Inequality in America - How we arrived where we are / whats your opinion?

[ChungDoQuan]

Money worshipper, huh?

[mcwoodduck]

Yep,
John Kerry Big liberal.
Divorced his wife and married the Billionaire widow of Heinz, a republican.
Did he hold true to his ideas of the rich are evil and need to do more philanthropic things?
No he did not privatly fund homless shelters, did not build low cost housing for the working poor.  He did nto build a hospital and staff it for the working poor with out health care access?
No instead he bought a Yacht, built in Australia, hid taxes and docked it in another state to avoid registration taxes.
Did he pay the fines he called for on others before he married Hienz, NO!
Did the Clintons buy a small house and retire to the office Bill set up in Harlem?  No they got a sweet heart loan from a Democrat donner and had the Secret Service build a Guest house and charge them rent for the place greater than their morguage payment on the house, same with Hillary's place in DC she has the SS pay for it as well as the house in NY. 
How can theClintons go into Government service never owning a house and come out of the presidency as Multi millionaires?  Money worship!

[SHOOTALL]

Money worshipper, huh?

well yep ! of course they worship other peoples money which is the problem.

[gypsyman]

Both sides of the aisle, in a way, worship money. Conservatives work for it, liberals want to take it away, and give it to somebody else.(not their money though!!) Too many people in this country have abused the system, at both ends. Welfare and entitlement people have learned to whine and cry, sometimes raise some hell,(riot), and pretty soon they get what they want. Kinda like a spoiled little brat, with parents not strict enough to straighten them out. Corporations have learned to get away with tax loopholes, and still get money from the Fed's. If you think about it, the govt. is guilty on both sides. gypsyman

[45-70.gov]

so  if you don't like capitalism
all you have to do  is opt-out...  just don't buy  or spend  or earn anything
..but  don't complain  about your choice to opt-out


funny  how  those that degrade a person for worshipping  money.....or call them ''GREEDY''
.....needs more money than they have


if you don't  like socialism...........how do you   opt-out?


historicaly  ...hitler and stalin to name a few
allowed  people to opt-out   by killing them


in the case  of our socialist dictator  OBUMER
he will use obumercare  to allow  those that opt-out to  die by seizing control of health care
soon  health care  WILL NOT BE FOR SALE...only available to those that submit to his rule

[SHOOTALL]

you are missing the fact that much business is capitalism , where others are not in the true sense. Banking and Govt. both try to force both types to play ball their way. cooporation is really to limit liablity of the owners. Remove that and have real capitalism. Most don't realize small corps have to put up personal notes to get credit where large corps don't. The list goes on. Trying to simplify such a complex situation is impossible.

[ChungDoQuan]

$17 trillion is a number, nothing more. A better way to measure the deficit is percentage of GDP. The highest it ever got was in 1945. The lowest it ever got was 1981, under Jimmie Carter.

Reagan inherited $900 billion of deficit from Carter. After 8 years of unfunded programs, something Republicans have a fondness for, the deficit hat tripled, to $2.7 trillion--- Reagan was the worst offender; Bush Sr. added another $1.5 trillion, because he had the S&L crisis, and, "It's a bad idea to balance the budget during a recession." [G. Bush, Sr.]

At $4.2 trillion, Clinton took office, then passed the 1993 Budgetary bill, raising the taxes on the rich back to Carter's levels: 39.6% No Republican supported it. They predicted the next Depression. Instead, we had 7 years' unprecedented economic growth. Clinton actually added another $1.5 trillion to the deficit, but the GDP was so high the budget was balanced.

Enter GW. In 2001 he dismissed a balanced budget as "bad policy," lowering taxes twice in 2 years, unfunded, with no spending cuts at all. These cuts did not pay for themselves. Again the debt rose.  (By the way, the National Debt clock STOPPED during Clinton's last 4 years, and restarted in GW's first year.)

After starting two wars, and deregulating the mortgage banks, GW had doubled the debt again, without claiming the bill, which he left to Obama to add in to the deficit. Republicans have never admitted to their policies in running up the debt, but they KNOW it's the truth. When Obama recommended lowering taxes on the low and middle income citizens, the Bubs said "we can't afford the decrease in income." But, when it came to the rich, they protected the "job creators," which is Bubspeak for "really rich people."

