Are you part of the 53% ???

[JG55]

WE ARE THE 53%!!! What's your story? Take a Pic and Post it ....

[daddyo]

Thanks for posting this. It shows what complete LOSERS the so-called "occupiers" are.

[G27]

Love it!

[Guest GunTroll]

perfectly fits the current situation.

[Jonnin]

I wonder if I qualify... I have a job, but never really had the struggles most of these folks had, folks paid for me thru college and my first job, bagging groceries at $10 or more per hour (tips!), was just for spending money. Still, I do work and certainly do not get anything from the gov't, even if I have had it fairly easy.

[JG55]

I wonder if I qualify... I have a job, but never really had the struggles most of these folks had, folks paid for me thru college and my first job, bagging groceries at $10 or more per hour (tips!), was just for spending money. Still, I do work and certainly do not get anything from the gov't, even if I have had it fairly easy.

It's more of a mindset that you are willing to work, work hard when needed to move ahead in life.

[Guest uofmeet]

Yes!

[mav]

Good thread. I'm game.

Edited October 12, 2011 by mav

[East_TN_Patriot]

I was raised by my grandparents after my biological parents chose not to be responsible adults. I started working when I was a kid by mowing lawns, delivering newspapers, shoveling snow, and doing odd jobs. I got my first job at age 16 working at McDonald's for spending money, gas money, and car insurance. I worked my way through college and grad school usually working more than one job and overtime when I could get it. I try hard to live within my means and have never asked for a bailout or a handout. I am one of the 53%.

[JG55]

Started busing tables at 14. Worked through High School as Sack boy and stocker for a Hg Hills Grocery store. Joined AF at 19, got 2 yr degree while in service using GI Bill to pay for it. Came Home Finished 4 yr degree using GI Bill and working fulltime. Since I was in a hurry took 21 hours a semester until finished. Worked multiple full time jobs and started several business as I aimlessly wondered around trying to find my niche. Finally found it , started a business worked harder than I ever had in my life to make it work. Many 20 hrs days and even some sleep in the back of the store. Thanks to hard work, persistence and some Luck became very successful and sold business years later. Honestly, don't work as hard now but I sorta miss those days!!\

I am the 53%..........

Edited October 12, 2011 by JG55

[dats82]

I started working when I was eight. We lived in a small town, my father lost his job, we scraped by, and I felt like I should contribute to the family. I rode my bike around mowing yards and raking leaves. I continued doing this type of labor and started working in a cabinet shop when I was in high school. I went to state college and worked all the way through. I graduated magna cum laude, had a minimum wage job for a while, and now for the first time since I was eight, I have no job. I do not pay taxes as of now, so I guess I am not in the 53% at the moment. However, I am a student in the medical field, so when I graduate, I will again be part of the 53%.

[kieefer]

Just in case,

Occupy Wall Street’s 99%… Meet the 53% | TheBlaze.com

Started delivering papers on my bicycle at.... 13yrs old? The best life experience I ever had. Learned how to weld in HS. Worked a lot of crappy jobs but had some good paying ones too. Always had initiative and a desirer to learn. Took unemployment one time for 3 months before I found another job. Been completely debt free since 1991. Yea, I am the 53%

[eapking]

The "Occupy-ers" are just a bunch of hippies and ner-do-wells. I feel like I'm in a time capsule that's gone back to the 60's.

[mav]

If I was a parent of one of these kids attending the rallies, I would be totally embarassed. Totally embarassed that the entire country can see how piss poor of a job I did at raising my child. All of these people wanting something for nothing is just shameful.

[kieefer]

[JG55]

So True

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Dunno quite what to make of this. On one hand, some of it seems a little bit like, "I walked 10 miles to school, barefoot in the snow, uphill both ways." But I get it somewhat and don't want to minimize folks hard work and sacrifice.

Have always paid tax and don't recall getting any perks except the generic stuff like roads and police services and a massive nuclear arsenal to "keep us safe".

So I'm in the 53% who "pay taxes". Big whoop.

I'm a "workaholic slacker". Always worked 40+ hours a week but geez its not a big deal! There is work doing what is interesting on one hand and then there is chopping cotton or picking peas or mining coal on the other. If somebody is chopping cotton for a living I'm not gonna get too bent out of shape if they are not paying a whole lot of tax.

Worked construction and janitor in high school. Paid for state college driving a fork lift and playing rock'n'roll. When I went to school, state university was cheap enough to pay cash on the barrel, with one's own work. Hey I paid the tuition with my own work, but if it hadn't been state-subsidized it would have cost too much to pay thataway. Somebody in previous generations was getting reamed by tax to subsidize tuition to the point that I could pay it with my own work.

Made at best median wage until the last few years. Back in the 1960's and 70's, po folks paid a higher tax rate than middle-class folks pay nowadays. Look it up. But back in the 1940's and 1950's po folks were paying crazy high tax rates that people would never put up with nowadays. It was a lot higher than when I started paying in the 1960's and 70's.

