Nearly Half of Americans Are Low-income

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

this would make a great custom member title.

Could you picture being married to a gal in the top 1% ? I'd be driving a new truck and drinking green bottled beer.

[Misha & Ira 113]

I have to agree with Slim here. The notion that a person has a 'right' to a job is a notion come about in the last 20-30 years. Before people thought this way, this was the land of innovation, where an individual would come and set their own business.

Let me tell you, I have worked in a variety of jobs in my life....from convenience store clerk to slaughterhouse meat cutter to aerospace engineer...I have never been in poverty. When I needed moer money, I found more work...even if it meant sweeping a parking lot or scrubbing toilets. When money was tight, off went the cable and cell phone. I bought turkey year round ( < $1 lb, you can't go wrong or hungry) I did not buy name brand anything...

It may not have been fun, but I never needed a hand from the government.

[Karee 4,190]

this would make a great custom member title.

That's a topic for the PI forum. Take a stroll down P. Burgos late at night. PI folks will know what I mean.

[Ban Hammer 13,340]

Could you picture being married to a gal in the top 1% ? I'd be driving a new truck and drinking green bottled beer.

the top 1% of what?

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

the top 1% of what?

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

I have to agree with Slim here. The notion that a person has a 'right' to a job is a notion come about in the last 20-30 years. Before people thought this way, this was the land of innovation, where an individual would come and set their own business.

Let me tell you, I have worked in a variety of jobs in my life....from convenience store clerk to slaughterhouse meat cutter to aerospace engineer...I have never been in poverty. When I needed moer money, I found more work...even if it meant sweeping a parking lot or scrubbing toilets. When money was tight, off went the cable and cell phone. I bought turkey year round ( < $1 lb, you can't go wrong or hungry) I did not buy name brand anything...

It may not have been fun, but I never needed a hand from the government.

I don't know if anyone on this thread expects the government to provide them jobs, I think it's more along the lines of were being sold out as a nation. We aren't #1 in anything that's worth noting and it's getting worse. I think a lot of it's due to culture, and spending habits, but there's a flip side also. GM for example. The government bailed them out after the suits ran the company into the ground. Not the union, the people who ran it from up top by not keeping up with the market and looking at the future not to mention them along with Chrysler have put out some pure sh*t vehicles compared to the Japanese and Germans. So what happens when GM is tanking? The US government bails them out with US tax payer money. So how do they repay the help? The give bonuses to the suits and then move another plant down to Mexico. So what does GM have coming imo? They got nothing coming to them.

Now lets look at Boeing. They got a ####### load of tax payer money for defense contracts and then had over runs on some of those contracts that ran into the billions of dollars and then moved a plant over to Russia and now has some parts manufactured in China. This is how they say "thank you".

General Electric. Makes mega bucks in defense contracts yet actually got a tax refund.

The US is fast becoming a third world country and we are falling further and further behind. The outlook looks grim with no light at the end of the tunnel yet congress just signed a $670 billion dollar defense budget. We haven't even started paying for the wars were in and that bill is coming up. Whats the government do to help this situation? They up the H1 worker visa's for tech help for the fact the tech companies say they can't find enough qualified people in this country to fill those positions. Funny thing is US college grads who majored in those degree's can't find work in their field even though the tech companies are importing workers for said field.

I have been broke before. I lived in my car for a few weeks until I saved up enough money to get a dump. I roofed and did tear offs during the day when the work was out there and washed dishes at a Denny's at night. That was years ago and it was when the economy was tanked similar to what it is now. Iv'e never had welfare, food stamps, etc... and I'm not in a position where that will ever happen again anytime soon but I see talk and see people who normally have no problem finding a steady job looking for work now. That's one of the reasons I'm so anti Dream Act seeing how nothing is free and it's time to start looking out for the legal US citizens instead of making bs excuses to pay for illegals.

Who wants the Dream Act passed? The business owners is who. Cheap labor. It's supply and demand and when you bring is cheap illegal labor that under cuts the legal US worker it fcks this country as a whole. It helps the rich get richer, but it screws us in the long run.

