Remember there needs to be relief for those who travel alone because there is no public transport for many who need to work more than one job. Ever changing start and finish times for many low wage jobs places an unfair burden for those who have no other way to get to work on time. If you live outside the big city, buses and trains don't operate late enough or begin service early enough. Ride share only helps those who have regular working hours. This could work if there was a central rideshare database and gas cards for those who helped out whenever possible. Does any of this sound familiar? I am not alone in my search for alternatives.

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in America I have been forced to compete with cheaper and cheaper labor from overseas. If Obama demands that I pay my employees more he had better tell me where I am going to get the extra revenue because otherwise I will be shut out of the market. Unless you are actually dealing with these kinds of pressures, as most employees never will, you cannot imagine them. It's one thing to a huge big corporation, but most small businesses struggle mightily to get by and keep people employed. It's getting harder and harder to do in this economy as it is.
It's like people think that just because you have a business you must have all this money all over the place, I am lucky to make the rent every month. Put some more obstacles out there for small business owners and see where that gets all of us.
Please think of some other group of people or national institution to scapegoat for the country's problems.

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I'm sorry but unless Obama can prove otherwise, he's no different from Bill Clinton's phoney "populism" campaigning in 1992 at best. So far, Obama would either vote along with the sellout crowd on a piece of legislation or he would sit mum even as a huge chunk of his party makes it easier for the GOP to get what they want. A vote for Obama or Mccain is a vote for Bush !

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In this moment we have an opportunity to attempt to change the status quo. Big money may pay but if we the people would start holding elected officials feet to the fire then and only then will we be able to see some real change. While Sen. Obama has someone on his staff that has had some questionable background, that doesn't necessarily mean that Sen. Obama doesn't have a mind of his own and won't follow thru with changing things if elected to office. Sen. McCain on the other hand has a very long voting record that belies what he now says, and shows exactly how his positions have changed over the years. The devil you know isn't always better, after all it's still the devil.

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I'm all for Obama, but his campaign is showing disturbing signs of Carter-Kerry Syndrome. The symptoms of that fatal malady are: 1)Focusing on noble ideas rather than popular, pratical positions 2) overestimating the intellect and benevolence of the American electorate and 3)stubbornly adhering to traditional Democratic positions rather than reacting to modern political realities.

A good example is Obama's position on offshore drilling, which is correct, logical and consistent. However, it's also politically stupid and guaranteed to lose him a lot of votes in November. It DOESN'T MATTER if the Democrats are correct on this, the popular mythos is that offshore drilling is urgently needed. Correcting that idea would take years of educating the public, and Obama has only four months to go. The same is true of some other ideas Obama has espoused recently, including the windfall profits tax. The term has "tax" appended to it, and so will be rejected by most voters, who have been trained to view all taxes as evil. Mondale and Carter learned this the hard way.

Obama needs to smarten up and stop sounding like a college professor (and stop sounding like Carter and Kerry). Advice: Stop being so damn specific. Stop with the high-minded, impractical approaches. Roll up your sleeves. Wave the flag a little. Kiss some babies. Make more of those general, soul-stirring speeches. And for God's sake, GET ELECTED.

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I think this comment -- "So while prices may be driven down somewhat by forcing domestic workers into competition with foreign slave labor, wages are dropping faster than prices are, meaning Americans are losing out in the deal" -- is fairly arch.

Consider that America runs on the work of illegal immigrants (equivalent to slave labor), who are not necessarily the beneficiaries of so much as the minimum wage.

Think how easy it would be for an employer of an illegal immigrant to say: "You will be happy with one dollar an hour or else..."

It's high time to get informed and pro-active about our own way of doing business here at home before slamming "foreign slave labor." On the backs of illegal immigrants, America is making out quite well, thank you, in keeping prices down.

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He will raise the minimum wage to $9.90 and will effectively making it a living wage by indexing it to cost of living increases.

But that will not happen until 2011 if he gets elected.

We need an immediate minimum wage increase, not one phased in.

