I don't know what you stand for.

One minute, you tell everyone how you beat the odds and conquered the world before you were 30. (I get the whole mentality around "tightening your bootstraps and getting down to work.") You criticize the "middle class" for making bad decisions and how they should be punished for their decisions. (I get that argument too.) But now, you seem to feign a concern about growing income inequality in Canada.

If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't give a fuck about the rest of us plebs. If everything you say about your life is true, then you really did "work the system" and you won.

He will claim your bullying him and cry to a mod.

I'm a mod.

Speak freely.

Don't mistake me giving a fuck for supplying correct information. I stand for correct information so people can make educated decisions. You'll notice I sometimes supply information contrary to my opinion, like now, cause I think its important people have all the information to make their own decision.

The only concern I have about the inequality is ensuring people have the correct information. I think the most interesting graph posted if that wages have kept up with inflation. Perfect, it means we have the same buying power today as we did 5 decades ago - so why does everyone think they are so hard done by? Hell our taxes are lower than a couple decades ago too, and luxuries even cheaper. So what's the problem?

I do care about the plebs as you call them :). The damage the middle class has created by balling on credit trying to keep up with the Jones. This is unsustainable in Canada, and eventually we will suffer the same as our American counterparts, maybe not as bad, maybe worse, yet eventually the credit bill will come due. This will make it even harder for my retirement plan to earn 6-7%.
Huh? I thought you were on timeout.

Thanks! Maybe MH is referring to how blunt I was in my response to you. I wasn't blunt to be rude, I was blunt cause stats are blunt, and not in our favour.

who would ban me? lol. Look at my post count.

If you're going to hunt down my posts in other threads to cherry pick, at least try to keep up.

This is madness. Bank of America jacks up the debit user fees yet wont let people close out their accounts. I really support this move to the smaller local banks for people. Thus telling the "too big to fail" banks a big F U.
Big Banks Refuse to Let People Close Accounts

^I'm always curious about that. If you withdrawal everything, and you abandon your account.. Can they drag you to the courts for outstanding dormant fees?

I dont hunt down my posts. You posted your life story if the fucked up shit thread.

I don't see the problem with the banks saying you cannot be protestors and customers at the same time. They haven't said you cannot close your account, they just said don't show up as a mob and expect to do it.

Once the accounts go into a negative balance they usually get put on hold and no more fees are applied. yet for accounts with a small balance, they will take the monthly fee until your balance hits $0.

From Deus Ex

http://i.imgur.com/UKlzD.jpg

Script found here:
GameFAQs: Deus Ex (PC) Game Script by FAQ GOD

Business as usual kidnapping and not letting people close out accounts. Even if protesting customers make the bank look bad....they should still be allowed to close out their accounts. Black guy making handcuff prisoner signs, held against his will. Lady trying to help them from the outside gets groped.

I read through the charts and this one stuck out for me as well. I expected to see a downward trend on the chart. I think if you put this overlaid with cost of living in 2008 dollars, it may well tell a different story. Of course, cost of living is a hard one to judge, as what one person would include as a cost of living, others would say is frivolous. As well, I remember that stats was my favorite class, and you can hide all kinds of numbers in any "average" calculation.

If I have 10 guys that make $10/hour, the average is $10. If I have one guy making $100, and everyone else 0-the average is still $10.

In fact, I went to this presentation with a friend for Primerica and just sat there laughing the whole time as this total douche that happened to run the "branch" was giving his spiel. Someone asks, "well, whats the average earnings in the office" and he gives an example similar to mine saying that averages tell you nothing.

So he avoids the question, because we all know the "average" earnings in his branch are shit. He'd rather call out the top earners, which he did.

So I ask, "ok then, what are the median earnings at this branch?"

"Um, well, I don't have that in front of me"

"That's cool. I'm a bit of a mathematic savant. Grab me the data for the month and I'll crunch it for ya"

He just awkwardly ignored me and moved on. Anyway, that really has nothing to do with this, but it always makes me laugh.

I suspect that the median earnings would be a different graph, showing a larger portion of people making less, but the higher earners at the top are skewing the average. Gotta take graphs with a grain of salt. I found the vast majority to be informative as the general tone of all of them together is that things are getting real for lower and middle classes.

Oh shit, I really want to be a PR person.

The best thing that these banks could do is smile, grit your teeth and ask for anyone involved in a publicity stunt to close your accts, please form a single file line here, and we'll take care of you as fast as we can. For $10/hr, hire a couple extra tellers and make it faster. If these people are as broke as they say they are, its not going to make a dent anyway.

If the protesters then want to be a bigger issue at the bank, then they are justified to have them removed.

"Hey! we tried 'dude' to take care of you in an orderly fashion. Unfortunately, we cannot allow a mob to take over a branch of our bank."

Guess what? Business sucks for a day, and the protesters move on as they are not able to get what they are looking for-attention to the issue.

