Looking for a mid-size domestic car recommendation

Communism never truly existed, Socialism is still some of the most
successful nations (i.e. Sweeden), and capitalism won't leave as long as
there are the super-rich. Just out of curiousity, what is the future?

 

I really only have one comment to make.... how is the Stock Market a big
Casino that I "feed my money into so they can live like a Sultan"? I get
mine too. GM pays a $.50/sh dividend each quarter. That is a pretty decent
dividend, especially for an auto manufacturer. Their stock is on a decent
rise from the fall of the market a few years ago. So I don't see how you
are getting screwed on it here. Perhaps if you knew how to make Your Money
Work For You, you wouldn't be so angry. This is a capitalistic society.
Those who work for it are rewarded for it. Sure, Mr Wagoner may get paid a
lot. Part of it may be greed, it may be he is worth it, it may be something
else. But look at someone like Henry Ford, he worked tirelessly for years
to get his auto company off the ground. He probably spent nights upon
nights without sleep, working his ass off, and he was rewarded for it. He
made millions, had one of the most powerful companies in the U.S., and there
were people who complained about his ways. But I tell you what, if that man
offered me a job, I would have taken it and never complained one bit about
it. Some companies lie, cheat, steal, but it is our job to educate
ourselves on what it is those companies do. Knowledge is the key to success
in our world. If you don't like capitalism, I would suggest a country like
Sweeden or Switzerland, perhaps even Cuba, North Korea, or Vietnam where
everyone is equal (at least according to the rules of communism, but
something tells me they are using that word a little loosely... I see
dictatorship... but what do I know.) and gets equal pay based off their job
description and gets equal food and gets equal housing and the same
clothing. Then you won't have to worry about anyone making $14.7 million
dollars a year, it will be like $100 a year. You won't have to worry about
someone having 17 cows to your 1 or anything, at least in theory, but I am
pretty sure in North Korea, they are lucky to have a cow (or ox). I do
think some CEO's make too much money, and in a way I think some regulation
should be in place, such as when American Airlines is cutting jobs, cutting
pay, and filing bankruptcy but the CEO is giving himself a payraise and a
bonus it seems a little backassward. Although by filing bankruptcy the
courts will decide that stuff. But still. Kmart is another example,
offering loans to top executive and pay increases and generous use of
company equipment while closing stores and cutting employess instead of
investing in the company which drove it into the ground. But I can't
complain much cause such is the world of capitalism.

 

The homeless americans can get a J-O-B. I know its a rough situation here
for some people. I know I am in one myself. But there are jobs. Truth is
a lot of homeless people don't want to do anything. Thus if you don't want
to work for it, you shouldn't get it. This isn't a vacation.

 

Hey now, lets not beat around the bush here.... do you realize how much of
our budget goes to Social Spending every year in the U.S. we might as well
label ourselves has socialist. We fund every useless tool that doesn't want
to get a job or just pop kids out constantly or be a drain on the society
and don't give a sh!t about those that are trying survive by working. The
money going to Iraq isn't taken from your precious social programs it is
pulled out of G.W.'s ass and just added to our debt. Its funded by Savings
Bonds, foreign banks, etc, etc, etc. Just like all the rest of the debt.

Talk to some of those homeless people... most of them don't want to do
anything except take your money to buy alcohol. They don't want to work,
they just want to be lazy bums, for whatever reason. Yeah, some of them may
want to turn around and get back on their feet, but they are relatively few
and far between.

 

Its called COBRA insurance when you get laid off or quit a job. Its
expensive yes, but its insurance. Its not too shabby. You almost always
get something in the mail after terminating employment in anyway. I know I
always have. Plus I get offered the extensions on my insurance that I had
with the company I worked for. You can buy insurance, there is just a cost.
There are even insurance companies that will insure you regardless but you
will pay a premium. ( a major premium, especially women due to the
maintenece care).

 

I've been laid off before and you're full of crappola! There are many health
insurance options out there from many different providers that will write
policies with different coverage options. Have you not looked for them?

| If you are laid off you can only keep the old insurance for a limited length
| of time under the law a few years ago. Not sure what the law is now. Also
| the rates can go sky high when you are laid off and take the plan private.
| Also the old company can lay off a bunch of people, discontinue the old
| health plan so the laid off people are not eligible to continue in the old
| plan. Then they start a new plan for the current employees. Or in some
| cases the companies go out of business leaving people without health
| insurance. I guess you live a sheltered life.
|

 

Spoken like a true republican.

