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Lack of shared prosperity, tax burden, big government, and monopoly...There's a little bit here for everyone.

The executive summary in the linked report makes some interesting points.

In its just-released report on competitiveness, “Problems Unsolved and a Nation Divided: State of US Competitiveness,” Harvard Business School (HBS) found the US economy currently faces grave concerns. And the path to a solution—namely tax reform, immigration reform, and infrastructure investment—is being hindered by the current political climate.

Led by Porter, along with Professors Jan Rivkin and Mihir Desai, the report finds that since the launch of the US Competitiveness Project in 2011, concerns about weak job creation and stagnating incomes—particularly for the middle class—have not waned.

“America’s economic strategy defaulted to trusting that the Federal Reserve could solve our problems through monetary stimulus,” according to the report.

The key problem: Lack of shared prosperity

Porter says the key issue for America today is a lack of “shared prosperity,” as working and middle-class citizens are struggling.

“The lack of shared prosperity has rightly been a central issue in the 2016 campaign, but the diagnoses and proposed solutions are way off the mark,” the report points out.

As the middle class began to stagnate amid globalization and technological change, instead of increasing investments, the US made “unsustainable promises” to maintain the “illusion of shared prosperity,” the report notes. That included extending credit, expanding entitlements and increasing public-sector benefits.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-compe ... 21739.html

http://www.hbs.edu/competitiveness/Docu ... ivided.pdf

Here are the kind of things that are killing the American middle class more than our tax structure:

Ford shifting all U.S. small-car production to Mexico

Greg Gardner and Brent Snavely, Detroit Free Press 2:16 p.m. EDT September 15, 2016

Ford plans to eventually shift all North American small-car production from the U.S. to Mexico, CEO Mark Fields told investors Tuesday, even though the company's production investments in Mexico have become a lightning rod for controversy in the presidential election.

"Over the next two to three years, we will have migrated all of our small-car production to Mexico and out of the United States," Fields said at a daylong investor conference in Dearborn.

http://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/f ... /90355146/

93henfan wrote:Here are the kind of things that are killing the American middle class more than our tax structure:

Ford shifting all U.S. small-car production to Mexico

Greg Gardner and Brent Snavely, Detroit Free Press 2:16 p.m. EDT September 15, 2016

Ford plans to eventually shift all North American small-car production from the U.S. to Mexico, CEO Mark Fields told investors Tuesday, even though the company's production investments in Mexico have become a lightning rod for controversy in the presidential election.

"Over the next two to three years, we will have migrated all of our small-car production to Mexico and out of the United States," Fields said at a daylong investor conference in Dearborn.

http://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/f ... /90355146/

The douchebags on CNN this morning were hammering Trump because Fields said yesterday that Trump is wrong and that no jobs will be lost. So the CNN anchors kept repeating "Trump is wrong".

But they are too stupid to figure out that if no jobs will be lost (because of a shift in products to back fill that particular plant's demand), there will not be job growth because the new plant is in Mexico. It's bad news if we lose current jobs or lose future jobs.

I don't blame Ford for trying to reduce expenses. But fuck Fields for not telling the whole story and allowing the non-thinking press to run with it. I will never buy another Ford (actually only bought 1, and Explorer, and it sucked).

Funny thing I've noticed about CNN, especially the last two weeks, and it's a real tip of the cap to Matt Drudge:

CNN is now formatting their website more or less the same way Drudge Report is formatted. They'll put up a bad picture of Trump and then their first five hyperlinks will all be news to attempt to hurt Trump. The really funny part is that they'll end one hyperlink with an ellipsis and start the next one with one like this :

Trump is a racist bastard...
...which is why these illegal spicks threw eggs at him!

CNN has given up any illusion of impartiality to try to salvage Hillary's campaign as Drudge and Trump dominate the news cycle. It's funny to watch.

kalm wrote:Lack of shared prosperity, tax burden, big government, and monopoly...There's a little bit here for everyone.

The executive summary in the linked report makes some interesting points.

Harvard, eh? Tell them to tell one of their own, even though it is too late now.

CAA Flagship wrote:

kalm wrote:Lack of shared prosperity, tax burden, big government, and monopoly...There's a little bit here for everyone.

The executive summary in the linked report makes some interesting points.

Harvard, eh? Tell them to tell one of their own, even though it is too late now.

Ivy probably smoked weed and listened to The Byrds with these guys.

