Until a few years ago I used to follow politics very closely, and I always had a clear vision on who I was going to vote for.  This year however I guess you could pool me into that group of people you always hear about, “undecided voters”.

Over the past few years I have become more and more disgusted with our government.  If ANY publicly traded company ran their business and managed their shareholders money the way the U.S. government manages ours, every executive would be in jail, and that is a fact.

So here is my dilemma.  I do feel John Mcain would do exponentially better protecting our country and managing our foreign affairs.  Yet, at the same time I think the war in Iraq is bullshit and we need to break out of there.  Saddam is gone, they have a $80 Billion dollar surplus, and our soldiers keep dying for nothing.  I am a big fan of Obama when he says that we are not making progress in Iraq, and that we need to get out.  Likewise I agree with the fact that we need change.

Here is what is really holding me back from casting my vote for Barack Obama though.  His idea of “redistribution of wealth” is the most idiotic and socialistic principal in the world.  All the other issues I can get past, but this one is just stupid.

Sure, it makes sense if you make $25K a year.  But for people that have busted their asses for years and worked their way up to EARN a high income deserve to keep their income.  As I understand it, with the Obama plan 40% of U.S. citizens will not even pay income taxes, in fact they will be getting checks back!  Where is all that free money going to come from?  Simple, directly from the top EARNERS.  No offense, but if someone who makes 10 times less than me wants to get on an even playing field with me, I have a suggesstion.

Go to college and take out thousands in student loans like I did.  Then work in low paying jobs while being an entrepreneur and working your way up like I did.  Increase your income on your own merits, not by taking it directly from the higher earning Americans.

I’m sure this makes me sound greedy, but I’m not.  I have no problem donating to underprivileged people or charities like the Make A Wish Foundation.  But I do have a real problem with giving even more of my hard earned money to a corrupt organization like the U.S. Government to distribute at will.  In other words, I am also not a big fan of funding $500K AIG parties and Bank Executives 7 figure bonuses.

At the end of the day I am an entrepreneur and I don’t plan my business decisions around what tax rate the governement decides to stick me for each year. But the whole principal of the U.S. government controlling my income by redistributing my wealth disgusts me.

Ideally I would be voting for Ron Paul, and I still may.  But I also realize this is a wasted vote.  So I end this with the question, who do I vote for?  Feel free to sell me on why I should vote for either of these idiots, or why redistribution of wealth is such a great principal.  Oh, enjoy the pic as well.

The thing about Capitalism is that it’s a system that eventually results in a significant division between the haves and have-nots.

The issue is that in order for one person to be “rich”, many other people must be poor. It’s the nature of the beast.

I grew up poor, so I slanted more Democrat in my youth. As I’ve grown older and seen more of the world, I’ve shifted more towards the center.

I think the reason Obama is so keen to throw out the “redistribute the wealth” statement is that it’s going to win him votes with the majority.

Since the majority are poor or middle class that are slipping into poverty. I also think that you have to consider that people see the enormous yearly salaries earned by some CEO’s and then see the level of corruption that exists and the lack of accountability and it infuriates them.

That being said, I don’t view ALL Republicans as evil as I did when growing up in a poor household. And I don’t feel all rich people don’t deserve the money they have.

Likewise I now see that there are poor people who are just lazy, unskilled or not motivated and would rather piss & moan about their predicaments, place blame on others and/or the system, instead of doing something about it.

But, there are also poor people who’ve just been unlucky. And there are rich people who’ve just been very fortunate and would be like one of the rest of the poor schmucks if they didn’t get born into money or whatever.

The point is, there needs to be balance, which is really difficult to obtain. I’m not against some socialistic programs and approaches in our nation. But I believe they should be support systems, not life systems, which is a problem unfortunately.

In the end, I think Obama is going to win, and I still feel he’s the better candidate for the country. Neither choice will result in immediate change and progress for our nation, there is a lot of things that need to be fixed, and we’ll probably break something else in the process.

Also, I completely understand what you’re saying about people like yourself who’ve busted their asses to make a respectable living.

I’m not a fan of having to subsidize the jerkoffs who keep popping out kids because they don’t want to work and think another kid = another check is the correct way to live life.

But, that’s a stereotype of poor people. It fits some, sure, but not all.

Likewise, the stereotype on rich people is that they’re a bunch of cold-hearted greedy bastards who make ridiculous sums of money while doing very little work.

