TTQ B4U Posted March 31, 2011 Report Share Posted March 31, 2011 One of the more interesting ads I've seen on TV lately. Space on page 1 for sale Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Karacho1647545492 Posted March 31, 2011 Report Share Posted March 31, 2011 Oh you mean the Chinese are going to be the dominant world power very soon? I'm gonna try to act surprised. The problem will not be one of debt or taxation. It will be that in the next 20 years, Americans will become so distrustful of each other that dividing and conquering us will be a breeze. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffro Posted March 31, 2011 Report Share Posted March 31, 2011 my dads been freaking out about this commercial. saw it earlier as well. the sad thing is its a reality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sol740 Posted March 31, 2011 Report Share Posted March 31, 2011 Yup, some of my relatives called me from China and confirmed they all cackle maniacally whenever they talk about the US. Carry on. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tractor Posted March 31, 2011 Report Share Posted March 31, 2011 The big problem is no one in the gov is gonna do anything to stop our failure. Its gonna take a whole lot of very unpopular decisions by people who want to keep their comfy jobs to much to actually pull it off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nurkvinny Posted March 31, 2011 Report Share Posted March 31, 2011 All good things come to end. All good things are worth fighting for. Pick one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otis Nice Posted March 31, 2011 Report Share Posted March 31, 2011 All good things are worth fighting for. Pick one. There's more than 1 option? Arm up boys. Also, this. My $750 beat up truck looks better every time I even consider another car payment and then realize how foolish I'm being. And no, I'm not comparing me and my purchase to everyone on this site or in America. It's just a step I had to take to pay off debt which I'm still working on. The truck was jsut a huge step for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TTQ B4U Posted March 31, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 31, 2011 My $750 beat up truck looks better every time I even consider another car payment and then realize how foolish I'm being. I agree. Money in the bank may not buy happiness but debt of any kind always comes with a certain amount of anxiety and pressure. I enjoy things more when they are entirely paid off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otis Nice Posted March 31, 2011 Report Share Posted March 31, 2011 I agree. Money in the bank may not buy happiness but debt of any kind always comes with a certain amount of anxiety and pressure. I enjoy things more when they are entirely paid off. Right now I don't even have money in the bank. Hahaha. Debt is dwindeling slowly but surely though. Well worth driving a loud POS truck and having others think I'm PWT. I wish they only knew how little I cared about what they think of me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg1647545532 Posted March 31, 2011 Report Share Posted March 31, 2011 FEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEARFEAR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyM3rC Posted March 31, 2011 Report Share Posted March 31, 2011 They ought to quit talking shit and build my damn railroad! No, just kidding. When we run out of credit we'll just file bankruptcy and start over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otis Nice Posted March 31, 2011 Report Share Posted March 31, 2011 No, just kidding. When we run out of credit we'll just file bankruptcy and start over. "Around here all the hope's sold in oil stained jars, Around here you're rich or you're nothing at all, And the future is mortgaged for profit today, Consequences be damned it's the American way, The talking heads ponder the nature of fear, Doing nothing to make a change around here." Lyrics to a song from the last band I played in. Ringing more true each day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ImUrOBGYN Posted March 31, 2011 Report Share Posted March 31, 2011 They used to have a show on air very similar to this called "Scare Tactics". You guys should probably forgo watching it as it can be a bit too scary for some. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRed05 Posted March 31, 2011 Report Share Posted March 31, 2011 "I was at a mall in Connecticut and I saw an item in a shop window which stopped me dead in my tracks. And I mean that. I was moving, I saw this item and all of a sudden I wasn't moving anymore. It was, and I promise you this is true, an inflatable barbecue. You're right. We should take a moment together to let the gravity of that sink in-- an inflatable barbecue. It was a full functioning barbecue with inflatable material around the outside of it so that you, like the man on the front of the box, could cook while swimming. Is there any greater example of what it is to live in the freest nation on earth than that? I don't think so. There's all this concern at the moment-- will china emerge as an economic force and take over the planet? We can decide that together now. Could china make an inflatable barbecue? Yeah. I don't think there's any doubt about that. They could do it and they could do it cheaply. Could china sell an inflatable barbecue? Again, I don't sense any real resistance to that as a concept. My question to you is this-- could the people of china, for themselves, purchase inflatable barbecues? There is no -- way. They don't have what it takes. When push comes to shove, they don't have it there. That's not racist. In many ways, it's a compliment." -John Oliver Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg1647545532 Posted March 31, 2011 Report Share Posted March 31, 2011 Just out of curiosity, do conservatives realize that they actually need to make a case that the stimulus bills and the health care bill are going to cost money in the long run? That's