After 15 Years In Thailand And Going Back To The Us

[happyrobert]

I didn't come to Thailand to hear slurs against Mexicans.

He said Pedro was sharp and even Pedro said the others were stupid and lazy.

Why don't you go back to the States if you wish to espouse PC?

I didn't come to Thailand to hear political correctness!

I think he used his Pedro story to spread his prejudice about Mexicans in general. Kind of like when in the old days white people would say a black man like Obama was a "credit to his race." Its a ploy.

(SIGH)

[canuckamuck]

I didn't come to Thailand to hear slurs against Mexicans.

Did you come here to not hear slurs against Mexicans?

[Jingthing]

I didn't come to Thailand to hear slurs against Mexicans.

Did you come here to not hear slurs against Mexicans?

That sounds like a Zen koan. I like it!

[mark45y]

I didn't come to Thailand to hear slurs against Mexicans.

He said Pedro was sharp and even Pedro said the others were stupid and lazy.

Why don't you go back to the States if you wish to espouse PC?

I didn't come to Thailand to hear political correctness!

I think he used his Pedro story to spread his prejudice about Mexicans in general. Kind of like when in the old days white people would say a black man like Obama was a "credit to his race." Its a ploy.

Chill and think a bit. I was making a couple of points that not many people realize. Texas was founded by Mexicans. The capital Victoria gave land grants to immigrant Europeans and if they married a Mexican lady and turned Catholic the land grant was larger.

Mexican Texans are among the wealthiest people in Texas. They were there and had money long before the Europeans showed up.

People have been able to speak Spanish and get along in Texas for hundreds of years. The same is true in large parts of Colorado.

Immigrants aren't lazy or stupid. Mexicans aren't lazy or stupid. Pedro was guilty of reverse discrimination. He thought all Mexicans were productive and hard working because all the Mexicans he knew were. Pedro learned a lesson. People are people. Some lazy and stupid and some not. You should learn that too.

Victoria Texas for some reason has a high population of poor people who don't want to work. There are many more Mexicans in Victoria because it was the capital of Texas when Texas was Mexican.

White trash does not have to be white.

I have managed restaurants all over the world. I have a good idea of the work ethic of different people in different places. I have employed immigrant Mexicans in restaurants in Chicago and Houston, virtually all my back of the house employees and they were great employees, honest and hard working.

Victoria Texas has the worst pool of fast food workers of any place I have ever lived including Vietnam and Thailand. I imported all of my managers in Victoria from other locations because I could not find one single person who wanted to work a bit harder and be promoted.

The absolute best fast food workers I have ever encountered? Idaho Falls Idaho. No one was ever late, no one ever stole, no one ever did anything wrong. It is a paradise for anyone employing minimum wage employees. Lake Jackson Texas runs a close second. I don't know why, blacks, Mexicans and white kids got along there. No friction. Smooth every day. It was a great example of integration perhaps because everyone's dad worked for Dow Chemical, much like the East coast of Thailand. I imagine Rayong and Maptaphut have good work populations for the Restaurants in Lamtong.

I'll bet you a beer if you go to Rayong and eat at Fuji, Sizzler, Shabu sushi and Macdonald's you will find them all better than the same restaurants in Pattaya. Certain situations tend to make people perform better. It is not racial but it may be cultural.

[StreetCowboy]

I didn't come to Thailand to hear slurs against Mexicans.

It's just one of the many suprising features that we never expected to find. Every day a little more joy.

Did you come to Thailand to bicker on internet fora with Westerners?

I'm not sure where I would recommend if you wanted to hear slurs against Mexicans, except perhaps the parts of Mexico that are now in the other United States, and probably also those parts that are stillin Los Estados Unitas de Mexico (not too sure of the spelling there...)

I can tell you where to go if you want to hear slurs against the English... and if you want to hear slurs against the Scots, I'll tell you where to go as well.

Straying back on topic, its about fifteen years since I went to the US, and it sounds like you guys have all broken it. I found it quite a pleasant place, friendly people, easy to get around, good trains, if a little bit slow (where have I heard that before...), some scenery, I'm not surprised some of my friends choose to live there. I've never really had the time to go back, but the kids have expressed a desire to go

SC

SC

[KRS1]

I much prefer living in Thailand, but anyone who starts out a post with "Thailand is actually technologically more advanced than the US, the US is lagging behind big time" has no credibility IMHO.

