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How to talk to your conservative brother-in-law, guardian excerpts from Michael Moore's book.
Guardian ^ | 10/04/03 | Michael Moore

Posted on 10/03/2003 7:21:07 PM PDT by Pikamax

Here's my theory: I don't believe these people really are Republicans. They are just using a word they heard because the word was associated with tradition, common sense and saving money. So they stuck the label on themselves. After all, who was the first Republican you heard about in history class? Honest Abe Lincoln - the guy good enough to be on the penny and the five-dollar bill!

These people are, in truth, Republican In Name Only - RINOs. Ask them a series of questions. Do you want a clean environment? Would you live in a neighbourhood with black people? Do you believe in going to war to resolve our differences with others? Most of the time they will not give the standard Republican answers. I have a friend who refers to herself as a Republican, but when I ask her if women should be paid as much as men, she responds, "We should be paid more!" When I ask her if people should be allowed to dump waste into the lake where she lives, she reminds me that she sits on the board of the local nature preserve. When I ask her how her mutual fund is doing since she was able to get rid of "that liar Clinton", she says, "Don't ask."

So, I say to her, if Bush has driven the economy into the ground, if the Republicans want to make it easier for people to dump shit into your lake, and if you think you should have the same rights as men - then why on earth do you call yourself a Republican?!

"Because the Democrats will raise my taxes," she responds, without missing a beat.

That is the RINO mantra. Even though they know the Republicans will make many parts of their lives more miserable, they hold on to that Republican label because of just one thing: they think the Democrats are out to steal their hard-earned money. If we really want to pull off a slam-dunk of permanent change, we need to bring a few million of these RINOs over to our side. They are waiting there, wanting to jump the fence - just as long as they can take their money with them.

I've come up with a bunch of suggestions for how we can enlarge our majority by reaching out to our RINO friends and relatives. Some of them will require a bit of humility on your part. Many of them, I'm convinced, will work.

1. First and foremost, assure your conservative friends or relatives that you do not want their money. You do not want them to make less money, nor do you want them to lose what money they have.

2. Second, every political argument you make must be about them and for them. They base every decision on "How does this benefit ME?" Instead of fighting this self-centredness, just go with it, embrace it, feed it.

3. Journey into the mind of the conservative. What you will encounter is fear. Fear of crime. Fear of enemies. Fear of change. Fear of people not exactly like them. And, of course, fear of losing any money on anything.

4. Tell them what you like about conservatives. Be honest. You know there are many things about conservatives that we like and believe in ourselves - even though we usually wouldn't be caught dead saying them out loud. Tell your conservative brother-in-law that you, too, are afraid of being a victim of crime and want to prevent criminals from getting away with their actions. Tell him that if America is actually attacked, you will be the first to defend the defenceless. Tell him you don't like freeloaders, either, especially that room-mate you had in college who never lifted a finger to pick up a damn thing and turned your place into a pigsty.

Tell him how dependable conservatives are. When you need something fixed, you call your redneck brother-in-law, don't you? You yourself can't fix a damn thing - and neither can any of your whiny liberal friends. Also, when you need a job, who hires you? The conservative who owns the business, that's who. And if you need someone beaten up, that bully who's been picking on you, you certainly aren't going to ask your uncle at the Unitarian church to do it for you. You never know when you're going to need that conservative relative.

Conservatives are organised, on time, efficient, well groomed and consistent. These are all good qualities and attributes, and we wish we were more that way.

5. Admit that the left has made mistakes. Ouch. This is a tough one. But, if you admit that, on occasion, you have been wrong, it's easier for the other person to consider what they have been wrong about, too.

· Mumia [the campaigning Pennsylvania journalist who was sentenced for the shooting of a police officer and has been on death row since 1982] probably killed that guy. There, I said it. That does not mean he should be denied a fair trial or that he should be put to death. But because we don't want to see him or anyone executed, the efforts to defend him may have overlooked the fact that he did indeed kill that cop. This takes nothing away from the eloquence of his writings or commentary, or the important place he now holds on the international political stage. But he probably did kill that guy.

· Drugs are bad. They fuck you up, slow you down and ruin your daily existence. Even though Nancy Reagan can kiss my ass, you really should just say no.