it not enough to just point out that we're spending money on these things? Let's step back from ideology for a bit and pretend that we're all co-owners of a house. As a house, we're in debt. Part of the problem is that we have no income, and we have a hole in the roof over our bed that's constantly causing us to buy new mattresses. So we've been charging all these mattresses on our credit cards. The democrats in the house decide that they're going to invite some roofers to come live with us. These roofers will get free rent and cost us some money for food and stuff, but in the long run they'll save us money because they're going to fix our roof so we can stop buying new mattresses. Meanwhile, Guillermo, another freeloader in the house, says that if we buy him a Taco Truck he can go out and make us some money. In a few months he'll have paid off the truck and we'll be enjoying a positive income. Now, the Republicans can make valid arguments against both of these plans. They can argue against them financially; they can say that the roofers we hired aren't any good and won't actually be able to fix the roof. They can say that the roofers will end up costing more money in lost rent and food than if we just paid some professionals. They can say that Guillermo doesn't make very good tacos. They can argue that, ideologically, our house is better off in the long run if we don't reward freeloaders like the roofers and Guillermo, because once word gets out that we're giving out room and board and Taco Trucks, we'll have too many people sleeping on our lawn. Furthermore, conservatives can argue that we have no business owning a house, and maybe we should just bail on it before we get even more in debt. All of those are potentially valid arguments that may or may not be borne out by numbers and a realistic discussion of their probability. What the conservatives shouldn't do is to just run around saying "You're spending money on roofers and Taco Trucks and we're in debt! That's bad! Case closed!" Because it's completely ignoring the fact that, right or wrong, the roofers and Taco Truck are part of a comprehensive plan to reduce debt. They have to argue why those are bad ideas, and they have to be convincing. 30 second ads like this just frustrate me to no end. Democrats are just going to roll their eyes and ignore it, and Republicans are just going to nod along and feel reinforced in their existing beliefs. It completely sidesteps the issue that stimulus packages were designed to boost the economy and (consequently) make sure future tax revenues stayed high. The idea was that we'd spend money on a Taco Truck now and reap the rewards in the future. The health care bill was designed to fix the hole in our roof that is Medicare/Medicaid. We'd spend money to fix a problem so that it didn't end up costing a lot more down the road. I'm not going to take the time to argue that either the stimuli or the health care bill are right, I just want to emphasis that there is a logic behind them, and it's not enough to point that they exist and call all liberal policies a failure. Conservatives, IMO, haven't made a convincing argument that the Democrats are wrong, and 30 second FEAR ads and all the chest beating and back patting in the world don't make that argument any more convincing. Step up the level of the discussion, and drop the shitty scare tactics. (Exhausted now, can't proofread, deal with errors). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otis Nice Posted March 31, 2011 Report Share Posted March 31, 2011 Just out of curiosity, do conservatives realize that they actually need to make a case that the stimulus bills and the health care bill are going to cost money in the long run? That's it not enough to just point out that we're spending money on these things? Let's step back from ideology for a bit and pretend that we're all co-owners of a house. As a house, we're in debt. Part of the problem is that we have no income, and we have a hole in the roof over our bed that's constantly causing us to buy new mattresses. So we've been charging all these mattresses on our credit cards. The democrats in the house decide that they're going to invite some roofers to come live with us. These roofers will get free rent and cost us some money for food and stuff, but in the long run they'll save us money because they're going to fix our roof so we can stop buying new mattresses. Meanwhile, Guillermo, another freeloader in the house, says that if we buy him a Taco Truck he can go out and make us some money. In a few months he'll have paid off the truck and we'll be enjoying a positive income. Now, the Republicans can make valid arguments against both of these plans. They can argue against them financially; they can say that the roofers we hired aren't any good and won't actually be able to fix the roof. They can say that the roofers will end up costing more money in lost rent and food than if we just paid some professionals. They can say that Guillermo doesn't make very good tacos. They can argue that, ideologically, our house is better off in the long run if we don't reward freeloaders like the roofers and Guillermo, because once word gets out that we're giving out room and board and Taco Trucks, we'll have too many people sleeping on our lawn. Furthermore, conservatives can argue that we have no business owning a house, and maybe we should just bail on it before we get even more in debt. All of those are potentially valid arguments that may or may not be borne out by numbers and a realistic discussion of their probability. What the conservatives shouldn't do is to just run around saying "You're spending money on roofers and Taco Trucks and we're in debt! That's bad! Case closed!" Because it's completely ignoring the fact that, right or wrong, the roofers and Taco Truck are part of a comprehensive plan to reduce debt. They have to argue why those are bad ideas, and they have to be convincing. 