BTW, I work for myself now and am very happy.
I do have anecdotal evidence, though, from an Army Colonel that I met a couple of years ago who was responsible for recruiting. He told me that they have a really hard time getting new recruits up to physical standards, much harder than it used to be. He said, as nicely as possible, that new recruits lack the physical and mental toughness that come from having engaged in athletics or hard physical labor.
And, our academic abilities are clearly suffering since video games got so big.
On the whole, I see them as a big negative. I used to live in a neighborhood full of kids, and the little ones (under 10, I guess) were frequently outside playing. But not many over the age of 10.
Also, you used to be able to go to a bank and borrow $1000 just on your signature. Borrow the money, stick it in a savings account at the same bank and pay it off over 6 months. Not sure if this is possible any more, but it is how it was done back before credit cards.
Alternatively, buy a $1000 CD then borrow $1000 against the CD and repay over a 6 month period.
Not free, but cheap.
It's not. It's funded by all of that plus about 46 cents on the dollar that we are borrowing. That our children and grandchildren will have to repay.
If we should all have to chip in to get our house in order (and I whole-heartedly agree with that statement), then we need to get the lower 50% of our population more productive so that they can begin to pay taxes rather than being net users of government services.
FWIW, I think it's bad that anybody in this country pays more than about 15-20% in taxes. I would like to see the tax rates dropped into that range and then spread out over a greater tax base, preferably with some type of flat tax scheme. More people paying at a lower rate would raise far more money than just taking a hunk out of the Romney's of the world for, you must admit, punitive reasons. Because that's what this is, it's Obama and the left taking aim on people for no other reason than that they have done well for themselves. It is a despicable philosophy that sees the use of government force to take from one to give to another as a reasonable thing to do.
"Obscenely rich" could probably be defined as "anyone who has more stuff than I do". Which seems to be the operating principle these days, particularly among the Occupy crowd.
Hey, speaking of those poor Occupiers, have you seen this? [bigjournalism.com]
Sorry, I'm starting my own religion, the religion of FOism. You can choose to take part or not, it requires nothing of you other than that you FO.