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Is this why Rainman hasn't posted here much lately? Best wishes for a speedy recovery! And Happy New Year!

Too late for Christmas this year but perfect for new years! Saw this in the squadron bar: 1 cup sugar 1 tsp. baking powder 1 cup water 1 tsp. salt 1 cup brown sugar 4 large eggs nuts 1 bottle of Weed 2 cups dried fruit Sample the Weed to check quality. Take out a large bowl; check the Weed again to be sure it is of the highest quality. Repeat. Turn on the electric mixer. Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add 1 teaspoon of sugar. Beat again. At this point, it is best to make sure the Weed is still okay. Try another cup just in case. Turn off the mixerer thingy. Break two eggs and add to the bowl and chuck iin the cup of dried fruit. Pick the fruit up off the floor. Mix on the turner. If the fried druit getas stuck in the beaterers, pry it loose with a drewscriver. Sample the Weed to test for tonsisticity. Next, sift two cups of salt, or something. Check the Weed. Now shift the lemon ice strain your nuts. Add one table. Add a spoonfull of sugar or somefink. Whatever you can find. Greash the oven. Turn the cake tin 360's and try not to fall over. Don't forget to beat off the turner. Finally, throw the bowl through the window. Finish the Weed and wipe the counter with the cat. Hoopy Hollandaise!!

A strong argument could be made that the "rising inequality" you are talking about is caused by a massive societal lack of personal accountability and reliance on government kool-aid rather than ineffective government policies and wealthy individuals and corporations. Did I miss some of your bright and shining examples of "smart government influence on properly-operating markets"? That sure makes a great talking point...maybe you are talking about how congress supported sub-prime mortgages in the late 90s & early 2000s, some of smart investments it has made in failing corporations in the last 4 years, and the job it is doing increasing the number of people using some of the great "social safety nets" you mentioned. When I see "smart government influence" it makes me think about FEMA, the ineffective bureaucracy we deal with every day at work, and the fact that our political leadership can't even pass a yearly budget on time. You really believe social safety net programs blah blah blah provide a great deal of economic certainty and long-term stability that enhances growth??? YGBFKM!!! I'm going to give some personal examples I have of why you are completely batshiit crazy & wrong rather than googling random blogs, articles, books, and wikipedia to support every paragraph I write. So my wifes grandma falls on one side of the social safety net....she divorced her military husband later in life, and neither of them saved or prepared for retirement. She lives off of social security, alimony, and medicare. She barely makes enough to pay for the dirty craphole trailer park trailer she rents or the fast/freezer food she lives on. When you include the cigarettes and booze she says she can't live without, she isn't able to pay all of her bills and credit cards. She ends up begging for help from my in laws. She has no personal accountability in my opinion, and she is contributing to the "rising inequality" you are talking about by relying on your social safety nets that are supposedly so crucial. They aren't even enough to enable her trailer park lifestyle. My grandma was on the other side of the spectrum of the social safety net. She was very savy with retirement planning/saving and lived very well. She passed away recently, and we found out that she had about $4 million in IRAs, annuities, and savings accounts. I would say that she was very responsible & accountable in regards to preparing for retirement and blessing(yea....I'm a proud Christian and that defines the person I am in pretty much every way) her family financially when she passed away. She loved to knickel and dime social security, medicare/medicaid, disability, and any/all government entitlement programs she qualified for though. She also taught my cousin(her granddaughter) to do the same thing. My cousin basically arranged to be let go from her job so she could go back to school to get her masters. She collected full unemployment for 2 years, used a number of government programs to help pay for her masters degree, and my grandma paid the rest. I work my ass off for my wife and 2 daughters while paying taxes like you and most of us on baseops. It doesn't seem right that we pay for my grandma to use the social safety net when she has $4mil in the bank.....and my cousin voluntarily arranging to be let go from her job to receive unemployment while going to school doesn't scream fair or personally accountable to me. Again, your cliche talking points sound great. How the hell does increasing taxes on people who are succeeding reduce inequality? My dad went from a poor college student to lower middle class to self made millionaire in about 15 years. He has worked a corporate engineering job since graduating college, but hes also been very succesful managing a small business and inventing & developing patents with a partner. Explain how taxing my dad at 50+% is going to allow the government to help move my wifes grandma out of the trailer park, reduce inequality, and increase opportunity? I'm not seeing it....all it does is reduce the incentive to succeed financially and decrease upward mobility. There won't ever be a perfect form of government because people are always going to corrupt or screw up some part of it, but the American system has created the largest amount of wealth, personal prosperity, and individual freedom that a country ever has in less than 200 years. Ever increasing taxes wasn't ever part of American success, and it won't lead to it today either despite what your boy in the Whitehouse wants everyone to think. You won't ever agree because your blind....but there are plenty of examples of the heirs of the ultra wealthy, actors, athletes, and more who have squanded away massive amounts of money because they are idiots who don't have any personal accountability or discipline. Reference what I said about my dad above...He isn't BIll Gates, but he was able to go from 50k in student loans with nothing to his name to having a couple million in the bank at 50. Of course he doesn't give away his extra money or go do charity work. Its the Gov's job to take all of the extra money from the rich....thats the definition of charity, right? /End Rant