Not trying to make any kind of point except maybe even workaholics have had it pretty easy in the USA since the 1950's. Some folks don't work very hard. I could have worked a lot harder, though 40+ hours ought to at least be paying the dues. I don't have time to worry about people who are even worse slackers than me!

[zapfbroad]

When I lived in connecticut you really did walk 3 miles to school in a foot of snow with a 15lb bag on yer back lol. I started shoveling snow(in connecticut, so that's alot) when I was 9 for savings money. I've paid taxes since I was 14 some years working 105hrs in a 168hr week to get out of stupid debt I fell into in my late teens. I don't owe any man a damn dime and won't so long as I can help it. I stand up and am beholden to no man on this earth. I'll wait to I can pay for what I want cause I'm not entitled to anything if I can't pay for it outright. I want government to protect my foreign borders and provide a recourse for settlement of disputes between people that won't agree. I don't look to government to give me anything except my freedoms as outline in the charter of govt.

sent via EPIC4G SyndicateRomFrozen 1.2

[G27]

Dunno quite what to make of this. On one hand, some of it seems a little bit like, "I walked 10 miles to school, barefoot in the snow, uphill both ways." But I get it somewhat and don't want to minimize folks hard work and sacrifice.

The point is, get off Wall Street and quit b*tching and get to work - just because some of us earned degrees didn't mean we didn't have to do work we hated for a while in order to climb our way up the ladder.

These folks are complaining that they're graduating from school to no jobs - that's BS. Get out there and do what MOST successful people have done throughout history - do what you have to do (legally) to earn your shot.

I know very few folks who graduated from college into cushy, high paying jobs. And even those that did had to work thei collective butts off both pre- and post-graduation.

So I'm in the 53% who "pay taxes". Big whoop.

Big whoop? Only half the country is paying federal income tax and that's no big deal to you?

Apathy indeed.

[Guest pfries]

At 11 years old got my first paper route at twelve got two more, always mowed lawns and shoveled snow to earn more, at 13 worked a seasonal job at Parmenters Cider Mill and kept my paper routes. By 14 I was a dish-dog, I was one of the youngsters that had a child at seventeen and worked multiple jobs to support my family. As my youngest of two turned 8 I got divorced, my children stayed with me. Now I have 5 children total, have put one through college, one is serving in the Navy as a GM; the other three are still young 12, 10 and 3. Put my wife through college and she has just started her career. The plant I was a supervisor at recently closed and I am planning on furthering my education starting in January. So I guess I was one of the 53% most of my life. Right now I am living off the misses…..

I am looking to get my MSN and work in rural areas where the lack of health care is atrocious.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

The point is, get off Wall Street and quit b*tching and get to work - just because some of us earned degrees didn't mean we didn't have to do work we hated for a while in order to climb our way up the ladder.

These folks are complaining that they're graduating from school to no jobs - that's BS. Get out there and do what MOST successful people have done throughout history - do what you have to do (legally) to earn your shot.

I know very few folks who graduated from college into cushy, high paying jobs. And even those that did had to work thei collective butts off both pre- and post-graduation.

Hi crimsonaudio

Yes about everybody has their own customized set of unrealistic expectations. Reality will eventually cure that for some folks, and won't ever cure it for others.

Maybe it won't happen this time around, but I have been expecting lots of new startup businesses to come from the current recession. I could be wrong but it seems that lots of startups have in the past sprung out of economic turndowns. Even in the great depression a lot of people went back for higher-education degrees because they couldn't find a job anyway, and therefore there was a better-educated workforce when it started turning up again. And lots of people got tired of looking for nonexistent jobs so they "made their own job".

I didn't get rich working fer myself but it is difficult to get fired unless one fires oneself. It is baffling that the majority of people continue to search for somebody else to hire them rather than the "obvious" response. However, am guessing within all those folks still looking for somebody else to hire them, there are a bunch beginning to do it for themselves.

Big whoop? Only half the country is paying federal income tax and that's no big deal to you?

Apathy indeed.

Well, granted the gov spends too much money now and spent too much money in the past. On the other hand, examine the tax rates the last time the budget was more-or-less "long term balanced". I don't count the brief un-sustainable almost-balanced that happened around Y2K. Tax rates were higher then than now, but without the inflationary effect of a raging dot-com bubble even those tax rates wouldn't have got it "almost in balance" for a couple of years.

As discussed before, some folks beat their chests for bearing the entire tax burden, but those are the 53% who pay 42% of federal revenues. Then there are virtually all the working people who pay 100% of that 40% of federal revenues coming from SS/Medicare tax. People who bitch about paying almost-all of less-than-half, leaves me cold. I will play tiny violins in sympathy. Sure they are overtaxed to pay for gov waste, but they ain't the lone ranger and it makes an artificial socio-economic divide between groups.

People who make > $50,000 pay almost-all of 42% of the revenue. People who make < $200,000 pay almost-all of 40% of the revenue. People who make between $50,000 and $200,000 pay the majority of both pieces.

Cutting spending is a doh no-brainer, but we've painted ourselves into a corner on the revenue side. Republicans who complain about nearly half paying no income tax (NOT paying NO taxes)-- They are complaining about a policy passed by George W Bush and a Republican congress. They applauded the tax cuts and now are bitching about the results. I love tax cuts and hate paying tax, but the results am what they am.