· Men and women are different. We are not the same gender. Do I have to show you the drawings? For instance, very few women pull out a gun and shoot someone on the street. The chance that a woman will mug you tonight on the way home from work is somewhere around nil. That is a quirk specific to my gender. Likewise, very few men could give a shit about making the bed. Why make the bed? Who is going to see it? What are we doing, protecting the sheets from something we don't want them to see during the day while we're at work?

· It's really a bad idea to have sex before you're 18. OK, maybe I'm just jealous because I had to wait until I was 32. None the less, the price to pay for teenage sex is pretty high - unwanted pregnancy, disease, and ending up with one ear bigger than the other because it's always cocked toward the front door in case the parents come home early.

· The sun is good for you. Your skin needs at least 10 minutes of direct sunlight a day for a much-needed shot of Vitamin D. Quit slapping all that sun block over your kids.

If you really are concerned about UV rays and skin cancer, then ask yourself, "When was the last time I attended a Greenpeace meeting in order to help make things better?"

· People who commit violent crimes should be locked up. Dangerous people should not be out on the street. Yes, they should get help. Yes, they should get rehabilitation. Yes, we should look for ways to reduce the root causes of crime. But no one has the right to assault you or rip you off, and if you can't bring yourself to show at least an ounce of outrage against those who would harm you, then you just look like a wimp or a nut to most normal people. In fact, I want to assault you right now.

· Your children do not have a right to privacy and you better pay attention to what they are up to. Right now, as you are reading this, they are doing something. What are they doing? See, you don't even have a clue! Put down this book and head upstairs immediately!

· Not all unions are good and, in fact, many of them are just plain lousy. If you belong to one of the lazy, ineffective unions who are in bed with management or Bush, then you need to get your sorry ass down to the next union meeting and run for office.

· SUVs are not inherently evil; the fact that they use so much gas, that they are constructed to be killer machines, and that yuppie weasels drive them in urban areas is evil.

· Getting back to nature is a dumb idea. Nature doesn't want you anywhere near it. That's why nature created cities.

· Too many of us hold a hoity-toity view of religion and think the religious are superstitious 15th-century ignoramuses. We're wrong, and they have as much right to their religion as those among us who have no religion. This arrogance is a big reason the lower classes will always side with the Republicans.

· Why are you still bitching about rightwing author Ann Coulter? Sure, she's as crazy as a loon, but she's got more balls than the entire Democratic Leadership Council. You're just jealous because we don't have an Ann Coulter. And stop looking at her damn legs!

· The proposed "Liberal Radio Network"? What a stupid waste of time. Radio? Are you serious? What century are you in? Gee, why stop there - let's set up a Liberal Pony Express! How about a Liberal Morse code? SOS! Get into the 21st century! Get a TV network. Get an internet network. Get Snoop Dogg and 50 Cent to run for office!

· Animals don't have rights. Yes, they should be treated "humanely". Yes, Tyson Foods and all the others that "harvest" chickens are disgusting. But "freeing" chickens from their factory farms is idiotic. They don't know how to survive in the wild and they're just going to get hit by a truck.

· Nixon was more liberal than the last five presidents we've had. His administration opened up a dialogue with China. He was instrumental in establishing affirmative action in hiring and protecting the rights of women. He was the first president to sign agreements on nuclear weapons control. Nixon was responsible for the 1970 Clean Air Act. He also attempted a type of welfare reform that would have guaranteed an income for the poor. Nixon still should have been run out of office, and the millions of dead in south-east Asia will haunt him throughout eternity. But to think that he was the last "liberal" in office just makes me want to puke.

(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: fatass; ickyfatbasterd; michaelmoore; moore; mooreon
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,1054730,00.html

Michael Moore Saturday October 4, 2003 The Guardian

After admitting that you're not always right, you will find your conservative friend more willing to listen. Then it's time to make the case for why he or she should consider looking at things in a different light. The most important thing is to NEVER make the "moral" argument about why the Pentagon should get less money or why a sick child deserves to see a doctor. We have tried those arguments and they don't work with conservatives, so save your breath. Begin every point with this one sentence: "I want you to make more MONEY!" Then take a stab at discussing the issues with them:

Paying workers more money makes you money!

