This same person lamented, “Democracy is failing.” Let’s hope so. “Democracy,” at its base, is nothing more than mob rule; “two wolves and a lamb voting on what’s for dinner,” as one writer once observed. The United States were never supposed to be a democracy. The Founders loathed democracy as a form of government. Indeed, the word appears nowhere in any of our founding documents. The fact that most people today are enthralled with “democracy” demonstrates just how ignorant the populace has become.

If you don’t have ‘it’ (the money, house, car, etc.) then wine loudly, put your faith in a political party built on the premise that the government knows better and will take care of you looking out for your interests, and that ‘taxing the rich’ is the solution (at least in slogan) to everything whilst building on an ‘us vs. them’ theme ( exploiting and promoting a social class division in society) and creating hype about environmental issues – all the while whilst being a party of millionaires and living in large fule inefficient houses and touring the country and world in corporate jets)…

or

If you do have ‘it’, see the solution as putting your faith in a political party which claims it is against ‘big government’ (yet never seems to reduce the size of it when in power and spends billions on manufactured wars) and hides behind false slogans of morality and compassion ( creating and exploiting a different kind of hate of ‘us vs. them’) and displaying arrogance and ignorance in foreign affairs around the world….

When will America grow up and realize its time for new parties or disolution of the party system ?

Similarly, the rampant corruption of politicians in the Tammany Hall / Teapot Dome era led to politicians being in the pocket of industry. We don’t want to go back to that era either. The question is whether there is more to be done.

As of this year, I do make six figures (and in Canada that’s currently worth more than six figures in the US). Is my labour per hour really worth four times the labour of the people working at the doughnut shop where I get my late-night snacks? It’s what the market currently says it’s worth — but who says the market is perfect now? The market wasn’t perfect in Victorian Britain.

I don’t know who deserves six figures, but I know that everyone deserves good health care, good nutrition and the chance of getting a good education — not only those lucky enough to be born with a silver spoon in their mouths, and not only those who were lucky enough to be born with tremendous natural talents that help them transcend poverty.

I do not look down on the working class. I always treat the help with the utmost respect. That is why I encourage younger people to stop stressing out about college and learn how to cook food, wash cars, shine shoes, clean toilets, drive people around town, do dry cleaning, learn how to move furniture, and perform other tasks that seem menial. Higher education is not for everyone and learning a valuable trade or service job helps to keep society running. There is no such thing as a menial job.

Everytime my maid cleans my house and washes my clothes, I tell her “good job”.

Everytime my butler takes me to a meeting in my BMW 745, I say “good job”.

Everytime a waiter at a restaurant brings me my steak and lobster, I say “good job”.

Everytime I get a massage, I tell the person “good job”.

Good help is so hard to find.

About 90% of the people who leave disparaging comments about Walmart, complain about gas prices and call for the dissolution of petroleum manufacturers (all quite idiotic assertions, if I may be so bold) are those very working class, $8.25/hour individuals who have not had enough education to even grasp the most basic concepts about our economy and what select factors have a huge impact on it.

Yes, the truth hurts, but it’s true… and to see these people posting their hopelessly myopic and uneducated opinions is just sad. Really… if only a whole lot of you knew just what the heck you were talking about.

America was made great by your desire to succeed, now whist I fully appreciate the desire to have a conscience and fully support the concepts of supporting working and not allowing poverty, I can’t help feel that certain members of this forum are loosing their way with the much vaunted “American Dream”

The current economic success story of the last decade has been China. This has only happened due to them emulating America and her corporate ideals. Is this a good or a bad thing? Well that’s a matter for opinion. Personally, aside from the questionable environmental issues, most of us would agree that progress is a good thing. Proof of that being that we’re all reading this through the internet – something that would not be available had it not been for the huge multinationals that have the resources to invest in the infrastructure.

As for the social point that have been made regarding the treatment of workers in wall mart and so on, I’m lucky to live in a country with free unlimited health care to all, so perhaps cant grasp the conditions and experiences that you refer to, but having visited a Wall Mart on a recent trip to the States, I have to admit that it isn’t the most pleasant experience of my vacation, yet served a purpose and I got my Twinkie without a problem. Brilliant! (that’s irony before you all respond, not sure how well it translates in text format!)
Anyway, that’s my two cents…