Who Stole America's Cookies?

I’d love to donate….but I don’t have a job! :(

this thing went viral before you made this page; I’m afraid you’re painting the lily, and throwing a perfume on the violet. the earlier version of the joke was better…nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

this went viral before you generated this page. I’m afraid you’ve painted the lily, and thrown a perfume on the violet here. the previous version of the joke was better, and it seems crass to try to embellish the joke as if it were an allegory…just my two cents.

WAKE UP AMERICA! It’s just depressing to see how people feed into the right wing talking points and pit us middle class against each other. They don’t care about YOU! don’t be a sucker and fall for this crap. The only winners are the very rich and corporate America, take a stand for your rights, or pretty soon you won’t have ANY in your job either.

Unions are why we have a 40 hour work week, benefits and vacations, just to name a few things we have to thank them for, we should all support them and collective bargaining rights.

I’m glad I can easily change this around…it’s definitely a government worker that would take all the cookies, and have absolutely no idea who paid for them, nor would the government worker care.

The government worker would definitely take all the cookies, and not have a care in the world as to who paid for them.

Definitely a government worker who would take all the cookies, and then ask the taxpayers to buy more.

Missed the point, did we, Lorrie? nnThere were enough cookies. There could still be enough cookies. If we could prevent the really greedy, corporate crooks, CEO and bank executives from robbing the country blind, while convince (some of) us that it’s the rest of us causing the problem. Instead of the Corporation killing competition from small bakers who would bake more cookies, banks refusing to loan start-up capital to new business that would increase competition, making a stronger more robust market. But taking customers from the corporation who EATING ALL THE COOKIES.nnDon’t you get it? nnIt’s not the fault of the public workers that corporations are greedy and sucking off the government teat in the form of excessive tax breaks.nnHaven’t you figured out yet that they are TRYING to keep competition between suppliers low, so that competition between customers (demand, if you will) remains unnaturally inflated. And people who should be working together instead fight one another.nnA government job (unless you are a politician) is just another job. And most of them are pretty sucky jobs, too. Do YOU want to get up before dawn to go empty trash cans?nndidn’t think so.nnWhere I grew up, we used to say don’t complain about farmers with your mouth full. Maybe we should change this to don’t complain about government workers with your streets clean, your garbage picked up, you kids in decent schools with teachers who care about them, with people prepared to put out the fire in your home when you fell asleep with that cig in your hand…nnDon’t complain about government workers while using the services they provide.nnsigned, Not a Government Worker.

Don’t complain about government workers, while using the services they provide. nnTake your own trash to the dump. Home school your kids. Do the maintenance on the road in front of your own house. Test the water that comes out of your faucet to make sure it isn’t going to poison your children. Monitor the air you breath to make sure it isn’t going to kill you with excessive carcinogens and acid rain. Clean the sewer, so your street doesn’t flood. Then go check to make sure all the murderers and baby rapers at that prison down the road are still in their cells and not back out on the street. Be on call for 48 hours straight in case you house catches fire. Answer the calls from a panicked 12 year old who little brother just fell and is bleeding. nnSigned, not a government worker, just someone smart enough to pay attention.

If you say a lie often enough, it begins to appear as the truth. Joseph Goebbels said this long before the right wing talk show hosts who take their leadd, as does Wisconsin Gov. Walker, from people like the billionaire Koch Brothers. Our friend, Lorrie P., seems to have the same point of view as the Rush Limbaughs of the world who would like us all to aspire to be wealthy in a day and age when the disparities in income between the rich and the poor in our wealthy country have grown, astronomically, wide.