93henfan wrote:Funny thing I've noticed about CNN, especially the last two weeks, and it's a real tip of the cap to Matt Drudge:

CNN is now formatting their website more or less the same way Drudge Report is formatted. They'll put up a bad picture of Trump and then their first five hyperlinks will all be news to attempt to hurt Trump. The really funny part is that they'll end one hyperlink with an ellipsis and start the next one with one like this :

Trump is a racist bastard...
...which is why these illegal spicks threw eggs at him!

CNN has given up any illusion of impartiality to try to salvage Hillary's campaign as Drudge and Trump dominate the news cycle. It's funny to watch.

CNN has seemed to move much farther left in the last year. And news anchors and their interviewees have less and less integrity.

kalm wrote:

CAA Flagship wrote:
Harvard, eh? Tell them to tell one of their own, even though it is too late now.

Ivy probably smoked weed and listened to The Byrds with these guys.

I was talking about Obama.

CAA Flagship wrote:

kalm wrote:
Ivy probably smoked weed and listened to The Byrds with these guys.

I was talking about Obama.

Obama's not a real Harvard man. Blame Columbia or Occidental.

Or Kenya.

93henfan wrote:Here are the kind of things that are killing the American middle class more than our tax structure:

Ford shifting all U.S. small-car production to Mexico

Greg Gardner and Brent Snavely, Detroit Free Press 2:16 p.m. EDT September 15, 2016

Ford plans to eventually shift all North American small-car production from the U.S. to Mexico, CEO Mark Fields told investors Tuesday, even though the company's production investments in Mexico have become a lightning rod for controversy in the presidential election.

"Over the next two to three years, we will have migrated all of our small-car production to Mexico and out of the United States," Fields said at a daylong investor conference in Dearborn.

http://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/f ... /90355146/

But why are they leaving and what is being left behind? Corporations are pretty easy to understand, they want to maximize profits. Period. End of story. And that's fine. What we need to do, with that in mind, is work with that premise. The world that kalm wants to pretend existed at some point in the past, where businesses were patriotic and wanted to do the best for the nation or the society they lived in just never existed, it's always been this way. Until we accept that corporations don't owe us anything other than adherence to the law (i.e. don't break the law, don't spoil the environment, don't kill people, etc) we'll just be grasping at ideas that won't work long term. It's not a big world out there, and there are plenty of places where corporations can set up shop and exist just fine. Not every spot outside the US is some junta-run banana republic so there are plenty of places that are viable places to do business. We as a country have certainly helped to make the world safer in that regard, but we didn't do it alone and we aren't owed indefinite concessions by businesses as gratitude for doing so.

There's no doubt that our tax code is hugely complicated and frankly, that needs to be fixed. It's too expensive for one, but that's not even the most troubling aspect of it. It's the complication that is the problem, it's the complication that allows corporations and individuals with significant assets and knowledge to game and take advantage of the system. Until we make it more simple where more people can understand where the money is coming and going from them it's going to continue this way.

Infrastructure spending is another thing that keeps getting bandied about, as if it's some magical cure all. Frankly, it's not. Look at Japan. Might have the best infrastructure in the world at this point as they've been spending like crazy on infrastructure in the hope to get their economy out of the two decade morass they've been in. Has it solved their economic problems? Not in the least. Heck, they're probably one step away from true transporter (Star Trek) technology and they're still struggling. And not only that, but now they are saddled with the billions in public debt that was generated while they were building the best infrastructure in the world. It's great that we have wonderful political talking points about crumbling roads and falling bridges and such, but the reality is, we can get things from point A to point B in this country, and to other countries, in record time. Necessity finds a way and we've been finding our way without too much issue. We're not on the precipice of falling apart as a nation with regards to infrastructure and we won't be. We need to stop looking in the past for how things were done and recognize that there'll keep being new ways to do things that the past can't even have imagined that are infinitely better than how we used to do things. Drone technology is a perfect example, as are driverless cars. The possibilities that open up when you think about just those two things are endless, and they don't involve repaving the nation's interstate system every year.