The problem is, all anyone can think of is the Internet....other than the Internet, name something the US is ahead in technologically.

[KRS1]

I guess I am just reading these posts differently. I don't see most of the posters here bashing Thailand or shouting "USA! USA!" All I see are posters, some not even being American, taking issue with some fairly far out-there comments made by the OP. Many posters have even given the caveats that they like Thailand very much and that all is not perfect in the USA.

In my opinion, the feel of the posters who have taken issue with the OP is not bashing Thailand at all. It is merely pointing out that they disagree with the OP's contentions.

Bonobo, when I talk about Thai-bashing, I wasn't necessarily referring to this thread specifically. I can give you countless examples of various posts throughout this website. I just read something the other day (in the news site regarding abortion in Thailand) where some idiot suggested that it was normal behavior for Thai men to rape Thai women. That kind of lunacy is what I'm talking about.

I understand the OP's contention that although America is expected to be the leader in pretty much every respect, this may "surprisingly" not be the case, even compared to little ol Thailand. In other words, if you were to walk into Bill Gates home, you would expect it to be much nicer than, say, Joe Blow the plumbers house. But if this wasn't the case, then it would be "news," so to speak. The OP is reporting "news."

Bingo

People get too emotional.

Edited January 14, 2011 by KRS1

[bonobo]

I much prefer living in Thailand, but anyone who starts out a post with "Thailand is actually technologically more advanced than the US, the US is lagging behind big time" has no credibility IMHO.

The problem is, all anyone can think of is the Internet....other than the Internet, name something the US is ahead in technologically.

You know, if you want to go back and read all 14 pages of this, you will read more than a few things in which the US is ahead of Thailand technology-wise. You have chosen to poo-poo many of those (such as television as you say you don't like the programming--as if your tastes in tv make a difference as to the level of technology) and you conveniently ignore others. But if you can't bother to read them the first 10 times they were posted, why should anyone make the effort to respond now?

[bonobo]

I guess I am just reading these posts differently. I don't see most of the posters here bashing Thailand or shouting "USA! USA!" All I see are posters, some not even being American, taking issue with some fairly far out-there comments made by the OP. Many posters have even given the caveats that they like Thailand very much and that all is not perfect in the USA.

In my opinion, the feel of the posters who have taken issue with the OP is not bashing Thailand at all. It is merely pointing out that they disagree with the OP's contentions.

Bonobo, when I talk about Thai-bashing, I wasn't necessarily referring to this thread specifically. I can give you countless examples of various posts throughout this website. I just read something the other day (in the news site regarding abortion in Thailand) where some idiot suggested that it was normal behavior for Thai men to rape Thai women. That kind of lunacy is what I'm talking about.

I understand the OP's contention that although America is expected to be the leader in pretty much every respect, this may "surprisingly" not be the case, even compared to little ol Thailand. In other words, if you were to walk into Bill Gates home, you would expect it to be much nicer than, say, Joe Blow the plumbers house. But if this wasn't the case, then it would be "news," so to speak. The OP is reporting "news."

Bingo

Don't piggyback off Berkshire's rational post. This is not what you wrote in the OP or in any subsequent posts.

[Jingthing]

I didn't come to Thailand to hear slurs against Mexicans.

...

Did you come to Thailand to bicker on internet fora with Westerners?

...

Did you really have to ask that? Fora. Good one! New word for me.

Edited January 14, 2011 by Jingthing

[KRS1]

I guess I am just reading these posts differently. I don't see most of the posters here bashing Thailand or shouting "USA! USA!" All I see are posters, some not even being American, taking issue with some fairly far out-there comments made by the OP. Many posters have even given the caveats that they like Thailand very much and that all is not perfect in the USA.

In my opinion, the feel of the posters who have taken issue with the OP is not bashing Thailand at all. It is merely pointing out that they disagree with the OP's contentions.

Bonobo, when I talk about Thai-bashing, I wasn't necessarily referring to this thread specifically. I can give you countless examples of various posts throughout this website. I just read something the other day (in the news site regarding abortion in Thailand) where some idiot suggested that it was normal behavior for Thai men to rape Thai women. That kind of lunacy is what I'm talking about.

I understand the OP's contention that although America is expected to be the leader in pretty much every respect, this may "surprisingly" not be the case, even compared to little ol Thailand. In other words, if you were to walk into Bill Gates home, you would expect it to be much nicer than, say, Joe Blow the plumbers house. But if this wasn't the case, then it would be "news," so to speak. The OP is reporting "news."

