No, that only furthers the economic divide. Have you failed to read the news? Have you noticed a rising cost in goods and services? Do you realize our economy is on the fritz? The rich get richer.. and capitalism is an SUV that's just about squandered all the fuel.

There's only so much money in the world. If two percent of the population have ninety-eight percent of the money, a better job is really just a perspective after all.

How many working class citizens does it take to make a wealthy man? How many employees do you have? Do they have health insurance? A place to live? An automobile? Are their children healthy and happy? Are they paid the FULL VALUE for their labor?

Get a clue.

So spread the wealth evenly? They call that communism don't they? And it never seems to work out all that well.

If the other 98% would do something with their life and not rely on everyone to hand them money or second chances, they could have money too. It takes hard work and effort to make money, you might have to do a job you don't like and go to college. You may have to even listen in high school and not skip class, live your life right from the start and not hope to come into cash late in the game.

There are working class citizens that work really hard and get paid crap, but maybe it's because they didn't want to go to college or learn a trade or anything new...who's fault is that? College loans can create hundreds of thousands of dollars down the line...I got one, it sucked paying it back, but it was well worth it. People need to go out there and get your fair wage yourself....don't take any hand me downs from the revolution...sell yourself and market yourself properly. College or no college it's possible to succeed...get a trade or something your good at. I know good mechanics that make 100K+..off hard work and really being good at what they do. If all else fails, learn a computer skill...it's money in the bank son!

Nothing is free...so you might want to stop expecting graffiti, celebrity messages or musical rallies to help lower the cost of gas...and go look for a profession that pays well enough so gas prices don't hurt as bad.

Who decides what is fair value for their labor? The person paying them should! They base that salary on what others are paying for a similar job. It's not some conspiracy meant to keep people poor. There's a reason the wealthy are wealthy. Sure a few inherited it but that money came from somewhere. At one point someone took a huge risk and was rewarded for it.

So should the worker be the one who decides what they are worth? Then I can go in to any company and even though I am a recent grad I'll just tell them I think I'm worth 100k and they have to pay it. That seems really fair.

Get a clue.

Thank you for posting this so I didn't have to! I'm usually the only person on here defending capitalism.

Excuse me, but not everyone can work high paying jobs. In fact, the value of a job is simply based on supply and demand, just like all other commodities.

I write software, and there's now an over abundance of developers in the world, so the value of this particular career has depreciated in the last few years. The same goes for medical doctors, nurses, masons, accountants, or any other career oriented job that exists.

Going to college doesn't improve any persons chance of success in life. Some college dropouts happen to be the richest people in the world. Learning a new skill doesn't make one more valuable. It's all based on supply and demand. If the skill is desirable it may be worth more, but eventually all markets become over-saturated. When considering labor as a commodity you realize that even the hard working middle class Americans are at risk of losing it all to poor economic policy in the USA.

I don't know where the idea that celebrities, concerts, or other happenings will be changing the world anytime soon. Like I've been saying all along, it takes the people.

"If the other 98% would do something with their life and not rely on everyone to hand them money or second chances, they could have money too." - this statement just isn't true. The upper echelon has all the money because the rest of the world does the actual labor.

If you haven't read and compared the differences between Historical Materialism and The Wealth of the Nations then you really don't have any authority here. Read a book.

"sell yourself and market yourself properly." - you already have the wrong idea here.. I'm not a slave. Especially not for wages. I provide value to the world without selling my time. You go ahead and keep on marketing yourself for that better job, living life as a commodity. Meanwhile I'll be building systems that work for me.

It's not about how much money a man makes or whether he's equal to his neighbor. There's no gauge for that anyway. We as people have control of our economy and our government, if we'd just connect and take it back.

I'm glad you understand the concept of Supply & Demand! So since manufacturing is becoming more automated, there is no demand to pay some moron $20+ an hour to watch a conveyor belt go by them for hour a day.

If you're career choice is growing to where there are too many then here is what you do: Learn new skills, work hard, do anything that gives you advantage over the rest. YOU CAN CONTROL THAT.

As for your thing on celebs, concerts, etc not changing the world. Yeah it's kind of retarded that they make that much for doing what they do but the DEMAND causes that. Remember? If some producer can make a lot of money on a movie if he gets some A-List star he's going to open his wallet to do so.

Did you ever think that the upper echelon makes "all the money" while the world does the actual labor because they are working SMARTER? They took the risks to create or run a business. They know it's economically better to have other people do the work.

People like Victory and I will continue to market and improve ourselves for better jobs so we can live the way we want to and not have to support retarded ideas like socialism.

Seriously you are the biggest moron on this site. That's hard to do but somehow you've managed.

Whether it's meant to keep people poor or not is irrelevant. I don't believe that people want to take advantage of other people. It's just circumstance, but that doesn't mean it can't be corrected.

There is more weeping in the world than you can understand.

Don't give me that. I care a lot about other people. I don't want someone to have a s---ty life. I DON'T care about people who are the victims of their own poor choices and want to do nothing to correct them other than bitch.