In the 20 years from 1981 to 2009, while the Bubs controlled the House, they voted in 20 deficit budgets. There has not been a Republican President that made the debt LESS since Eisenhower, who had a 95% tax on the rich! In 2009, GW signed off on a budget with the largest deficit in history. That is what Obama inherited.

From 2003 to 2007, with the Bubs in control of the Senate, House, and White House, they all signed off on Medicare Part D (unfunded) and the Iraq War (unfunded.) When  he was told that this would cause the deficit to skyrocket, Dick Cheney said, "Deficits don't matter."

Continuing to support the right on its economic policies to fix the economy is like betting the Generals are going to win the next Globetrotters game--- theoretically, it might happen. NOT!

The right has a proven history of promoting income inequality. In fact, the money worshipers do their best to see that the trend continues, and that more people become poor, and the poor get poorer as time goes on.

[scootrd]

you are missing the fact that much business is capitalism , where others are not in the true sense. Banking and Govt. both try to force both types to play ball their way. cooporation is really to limit liablity of the owners. Remove that and have real capitalism. Most don't realize small corps have to put up personal notes to get credit where large corps don't. The list goes on. Trying to simplify such a complex situation is impossible.

There are many different forms of Capitalism . Market -led (Which the US once was). Corporate (Where the US is now heading towards). Social - Democratic (Think Germany). State-led (Think France).

Those 4 types aside capitalism in and of itself is neither good nor bad. What determines good vs bad is a proper balance of regulation.  An overly regulated capitalistic society is just as bad as a non regulated (wild west) capitalistic society.

A (wild west) capitalistic approach promotes Vulture capitalism which contributes nothing positive to society and instead strips away from the many to reward the very few. 

Semper Fi

[351 power]

interesting story on the radio  today about work visas issued by the us govt. they are called h1b temporary visas and they are supposed to cover temporary shortages of labour, mostly skilled or IT work. bill gates has requested that the average yearly number go from 85 000 to 300 000. the catch is that the foreign workers usually are paid about 20% less than the american worker beside them but they can't complain because they could have the company end their temporary job. and they don't get any green cards one guy has been trying for 10 yrs. he calls himself an indentured servant. so in fact some of these big businesses have a loop hole to take advantage of the foreign worker while freezing out the domestic worker and pushing the govt to let them do more.
now is that a case of inequality, capitalism, freedom or corporate socialism?

[scootrd]

$17 trillion is a number, nothing more. A better way to measure the deficit is percentage of GDP. The highest it ever got was in 1945. The lowest it ever got was 1981, under Jimmie Carter.

Reagan inherited $900 billion of deficit from Carter. After 8 years of unfunded programs, something Republicans have a fondness for, the deficit hat tripled, to $2.7 trillion--- Reagan was the worst offender; Bush Sr. added another $1.5 trillion, because he had the S&L crisis, and, "It's a bad idea to balance the budget during a recession." [G. Bush, Sr.]

At $4.2 trillion, Clinton took office, then passed the 1993 Budgetary bill, raising the taxes on the rich back to Carter's levels: 39.6% No Republican supported it. They predicted the next Depression. Instead, we had 7 years' unprecedented economic growth. Clinton actually added another $1.5 trillion to the deficit, but the GDP was so high the budget was balanced.

Enter GW. In 2001 he dismissed a balanced budget as "bad policy," lowering taxes twice in 2 years, unfunded, with no spending cuts at all. These cuts did not pay for themselves. Again the debt rose.  (By the way, the National Debt clock STOPPED during Clinton's last 4 years, and restarted in GW's first year.)

After starting two wars, and deregulating the mortgage banks, GW had doubled the debt again, without claiming the bill, which he left to Obama to add in to the deficit. Republicans have never admitted to their policies in running up the debt, but they KNOW it's the truth. When Obama recommended lowering taxes on the low and middle income citizens, the Bubs said "we can't afford the decrease in income." But, when it came to the rich, they protected the "job creators," which is Bubspeak for "really rich people."

In the 20 years from 1981 to 2009, while the Bubs controlled the House, they voted in 20 deficit budgets. There has not been a Republican President that made the debt LESS since Eisenhower, who had a 95% tax on the rich! In 2009, GW signed off on a budget with the largest deficit in history. That is what Obama inherited.

From 2003 to 2007, with the Bubs in control of the Senate, House, and White House, they all signed off on Medicare Part D (unfunded) and the Iraq War (unfunded.) When  he was told that this would cause the deficit to skyrocket, Dick Cheney said, "Deficits don't matter."

