I realize this isn't my discussion but what the hay or heck or even hell?

If you make six-figures and are who you say you are then congratulations. You've obviously got brains at something and if you are successful at what you do then more power to you! However, maybe you can explain to me why you haven't yet taken a sum of your six-figured salary and put it in a pot for the factory workers to divide? That is essentially what you want anyway. You would like higher taxes and income re-distribution for those factory workers who aren't getting benefits. You would also subscribe to the "Hillary Plan" which would move the health care field into the responsibility of the government's control so that they could provide health care for all. After all, the government has done so much with public school education and other programs. Maybe the reason they are in the plant and you aren't is because they may not have a college education. Maybe they don't speak English as a primary language. I don't know these people obviously and I'm not passing judgement on them. Maybe there are just people in this country who aren't that gifted. After all there will always be a need for someone to say "Would you like fries with that burger and shake?"

You also seem to indicate that "the problem" is that you work in a nice office. That doesn't seem to be a problem from where I'm sitting. If you feel so guilty about it then quit your job and become a pizza delivery person. Maybe you can give up that late model car or heaven forbid that SUV you own. If you have an apartment then instead of the 2-bedroom you could get a studio and live the way you feel that you should be living. Give the money to a charity, give it to the homeless. I'm sure there are tons of non-profits that would be very receptive to you and your checkbook. Or let me at that savings and 401k. I could make a lot of good use out of it.

Here's reality:

Bottom line is simple. You can appreciate the fruits of your labor, accept your salary for what it is. It is the result of your graduate and post-graduate work. That is a salary you have earned. Your plum air conditioned office is something you have earned! This is the beauty of America and your so wrapped up in your own guilt and bullshit that you can't appreciate the gifts you've spent a minimum of 8 years in school for. Quit bullshitting yourself and this room about the guilt that you supposedly feel. Truth is if you really felt that bad, you'd have quit the job and started waiting tables or getting a Master's in social work.

Your other option is to consider a life in Europe. Why Europe? Look at the economies in countries like France and Germany? Especially France. The French government had the nerve to try and pass a law giving employers the right to fire lazy employees and the employees rioted for days if not weeks. Look at their economic numbers and then look at ours. See what a Socialist government does for it's people in the long run. Once you get those figures together and compare the incentives of having a government making everyone's life "equal" then write back to me and we'll talk further. The only thing I ask is that your honest with yourself.

Ever figure that there folks out there who are just happy working there 9-5 and enjoying there life.

What exactly are these "slave" like conditions? I have several friends who work in a large automobile factory who make a lot of money and when they describe what they do, I hardly think it qualifies as "slaving away."

As far as telling anything about yourself, who really cares. You could be making it up anyway. Although here you tell MIM you will tell her anything and above you say you will not tell what company you work for. Seems contradictory, doesn't it? Happy birthday Todd.

Well be sure to pay your gardner his christmas bonus, and always tip your waiter well

If you're such a massive achiever who has secured such a wonderful position for yourself in this company and are so concerned about those poor plant workers working down there for a fraction of what you earn and with no benefits, why don't you volunteer to forfiet your next two raises, or better yet, your last two raises if the company will pay them more and give them benefits?

Believe it or not, people do it all the time. In fact when the owner of a company I worked for died in a plane crash the company nearly went broke. All of us on carpet row (that would be the big wheels) volunteered to take drastic, and I do mean drastic cuts in pay so they wouldn't have to lay any of the plant workers off. After about a year, the company was back on its feet and the big wheels got their pay back and the plant workers got raises too. That's called "corporate team work" and it's not to be confused with false compassion.

I read with interest that you write that capitalism is dead.
I would be interested to know what you intend to replace it with?
No system is perfect and it would be possible to write about the imperfection of any system capitalist or communist.
However as a UK citizen I can remember what it was like living in the UK under a socialist government, James Callaghan and his predecessor Harold Wilson. They tried to redistribute wealth with very high taxes and to improve workers conditions through regulations. They also nationalized some major industries and commercial business. Unfortunately their efforts were a complete disaster resulting in Margaret Thatcher and the capitalist Conservatives running the country for nearly 18 years.
All the socialist government achieved was what was known as the Brain Drain.
Businessmen closed down their businesses and relocated abroad.
British Leyland (a car manufacturer) was one of the biggest Labour disasters. The Labour Government used over manning to try to combat the ever-increasing unemployment figures. The result was hundreds of acres of fields full of out of date unreliable cars that no one wanted to buy.
National carriers that had been a successful business when privately owned were now making large losses as a nationalized company. British airways were making large losses and the list goes on.
In today’s world China, India has thrown of the shackles of socialism and are now thriving economies.
Lets look for a moment at all of the wonderful things that the capitalist economies have achieved e.g. the computer that you are using or the DVD to watch films on. Most of the breakthrough in medicine has been achieve in capitalist countries. Mobile phone, the Internet. Etc
The list goes on
Wealth needs to be continually produced if you try to spread it around the production of wealth would come to a halt and the whole world would become alot poorer

Capitalism is the only economic system that insures individual freedom for everyone. Any other economic system relies on slaves and masters, owners and the owned rather than free traders.

Given the choice between a hereditary monarchy capitalist society or a democratic socialist one I would choose the capitialist any time

>>>1) Mexico has a capitalist system. How much freedom do 95 percent of Mexicans have? 2) China has a socialist system. I didn't know that slavery was an issue in China. So much for theories, eh?

check out wages and working conditions in china you idiot

In reply to "check out the wages in China"
It is interesting that you finish your sentence with an insult. This is usual when a person’s argument has no substance.
If you check out the wages in China now and say 10 years ago you will see that the standard of living is increasing rapidly the same is true for India.
Also in Ireland once the socialist regulations and unfair taxes were eased the standard of living has increased substantially and so has government revenue.
There is always a migration of people from stagnant socialist countries to capitalist as people try to find works.
That why it is often said "Socialist counties only export their people