Truthfully, there was no sarcasm in my post.

I do not work at JetBlue, and I hope JB pilots get better compensation and benefits, I truly do.

Back to my original point. I think it's deplorable for someone to come onto these forums and criticize, denigrate and belittle someone because of where they work and what they earn. Other guys have done this to the Virgin guys, I was shocked to see someone do it to the JB guys.

I hope you get on your wife's insurance, and I'm looking forward to JB guys getting better compensation/benefits.

Good luck on getting to where you want to end up at.

Cheers!

[QUOTE=Lobaeux;1391095] Sure, the pay isn't leading the industry and the health care seems to be a big bummer. Who cares?!!!??? I don't need the healthcare, I don't see a problem with the pay and the workplace appears to be great. The guys I work with and the workplace atmosphere is most important to me.
QUOTE]

I'm sure you'll pass Phase II with flying colors, welcome aboard


!

After reading your post I had to close my computer and take a step back as I feared posting at that time would have led to expletives and attacks.

I truly hope you are never employed by JetBlue. I for one would certainly write letters recommending you do not pass phase 2. This is no longer a union/anti-union debate. This has now become a statement about ignorance. Admittedly you don't work for JetBlue so you have no concept of the issues. You truly have no idea how poor our benefits package has become over the years. Your comments about insurance and disability are tedious and show no self respect. A professional airline pilot should strive for more. They should strive to better their airline.

We have pilots on disability who can't get paid. We have pioota being denied disabiltiy because that is JetBlue policy. We have pilots who can't afford the deductibles for their sick children or spouses. Your comments give way to great understanding of your character and you sir would not be a good fit for this airline.

Every new hire should accept the job knowing the faults and accept the responsibility to make things better. You should make a point to understand the battles senior pilots are fighting and support those efforts for improvement.

Again, "who cares"?

We care. JetBlue pilots care regardless of union affiliation. I truly hope someone knows who you are and as the phase 2 names are posted I hope many emails on your behalf are sent.

Have a great day.

Again (tired, exasperated sigh), go back to my original quote and understand what I say. Don't be so quick to jump on someone.
You have been called "bad for the profession". You. You, a JetBlue pilot. Why? Because you don't work at American, United, Southwest or Delta. That is the gist of what the guy I responded to was saying. The original poster I responded to had made the statement that pay/benefits are everything, and by accepting less by working at JetBlue, you are ruining it for everyone. Thats just plain wrong.
With your attack on me, you've pretty much legitimized what he's saying.

Why is it that you can't have a civilized discussion without being insulting? It's not that I know little about the Fairtax. Its that it doesn't seem like you don't understand all of it and how it compares to our current tax system.

First, the current tax system is more regressive than the fairtax in that the poorest always pay the payroll taxes. The fairtax repeals those taxes for everyone. Second, the argument you make against the fairtax is true of the current tax system. You complain that the guy that makes $25M will pay a lower rate yet that's EXACTLY how it works now! The rich in this country dont pay as high of a rate as the working class (reference Buffet's secretary). The fiartax taxes WEALTH. The more wealth you have/make/inherit, the more money in taxes you pay. It is progressive. Unless you live in the end of times and don't have an opportunity to spend your all your wealth, then I guess you have made out.

If you look at the current fraud rate, the fairtax would be lower. Over 90% of the sales in this country are made at large stores (walmart, target, kmart, etc). To evade taxes, you need two willing partners. The person buying the good or service and the company selling the good or service. Also, since you no longer need to file dozens of tax papers that are fraught with complexities and errors (deliberate and otherwise) from 130 million people, you will have the same amount of people at the IRS auditing simple revenue forms from 30 million companies.

And there are so many other advantages as well.

I disagree entirely with almost all of your assertions. I do agree however that the rich today do pay less than the middle class (reference Mitt Romney and like you said Buffet). We need to fix that, but not give them another way to pay less, which is what the fairtax is.

For example, Warren Buffet is one of the richest men in America, yet he drives very basic cars and still lives in the same modest home he has for decades. He doesn't SPEND much of his wealth, and therefore would pay little in income taxes. Don't replace our current rich-mans tax code with another.

Maybe his household spends less than the average rich man? Neither of us really know. Its safe to say probably that he may spend more than you or I combined, despite his current modest car and home. But don't forget that he will not live forever. Whoever gets his money, whether it be family or charities, will eventually spend his money. That is why I said that unless you live in the end days, you will pay your share. Taxing wealth (in the form of spending it) is truly the only real progressive tax system.

Not to mention the civil liberty we would get from not having to tell the government how much we made and how we made it. Or the simplicity of just paying your taxes as you go through spending. And the transparency of seeing a tax rate and amount on your receipt so you know exactly how much you are paying. You'd be surprised how many people think they don't pay taxes just because they get a refund. That is done by design! And getting rid of lobbying for tax breaks for multi-billion dollar corporations! What can be better than that? Taxing illegal immigrants, tourists, underground economies (think drugs, prostitution, or any kind of black market), the millions of jobs it would create, in-sourcing, repatriating of trillions of off shore accounts, and the list goes on and on.

I disagree with almost everything you just wrote, because I believe it to be untrue. But, I just don't care enough to argue with you about it. But I will say, for all but the very poor and lower middle class, it is not progressive at all. I have already told you why it is actually a regressive tax on INCOME as you get above the middle class. Go back and re-read my first several posts on that subject if you still don't get it. And I'm sorry, but you seem not to get it.

But, if I actually were to pretend that the rich spend the same percentage of their income (which I won't, and they DON'T), then it is a flat tax, not progressive. The reason for this is that the "prebate" is a fixed amount and becomes COMPLETELY STATICTICALLY INSIGNIFICANT as income gets very high. What does a guy that makes 5 million a year care about 6 grand? How about a guy that makes 25 million a year? As income gets very large, or even just regular large, the prebate becomes completely mathematically NON-EXSISTANT. It is a happy meal to those with high incomes. But in the real world, because rich people spend much lower percentages of their annual income, it is a REGRESSIVE tax on high income earners.

Good luck

For the love of God please take your political bs somewhere else....

What kind of argument is that? I disagree with you because I think you are wrong?

What you don't get, and don't even acknowledge from my argument, is that this isn't a yearly thing. This is NOT a tax on yearly income. It's a tax on ALL wealth! It is not a tax on money you earned and are able to hide somewhere. It doesn't matter if you made it yesterday or 50 years ago or inherited it. It is taxed when you spend it regardless of how you earned it. Therefore ALL wealth is eventually taxed.

It is progressive because as you spend more, your tax and rate increase. And yes, the highest you will ever pay is 23%. But the fact that the poor can actually pay a negative tax rate, by definition, makes it progressive. Maybe it's not progressive enough for you? That's what it sounds like to me but you rejected that when I first asked you.

If you don't believe me, go back and re-read what I wrote earlier. That seems to be your only argument. You just say you disagree but don't actually provide a viable argument. I listed about a dozen positive things about the Fairtax and you can come up with is that you disagree because I don't agree with you? No wonder you have descended to insults in past posts.

But go ahead and continue replying to my arguments. I'm more than entertained replying back, thanks.