Actions due to human behavior and actions due to natural forces are qualitatively different. Somebody punching you in the face is different to an apple falling on somebody's head due to it falling off a tree and gravity doing the rest.

Irish potato famine is fair game for human behavior I suppose, because that was simply due to mono-culturing in agriculture, something we do with our potatoes today So WW is right.

Regardless, all the crimes mentioned were committed by agents who were annihilated many centuries ago. Walter Williams himself remembers, in his lifetime, black Americans being ripped out of their homes, having their homes burnt down, and having their young men lynched, in a frenzy of sexual energy that the murderers were literally mistaking for moral energy.

Damn we've come a long way. Thankfully the state was able to be used as a coercive device to make the most overtly vicious racism go underground. Now we still have to end Jim Crow in criminal justice, education, and health care.



I wouldn't unequivocally raise minimum wage. I would like to raise it a bit, maybe to $10 across the board, or to whatever it would be if it accounted for inflation with no increases for the past decade. There should be jobs that people can do that don't require $15 an hour plus health care benefits....the problem is when so many employers act so unethically that they pay workers minimum wage that produce much more than they're selling their labor for, but they have to sell their labor for so cheap because there is tacit collusion across the industry to maximize profit at the denial of the existence of Right and Wrong. These people conveniently turn a corporation into a person so that they can clear their conscious because the corporation is the person acting so unethically and immorally and not them, because they're a separate person now. Meanwhile people who are worth more than minimum wage and are producing their own pay plus many times more (record profits for all big business over the past few years....) are victims of this collective violence perpetuated against them. Of course you are going to say that they could decide to not work instead of being exploited, but that isn't a choice when you want to live a life and have a family. They could try to improve themselves, but they're working as many hours as there are hours in the day and still need state help to cover basic necessities, and you can't invest in the future without any surplus today. There is nothing more to cut out of the budget. I just found out the maintenance guy in my building is only making like $9 an hour, and I always see him climbing into our attic cleaning out asbestos and fiberglass, moving residents around, installing light fixtures and televisions, doing building repair like patching walls that residents kick through, doing plumbing, wiring, and whatnot. I see this and I'm like damn, America is a fucked up place.

This post was edited by Skinned on Mar 14 2015 10:30am

Please stop posting in red font. It is extremely ugly to my 'coffee' layout


&on topic, in my experience the luxuries I can afford in the difference of an $8/hr paycheck and a $10 or $12/hr paycheck are significant. $8/hr is subsistence pay even without a car. $10/hr is a fair living wage for entry level employment.

On a more progressive note, did you know that 2/3 of the Finnish parliament support Basic Income beyond social security?

http://www.basicincome.org/news/2015/03/finland-parliamentary-candidates/

I would support a universal subsistence salary and ~$11-12 minimum wage for those inclined to and capable of finding work. The money of course would come out of and go back into corporate pockets.

Perhaps it would be more amenable to the US economy to provide more readily available housing assistance and to continue with food stamp benefits - presumably the family / community could provide for appropriate luxuries.

This post was edited by Comus on Mar 14 2015 11:19am

They are one of the most equal societies on Earth. Wealth ratio between the highest earners and lowest earners was 4:1 just three years ago. It is around 16:1 here, 18:1 Mexico, 19:1 in China, and a whopping 35:1 or worse in Brazil, a polar opposite of Finland in terms of equality

Brazil is a lot of fun though if you say out of the favelas.

I'm pretty sure you're not big on reading non-fiction so maybe you can start here:



He makes some pretty funny jokes and briefly explains why he opposes or supports various controversial policies and ideas, and talks about how the policies you support negatively effect the poor and otherwise disadvantaged.
(a good joke and point at the 10min mark)

I get why you are so hostile. He is your kryptonite.
He doesn't let your filth fester and rot his floor. He mops it up and disposes of your racist ignorance.

It's sure how you come across. And "once he was on top?" Are you trying to imply that he couldn't have held those views prior to getting there? Or that he personally benefits from keeping darkie down those views? You need a pair of boots before you pull up the bootstraps... BUT good luck getting a job young master black kid with my artificial wage floor that forces employers to select better skilled laborers than you. You know that youth unemployment, and black youth unemployment specifically, is driven higher by minimum wage hikes? So those unskilled workers go longer in life before acquiring skill sets that help them throughout their working lives. I bet all those artificially unemployed black youths should just line up and thank you for the helping hand you're giving to someone else who doesn't actually need it.

Lol, OSHA. Talk about coming late to the dance.

I'm going to have to mimic thesnipa on this one. I'm absolutely appalled by this. Let me put that back to you changing the roles: "I think WHITE people hold a responsibility to their race." If someone said that, you don't think there'd be some justified outrage?

This post was edited by Santara on Mar 14 2015 11:47am

I don't need other people's shit strained through your mouth or to watch on a Youtube video I asked you a simple question and you completely doj'ed me
fuck you and what you assume I read, You've repeatedly attacked my character and intelligence all because I said "shame on you " one time, Well fuck you you arrogant asswipe who can't formulate an opinion of his very own.

How can you think that the lower classes are going to buy into fiscal libertarian ideals when all you can say is it'll be better because there will be lower paying jobs, and the business owners will amass more wealth. ding ding winner winner!!! it's a plan!! come on man! show me why you think it will be better than the present system. I don't care about some video I've said enough times why I don't think it will work. You just say I'm dumb......

Bob, the video clearly explains a viewpoint that explains your question. I just listened to it and found it very informative.

Im not sure also how posting a video you agree with can be considered (bolded). You dont need only original ideas to carry on conversation.

All I knew was that he said those views when he was comfortable. He may of had those views when younger, but it wasn't a libertarian system that he used to raise himself up was it? The Boots analogy is for anyone poor no race intended the fallacy of all he needs to do is "pull himself up by the bootstraps" is by far one of the most irritating sayings to people who just don't have the
resources to do it.

The minimum wage is set for working men and women who provide for their families they should get first crack at the jobs available The more families that are being housed and fed through employment that is compensated fairly so that they can afford to work the better it is for everybody, can't you wrap your brain around that? The first time hires come in at the part time jobs like bussing tables, cooking at fast food joints , etc...

lol at osha all you want but I've worked for drywall companies that did follow osha standards they made a mandatory stilt time of 4 hours a day which was plenty of time to be wearing them. I also worked for many years for a company that didn't follow osha rules and I wore stilts for 8-10 hours a day I've since had an operation on one knee and I'm holding off on the other until things settle down but my point is for almost 6 years I wore stilts just about every day around 8 hours a day, Had he been osha compliant I'd probably walk better now. That's the kind of protection that osha offers.

I'll have to watch it when i wake up it's 46 minutes long and I get free data after 2am. otherwise I'll eat up my remaining mb.s