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Post by Horsie on Aug 14, 2015 2:37:14 GMT
I'm just going to say this here, since we're talking about a rich guy; I don't understand why the average American cares if someone who has a huge income has to pay a higher percentage of tax.
I've heard a few people (including politicians) making a big deal about how their tax rate is over 30%, and how they have to pay hundreds of thousands in taxes, and average people thinking that it's unacceptable. Never mind that those guys are paying that much because they make so money in the run of a year, and that they could pay half of their money into taxes (10% higher than the American maximum) and still make several times what the average American makes.
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Post by Harkovast on Aug 14, 2015 2:50:33 GMT
Yeah it is weird to talk to poor people telling me how they want to make life easy for people who are richer than they are.
I've heard it explained as part of the whole idea of the American dream, where the poor people believes they will one day become rich. Obviously only a very tiny percentage of poor people ever achieve this, but its like winning the lottery- people are bad at understanding probability so assume it will happen to them.
Also there is an idea that the rich people are the driving force of the economy and create jobs etc, which seems a rather bias take on life, to rank only the contribution of the people at the top of pyramid as being important. The guy who owns the facory is the one that matters, all the people who do the actual work in the factory are just worthless pawns that can be easily replaced.
This leads to the extreme ideas in Atlas Shrugged where they think that if all the business leaders (who run their companies, invent amazing materials and are basically awesome) all go and live in their own community together and create a utopia. The book fails to consider who will clean the toilets in this brave new world. An entire community of people who are skilled in running big companies who can employ...each other? Or will they each have their own one person company that just employs themselves? Who collects he rubbish? Which high flying business mogul will agree to do that lowly but absolutely essential work?
Its a world view that makes poor people expendable, which is a weird view to see coming from poor people themselves.
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Post by Canuovea on Aug 14, 2015 3:25:59 GMT
I can explain Trump's appeal and why you shouldn't actually underestimate him.
Trump... is just like another man. A great man. A man worthy of... something, I'm sure.
I assume you all remember Rob Ford?
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Post by wordweaver3 on Aug 14, 2015 5:29:39 GMT
Trump is in the lead because the rest of the field is so fucking boring.
It's that simple.
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Post by TempestFennac on Aug 14, 2015 5:46:03 GMT
Word, this sounds a bit like why some people think aging anti-nuke pro-terrorist Left-Winger Jeremy Corbyn will become the Labour Party's next leader (he's also seen as honest and straight-talking). Considering he's gone bankrupt repeatedly, I really don't think he's a suitable choice even without the moronic comments.
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Post by Canuovea on Aug 14, 2015 5:51:59 GMT
Hence, like Rob Ford.
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Post by wordweaver3 on Aug 14, 2015 6:38:44 GMT
The most enlightening thing about Trump's run is it shows what a bunch of cannibals the Republican party is.
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Post by StyxD on Aug 14, 2015 11:01:07 GMT
Something similar happened in Poland lately.
I surmised that people, after decades of being told to be polite and nice to each other, want to finally be able to vote for a guy who expresses the views they really hold: racist, sexist, hateful, shortsighted, bloody naive...
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Post by Canuovea on Aug 14, 2015 19:38:31 GMT
I agree. Look at the Internet, humans probably want to be able to behave like that all the time.
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Post by Canuovea on Aug 16, 2015 10:07:37 GMT
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Post by wordweaver3 on Aug 16, 2015 10:37:24 GMT
The cynic in me wants to say "he just did that to avoid any bad press if it got out that he didn't help them".
On the other hand, he hasn't been too concerned about bad press up until now.
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Post by Harkovast on Aug 16, 2015 14:21:50 GMT
I am honestly not sure how much of what Trump does is cynical and how much is just him being bonkers. I really can't draw that line.
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Post by Canuovea on Aug 16, 2015 18:08:52 GMT
Exactly, it is hard to tell.
It is also entirely possible he is playing to the crowd with the nuttiness and is actually a decent person who is having a laugh.
Then I remember what he did to that old Scottish couple.
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Post by Horsie on Aug 16, 2015 20:39:54 GMT
No, he's just an asshole who occasionally does something good.
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Post by Harkovast on Aug 16, 2015 21:39:15 GMT
He's an asshole and a buffoon, but not a total monster. He is capable of doing good works, inbetween being a jerk, talking shit and making a fool of himself.
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