There are transgressions in all arenas.nBut the corporate greed wouldn’t be as out of control if we didn’t want so much STUFF, want a LOT of it, and want it CHEAP. Then there would be more Americans working to manufacture it, at decent (not union wages through one of my relatives got a substantial % of his salary for being LAID OFF, and I mean more than I made in a well paying private sector job). They’re incentivized to outsource jobs, drive down COG to increase dividents and value to SHAREHOLDERS – who include any/all Americans who want to earn more on their investments -to improve bottom line. That is their job and they are rewarded for doing it. Big corporations don’t drive small businesses out of business on their own. If they built a big store and filled it with a bunch of cheap stuff and no one came in to buy it… the “little guy” wouldn’t be out of business. It’s the people who walk in the door and buy it that drive the small business under. Supposedly because they can’t afford to pay more (and won’t cut back on the STUFF). Because their jobs went away. Because there wasn’t demand for the stuff they made/services they provided at decent American wages because we LOTS of STUFF, and CHEAP, we do not want to support fellow citizens’ jobs.nnPublic workers do provide the myriad of services noted, and we pay for it with our taxes. That said there seem to be a couple words some safeguarded public employees or union workers don’t know — “at will”. In the private sector, at least in this state, at any time for any reason, and not at all related to performance you can be out the door. I was laid off both jobs I was working in the same month, not for cause. At least with the benefit of good wages, fixed pensions, outstanding benefits should come the same risks the public sector faces. I don’t believe I possess any of the skills to qualify me for a union job, I’m just a lowly college grad with a degree in Economics from one of the top dozen schools in the country (per U.S. News & World Report) with some additional work toward a specialized certification and some post grad work and 20+ years experience in my field under my belt. I’ve worked well paid professional marketing positions but if the work’s not done in 40 hours, you don’t go home. Clients and employers don’t stand for that. Someone else will be happy to have that job.

There are transgressions in all arenas.nBut the corporate greed wouldn’t be as out of control if we didn’t want so much STUFF, want a LOT of it, and want it CHEAP. Then there would be more Americans working to manufacture it, at decent (not union wages through one of my relatives got a substantial % of his salary for being LAID OFF, and I mean more than I made in a well paying private sector job). They’re incentivized to outsource jobs, drive down COG to increase dividents and value to SHAREHOLDERS – who include any/all Americans who want to earn more on their investments -to improve bottom line. That is their job and they are rewarded for doing it. Big corporations don’t drive small businesses out of business on their own. If they built a big store and filled it with a bunch of cheap stuff and no one came in to buy it… the “little guy” wouldn’t be out of business. It’s the people who walk in the door and buy it that drive the small business under. Supposedly because they can’t afford to pay more (and won’t cut back on the STUFF). Because their jobs went away. Because there wasn’t demand for the stuff they made/services they provided at decent American wages because we LOTS of STUFF, and CHEAP, we do not want to support fellow citizens’ jobs.nnPublic workers do provide the myriad of services noted, and we pay for it with our taxes. That said there seem to be a couple words some safeguarded public employees or union workers don’t know — “at will”. In the private sector, at least in this state, at any time for any reason, and not at all related to performance you can be out the door. I was laid off both jobs I was working in the same month, not for cause. At least with the benefit of good wages, fixed pensions, outstanding benefits should come the same risks the public sector faces. I don’t believe I possess any of the skills to qualify me for a union job, I’m just a lowly college grad with a degree in Economics from one of the top dozen schools in the country (per U.S. News & World Report) with some additional work toward a specialized certification and some post grad work and 20+ years experience in my field under my belt. I’ve worked well paid professional marketing positions but if the work’s not done in 40 hours, you don’t go home. Clients and employers don’t stand for that. Someone else will be happy to have that job.

Pie is nice too.

I am not brainwashed as so many americans are.

Remove the pedestal. No one is bashing government workers personally. Butrni want to see a return for my tax dollar. Low expectations equals lowrnresults and value.

When can we remove the all or none thinking and discuss what should berndiscussed.

Perfect.. for those Americans who do not possess the brain power to figure it out, this is exactly what is going on… in terms even THEY can understand. But the sad part is they just want to hate.. understanding or truth or reason is not on their to-do list!

So Union workers are lazy fucks, that don’t want to work.. nDon’t call a cop or the fire department or an ambulance then, and don’t even send your kids to our schools. If you do, you are a total hypocrite and may Karma bring that lesson home!

And you are such an idiot, your post does not even make sense to other idiots!