I have no problem with the government cracking down on welfare...they should have done it years ago and now they have an entire group of people out there that know nothing but collecting welfare and food stamps. What I do have a problem with is the government fckng it's citizens in order to fatten the bank accounts of big business for the fact it's big business that our politicians sold us out for. $$$$$$$

Edited December 16, 2011 by Why_Me

[Karee 4,190]

Yeah life sucks at times. Either you suck it up, or you don't. I'm more concerned about getting my SSI. I have been paying for it, and I want it back when I'm an old man. I lived in Canada for awhile. Nice folks. The stores all closed at 6 PM except on Thursday. Then this happened:

I freaking lived there for 1.5 years. Here's what happened to me on my last trip back in 2003.

Here's the scoop. I am sitting in a holding cell at the airport waiting

to be transfered to the immigration holding facility (jail). The guys

was nice enough to let me have my laptop, and since I am bored out of my

mind, I figured I'd send an email and recap the evening. So I get to

the airport here, and go through immigration, I hand them my passport,

and they tell me to go to the office in back. Once I get into the line,

I notice I am the only non-muslim in the place. Anyway, the guy takes

my passport and asks me if I've ever been arrested. I say only once in

St. Jean sur Richleiu for DUI, thinking that this is all he will know

about. He bangs away on his computer for a minute or so, and then tells

me to go sit and wait. So I wait for an hour and a half wondering what

the hell is going on. He comes and gets me and brings me in to is

office. He has a big ol stack of papers and asks me if I want to come

clean about my criminal history. So at this point he has busted me

lying. So we go through each case one by one. I real nice recap of the

Criminal history of ******. He had #### in there I had even

forgotten about. He then tels me with a record like that, He cant let

me into Canada. I would have to contact the rehabilitation commission

of Canada whatever the hell that is.

But, by now, the last flight of the night to the US has already

departed, so I'm screwed. He talks to his boss and they decide the

will let me stay in Montreal over night on my own, and hold my passport,

with the understanding that I would come back in the morning and catch

an early flight. Seems like a good plan to me. I get to see everyone,

sleep in a hotel, party, etc etc... So it takes him a good hour to get

the paperwork done. So then he says come with me. I think at this

point I am outta here. No such luck. Over to Customs we go, where the

have amazing little machine, that is like those bomb material

detectors. You know how they always swab you suitcase and then stick it

into this little machine and it checks for bomb stuff. But guess

what??!!! This one checks for drugs.

Customs Nightmare:

OK so they swab my suitcase in and out and then stick it in the

machine. The thing goes nuts flashing red. Positive for cocaine. He

then swabs my little shaving kit inside and out. flashing red positive

for cocaine. So now they are looking at me like what the #### is the

deal. I am explaining that I have had this suitcase for 8 years and

have taken it all over the world, and that I read somewhere that over

80% of the money in the U.S. has traces of cocaine etc etc. I'm

starting to get nervous. Then he swabs the inside of my shoe... I'm

thinking no ###### way is that going to come up positive. WRONG!!!!! red flashing lights and sirens. So now they are looking at me like I

make the #### in my basement or something. Next he moves on to my

laptop bag. I tell him I have only had this since November so it cant

possibly come up positive. He swabs it all over the place. The machine

goes ###### super crazy. He then invites me over to the machine and

tells me that the last time he saw a reading this high, he was actually

swabbing a brick of cocaine, plus it tested positive for Marijuana on

top of it. Things aren't looking good. I keep telling them over an

over that I haven't done any drugs in 8 years. So now they are like

take everything out of your pockets, and they frisk me.

Things get worse:

As they are going through my wallet..... Jackpot!!!! they find my

plastic BMW key with a white powder substance on the end of it. They

then break out their super testing kit and while they are doing this,

give me one last chance to confess as to what it is. I am still

proclaiming my innocence. They are threatening me with charges of

possession at this point. Since I'm not sure of Canadian law (in the US

it has to be a usable amount which this is not), I am ###### freaking

at this point. Of course the they drop a couple of flakes in this vial

and it turns blue. Positive for Cocaine. At this point all of the

customs and immigration supervisors are over there going nuts in french

talking to each other. I am thinking they are arguing about who gets to

beat my #### before they take me to jail.

Naked in Montreal

They say Montreal is a great place to get naked. Not true. The

immigration guys pretty much split at this point and leave me with the

customs guy. They then take me into this little room we are have to

read this big #### poster out loud. All about my rights blah blah blah. The it's time to remove the clothing piece by piece. So standing in my

underwear I am thinking surely they will not make me go all they way,

they are nice friendly Canadians. WRONG!! take off your underwear, bend

over spread your cheeks, lift up your nuts. etc. etc. You get the

picture. They dont find anything of course. They leave me there, go

into some office to discuss my demise. They come back out, and take me

back across the airport to immigration. I'm thinking cool, it's only

about 9:45, I can be at Java U slamming a drink by 10:30.

