Obama will go down as an exceptional president

Status
Not open for further replies.

sanibel

Well-known member
Mar 29, 2012
401
0
0
Visit site
17 years later, I still preach the virtues of capitalism and free markets, but the Sociology studies have taught me that mankind, as a species, doesn't actually strive for parity. Yet.
Maybe we'll evolve a bit more and get closer, but right now everyone is just trying to maintain their spot in the pecking order hierarchy.
From slugs to humans pecking order has always existed and, most likely, will continue to exist. The task for us is to maintain a civilized society that pays diligent respect to all of its members. There's nothing wrong with personal goals via capitalism and free market: The more the better. Personal triumphs shouldn't be looked at as a threat to democratic values.
Expanding: Poor and rich can experience personal growth and achievements.
 
Last edited:

Ledsteplin

Ambassador
Oct 2, 2013
50,164
694
108
Visit site
I thought this thread was a great example of our society on a whole.

It started with politics and quickly became a thread about race.

My second Master's(first was Economics. Go Rams!) is in Sociology.

The bottom line is 'pecking order'. For one group of people to move up in a culture/society another has to move down.

Until we achieve economic parity(unrealistic in my opinion), race will always be used to separate the haves from the have-nots.

I remember my first trip for Morgan Stanley to West Virginia for a conference on Pension legislation.

Being born and growing up on Manhattan's Upper East Side blinds you to some economic realities of our country.

As economically disadvantaged as some of the locals were, they wholeheartedly believed the following:

"I might be poor, uneducated even, but at least I'm white."

Now this was quite possibly the most illogical thing I'd ever heard. I thought to myself that poverty knows no color, sexual orientation, religion. etc...

THAT was the 24 year old me right out of grad school preaching the virtues of capitalism and free markets.

17 years later, I still preach the virtues of capitalism and free markets, but the Sociology studies have taught me that mankind, as a species, doesn't actually strive for parity. Yet.

Maybe we'll evolve a bit more and get closer, but right now everyone is just trying to maintain their spot in the pecking order hierarchy.

Perhaps you're right. But in my corner of Alabama, we get along with one another very well. I never think about race. We treat each other as equally and with respect as one possibly can. IDK, seems surreal at times watching the news. Maybe what I'm seeing is some of that pecking you refer to. But what do the Rams have to do with economics?


Sent from my ancient but trustworthy iPhone 5.
 

Soeasy

Well-known member
Apr 10, 2013
171
0
0
Visit site
Any layman book suggestions not politically motivated? All I ever see are studies or essays with an agenda.

Cheers.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Agreed. But there are some folks who look at the subject from a purely scientific angle.

They actually are some really good books on the subject. Even some good books on 'Pecking Order' and Social Hierarchies.

Nietzsche(somewhat shifting to philosophy) in fact was very convinced that humanity needs hierarchies in order to achieve greatness. He believed that societal "envy" was one of the reasons that people actually tried harder to 'do better'.

He may have been spot on with that.

Our mission to the Moon was also aimed at beating the Russians there.

Let me dig through the hall closet tomorrow and see if there any books that touch on the subjects.
 

anon(4698833)

Banned
Sep 7, 2010
12,010
187
0
Visit site
I am not blaming anyone, but anyone who was in New Orleans at the time will tell you they blame Bush for such a slow response.

One of my good friends grew up in New Orleans and was raising his two children and supporting his wife in school (fresh out of the Army no less) when Katrina struck...he was stranded with his family and got to his aunts house where they hunkered down and survived by getting everyone to a FEMA camp about 2 miles away after the storm had subsided and they were able to navigate the area as safely as possible. While there, he contributed his abilities voluntarily as that is the only thing he knew how to do being a properly raised man. His family went back home and tried to collect their lives back together but he stayed few a week longer to help with the FEMA came they were in...he even got shot at one night when he was trying to break up a fight where they were giving fuel to people.

He told me that so many years after all that happened, he didn't blame any one singular person for the response, and that he was glad he lived in the United States where at least there WAS a response, and that he was proud to have helped how he could.

Katrina was the second major hurricane he went through...the first was Andrew, and he told me that even though he was teenager when that storm hit, he remembered that it felt like an eternity before help came and that he remembered being turned away from places to get water because there wasn't enough to give out.

I shared this because I found your comment kind of ridiculous. I very closely know a wonderful man who went through that nightmare and doesn't blame Bush...and the reason is because there's no reason TO blame Bush, or any one singular person. Unpreparedness...it's a nasty thing that envelops a lot of people during that event. He'd tell you today that discussions had taken place for YEARS about the engineering mishaps with the levees, and the fact that regardless of what anyone did, a huge storm would have and still will make easy work of that city.

