Comments on: Joyriding the Gravy Train of Economic Inequality http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/joyriding-the-gravy-train-of-economic-inequality/ Sun, 21 Mar 2010 15:14:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Mr. Independant http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/joyriding-the-gravy-train-of-economic-inequality/comment-page-1/#comment-435638 Mr. Independant Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:54:00 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/?p=69579#comment-435638 Oleg, Excellent article. You’ve finally hit the nail on the head. Economic opportunity for all, not just the few. Oleg,

Excellent article. You’ve finally hit the nail on the head. Economic opportunity for all, not just the few.

]]> By: oldguy http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/joyriding-the-gravy-train-of-economic-inequality/comment-page-1/#comment-425539 oldguy Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:45:39 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/?p=69579#comment-425539 Sometime in the near future, Americans will be saying that they know what it's like living in a country like that. Sometime in the near future, Americans will be saying that they know what it’s like living in a country like that.

]]> By: texexpatriate http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/joyriding-the-gravy-train-of-economic-inequality/comment-page-1/#comment-425068 texexpatriate Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:59:14 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/?p=69579#comment-425068 So, Oleg, you got here just in time to watch America's socialists and fascists in the so-called Democratic Party turn the U. S. into a Soviet-style socialist nation. Better start thinking about New Zealand, or perhaps Texas or Alaska, when they secede. So, Oleg, you got here just in time to watch America’s socialists and fascists in the so-called Democratic Party turn the U. S. into a Soviet-style socialist nation. Better start thinking about New Zealand, or perhaps Texas or Alaska, when they secede.

]]> By: Delia http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/joyriding-the-gravy-train-of-economic-inequality/comment-page-1/#comment-424130 Delia Sun, 18 Oct 2009 18:16:10 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/?p=69579#comment-424130 Here is another example of 'unfair'... My husband works very hard for a living and when he's done laboring with his sweat and muscles he gets paid for that job and that's that. I, on the other hand can create fonts that I can sell at myfonts.com and get paid FOREVER for that font just so long as someone wants to buy that font once in a while. My labor for a single, intellectual effort can be paid for infinitely and when I die, my daughter can receive my profits well after I'm gone and so on and so on. As my husband says, "Honey, you're the smart one. Make some money with it." My husband is proud of my smarts and isn't jealous that I'm smarter than him. But, look who's ahead? MY HUSBAND! He's the hard worker and he's come VERY far even though he works with his hands. See? Life is unfair but somehow it works out in the end. Here is another example of ‘unfair’…

My husband works very hard for a living and when he’s done laboring with his sweat and muscles he gets paid for that job and that’s that.

I, on the other hand can create fonts that I can sell at myfonts.com and get paid FOREVER for that font just so long as someone wants to buy that font once in a while. My labor for a single, intellectual effort can be paid for infinitely and when I die, my daughter can receive my profits well after I’m gone and so on and so on.

As my husband says, “Honey, you’re the smart one. Make some money with it.”

My husband is proud of my smarts and isn’t jealous that I’m smarter than him.

But, look who’s ahead? MY HUSBAND! He’s the hard worker and he’s come VERY far even though he works with his hands.

See?

Life is unfair but somehow it works out in the end.

]]> By: Navigator7 http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/joyriding-the-gravy-train-of-economic-inequality/comment-page-1/#comment-423961 Navigator7 Sun, 18 Oct 2009 14:44:51 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/?p=69579#comment-423961 Red Square.....your words, your humor and your shared experiences mean more to me than you will ever know. I'm very proud to have met you ... albeit over the phone. I believe our country has been saved with your humor and disaster postponed. Agitprop...more powerful than most weapons of mass destruction. What is needed is a PeopleCube bumper sticker on every car! ;-) Red Square…..your words, your humor and your shared experiences mean more to me than you will ever know.
I’m very proud to have met you … albeit over the phone.
I believe our country has been saved with your humor and disaster postponed.
Agitprop…more powerful than most weapons of mass destruction.
What is needed is a PeopleCube bumper sticker on every car!
;-)

