Obama - First Black President

[Izzy]

Well, what I mean is they think that Obama is going to walk around Harlem and start handing out $100 bills or something. Mind you, this isn't a general consensus thing, it was just something that a co-worker brought up to me that some people are thinking will happen.

[Vandalhart]

I was under the impression that all of the tax changes Obama was going to take were just restoring the tax percentiles that were in affect during the Clinton Administration.

[Dimmauk]

Just wait until the EU central bank cuts rate this week or early next week while the Fed is also considering more discretionary rate cuts in the coming months, should the economy take a turn for the worse.


I chuckled.

I like the Palin getting tackled one the best.

[Seraph]

Go figure, Obama wins and stocks drop.

Is it raining outside? Did you stub your toe this morning?

Seriously, grow up.

[Tristam]

"wow, I didn't know I was capable of being such a hard working person." Whining about working hard for minimal short term benefits but bountiful opportunities down the road is just plain ignorant.

And there you have it! If you work hard everything will always work out and you'll make lots of money in the end! Hard work is it's own reward! Bountiful opportunities down the road, now that's some optimism right there. Maybe some of us are already pretty far down the road.

You assume way too much about me, I'm happy where I am, I'm doing a job that I love, I have health insurance and can support a hobby. I've never worried about money, but I also can't afford a car where I live, or experience much beyond my limited means. I'm not even thinking about retiring, ever, even though I may eventually make enough money to be able to. I never asked for a tax break but to see so many people complaining about a potential tax break for those less fortunate is pretty disappointing. I've seen plenty of small businesses fail, and not for lack of hard work and education. I buy electrical components from a brilliant guy who started a small business supplying electronics for scientific work, he lives and works in a very tough neighborhood and he's not asking for a tax break, but he fucking deserves it. Those are the people who need this tax break, and by increasing the spending power for america, we can support the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation that made this country as great as it is. By focusing on the welfare queens you dissociate yourself from the majority of america that actually will benefit.

Also if I'm whining about working hard and getting little in return (and I'm not), how does that compare to whining about an increase in taxes when you're making 250k a year? And "slightly" above middle class at 250k a year? fucking lol. That is arrogant AND ignorant. The point of my post is that what most people define as middle-class is irrelevant, you yourself are a victim of your own perception of the middle class. The median household income for 2006 was slightly over 46k/year, which actually puts my family in a pretty well-off position.

The Tax Foundation - New Census Data on Income Gives a Welcome Dose of Fact Checking to �Middle-Class� Rhetoric

Since you seem to need to attack me personally, I actually will NOT see a significant reduction in my tax burden under Obama's proposed plan. I support it because I've lived/worked with people who would benefit, and if I were blessed enough to make over 250k a year I would happily give as much to taxes as my government saw fit to keep this country running and help put us ahead economically.

[Maxxthepenguin]

Our society has the production capacity and technological strength that we should be able to maintain a 40 hour work week paying enough to keep people afloat and with personal growth potential.

That's how I view it.

[Olo401]

Go figure, Obama wins and stocks drop.

In case you didn't notice, they've been dropping for at least two months.

[Dimmauk]

Go figure, Obama wins and stocks drop.

"It's virtually all technical, psychological, and very little to do with politics," said Jack A. Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank. "Everyone was buying the rumor yesterday and selling the news today ... The market had not only anticipated an Obama victory, but from what I'm gleaning, pretty much a Democratic sweep.

[Katlan]

Go figure, Obama wins and stocks drop.

I guess that's no different from any other day as of late!

An on topic: I am an Obama supporter, but I really enjoyed McCain's speach a lot more... if u can take out the crowd and imagine him giving the speach in an isolated room

[Aerin]

Obviously, there's a lot of buzz going around my office about the election. My office heavily favored Obama. I spoke with some African-Americans here in my office, and apparently there's some sort of idea going around their communities that Obama is going to give Blacks special treatment or something.

Kind of ignorant if you ask me Q_Q

I was watching MSNBC a bit last night (not my usual but I wanted to see what they and FOX were saying), and this one Republican said that he wished Obama acknowledged the fact it was the Republicans that helped make this moment possible. And that he should've talked more about the struggles that got us here.

To me though that's not at all what the campaign was about. Obama's campaign tried to downplay race as much as possible for a good reason, it shouldn't matter one way or another. Yes it's good to acknowledge the hardships of those before you, but I think at that point in time during his speech, it would have just reminded people of our differences. When the point is that we're all the same.

[Dimmauk]

Alot of right wingers are saying Obama won because of White guilt and not the Bush administration. And the reason Black people(Jesse Jackson) were crying was because they can't use race card anymore.

[Maxxthepenguin]

I was watching MSNBC a bit last night (not my usual but I wanted to see what they and FOX were saying), and this one Republican said that he wished Obama acknowledged the fact it was the Republicans that helped make this moment possible.

"I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices," Obama said. "I need your help and I will be your president, too."