This shit in the video now just pisses me off, as yes, they are holding people against their will, and sec. guards are NOT police, despite the fact they think they are.

Inflation should be a good approximation of cost of living, as inflation includes food and gas.

You can also pick on the word "income" as most wealth people don't earn traditional "income".

You definitely need to take the graphs with a grain of salt, as well as people's general tone. My grandparents showed me pictures of what growing up was like 5 decades ago, and we are much better off than they were, despite the tone that we think we are not.

Well, I just did a bit of a comparison-just for fun so everyone here can blow this wide open.

BUT

if a house in 1979 was bought for $10,000 which according to a graph found here, was do-able

http://storage.ubertor.com/cl5508/co...ument/1535.pdf

that same thing would be $30,000 ish today

For fun...let's say we are ballers in 1979, and bought a house for $100,000...its still only 300,000 today. Of course, 1979 is the year that wages were the same on that graph.

according to

The Inflation Calculator

Oh...I doubt that will show my calculation.

As much as we can all judge these neo-hippie hipsters as not being a great representation of the cause, I think its important to know that there is a point to all this.

PLUS-it has been shown time and time again that when income inequality rises, so do the problems of crime and drugs...which has proliferated in the last 30 years(well, kind of, Canada's crime rate has been dropping)

Edit:

And yes, I understand the irony of using "average" numbers in this crappy little study performed in under 30 seconds :)

thoughts on this

A house is the worst example you could have picked. You'll notice I specifically left it out and mentioned food/gas. I should've included rent too, cause ownership is not required to "live".

70% of Canadians own houses, I'll let you guess the percentage of the 99% that represents. Is it fair to blame the 1% for this run up of house prices?

We did it to ourselves in an effort to be just like the 1%, make a lot of money speculating without adding any value. Now we'll suffer the consequences.

Yeah Taylor...I know :)

That's why I chose housing. First, there is a whole internet full of sales figures for every year, and it figures prominently in the 'American Dream', which, less face facts, is the canadian dream too.

I'll also tell you that rent is not that far behind. We just rented a 2 bedroom ground floor in New West out for $1100. Now, it is brand new all throughout, but the point is, no matter where you go, you are getting priced out. And now that is creating pressure to start emptying some apartments to gain revenue.

And thanks to the beautiful dinosaur, we have this:

http://www.revscene.net/forums/655753-bc-1-again.html

I have been watching closely, and I can tell you from my research that BC has not been fairing well in the statistics department. Cost of living is high, earnings are low. We are hitting the top of the wrong lists and the bottom of more wrong lists. We have gone from a have to a have not. Awesome. I moved here from NS to get away from that ;)

No matter where you look at the micro level, its meaningless as on the macro level, people are hurting, and they shouldn't be. We DO have a beautiful province and we DO have a lot going for us, but we DON'T get to enjoy it as we did.

Maybe its time for some new thinking. Maybe its time for a little trickle up economics. Maybe its just as fair as trickle down economics and not a cash grab for the lazy as people seem so content to say ever since occupy the globe started.

Stats say otherwise. Rent is always going to be higher out here, like housing, yet rents haven't suffered the same run up like house prices have. Plus if you've been renting a long time you're locked in at inflationary increases in rent.

BC has never faired well in the stats department. Housing has always been relatively high, and incomes relatively low.


You are correct, they shouldn't be. I shouldn't be seeing people lined up to buy over priced coffee or condos. Yet they do, so they hurt themselves.

Once you stop hunting for excuses you'll understand.
Climbing the Chief is free. Rollerblading Stanley Park is free. Walking Granville Island is free. Cycling False Creek is free. Snow shoeing Mount Seymour is free. Kayaking in Deep Cove is free. Shall I go on?

I asked this before of others: do you shop at Whole Foods or Walmart? If you believe in trickle up economics, then you should believe in paying your fellow citizens a fair wage.

I bet you do not shop at Whole Foods.
I do not shop at Whole Foods, yet I'm not arguing your point.

Alright man. I give up. You are right. The system is fantastic for all involved and whiny bitches just need to go back to starbucks for a latte.

City after city, and now country after country of people are just wrong.

Here in BC, we should just be happy to take whatever our gov't comes up with and just roll with it.

Everyone in the states that witnessed the fucked up banking system annihilate their retirement and housing equity was wrong, and just suck it up. Corporate America has got it covered.

Fuck this shit. No need to multi quote this because I don't fucking care.

You are wasting your time, Girdlock. Taylor is a troll.

If majority of people were right, that would mean majority of people are smart. Come back to reality for a second and realize that intellect is not evenly spread across humanity.
Intellect is rare, ignorance is common.
Using an argument like "a million people can't be wrong" is the WORST kind of argument and just shows how in need of education and naive you are.
Greed is human nature.
While a portion of the 99% is fighting for the right cause.
Majority of the 99% is exactly like the 1%; wanting to be overpaid and bathed in benefits for little work.