]]> By: Paul S. http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/joyriding-the-gravy-train-of-economic-inequality/comment-page-1/#comment-423792 Paul S. Sun, 18 Oct 2009 08:53:54 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/?p=69579#comment-423792 I'm reminded of soviet grocers who came to San Francisco and toured a supermarket. Their major complaint was the "inefficiency" in stocking shelves with more than one brand, since that "impeded" distribution. Worlds apart. Thank you. I’m reminded of soviet grocers who came to San Francisco and toured a supermarket. Their major complaint was the “inefficiency” in stocking shelves with more than one brand, since that “impeded” distribution.

Worlds apart.

Thank you.

]]> By: andropovshchina http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/joyriding-the-gravy-train-of-economic-inequality/comment-page-1/#comment-423677 andropovshchina Sun, 18 Oct 2009 03:31:40 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/?p=69579#comment-423677 Oleg, add mine to the kudos on this thread, but here's something else: even though you qualify that the classes in question are not inflexible, to call it "class envy" is still a misnomer. There are places where the moneyed and the ruling classes are just that, and apart from privilege of birth to enter them is very very hard. Soviet ruling classes' children had no opportunity to even meet their plebeian coevals at any point of their school, play, mating etc. I imagine the same holds for the Miterrands et al. "Class envy" is a proper name for those situations. With the U.S. redistributionists, where opportunity is still here for a bright and hardworking youth to become a millionaire at one of many pursuits, we have simple "money envy". "You have a lot, that's not fair!". Everything they know they learned in kindergarten. Get guys with guns to take away and divide. This is not "opportunity envy" which class envy partially is. Oleg, add mine to the kudos on this thread, but here’s something else:
even though you qualify that the classes in question are not inflexible, to call it “class envy” is still a misnomer. There are places where the moneyed and the ruling classes are just that, and apart from privilege of birth to enter them is very very hard. Soviet ruling classes’ children had no opportunity to even meet their plebeian coevals at any point of their school, play, mating etc. I imagine the same holds for the Miterrands et al.
“Class envy” is a proper name for those situations. With the U.S. redistributionists, where opportunity is still here for a bright and hardworking youth to become a millionaire at one of many pursuits, we have simple “money envy”. “You have a lot, that’s not fair!”. Everything they know they learned in kindergarten. Get guys with guns to take away and divide. This is not “opportunity envy” which class envy partially is.

]]> By: Marc Malone http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/joyriding-the-gravy-train-of-economic-inequality/comment-page-1/#comment-423608 Marc Malone Sun, 18 Oct 2009 01:42:15 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/?p=69579#comment-423608 #4 Never for Obama - Thanks for the expression of appreciation. Nice to know I had an effect. #7 pelaut - No. It will work. One must hammer away at it. Quayle and Bush 41 did not. They... um... quailed. :p They did not stand tall. They let the Leftist media define the debate. One must be committed to the fight. Committed moderate is a self-contradiction. #4 Never for Obama – Thanks for the expression of appreciation. Nice to know I had an effect.

#7 pelaut – No. It will work. One must hammer away at it. Quayle and Bush 41 did not. They… um… quailed. :p They did not stand tall. They let the Leftist media define the debate. One must be committed to the fight. Committed moderate is a self-contradiction.

