social class in the States?

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Some interesting thoughts, comments and perspectives.

Where is the line, if there is one, between class and discrimination?

Where I lived in Vancouver, until recently, was likely one of the most diverse areas in the city, province and maybe even in the country.

Within one block you could find people sleeping on the street in the shadow of a 20 million dollar yacht. Oil money, crack money, barista money.

Community gardens at the school below grow ops in vacant penthouses. You could look out the window of a subsidized social housing complex onto an NHLer's balcony. Customers on their way to the $1,000/hr ladies, walked by the $5 for 15 minute ones.

Serbian,Yugoslavian, Arab, Israeli, Asian, Indian, African and Caucasian; they all put each other in boxes, mostly based of their history together, friendly or otherwise.

On any given day, I could be dismissed simply because of age.

So,is that class? Discrimination? Both?
 
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Moonstruck said:
Well, you get it. In the US all welfare benefits total to about $30.00/hr if based on a 40 hr week. That totals about $50,000.00 per yr. The average worker only makes about $20.00/hr. Also, in many states we have fewer people working than are on the dole. To generate that kind of money capital invested at interest today would be about $2,000,000.00. That is unsustainable. We have jobs, but with welfare benefits so high they are better off not working. That is one reason we have so many illegal immigrants. Many of them are willing to work.

Whether the problems of Europe and the US are fixable remains to be seen.
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I come from a conservative background; how have we got to this state of affairs?

What's wrong with low tax, small government, which encourages self reliance and personal responsibility?


I advocate qualified voting. If you receive welfare from the state the power of your vote should be diluted by a % of the amount you receive.

ie. People who derive all their income from welfare should have their vote cut by 50% to 1/2 the value of person who is a stake holder in society that contributes economically.

I believe ancient Greece, the cradle of modern democracy, used a similar system of qualified voting.
 
Hawgwash said:
Some interesting thoughts, comments and perspectives.

Where is the line, if there is one, between class and discrimination?

Where I lived in Vancouver, until recently, was likely one of the most diverse areas in the city, province and maybe even in the country.

Within one block you could find people sleeping on the street in the shadow of a 20 million dollar yacht. Oil money, crack money, barista money.

Community gardens at the school below grow ops in vacant penthouses. You could look out the window of a subsidized social housing complex onto an NHLer's balcony. Customers on their way to the $1,000/hr ladies, walked by the $5 for 15 minute ones.

Serbian,Yugoslavian, Arab, Israeli, Asian, Indian, African and Caucasian; they all put each other in boxes, mostly based of their history together, friendly or otherwise.

On any given day, I could be dismissed simply because of age.

So,is that class? Discrimination? Both?
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History teaches us that multiculturism doesn't work. I often wonder what problems we're storing up for the future.

Cultural Diversity seems to lead to genocide, not acceptance of different ethnicty and their ways of living their lives which are different to ours.

ultimatly Who owns the culture of our country; the immigrants or the original population?
 
Many years ago there was a PBS series titled "The Day the Universe Changed" that was originally produced in the UK by the BBC. It was a look at technological development in the western world, and had as its basic premise, "We are what we know." Today, class seems to be determined by what you know or are willing to learn. Knowledge doesn't guarantee you will be rich, but it won't keep you poor either.

Tom
 
tpbrady said:
Many years ago there was a PBS series titled "The Day the Universe Changed" that was originally produced in the UK by the BBC. It was a look at technological development in the western world, and had as its basic premise, "We are what we know." Today, class seems to be determined by what you know or are willing to learn. Knowledge doesn't guarantee you will be rich, but it won't keep you poor either.

Tom
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Nice point.
 
"And then we do also have ethnic groups who are truly disadvantaged. The very vocal of that "they" often seem to blame their status on ethnicity and resulting discrimination. Racial bigotry is indeed alive and well, here, but many here instead think that's only one (and a minor) cause of ethnic disadvantage.


yYOU BET , JUST ASK ANY ORENTIAL BARRED FROM A GOOD SKOOL DUE TO SLANTY EYES AND FANTASTIC GRADES!
 
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