Bingo

Don't piggyback off Berkshire's rational post. This is not what you wrote in the OP or in ,any subsequent posts.

Thank you for making another false accusation, sure you were in the military and not the CIA?

[phetaroi]

I much prefer living in Thailand, but anyone who starts out a post with "Thailand is actually technologically more advanced than the US, the US is lagging behind big time" has no credibility IMHO.

The problem is, all anyone can think of is the Internet....other than the Internet, name something the US is ahead in technologically.

Cable and satellite television.

[craigt3365]

I much prefer living in Thailand, but anyone who starts out a post with "Thailand is actually technologically more advanced than the US, the US is lagging behind big time" has no credibility IMHO.

The problem is, all anyone can think of is the Internet....other than the Internet, name something the US is ahead in technologically.

Cable/satellite, wirelesss for cell phones, online shopping, electronic delivery of movies to your TV, 911 service, police dispatch and tracking, health care, stable/clean electric service and delivery, delivery of clean water, housing standards, roads (with underground sensors that detect oncoming traffic, and change lights for oncoming emergency vehicles), transportation (including electronic tracking and anti theft devices-Onstar), delivery services (ability to track packages at multiple points during the delivery process), coordinated traffic lights, space flight, Banking, financial services, airplanes, biotech, computer development, chip development, telecommunications in general...this could be a very long list...and I need another cup of coffee.

Why are you so hard on this? You can't be taking this seriously? At least I hope not!

[tjrd12]

I much prefer living in Thailand, but anyone who starts out a post with "Thailand is actually technologically more advanced than the US, the US is lagging behind big time" has no credibility IMHO.

The problem is, all anyone can think of is the Internet....other than the Internet, name something the US is ahead in technologically.

Cable/satellite, wirelesss for cell phones, online shopping, electronic delivery of movies to your TV, 911 service, police dispatch and tracking, health care, stable/clean electric service and delivery, delivery of clean water, housing standards, roads (with underground sensors that detect oncoming traffic, and change lights for oncoming emergency vehicles), transportation (including electronic tracking and anti theft devices-Onstar), delivery services (ability to track packages at multiple points during the delivery process), coordinated traffic lights, space flight, Banking, financial services, airplanes, biotech, computer development, chip development, telecommunications in general...this could be a very long list...and I need another cup of coffee.

Why are you so hard on this? You can't be taking this seriously? At least I hope not!

Not to mention cleanliness of food, noise and air pollution...there is REALLY no quite place in Thailand...clean air is a dream with the crap blowing down from China...

[tjrd12]

The FACTS about this is that these days upward class mobility is now easier in Western Europe than in the USA. Not to mention the obscene gaps between rich and poor and the massive percentage of wealth ownership held by a tiny minority in the US compares well with Thailand. Yet some of you want to hang on to tired old myths and/or republican propaganda. Right wingers/libertarians sell the idea to the poor that everyone in the US can be rich, so they get the suckers to keep voting against their own economic self interest, believing that pablum that they too might be rich someday. Some will, the vast majority won't.

Correct...and stated well by Howard Zinn in People's History of the United States..

[Ulysses G.]

No War but Class War Comrade!

Edited January 15, 2011 by Ulysses G.

[mark45y]

I much prefer living in Thailand, but anyone who starts out a post with "Thailand is actually technologically more advanced than the US, the US is lagging behind big time" has no credibility IMHO.

The problem is, all anyone can think of is the Internet....other than the Internet, name something the US is ahead in technologically.

Strip clubs. The lighting and music is better, the dancing and choreography is far more sophisticated. Pole dancing in the US is an athletic art form and a far cry from the Bangkok shuffle. Lap dancing which in the US has developed into an art form in almost non existent in Thailand. X rated movies in the States are a far cry from the Nasty Nigel or the Elephant man's productions in Pattaya and Bangkok. People come from all over the world to go to nudist clubs like Paradise Lakes outside of Tampa, Thailand has no equivalent form of sunbathing. Micro brewery beer production is highly sophisticated in the US and non existent in Thailand. Stock car racing in the US is technologically superior to Thailand if indeed there is such a thing as stock car racing in Thailand. Rocket launches in Thailand are confined to fireworks and in the US they launch space shuttles. Manufacture of cowboy hats in the US is way beyond anything done in Thailand. It is impossible to find a decent cowboy hat or cowboy boots in Thailand. Hunting in the US is a major activity because of technologically advanced conservation techniques which have produced larger deer herds available for harvesting than existed in the 1800's. Art museums, historical museums, science and industry museums and theme parks such as Disneyland and Disney world are far more technologically advanced than the zoo in Chiang Mai.