What we need to do, and I've said before, is to keep innovating. We're never going to succeed if we adopt the European philosophy that we're at the finish line, there's no more things to create or explore, and we can just sit back on our laurels, enjoy the benefits of the work of those who came before us, and the status quo will continue forever. If we do that, we'll be just as doomed as they are, doomed to be passed by by nations and peoples that are still striving, still moving forward, looking to improve their lives. We need to do the things we do that we do better than anyone else in the world - make new things, exploit new technologies, and do things that other people can't copy or replicate easily. We can't bemoan when manufacturers of t-shirts leave the US and make them somewhere where it's cheaper, because we want to buy those t-shirts (cheaply of course, no one wants to overpay) with the money that we've earned by developing the next technological marvel (VR for instance, or fully automated mfg plants, or the elimination of cancer, or whatever else we can do). It does mean that we have to keep working hard, that we can't move to 3 day work weeks with 12 weeks vacation, but that shouldn't be seen as a negative. There's value in working, there's value in developing new products and new technologies and new ways of doing things.

We're not doomed as a country, that's just silly talk. But we are doomed if we think that things should just be handed to us because we're the US or because our parents had it good or any other reason we can think of that doesn't involve working hard and working with purpose. Spending 40 hours a week at a McDonald's for 15-30 years is not how to do it, unless you move from being the fry guy/girl/gender neutral pronoun person to the person who owns a franchise and runs the place. Use that time to go learn a trade, be a plumber, a carpenter, a data/IT guy, whatever, but keep moving up. There's no magical pot of gold that's going to fall from the sky, there's no magical panacea that government can create that will be the Robin Hood equivalent of taking from the rich and giving to the poor. The only real answer is to work. Work hard. Make things that have value. Do things that other countries and peoples just can't do. Might have to sweat from time to time.

GannonFan wrote:

93henfan wrote:Here are the kind of things that are killing the American middle class more than our tax structure:


http://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/f ... /90355146/

But why are they leaving and what is being left behind? Corporations are pretty easy to understand, they want to maximize profits. Period. End of story. And that's fine. What we need to do, with that in mind, is work with that premise. The world that kalm wants to pretend existed at some point in the past, where businesses were patriotic and wanted to do the best for the nation or the society they lived in just never existed, it's always been this way. Until we accept that corporations don't owe us anything other than adherence to the law (i.e. don't break the law, don't spoil the environment, don't kill people, etc) we'll just be grasping at ideas that won't work long term. It's not a big world out there, and there are plenty of places where corporations can set up shop and exist just fine. Not every spot outside the US is some junta-run banana republic so there are plenty of places that are viable places to do business. We as a country have certainly helped to make the world safer in that regard, but we didn't do it alone and we aren't owed indefinite concessions by businesses as gratitude for doing so.

There's no doubt that our tax code is hugely complicated and frankly, that needs to be fixed. It's too expensive for one, but that's not even the most troubling aspect of it. It's the complication that is the problem, it's the complication that allows corporations and individuals with significant assets and knowledge to game and take advantage of the system. Until we make it more simple where more people can understand where the money is coming and going from them it's going to continue this way.

Infrastructure spending is another thing that keeps getting bandied about, as if it's some magical cure all. Frankly, it's not. Look at Japan. Might have the best infrastructure in the world at this point as they've been spending like crazy on infrastructure in the hope to get their economy out of the two decade morass they've been in. Has it solved their economic problems? Not in the least. Heck, they're probably one step away from true transporter (Star Trek) technology and they're still struggling. And not only that, but now they are saddled with the billions in public debt that was generated while they were building the best infrastructure in the world. It's great that we have wonderful political talking points about crumbling roads and falling bridges and such, but the reality is, we can get things from point A to point B in this country, and to other countries, in record time. Necessity finds a way and we've been finding our way without too much issue. We're not on the precipice of falling apart as a nation with regards to infrastructure and we won't be. We need to stop looking in the past for how things were done and recognize that there'll keep being new ways to do things that the past can't even have imagined that are infinitely better than how we used to do things. Drone technology is a perfect example, as are driverless cars. The possibilities that open up when you think about just those two things are endless, and they don't involve repaving the nation's interstate system every year.

What we need to do, and I've said before, is to keep innovating. We're never going to succeed if we adopt the European philosophy that we're at the finish line, there's no more things to create or explore, and we can just sit back on our laurels, enjoy the benefits of the work of those who came before us, and the status quo will continue forever. If we do that, we'll be just as doomed as they are, doomed to be passed by by nations and peoples that are still striving, still moving forward, looking to improve their lives. We need to do the things we do that we do better than anyone else in the world - make new things, exploit new technologies, and do things that other people can't copy or replicate easily. We can't bemoan when manufacturers of t-shirts leave the US and make them somewhere where it's cheaper, because we want to buy those t-shirts (cheaply of course, no one wants to overpay) with the money that we've earned by developing the next technological marvel (VR for instance, or fully automated mfg plants, or the elimination of cancer, or whatever else we can do). It does mean that we have to keep working hard, that we can't move to 3 day work weeks with 12 weeks vacation, but that shouldn't be seen as a negative. There's value in working, there's value in developing new products and new technologies and new ways of doing things.