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Wages cant seem to keep pace with inflation under NAFTA. Corporate profits taxe that up as margins are lower and every penny possible is kept to improve performance.

Obama needs to talk to these issues as well as taxes.. There is much fear that America will become a socialist state under his tax and spend plans.

Regardless if thats true or not, someone I spoke with yesterday said he just read taxes will go as high as 60% under Obama so he has to be defeated... I've yet been able to decipher his, or McCains tax proposal impact.

Traditional liberal tax and spend policies in a time when
Americans need less government, low taxes and incentives to reinvest in industry in this country is the wrong answer for all Americans. Americans dont want handouts, they want to work!

As far as the race card, I think the one playing it soundly is Obama. . Blacks would vote for him if he were mickey mouse!

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In 2000 when they told us that GWB "won" the election I predicted that by the time he left office he will have screwed this country up so badly that the people of this nation would elect Donald Duck to the presidency before we'd elect another republican.

Although I think that most politicians are "bought and paid for" puppets I do believe that Barrack Obama will work harder for the middle and lower class working people of this nation. He is also the better choice for saving our current and restoring our lost civil liberties. He is intelligent, young, energetic and brings to the table fresh new ideas for real change moving this country forward. The biggest problem I see for Obama is being able to make any real significant changes for this country once he is elected given the way our govt. has been hijacked by those with real money and thus power. But it all has to start somewhere if the chance for recovery is ever going to be possible.

Although McCain is a very honorable man who has served his country well in terms of his military service and patriotism he is old and tired and lacks the "outside of the box", "cutting edge" vision needed to pull this country back together for the good of ALL. That coupled with the fact that the republican party itself is "owned" by the religious and corporate entities hell bent on total domination and self serving control through monetary superiority makes it highly unlikely that a McCain presidency would be much different if different at all from the last 8 yrs we've witnessed with "the frat-boy that couldn't believe he actually got the presidency to begin with" idiot that has caused this mess and will be leaving it for the next guy to clean up.

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Please tell me how the Democrats' and Obama's position on offshore drilling is "correct, logical and consistent?" Yes, it's true that additional drilling will not decrease the price of crude. The price of this fungible commodity is determined by a global market and the additional production will not be enough to meaningfully affect the price. But it is also true that oil and gas produced domestically gives hundreds of thousands of Americans jobs, good paying jobs. You want to increase gas consumption standards on newly manufacured vehicles, fine. You want to give incentives for the production of alternative engergy sources such as wind and solar, fine. You want increase public transportation, fine. You want to tax the ungodly compensation of some oil company executives, have at it. But the fact is, even if we do all these things, the end of the gasoline burning internal compustion engine is decades away. And in the meantime, we will continue to pay at the pump. The issue is do we put paychecks in the hands of thousands of Americans to produce our energy or do we offshore these jobs to other countrys, many of which hate our guts.

Oh yes, the enviormental issue. Mustn't forget that. There are thousands of rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, and there have been no spills whatsoever, none, not even when Katrina blasted its way through. Before you throw the Exxon Valdez at me, let me point out that that was an incident involving the transportation of oil, not its production. Increased importation of oil will only increase the risk of another tanker spill, not drecrease the risk. Through the use of high bonding requirements and strict liablity regulations, the enviormental issues can be dealt with.

When it comes to this issue, the liberals in this country are governed by blind hatred. The evil oil companies must be punished. Forget common sense and practical economics. Just pour on the hatred. You claim to represent the interests of working Americans, but I guess the oil and gas workers don't qualify.

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You mean, "Obama to Adopt the John Edwards Agenda of Two Americas" don't you?

The best man ain't running folks. And the one who has the nomination is slow-walking to the White House.

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It is remarkable to read so many comments posted about what their candidate for President will do. "He will raise the minimum wage" "he will open up oil exploration". This is truly worth noting, for what this implies that these voters still want an Imperial President, only perhaps, a more benevolent version.This is unfortunate for it reveals that so many do not even care about the Constitution, which is suppose to be the law of this land. If it had been adhered to, and Congress, not the President, has the right to go to war, there would have been no invasion of Iraq.
But the rule of law has become moot. Even their beloved Senator Obama favors extending more powers to the executive branch, in the name of security, terror, or simply, to make things more flexible.

