A large reason for this is gains on stocks. As we all know the Dow etc have been doing rather well in the last year. Unfortunately, a lot of this gain is from static wages increasing profits, so its not as rosy as the figures make out. Still, it's good news, although prone to ouliers as Skybird pointed out. Increasingly, economic growth in developed countries is localised at the top end, accelerating the gap between rich and poor. it's a tough nut to crack.

The reality in your country prooves you wrong, somehow. It is no truth, but selective perception, I think. Not that I want to see my criticism being undestood as valid for the US exclusively. It is by tendency true for Europe and Germany as well. But I find your explanations why it all is okay basing on too much simplifying, and also a very unjust attitude towards many, many people who are sitting on the loosing side of it all. I heared it so often that it is being said by those living in prosperity and with a safe job, that those that do not get a job or are poor must accept responsebility for that alone. Maybe I had more contacts to people who prooves this mean self-righteous hard-heartedness wrong so that I know it better, than you, I don'T know. But so damn often those bastards that are living like parasites from wellfare and would not help themselves, although there may be chances opening to them, are the excuse for consevatoive hardloiners to say that all poor and wellfare-dependant people are like that. And this is simply not true. I was confronted with the tough, and often very desperate reality of those sitting on the looser's side of life. And that was heart-braking, often, for many of them try bitterly hard, but do not get a chance, and even accept themselves getting exploited in their weakness and that others make maxiumum financial use of their vulnerability and the circumstance that they cannot defend.

Leave behind those that are lazy to help themselves although they could, and think the community is responsible to pay for them, okay. But don'T dare to declare this kind of people the majority. That is nothing else than character assassination (Rufmord), and displays an extreme level of cynism and hard-heartedness.

And sinc ethis seem to be an argument here, I have no debts, too, and do not live beyond that level that I can afford by my own ressources available to me. But what does this proove? that all could live like I do? I had a whiole damn lot of luck in my life. and I know too many peoppe who had to try much much harder than I had to - and nevertheless lost ground under their feet, without their mistake. The old saying "everybody is the creator of his own fortune" may be motivating to foster a creative attitude - but in no way it describes a reality that is valid for everybody. Not even for a majority. For most people, it remains to be a myth, forever. And for everybody who makes it from dish-washer to millionaire, there are maybe a hundred who do not even try, and a thousand who try as hard as they can and even beyond braking point - and don't get a chance to make progress or see any fair reward. They may work in four jobs per week, and 16, sometimes 18 hours a day, for a cynically low wage (always take care of that inflation!) that leaves them in need to take up debts nevertheless. And then they are told " try harder", "you got what you deserve", "get a school course"...? That is mean, and cynical. The misery goes as far that the crash of the parent's lifes also already cripple the chances of their offsprings, it limits their intellectual developement, emotio9nal developement , it creates behavioral symptoms, all tbhis lowers their chances even more, even deseases and decreasing life expectancy is a factor. Poverty makes sick both body and soul.

On dollar notes there is this remark "In God we trust". When did God say "Though shall let down thy next and turn your heart into a stone to throw at him?" Maybe capitalism and religion or ohilosophy does not go too well together. Has christian America forgottent hat Jesus said "You cannot serve both God and Mammon at the same time?"

Serious. There is so much moral being displayed from the so-called "right". It often seems to me that it is not much different to that kind of "Christian" moral that did not think bad of wearing white sheets and hunting blacks in the swamps and was so proud of itself being "Christian". Back then it were the blacks that were let down. Today it is the poor that are let down.

And no, all this has nothing to do with nanny-state or socialism. Nothing.

Its going to take me some time to work through this Skybird. If I don't get back to you quickly don't take it as an insult or agreement.

I want to be sure I understand before I respond. That language vs. meaning thing.

:yep:
Very, very well said!

I was once of the same mind as many "conservatives". i.e. that you deserve what you get. You work hard, you will be successful. etc. etc. However I have had the privilege to spend the last seven years living and travelling in Asia and the realities of life here have forced me to completely alter my perspective.

I've seen the rich countries, I've seen the poor. The poor countries are of course the most shocking but its not poverty itself that is sickening. It is the inequality. When you visit a large, air-conditioned shopping mall packed with well to do people buying the latest Calvin Klien shirts etc. while literally just outside (and I mean on the other side of the complex walls) live a thousand people without access to water, medicine and in many cases food, you see that something just isn't right. These people work HARD! They will do almost anything to get the money they need but they still can't get out. The vast bulk of them work harder and longer than any of their shopping mall bound countrymen could even comprehend but they remain poor. Their only mistake was to be born into such a situation. Things are not quite so dire in wealthier countries (i.e. US, Uk etc.) but the same situation still applies for many poor people.

I challenge any "conservative" to travel (I will qualify this - no five star hotels. Let's give a generous budget of $1000/mth for expenses) in Africa or Asia for three months or more and still maintain a "work hard = millionaire; you're poor = you didn't work hard enough" attitude when they return to their country.
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Ha! From your past comments over the past days I could have sworn that you have seen some part of the world! You often showed a wider perspective in what you said so far. Travelling is a desirable tool of education, and learning. It was not seven years, only close to one and a half year for me, in the ME area, mainly Iran and Turkey.

Haven't noticed you before, but since I did I already understood that your postings are worth to be red. Hope you stay with us.

The "worth to be red" part was a pun right?;)

Call me an elitist but I think travelling beyond one's boarders and cultural comfort zone is an intellectual must for anyone who claims to understand "the way things are".:p

I spend most of my time in the SH3 forums but I'll be sure to drop by from time to time. I'm leaving Japan permanently in two weeks though so I might drop off the grid for a month or two until I get settled again.
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AngelSexx01

Like the "travelling beyond one's boarders" part? ;)