 

If you mean stating the facts, you're right. You can get different
types of insurance from many sources. They may not be cheap, but
they're out there. And there are plenty of safety nets out there for
those in dire straits.

Bill Putney
(to reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with "x")

 

Dunno what's it's like in the US but in the UK quite a few homeless are
mentally ill and need looking after and not instructions from warm and
comfortable people on high to get a job. They're on the streets because the
government closed many mental institutions and tipped the inmates into "Care
in the Community", a well-meaning move that assumed these people had
relatives who would take of them.

How many homeless have you spoken to or read about?

DAS

 

Exactly true in the US too plus there are plenty of working homeless.

 

Let me give you an example of a safety net. There is low cost subsidized
health insurance available in most states for children with no coverage.
But it is limited and on a first come first serve basis. The demand is much
higher than the supply, at least in NC.

 

Seems to me when highly paid GM management manages to go from 50% market
share to 28% market share in a couple of decades, there is something wrong
with the executive compensation system.

 

Although a certain number of homeless in the US are on the streets rather
than in extended-care/half-way house situations, the vast majority are in
other categories: 1) single-parent households (usually mother and children)
that have been abandoned by the father, 2) low-wage transient laborers
who don't have the financial capability to rent (or who are saving all their
money and will move back to their permanent home after the work season),
and 3) the congenitally un-employed/homeless that just like it - some of
these are professional mendicants (ie, beggars).

Floyd

 

An arguement that could always be inserted into any otherwise intelligent
discussion.

 

There are certainly other groups - I was only highlighting one group that
grew substantially in the UK substantially at the point of closure of what
were long-stay hospitals a few years ago. (It must be said that many of
these buildings were inefficient and Victorian, but the government chose not
to replace them.)

I am aware of some homeless who like it that way, whatever the reason, but I
am sure they are a small percentage.


The rest don't want to be there.

DAS

 

Once again you have chosen to base your opinion on faulty
information. The market has expanded from the vehicles available
from around five manufactures in the US to the vehicles from
around a dozen manufacture for all over
the world. The volume of sales has grown from around 6 million
annually then to around 18 million annually
today. The fact is GM sells more vehicles today than
they did back in the early fifties when they commanded
50% of all vehicles sold in the US.


mike hunt

 

We have some mentally ill patients, many of which, at least in Michigan,
were given the boot to the street when we got rid of the last few 'insane
asylum's' that we had in the area. The last one to close in the area was
over 100 years old, but the state no longer felt like funding it. We have a
few homeless that are mentally ill, but I don't forsee it making up a
majority. A majority of the homeless, or I guess I should say beggars, are
men. Some honestly want help and admit it. But others just want to booze
themselves, they will ask for money for food, and if you offer them food
they tell you to "F*%& off!". I don't feel much compassion for them. By no
means is it easy being homeless, you have a heck of a hill to climb, but its
possible.

As far as asking how many homeless I speak to or read about, I serve food to
the homeless around the holidays those which most are very thankful for the
warm food and warm place to spend some time and the good company. Many of
them are men, some are women with children. Some are families.

My point isn't that homeless don't deserve anything, but there are people
that give this idea that we should spend billions a year to feed and cloth
and shelter homeless, when really we should be offering some sort of
employment and perhaps low cost options to them. Not particularly free.

 

|
| | > I've been laid off before and you're full of crappola! There are many
| health
| > insurance options out there from many different providers that will write
| > policies with different coverage options. Have you not looked for them?
| >
|
| Spoken like a true republican.
|
|
|

And that makes it factually incorrect...how?

 

Wow I'm surprised that this thread is still going. As to "what is the
future? That's a hard one to answer as is often said "the future has
yet to be written" any pandemic or planetary environmental change can
shift people's views pretty quickly. Though the concensus seems to
be (if things continue on the present path) a slow withering of the
nation state and the rise of the city state.

But opinions of the future, as with A**holes are, one per person on
the planet.

 

now, now, at the very least the homeless scroungers and welfare bums
have a much lower environmental footprint than the Hummer driving
soccer mom.

See, every acid rain soaked cloud has a silver lining.

Or is that a Lead lining...........