[StreetCowboy]

I much prefer living in Thailand, but anyone who starts out a post with "Thailand is actually technologically more advanced than the US, the US is lagging behind big time" has no credibility IMHO.

The problem is, all anyone can think of is the Internet....other than the Internet, name something the US is ahead in technologically.

Strip clubs. The lighting and music is better, the dancing and choreography is far more sophisticated. Pole dancing in the US is an athletic art form and a far cry from the Bangkok shuffle. Lap dancing which in the US has developed into an art form in almost non existent in Thailand. X rated movies in the States are a far cry from the Nasty Nigel or the Elephant man's productions in Pattaya and Bangkok. People come from all over the world to go to nudist clubs like Paradise Lakes outside of Tampa, Thailand has no equivalent form of sunbathing. Micro brewery beer production is highly sophisticated in the US and non existent in Thailand. Stock car racing in the US is technologically superior to Thailand if indeed there is such a thing as stock car racing in Thailand. Rocket launches in Thailand are confined to fireworks and in the US they launch space shuttles. Manufacture of cowboy hats in the US is way beyond anything done in Thailand. It is impossible to find a decent cowboy hat or cowboy boots in Thailand. Hunting in the US is a major activity because of technologically advanced conservation techniques which have produced larger deer herds available for harvesting than existed in the 1800's. Art museums, historical museums, science and industry museums and theme parks such as Disneyland and Disney world are far more technologically advanced than the zoo in Chiang Mai.

But apart from law and order, and roads, and water, and education, what have the Romans ever given us?

My kids are for ever asking to go to San Diego zoo, though its no better than Singapore.

The zoo in KL outstrips Bangkok zoo; I've yet to go to Chiang Mai.

SC

[IanForbes]

Cable/satellite, wirelesss for cell phones, online shopping, electronic delivery of movies to your TV, 911 service, police dispatch and tracking, health care, stable/clean electric service and delivery, delivery of clean water, housing standards, roads (with underground sensors that detect oncoming traffic, and change lights for oncoming emergency vehicles), transportation (including electronic tracking and anti theft devices-Onstar), delivery services (ability to track packages at multiple points during the delivery process), coordinated traffic lights, space flight, Banking, financial services, airplanes, biotech, computer development, chip development, telecommunications in general...this could be a very long list...and I need another cup of coffee.

Why are you so hard on this? You can't be taking this seriously? At least I hope not!

And that is just the technology stuff. Add to that what Mark45 said and all the environmental issues. On all US highways they have "Rest Stops" where there are clean bathrooms, places to park for a rest at any time of day or night, highway instruction maps, and often free coffee and cookies.

Except for the large silty rivers flowing through farm land, most of the US rivers are clean. In New York State you can find dozens of clear mountain streams full of trout. And, that is within a two hour drive from one of the largest cities in the world. Yes, there is garbage in the poor parts of major cities, but for the most part the cities are clean. There are dozens of huge cities scattered around the Great Lakes, and yet you can take a boat out and catch salmon and trout within sight of sky scrapers.

The lack of garbage strewn around is very evident when crossing the border from Mexico into the USA. On the Mexican side of the border there is plastic garbage strewn everywhere. I couldn't take a photo in Mexico without removing all the debris... unless of course, I actually WANTED garbage in the photo. Thailand is more like Mexico in that aspect. Every klong in Thailand is covered with plastic bags and crap. Human waste is pumped directly into every waterway. Only in the remote villages is there some semblance of cleanliness.

[mark45y]

It depends on what you like. My kids loved the Orlando theme parks. Even when living in Quebec city we made the trip by car to Florida once a year to visit Disney and MGM and all the other places. It is high tech and safe. Me, I like adult theme parks. Pattaya after all is a low tech theme park designed by drunken sailors. I wouldn't take the kids to Pattaya. I am not Russian enough to go the the beach in Pattaya but there is something for everyone. In Pattaya I can take a covey of lady boys to a French Restaurant and have them do the Can Can while I eat crème brulee for dessert, drink Absinthe and play the bar scene from Casablanca on my laptop. It certainly is not the hi tech that attracts me to Thailand, I cut out the padding in my GF's bra. I'm just a low tech guy. (you get the real Absinthe from the Estonian guy who lives behind the market on Soi BuaKhow.)