More bad news:

Now they call me into this office and give me the old good news bad news

routine. The good news is American Airlines ###### up by letting you

buy a one-way ticket to Canada, so we talked them into sending you back

to Dallas for free on the 11:00a flight tomorrow. The bad news is that

we are locking you up. We just cant let you into our beautiful country

with all kinds of cocaine particles floating around you, and a record

like that. Also, they informed that if I ever tried to enter Canada

again, I would be arrested and brought before a judge.

So now it is 12:10 am and I am still at Dorval airport sitting in this

room locked up with my laptop. The immigration guy was nice enough to

just go buy me a sandwich and a soda. I am waiting to be transferred to

the immigration holding facility in Laval..

So in closing I really dont know why my suitcase and laptop bag seem

like they have been used by the Cali Cartel to smuggle 1000 kilos of

cocaine. As far as the key thing, not much can be said about that. That was so damn long ago, I cant even remember.

Apparently you can smoke at this detention center in Laval, so things

are looking up.

By the way, I am giving away a free suitcase and laptop bag if anyone is

interested.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

I'm sorry...I know I shouldn't laugh but that story rocks! I gotta show my wife this.

[Karee 4,190]

I'm sorry...I know I shouldn't laugh but that story rocks! I gotta show my wife this.

The hilarious thing is that AA had to pay for my trip back to Dallas. They took me to US immigration at the airport in handcuffs. I went through that and they told me not to come back.

I snuck over the the 1000 islands bridge to see my friends in Montreal from Syracuse at 3 am a few years ago. Not a problem. Went straight up to the 401 in Ontario to the 20 in Quebec. They never said a word.

[Girl from Celebes 588]

Last time I read about US, it still the largest economy in the world. The recession hit around 2007-2008 almost in every country around the world get affected by it. Many biggest companies got bailout. But, it fears me to know nearly half Americans are poor or low income almost 4 years after recession. With the strong economy like US but has been fallen too fast just gets me in chilled.

China is suddenly a rising star and kicked out Japan from the second largest economy but I know there are many poor people still there even though the fast of economy growing . Not shocked me IF the country suddenly fallen out due the limit amount of time to build the strengthen and safety belt to everyone. But US? .

I remember questioned my fiance about HOW VERY RARE these days listening to British musicians. Around 60's til late 80's- correct me if I'm wrong- British conquered music industry around the world. Started from The Beatles, Black Sabbath, Queen, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and these I mentioned are/were biggest bands all the time- according to The Rolling Stone Magazine-. But it hard to find British musicians who can conquered all the world by now except they have to get recognized first by moved to US. I only know Bush, Muse, and they are British and unfortunately not as biggest as the old ones.

With an example I have mentioned above, no wonder, might be in the future, US only a history for our children and lullaby story before off to bed, I am afraid.

Edited December 16, 2011 by Girl from Celebes

[Girl from Celebes 588]

East-West Wire news service EastWestWire@eastwestcenter.org via mail75.us2.rsgsv.net 7:32 AM (5 hours ago)

to me Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.

The East-West Wire is a news, commentary, and analysis service provided by the East-West Center in Honolulu. Any part or all of the Wire content may be used by media with attribution to the East-West Center or the person quoted. Subscribe here to receive Wire releases via email.

Report: China Still 'Second Fiddle'

in Semiconductor Industry

HONOLULU (Dec. 15, 2011) – One of the hot topics of discussion during the recent APEC and East Asia Summit meetings was China's role in the global semiconductor value chain. Now a new working paper by East-West Center Senior Fellow Dieter Ernst shows that China still plays "second fiddle" in all sectors of the semiconductor industry.

The industry critically depends on China's market, yet the main drivers of China's semiconductor consumption are foreign companies that assemble electronic equipment in China for sale in the US, EU, Japan, or India, writes Ernst, an expert on innovation policies and global production networks. But all of these products are also manufactured elsewhere, he points out, and could be produced by factories outside of China if there was an interruption in trade.

Detailing figures from various aspects of Chinese development and production, Ernst documents that while China's integrated circuit industry is growing rapidly, its technological capabilities are still limited, and it is not yet a major force in the global industry. "China remains a technology taker, and still has a long way to go before it can shape, or at least co-shape, the semiconductor industry's technology trajectory," he writes.