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Not large corporations. The wage gap in our economy is outrageous. But we do need to keep small business alive.

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Plutocrats control the democratic party too. And America is making another grave mistake in assuming that Obama is going to serve the people, the country, or the constitution over the Plutocrats. The election is over. The Plutocrats won. If you care about your country then you'll stop caring about the election because there is far more important work to be doing than watching WWF staged theater. They will NOT touch on any real issues. No matter how bad things get they will always lie and they wont even care how obvious it becomes.

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All jobs leave a trail back to Wall Street. Fact is that's how our economy works. Regulations have all but vanished. That's what got us all screwed. People can't be left to their own devices and markets do not run themselves. The current problems are all the result of a lack of enforcing regulations. Obama can help to change that by putting the right people in charge. Oil futures trading is bring examined right now. Thanks, ANNA

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I agree that wages are a huge problem and the only way we're going to fix that is by the mass-unionization of service sector jobs that can't be outsourced. However, the other big reason we don't have enough money is because we're told that we need to buy all this new shit. We've got enough used/second-hand products in the US that nobody really needs to buy anything new. Imagine that, we keep expanding our unionized service infrastructure and say fuck you to cheap overseas manufacturing. It's a win win!

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likely to put 'liberal' judges on the bench than Bush-Clone McPain.

And this is the only reason why I'll be voting for Obama.

Other than that, he is no different than the psudo-liberal DINO that make up the majority of the elected Democratic party.

We live in a two party dictatorship, and given that there will be at least 1 if not 2 openings on SCOTUS bench, I would bet on a DINO to do at least one right thing in the Oval office.

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Only consumers can do that. And American consumers are ignorant slobs.

So GM is closing its SUV and truck plants? We need $5/gal gasoline to accomplish that? And now we have a nation full of empty or foreclosed McMansions. And it has taken an economic recession to accomplish that? Every elderly couple needs a 4 bedroom, 3 bath, 3 car garage home, because it's a good investment?

Obama won't save us from ourselves because no one can. Advertisers are the ones who push us to consume. And like kids we immitate what we see. Foolish consumers are foolish voters. The people already have power--if only we'd stop abusing it.

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Perhaps the best way for the Senator to win in November is to ask Ralph Nader onto the ballot. If Ralph said yes, you'd have a pretty good idea that Obama might go another direction with trade issues.

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"Free Trade" is the establishment mantra. Even Bill Clinton got sucked into it. Its time to return to the roots of our self-interest, protecting truly American workers and the industries they work for. Yet we not only accept the lunacy of forcing American workers to compete with foreign workers via "free trade", we allow traitorous corporations to import even more competition known as "undocumented workers". And then we criticize and condemn those who speak up. We have hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of discouraged young people who could be trained to learn a trade, but the corporations would rather hire an illegal alien who already knows how to work and works cheaper out of desperation. Close the loopholes! Train Americans and legal immigrants to work! Penalize lawbreaking corporations! Its better for everyone in the long run.

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Then Obama has only one choice for his VP: John Edwards. The ass-kicking conservatives so richly need will proceed from that point on to victory in November. It will be inevitable.

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Yeah you're right David since he won't even mention the existence of the Enron Loophole or the Commodities and Futures Modernization Act or how the Speculators are gouging America's eyes out and bringing our economy to it's knees in the biggest rip off swindle in history..

If we get paid more then they can raise the price of gasoline and heating oil even more I'm sure Obama would go for that..

I'll vote for this guy but John Edwards was our best chance and hope for change real change but my vote will be against McCain..

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"In our us-versus-them culture..."