People like to make things about race...that's just what those who crave this want you to do. Blaming Bush for the response to Katrina would be like blaming Obama for the beheadings of the handful of people we've watched over the last year. Stop looking for scapegoats and start actually trying to help people.
 

A895

Well-known member
Jan 17, 2014
1,038
0
0
Visit site
One of my good friends grew up in New Orleans and was raising his two children and supporting his wife in school (fresh out of the Army no less) when Katrina struck...he was stranded with his family and got to his aunts house where they hunkered down and survived by getting everyone to a FEMA camp about 2 miles away after the storm had subsided and they were able to navigate the area as safely as possible. While there, he contributed his abilities voluntarily as that is the only thing he knew how to do being a properly raised man. His family went back home and tried to collect their lives back together but he stayed few a week longer to help with the FEMA came they were in...he even got shot at one night when he was trying to break up a fight where they were giving fuel to people.

He told me that so many years after all that happened, he didn't blame any one singular person for the response, and that he was glad he lived in the United States where at least there WAS a response, and that he was proud to have helped how he could.

Katrina was the second major hurricane he went through...the first was Andrew, and he told me that even though he was teenager when that storm hit, he remembered that it felt like an eternity before help came and that he remembered being turned away from places to get water because there wasn't enough to give out.

I shared this because I found your comment kind of ridiculous. I very closely know a wonderful man who went through that nightmare and doesn't blame Bush...and the reason is because there's no reason TO blame Bush, or any one singular person. Unpreparedness...it's a nasty thing that envelops a lot of people during that event. He'd tell you today that discussions had taken place for YEARS about the engineering mishaps with the levees, and the fact that regardless of what anyone did, a huge storm would have and still will make easy work of that city.

People like to make things about race...that's just what those who crave this want you to do. Blaming Bush for the response to Katrina would be like blaming Obama for the beheadings of the handful of people we've watched over the last year. Stop looking for scapegoats and start actually trying to help people.

Again, I didn't say I blamed Bush, I don't know why everyone is gaming up on me like I said it. And the beheadings can't be equated to a natural disaster.

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk
 

Les74

Well-known member
May 30, 2011
1,000
0
0
Visit site
One of my good friends grew up in New Orleans and was raising his two children and supporting his wife in school (fresh out of the Army no less) when Katrina struck...he was stranded with his family and got to his aunts house where they hunkered down and survived by getting everyone to a FEMA camp about 2 miles away after the storm had subsided and they were able to navigate the area as safely as possible. While there, he contributed his abilities voluntarily as that is the only thing he knew how to do being a properly raised man. His family went back home and tried to collect their lives back together but he stayed few a week longer to help with the FEMA came they were in...he even got shot at one night when he was trying to break up a fight where they were giving fuel to people.

He told me that so many years after all that happened, he didn't blame any one singular person for the response, and that he was glad he lived in the United States where at least there WAS a response, and that he was proud to have helped how he could.

Katrina was the second major hurricane he went through...the first was Andrew, and he told me that even though he was teenager when that storm hit, he remembered that it felt like an eternity before help came and that he remembered being turned away from places to get water because there wasn't enough to give out.

I shared this because I found your comment kind of ridiculous. I very closely know a wonderful man who went through that nightmare and doesn't blame Bush...and the reason is because there's no reason TO blame Bush, or any one singular person. Unpreparedness...it's a nasty thing that envelops a lot of people during that event. He'd tell you today that discussions had taken place for YEARS about the engineering mishaps with the levees, and the fact that regardless of what anyone did, a huge storm would have and still will make easy work of that city.

People like to make things about race...that's just what those who crave this want you to do. Blaming Bush for the response to Katrina would be like blaming Obama for the beheadings of the handful of people we've watched over the last year. Stop looking for scapegoats and start actually trying to help people.

I'm the one who originally made the Bush comment about New Orleans.....and that was only in direct response to the completely moronic and idiotic statement to Obama hating whites. Sad part about it was that my statement was tongue in cheek. The other....not so much.
 

anon(4698833)

Banned
Sep 7, 2010
12,010
187
0
Visit site
Again, I didn't say I blamed Bush, I don't know why everyone is gaming up on me like I said it. And the beheadings can't be equated to a natural disaster.

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk

You made this comment...

I am not blaming anyone, but anyone who was in New Orleans at the time will tell you they blame Bush for such a slow response.

...which is not only untrue, but ridiculous. THAT is what I was referencing. I'm not "gaming up" on you, I'm correcting something you said that is simply not true.

