I'm finding a lot of this stuff really interesting. Some of the stuff is kinda creepy though, like how kids will be experts on like every subject. Feels like it's taking away people's humanity.

Henry17,



We are coming for you.

I'm generally a pretty lazy person(something im working on changing) but if these people put the energy they expend in these protests into their own life, job, school ect... I feel like then they would realize what they're doing doesn't really matter and a waste of time

there is always work out there if you are willing to do it

unfortunately the way society is they do have the point that it is cheaper for us to pay off the dredges with taxes collected on backs of those of us who do work instead of having to deal with an uproar.

Yeah, the government has done a horrible thing over the past number of decades by slowly but surely training people to expect government help at every single turn. People are now just conditioned differently than they used to be, and not in a positive way.

Unfortunately it's not the type of thing that you can fix overnight, if ever. Even if Ron Paul was able to get in and had a cooperative congress, even he has stated his awareness that you can't just suddenly cut all the help overnight (even if much of it shouldn't have existed to begin with).

In conclusion, LBJ is the worst thing that ever happened to the entire world.

this thread will not devolve into politarding.

here's a picture of a dog with a hat.

that's a nice looking dog you've got there.

No.

No.

People aren't mad because they want government handouts, people are mad because of a corrupt government that does the bidding of the rich and powerful so they can accumulate more wealth while the middle and lower classes get hung out to dry.

that is my child.

i have the privilege of passing these ****** protesters every day omw to work. what ******s, they don't even don't know what they're protesting/what they want.

nobody is getting hung out to dry. ppl are lazy and want to be saved from their stupidity. nobody told joe "60k salary" schmo to buy a mcmansion he couldn't afford and when it got foreclosed he's gonna bitch and moan about credit default swaps and other crap that he doesn't understand.

dodd-frank is largely a piece of garbage and will hurt the economy more than it's going to help.

I wasn't suggesting that people were mad because they want government handouts. They would have no reason to be mad on that front; now, more than ever before, they get those handouts. They're just pissed that corporate America has found a way to get in on the free money too. It's not that their complaint is without any legitimacy; it's just that in most of their cases, their complaint is fraught with inconsistency when combined with their other views in general.

(It's not like I like corporate bailouts either.)

I know a lot of middle class families that are doing fine because they arent mouthbreathers who bought things they couldnt afford. people hung themselves

yeah but soon they will be eating you so pretty sure they win

Comparing stuff like "carrying out perpetual war to the benefit of defense companies" and "rewarding campaign donations + lobbying efforts with corporate tax breaks" to welfare programs is so hugely lol. The lower dredges of society aren't paying off politicians to get their benefits.

Why are you blaming the victims of predatory lending? These people weren't like "I know I can't afford a house but I'M AMERICAN AND I'M ENTITLED TO ONE." These people were told by banks with ****ty lending practices that they could afford it, and why not? The mortgages were insured and the banks sold them off as investments so they weren't even on the hook for them.

The meme of this all being the fault of greedy, lazy lower class is hilarious. Pretty ****ing easy to thumb your nose at them when you're doing fine.

I harbor no doubts that I'm where I am in life not because I worked my ass off for it, but because I was born to parents that could raise me in a nice place and send me to college, and because I won the genetic lottery in being capable of doing an intellectually demanding job. Maybe you guys should think about where you would be in life if you weren't so lucky.

ha they are actually living pretty good right now. they have little shops setup, food, all kinds of nice ****. they also deposited 40k into the bank across the street and my guess is that it's being used to ensure they have plenty of food/water etc

theyll get bored soon tho

Nobody said that what the financially lower class is doing is dirty; as I said, they've just kind of been nursed into being these helpless fools who expect to have their hand held from cradle to grave.

They're not participating in any shady deals, but they're happily consenting to a situation where other hard-working citizens subsidize them at every turn. Those, of course, are the real sympathetic characters...those citizens who are genuinely working as hard as they can to make their way, asking for nothing, but being forced through immoral means to part with their money.

Like I said, there's legitimacy within the complaints of some of these protesters, but when I see on-the-street interviews and footage of speeches being made at these, it's pretty hard to deny that whatever correct points these people are hitting on, they're clearly arriving there by pure accident.

My parents have a business that was doing well at one time but has totally tanked in the past few years during the economic downturn. They are not doing well. Like...not at all. They're hitting retirement age and now my dad can't reasonably retire because hard times hit at the worst point possible. I'm just a struggling student who hopes to get a job that keeps me above the poverty line.

While I am a straight white male, admittedly all points of innate privilege, I have to think that you're imagining me coming from a far place of greater privilege than I am at all. I'm just arguing a position of fairness; I'm not really arguing anything that is even in my own self-interest.

funny story-- a friend of mine stopped a protester with a "STOP DERIVATIVES" sign and asked why he feels that way. guy didn't even know what it meant.

I won't feign surprise at that.

the vast majority of ppl who are poor are poor by choice. the few justifiable exceptions are ppl with health issues that prevent them from working, going to school, etc.

i was born into the poorest of poor family (way below poverty line) and had to work hard for everything i have. life isn't fair. these ppl can either work hard like i did or stand or the street like an idiot and hold up a sign for 12 hours. they are wastes of oxygen, imo.

the biggest problem is the whole "u can be anything u want to be!!!!" american attitude. guess what? you can't!!!! the world needs janitors and garbage men and cashiers. all these kids who sink 300k into college to study lesbian philosophy don't deserve jobs because they contribute nothing to society. once parents stop telling their kids that they can grow up and be a astronaut/secret agent/vampire slayer then maybe **** will begin to sort itself out.

Goofyballer,

I might be a born in suburbia white kid, but if I needed money I wouldn't be camping outside holding a sign up. And if one of these doofuses was born into a rich family he'd be looking down on the protesters too.


Oh, and I consider all people swindled by salesman/banks/whatever idiots who dug their own grave. That might be harsh but whatever.

I wasn't saying you specifically LKJ, nor do I picture any one person in particular as coming from a place of great privilege, but on the whole 2+2 is largely populated with college-age people that had the privilege of being able to take up poker in their spare time instead of getting a real job. The average member of this site is way more privileged than an average member of society, which is why it tilts me so hard to see everyone here being like "lol poor people, maybe if they just worked harder they would be rich," which is an insanely arrogant point of view.