The ones left out of the public discussion are
those who have fallen out of (beneath) the working class and those who are unemployable.
The message in recent months is: Lose your job, you disappear.
Maybe people assume there is help for those who can't, by reason of health or circumstances, work. Indeed, some might find help, but there is no longer an entitlement to aid based on need, just because you meet the requirements. Our soaring levels of hunger and homelessness show the impact of current policies against the poor.
Not everyone can work, nor are there jobs for everyone who can. What we call "welfare reform" created a massive group of people desperate for jobs, willing to work for a fraction of what current employees are paid.
(Corporations love this, since it spares them the cost of moving jobs to Third World countries in search of lower wages/higher profits.)
For the first time in our progressive movement's long history, the poorest are written out of the public discussion, apparently with no understanding of how this impacts ALL of the working class. Public funds have been drained out of aid programs, used to cover the costs of over a quarter century of (massive) "tax relief" for our richest 1%/corporations.We now have the worst economic disparities among all modern nations, and that is morally repugnant. This can be reversed by simply reversing the funding, taking it out of welfare for the rich, putting it into rebuilding a legitimate social safety net. A single month of what we spend on the military, financing unjust serial wars, would go far toward easing the extreme poverty that has been developing for years.
We have a scarcity of compassion in this viciously competitive nation, and that's just the way it is. That said, we should at least be considering budget priorities in terms of self-interest. The malnourished incur public medical costs. We've chosen to criminalize homeless, increasing costs within the "justice" system. Desperate people do desperate things, and when people suffer actual destitution, crime and/or prison can be their only reaslistic option. Providing basic humanitarian aid (a.k.a., welfare) to an individual costs a fraction of the taxpayer expense of a prison cell. Pouring millions of people (who can be paid bottom wages) into a limited job market guarantees the continued loss of family-supporting jobs.
We aren't connecting the dots to see how those in poverty are almost all "the working poor" who have been pushed out of the job market. We allowed wages to get so low, and now one must work two jobs to get as much pay as a single job once provided, further shrinking the job market, pushing more into poverty. Fewer pay taxes, so each taxpayer must pay a larger amount. Meanwhile, our own country (sans anything like the jobs programs of the New Deal) is crumbling around us, as our infrastructure continues to be neglected.

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Most of the posters here are young and don't know their history. It was the DEMOCRATS WHO PUSHED THROUGH NAFTA.

Anyone remember the debate between Al Gore and Ross Perot, were Mr. Perot ( accurately ) predicted 'a giant sucking sound from Mexico' as manufacturing jobs would move across the border??
Of course not......you weren't old enough and this history is down the memory hole.

Don't place any credence in Mr. Obama's policies or that of the Democratic Party.............they are influenced by the same corporate special interests as the Republicans, and they pander to the ignorant masses with 'minimum wage' . Unfortunately for us, those special interests are no longer our great manufacturing base..............but the importers of manufactured goods.

THE DEMOCRATS WILL NEVER CHANGE NAFTA

Fools..........All

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That's a fight Obama would loose. A loosing stance against the Right, even if correct. There's no way to sell fair wages in a nation where every market is depressed and trolled by massive corporations like Wal-Mart (So any changes would be years, even decades before being substancial). There's no such thing as small business anymore, unless it's a franchise paying low wages or you're a private small business operating bare bones just to pay the oil bill. Low wages are what the Right Wing imposed with all their powers over the last 20 years, it's a bases of their free trade, globalization employment vision. It's no small thing!

The counter from the right will be simple, and thus effective. Bad for economy, a tax on small business, commie traitor.

In America, people accepted Reagans' lower wages, lower education, lower quality of life over and over again thanks to the Right Wing economic ideology personified in that old corporate philosophy (not kidding) called "fuck you buddy". Oh, and the traitorous media who sell these things by attacking dissenting Americans. Like the ACLU *chuckle*

Obama should save the 'big' economic fights for a second term. At this point, pulling the US out of fascism and economic ruin (stop lowering your dollar Washington! Are ya insane?!?!) would most likely be a better campaign strategy.