You know what will be hilarious is when kristofer wins a prize because he earned so many points on this post. He had a product everyone wanted to buy so he's loading up on points. That's capitalism but he'll claim it's "karma" or "the work of the gods."

If by excuses you mean facts and logic/reasoning then yes.

I read an article that said conservative people are much happier in their lives than liberals because they can just explain everything away. Basically they make excuses for anything bad, putting the blame on someone/something else, anything to make it not their fault.

Sort of like the whole poor people are poor because they chose to thing.

Anyone who is content with the way our nation is right now is really explaining a LOT away...

You're absolutely right.. I don't have any personal qualms with my standard of living. I don't have a degree. I'm more valuable than any entry level CS graduate. My personal experience in the field is far more valuable than any degree. It took the same amount of time (four years) to develop the necessary skills. The difference between us I suppose, is that you graduated with debt, and I just started the job straight out.

I do feel pretty strongly about the standard of living in general though. I choose to ride public transit because it's important to support. Especially considering the alternative is buying foreign oil (yeah, buses run on locally produced fuel from farms..) and supporting an industry that's exploiting people.

That said, some people aren't capable of more. That certainly doesn't mean they deserve less because of it. I'm not poor or broke. But I feel guilty because there are hard working people with unfortunate circumstances. It didn't come easy to me either. Getting professional experience and then actually being screwed over by some companies motivated me to escape the rat race.

The point of all this, is that no one person can expect anything from their government, their economy, their employer, their bank, or their investments. You make what you have, and together we can make a lot better life for everyone.

We can argue this all our lives...

I write software as well...and I haven't noticed a hit in salary in the last few years...the exact opposite has occurred for me. I'm working on certifications and making myself more marketable to my clients. I try to learn new technologies or ones few others know, so I can corner a market in experience...I continue to strive to educate and better myself. I've only been in the industry for a 4 years, but if your making anyway near the average salary for a software designer, you probably don't have much to gripe about.

Going to college most certainly improves a persons chances of success, it opens soo many doors that aren't open to people with similar experience or resume. The person with the degree wins almost every time. It is based off supply and demand, so people should learn a high demand skill. Right now it's computers.

A great number of the upper echelon, you dislike, got there by working hard and putting up with the same stuff that the 'actual' laborers have. You aren't just appointed CEO for being rich, your knowledge and experience drive your demand in the workplace and get you promoted to a position to even be nominated as a CEO.

I'm not a slave either, I don't live as a commodity. I actually don't even really care about how much I make, as long as I can live comfortably and not paycheck to paycheck. I save my money and spend it wisely so that I never get in a position where I need a hand me down from others...I plan ahead and handle my end of the deal. I treat everyone as equal as I can, but when you are being fair, you must also hold everyone accountable and not blame a government or society for not continuing to make up for the people who don't contribute and expect something for nothing. We all can't have high paying jobs, but we can all strive to be better off than we currently are...people need to have the desire to change them self before they try and change a nation.

Quality of life is relative. If we gave everyone a house, food to eat and clothing, people would complain that they didn't have enough. If we were all millionaires, only a trillionaire would be considered rich. There will always be a low man on the totem pole. We can change the system, but we can't change reality. Americans today have more than any other people in the history of this planet. History never dealt with the current oxymoron of a fat poor person. In the past if you were poor, you didn't eat. If things got really bad, you may have starved to death. Not much starving to death these days.

Why does this thread need to be so insulting randydaytona? I believe in a better world. Why are you fighting that? You could provide some ideas instead of opposing all mine.

Yeah, I'm sorry for calling you a moron. I want a better world too. I guess we just have different ways on achieving that. Of course mine is the right way ;-)

That logic has been expressed already in this thread. I really don't care to discuss the difference between political, social and economic philosophies. I want people to discuss solving the problem. Together.

Indeed, different ideas aren't all bad. That's why the thread is here. My ideas will work, but are there any other ideas? How can we work together to consume less fuel? That will lower demand so that prices level off at something reasonable. Then our goods and services won't increase like crazy..

Anything clever?

I was thinking along the lines of focusing on public transit and ride shares to lower the demand for fuel. I realize the distribution of goods relies on foreign oil, but the vast majority of fuel consumption has to be commuters. I think the easiest and most feasible solution is to promote ride sharing and pressure local politicians for a more effective public transit system.

I do agree that we shouldn't be importing oil when we can mine it ourselves.

What problem exactly are you hoping to solve? I'm not trying to give you a hard time, but I get tired of hearing people clamor for change without setting some specific targets. Change for change sake isn't always good. I know you want to start the revolution, but overhauling every system in place isn't practical. If you could narrow it down, people could actually have a discussion with you. I know you mention lowering fuel prices, which you tie into food prices...so maybe that's where you want to start. I agree that fuel prices need to be reasonable, but how can you argue that food is overpriced when even the poor in this country are obese. We have more food available at lower prices than any other time in American history.