I’m selling dough. I’m American. No one is buying from me. 1000 jobs where? Not in America. Must be oversees. Cookies need to stay in America.

Lisagems, my trash is picked up by a private company and they don’t beat the crap out of my trash cans every week like the county trash collectors use to. Many of my neighbors’ children are home schooled with dazzling results. My homeowners association recently paid for part of our neighborhood streets to be repaired and paved by a private company. All these services you mention can be provided by the private sector if need be, with little or no cost to the taxpayer and probably more efficiently. You are quite the drama queen!

“The CEO, seeing a demand for cookies would take a risk, raise some capital and invest in 1000 employees, provide healthcare and a 401K and deliver cookies to everyone willing to work to pay for them.” nnRight, like this is happening right now all over the country. You missed the ENTIRE point of the story.nn

“The CEO, seeing a demand for cookies would take a risk, raise some capital and invest in 1000 employees, provide healthcare and a 401K and deliver cookies to everyone willing to work to pay for them. “nnThe whole point of the story is that this is NOT happening. You’re confusing CEO’s with entrepanuers. Corporate executives are NOT the “job creators” you seem to think they are. . nn

Spoken like a true name calling liberal.

No, the feminist would make sure that everyone who had or wanted a cookie was heard, including women and children, and would facilitate a consensus process so that the cookies would be distributed fairly

No you are brainwashed in your own special way. You’re still wrong.

Already posted that yesterday!! Love it!

or maybe it should read, “the CEO is GIVEN 11 cookies by the Republican governors and congressmen”..n

The ceo, realizing that he could get chinese children to bake the cookies way cheaper than americans, would pay his lobbyist to convince congress to cut his taxes when he sends the jobs to china. Then he would make the cookies with unhealthy/cheap ingredients and stick the word “natural” on the package. When lax oversight at the factory leads to contaminated cookies, the ceo will put off a recall until the press reports stories of children who have been put in the hospital from eating the cookies. The ceo will finally abandon ship with his golden parachute and run for congress as a job creator who fights for the “little guy”

Yes, Lorrie_P, YOU are bashing government workers in your previous remarks. Way to contradict yourself. What are you even doing on a liberal site – you obviously think we’re all stupid for thinking the way we do

For those of you who are privileged, to be sure, but most of us can’t afford to home school our children (because we need two incomes just to survive) and we rely on the public schools. So, are you telling us that our children don’t deserve a high quality education just because they weren’t born with a silver spoon in their mouths?

And the pro-life christians would add their own ingredients to the recipe, roll the dough so thin as not to be recognizable, toss the cookies in the dark firery oven until it was no longer palitable, then ostracize the people who didn’t want to partake in their revised version of cookie making. nn

Brass, do you know who makes sure the private companies don’t make your water unsafe, your local restaurants serve you food on a dirty plate from a dirty kitchen, your town’s street signs visible, your garbage company or mailman from going through your personal trash or mail respoectively? nnThe government. Free market is a lie. These “markets” can not function without the government’s help – even down the actual creation of the money these companies burn through. Governments should not control everything but it is in EVERYONE’S best interest if they provide basic necessary services to its people.nnWhy there is an entire movement to go against your own interests and own people to protect those who have sent MILLIONS of our jobs overseas and who have the audacity to point fingers and blame the other 98% of the population for their failures is beyond short term memory, it’s flat out denial of knowledge and common sense.

No, many CEOs are employed by publicly traded corporations that are owned by whom ?…… US, THE PUBLIC, who blindly invest our money without concern for anything but our own ROI. Which makes us differant from these CEOs how?

CEO’s are different from us in that their interests are not one in the same as the shareholders of the corporations they work for. The only “risk” they assume is the risk that the shareholders will figure out they are being overpaid and send them on their way.

…..then Sarah Palin says, “Cookies? Doesn’t anyone eat a dozen doughnuts for breakfast anymore?” “What a bucnch of Nannies!”

999 of those employees would be in India. He would cut benefits for the remaining 1 US employee. Then he would give himself a big bonus.