We're not doomed as a country, that's just silly talk. But we are doomed if we think that things should just be handed to us because we're the US or because our parents had it good or any other reason we can think of that doesn't involve working hard and working with purpose. Spending 40 hours a week at a McDonald's for 15-30 years is not how to do it, unless you move from being the fry guy/girl/gender neutral pronoun person to the person who owns a franchise and runs the place. Use that time to go learn a trade, be a plumber, a carpenter, a data/IT guy, whatever, but keep moving up. There's no magical pot of gold that's going to fall from the sky, there's no magical panacea that government can create that will be the Robin Hood equivalent of taking from the rich and giving to the poor. The only real answer is to work. Work hard. Make things that have value. Do things that other countries and peoples just can't do. Might have to sweat from time to time.

Suffered through the first paragraph...the rest was tl:dr.

Corporations are people. We should expect the same from them as anyone else. EG: citizenship, questioning their patriotism, acts of treason, death penalty.

You lose...again.

GannonFan wrote: But why are they leaving and what is being left behind? Corporations are pretty easy to understand, they want to maximize profits. Period. End of story. And that's fine. What we need to do, with that in mind, is work with that premise. The world that kalm wants to pretend existed at some point in the past, where businesses were patriotic and wanted to do the best for the nation or the society they lived in just never existed, it's always been this way. Until we accept that corporations don't owe us anything other than adherence to the law (i.e. don't break the law, don't spoil the environment, don't kill people, etc) we'll just be grasping at ideas that won't work long term. It's not a big world out there, and there are plenty of places where corporations can set up shop and exist just fine. Not every spot outside the US is some junta-run banana republic so there are plenty of places that are viable places to do business. We as a country have certainly helped to make the world safer in that regard, but we didn't do it alone and we aren't owed indefinite concessions by businesses as gratitude for doing so.

It's one thing to build a plant outside the US to serve the regional area of that new plant. It's another thing to close up shop in the US and build a plant outside the US to serve the US (see Ford and Carrier). This is a failure of our government.

GannonFan wrote:What we need to do, and I've said before, is to keep innovating.

Not sure how much innovation comes from small businesses, but I'm guessing it is a sizable percentage. "One size fits all" regulations have hurt small businesses (see bank regs for example). We need simpler, and smarter regulation of businesses.

kalm wrote:

GannonFan wrote:
But why are they leaving and what is being left behind? Corporations are pretty easy to understand, they want to maximize profits. Period. End of story. And that's fine. What we need to do, with that in mind, is work with that premise. The world that kalm wants to pretend existed at some point in the past, where businesses were patriotic and wanted to do the best for the nation or the society they lived in just never existed, it's always been this way. Until we accept that corporations don't owe us anything other than adherence to the law (i.e. don't break the law, don't spoil the environment, don't kill people, etc) we'll just be grasping at ideas that won't work long term. It's not a big world out there, and there are plenty of places where corporations can set up shop and exist just fine. Not every spot outside the US is some junta-run banana republic so there are plenty of places that are viable places to do business. We as a country have certainly helped to make the world safer in that regard, but we didn't do it alone and we aren't owed indefinite concessions by businesses as gratitude for doing so.

There's no doubt that our tax code is hugely complicated and frankly, that needs to be fixed. It's too expensive for one, but that's not even the most troubling aspect of it. It's the complication that is the problem, it's the complication that allows corporations and individuals with significant assets and knowledge to game and take advantage of the system. Until we make it more simple where more people can understand where the money is coming and going from them it's going to continue this way.

Infrastructure spending is another thing that keeps getting bandied about, as if it's some magical cure all. Frankly, it's not. Look at Japan. Might have the best infrastructure in the world at this point as they've been spending like crazy on infrastructure in the hope to get their economy out of the two decade morass they've been in. Has it solved their economic problems? Not in the least. Heck, they're probably one step away from true transporter (Star Trek) technology and they're still struggling. And not only that, but now they are saddled with the billions in public debt that was generated while they were building the best infrastructure in the world. It's great that we have wonderful political talking points about crumbling roads and falling bridges and such, but the reality is, we can get things from point A to point B in this country, and to other countries, in record time. Necessity finds a way and we've been finding our way without too much issue. We're not on the precipice of falling apart as a nation with regards to infrastructure and we won't be. We need to stop looking in the past for how things were done and recognize that there'll keep being new ways to do things that the past can't even have imagined that are infinitely better than how we used to do things. Drone technology is a perfect example, as are driverless cars. The possibilities that open up when you think about just those two things are endless, and they don't involve repaving the nation's interstate system every year.