Obviously this is a problem with some, but not all rich people. But if you’re one of the majority (i.e. poor or the sinking middle class) and you work for some prick boss and feel underappreciated and underpaid, then it’s easy to start believing that ALL rich people = teh evil and you develop a sense of entitlement.

People in this country feel they “deserve” this and “deserve” that, but many don’t want to actually have to work for it.

So I know where you’re coming from as well. I don’t think successful people should be punished for it. But I also think we need to return our nation to a point where people can feel safe in their careers.

If you go back to the 50′s or whatever, the man went to work and the woman stayed home and they supported some good-sized families on one-income. And people stayed with a company for a good chunk of their lives, and had stability in their jobs, decent pay and benefits.

At least that’s my understanding of “the good ol’ days”. I wasn’t actually there, but that’s the pretty picture I get for the most part.

Nowadays people are worried that they’ll be let go for any number of reasons (getting too old, making too much and can be replaced with a new hire who works for entry-level pay, etc).

The bean counters are constantly obsessing with “increased productivity”, and people feel like their employers expect the job to take precidence over family often. And I think that there’s too much focus on “how can we reduce expenses?” in many companies, rather than “how can we increase profits?”

We live in a nation where one guy at the top can ax 20,000 jobs and he snags a million dollar bonus. Meanwhile now you have 20K less people earning income and thus less people spending.

Now that impacts another company, and they lay off 6K workers and so forth, it’s just a dominoe effect.

As far as socialism goes. I definetely think we need to get our nation back on track with the balance between work/family/luxury/social time.

I personally think people work way too much, and many employers expect too much from their employees. If I ran things, I’d like to enact a 6-hour workday, and a 4-day workweek.

We’re already overproductive as a nation anyway. All that extra time spent @ work just results in people goofing off reading poker affiliate blogs anyway.

I’d just like to see people have more time to come together as a community. More luxury and social time, and more time for family.

Because we’re so work-obsessed we’ve developed tons of social problems. People aren’t as friendly as I remember when I was growing up. Kids don’t go outside and play at the local parks or use their imagination, they want to be fed entertainment from game consoles or we’ve got 9-year olds chatting on their personal cell phones.

Effective parenting is out the door because now you can’t spank your child because it’s “abuse”. So you’ve got some schmuck telling their child to stop misbehaving or they’ll get a “time-out”. And the kid just smirks, does the same thing over again and instead of the parent following-through with punishment, they just repeat their threat of punishment.

This does nothing to help the kids today learn respect for authority. I grew up with an Italian father. So if he told you not to do something or you’d get whacked, and you did it, you got whacked.

Did we still do stuff? Sure, sometimes. But we knew the punishment was coming. It wasn’t abuse, it was discipline. And I was never out there doing drugs, getting into trouble with the law, etc.

Now kids feel empowered and parents helpless a lot of times, like their hands are tied. I really enjoyed the last George Carlin show where he talks about how “every kid today has to be special”. I think he makes some really solid points.

Anyway, sorry to ramble. I get frustrated at the things I see wrong with the country. But like so many others, I’m too apathetic to really bother concering myself too much with it. Then again, my wife and I have no plans for children.

I guess we figure even if we raise our children right, there are so many kids growing up messed up today that our child would be forced to interact with them. Plus, we’re pretty selfish with our time, kids just aren’t for us.

Great response AJ. I am a single mother of two and unfortunately I do not have the time, money, or freedom to go back to school. The idea of spreading the wealth is a tough one. Sure I don’t want to take money away from anyone. Especially someone like Jeremy who is a family man and genuinely worked hard to get where he is.

Like AJ said, it’s the multi-million dollar executives that have no problem laying off 5000 individuals so that they’re bonus goes up. These are the people that I would have no problem seeing their taxes raised. Of course most of these wealthy people are all running huge corporations.

I can understand why a small business owner who makes good money, but not mega millions, would be opposed to spreading their wealth. It’s too bad there’s not a better candidate than Mcain on the other ticket. Because of that I am voting for Obama.

The idea of “spreading the wealth” truly makes me feel ill.

The government has decided for years to reinforce laziness. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m well aware of those who would work hard given the opportunity but have fallen on hard times, medical issues, etc… and NEED that money. Those are the exceptions and not the rule.

