@ladyfingers86 - Nah, I’m with Ziggy on this one if only because we ARE at their mercy…and they don’t care (Well, at least those at the top don’t). @Relevart - but it’s true, “the best things in life are free.”
@npd1969… as is every company including the one you work for (assuming you are actually working). It’s not an evil or bad thing to make profits - try running your own business some time… however, it is a bad thing for the gov’t to purposefully depreciate the value of those profits forcing you to make more profits to cover depreciation while the price of that difference is placed on the customers using your product/service and the employees which are never kept up with inflation/cost of living increases (unless they work for the same gov’t workforce causing many of the problems to begin with). It’s a downward spiral for all too many; however, fast or slow that spiral is.
Equally, we don’t make our own lives any better by putting ourselves in the hole trying to stay trendy and technologically ‘up-to-date’ while putting ourselves into debt to do so. That’s not the fault of the profit making company. That one is on us. They just make stuff we decide we like to spend money on… that’s good business. While they make stuff we want, the Gov wastes money on stuff no one needs or could get better and cheaper via the same businesses; this, while paying themselves more than the fair market value of their work.
Look, it would be one thing if the government workers went BACK to making under the fair market value of their work as it means less tax dollars being stolen/take from us and thus less of a burden on society and its pocket book and thus greater potential for the market to actually correct itself.
You may have ‘government’ and the ‘powers of Corporate America’ a bit confused, and understandably so.
Unless one can truly think freely, trends are dictated to us through an utter saturation of socialized commercialism. We must learn to read between the lines of what we want and what we ‘think’ we need. This is where a lack of regard for our educational system has served the corporate hand of big business so well. The more ‘ignorant’ the consumer, the more passively s/he can be manipulated to take less and spend more on dumb stuff that doesn’t really matter for much. I’m not talking about the Halmark Corp. or Hershey’s chocolate, I’m talking about big oil, gas, the pharmaceutical and insurance industries etc.
Our attentions (&votes) are diverted with trivial topics like ‘same sex marraige’, DADT etc. when the very core of a love for human kind is being eroded by the acid of ignorance, fear, anger and blame.
Personally, I’m bored with so much aimless and unproductive whining about the generically evil ‘big government’. These are the results of our own votes (or lack there of).
If anyone has proven themselves in desperate need of serious oversight, it is the above mentioned corporate industries left to run amok for so long now that they control the very pulse of our great country by the fuel cost de jour and a basic human desire to live.
As to the complaints about utilities as stated by npd1969, we can’t forget about local and regional coop phone and power companies. Some of them actually give “capital credits” and “retire” a small percentage of them back to their members. While it may not be much, it shows that not all of them are money-hungry.
COWBOY7 almost 14 years ago
I don’t think you will get a straight answer, Ziggy.
stewartava almost 14 years ago
While “the best things in life are free”, the rest isn’t.
Barbaratoo almost 14 years ago
@ladyfingers86 - Nah, I’m with Ziggy on this one if only because we ARE at their mercy…and they don’t care (Well, at least those at the top don’t). @Relevart - but it’s true, “the best things in life are free.”
stewartava almost 14 years ago
…. until rendered toxic, that is.
npd1969 almost 14 years ago
The Utility Companies are not interested in the well being of the people. All they are concerned with is growing Their Profits.
DjGuardian almost 14 years ago
@npd1969… as is every company including the one you work for (assuming you are actually working). It’s not an evil or bad thing to make profits - try running your own business some time… however, it is a bad thing for the gov’t to purposefully depreciate the value of those profits forcing you to make more profits to cover depreciation while the price of that difference is placed on the customers using your product/service and the employees which are never kept up with inflation/cost of living increases (unless they work for the same gov’t workforce causing many of the problems to begin with). It’s a downward spiral for all too many; however, fast or slow that spiral is.
Equally, we don’t make our own lives any better by putting ourselves in the hole trying to stay trendy and technologically ‘up-to-date’ while putting ourselves into debt to do so. That’s not the fault of the profit making company. That one is on us. They just make stuff we decide we like to spend money on… that’s good business. While they make stuff we want, the Gov wastes money on stuff no one needs or could get better and cheaper via the same businesses; this, while paying themselves more than the fair market value of their work.
Look, it would be one thing if the government workers went BACK to making under the fair market value of their work as it means less tax dollars being stolen/take from us and thus less of a burden on society and its pocket book and thus greater potential for the market to actually correct itself.
Smiley Rmom almost 14 years ago
DjGuardian - (Applause!)
stewartava almost 14 years ago
You may have ‘government’ and the ‘powers of Corporate America’ a bit confused, and understandably so. Unless one can truly think freely, trends are dictated to us through an utter saturation of socialized commercialism. We must learn to read between the lines of what we want and what we ‘think’ we need. This is where a lack of regard for our educational system has served the corporate hand of big business so well. The more ‘ignorant’ the consumer, the more passively s/he can be manipulated to take less and spend more on dumb stuff that doesn’t really matter for much. I’m not talking about the Halmark Corp. or Hershey’s chocolate, I’m talking about big oil, gas, the pharmaceutical and insurance industries etc. Our attentions (&votes) are diverted with trivial topics like ‘same sex marraige’, DADT etc. when the very core of a love for human kind is being eroded by the acid of ignorance, fear, anger and blame.
Personally, I’m bored with so much aimless and unproductive whining about the generically evil ‘big government’. These are the results of our own votes (or lack there of). If anyone has proven themselves in desperate need of serious oversight, it is the above mentioned corporate industries left to run amok for so long now that they control the very pulse of our great country by the fuel cost de jour and a basic human desire to live.
frrykid Premium Member almost 14 years ago
As to the complaints about utilities as stated by npd1969, we can’t forget about local and regional coop phone and power companies. Some of them actually give “capital credits” and “retire” a small percentage of them back to their members. While it may not be much, it shows that not all of them are money-hungry.