Dear brother-in-law, when you don't pay people enough for them to take care of life's essentials, it ends up costing you and everybody else a lot of money. When you pay your employees more money, what do you think they do with it? Invest it in stocks? Hoard it in offshore accounts? No! They spend it! And what do they spend it on? The stuff you make and sell! If you pay people squat, or lay them off, they can't buy your stuff. They become a drain on the economy; some turn to crime, and when they turn to crime, it's your Mercedes they want, not some junker Oldsmobile in their poor neighbour's driveway.

Providing daycare for your employees will make you money!

Absenteeism is a huge drain on our gross national product. Estimates put its cost to our economy as high as $50bn a year. The average employer loses almost $800 a year per employee due to unscheduled absences. Forty-five per cent of the time an employee is a no-show for personal or family reasons. Which means that mom or dad has taken time off from work because the babysitter didn't show up, or the kids were sick and needed to go to the doctor, etc, etc. This, my conservative friend, costs your business money.

For the price of an on-site daycare room or facility, the company can make more money, you can make more money, and the babysitters can get real jobs with benefits.

Joining a union will make you money!

If you are a worker, and not a boss, who considers himself a conservative and hates unions, I have one question: why? If you want to make more money, "union" is the way to go. According to the US department of labour, union workers make an average of $717 a week. Non-union workers like you make an average of $573 a week. Being a conservative is about you and you making as much money as you can. So why stay non-union?

Clean air and water save you money!

Each year in the US, air pollution kills 70,000 people, equal to the combined number of deaths from breast and prostate cancer. The related healthcare costs from air pollution have been estimated by the government at between $40bn and $50bn annually. We are falling behind other industrialised nations when it comes to investment in energy efficiency. Britain, Denmark and Germany are moving increasingly to wind power, while we, with the world's fourth-longest coastline, are doing next to nothing.

If we could get mileage standards in our cars to 40 miles a gallon by 2012, by 2024 we will have saved more oil than is in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, where Bush is so eager to start drilling. The easiest way to be less reliant on foreign oil is to use less foreign oil! This can be easily achieved by forcing the car manufacturers to produce cars that get more miles to the gallon.

Who cares that it's a good thing for the environment? It'll save you thousands of dollars each year.

Stopping the drug war will save you money!

Rounding up drug users and putting them in prison is a huge waste of money. It costs $25,000 a year to lock up a doper; it costs only $3,000 to provide treatment. Every dollar spent on treatment will save you, the taxpayer, $3 not spent on cops, jails, and replacing that CD player stolen from your car.

Plus, keeping drugs illegal doesn't stop their sale. All it means is that you, the conservative entrepreneur and investor, are making ZERO profit from the deal. All the profits go to scumbags. You hate scumbags. Why let them take YOUR money? Legalise the stuff and think of all the money you'll make from a depressed society desperate to get hooked.

Americans spend an estimated $63 BILLION on illegal drugs each year and you've legislated yourself out of a piece of that action! Put down that martini and get with it!

Giving lots of money to the public [state] schools makes you money!

When our pathetic schools send a generation of idiots and illiterates out into the workaday world, how in God's name do you expect to make any money? Seventy-five per cent of welfare recipients are illiterate. Don't you think things might be a little different if they could read and write? It totally boggles my mind that conservatives haven't demanded, purely out of self-interest, that our schools prepare young people to contribute and even excel in the workplace.

Workers are supposed to bring you great ideas and make you filthy rich. Instead, they're sitting out there in their cubicles trying to figure out how to download the latest Weezer album. I've got a kid in my office right now who thought the UK was Russia, had never heard the name "George McGovern", and figured a legal pad was where you store legal court documents. And he's the smartest one in here! HELP!!!

By never voting for a Republican again, you will make a tonne of money!

Look, I realise that at one time being a Republican and voting for Republicans seemed like the sure way to becoming wealthy. But that is not the way it works these days. Thirty years ago, if you made the equivalent of $50,000, you were rich. You lived in a big beautiful home. And there were hundreds, if not thousands, like you in every town in America. Roosevelt's New Deal had created a massive middle class and the gaps between rich and poor had actually decreased by 7.4% from 1947 to 1968.

All it took to be a rich kid back then was to have your dad be a family physician, a dentist, a lawyer, an accountant, a realtor, the owner of a grocery store or a mid-level management guy at the auto company. But all that began to crumble starting in the 1970s when the income disparity really began to widen.