However, once Taiwan's close integration with China's semiconductor industry is taken into account, Ernst says, there is some reason to be concerned about US dependence on silicon foundries, since China and Taiwan together have 71 percent of worldwide foundry capacity.

Even so, Ernst writes, "China's position in the global semiconductor value chain remains way behind the government's aspirations." The value chain is still dominated by the US and to a lesser degree by Japan, the EU, Korea and Taiwan, he writes, while China remains a "lower-tier player that is still far from catching up with the global leaders."

But in the longer term, Ernst writes, there is no doubt that China's government is committed to accelerate the development of its semiconductor industry, and the focus of policy is shifting toward improving the research-and-development capabilities and competitiveness of Chinese firms.

###

The EAST-WEST CENTER promotes better relations and understanding among the people and nations of the United States, Asia, and the Pacific through cooperative study, research, and dialogue. Established by the U.S. Congress in 1960, the Center serves as a resource for information and analysis on critical issues of common concern, bringing people together to exchange views, build expertise, and develop policy options.

Tell me if US shouldn't have to worried about this. I am subscribed East-West Center newsletters and it reports really a wake up call for ANY country.

Edited December 16, 2011 by Girl from Celebes

[slim 1,525]

the suits ran the company into the ground. Not the union, the people who ran it from up top by not keeping up with the market and looking at the future

So, you don't think at any time the suits went to the union and said something like, "This company is going into the ground. We cannot sustain at this rate. In order to pull out, we have to stop paying every single worker $30/hour and a HUGE pension."

What was the union's response? "NO!" And then they justified it by saying, "Well, you make $1.2 million a year."

The fact is, the union was just as responsible for GM's demise as any suit at the top. When we can buy cars made overseas - even with huge import tariffs - for cheaper than we can buy cars manufactured here, there's one reason. Greed.

Greed is what makes companies topple. Not just greed from the top. Greed from everyone. Workers included. And greed is what's bringing this country down. We see it evidenced above. "I'm going to lose my place to live." Well, that's probably because you live in your own apartment in a nice part of town. If you're poor, you can't afford to do that.

Tell me if US shouldn't have to worried about this. I am subscribed East-West Center newsletters and it reports really a wake up call for ANY country.

US will always be home of innovation. Then we'll outsource production because Americans think they need $17/hour to solder components together. "But I went to community college for two years! I can't live on this! I can't pay my bills on this! $11? Come on! I went to college for two years!"

[Girl from Celebes 588]

US will always be home of innovation. Then we'll outsource production because Americans think they need $17/hour to solder components together. "But I went to community college for two years! I can't live on this! I can't pay my bills on this! $11? Come on! I went to college for two years!"

Oh boy, I guess US should've worried A LOT about what is going on by now and then.

[slim 1,525]

Oh boy, I guess US should've worried A LOT about what is going on by now and then.

The problem is we don't worry about it. We COMPLAIN about it and then expect the government to fix it.

We think we're not wrong for demanding more money to do something. The government, businesses, etc., are wrong for not paying us "what we're worth." When people in China, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, etc., are paid "what they're worth" we don't look at it as "well, gosh, they do it for $3/day. We look at it as, 'I can't possibly do that for $3/day.'"

The funny thing is we pretend to be capitalists but at the end of the day, we require the government to step in and regulate the free market - to our advantage, of course.

[Girl from Celebes 588]

The problem is we don't worry about it. We COMPLAIN about it and then expect the government to fix it.

We think we're not wrong for demanding more money to do something. The government, businesses, etc., are wrong for not paying us "what we're worth." When people in China, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, etc., are paid "what they're worth" we don't look at it as "well, gosh, they do it for $3/day. We look at it as, 'I can't possibly do that for $3/day.'"

The funny thing is we pretend to be capitalists but at the end of the day, we require the government to step in and regulate the free market - to our advantage, of course.

I read somewhere about some woman demanding money from goverment to pay for her 15 children. She's unemployed, living in small hotel (paid by government), but she kept asking for money, money, and money. Hey, c'est la vie, you need work hard to feed 15 children because you can't uncrossed your legs properly.They are your responsibility to paid for not from tax payers like my fiance. Gosh! this woman needs get a life! -sorry for being little rude-

Edited December 16, 2011 by Girl from Celebes