Originally Posted by jtdavis:
gbrk, I don't know the details of your insurance or company policy. Since I retired, my wife's health policy through the company has been costing me about $800 per month with a $600 per year deductable. Has your company saw a way to cut insurance costs by blaming the changes on "Obama care"?
Hiflyer2, do you think a political party or person is setting the prices?
Bulldog63, the 5 democrats running for president has a combined net worth of $86, 615,000. One of the republicans running has a net worth of between 3 and 10 BILLION dollars.
3,0000,000,000 divided by 86,615,000 equals 34.6. Trump is worth at least 34.6 times the entire pack of democrats and at most 115.4 times their worth. I'm glad you posted that picture and figure so that we can see what income inequality really is.
I think there has been far too much attention attempted to be put on people's worth. I think the reason that the Democrats were cited was basically Income inequality was as major part of their platform and I believe it was cited to reference it as a measure of hypocrisy rather than attempting to say wealth is bad.
Well, I don't know anybody in any party thinks wealth is a bad thing. However, the ridiculous inequality in wealth in this country is about where it was in 1920, and you know what happened then. Here's the thing, when I was a kid, the Great Depression was just back of us, and I ask my dad what caused it. The answer he gave me , I have found to be quite profound< even as an adult, : "The rich men have all the money and won't put it into circulation so the poor can buy things". About 85% or more of our economy is consumer driven. While the uber rich do spend money buying jet planes, yachts, etc, the very few can only eat so many meals at restaurants, and will only buy so many cars, and other stuff from the butcher, baker and candlestick maker . If the people on the other end of the scale have no money , and there are so many more of them, then they can't spend, and commerce stops. Since the 1980s the middle class has shrunk, while the uber rich 1% has received all that money , and they have done it on the back of the middle class, and now all the R presidental candidates , except Trump, are on record to cut now, and end later Social Security , and Medicare, in order to give even more millions of dollars to the 1%. That is the problem that the Democrats have with the inequality .
Heck most every Politician in Washington, in the Federal Government, are Millionaires and far richer than the average American and they live isolated lives and really don't have much related to the average American, and that includes Democrats and Republicans. Mark Rubio though is one in a very small minority who as of yet may not be worth a million or more but then, and I don't know, he may have been worth over a million a while back and through various moves lost net worth. A million dollars aint what it used to be.
As for their wealth, like with Hillary or Trump, I'm more interested in HOW they achieved what they have rather than how much they have. Both Hillary and Bill made millions writing their books. Trump inherited a lot of money and also "made a SMALL loan of about $1million from his father" to start him off in the real estate business.
or was it given to them potentially for future favors or favoritism. I think all voters should want to know that. The "Average American" has no voice or power in this Nation. As far as who gets the most money from Donors looking for favors both democrats and republicans are guilty.
What you say there is absolutely true, but it is because our country is becoming more and more an oligarchy and less and less a democracy. Voter turnout is relatively small (as a percentage) and certain big businessmen , like for instance the Koch brothers, want to keep it that way. The one thing that can keep them at bay, is a large vote turnout, and as you can read most any day in the news, some are doing everything they can do to prevent or at least make voting a very difficult thing for people, especially the elderly, the young and the poor.
I'm also still waiting for some Democratic supporter to tell me how I or my family (or anyone working or in Middle Class) is benefiting from the Democrats putting this upon us? It's also interesting that they gave themselves an out and don't have to abide by the laws that they saddled us with.
It is almost impossible for someone on this forum (like myself) to explain your particular situation, except to say that since you get your insurance thru your employer, "Obamacare" probably has little or nothing to do with what you are paying, or any of the particulars of your plan. That is determined by your company. If they want to pay less, and put more of the burden on you, well, far as I know, there is no law against that. However, I can tell of one situation I know of. Until Obamacare came along, I was paying the insurance for 2 of my kids at about $200 / month each. One of them did get insurance from their employer and I don't know what that cost is, but the other went to the Obamacare exchange and got a plan with a high deductible (which suits him at his age) and his wife for $50 / month. It also includes his 2 children, but somewhere or another, (that I don't fully understand) , the kids are on
what I think they call ALA care. And as for me, Obamacare is saving me about $400 / month>
As far as who gets the most money from Donors looking for favors both democrats and republicans are guilty
Well, here is what a couple of businessmen want. Their father was a founding member of the "John Birch Society" , and they are still pushing that old philosophy, and they have bought and paid for many , many politicians in the Republican party, the poster boy of which is Scott Walker. They want to privatize education because , of course , an educated person is quite difficult to control. These private schools wouldl teach only the Koch docterine. They are , even as I type, petitioning their paid for Republicans in Congress , to give them our national parks for exploitation , even if they have to buy them. End SS, Medicare, Environmental regulations, and basically end any governmental controls on their business, all while reducing their taxes to $0.. Inn short, they want to own the United States, be kings and have the rest of us begging for the scraps (jobs) from their table at whatever starvation wages they decide to pay. You need to decide if that is what you want for our country.
Too much to type this late, read more here:
http://www.truthdig.com/report...o_they_want_20140418