While those living it up in the top 1% have enjoyed income increases of 157% in the past 20 years, the middle class has only gotten a 10% increase. Only 10% for the mass of people who have powered the explosion in wealth we have seen in the past 20 years! The doctor is barely making ends meet, the lawyer is trying to scrounge up enough divorce cases to pay the bills, and the mid-management guy - well, now he tosses a mean tortilla down at Del Taco.

These very Republicans you say you are one of want nothing to do with you. They have either downsized you, fired you, or they've got you doing the jobs of two or three people. They have taken your money in the stock market and made it vanish. They have pushed through tax bills that truly benefit only that top 1%. They are spending your retirement money right now on boondoggle after boondoggle to make their buddies rich.

Now, this is not to say the Democrats are the answer. But, ask yourself, honestly, weren't you doing better as a conservative under Clinton? Sure, you hated his good looks and charm and how he almost got away with that blow job, but get over it! You are being taken for a ride. And you know it.

Drop all this "Republican" nonsense, declare yourself an independent, and then go shopping for a party or for people running for office who are going to try to help you make more money. Any representative who delivers on making our schools and libraries a top priority, who sees to it that everyone has healthcare, who demands that we not live in a society of illiterates, who backs any bill that increases people's wages, and who taxes the wealthy for duping an entire country into bankruptcy - well, that is who you should be working for and voting for, because, in the end, it will all benefit you.

C'mon, brother-in-law! Take a walk on the wild side. It ain't all that bad. Plus, who knows, you might just have a happier Thanksgiving dinner this year!

1 posted on 10/03/2003 7:21:07 PM PDT by Pikamax
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To: All
We're On A Mission From God
Help us make our 4th quarter fundraising goal in record time!

2 posted on 10/03/2003 7:22:01 PM PDT by Support Free Republic (Your support keeps Free Republic going strong!)
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To: Pikamax
Would you live in a neighbourhood with black people?

Most of the time they will not give the standard Republican answers.

I'm confused. What does Moore believe is the 'standard' Republican answer on this question -- does he thinks its 'no'? If so, maybe Moore is confusing the average Republican voter with the average senior Democratic member of the United States Senate.

3 posted on 10/03/2003 7:31:42 PM PDT by vbmoneyspender
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To: Pikamax
Is this the fat slob Michael Moore? What a jack ass. Talk about rambling.
4 posted on 10/03/2003 7:34:30 PM PDT by JackDanielsOldNo7 (On guard until the seal is broken)
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To: Pikamax
Funny. I am a Republican and my neighbor is black. And republican. Not a black neighborhood but hey.
5 posted on 10/03/2003 7:35:52 PM PDT by JackDanielsOldNo7 (On guard until the seal is broken)
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To: Pikamax
It's really a bad idea to have sex before you're 18. OK, maybe I'm just jealous because I had to wait until I was 32.

============================

32? He's lying. I don't think even the most desperate woman would have sex with him.

6 posted on 10/03/2003 7:39:20 PM PDT by doug from upland (Why did DemocRATS allow a perjuring rapist to remain in the Oval Office?)
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To: JackDanielsOldNo7
This Republican lives in a majority black building on a majority black street. Moore is an ass.

And I rather doubt he lives in a "black" condo.

7 posted on 10/03/2003 7:39:34 PM PDT by Snake65 (Osama Bin Decomposing)
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To: JackDanielsOldNo7
I love his use of the term "the lower classes". Democrats and liberals are the very essence of classists. They really do believe in the "class theory" even though millions of Americans have proved it is a hoax. Not to mention Eddie Murphy in "Trading Places".
8 posted on 10/03/2003 7:41:28 PM PDT by Jack Black
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To: Snake65
And I rather doubt he lives in a "black" condo.

Here's Moore in his own words.

Michael Moore confounds anti-corporate conventional wisdom

"...Moore dismissed criticism over his purchase of a million-dollar home. "I'm a millionaire, I'm a multi-millionaire," he proclaimed. "I'm filthy rich. You know why I'm a multi-millionaire? 'Cause multi-millions like what I do. That's pretty good, isn't it? There's millions that believe in what I do. Pretty cool, huh?"

Asked about Arcata limiting the number of pattern restaurants to nine, Moore said he didn't think it was a good idea. But what if corporate dominance transforms Arcata into "Anywhere, USA?" "You are in Anywhere, USA," Moore said.

