner? Did he have long term and short term disability & catastrophic medical insurance supplements? Did he have life insurance with the convertible feature that allows the person to collect the full face value of the policy if they become permanently disabled? As is usually the case, I'm sure he was quite underinsured but that's not his fault. Instead of the freedom to spend money as we please apparently the solution to this problem-freedom the 'system' allows- is we need a nanny state to save people from themselves.
You are absolutely correct. The market should determine his worth. One could even argue that labor unions are a natural component of capitalism and "enhance" his worth by making it cheaper in the long run to retain his services at a pay scale the union agrees upon.........regardless of what the market determines a skilled machinist is worth overseas. As our economy does become more global though, I do wonder how sustainable this is. Maybe labor unions in China and India will spring up to give us some equilibrium. I sure hope so........it seems so much cheaper to send my son to trade school rather than college.
So let's blame America then. If he wasn't able to make $100K a year in the first place this would've never happened. If the wealth was distributed equally across this god awful country he unfortunately lived in, then his $20K a year that he made for being extraordinarly skilled at his trade would've been applied for rent at an inner urban housing complex. Let's ignore the $2,500 per month his cr@py government give him for his wife's disability. That won't help Glynch's arguement that it's America's fault and we're the only country where people fall upon bad luck. Seriously, this is a sad story and there's way worse situations out there. I just don't get why you choose to use this guy and his family's misfortune to somehow imply that this could only happen in America. That is the title of this thread, right? Heck, I thought I was going to be reading about how a poor immigrant can make something for himself with hard work. No....that's a lie. The author of the thread led me to believe this was his typical anti-American rhetoric. Shame on you for using him as an example. I'll pray for him, his family and even you, Glynch.
True. But you can't say very few of us know to build a safety net in case something bad happen, like 401K, Aflec, life insurance etc. If the story is true and has all the details, it strikes me shocking that the guy in his 50s made bad investment in real estate, no 401k, no other back ups. I do think there is always room to improve the system to better the default safety net, but any of such effort shouldn't predicate on a goal to relive individual reckless financial decisions.
I've never been a big fan of modern day unions, though I see a watchdog type use for them, thinks like working conditions, safe work place environment advocates, etc... But their main role these days are salary, contracts, salary and salary. Salary should be dictated by worth and a minimum standard. I'll vote for the first person who can weaken their power in California, Democrat or Republican. That said, I really think health care should be within the reach of every American without bankrupting them. At the present, it's not. It should not be in realm of capitalism because getting seriously ill is not something you can help. You can't choose not to be sick. It doesn't matter how hard you work and with the cost of health care today, all your life savings can be wiped out in an instant. IMO Health cost is the biggest killer of the American dream. At worse, health care should be subsidized with co-pays. Luckily my parent's contracting business is doing fairly well, but they can't retire until they reach 65 solely because of Health care cost. As for the the guy making 100K a year, what happens if he was a hard working making only 40K (national average) a year? and surely, he wasn't making 100K for 30 straight years.
I think glynch has proven that he is not capable of being objective. He is what you call a far left extremist.
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