Brief history starting from about 1950-- Via the new deal and WWII and Korea and a new cold war weapons race, we had a progressive tax where po folks paid as much as middle class people do today, middle-class folk paid as much as rich folk do today, and rich folk paid incredibly high tax unless they had a good tax accountant, because there were miles of carefully-crafted loopholes that could be mined by a savvy accountant.

Then there were Kennedy tax cuts, Reagan tax cuts (and SS tax hikes), and Bush tax cuts. They were not "across the board cuts" but all tax brackets got cut every time. It would have been political suicide to cut a progressive tax any other way. If congress cut rich folks tax or middle folks tax but do not also cut po folks tax, then the entire congress would get voted out on the very next election.

So OBVIOUSLY if you keep cutting all tax brackets in a progressive tax system, then eventually a lot of po folks will pay little or no tax. If we do even more future tax cuts "across the board" then we will have even more people with no skin in the game.

This situation seems to behave like a one-way ratchet. If you raise tax on the rich without raising tax on middles and po folk, the rich will quit contributing to campaign committees and they will get mad and move the money offshore or do other non-productive things with the money.

If you try to "flatten" it by raising tax on po and middles more than the rich, then congress will get voted out en masse lickety-split and the new congress will repeal the tax reform.

Maybe the Bush tax cuts were not a very good idea (because it put too many people in the "no skin in the game" category). If they repeal the Bush tax cuts they need to repeal ALL of them, not just the ones on > $200,000.

1. Can't feasibly cut one group's tax without cutting everybody's tax, putting more people in the "no skin in the game" category.

2. Can't feasibly raise tax on po folks without raising tax on everybody.

So perhaps the "only way out" is either expire the entire Bush tax cuts, or try to get the economy moving while also inflating hell out of the currency. If burger flippers are not in a high enough bracket to pay tax-- Inflate the currency until burger flippers make $100,000 a year and then they will be paying the same tax rate they were paying back in 1950. Without being able to specifically blame a politician or party for raising their taxes.

I'm not against flat tax or fair tax or whatever. It is just that people are not as stupid as they look. When po folks notice they are paying a lot more tax and also notice that rich folks are paying less tax, then the tax reform will only last as long as the next election.

[G27]

No one has stated that the 47% pay no taxes, but they pay zero federal income tax. That's not debatable. Yet they use the services provided by those tax dollars, often at a greater percentage than those who actually pay for those services.

You can dance around the statistics all day, but you can't change the fact that nearly half of this country pays ZERO federal income tax.

The problem is the progressive tax system, in the first place - punishing the successful instead of rewarding them for their efforts.

It's not the government's place to take from me to prop up someone else - that's certainly not charity (see my sigfile).

You want to help folks? Hunger is a great motivator.

[MacGyver]

I'd argue that we have two major problems in our country today:

First is that we have a two-party political system that has become a dysfunctional zero sum game that doesn't help anyone. What is good for one party must necessarily be bad for the other, and as such, that has become our legislature's focus. "We the people" have ceased to matter.

Second, we cannot deny the fact that 47% of the population has no skin in the game. If you aren't paying Federal taxes, you don't care about anything more than who promises to give you the most stuff. It's a problem that is unfortunately fed by the first problem above. I don't discount that the poor have it hard. But regardless, everyone should have a little skin in the game. It's simply the only way the system works. It's not a matter of fairness. It's a matter of basic function of the system. If you're trying to build any system where one group pays and another group that's roughly equal in size doesn't, sooner or later people in the first group are either going to look for ways to get into the second group or they're going to stop playing. Everyone needs to contribute something.

I'd love to see true term limits as a third point, but think a third viable party could provide a partial solution. I'll go so far as to say that any politician that serves more than two terms has stopped representing the people and starting enriching themselves. I'd love to see a two term limit law passed. Or, we could just skip that and pass a law that says you're free to serve more than two terms, but after losing an election past your second, you can simply report to the nearest Federal penitentary to start serving your sentences for corruption and fraud.

[mav]

While I do consider the 47% number a problem, what really chafes my ass is so many in the 47% (especially those protesting) cry out to the government to tax people even more. What is the purpose of working hard to try and make a better life for you and your family if some in the recipient class can just vote more money out of your pocket to put in their's? It's all a bunch of s**t if you ask me.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

Term limits might not matter that much. A third party? That would make it easier to divide and conquer,

by a lot of voters, the ones that don't really pay attention, to get just as much tyranny as we have now.

How about more informed voting group than trying to force a change that wouldn't do much, constitutionally?

I know some of you could care less, but the Tea Party is trying to correct the Republican Party, as we

speak. Herman Cain can be the candidate. His poll numbers are looking quite good. I doubt anyone would

want to see what would happen if the Tea Party put their own candidate up against the other two. If enough

assertiveness is thrown at the Republican country club elites, this can happen, but it will take a large group of

"informed" and active participants. I know I won't give up on the Tea Party movement, like some have.