The Welfare State For The Rich

highway80west · 08-17-2007, 02:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by knot_e_lady

WAYYYYY back when, in my early 20's I worked for a government contractor (Hughes Aircraft). We were working on the F14 mission trainer to be set up down in NAS Miramar and NAS Virginia Beach. We were working on the trainer for the RIO, and it would link up with the pilot trainer that was built by Grumman.

Now, keep in mind, this was 1984, but I know several of the software engineers, even then, were making upwards to $35.00 per hour, not including overtime.

I work within 7 miles of MCAS Miramar, Knotty. The F-14's fly right over the area I work in. They're now flown by the Marine Airmen.

knot_e_lady · 08-17-2007, 02:40 PM

No kidding??!?!?

We used to stay down there when we were installing the trainer. There's a Great Western (I think, that was a lot of years ago) at the end of the runway where we used to stay. Gets a little loud when those afterburners come on.....LOL

Ever been to the Over The Line Tournament out on Fiesta Island?

highway80west · 08-17-2007, 02:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by knot_e_lady

No kidding??!?!?

We used to stay down there when we were installing the trainer. There's a Great Western (I think, that was a lot of years ago) at the end of the runway where we used to stay. Gets a little loud when those afterburners come on.....LOL

Ever been to the Over The Line Tournament out on Fiesta Island?

No, but it continues to be a very popular sport when it is on. A lot of people would have to park in a sandy lot across Sea World Dr., and either take a shuttle to the area or walk. Even the Sea World employees use the lot, and then get shuttled to Sea World on weekends.

I don't get up that way to MCAS Miramar area that much, but there are more hotels in the area. The closest I ever get to it is when I ride the commuter train in both directions, and it goes under the Miramar Road bridge. There are still R/R tracks that goes into MCAS Miramar. The 1976 Freedom Train took that route.

baloney_detector · 08-17-2007, 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by knot_e_lady

WAYYYYY back when, in my early 20's I worked for a government contractor (Hughes Aircraft). We were working on the F14 mission trainer to be set up down in NAS Miramar and NAS Virginia Beach. We were working on the trainer for the RIO, and it would link up with the pilot trainer that was built by Grumman.

Now, keep in mind, this was 1984, but I know several of the software engineers, even then, were making upwards to $35.00 per hour, not including overtime.

My step-brother is a retired navy commander who now works for Lockheed-Martin. You should see the 5000+ s.f. house he and his family live in. Yeah, his job pays very well.

And I know several other people who are friends of friends and who I went to college with who are engineers in the industry also and they are pretty damn well paid too.

Yep, our tax dollars at work.

ClassWarrior · 08-17-2007, 09:13 PM

Quote:

And I know several other people who are friends of friends and who I went to college with who are engineers in the industry also and they are pretty damn well paid too.

Yep, our tax dollars at work.

And that's the power of corporate welfare.

baloney_detector · 08-18-2007, 06:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ClassWarrior

And that's the power of corporate welfare.

Well, for one thing, getting paid well isn't necessarily "the power of corporate welfare"...especially if the company a person works for isn't being subsidized and that person is getting what the market generally pays for their services.

And, I would hope that you don't believe in any government subsidies at all and to any industry...at least to be consistent.

(Personally speaking, I believe in an open, unsubsidized economy myself.)

ClassWarrior · 08-20-2007, 03:52 PM

Quote:

They can't put everybody in prison...

They already are. The ruling class here in America don't pay much in taxes if any. It would be more profitable for them to put the working class in prison because it's cheaper labor. You wouldn't have to pay them the federal minimum wage, you could pay them less than the federal minimum wage, exploit them and make money off putting the working class into prison and using their labor and also housing the working class in prison and coming up with bogus programs to profit from in the form of contracts. In case you didn't know, the United States has the highest prison population of any country in the entire world and the prison population continues to grow un-abated. I think it's part of the plan. Why pay the working class minimum wage when you can pay them less? Why not, since if you are a member of the ruling class you pay very little in taxes if any? Not to mention, privitization of housing prison offers many profits as well as bogus programs that taxpayers would pay for. I think it's in the plan.

teethandclaws · 08-27-2007, 08:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by indago

ClassWarrior wrote:

They can't put everybody in prison...

-------------------------------------------------
British Officer: "You don't think we're just going to walk out of India?"

Gandhi: "Yes. In the end, you will walk out, because 100,000 Englishmen simply cannot control 350,000,000 Indians if those Indians refuse to cooperate. And that is what we intend to achieve: peaceful, nonviolent, non-cooperation — till you, yourselves, see the wisdom of leaving"

LOL, tempting as it may be to not pay taxes because we don't like where the money is going, most people are too wrapped up in their own little lives to think about it. They think their taxes are going to education and to feed the poor.
Which I think is ridiculous because I just spent A LOT on school supplies for my kids, including backpacks, and all this required stuff like 3 ring binders and filler paper, single subject notebooks, pocket folders, pencils, colored pencils, different colored pens, and when I went to school, the only thing I needed to bring was myself and a "cold lunch" if I didn't like what they were serving for the day or it was field trip day.
In the next town over, they are cutting foreign languages. They've cut music and art in some schools, and I've even heard of school systems with no physical education.
Oh how I wish that we the tax-payers would stand up for ourselves and demand that our children, the future of this nation, was priority one. Bush's no child left behind act isn't cutting it, that just tells you your kids have to go to school a certain number of days or they will not pass.
If that was the case when I was a kid, I would have been in kindergarten for 7 years, because I was sick all the time, one year I missed over 60 days of school, but I did my make-up work and got A's and B's, but that wouldn't fly today.
Put the people first, that's what I say.

indago · 08-28-2007, 06:51 PM

teethandclaws wrote:

Quote:

tempting as it may be to not pay taxes...

It's not a matter of not paying any taxes at all. Taxes are embedded in just about everything purchased.

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teethandclaws · 08-29-2007, 10:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by indago

teethandclaws wrote:

It's not a matter of not paying any taxes at all. Taxes are embedded in just about everything purchased.

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True, and we don't know where that money goes. Like state and town taxes one would assume would go to the needs of the states, like road upkeep and whatnot, but too much goes into paychecks for the bureaucracy, and here anyway, the roads are shite and the taxes are high.