The Good Post Gallery

[CatoMinor]

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=174242.msg3780378#msg3780378

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Dear wormyguy,

Thank you for your explanation of how to get rich. Unfortunately I never have good ideas, I don't have the money to enter exclusive universities, I don't want to fake getting along with rich people (or their daddies), don't have time to learn how to program an app because I'm busy trying not to be homeless, and I hate the smell of old people. In fact, I don't even want to be rich. I don't have the motivation or energy to start my own business, be my own boss, or even think of an idea to sell.

I just want to work eight hours a day and get paid more than what I need. I would be interested in buying a house someday, and I promise I don't waste my money. I don't think I should earn as much as those who have exclusive skills. I just want to be comfortable. I have just as much worth to society as the more intelligent, more socially apt, and in fact perhaps I'm better because I'm not cunning, ruthless, or greedy. We live in a first world country. Why should I needlessly suffer when there is plenty of money for everyone? Why should they benefit so many orders of magnitude more than me, doing my small part?

Yours truly,
Most people

[Antonio the Sixth]

Beautiful.

Kudos on Tik for staying polite - I lose all my self-control when faced with Wormyguy types.

[Lief 🗽]

Dear wormyguy,

Thank you for your explanation of how to get rich. Unfortunately I never have good ideas, I don't have the money to enter exclusive universities, I don't want to fake getting along with rich people (or their daddies), don't have time to learn how to program an app because I'm busy trying not to be homeless, and I hate the smell of old people. In fact, I don't even want to be rich. I don't have the motivation or energy to start my own business, be my own boss, or even think of an idea to sell.

I just want to work eight hours a day and get paid more than what I need. I would be interested in buying a house someday, and I promise I don't waste my money. I don't think I should earn as much as those who have exclusive skills. I just want to be comfortable. I have just as much worth to society as the more intelligent, more socially apt, and in fact perhaps I'm better because I'm not cunning, ruthless, or greedy. We live in a first world country. Why should I needlessly suffer when there is plenty of money for everyone? Why should they benefit so many orders of magnitude more than me, doing my small part?

Yours truly,
Most people

Really one of the best posts ever on this forum.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It isn't just that the point is good or that the argument is on the side of righteousness (though there's no doubting either fact), the language and structure are just right as well.

[Bacon King]

Tik is amazing.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Dear wormyguy,

Thank you for your explanation of how to get rich. Unfortunately I never have good ideas, I don't have the money to enter exclusive universities, I don't want to fake getting along with rich people (or their daddies), don't have time to learn how to program an app because I'm busy trying not to be homeless, and I hate the smell of old people. In fact, I don't even want to be rich. I don't have the motivation or energy to start my own business, be my own boss, or even think of an idea to sell.

I just want to work eight hours a day and get paid more than what I need. I would be interested in buying a house someday, and I promise I don't waste my money. I don't think I should earn as much as those who have exclusive skills. I just want to be comfortable. I have just as much worth to society as the more intelligent, more socially apt, and in fact perhaps I'm better because I'm not cunning, ruthless, or greedy. We live in a first world country. Why should I needlessly suffer when there is plenty of money for everyone? Why should they benefit so many orders of magnitude more than me, doing my small part?

Yours truly,
Most people

Really one of the best posts ever on this forum.

[tik 🪀✨]

Wow, thanks guys. I'm a slut for praise. Whenever I feel like no one reads my posts I'll come here and smile

[TJ in Oregon]

I wouldn't expect to be quoting Tweed into here but this one is a really good point:

the Christian right doesn't talk about Jesus much at all, certainly not in a political context.  the Bible, yes they do, Christ, not so much.

[Antonio the Sixth]

TJ, use this thread instead: https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=175597.0

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Trying to guess who the smartest and dumbest states are is kinda pointless because there are so many variables and then there our own subjective perspectives.