I don't know what that guy was talking about. He wasn't claiming victory for Democrats, he was claiming victory for Americans.

[Azkarin2]

Go figure, Obama wins and stocks drop.

While people have already pointed out that you can't really time this small 100 point loss solely to the election, I think that the stock market won't be helped by his election. Especially his capital gains tax increase discouraging investment. I hope that policy gets rethought. There isn't enough confidence/economic strength (now or maybe even in four years) for the stock market to take that kind of action and not plummet.

[Aerin]

It had something to do with Lincoln being a Republican.

[Tyche]

If "hard work" directly correlated to wealth then Pittsburgh, Detroit, East Kentucky and the Virginia's would be the wealthiest areas in the U.S. More than hard work, more than intelligence, more than education credentials, you have to have ambition, motivation, and drive. You don't become a millionaire by wanting to be a millionaire, you become a millionaire by aiming much much higher.

I think this is the thread this argument was brought up in at least. I just wanted to touch on it since the phrase "hard work" was being thrown around like a ragdoll.

[Zalius]

i thought clinton was the first black prez

[Aerin]

If "hard work" directly correlated to wealth then Pittsburgh, Detroit, East Kentucky and the Virginia's would be the wealthiest areas in the U.S. More than hard work, more than intelligence, more than education credentials, you have to have ambition, motivation, and drive. You don't become a millionaire by wanting to be a millionaire, you become a millionaire by aiming much much higher.

True story.

[0ni0n]

Wall Street and Obama
"ANNANDALE, Va. (MarketWatch) -- By 4 p.m. Eastern Tuesday, the Obama contract at Intrade, the electronic futures market, rose 2 percentage points to the 93 level -- implying that investors by that time had become nearly certain (93% certain, to be exact) that Barack Obama would win the election. Also on Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU:Dow Jones Industrial Average rose more than 300 points to close at 9,625."

So investors were 93% sure that obama would win, yet the market rose 300 points on Tuesday. Connect the dots yourselves.

Full article here, http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/What-does-Wall-Street-think/story.aspx?guid={943D9EF9-47DA-463A-A7D0-10295D680C29}&dist=SecMostRead


Election Day Rally Is Undone
"Stocks gave back all of their Election Day rally as traders turned their attention back to the deteriorating economy, a pitfall highlighted by glum readings of service-sector activity and employment."

According to another WSJ article, the market drops today is because the condition of our economy is genuinely bad, as house price, unemployment, retail sales, and other leading indicators suggest.

Full article here, Today's Markets - WSJ.com

[Darus Grey]

You are pretty much failing to realize how hard is to create something from nothing.

Start a business and try to profit and you will see how hard it is, most of the time you will spend a lot more than you earn and nobody works for free, if you company starts to make less where do you think the money to pay the employees will come from?

It takes huge risks to start any business, and also requires, vision, timing, luck, good administration..
most of the time these are qualities that hard-work-no-education people simply DONT HAVE! and if you DONT HAVE something, you dont deserve the benefits of people that DO HAVE this things.

Its like (in ffxi terms), a black mage that just joined the LS, has 100 dkp and gets a ridill against a warrior that has 500 dkp! It simply does not compute in any way you see.

Is it fair someone that spent 100k to start a company, runs it (even if it SEEMS like hes working less, because most of the time this is not true at all) gets the same salary as any employee ?

IMO its right just the way it is now, the system works fine this way and any attempt to change it will probably ruin it.

Been there, done that. You're making the illogical assumption that because I hold the view that work in capital societies is not innately fair to begin with, that I somehow am at the low-end unable to raise myself. You couldn't be further from the truth.

In your hypothetical example how did that person get 100k? He didn't do it by himself, no matter how much you want to believe so, no man is a rock.

If someone is working harder they deserve more, but are you going to tell me that someone who works 20% more...even 200% more... *deserves* and that's the key word here, because Americans have really warped perceptions of entitlement...*deserves* 10-20x the pay?

If you say yes justify it with something besides "he works harder"...cause I've already said that's just straight up bullshit.

In capital societies we have gained the notion that leaders *deserve* disproportionally more...WHY? This is the root of the issue.

[Maxxthepenguin]

Reading some conservative blogs, I've noticed something really disturbing. They all talk about the pendulum swinging back to them (which is likely) but they keep talking about how the country will be in ruins by the hands of Barack the Socialist. They are also completely delusional, thinking that if they separate themselves from the evangelicals that they will be monumentally successful. There is absolutely NO recognition that the opponents might actually have a point. No saying that other ideologies aren't completely insane. They aren't even saying "we'll support our president because he's our president", one of the big things that they were saying about Bush.

Until they recognize the true errors in their judgment and recognize how to make bridges with other ideologies, I don't see how they're going to fix this. If Obama makes a true coalition government, as Democrats tend to do, then the Republicans have no hope for salvaging their own reputation except with some new more potent Rove-ish tactics.