Personally, I don't give a sh*t about presidents...they are all pawns these days anyways, good or bad.
 

acadia11

Banned
Jan 4, 2014
639
0
0
Visit site
One of my good friends grew up in New Orleans and was raising his two children and supporting his wife in school (fresh out of the Army no less) when Katrina struck...he was stranded with his family and got to his aunts house where they hunkered down and survived by getting everyone to a FEMA camp about 2 miles away after the storm had subsided and they were able to navigate the area as safely as possible. While there, he contributed his abilities voluntarily as that is the only thing he knew how to do being a properly raised man. His family went back home and tried to collect their lives back together but he stayed few a week longer to help with the FEMA came they were in...he even got shot at one night when he was trying to break up a fight where they were giving fuel to people.

He told me that so many years after all that happened, he didn't blame any one singular person for the response, and that he was glad he lived in the United States where at least there WAS a response, and that he was proud to have helped how he could.

Katrina was the second major hurricane he went through...the first was Andrew, and he told me that even though he was teenager when that storm hit, he remembered that it felt like an eternity before help came and that he remembered being turned away from places to get water because there wasn't enough to give out.

I shared this because I found your comment kind of ridiculous. I very closely know a wonderful man who went through that nightmare and doesn't blame Bush...and the reason is because there's no reason TO blame Bush, or any one singular person. Unpreparedness...it's a nasty thing that envelops a lot of people during that event. He'd tell you today that discussions had taken place for YEARS about the engineering mishaps with the levees, and the fact that regardless of what anyone did, a huge storm would have and still will make easy work of that city.

People like to make things about race...that's just what those who crave this want you to do. Blaming Bush for the response to Katrina would be like blaming Obama for the beheadings of the handful of people we've watched over the last year. Stop looking for scapegoats and start actually trying to help people.

And some people like to pretend miraculously because they say its so race doesn't exist, the fact that you have to so adamantly profess how by your infinite wisdom and non-existent evidence that race isn't an issue.
 

A895

Well-known member
Jan 17, 2014
1,038
0
0
Visit site
You made this comment...



...which is not only untrue, but ridiculous. THAT is what I was referencing. I'm not "gaming up" on you, I'm correcting something you said that is simply not true.

Personally, I don't give a sh*t about presidents...they are all pawns these days anyways, good or bad.

I didn't say that, I specifically got that from people from New Orleans. It is true. At least from the black people I have talked to. I can't say the same for anyone else.



Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk
 

A895

Well-known member
Jan 17, 2014
1,038
0
0
Visit site
I always wondered how the people who are first to proclaim there isn't a racial divide in America are usually white.

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk
 
Jan 20, 2014
1,005
0
0
Visit site
http://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm

Question. So they calculate employment based on individuals collecting unemployment. Right?

So what about those who had the benefits capped and cut off?

Even if they didn't find another job, according to statistics, they may not be counted towards the percentile.

So we could essentially just have less people collecting unemployment but still essentially out of work?

Just asking a question here.
 

hydrogen3

Well-known member
Jan 16, 2013
1,056
0
0
Visit site
http://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm

Question. So they calculate employment based on individuals collecting unemployment. Right?

So what about those who had the benefits capped and cut off?

Even if they didn't find another job, according to statistics, they may not be counted towards the percentile.

So we could essentially just have less people collecting unemployment but still essentially out of work?

Just asking a question here.

You are correct. Majority of the people can not find work.. Thanks to Democratic policies.....
 

palandri

Well-known member
Dec 18, 2012
125
0
0
Visit site
How the Government Measures Unemployment

Question. So they calculate employment based on individuals collecting unemployment. Right?

So what about those who had the benefits capped and cut off?

Even if they didn't find another job, according to statistics, they may not be counted towards the percentile.

So we could essentially just have less people collecting unemployment but still essentially out of work?

Just asking a question here.

That is correct!
 

mmcfly23

Well-known member
Apr 16, 2014
181
0
0
Visit site
You are correct. Majority of the people can not find work.. Thanks to Democratic policies.....

There are a number of reasons why people are not able to find work. Placing the blame solely on the Democratic Party is not only immature, but it also shows your ignorance as far as how an economy works.


Sent from my iPhone 6 using Tapatalk
 

Scatabrain

Well-known member
Nov 15, 2010
1,728
1
0
Visit site
There are a number of reasons why people are not able to find work. Placing the blame solely on the Democratic Party is not only immature, but it also shows your ignorance as far as how an economy works.


Sent from my iPhone 6 using Tapatalk

Or that truth doesn't matter when spewing rhetoric.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Scatabrain

Well-known member
Nov 15, 2010
1,728
1
0
Visit site
Obama will go down as exceptional president

There are a number of reasons why people are not able to find work. Placing the blame solely on the Democratic Party is not only immature, but it also shows your ignorance as far as how an economy works.


Sent from my iPhone 6 using Tapatalk

Taking a superior tone is what gives liberals a bad and often deserved rap.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Status
Not open for further replies.