You’ve got to get the Repulicorp governor in there. The CEO takes 11 cookies, gives 2 to the Governor’s reelection fund and the Governor ….

In New York, it is 60% of the dark cookies that never see the light of day and Al Sharpton will call you a racist if you point this out as a genocide. How much money does Al get from Planned Parenthood?

How can you hear the children you have aborted?

The CEO gets paid by his/hers company, the Tea Party wants limited gov’t and the public employee gets paid by we the taxpayers. If you can’t figure out the difference,p.s FDR didn’t want gov’t workers to be in a union

The only way we’ll succeed is to organize and combine forces with other organizations, groups and individuals. We really have much less time than we all think. It’ll takes time and energy to gain the momentum to overcome massive amounts of money from politicians, corporations, lobbyists and wall street working against us and against change. The working class, students, the poor, the elderly and disabled shall stand and be counted or be the victim.

Noone says that your children should not have a great education. The problem is that public schools are not doing there job because the unions protect poor teachers and do not allow good teachers to be rewarded for their hard work. Look you may be able to homeschool your children, even if you live very simply. We homeschooled our six children until high school. It was tough but they all got scholarships to college. It paid off in spades. Good luck.

Lisagems government workers do a fine job. This is not the point. Government workers are paid twice as much as workers in the private sector and receive far better benefits and a much earlier retirement. We simply cannot afford this. The other problem is that public unions collect dues from their members and then donate the money to Democrat politicians who are elected and promise things we cannot afford as taxpayers. Republicans are happy to pay public workers the going wage and benefits equal to the private sector. Republicans would be happy to do this without employees paying any union dues. This is the real problem. Who will finance democrat politicians if the unions don’t get their dues? Who will pay the six figure salaries of the union bosses if there are no dues? This struggle is all about keeping rich, fat-cat union bosses and their democrat lackies in the money. I am with the taxpayers on this one. What is wrong with a fair days wage for a fair days work?

so quick to judge…nentrepreneur.

thank you.

I totally agree with you. I probably haven’t spent $1k in a year on consumer goods for that reason. I buy vintage american made items and there is plenty yet available and if I can’t find what I’m looking for I just do without, and quite well in fact. I once worked in an american rubber boot factory making a great product. It’s all gone to china and made cheaply for the same sales price! I didn’t make much money there but I learned a lot of valuable lessons. Never believe their lies about being able to compete. It was all about their profits and not even about their product, which we took great pride in creating before the lives of more than a thousand familes were permanently disruped and driven down. This has happened over and over again in this country and I find it to be as great an injustice as any I’ve seen in my lifetime. When Walmart brags how people can live cheaper buying their crap I think why the crap at all!

You wanna pay teachers two-bits? Okay, you’ll have two-bit teachers!

That is categorically untrue. I worked for the feds and did much better in private industry. Most state workers make less than their private counterparts and if they have good benefits it is due to the collective bargaining process. No one is stopping you from having the same process. Quit complaining and join one yourself!

There is more to success than the almight dollar, like rights and dignity.

jackryan, not only are you rude and condescending, you are severly misinformed.

Really great conversations on this site today (oops, yesterday if you will). Yeah a day late and a dollar short,,, that’s me. Regardless, the argumentative postures (ie: in-fighting) most of you convey is exactly what the greedy, mortgage stealing, livelihood robbing, earth raping, acid raining, gulf oiling corporations have wanted for years now. nnRemember, “you are the people” and this seems to have become the “battle of the classes” and is probably the first step towards the “new world order”!!! The corporate moguls are all laughing and high fiving each other all the way to the bank as you continue to in-fight. nnI don’t know much and don’t have any resolutions to solve Americas Class War but I do know that as a union member for the past 30 years, I have literally worked my fingers to the bone for everything I own and I will guard it with my life.nnMost of the comments on this site are truly amazing to me. Some of them very responsible and with great thought by what seems to be regular everyday people. Some however seem to be nothing more than irresponsible bickering by educated fools (perhaps). “From both sides of the table”. nnRemember, we, “meaning, you” are the people” (hence, “you are the government”). What happens from here on depends on your ability to recognize that we, “YOU” have all been duped and lied to by the “corporate snakes in the grass” and have been for decades and will continue to be until you do recognize this amazing fact! nn

