I won't leave teachers opinions out of anything, dude.  Seems to me that most people in this country that made $30,000.00 a year or under tend to do better in this country under democrats while under Republicans the rich get richer or have no challenge to their status quo.  However, I still say you're going to find more people in the US making under $30,000.00 a year than one million dollars a year.

     And this country was set up as a democracy meaning the good of the many outweighs the good of the few.

 HOLY CRAP! Are you sure your mom is a teacher of knowledge and facts?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy

The first principle is that all members of the society (citizens) have equal access to power and the second that all members (citizens) enjoy universally recognized freedoms and liberties

In a true democracy, the good of all outweigh the good of the many.

Every serious politicall party has (almost) everyone's best interest at heart. It's just that most of them are totally wrong and make the matter far worse, such as Liberalism for example.

      Yeah universally recognized freedoms and liberties and the way this country has been in many ways it seems that only the wealthy have access to such things.  They can afford the best healthcare.  The best of everything really.  Far more than some guy making $15,000.00 a year trying to pay for company health insurance that won't even come close to paying for simple bloodtests or catscans or colonoscopies if they get sick.  Even though such things would only seem to be a drop in the water to someone making a million dollars a year.

    If a person making $250,000.00 a year gets $50,000.00 a year taken out for taxes and a person making $15,000.00 a year gets $5,000.00 a year taken out for taxes.  The first fellow still has $200,000.00 a year which is quite good while the other person has only $10,000.00 a year left over.  Now combine that with the formerly high cost of gasoline to drive a couple of hours to and from work each day (yeah, you once said a person could ride a bicycle to work, but you would ride a bicycle 50 miles down hills in the morning and 50 miles up hills after working all day in the evening to get to the closest town near where you live that has any jobs?), the cost of company health insurance which won't really cover the cost of the minor medical procedures that I've outlined above, and you'll see that such a situation is rather awful for the fellow making only $15,000.00 a year at their job in comparison to what it is for the fellow making the $250,000.00 a year.

@Bolded: First off, Some guy that only makes 7.25/hour working 40 hour weeks for a grand gross of $15,080/year is only making minimum wage (starting July 24th 2009). Minimum wage jobs don't really tend to provide health insurance. As a side note, what person will be working for minimum wage after a year at that job? Or how about a 25 year old person? Most people don't make minimum wage, because, well, it is the MINIMUM. You should at least have some basic skill, and if you don't, maybe you should go back to High School. Everyone has access to a high school education.

@Italics: Minimum Wage will have no income tax liabilities, so your argument is invalid unless you are talking about the regressive payroll taxes, which is only ~6.25% out of your paycheck--matched by the employer. So even if you add both of those you only have ~12.5% of your check removed by taxes you MUST pay, which is no where near the 33% you made a point with.

@Underlined: Find a closer job. This is only a minimum wage job anyway. Save gas, save time, save money.

In conclusion, your post is invalid. You cannot simply compare a minimum wage job to a high wage job and say they are not equal. That is just stupid to think they should be. Get a skill, use it, make something of your life.

     I was making $8.00 an hour.  I was making less than $15,000.00 actually having about $2,000.00 a year taken out for taxes.  However, I wasn't getting anywhere near all of that back in tax returns. 

     There really aren't any closer jobs.  This town is about 45 miles from an interstate in any direction and my old 1991 luxury car's engine blew up going back and forth to my old job.  The only jobs available in this town are usually only given to highschool students.

      I have a non-teaching BA in English literature.

When I met my girlfriend two years ago, she was two years out of college. She went to school on loans, as her parent didn’t make many. (She still is paying those loans).

She has the same healthcare I have, lived in a nice apartment (she lives with me now), drove a fairly nice car, ate well, paid all her bills, and was a happy person.

Her income was 34,000 a year.

In what warped version of American do you have to be rich to be happy?

What is keeping you from doing the same thing she did?

I will even help you.

How old are you?
What state/city do you live in?
If you are under 25, did your parents claim you, and if so, what do they make?
Did you graduate from High School?

Answer those questions, and I can point you in the direction of success.

Wait.. you don't even live in the US?

Then why are you even debating this?

Hooray! College Degree! I don't have one yet, but I make enough to get by without issues. Hell I just paid off all credit card and loan debt and am about to buy a nice car. I don't see the issue here.

-edit-

@tx: I see you edited your post (the one I referenced here) and added a few things. A few questions for you then.

Do you own a home in that area, or do you pay rent?

Are you married or have family in the town?

What is keeping you in that town so far from your work?

Could you move closer and possibly find a better job?