Politics Why don't the Tea Partiers get arrested?

Your first problem is going to Walmart....you get cheaper quality merchandise there, not to mention they treat their workers like shit.

I respectfully disagree about, "There's no demand anyway, at least here in the US, for goods that last forever." Demand is there, many people would like good quality items, and do not mind paying more for them. One problem is many companies that make good quality items tend to cut corners in production once they become successful.

 

Where's the mass exodus from cheap, foreign made. low quality goods and merchandise, then? Where's the hue and cry demanding better quality in high end, expensive items? I think, as a country, we settle for what is available and have resolved ourselves equally to paying less for low quality as well as we have to paying more for the same low quality (with a better brand name). In other words, we are not Demanding better.

 

Tough to demand better when our wages have been stagnant for years and years. Maybe if you paid people more they would want nicer things

 

I can't speak for others, but I want high quality American made products. Usually when I buy foreign or more expensive American made products I end up with low and lower quality products.
Not to mention Derwood's comment above...which is a huge factor too.

 

I apologize for being dense but I don't understand what your contradictory comments are contradicting in respect to my post.

Can you buy high quality American made goods and products in America? Can you even buy American made goods and products in America of lesser quality but comparably priced to those that are foreign made? Can you find American alternatives for all the foreign made goods available in America? I'd say, no you can't.

If not, what are you doing about it? Are you writing your Congressman to complain?
Are you asking him to support legislation that brings manufacturing jobs back to the US?
Are you asking him to stop giving US tax breaks to companies who contract labor overseas?
Are you asking for an increase of tariffs on foreign made imports?
Are you boycotting the Walmarts and large retail chains who have nothing on their shelves but overpriced garbage no one in America laid a hand on until they pulled it off the truck into the store? Garbage they have to sell and we have to buy because there's nothing else?
Are you pushing anyone anywhere for more equitable wages and pay raises?
Are you protesting against state efforts to eradicate unions?
Are you denying yourself or your children this month's trendy and overpriced cell phone to replace the now uncool phone purchased 3 months ago? A cell phone that would never last forever but might have made it a year or two if it wasn't now relegated to the junk drawer.

Here's how it goes:
Companies ship manufacturing jobs overseas >Americans now have less money to spend > Companies ship cheaper foreign made goods back to the US > goods are now available on the shelves which we can afford to purchase> Over time, the price of these cheaper goods begins rising, but still staying in a price range the market can bear > the low quality continues dropping despite the increases in price >but adaptable creatures that we are, we get used to the new way of things > While this is going on, marketers target low quality tech goods for a younger audience by branding, slick advertising, and creative packaging, raising the stakes every few months by offering "innovative" enhancements and promoting the idea that whatever came before is now socially obsolete. Those seeking perpetual youth adopt the attitude of disposability which transcends tech items and allows everything to spill over into a landfill.

I didn't ask if Americans wanted better quality (most of us do, remembering such a time when quality was still available)

What I said is that we've lowered our expectations in response to the Asian invasion of cheap shit and the correlating disappearance of American jobs and goods.. We can't get quality. The most we're willing to do is whine about it a bit and move on to the next purchase. Sorry, but we have settled, friend - if we hadn't we'd be demanding better.

What Derwood stated is a no-brainer. Everyone knows the why of it.

 

i'm a business owner (small time contractor 5-30 employees on average). the wages for my employees as well as the management has pretty much stayed the same for 10+ years. when things really got bad around 08-09 we even decreased wages and had to fire people. some quit, some stayed at least awhile. the owners, me and 2 others even stopped drawing wages for nearly a year just to keep the business afloat while paying bills and employees.

i dont know exactly what or who to blame those circumstances on, but can say we stayed in business while a decent amount of our competition went out of business. there just wasn't enough work available to keep the machine moving forward. i think this is a different story than most big corporations or what people think business owners go through. yeah i kept a job while laying pretty much everyone off and decreasing wages, but i was also on the ground doing the grunt work when i had to. it's not easy or fun to tell someone they have to take a lower wage or they can leave.

there's just no room to for wage increases in my field. we have to compete against mexicans and amish who get paid under the table making more profit than our employees even though we pay more per hour. its easy to hand out more money to employees when you dont deal with taxes, medicare, social security, child support, and other wage garnishments. this isn't even including all the insurance and government fees you have to deal with if you want to keep your business on the up and up.

 

Most of the Tea Party members of Congress voted against the recent payroll tax cut extension and unemployment extension.....that would help your employees and ex-employees.

If the Tea Party crowd that is so obsessively and narrowly focused on long term debt relief (as opposed to short term tax relief for the middle class) thinks it is too costly (and to hell with struggling workers)...well, then roll back the tax rate for the top 1% to the 2000 rates.