What we need to do, and I've said before, is to keep innovating. We're never going to succeed if we adopt the European philosophy that we're at the finish line, there's no more things to create or explore, and we can just sit back on our laurels, enjoy the benefits of the work of those who came before us, and the status quo will continue forever. If we do that, we'll be just as doomed as they are, doomed to be passed by by nations and peoples that are still striving, still moving forward, looking to improve their lives. We need to do the things we do that we do better than anyone else in the world - make new things, exploit new technologies, and do things that other people can't copy or replicate easily. We can't bemoan when manufacturers of t-shirts leave the US and make them somewhere where it's cheaper, because we want to buy those t-shirts (cheaply of course, no one wants to overpay) with the money that we've earned by developing the next technological marvel (VR for instance, or fully automated mfg plants, or the elimination of cancer, or whatever else we can do). It does mean that we have to keep working hard, that we can't move to 3 day work weeks with 12 weeks vacation, but that shouldn't be seen as a negative. There's value in working, there's value in developing new products and new technologies and new ways of doing things.

We're not doomed as a country, that's just silly talk. But we are doomed if we think that things should just be handed to us because we're the US or because our parents had it good or any other reason we can think of that doesn't involve working hard and working with purpose. Spending 40 hours a week at a McDonald's for 15-30 years is not how to do it, unless you move from being the fry guy/girl/gender neutral pronoun person to the person who owns a franchise and runs the place. Use that time to go learn a trade, be a plumber, a carpenter, a data/IT guy, whatever, but keep moving up. There's no magical pot of gold that's going to fall from the sky, there's no magical panacea that government can create that will be the Robin Hood equivalent of taking from the rich and giving to the poor. The only real answer is to work. Work hard. Make things that have value. Do things that other countries and peoples just can't do. Might have to sweat from time to time.

Suffered through the first paragraph...the rest was tl:dr.

Corporations are people. We should expect the same from them as anyone else. EG: citizenship, questioning their patriotism, acts of treason, death penalty.

You lose...again.

Kalm continues with his daily ritual of laying the wood to conks before breakfast.

We're already the most productive workers on the planet. That isn't where the problem lies.

CAA Flagship wrote:

GannonFan wrote: But why are they leaving and what is being left behind? Corporations are pretty easy to understand, they want to maximize profits. Period. End of story. And that's fine. What we need to do, with that in mind, is work with that premise. The world that kalm wants to pretend existed at some point in the past, where businesses were patriotic and wanted to do the best for the nation or the society they lived in just never existed, it's always been this way. Until we accept that corporations don't owe us anything other than adherence to the law (i.e. don't break the law, don't spoil the environment, don't kill people, etc) we'll just be grasping at ideas that won't work long term. It's not a big world out there, and there are plenty of places where corporations can set up shop and exist just fine. Not every spot outside the US is some junta-run banana republic so there are plenty of places that are viable places to do business. We as a country have certainly helped to make the world safer in that regard, but we didn't do it alone and we aren't owed indefinite concessions by businesses as gratitude for doing so.

It's one thing to build a plant outside the US to serve the regional area of that new plant. It's another thing to close up shop in the US and build a plant outside the US to serve the US (see Ford and Carrier). This is a failure of our government.

GannonFan wrote:What we need to do, and I've said before, is to keep innovating.

Not sure how much innovation comes from small businesses, but I'm guessing it is a sizable percentage. "One size fits all" regulations have hurt small businesses (see bank regs for example). We need simpler, and smarter regulation of businesses.

Spot on. Flaggy gets it.

kalm wrote:

CAA Flagship wrote: It's one thing to build a plant outside the US to serve the regional area of that new plant. It's another thing to close up shop in the US and build a plant outside the US to serve the US (see Ford and Carrier). This is a failure of our government.



Not sure how much innovation comes from small businesses, but I'm guessing it is a sizable percentage. "One size fits all" regulations have hurt small businesses (see bank regs for example). We need simpler, and smarter regulation of businesses.