Moore seemed to embrace capitalistic Darwinism. "If the small businesses suck they'll be driven out of business," he said. "If they got a good restaurant, people will go there and eat. You know in my town the small businesses that everyone wanted to protect? They were the people that supported all the right-wing groups. They were the Republicans in the town, they were in the Kiwanas, the Chamber of Commerce - people that kept the town all white. The small hardware salesman, the small clothing store salespersons, Jesse the Barber who signed his name three different times on three different petitions to recall me from the school board. F**k all these small businesses - f**k 'em all! Bring in the chains. The small businesspeople are the rednecks that run the town and suppress the people. F**k 'em all. That's how I feel." ..."


9 posted on 10/03/2003 7:44:46 PM PDT by Shermy
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To: Jack Black
That's why you almost always hear the terms 'masses' coming from leftists. They don't consider people to be 'people' unless they are leftists and have done post-graduate work at a university.
10 posted on 10/03/2003 7:44:59 PM PDT by vbmoneyspender
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To: vbmoneyspender
My next door neighbor is black.

I think women should get the same pay as men for the same work.

I believe that anyone who dumps chemicals in the beautiful lake beside my apartment building should be shot.

My mutual fund is up 13% so far this year.

I believe in equality for all minorities. I do not fear change or people who are different from me.

I'm a Republican, and a conservative. So... step off, Michael Moore, you fat hypocritical bigot.
11 posted on 10/03/2003 7:46:14 PM PDT by Lunatic Fringe (I'm normally not a praying man, but if you're up there, please save me Superman.)
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To: Pikamax
1. First and foremost, assure your conservative friends or relatives that you do not want their money. You do not want them to make less money, nor do you want them to lose what money they have.

Sorry, Mike, that one's a non-starter. It'd only be a lie, buckaroo.

The problem with most self-identified liberals is the "self-identified" part - the whole thing has gone tribal and it isn't conservative ideas they hate, it's conservative people. A couple of basic Marxist concepts have seeped in and taken hold, and very much to the detriment of what can only be described as "liberal" ironically anymore. One of these is that power and wealth are zero-sum games and they must be torn from their possessors and redistributed "fairly," generally meaning more in the direction of the speaker or his favorite people. It's Proudhon, it's Engels, it's Foucault, it's crap. Leave it on campus to wither and die as it deserves.

Second, the "evil corporation" mantra is nothing more than a ploy to project anxieties to a faceless, nameless boogie-man. Lose it. Your books and movies are published by evil corporations, your car is made by them and driven with gasoline they provide. If you want to affect their policies, buy their stock and fire their boards. It isn't impossible, it happens every day.

Third, the "defender of the little guy" thing should have gone out with Henry Wallace. The little guy owns a fair slice of evil corporate Amerikkka (see item 2) in the form of pension plan stock ownership. He's bourgeoisie, Mike, he's literate, comfortable, and as far from "alienated" as you are from Jack LaLanne. The "in it for me" thing? It isn't just conservatives, and there's nothing wrong with it.

Maybe both sides would benefit from a little less dependence on the comfortable lie, but I see a lot of the manipulative sort coming from the liberal side of the aisle of late. The preference for the simply-communicated, emotive, bumper-sticker approach leads us far from the path of truth, and if it can be stated in a few well-rounded slogans, chances are it's a crock.

But if I could pick one thing, it'd be the tendency of the liberals I know to incessantly insist that conservatives are stupid and mean-spirited. It wears on a fella after awhile, Mike, and it doesn't foster discourse, it kills it. I know you meant well, but the premise of the stuff above is pretty patronizing, after all. Do knock it off...but you won't, will you? Because it's just too much fun...

12 posted on 10/03/2003 7:47:09 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: Pikamax
You know, some parts of this, you read and wonder to yourself "I wonder who mugged Moore?"

But then other parts of the article (at the link source) you realize he is still a raving nutter.

13 posted on 10/03/2003 7:53:33 PM PDT by Prodigal Son
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To: Prodigal Son
I am convinced more than ever he is just a showman for the left to make money off of them.
14 posted on 10/03/2003 7:59:01 PM PDT by Pikamax
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To: JackDanielsOldNo7
When you look up OBNOXIOUS in the dictionary,you see Moore,s photo!!!
15 posted on 10/03/2003 7:59:33 PM PDT by von Lettow
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To: Pikamax
Well he was right on Nixon. I must say that was an odd piece.
16 posted on 10/03/2003 8:00:42 PM PDT by luckydevi
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To: luckydevi
Well he was right on Nixon. I must say that was an odd piece.