Such small thinking. Typical.

kberrier, nYour experience may be true for you. This is called anecdotal evidence. In other words, your experience may be an exception. The fact remains that on average government employees make about two times in salary what people are paid in the private sector for a similar job.nThis does not include benefits. By the way, did you know that federal government unions do not have the right to collective bargaining? This is because Franklin Roosevelt said that public employees had a different responsibility than private sector employees. Their jobs were essential to the operation of a civil society and they are not employed by “evil corporations” but by the American people.nFinally, I never complain, only explain. I believe you are the one whining. Whining – the true sound of liberals!

Poor kberrier! Like all liberals reason is beyond her. Name calling is the liberal speciality! Grown ups call that an ad homenum argrument – weakest of all.

Dear John, Where do I begin? What evidence do you have that billionaires are doing anything more than inventing something that people like and will buy, hiring people and paying to make their product, hiring more people to sell their product, paying taxes to federal, state and local governments and contributing generously to causes all over the world? Why is it wrong for anyone to hope that everyone can acheive their hopes and dreams? Finally, the disparities between the rich and poor are usually greatest in places where liberal social and economic policies have destroyed the family structure, taxed business out of existence, and accepted all kinds of deviant behavior in the name of tolerance. See Detroit.nnPerhaps, John, after generations of failed liberal policies, we might try something new, like freedom, responsibility and private charity where needed. After all, insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over again all the while expecting a different result. I think you call it social justice. nn

Teachers in Mn make a great wage. And 155 contract days. We also have a D-rnteacher policy rating. It is a joke.

There is no performance management. You don’t think teachers get paidrnenough?

No. I learned how formal education brainwashes people to think they deservernsomething for a piece of paper. Wrong. Go provide real value. Go work.rnAnd if your boss says you deserve the job’s pay. That’s when you arernbeginning to show value for your piece of paper.

Interference – we can do very nicely without direct government interference because we are a nation of laws. My water provider is a private utility that must adhere to laws on the books regarding water purity. Why would I eat at restaurant that used dirty plates – that’s illegal. My local government is responsible to erect visible street signs but that doesn’t mean I want to provide the guy who installed them with a fat-cat pension plan and health benefits for life. nnSince the Postal Reorganization Act of 1971 the US Postal Service has become self-sufficient and has not directly received taxpayer-dollars since the early 1980′s. Oh by the way, neither have FedEx or UPS. The free market is not “a lie” and our legal system was designed to keep it functioning fairly. nnYou know what is a lie? Your nanny state where the government feels entitled to take over more and more sectors of the free market. The nanny state has evolved with the help of collective bargaining by public employees which has only been around since 1959 and which must now be considered a failure.

Sounds like you’re lazy to me. If you really wanted to work, you’d have found a job by now.

My bad – I have to remember not to feed the trolls. I forgot because I don’t believe in planting trouble-makers in a peaceful crowd.

Lorrie – check your facts. Minnesota requires 182 student contact days and teachers are required to be on campus at least another 14 days (depending on the district) and have to be there several evenings a year for conferences. That doesn’t even begin to cover the real number of hours that teachers work. They take home piles of papers to correct, have to continually create new lesson plans (because if they didn’t they wouldn’t be good teachers) and continue their own education – at their own expense – just to stay licensed. You obviously have no idea how hard teachers work and how little they have to work with – how could you, you homeschool. Not to mention the fact that Minnesota teachers are better trained than in most states. In my humble opinion, my kids teachers deserve more than they get paid now.

I do not homeschool but thanks for the judgment. 155 contract days is whatrnthe contract is in my district. I have a copy of the contract. Boo hoo.rnDo you think that no one else in the workforce brings home work? Check yourrnfacts. If you want to pay more tax then do it. Put your money where yourrnmouth is.