30 second ads like this just frustrate me to no end. Democrats are just going to roll their eyes and ignore it, and Republicans are just going to nod along and feel reinforced in their existing beliefs. It completely sidesteps the issue that stimulus packages were designed to boost the economy and (consequently) make sure future tax revenues stayed high. The idea was that we'd spend money on a Taco Truck now and reap the rewards in the future. The health care bill was designed to fix the hole in our roof that is Medicare/Medicaid. We'd spend money to fix a problem so that it didn't end up costing a lot more down the road. I'm not going to take the time to argue that either the stimuli or the health care bill are right, I just want to emphasis that there is a logic behind them, and it's not enough to point that they exist and call all liberal policies a failure. Conservatives, IMO, haven't made a convincing argument that the Democrats are wrong, and 30 second FEAR ads and all the chest beating and back patting in the world don't make that argument any more convincing. Step up the level of the discussion, and drop the shitty scare tactics. (Exhausted now, can't proofread, deal with errors). tl;dr Cliffs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg1647545532 Posted March 31, 2011 Report Share Posted March 31, 2011 Condensing the varied possibilities for the future of the US economy to a 30 second ad is dumb and serves no useful purpose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otis Nice Posted March 31, 2011 Report Share Posted March 31, 2011 Condensing the varied possibilities for the future of the US economy to a 30 second ad is dumb and serves no useful purpose. ty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg1647545532 Posted March 31, 2011 Report Share Posted March 31, 2011 The thing is, no left-leaning American is going to watch that ad and suddenly say, "Gee, I never thought of it that way, but now that I see hypothetical Chinese students laughing in a classroom I guess that everything Republicans have been saying for the last 3 years is right, even though they've presented no new evidence for their position." It's absurd to think this will convert everyone, and that's not the point. Because converting people is hard, and Bush proved in '00 and '04, and Obama confirmed in '08 and inadvertently in '10, that converting people isn't the way to win an election. No, you win elections by pandering to the lowest common denominator and getting people who already agree with you to go out and vote. Some apathetic rural voter might be a staunch conservative, but he's also lazy, and if you try to explain to him that you disagree with some nuance of Obama's fiscal policy, it's not going to motivate him to get to the poles. But FEAR FEAR FEAR CHINA and he'll fire up the 'ol F150 in November. So I hate this ad, I can see why it was made, I know it will be effective, and it makes me sad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otis Nice Posted March 31, 2011 Report Share Posted March 31, 2011 The thing is, no left-leaning American is going to watch that ad and suddenly say, "Gee, I never thought of it that way, but now that I see hypothetical Chinese students laughing in a classroom I guess that everything Republicans have been saying for the last 3 years is right, even though they've presented no new evidence for their position." It's absurd to think this will convert everyone, and that's not the point. Because converting people is hard, and Bush proved in '00 and '04, and Obama confirmed in '08 and inadvertently in '10, that converting people isn't the way to win an election. No, you win elections by pandering to the lowest common denominator and getting people who already agree with you to go out and vote. Some apathetic rural voter might be a staunch conservative, but he's also lazy, and if you try to explain to him that you disagree with some nuance of Obama's fiscal policy, it's not going to motivate him to get to the poles. But FEAR FEAR FEAR CHINA and he'll fire up the 'ol F150 in November. So I hate this ad, I can see why it was made, I know it will be effective, and it makes me sad. tl;dr ....sorry. I have an extremely short attention span today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mojoe Posted March 31, 2011 Report Share Posted March 31, 2011 Going to buy more ammo. Be right back Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg1647545532 Posted March 31, 2011 Report Share Posted March 31, 2011 lol I need to do work... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Main3s Posted March 31, 2011 Report Share Posted March 31, 2011 Yup, some of my relatives called me from China and confirmed they all cackle maniacally whenever they talk about the US. Carry on. Tell your family to stop laughing at us Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sol740 Posted March 31, 2011 Report Share Posted March 31, 2011 Because politicians on either side don't get to be life long career leaches by fixing problems and making concerned arguments to the masses. This is because we as human beings are pre-dispositioned to polarized arguments. A byproduct of that polarization is the general ease at which a tipping point occurs in the voting practices of an individual who instead of having to comprehend some incredibly complex issues, can choose a whole side over the other, while re-enforcing an illusory superiority, generally stemming directly from 30 second snippets of biased information. You can see and hear 2 opposing pundits insult each other, sometimes rather viciously, usually directed at the others intelligence, yet you know that neither is stupid. Watch the audience clap along. You must never trust these people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sol740 Posted March 31, 2011 Report Share Posted March 31, 2011 Tell your family to stop laughing at us I tried. They called me a lazy american, and proceeded to pantomime holding their eyes wide open. Which makes less sense then you can imagine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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