I was about to post a reply saying "That's the most schizophrenic thing I've ever heard from a liberal."

I don't like how he uses the worst examples of people calling themselves Republicans as representative of all of us. If liberals were intellectually honest, they'd take their own faithful to task for their single-issue fickleness (abortion, gun control, whatever that single issue is).

Conservatism is a way of life, not something you should hitch to because they nominally support your pet issue.

17 posted on 10/03/2003 8:17:51 PM PDT by TrappedInLiberalHell (Hillary walks into a bar. Let's hope it leaves a nice bump on her forehead.)
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To: Pikamax
Jeez! Where to start? Michael Moore is dumber than a box of hair! Let's start looking at some of his assertions!

After admitting that you're not always right, you will find your conservative friend more willing to listen. Then it's time to make the case for why he or she should consider looking at things in a different light. The most important thing is to NEVER make the "moral" argument about why the Pentagon should get less money or why a sick child deserves to see a doctor. We have tried those arguments and they don't work with conservatives, so save your breath. Begin every point with this one sentence: "I want you to make more MONEY!" Then take a stab at discussing the issues with them:

Right, Michael... Leftists are so much more "moral" than conservatives... Because they believe in taking other peoples' money and giving it to those they believe "deserve it." Of course the pentagon should get less money in MM-Land! After all, providing for the national defense is one of the primary jobs of the federal government... And it's even codified in the Constitution... The last time I checked, paying doctors to see sick children isn't there.

And the only reason that a leftist might want you to make more money is to force you into a higher tax bracket, so they can steal more from you, to give it to "the deserving," after taking a hefty chunk for themselves...

Paying workers more money makes you money!

Dear brother-in-law, when you don't pay people enough for them to take care of life's essentials, it ends up costing you and everybody else a lot of money. When you pay your employees more money, what do you think they do with it? Invest it in stocks? Hoard it in offshore accounts? No! They spend it! And what do they spend it on? The stuff you make and sell! If you pay people squat, or lay them off, they can't buy your stuff. They become a drain on the economy; some turn to crime, and when they turn to crime, it's your Mercedes they want, not some junker Oldsmobile in their poor neighbour's driveway.

So, just how much should everyone get paid? Is $15.00 and hour OK? Nah... Let's just say $10.00/hr for the time being... Going from $6.00 an hour to $10 an hour is roughly a 66% pay raise... Not bad. But just how much is that going to increase to cost to business owners? Well, let's see... There would be increased unemployment and workmans comp insurance costs... And of course, the additional social security and medicare taxes that the employer would have to pay. Just in salary and SS/Medicare, the additional cost for a $6/hr worker to 10/hr would run $172 for a 40 hour week. I wonder just how much the employer would have to raise his prices to cover those costs: Or just how many people might have to have their jobs or hours cut? Yup... Raising pay across the board will make you more money... Of course you'll soon be paying $8.00 for a hamburger, but no big deal, right?

Providing daycare for your employees will make you money!

Absenteeism is a huge drain on our gross national product. Estimates put its cost to our economy as high as $50bn a year. The average employer loses almost $800 a year per employee due to unscheduled absences. Forty-five per cent of the time an employee is a no-show for personal or family reasons. Which means that mom or dad has taken time off from work because the babysitter didn't show up, or the kids were sick and needed to go to the doctor, etc, etc. This, my conservative friend, costs your business money.

The last time I checked, a daycare center will NOT take a sick child, for fear of having the sickness spread. So, you could have the most wonderful daycare center in the world, but unless you also provide a doctor and isolation wards, as usual, MM provides a solution that doesn't address the problem that he was talking about in the first place.

For the price of an on-site daycare room or facility, the company can make more money, you can make more money, and the babysitters can get real jobs with benefits.

Hmmm... Most "baby sitters" are not old enough to get a "real job with real benefits." Besides, Michael, due to your previous point, there won't be all that many entry level jobs any more. Do day care centers at work increase productivity and make for happier workers? Studies say "YES," however not for any of the reasons you give, you bonehead! If a company can afford to do so, they do. But it's hard for a smaller company to come up with the $$$ to do it (especially if you've jacked up the costs of the workers!)