I cannot homeschool my autistic child, because I have to work. My husband is unemployed and someone has to pay the bills. In spite of how wonderful he is, I cannot expect my husband to homeschool my autistic son (besides the fact that social isolation would be the worst thing I could do to my son, my husband simply does not have the training to deal with that).nnBesides – that is not the answer. The system is broken, so let’s abandon the system?!?! Our country needs a strong public school system, so why don’t we work together to make it better instead of all jumping ship?!

What?

As a former union member and governmental employee,I can tell you look into your union…..see what is rely happing to you and its effects on everyone else……………Unions are full of BS…….nThank you…

2 things:nn1. socialism has been, and continues to be, successful in combination with controlled market capitalism in many European nations. not to mention the only purely socialistic fiscal system is used in the payment of US military veterans.nn2. honestly, why are you on this site if you seem do disagree with everything posted? either you don’t actually care about peoples’ opinions and you just want an argument or you’re really dumb and can’t see that you are persuading no one, just stirring up arguments. just a thought.

you are aware that, by definition, liberalism is the quick acceptance of change? and the conservatism, again by definition, is a reluctance to change and a desire for social and fiscal policies to remain how they are? just making sure you understand the vocabulary you are using

hey now, not all of us idiots agree with her. she is becoming as annoying as you and Lorrie_P

Christine, if you don’t like China, then why do you support socialists like Barack Obama who want YOU to bake cookies at Chinese wages? Or at least that is what you’ll get to keep after taxes.

@navymum (i cant reply to you, too many replies already perhaps?) grown ups on both side of the line use ad homenum as the very basis of their campaigns and arguments. the reason they do this is because, for whatever reason, it works very well with the american population, e.g. the time when McCain had to correct a misinformed elderly women who asked a question at a rally about “that muslim” Obama. this was probably no fault of McCain’s as a majority of information tossed about in campaigns is third party, but let’s not pretend that the democrats are the only ones who can toss an argument assaulting a person’s character

We have many two bit teachers who get paid four bits.

Sometimes it’s utterly amazing how out of touch some Americans are. Obama has reduced taxes and is fighting for Americans to keep wages that Teacons are trying to reduce.nYou really don’t understand what’s happening at this very moment. Read about what being proposed in the different states regarding wages. Do you you know what “right to work” means?

Hey Jack, nThanks. You are the change we can believe in!

Wow Sarah, I really feel for you. It’s not just you, what’s going on is pretty simple and obvious: Our public schools would work a lot better with more funding. The greedy and short-sighted are not interested in making a monetary investment whose return they can’t directly perceive in their bank statements. Instead they lay the responsibility on educators themselves as a distraction from the real problem. Overworked and underpaid American workers get a kick out of calling their neighbors “lazy” so it’s been pretty effective.nnAs far as whether or not your children deserve a good education, I certainly think so but the more nihilistic might disagree unfortunately. There used to be an “American Dream” where anyone of any background could become successful and do well for themselves, but with the middle class disappearing and income disparity between the rich and the rest of us skyrocketing, people lately seem more interested in stepping on each others’ heads rather than pushing each other higher.

Be careful your bigotry is showing. I know you think you are not a racist but what you just wrote pretty much proves otherwise.

I don’t need best wishes from you. I am one of those teachers that you think doesn’t do anything and you already called me stupid in a lower remark. Don’t be a hypocrite. nI am not bitter and I am not looking for anyone to solve my problems, but I am asking those who can clearly afford it to pay as much in taxes as I do. That would be the right thing to do.

Thank you.

I’m not sure what district you are in, but the statistics on the Minnesota Dept. of Education’s website say that 171 instructional days is the average in Minnesota. It only listed one school with less than 160, and it was a charter school. Since by Minnesota law, districts must have no less than the number of instructional days than they had in the ’96-’97 school year (thus there is no room for them to reduce the number of instructional days down to that level), I assume you must be referring either to a new charter school, or a private school. nnHow many people with the amount of education that teachers must have – by law – make as little as they do. If we paid teachers any less, then no one of any quality will want to go into the profession. n nI am happy to pay my fair share of taxes – the taxes here don’t even compare to what I paid in Germany. All I want, is that the wealthy (individuals and corporations) pay as much in taxes as I do. That would be the right thing, but right now that is not the case.