For example, CA could be one of the smartest because they attract a lot of educated people.  But they also attract low skilled immigrants with little formal education.

Yet a state like North Dakota is full of people who are moderately smart but there are relatively few very well educated people and relatively few very low skilled, uneducated people.

Also, I refuse to believe that being uneducated automatically makes you "dumb".  The PCA that helped my mom for 7 years would be considered dumb as a brick by most people on this website because she was a terrible speller, had bad grammar, etc.  Yet she could successfully set up an electric fence and knows how to care for many different kinds of farm animals.

Things that we'd have to have repeated to us and read from a book just to understand she does like second nature.

This demonstrates she is not a "dumb" person.  She is actually quite intelligent.  She just used it differently.

[Oakvale]

On the Hawaii Senate primary -

But again, no one even seems to have made a case for Hanabusa, except for the usual "that's what Inouye wanted!" crap. Since Schatz is the one who has the seat now, the onus of the proof is on the Hanabusa side to establish that she is better than him. And there seems to be no single valid reason to think she is.

No real Governor lets a corpse force his hand.

On John F. Kennedy -

I think the bigger question is why it's now so trendy among the left to trash him?

[Oldiesfreak1854]

I'm glad to see Morsi out, but now we wait and see. We know how politicians are with promises.

[Lief 🗽]

Mods, please ban Oldies.

[anvi]

My God, Tik, those are the two best-written paragraphs I've seen in a long time.  Cheers.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

MURICA

[Zanas]

I'm glad to see Morsi out, but now we wait and see. We know how politicians are with promises.

That doesn't belong here. At all. It's not a good post. In any sense.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Dear wormyguy,

Thank you for replying to my letter. I know you're quite busy, and I appreciate the sacrifice in time you made in order to explain why I should appreciate that you won't give us a raise.

I feel compelled to point out that in my original letter I said that I did not expect to make as much money as those with exclusive skills. I hope that makes you feel better. I am well aware that I owe my employment partially to folks who take such gambles to find their success. So, of course you should make more than us. But, please, then, consider that your employees contribute substantially to your success by giving you our labor and time.  It's also sometimes hard to buy the products and services of your peers when you don't let that success trickle down to us. I know, I know, you need to keep costs down. I'm sorry. I keep forgetting that despite your fabulous riches, my contribution to your business and, indeed, my livelihood itself is your "cost." I'm so sorry about that.

Again, I know you need at least a monetary incentive to take big risks. That's totally fair, boss, I applaud you. It's just hard to know that even though you do empathise with us and perhaps shared our struggles, you don't think that that struggle itself is worth easing. I suppose that struggle is how you became men of such generous character.

With apologies,
Most people

[Oldiesfreak1854]

This might very well be altogether the best/worst display of slack-jawed idiocy on this general subject:

Wow, I thought the countries of Western Europe were friends and allies of the United States. Suddenly helping us catch a fugitive guilty of espionage is some act of supreme cowardice and spinelessness?? Ridiculous. I would hope and expect the United States to do the same if a German or Austrian or Italian or whatever criminal on the run was possibly flying through American airspace. 

It's funny how Lief has become Obamahack#1

[Lief 🗽]

You're so bad at this thread. SO BAD.

[Antonio the Sixth]

When I worked at Miami Subs, I was told what my pay was going to be before I was hired. I could take it or leave it. If it is a ridiculously unfair amount, I would not have taken the job to begin with. If I felt I was entitled to more pay from the manager or the owner, I would ask for it. They own the business, and they decide how much I am worth. If I don’t agree to the decision, I can leave. Nobody is forcing me or anyone else to work there.

What then? First of all, anyone should be thankful to have a job right now. I was lucky to have mine for three weeks before I was laid off due to the fact that the business could not support an additional employee as they originally thought. I got the job because I was the best man for it as long as it was going to exist, and I was and still am the only seventeen year old I know who had a job. Jobs are scarce among youth around the world, and I still got a job.  Jobs are scare for everybody right now. So everyone, whether it be the CEO of Miami Subs, or the line cook at store #8 in Boynton should be thankful to be working right now.

