2016 US Presidential Election Thread

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I'm not saying it's fair, but I don't think it's fair to tax the rich at unfairly high rate either, no matter how much less work they put in. There are a lot of rich people that put in 80 hour days, and there's no reason they should have to pay a 50% tax rate.

why?

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http://bleedingheartlibertarians.com/20 ... 8-edition/

somewhat relevant?

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Is it fair that I can pour all my effort in to work INTELLIGENTLY to be the best basketball player, but still suck while Lebron can put in half the effort as I would in this hypothetical scenario and still be one of the best in the game? Genetically speaking, I could never be successful in sports like basketball or football, for a bunch of reasons..

not to sound condescending, but it sounds like you have no idea how many outlandishly talented basketball players have failed due to lack of work ethic and how many relatively untalented players have flourished due to work ethic

genetics matter, but in a skill-based field you still have to put in the work to be the best

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it's a pretty insidious (and racially charged) problem that people make the assertion that athletes coast on their physical gifts and don't put in the work to become great

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lebron wouldn't be one of the best in the game if he half-assed it

he'd just be another guy that's bumming around asia on 1-year contracts

if that

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which is obviously the point I was making

stop being thick on purpose

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no doubt

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shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

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shhhhh no one is talking about abortion and it's great

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Liberals won't be satisfied unless there is a 95% tax on the rich.

95% tax of what, exactly?

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In 2014, ten of the top ten highest paid state employees worked for the state universities

how many of those were coaches?

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because I am on the teaching payroll at a major public university and I get paid ~9000 dollars a year for 20 hours of work a week and have spent the past few years watching the state legislature roll back our pay and amenities further and further to the detriment of the teachers, the students, and the university as a whole

so I don't want to hear any fucking horseshit about how overpaid university employees are

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And I don't think when people donate money to universities paying administration and execs is what they have in mind.

yeah except at my public university we're getting rid of administrators and giving their duties to TAs and professors without increasing their pay. everyone involved is less effective at everything they do because of it. administration is a necessary evil to running a university.

the actual waste and graft in my experience comes from construction of useless buildings and programs that have nothing to do with the actual mission of a university, take money away from actual necessary upgrades and additions, and make life for everyone who is actually paying to be there worse. in more than once case, at the schools I've been at, it was at the behest of donors.

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and yeah, sometimes administration is a waste. I recognize that fact.

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we're not really in disagreement at all

I just have observed that in practice the idea of "admin is overpaid" tends to just lead to stripping all the money away from public schools

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also holy shit what are you doing for 60+ hours a week and only making 16k?!

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My point is that while you and others like you are making close to minimum wage, the head football coach at WSU is pulling $2.7 million a year and a good chunk of the professors and administrators are pulling $500k and the school is still dumping money into a program that is losing $5 million a year. And tuition is still going up, but your pay and benefits aren't.

in my ideal world schools wouldn't have athletics programs at all

but I'm just one of those crazy people who cares about academics

although mine is better than most in that it has no football and the basketball program is pretty much zero-fucks-given from the student body

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yeah, but small business can also mean charging personal expenses to the business and keeping your taxable salary down

I'm still really curious how you can be working 60+ hours a week for only 16k. that shit is insane. that's like 5 bucks an hour.

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are you familiar with the term "wage theft"?

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well how about don't condescend to me when 41% of your working time is voluntarily donated to your boss.

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College sports are not an "extracurricular" for most actual students. they're just a thing you CAN spectate and are forced to spend hundreds of dollars on every semester.

they're an exclusive club for a very tiny group of students that does nothing to further the actual mission of a university

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sometimes they create a sense of community.

wow that's completely useless!

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D2 and D3 level sports are a lot more inclusive

I went to a D3 school and this was not my experience when I tried to participate with our soccer team. they still recruit their talent, not pick it up from students who would have gone to the school anyway

also you pay an "athletics" fee every semester at most schools regardless of whether you go see them or not. I paid my school more for athletics than for anything else. that includes tech, transportation, and the student health center. I will shell out about 900 dollars this year to Athletics out of pocket despite the fact that as a TA I get a tuition waiver. Just the athletics fee comes out to about 10% of my yearly paycheck.

it's absolute fucking horseshit

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I also went to a D3 school, and played football. While I was "recruited", it was more like talking to some coaches on the phone a couple times and them trying to convince me to go there, as D3 schools can not give out athletic scholarships. There were over 100 freshmen that showed up at camp tho every year and not all were "recruited". Many were dropouts, but nobody was forced off the team. I also joined the track and field team as a thrower (non-recruited, just showed up basically), and joined the XC team one year and finished last in every race. Was never told I could not participate in any of the sports I wanted to play.

well that must have been nice.

the soccer coach at my undergrad literally sent me to an empty field to "join them for practice" after I had a meeting with him to talk about the possibility of me doing tryouts next year. then he totally ignored my attempt to contact him via email afterwords to see if there had been a mixup.

so

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yeah it was hilarious

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Serious question, how bad could Kanye be as president?

I honestly don't know how much he would really be able to get done. I doubt he has a firm grasp on what exactly the President DOES

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Uncle Psyche

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How did Carson's popularity ever increase after the first debate? He was terrible there.... I thought for sure he'd just end up dropping out.

he's their token black friend like how Fiorina is their token woman friend

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it's important to remember that these are the same people who wink at each other while they refer to young black men as "thugs"