Spot on. Flaggy gets it.

One of the problems is that American corporations are incapable of looking beyond the quarterly P&L statement. Most of us here aren't old enough to remember America at its peak, back when corporate profits were taxed at 90%. The reason that made us great was that money reinvested in the corporation and/or its workers wasn't taxed at all, prompting the kind of reinvestment we haven't seen since before Reagan was elected.

houndawg wrote: One of the problems is that American corporations are incapable of looking beyond the quarterly P&L statement.

OK, if you want to generalize like that, then embrace the fact that this opens the door for innovation by smaller businesses. One of the better examples of this is would be Big Pharma and Biotechs. Most new drugs are born in small Biotech companies.

houndawg wrote: Most of us here aren't old enough to remember America at its peak, back when corporate profits were taxed at 90%. The reason that made us great was that money reinvested in the corporation and/or its workers wasn't taxed at all, prompting the kind of reinvestment we haven't seen since before Reagan was elected.

That was before other countries began luring them away with more attractive deals. Competition changed that, not politics.

We can't keep looking at some past utopia of what America was and assume we can recreate that. For one, the past is easy to see in a positive light and many of the negatives of that time fade away. Second, times change. We are in a global economy now. The internet has opened the world to business and now corporations can see profit centers all around the world. That includes sending manufacturing overseas to reduces costs and raise profits. The biggest goal of any corporation is to increase dividends to investors. This forces companies to find cost reduction as much as possible. Additionally, people love shopping at places like Wal-Mart or other stores where there are rock bottom prices. These prices don't exist because we are manufacturing here in America.

If people want to stop this trend then they have to force the change in their shopping habits. Stop buying foreign made goods and pay more for American made. But again if you look at the fact that wages are stagnant but costs are rising, people can't afford to do this so the cycle continues.

The only reason corporations care about things like the environment is because customers are making them. Many companies would happily pollute and pay the fines because it is usually cheaper than coming into compliance. But now when companies do things that aren't green, they get lit up on social media and it hurts their bottom line.

I believe we need to continue to innovate, make it easier for small businesses to operate, and put less emphasis on going to college and more on trades. We are running out of people who can do these types of jobs and not everyone is going to college. We need to stop making it look like it is a failure to not go to college and become a mechanic, welder, carpenter, etc. My dad is a mechanic for American Airlines. He got his training in the Air Force and trade school. He says they are about to have a major shortage of skilled workers because no one is learning these trades. The guys he works with are all over 40 and most over 50 or 60. There are no young guys being hired. Those are the jobs and careers we need to promote. It will help provide higher paying jobs to the youth in areas that will never go to college and settle for McDonalds. That is how we help strengthen our middle class and pull more people out of poverty.

I got spoiled on SkyNews and the international versions of CNN and BBC while I was overseas the last 4 years.

Coming back and seeing the domestic CNN was breathtaking as to how in the can they are for Clinton and against Trump. Completely unconcealed. The international CNN is much more objective about the politics.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Did I ever tell you how kalm and I met...

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQKdEdzHnfU[/youtube]

Chizzang wrote:Did I ever tell you how kalm and I met...

Chizzang wrote:Did I ever tell you how kalm and I met...

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQKdEdzHnfU[/youtube]

Probably one of the most underrated movies ever...

Chizzang wrote:Did I ever tell you how kalm and I met...

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQKdEdzHnfU[/youtube]

You insufferable asshole!



1) I'm gluten intolerant, not lactose intolerant. Although IIRC it may have been almond milk in that Chai tea.

2) I've been known to order out of LL Bean from time to time. They have some quality outdoor gear and flyfishing equipment. And I actually miss flipping through the catalog.

Alphagriz and Ursus...

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uAh-opNpDg[/youtube]

Chizzang wrote:Alphagriz and Ursus...

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uAh-opNpDg[/youtube]

I'm gonna go back and watch it again now.

This part cracked me up hard for some reason...

houndawg wrote:

kalm wrote:
Spot on. Flaggy gets it.

One of the problems is that American corporations are incapable of looking beyond the quarterly P&L statement. Most of us here aren't old enough to remember America at its peak, back when corporate profits were taxed at 90%. The reason that made us great was that money reinvested in the corporation and/or its workers wasn't taxed at all, prompting the kind of reinvestment we haven't seen since before Reagan was elected.

How cute. houndie actually thinks corporations paid a 90% tax rate back in the day.