[maccaroni man]

It's all a Republican conspiracy to trick people into thinking that hard work will bring one success.

Slaves work very hard. Are they successful?

Are you actually in touch with what's happening in the US these days? Massive unemployment. Overall decline in living standards. There is a sea change happening. My hope is that Americans can grow to accept the end of bubble living without devolving into something very ugly politically.

come on there has been 10% unemployment befroe in both our lif times and what happened the people who want to work do and those who would rather collect the dole do. Hard work does not mean working like a slave it means being willing to do the things that others arent or wont. JT why all the doom and gloom about old glory? things have been going your way the last 2yrs so whats to be negative about unless perhaps it is an awaking to see the great obama being nothing more than another lost soul in the maze of politics.

[Jingthing]

No, the economic situation these days in the US is the most severe since the great depression and it resembles it in many ways. The 10 percent figure is an illusion; the real numbers and real pain are much higher. Like the depression, the small percentage of unemployed that are finding work are mostly working for much less money and much lower level positions, not that there is anything wrong with that, but the boom time/bubble days are over. I won't dignify your Obama comments, this brew has been developing for decades, Obama came in when the mess was fully mature.

Edited January 15, 2011 by Jingthing

[tjrd12]

Cable/satellite, wirelesss for cell phones, online shopping, electronic delivery of movies to your TV, 911 service, police dispatch and tracking, health care, stable/clean electric service and delivery, delivery of clean water, housing standards, roads (with underground sensors that detect oncoming traffic, and change lights for oncoming emergency vehicles), transportation (including electronic tracking and anti theft devices-Onstar), delivery services (ability to track packages at multiple points during the delivery process), coordinated traffic lights, space flight, Banking, financial services, airplanes, biotech, computer development, chip development, telecommunications in general...this could be a very long list...and I need another cup of coffee.

Why are you so hard on this? You can't be taking this seriously? At least I hope not!

And that is just the technology stuff. Add to that what Mark45 said and all the environmental issues. On all US highways they have "Rest Stops" where there are clean bathrooms, places to park for a rest at any time of day or night, highway instruction maps, and often free coffee and cookies.

Except for the large silty rivers flowing through farm land, most of the US rivers are clean. In New York State you can find dozens of clear mountain streams full of trout. And, that is within a two hour drive from one of the largest cities in the world. Yes, there is garbage in the poor parts of major cities, but for the most part the cities are clean. There are dozens of huge cities scattered around the Great Lakes, and yet you can take a boat out and catch salmon and trout within sight of sky scrapers.

The lack of garbage strewn around is very evident when crossing the border from Mexico into the USA. On the Mexican side of the border there is plastic garbage strewn everywhere. I couldn't take a photo in Mexico without removing all the debris... unless of course, I actually WANTED garbage in the photo. Thailand is more like Mexico in that aspect. Every klong in Thailand is covered with plastic bags and crap. Human waste is pumped directly into every waterway. Only in the remote villages is there some semblance of cleanliness.

Perfectly stated!!

[Jingthing]

No War but Class War Comrade!

You don't believe there is massive structural economic inequality in the US? The evidence supports my position that indeed there is.

http://www.businessinsider.com/15-charts-about-wealth-and-inequality-in-america-2010-4#half-of-america-has-25-of-the-wealth-2

There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning.

Warren Buffet, massively rich American businessman

Implying people are communists because they see the truth is kind of a cheap shot. I suppose Warren Buffet is also a communist?

Edited January 15, 2011 by Jingthing

[MJP]

No War but Class War Comrade!

You don't believe there is massive structural economic inequality in the US? The evidence supports my position that indeed there is.

http://www.businessi...of-the-wealth-2

There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning.

Warren Buffet, massively rich American businessman

Implying people are communists because they see the truth is kind of a cheap shot. I suppose Warren Buffet is also a communist?

These are the highlights of a Telegraph (UK broadsheet) piece, I'll try and find it.

The US is drifting from a financial crisis to a deeper and more insidious social crisis. Self-congratulation by the US authorities that they have this time avoided a repeat of the 1930s is premature.

There is a telling detail in the US retail chain store data for December. Stephen Lewis from Monument Securities points out that luxury outlets saw an 8.1pc rise from a year ago, but discount stores catering to America's poorer half rose just 1.2pc.

