oh.. BOMB IRAN!!

A fair living wage is directly relative to how hard you are willing to work for it. Work hard earn more, not so hard not so much. Thats fair.

No surprise here:huh:

The lady who cleans my house can barely speak english - I asked her how many houses she cleans and said "25, some every week, and some every other week, and three businesses" She's pulling down a conservative 75K...It's hard work, but it beats sewing shirts in Guatemala.

That's a LOT of work to catch up on. To even come near getting rid of American debt, every American Citizen, and I mean EVERY MAN, WOMAN, CHILD, BABY, SENIOR must pay $30,000. I believe this was an outcome set by my "parents," well not literally since they weren't born here, but I think you get my point. The issue of "living beyond our means" is far more complicated than just that. You should be cautious when you describe complications with simple phrases as such. Simple phrases like "work harder = make more" or "class warefare," or "Americans are lazy."

Our educational system is failing, and it is failing miserably. A faltering educational system inandofitself is a wash of money. If American citizens do not have a reliable educational system, they will present with situations that cost money from EVERYONE. Educational level is both directly and indirectly related to:

Crime, poverty, health disparities and chronic disease, drug abuse, drug misuse, drug use in general, political involvement, political awareness, environmental awareness, utilization of resources to further socioeconomic progression, and much more....

Failures of these cost society a TON of money. Proof? The United States has the highest child poverty rate in the developed world.

And that's just the problem of education. Don't forget the problems of our reliance on fossil fuels has polluted our environment. This alone has also affected the health of today's youth. In fact, their lifespan are expected to be shorter!

We can not even provide proper nutrition to all of our citizens. The flaws of our old legislation alone has cost us sooooo much money, and most don't even realize it.

I agree with you that Americans live far beyond their means, I don't doubt that at all. But there are variety of larger factors that really come into play.

I'm just trying to get rid of the stereotype that Americans are arrogant and lazy. Besides working harder and making more money, there should be more. Even if we caught up on our own debt, our society has been set up to consistently waste money instead of utilizing it properly and efficiently.

If you want to blame a poor job market on illegal immigrants, then you should be blaming America in the first place for exploiting their home countries to an inhumane extent that they have no other choice but to seek work HERE. It all kinda goes back to our structural flaws.

Progressive thinking, social tolerance, volunteering, distribution of quality education, provision of health care to prevent unneccesary health care costs....pretty much restoration of everything that's failing, I feel like that's what we need (and more) in addition to just working harder and spending less.

wow, I dont have enough energy to respond to all of that! So just some food for thought.
1. is our education system failing? Or is that parents are failing there children? Libraries and access to many musuems are FREE.
2. Americans have the most malnurished children among developed nations? Are you sure about that statistic? From what I can see, children in school can get free lunches is they qualify. Once again, I blame the parerts. Carrots are cheaper than Doritos.
3. I dont think Americans are ignorant and lazy, but I am pretty sure that a large percentage of those Americans who have children who are not getting enough nutrition or educatation are lazy.
One word and its something I see slipping away from all facets of live - Accountability!
And it comes from the top down - anyone hear Obama on meet the press with his cigarette addiction? He basically tells Brokaw that he has not quit but says " I have been doing a terrific job" since when is failing terrific? Accountability!