Damn....is all I have to say........(I could say worse....)

[Joseph]

The bottom line is that everyone here can apparently afford to spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars on what amounts to toys. Fine - this is America and that's our privilege. But please don't whine like spoiled children about having to spend even more to take them wherever we want and have temper tantrums about the big bad meanies who make even more than we do.

Class envy sucks.

Joseph

[caseydog]

and have temper tantrums about the big bad meanies who make even more than we do.

Class envy sucks.

Joseph

I don't begrudge folks who earn a lot of money, but current CEO pay is crazy. I can't see why there hasn't been a shareholder uprising, yet.

CEOs take home millions if the company does well, and millions if the company does poorly -- and if they screw things up badly enough, they get fired with multi-million dollar severance packages.

Man, I'm willing to ruin a company for measly $500,000, if anyone is hiring.

[fornesto]

I bet it becomes a public resource before too long. It's not like the water company or power company can "speculate" their product up to unaffordable levels. In California, these utility companies need State approval to raise their rates and they need to damn-well explain why. If oil gets bad enough, the Feds will step in. Capitalism requires open and equal access to markets. Due to the current investment generation gap (any of your buddies from high school start an oil company?), there is no new entry to the market. I don't have the option to start an oil company and sell the product for $3.00 a gallon if I wanted. In light of the amazing profits that the oil companies are making, why aren't new compaines sprouting up everywhere? That would be true capitalism. Remember frozen yogurt, Krispy Kreme franchises, etc. Now that it's no longer feasible to enter the market (like electricity and water are not), it will be made public to a degree. This market definitely needs a heavier hand to regulate it. Imagine if water bills and electric bills varied like this - industry would come to an absolute stand still. It wouldn't be tolerated. In our current society, oil is just as much integral to the economy. Of course, it won't happen with Bush.

[Nitetimes]

His company, FAMC, sells a number of things, including Glutathione, which will prevent cancer, and a 189 dollar device that will make colloidal silver from silver wire. This stuff is supposed to be useful for treating allergies, boils, herpes, stomach flu, lime disease, gonorrhea, bladder irritations and chickenpox (BTW, the FDA doesn't want us to know about this stuff, because it competes with the medical industry -- or something).

CD

Must be really good stuff if the FDA doesn't want us to know about it!!!!

Or could it be that the FDA knows better than to put it's approval on it??

[Dixie Flyer]

Joseph wrote:

But please don't whine like spoiled children about having to spend even more to take them wherever we want and have temper tantrums about the big bad meanies who make even more than we do.

This isn't about folks making more money than other folks. I have no problem at all with anyone making more money than myself, I'm ALL for it. It's good for them and it's good for the country. A healthy capitalist economy is in everyone's best interest. I firmly believe in people making as much money as they can.

But what's NOT good, is when people put corporate greed ahead of the interests of the country. When it's detrimental to the nation as a whole, then there is something wrong.

It's like when the hurricane hit Homestead, Fla. and folks were charging $10.00 or $20.00 for a gal of water, victimizing folks who were already having it tough due to the hurricane.

When people start that kind of stuff, along with corporate greed, then we've lost our moral compass.

At some point, there will be a breaking point to what people will be able to afford regarding gas. The cost of oil is driving everything up. This isn't about class envy. This is about if the REAL cost of oil is $50.00 a barrel and the oil companies and the speculators are manipulating the cost in their own self interests, then heads should roll.


I'm all for whatever the market will bear, we're a rich country, but if things continue along like they're going, we won't be very rich much longer. Greed is good but too much greed can be bad.