@Navymum – you and Jack have done most of the name calling on this page. I’m sure you don’t see it that way, and that is part of the problem. nI mean, honestly, we are talking about worker’s rights and you call us baby killers?!nnFYI – the name of the fallacy is ad hominem. n

kberrier is correct – public sector workers make less than their private sector counterparts. The Republicans all across the country are trying to not only take away bargaining rights, but also to pay them less at the same time.nnIf you are referring to the information in a USA Today article this week – it is invalid, because as the article itself states: “The analysis included full and part-time workers and did not adjust for specific jobs, age, education or experience.”nnSo, they are lumping teachers and other highly educated, highly skilled workers into the same pot as those who have no high school diploma and work at fast food joints. That is neither a fair, nor an accurate comparison.

Do your private school teachers even have valid teaching licenses? because in Ohio they aren’t required for Private schools. They also make much less. We make more because we are Highly Qualified as required by the state! We are required to have a Master’s degree.. who do you think paid for that? I did, not the taxpayers.

We have a four day week. A piece of paper guarantees nothing which is whyrnwe need performance management.

Do you truly understand the package they receive?

Check out the government worker data on fox today.

How much do you pay in taxes? Define wealthy.

I do truly understand the “package” – I used to work in a public school. Even with a Master’s degree – and I am a very good teacher – I could barely support my two children. That was in great part due to the fact that my health insurance cost me, personally, $1000/month. nnI pay my fair share in taxes. That means I actually pay my taxes. I do not use obscure deductions, etc. in order to get out of paying any taxes at all – which almost have of the corporations in this country do all the time.nnOh, and FOX certainly gives a balanced view of things – I mean they think that WI has palm trees. Yeah – not going to trust them.

What was your salary that you couldn’t live on?

Whose laws do the water companies have to adhere to in order to make your water safe to drink, I wonder?nThe government’s laws. nnWhose laws make it possible that a subgrade restaurant doesn’t serve you e-coli-laden food?nThe government.nnWhose laws made it illegal to snoop through your mail, deliver it even though they may not agree, or steel private information?nnThe government’s.nnWhose printed money does the “free market” trade on?nThe government’s.nnUnions are one of the only ways left citizens have to protect themselves. Do huge corporations have to answer to them people? As it has been PROVEN, absolutely not.nWe’ve let the “free market” regulate themselves and we’ve seen extreme violations of human rights, safety rights, environmental rights, and tax evasion. nnWithout the government making sure people play nice (civil rights) or do the right thing (make safe water, houses, or places to work), “free market” would have killed us ALL by now.

Misspellings are owned and acknowledged and typed out of haste but the facts remains the same. Wake up, brother. Unless you ARE big corp, you’re being played. Not all government is bad. Seriously sit down with yourself and imagine what all of these “regulated” things would be like if you left it up to people who were in it for themselves and themselves only.

Sorry honey,rnTake a stats class. Public school teacher make more than their privaterncounterparts. This is true across the whole public sector and noone isrndisputing this in the news. Take the class and learn what “did not adjustrnfor means”.rnrnHave a great day.rnNavymum

This is too much fun. Thank you, Jack

Jackryan is brilliant.

Jackryan is brilliant.

Jackryan, you are exactly correct. nnAll I can add is: “Who is John Galt?”

Amazing response, Jack. nnCEO’s are paid based on how easily they can be replaced. A bad CEO is fired by the owners unless he/she performs.nnThe CEO can either royally screw up and cost the company jobs or the CEO can grow the company, which creates jobs–sometimes hundreds of jobs or even thousands of jobs. nnIf a CEO is not worth his wage, he/she would be easy to replaced with the recent grad who works in HR, right? The company would save so much money if they hired a less expensive CEO…but generally a company gets what it pays for.nnA CEO’s primary objective is to create jobs. That’s what profitable businesses do.