But wait,most of the newly elected Tea Party members of Congress are among the richest in Congress and among top 1%. Cant raise their own taxes a few percent back to the previous rate as was intended when enacted...no way. But make the current rates for the top bracket permanent at a cost of several $trillion over the next ten year...absolutely!

Please, how does that contribute to debt reduction?

 

So whats next for the Tea Party?

Their leading voice in the Senate, Jim DeMint, is resigning, much to the relief of his own party leadership given that his obstructionism became intolerable even to them.

Their leading voice in the House, Michelle Bachmann, while previously not widely know nationally, is now perceived as an intolerant religious extremist as a result of comments during her failed presidential campaign and her Muslims in the Obama administration witch hunt.

And while most lesser know House Tea Party member won reelection, it was more a result of redistricting than anything else. Another leading voice, Alan West was tossed out in Florida. Both House Tea Pary members who ran for the Senate lost.

Boehner has kicked several Tea Party members off of important committees because of their resistance to any thought of compromise..and made it clear to all that it will happen to others if they dont tow the party line.

Dick Armey, the head of the Tea Party front group, Freedom Works, is leaving (with a $8 million payoff) over internal disputes.

Public opinion, while never widespread, is now far more negative than ever.

Sarah Palin still likes to believe she speaks for them as if that matters.

And they are in denial over the election.

The next few weeks and months should be interesting to see just how much they have been marginalized.

 

Actually I think we are on the cusp of some very healthy developments for the Republican Party. And that's a good thing because we need at least 2 functioning political parties in this country.
There are early signs that sanity may be returning.
Listen to recent speeches from Jindal, Rubio, Ryan.
I think the Tea Party is going to continue to wane in influence.
The bloviators on Fox and talk radio have lost lots of credibility and my guess is a bunch of audience share loss will follow.

 

Dick Armey: "This Kind of Secrecy Is Why I Left" FreedomWorks | Mother Jones

perhaps the question in the op remains more apt than one might think...

a bit more on dick army's departure:

Inside the Dick Armey, FreedomWorks split - Kenneth P. Vogel - POLITICO.com

 

Eugene Robinson makes somewhat the same point that we need a more "sentient" Republican Party, but I dont think he is convinced in the health developments occurring just yet.

Republicans get.. stuff so wrong that Democrats aren’t even forced to go to the trouble of getting it right.
--- merged: Dec 11, 2012 at 9:38 AM ---

And then there is Grover Norquist, fighting for his political survival with a call for a Tea Party 2.o whlle the American people overwhelming support raising taxes on the top.

 

Tea Party -- grass roots or tin foil hats?

Really? UN Agenda 21, Tenther Movement (10th amendment nullification of federal laws) and non-existent voter fraud.

Some times you feel like a nut.....

 

The real question is where the next step in the train of thought leads you: Do you say that we need tighter controls on under-the-table shenanigans so honest businesses that pay taxes and support america can compete better, or do you say that we need to get rid of all of that "big government" because it's strangling honest businesses and destroying america?

 

i'd say get rid of 'big government'. any other solution would require me to be a police man. it's not the job of a business to figure out citizenship and report it to the federal government. there's enough to do if you want to play by the rules, figuring out every employee's legitimacy would be too much to handle.

let the individual decide if they want to contribute to social security and the other social safety nets, because the people who do it under the table aren't going to pay any of it.

 

For the record, illegal immigrants (using fake SS cards for which no one claims benefits down the road) have contributed $several hundred billion to the SS trust fund.

 

nice source, and does it matter? they are at .75 cents a square foot compared to me and other legit businessess at $1.15 per square foot. that's a lot to make up. i could care less how much they contribute to ss trust fund. corners are cut and they get away with it, but i don't.

why do illegal immigrants have acces to fake ss cards anyway? why should they?

 

The source is the SS Administrations chief actuary:

The Social Security "earnings suspense file" (funds for which there is no identifiable worker) is currently over $250 billion, with illegal workers contribution $5-10 billion/year.

No, they should not have access to fake or stolen cards. Most hardworking illegals should have a pathway to citizenship with fines and payment of back taxes (not amnesty)

 

The FBI vs. Occupy: Secret Docs Reveal "Counterterrorism" Monitoring of OWS from Its Earliest Days | Alternet

This is why I could never fit in with OWS. They would think I was a spy or infiltrator by the way I look.

The amount of police around the early day of the protests were also quite excessive...

 

Just 8% Now Say They Are Tea Party Members

If the continue to hold the Republican party hostage in debt limit discussions and/or shut down the government, those numbers will sink even more.