Joining a union will make you money!

If you are a worker, and not a boss, who considers himself a conservative and hates unions, I have one question: why? If you want to make more money, "union" is the way to go. According to the US department of labour, union workers make an average of $717 a week. Non-union workers like you make an average of $573 a week. Being a conservative is about you and you making as much money as you can. So why stay non-union?

I was in a union once... I was living in NY at the time, which was NOT a "right to work" state. I was in high school, and wanted to get a job at a pharmacy. I got the job, but I found out that it was a union company. I had a part time job, and was being paid $3.35 an hour, which was minimum wage at the time. As I recall, they wanted me to pay a rather large amount of my pay into a union, and I wasn't even eligible for the benefits, being a part time worker! As I recall, the cost of being in the union was around a .45 an hour TAX! And you're right! Unions can force the employers to pay more, even if it's driving the company out of business... If I recall correctly, Eastern Airlines had a machinists union that refused to let those money grubbing, bastard "bosses" exploit their workers! They refused to give in... I wonder just how many people lost their jobs due to the union, and I wonder if their unemployment was equal to the $717 that Michael Moore touts?

You know, I can't even continue... Reading MM's garbage makes my head hurt, and makes me sick to my stomach. I can understand why MM can come up with this trash, though. He doesn't have anything in his head that can hurt!

Mark

18 posted on 10/03/2003 8:38:13 PM PDT by MarkL (There's no place like 377.000.000.001 !!!)
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To: Pikamax
I am convinced more than ever he is just a showman for the left to make money off of them.

That's an astute comment. He very well may be.

19 posted on 10/03/2003 8:43:47 PM PDT by Prodigal Son
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To: Pikamax; Lunatic Fringe
O.K. Mikey, I'll weigh in. Oops, sorry 'bout the "weigh in" remark since I don't usually favor the cheap shots...however, in your case, fatboy, I'll make an exception.

I've got Black, Mexican, Tibetan and Hmong neighbors. Had them all over for a cook out this summer and our kids play together. If you lived in my 'hood, I'd even invite you over and put an extra 10 pounds of brats on the grill for you.

I think women should be paid the same as men if they do the same work. I don't think standards should be lowered for some stupid notion of diversity just so women can qualify for jobs they are unqualified to do. Think about, tubby. If your larded ass is on the second floor of a flaming building, do you want some diversity queen coming to haul your flabby buttocks out of the french frier and carry you down the ladder? Case closed.

Like most people in this country, I am a conservationist precisely because I am conservative. For your information, the worst polluters in the universe are leftists. The environmental destruction of the eastern bloc has never been equaled even in times of war. In addition, most Republicans, like most Americans believe in wise use stewardship that encourages resource use and carefull management. Land owners and Republicans were the first environmentally aware Americans. The left only grabbed hold of the 'ecology' movement because their antiwar revolution crapped out and they needed a vehicle to keep their Marxist agenda alive. Without the horrors of chemical input agriculture to provide cheap groceries, you'd have starved to death long ago, porky.

I live in what is likely the cleanest, richest industrial nation on earth. No other place in the universe allows the economic mobility enjoyed by all Americans if they are willing to work for it. In fact, I dispute the idea that America even has poor people by any sort of global standards. In fact, our 'poor' are obese from too many calories. Our 'poor' have air conditioning. Our 'poor' drive cars. Our 'poor' have color television. Our 'poor' cannot be denied medical care anywhere in our country for life threatening emergencies. Our 'poor' are subsidized with free food, housing and medical care in most of the states. Life may not always be what we desire, but life is always better here.

I believe in the idea of equality before the law, but I do NOT believe for a second the idea of equality between people. Lots of people, most in fact, are smarter, better looking and slimmer than you. By no stretch of the imagination would anyone sane consider you their equal, well, perhaps a urine stained derelect might, but certainly nobody in a rational state of mind.

I'm a conservative and, unlike you, I genuinely am working class. You, on the other hand, are simply a fat parasite. In developing countries where I have traveled, insects like you are thoughtlessly crushed beneath the heel as a routine measure to curb disease. Seems like practice of the poor and disadvantaged that I'd like to see become popular here.

Bugger off, bacon boy.
20 posted on 10/03/2003 8:43:56 PM PDT by WorkingClassFilth (Defund PBS, NPR & PRAVDA)
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