The core problem is that no one controls what that government money is used for and for many there’s no incentive to stop taking it. For example, if everyone receiving checks had to perform even 20 hours of community service a week (picking up litter, removing graffiti, etc..), all of a sudden getting a job, regardless of the type, isn’t that bad! Plus now, that income tax, Social Security, etc.. is put back into circulation. Oh and guess what, there’d have to be people to manage all of this “volunteer work – right? Yep, those are jobs too! I have actually met people who say they won’t get a job because they’d make less. That tells me they’re getting paid too much from the government.

America is land of the lazy, no wonder there’s such a problem with obesity. “Hey America, get off your ass!”

And I’m spent…

Wow, some great comments all around. Keep them coming.

Jeremy, easy choice – move to Canada! You have a thing for our beer already…the rest will come.

Honestly I dont know what I would do if I was in your shoes.

http://www.tinyurl.com/hellnaw

Enke, you got it all wrong. Vote for me on Tuesday and I will take you to the promised land!

Barack Obama

lol @ Barack Obama’s comment! *claps*

Jesus that pic is so funny, why can’t i save it to my computer?

Hey Ridge, I am not sure how you save a pic on a Commodore 64, but on most computers you can just “right click” – “save as”.

Good luck!

JE

Hey Jeremy, I hope you have a chat area like your last show. That was always fun.

Don’t worry Jeremy, it’s not your vote that counts anyway. It’s who counts the votes that counts.

PS I’m not even bothering voting this year. I’m pretty disgusted with the entire thing.

Wow, Commodore 64 reference, sweet! I grew up with that puppy, a Radio Shack TSR-80 and a sweet-ass Amiga that should have trounced the IBM-PC but unfortunately didn’t.

Good times, really brings me back, thanks for the reference Jeremy!

I have the same views as you Jeremy. Socialism doesn’t work. Lazy people shouldn’t be rewarded, period. My family was always poor, I paid my way through college, and worked many hours to get to a more wealthy position. People just want to “be” rich, they don’t want to “get” rich.

Great posts! I wish I would have seen this a few days ago. Let me throw my two cents in. I agree with most of you that socialism is a poor economic policy because it promotes laziness and dependence on our government. Capitalism is a better economic policy because it stresses independence and responsibility. But I do believe that there are children in this country who could grow to be great thinkers and leaders if given a fair opportunity. An opportunity that is not prevalent in many poor sections of this country. As a country, I believe we should be trying to help (not monetarily) others realize their potential as others have done for us. Any thoughts?

Cookarelli,

Are you drinking the KoolAid from your girl???

A black man from the south side of Chicago is about to be elected President of the United States of America. I am fairly certain there is fair opportunity in this country.

If anything the lower class or minority groups in the country have MORE opportunity. They just don’t apply it, and giving tax breaks or redistributed wealth will not teach someone how to be a hard worker.

As a country I think we need to encourage entrepreneurship and not punish it by increasing taxes.

That video made me throw up in my mouth. Sounds like I’m getting a 2nd mortgage – hers.

Die Enke

for some reason when I right click and save as it wants it to save as a FF html doc

Sounds like “User Error” Ridge.

Stop being greedy and try to help this country get out of it’s rut. If you make that much money, you can afford to help others in our country out!

Martha,

Just because someone has the means doesn’t mean they have the responsibility.

While it’s admirable to want to help others out, it’s not feasible for everyone to do so.

I’m sure whatever level of “help” you provide to others could be argued against as “not enough”.

Martha, do you have a flat-screen tv? Do you have cable or high-speed internet? How about a car? Why don’t you get rid of all of those things and help out the poor and downtrodden in this country and in other nations?

Oh wait, you shouldn’t HAVE to give up all of your luxury items and so forth to help others?

I’m not saying we shouldn’t help others out in some ways. But to call someone greedy because they worked hard to make something of themselves and don’t feel it’s right they should carry the dead weight of some people in the system whom are too lazy or stupid to make something of themselves isn’t really very nice, nor will it win you the arguement here.

Martha, do you have a home or some sort of residence you live in? If so, why haven’t you opened it up to permit those without a home to stay there?

You don’t want 20 homeless people living in YOUR home? Stop being greedy Martha and help those people out of their rut!

How can you call him “greedy” because he doesn’t want to support people who are lazy and don’t want to work (and just want to pump out kid after kid and collect government benefits?)

Also, you have ZERO knowledge of what charities Jeremy contributes too, if any. So coming in here on your high horse is pretty foolish.