Your second paragraph simply serves to undermine your first. On the one hand we're all able to negotiate our employment conditions and just waltz off if we're not happy with them (and then be forced back into same poorly-paid positions by economic necessity) and then on the other hand openly admit the conditions are terrible for employment (mass unemployment and redundancies the norm) where any job is to be seen as a 'blessing'. Can't have it both ways.

For a business to just flat out not pay its workers when it promised them it would is a violation of the contract between employer and employee, and a violation of justice. So state intervention would be required, and would be deserved, in this situation. This function is one of the most important and crucial functions of justice.

In which case you accept that your rights, and wealth, are given to you by the state.

If anyone is picking and choosing what the state can and cannot do, it is you. The American Constitution lays a pretty basic argument about the intentions and purpose of government.  “Provide for the Common Defense”, “Secure the blessings of liberty”, etc. These are not buzzwords. These are the government’s functions. I don’t see anything that remotely suggests that government should guarantee that every man is paid a living wage for working as a cashier six hours a day three days a week (my average weekly schedule).

You speak as if a) the constitution is infallible, although you've given me no reasons why, and b) that it applies to more than the <5% of the world population it currently does. The state does what the population decides, and it seems you're quite happy for the state to provide x & y for things that benefit capitalism, but return with moral outrage at anything that doesn't. It's not credible.

What strawman arguments have you made? Well, let’s see…..

"had I been making up to that point", I said. I notice all the ones you listed where after you decided I was making strawmen.

No, most people work hard, and are just unfortunate enough to be in a position that only produces enough to generate small amounts of return profit. If the position was more productive, it could cover a higher wage.

Do you think football players who don't even play, but sit on a bench all game, for a sport - a form of entertainment - are more productive than the workers manufacturing, farming, delivering public services etc? I'd like to see your reasons why, or you accept the market works on neither productivity nor hard work.

If every single worker in the restaurant I work had been told they were no longer being paid, do you think some of them would continue to work? Or would all of them just walk out? My hypothetical situation did not just mean myself, but the entire collective staff.

You're moving the goalposts, my original scenario - to prove how much you depend on the state for your wealth - was the company in question would target you alone (in a bid to show how you the individual are powerless), and ensure others were fearful enough of their job they didn't dare to help out.

There is a HUGE difference between Libertarianism and Anarchism, and you know it.

Well I thought the main difference I see is that anarchism tends to acknowledge the power and coercion inherent in capitalism, whilst Libertarians conveniently choose not to. They both claim to be against the state (although it increasingly seems the former likes to pick and choose).

[King]

This might very well be altogether the best/worst display of slack-jawed idiocy on this general subject:

Wow, I thought the countries of Western Europe were friends and allies of the United States. Suddenly helping us catch a fugitive guilty of espionage is some act of supreme cowardice and spinelessness?? Ridiculous. I would hope and expect the United States to do the same if a German or Austrian or Italian or whatever criminal on the run was possibly flying through American airspace. 

It's funny how Lief has become Obamahack#1

The funny part is that you think this is somehow an astute observation or that Lief would even deny his love for our greatest black President.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

I'm glad to see Morsi out, but now we wait and see. We know how politicians are with promises.

That doesn't belong here. At all. It's not a good post. In any sense.

How is it not?  Would you rather Egypt become like Iran?

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

I'm glad to see Morsi out, but now we wait and see. We know how politicians are with promises.

That doesn't belong here. At all. It's not a good post. In any sense.

How is it not?  Would you rather Egypt become like Iran?

Only an ignorant can compare Egypt 2013 to Iran 1979.

[Хahar 🤔]

I hate that Oldiesfreak has the same avatar as King now, so I see a post and think it's King and it turns out to be Oldiesfreak.