Tiffany's, Nordstrom, and Saks Fifth Avenue are booming. Sales of Cadillac cars have jumped 35pc, while Porsche's US sales are up 29pc.

Cartier and Louis Vuitton have helped boost the luxury goods stock index by almost 50pc since October. Yet Best Buy, Target, and Walmart have languished.

Such is the blighted fruit of Federal Reserve policy. The Fed no longer even denies that the purpose of its latest blast of bond purchases, or QE2, is to drive up Wall Street, perhaps because it has so signally failed to achieve its other purpose of driving down borrowing costs.

Yet surely Ben Bernanke's 'trickle down' strategy risks corroding America's ethic of solidarity long before it does much to help America's poor.

The retail data can be quirky but it fits in with everything else we know. The numbers of people on food stamps have reached 43.2m, an all time-high of 14pc of the population. Recipients receive debit cards - not stamps - currently worth about $140 a month under President Obama's stimulus package.

The US Conference of Mayors said visits to soup kitchens are up 24pc this year. There are 643,000 people needing shelter each night.

Jobs data released on Friday was again shocking. The only the reason that headline unemployment fell to 9.4pc was that so many people dropped out of the system altogether.

The actual number of jobs contracted by 260,000 to 153,690,000. The "labour participation rate" for working-age men over 20 dropped to 73.6pc, the lowest since the data series began in 1948. My guess is that this figure exceeds the average for the Great Depression (minus the cruelest year of 1932).

The long-term unemployed (more than six months) have reached 42pc of the total, twice the peak of the early 1990s. Nothing like this has been seen since World War Two.

[Ulysses G.]

No War but Class War Comrade!

You don't believe there is massive structural economic inequality in the US? The evidence supports my position that indeed there is.

When "poor" people have a car, a computer, a TV and plenty of food, does it really matter that some people have much more because of hard work or the hard work of their parents?

I have never been wealthy, but I have always been pretty happy with what I have been able to accomplish in the US with my own efforts.

[StreetCowboy]

No War but Class War Comrade!

You don't believe there is massive structural economic inequality in the US? The evidence supports my position that indeed there is.

When "poor" people have a car, a computer, a TV and plenty of food, does it really matter that some people have much more because of hard work or the hard work of their parents?

I have never been wealthy, but I have always been pretty happy with what I have been able to accomplish in the US with my own efforts.

I suppose you are in the unfortunate position of having to replace the politics of greed with the politics of envy and jealousy.

Cheer up, they said, things could be worse, so I did and they were.

(Don't know who said that first, but I've said it often enough....)

When you look at it, life's a piece of shit...always look on the bright side of life

(Bloke on Brian's right, in the crucifixion scene of Life of Brian)

SC

[powderpuff]

Vote their own self interest.

Tax the rich to give to the idle stupid & lazy.

Yes Comrade.

"I'm not for tax breaks for millionaires & billionaires." Class warfare Obama style. Us against "them" those fat cats. So much for bring folks together eh mister union activist?

[Jingthing]

Vote their own self interest.

Tax the rich to give to the idle stupid & lazy.

Yes Comrade.

"I'm not for tax breaks for millionaires & billionaires." Class warfare Obama style. Us against "them" those fat cats. So much for bring folks together eh mister union activist?

Not exactly, squire. Tax the rich more, yes. Bring people together? Yes! Close the massive gap between rich and poor, the poor need to be richer, the rich can afford to be less rich.

Invest in education, health care, infrastructure, depression era style temporary employment programs, seed new high tech industries (as China is doing with great success).

[StreetCowboy]

Vote their own self interest.

Tax the rich to give to the idle stupid & lazy.

Yes Comrade.

"I'm not for tax breaks for millionaires & billionaires." Class warfare Obama style. Us against "them" those fat cats. So much for bring folks together eh mister union activist?

Not exactly, squire. Tax the rich more, yes. Bring people together? Yes! Close the massive gap between rich and poor, the poor need to be richer, the rich can afford to be less rich.

Invest in education, health care, infrastructure, depression era style temporary employment programs, seed new high tech industries (as China is doing with great success).

Spend less on keeping people alive, and more on keeping them working.

Let the old people move on, and the young people move up.

Tax the dead (does the USA have an inheritance tax?)

That should draw out a bit of well-needed spleen

SC