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When will we realize that it doesn’t matter who resides at 1600 penn ave, the degree of fascist is still the same. The fasci corp-government-(to control the mind) will always be unless decide to bring it down. A bunch of fat rich white slave owners wanted to have a bigger piece of the pie for themselves and they started a revolution. Fuck the system that is fucking us. The system is here to fuck us and we let it happen everyday all day 24/7, 365 days a year until we die. We talk, talk and talk but do shit. We are a bunch of cowards and are so fearful that we might get in trouble with the fucks who are fucking us. Stop writing and start doing something, anything, btw doing something is not writing a letter or making a call to your (con)gress fuck. Break the system, bring it down

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wages then lets talk about government stuffing it's hand down my pockets (i feel like im being raped *common phrase might as well use it*) to taking 30 percent then nickel, dime, and dollaring me down the road for more.

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wages then lets talk about government stuffing it's hand down my pockets (i feel like im being raped *common phrase might as well use it*) to taking 30 percent then nickel, dime, and dollaring me down the road for more.

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Funny how he just about mentions NAFTA and GOP's support for job killing trade agreements in one breath. How about we back up a little and take a close look at who got us NAFTA, and who signed the free trade agreement with China. Of course, Slick Willie made sure the agreement wouldn't take affect until he was well clear of the presidents chair, hopefully fooling people into believing it was Bush who sold us out. Funny too how he thinks Obama can make such great changes if he appeals to the working class and gets into office. What kind of assumption is that. What he says means nothing, zilch, talk is a politicians tools of the trade and telling people what they want to hear is their skill. He can appeal to the working class, the rich, the Jews and the Christian right, Joe Bluecollar who is out of work because his job was outsourced, Mary Waitress who is outof work because the money people used to spend goingout to eat is now going into the gas tank, it means jack shit. It only makes a difference IF he does what he promises these folks after he gets into office. We've heard it time after time after time, political hogwash about how they feel our pain, how they understand the common man, they're our friends, they want to help us, that's really why they seek political office. Please, my butt just can't take any more reaming from all the reform and help I've seen over the decades. Show me the record, what have you done for the working man so far, what legislation have you sponsored, what bills have you supported, who are your advisors and your buddies now. Talk means nothing, show me the money, I'll show you the politician.

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The resource base of the world stays the same, it is finite in amount. We could get more out of the earth but at a cost if it is at a rate quicker than the earth (including the soil) can replenish itself. Non renewable resources don't replenish themselves, like oil, and the quicker we increase our consumption of them the less future generations will have. The fractional reserve banking system we have, which was around centuries before the Federal Reserve was created, expands continuously (by creating more and more debt), always increasing the amount of purchasing power in the system. If it doesn’t expand we have “recessions” and “depressions”.

If we don’t give people equal access to land, which isn’t likely, the only other option is to have a 1 to 1 relationship with the environment. If the resources of the environment are finite in amount and do not grow neither should the monetary base. That way when you get a single dollar it has a direct connection to the land. You realize that it isn’t just a number in your bank account that has no connection to the environment but is proof of ownership of a product of the land. If you choose to hold onto it there will be no more dollars created to lessen the value of your currency, you are just holding off the consumption of that resource until a later time.

The gold standard, which failed on its own (If anyone is interested the best economics book, in my mind, of the mid 20th century was Karl Polanyi’s “The Great Transformation”. He did an amazing job of describing the failure of the gold standard), makes no sense in a world of decreasing resource availability. Why should someone be able to purchase and consume a scarce resource because more of a metal is in the bank of the government backing the currency? If we on the left have learned anything it should be that danger of having the economic system so far removed from the underlying reality we live in. NEW ideas are needed in the world, not ones that worked in centuries past in entirely different conditions.

Having said all that about the finite resource base as well as ecological and consumption sustainability, the only way you can increase wages or keep them constant without harming the environment is to redistribute wealth from the top to the bottom. The financial wealth, or virtual wealth, would have to be essentially eliminated and the differences within and between countries in regards to wealth ownership would have to be flattened out. If you increase wages for workers while allowing the rich to always get richer you encourage consumption & pollution far beyond what the environment can sustain over the long term.

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