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    iElvis Found Trump's Tax Returns Too Late to Save GawkerHamilton Nolan
    1/08/14 10:42am

    This column works just fine if you see poverty as a moral failing, and wealth as a reward for good character, as most conservative do (or least the ones the rest of us have to listen to).

    This is the real reason "you didn't build that" drives those folks so batty.

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      ThePriceisWrongiElvis Found Trump's Tax Returns Too Late to Save Gawker
      1/08/14 11:02am

      Every time one of my idiotic Republican friends chimes in with "I built that business!" I politely post this in the comment section and bow out. The notion that you built a business is insane, and it only furthers the ideology that only the top echelons of a company deserve any recognition. It also probably helps further their disdain for their worker bee position, which they have yet to acknowledge.

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      Zsa Zsa GaborgThePriceisWrong
      1/08/14 3:12pm

      I'd clarify - you didn't build it ALONE. I have my own business and use tons of government services - roads, the post office, police to keep my tools where I left them, building inspectors to make sure the roof over my space is put up right, and on and on...but it's not like the government sent me an envelope containing a business idea and all the necessary paperwork. The business wouldn't exist without the government, but it also wouldn't exist without me.

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    doxasticHamilton Nolan
    1/08/14 10:47am

    Let's do these in order:

    1) Dearth of entry-level jobs: Employers figured out that if they called entry-level jobs "internships," they would not have to pay the employees that filled them.

    2) College loan debt: Comes courtesy of slashed state funding and the businessification of the university which pays administrators at anywhere from 2x-10x as much as faculty. Kathleen is cool with both of these things.

    3) Kids out of wedlock: Actually decreasing. From the CDC birth rate report for 2011 (most recent available)

    The birth rate for unmarried women declined in 2011 for the

    third consecutive year. The rate fell 3% from 2010 to 2011, to 46.0

    births per 1,000 unmarried women aged 15–44, matching the rate in

    2004 (Tables C, 15, and 16). The birth rate was at its highest

    historically in 2007 and 2008 (51.8 per 1,000). The number of

    nonmarital births fell nearly 2% in 2011, to 1,607,773. The number

    has now fallen 7% from the 2008 peak of 1,726,566. The third key

    measure of nonmarital childbearing, the percentage of all births to

    unmarried women, was essentially unchanged in 2011, at 40.7%.

    4) Low-skill wages: The death of unions, which Kathleen also supports.

    And voila—a growing income gap, courtesy of Kathleen Parker

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      AliHajiSheikdoxastic
      1/08/14 11:30am

      I was just going to post that CDC birth rate information. It has fallen hugely over the past several years. Her entire thesis is make believe bullshit piled on bullshit swallowed whole because Parker knows it ought to be right based on her feels.

      Parker you fucking hack. Facts are real things.

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      TRUMP DELENDUS EST (fka Chatham Harrison)doxastic
      1/08/14 3:00pm

      I'd just note that half those entry-level jobs are going to recently unemployed older workers, because they've made them all contingent on having "3 to 5 years experience in the field."

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    IrishishHamilton Nolan
    1/08/14 10:25am

    Hey guys maybe we should build the cost of higher education—both trade schools and colleges—into taxes so greater career opportunities are available for everyone but no one has to go into massive debt to afford a decent degree.

    Just sayin'.

    Later I'll talk about my "give everyone a minimum guaranteed income" and "fuck you, what do you mean I've had too much to drink" initiatives.

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      ThePriceisWrongIrishish
      1/08/14 11:01am

      I support this "fuck you, what do you mean I've had too much to drink" initiative.

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      MarcabExpatIrishish
      1/08/14 11:53am

      I find your ideas intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter. And your beer of the month club.

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    DamonPeeHamilton Nolan
    1/08/14 10:14am

    KP's fave song is Serfin' USA

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      flatbushfashionistaDamonPee
      1/08/14 10:33am

      Why try to fix the inequality problem? It would be feudal to even attempt it.

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      DamonPeeflatbushfashionista
      1/08/14 10:48am

      Rather than fight a new class war, better to simply exchange peasantries and move on.

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    bytchpleezeHamilton Nolan
    1/08/14 10:11am

    of course income equality is a real thing because people are not all equal.

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      Perry Downingbytchpleeze
      1/08/14 10:34am

      I'm not sure what you mean, would you mind clarifying?

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      WinchesterPerry Downing
      1/08/14 1:18pm

      pretty sure he means that wealth and income inequality are a result of a few Americans just being superior to the rest of us.

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    PoodogHamilton Nolan
    1/08/14 10:14am

    That second paragraph (Add to these ...) may be the dumbest thing I've ever read.

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      America's WangPoodog
      1/08/14 11:18am

      Seriously...for the love of god, keep that fucker away from a logic tree.

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      DamonPeePoodog
      1/08/14 11:29am

      My favorite part of the column is when it's over and I'm not reading Kathleen Parker's demonstrably false drivel anymore

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    JackOfNoTradesHamilton Nolan
    1/08/14 10:23am

    Dear Kathleen,

    For the past 20 years bankers have spent their time dreaming up new ways to charge fees. They don't provide any additional services, they just charge additional fees. Congress has gone along with this every step of the way, and usury is now an antiquated notion. These bankers - the ones who perform no useful services - make seven or eight figures per year.

    The rest of us work very hard, but we've seen our inflation adjusted incomes decrease. You, on the other hand, make a comfortable living demonstrating publicly what an idiot you are.

    So, to answer your question, income inequality is very real.

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      Dear ZeusHamilton Nolan
      1/08/14 12:21pm

      I just want to throw a pie at her smug, square face.

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        ad infinitumDear Zeus
        1/09/14 2:13pm

        I'm quite fond of the term (coined by Sealab 2021, I believe) "mailbox head."

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        Dear Zeusad infinitum
        1/09/14 2:32pm

        I need to rewatch that and then ready my pies.

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      PunditGuyHamilton Nolan
      1/08/14 12:07pm

      which the government guarantees

      I don't think that means what she thinks that means. It's not like the government steps in and pays your student loans when you can't. The government guarantees that you pay your student loans, which cannot (in almost every case) be discharged in bankruptcy.

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        wkiernanHamilton Nolan
        1/08/14 10:38am

        Face it, we're just invisible to her and her friends.

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