]]> By: myth buster http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/joyriding-the-gravy-train-of-economic-inequality/comment-page-1/#comment-423604 myth buster Sun, 18 Oct 2009 01:40:51 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/?p=69579#comment-423604 My grandfather is a veteran of the Polish Resistance. He was captured and sent to a concentration camp. After the war, he returned to Poland, which fell under Soviet occupation. There, he met my grandmother, got married, and my mother was born. Some time later, he fled Poland for Austria to find work. When he saved up enough money, he sent for his wife and daughter, and they spent a year and a half in Vienna living in a one room apartment, saving up money to immigrate to the US. They arrived in America in the midst of a recession, and it was difficult to find work. Nevertheless, my grandparents persevered, soon finding work in a flower shop in Pennsylvania. They made decent money, but not enough to send my mother to college. However, the long hours they worked had left my mother with responsibilities most teenagers didn't have. She worked her way through college, graduating in five years with a dual degree in Finance/Accounting. Today, my grandfather has been forced into retirement by the economy. Men like him don't take well to retirement- they get stir crazy. He tried retirement a few years ago, got bored, and decided to go back to work, at least part time. My grandparents didn't come to America to be spoon fed. They came yearning to work hard, breathe free, and build a better life for themselves and their daughter. And you know what? They succeeded. They got to buy a house and pay it off, watch their daughter graduate from high school and then college, and get married. They got to see the birth of their two grandsons, see us get baptized, make First Communion and then Confirmation, and see me graduate from high school. My grandmother, God rest her soul, attended my high school graduation in a wheelchair because she had wasted away from congestive heart failure to the point that she couldn't walk or stand for more than maybe thirty minutes. She died about four months later. They returned to Poland several times, and my grandmother's ashes are interred in the graveyard of the church she attended as a girl, the church her nephews still attend. They rejoiced at the liberation of Poland from the Communists, but it was never a serious option for them to stay in Poland; there just wasn't anything for them there. My grandparents were always quite generous. I blushed at the size of some of the gifts they gave me. I suppose you can do that when your house is paid off and you don't feel like retiring. My grandfather is a veteran of the Polish Resistance. He was captured and sent to a concentration camp. After the war, he returned to Poland, which fell under Soviet occupation. There, he met my grandmother, got married, and my mother was born. Some time later, he fled Poland for Austria to find work. When he saved up enough money, he sent for his wife and daughter, and they spent a year and a half in Vienna living in a one room apartment, saving up money to immigrate to the US. They arrived in America in the midst of a recession, and it was difficult to find work. Nevertheless, my grandparents persevered, soon finding work in a flower shop in Pennsylvania. They made decent money, but not enough to send my mother to college. However, the long hours they worked had left my mother with responsibilities most teenagers didn’t have. She worked her way through college, graduating in five years with a dual degree in Finance/Accounting.

Today, my grandfather has been forced into retirement by the economy. Men like him don’t take well to retirement- they get stir crazy. He tried retirement a few years ago, got bored, and decided to go back to work, at least part time. My grandparents didn’t come to America to be spoon fed. They came yearning to work hard, breathe free, and build a better life for themselves and their daughter. And you know what? They succeeded. They got to buy a house and pay it off, watch their daughter graduate from high school and then college, and get married. They got to see the birth of their two grandsons, see us get baptized, make First Communion and then Confirmation, and see me graduate from high school. My grandmother, God rest her soul, attended my high school graduation in a wheelchair because she had wasted away from congestive heart failure to the point that she couldn’t walk or stand for more than maybe thirty minutes. She died about four months later. They returned to Poland several times, and my grandmother’s ashes are interred in the graveyard of the church she attended as a girl, the church her nephews still attend. They rejoiced at the liberation of Poland from the Communists, but it was never a serious option for them to stay in Poland; there just wasn’t anything for them there.

My grandparents were always quite generous. I blushed at the size of some of the gifts they gave me. I suppose you can do that when your house is paid off and you don’t feel like retiring.

]]> By: Bleepless http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/joyriding-the-gravy-train-of-economic-inequality/comment-page-1/#comment-423597 Bleepless Sun, 18 Oct 2009 01:33:32 +0000 http://pajamasmedia.com/?p=69579#comment-423597 Chomp, slurp, belch. "Someday, comrade -- chomp -- all of you little people -- gulp -- will live like this. Now go away." Gurgle, chew, sigh. Chomp, slurp, belch. “Someday, comrade — chomp — all of you little people — gulp — will live like this. Now go away.” Gurgle, chew, sigh.

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