Tell me about it........I owe income tax every year. It started with being single, and doing a 6.40 a hour job when I returned to town...I only ate at work. Then I "moved up" to a 10.00 job...same same...owe the IRS...now at a huge 11.25 a hour job(and reducing deductions.......I owe them 500. Ya....that 23,000 a year with 1 deduction....tell me how the LOWER MIDDLE CLASS IS DOING? This is no b.s.

Ya....life is good

Economics is more like a personal question for me. I don't discuss it because people are extremely ignorant and stupid.

it's okay though i don't care...Carry on though.

I'm just watching the show

[edit on 18-4-2010 by Kingdom of darkness]

i loved this article
S&F

it was amazing to see how budgeting works
out every month during a recession/depression
til there is no longer a middle class.

Here's your options:

1) You're filthy rich or just one step away from it

2) You live off welfare and are a slave to the system

the American Dream is dead

Let's quit with the irrelevant, mindless droning jobs, and actually learn how to do something practical that could benefit a lot of people, and establish a bartering system.

Originally posted by boondock-saint


the American Dream is dead

It isn't dead for the people you call filthy rich.

They can buy foreclosed homes and stock at pretty good prices right now.

And even though the exchange rate is not great they can still shift money into assets overseas where there are bargains to be had. Especially in the tax havens.

The ptb know that if they destroy you at school, your effectively screwed for life, and always going to be just above water if you are at all.

The system is made for them, and at least the net has shown that the american dream is not even that, they do not even give you any chance to dream.

The concept of bi-weekly paychecks are absolutely blowing my mind. Read this quote:

Now, $45K in income spread out over 26 pay periods (every two weeks), means a bi-weekly paycheck of $1,730 and monthly income of $3,460. This is the money “Joe America” and his family to live off of in 2008.

A bi-weekly income of $1,730 should not make a monthly income of $3,460. Why? There are 4 1/3 weeks in each month on average instead of 4! Therefore, there are 4 1/3 divided by 2 = 2.21667 bi-weekly paychecks in an average month. Therefore, a bi-weekly income of $1,730 leads to a monthly income of $1,730 x 2.21667 = $3,835. Of course if that were the case then the annual income after tax would be $46,020... but it is defined to be $45,000 in the article. In fact, I looked at the calender for this year and went through it and counted 27 bi-weekly pay periods if you count Friday, Jan 1 as the first payday. Therefore, this year the individual could have earned $46,710 rather than the stated $45,000.

Posts like these are what spread rumors about spoiled Americans. Our poorest are richer then then the impoverished in other countries.

Do you have electricity? Great. Your not poor.

Own a tv? Movies? Congrats, your better off already then most of the impoverished world.

What it really is that American's not having the latest 3D HD tv, is poor.

Originally posted by boondock-saint


the American Dream is dead

Not for me! I received a good public education, I studied hard and learned how to think and recognize opportunities. I read books on how other successful entrepreneurs had made their fortunes and applied the information I learned to my own endeavors.

I have made obscene amounts of money and gone broke too from stupid business decisions that I take absolute responsibility for.

I have now started a brand new company and expect to capitalize on the improving economy.

The American Dream is alive and well for those not afraid to get their hands dirty, work, and quit their crybaby whining and do something.

This whining BS is really getting old. Man up for Christ sake.

Write a proposal, search the web for some venture capital and get to work.
It's not as hard as you might think.

In life you should be able to make the best out of yourself, instead of monsters in government and police desperate to destroy you.

Andy, that's just a goddamn excuse and you know it!



[edit on 18-4-2010 by whaaa]

If wealth is an indicator of happiness and success then you are doomed to be unhappy unless you're one of the lucky few.


I am happy as can be, and I have neither wealth nor lots of material possessions. What I do have is plenty of time due to the fact that I have chosen not to work my self to the bone in order to be "successful". I have a job in which I give as little time as possible, I do not need the trappings of wealth, because then I would have to give up the most valuable commodity of all, TIME. I am not willing to do that.

I get to spend lots of time with my friends and family at the cost of not having an IPHONE, seems like a bargain to me.

This is a defensive measure, on behalf of the Ruling Elites and Oligarchs during times of major political change and upheaval.

By shrinking the size of the available pie, that we all share and eat from, they ratchet up the competition between the masses to fight harder for a piece of the dwindling pie.

Rather than then focus on, and perhaps, meaningfully work against the people and things causing the political changes and upheavals, you are instead focused on trying to maintain sustenance, and the competition within your own social/economic strata a peer group for a slice of that pie.

These leaves the elites and their agenda virtually unmolested and unchallenged by the masses, and encourages the divide and conquer, order our of chaos behavior, that their system of artificial scarcity and hording abundant resources is all about.

Invariably some people, like some posters have already displayed on this thread, will tell us to look towards the lowest possible common denominator, and to be thankful, that we have yet to hit that rock bottom, versus looking towards the highest possible common denominator, and quantifying and qualifying, why these machinations are being deployed to our detriment and to what end.

In this fashion, we are then made to in theory be as guilty as those running the system with artificial scarcity.

Eventually though what we have seen, is that the middle class, are being dragged down towards the poverty level, in much greater numbers and a faster rate and degree, than the poorest are being elevated up.

So in my humble opinion its foolish to look at the poorest of the poor, in any other ways, than to realize, along with us, they too need elevated up, so it is not parity amongst the bottom rung of society, but parity amongst all rungs of society, with the highest possible quality of life, as the target to shoot for everyone.

The rich get richer, are more immune if not completely immune to the laws that regulate the rest of us, meanwhile everyone else gets poorer, and more restricted by the sheer volume of laws to order a society, where artificially induced scarcity, creates chaos through indifference as a way of life.

The system is what’s broke, and above all it’s broken morally.

What's up with the absolutes and exaggerations, guys? My parents do more than get by, but are by no means filthy rich. I think to reach a good mid-point, you just have to run at least one successful business, and be continuously open to change.

Try living on a disability check.

$985 a month does no go far when you live in Calif.

In the U.S. having a television, car and internet means you're poor... Barely get by! Compared to 80% of the world you're living like kings, if you're in financial straights in most (not all) it's your own fault...but even in financial straights you still live pretty damn good lives...and I have seen poor, as in real poor, no plumbing, no A/C, no internet....that was in the U.S....you guys all have the internet and apparently enough free time to browse topics you enjoy on a conspiratorial forum, be thankful.

[edit on 20-4-2010 by yellowcard]