What the hell is going on here?

[Dave Gray]

I am sick of the political stuff too, but sometimes I just can't help myself.

I have been posting several movie reviews lately, and some poems that I wrote.

[jtex316]

Can someone post some more ASCII porn already, please?

[JVides]

I don't mean that we're evil -- I don't think we are.  But I think that we contribute to world poverty.  When we pay 75 cents an hour for a kid to make Nikes, and then sell them here for 150 bucks a pair, the spread of wealth is very screwed up.  It gives one side all the money and power to get things to go their way.  More than that, though, it creates a vicious cycle, where the people making Nikes start to depend on that 75 cents an hour to even survive.

We're not to blame as individuals, but we are part of a machine that is allowing this kind of stuff to happen.  ...we'd have to lose some of our wealth to spread it around the world, but it would make for a better planet.

OK, on this we agree.  This was the substance of my thread earlier today.

[Dave Gray]

Can someone post some more ASCII porn already, please?

Here you go:


8====D    (|)

[Brian Fein]

Here you go:


8====D (|)

NICE!

[BeefStewert]

Can someone post some more ASCII porn already, please?

http://www.thedolphinsmakemecry.com/forums/index.php/topic,8286.0.html

I'm a dumbass.  I thought you wanted a pointer to the ASCII porn, not asking for more.  Why do you want more by the way?

[run_to_win]

But I think that we contribute to world poverty.  When we pay 75 cents an hour for a kid to make Nikes, and then sell them here for 150 bucks a pair, the spread of wealth is very screwed up.  It gives one side all the money and power to get things to go their way.  More than that, though, it creates a vicious cycle, where the people making Nikes start to depend on that 75 cents an hour to even survive.

I don't have your experience but let me take a crack...

Why is the kid forced to work for $.75 an hour?  Because there aren't better jobs available.  Apparently there are no jobs for his parents, or their job don't pay enough - so the kid must work. 

If there were plenty of jobs and they all paid considerably more - then NIKE wouldn't have any employees.  They'd have to pay more.  The market sets the wage.

In addition, how much is that $.75 relative to our terms?  According to most of the dozens of Mexicans I've discussed this with, the reason they can work up here for peanuts is because the money the send home inflates an average 1000% in relative value.  At minimum wage they make $800 or so a month.  They keep half and send half home.  The half that goes home is the equivalent of $4000.  How can they live here off of $400 a month?  They put 4-8 amigos in a 2 room apartment.  We consider them abjectly poor while they realize it's temporary while they build up a considerable nest egg at home.

Just for "fun" calculate how much money is sucked out of our economy each year.

10,000,000 people sending money home x $300 per person per month x 12 months = $36,000,000,000 per year.  THIRTY SIX BILLION DOLLARS! 

Even if you get more conservative (which you all should  ) and use 5,000,000 and $200 - it's still TEN BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR.



In summary, people overseas take our $.75/hour because that's the best job available.

[MaineDolFan]

Wait a second.  People get paid to work???  God fucking damn it all to hell, where is my agent?!?!?!?!?

Sorry.  I'm better now.

[SCFinFan]

Hasn't the Fed raised the interest rates lately to curb some of America's rampant consumerism? I heard a baby boomer talking the other day and she was absolutely disgusted with her generation, how materialistic it'd become. I think the next generation might be a little simpler... i hope it will, anyway.

[JVides]

Hasn't the Fed raised the interest rates lately to curb some of America's rampant consumerism?

Nah, the Fed raises and lowers the interest rate to control the money supply.  Lower rates increase borrowing and investment, which is needed in slow economic times (increasing the money supply).  During better times, interest rates rise to make borrowing mor expensive (decreasing the money supply).  The higher interest rates just means the Fed feels the economy is recovering from its crappy state 4 or 5 years ago, which saw some of the lowest interest rates of the past 50 years.

[runtheball]

The debates anger me...because there is no debating.  They are bottom of the barrel arguments, where neither side gives.

I am so different than some people on this board.  If someone can't see that the American way of life is oppressive to other nations, what can I do?  ...what can I say?  It's so clear to me.  Now, I'd be able to discuss the different options on how to deal with this -- whether we should, etc.  ..but it never gets to that point.

There is so much blaming, and I just can't take it any more.

Chill out dude.  If it bothers you, perhaps you should avoid the political forum. 

[Phishfan]

Hasn't the Fed raised the interest rates lately to curb some of America's rampant consumerism? I heard a baby boomer talking the other day and she was absolutely disgusted with her generation, how materialistic it'd become. I think the next generation might be a little simpler... i hope it will, anyway.

With the craze for things like iPODs these days I don't see that happening.

[bsmooth]

I don't have your experience but let me take a crack...

Why is the kid forced to work for $.75 an hour?  Because there aren't better jobs available.  Apparently there are no jobs for his parents, or their job don't pay enough - so the kid must work. 

If there were plenty of jobs and they all paid considerably more - then NIKE wouldn't have any employees.  They'd have to pay more.  The market sets the wage.

In addition, how much is that $.75 relative to our terms?  According to most of the dozens of Mexicans I've discussed this with, the reason they can work up here for peanuts is because the money the send home inflates an average 1000% in relative value.  At minimum wage they make $800 or so a month.  They keep half and send half home.  The half that goes home is the equivalent of $4000.  How can they live here off of $400 a month?  They put 4-8 amigos in a 2 room apartment.  We consider them abjectly poor while they realize it's temporary while they build up a considerable nest egg at home.

Just for "fun" calculate how much money is sucked out of our economy each year.

10,000,000 people sending money home x $300 per person per month x 12 months = $36,000,000,000 per year.  THIRTY SIX BILLION DOLLARS! 

Even if you get more conservative (which you all should  ) and use 5,000,000 and $200 - it's still TEN BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR.



In summary, people overseas take our $.75/hour because that's the best job available.

Well the so called dozens of Mexicans you have been around have lied to you. They have no intention of staying temporarily. When they disapear, they haven't gone home, they have circulated to another area/followed the harvest. Not only are they proping up their own shithole country by sending money, they are breeding and filling up schools with their children, while we foot the bill for ESL and other classes. I grew up in a rural area, and it was a continous cycle of workers and their kids showing up and then leaving. The kids never got any real education due to the constant uprooting, and when they reappeared, our teachers had to restrucutre the lesson plan to deal with them, which slowed us down.

[ADeadSmitty]

There's way too much serious, racist/political/religious/war crap going o n in these forums.

What have you people done with the REAL TDMMC readers?

It's the Off-Topic Forum, and it's the off-season.

[MaineDolFan]

The problem with the subject of this thread and others is that people don't debate.  They take a stand and anyone that doesn't agree with them is an ignorant asshole that needs an education in how the other person thinks...because the other person is always right.

Want proof?  Scan the posts.  I was doing it myself with JVides and had the wherewithal to see that I was getting too hot under the collar and to just shut up.  I'm not immune.

It doesn't matter what you say or how you say it in these discussions.  Scary stuff.  Personally, I'm out.  Not going to even bother looking in the threads again.

The only thing worse than opinions is not respecting the fact that your own doesn't rule the world.  When it comes to these discussions, that is exactly what you get:  "here's my opinion, you're welcome to it."