Continuing to support the right on its economic policies to fix the economy is like betting the Generals are going to win the next Globetrotters game--- theoretically, it might happen. NOT!

The right has a proven history of promoting income inequality. In fact, the money worshipers do their best to see that the trend continues, and that more people become poor, and the poor get poorer as time goes on.

The problem with the above is they are empirical facts, and as we know congress will not allow indisputable Facts to dictate policies.

[SHOOTALL]

you are missing the fact that much business is capitalism , where others are not in the true sense. Banking and Govt. both try to force both types to play ball their way. cooporation is really to limit liablity of the owners. Remove that and have real capitalism. Most don't realize small corps have to put up personal notes to get credit where large corps don't. The list goes on. Trying to simplify such a complex situation is impossible.

Oh I agree there needs to be oversight , but the concept of no liablity other than the worth of the company is just one more point of abuse. As example in the county I live in there was a problem with srink swell soil. When some national builders came in they caused the price of homes to go down . They had better buying power than local small builders. As a ost saving some local builders skimped on footers and over 1000 homes ended up with cracked footersand cracked walls. Most of the cases came before a board of appeals I sat on so I have first hand knowlege of what happened. The builders who came before the board knew they would lose so when things started to get tuff all of them would start a new company , leave a couple hundred bucks in the account of the old company and the first suit got the money and the rest got nothing . THIS IS WRONG .
.
The far right so-called so-called conservatives following their corporate baron leaders try to simplfy this complex system all the time...I.E. NO REGULATION needed... ..history shows that's a real bad idea.

See post #264 for some facts..
.

.TM7

[scootrd]

interesting story on the radio  today about work visas issued by the us govt. they are called h1b temporary visas and they are supposed to cover temporary shortages of labour, mostly skilled or IT work. bill gates has requested that the average yearly number go from 85 000 to 300 000. the catch is that the foreign workers usually are paid about 20% less than the american worker beside them but they can't complain because they could have the company end their temporary job. and they don't get any green cards one guy has been trying for 10 yrs. he calls himself an indentured servant. so in fact some of these big businesses have a loop hole to take advantage of the foreign worker while freezing out the domestic worker and pushing the govt to let them do more.
now is that a case of inequality, capitalism, freedom or corporate socialism?

Spoke with a buddy of mine working for a large corp . They are doing the same thing . They are in process of opening or have opened a facility in Carolina's and instead of using local labor force they are importing H1B labor. That is not what H1B regs outline. You only utilize H1B when you can demonstrate no US citizen has skills to staff the position.  Corporate , hospitals etc abuse H1B because they can staff at lesser labor costs.It's an abuse of the policy.

[ChungDoQuan]

It sounds odd, but agriculture, construction, and some service industries are lobbying to get the government (both sides to back off deportment and work requirements, too.

[Empty Quiver]

It sounds odd, but agriculture, construction, and some service industries are lobbying to get the government (both sides to back off deportment and work requirements, too.

Is there any chance whatsoever that American labor values its skills too highly?


Is there any possibility these greedy SOB's actually cannot compete against cheap foreign labor?


Is there any possibility that government over-site has gone too far in some instances?








Bringing up the wages of other countries is a long term goal, leveling the playing field between trade partners is a long term goal. In the interim we must compete as best we can.


The rich are richer, so, none of my damned business. What should we do, kill and eat them as punitive measures? Face it they are smarter and work harder and are better connected. The poor are poorer, now that has become my damned business, and that of the wealthy too. I have to support them, as do the wealthy.


Why exactly should I be upset about the difference in wealth? The poor contribute notta, nothing, zip, nada. Those at the very top have evidently contributed something.  As far as I know it is illegal for even the wealthy to print money. So somebody somewhere decided that what they provide is worth money to them. It is a free market and as such they were paid freely by free men for a product or service they desired.


Here is the thing, in America you don't have to purchase anything, that"s right, I said anything. Your fellow citizens will see to it all of your needs are fulfilled, all you must do is lay on your dead ass, watch Oprah and eat Oreo's. That is all we ask as tax payers is that you lay on your ass, watch Oprah and eat Oreo's. Demanding steak and gas for an Escalade gets our hackles up.

America has always been the land of lead, follow, or get out of the way. We are being over run with those who are unwilling to follow, unable to lead, and won't get out of the way.

I have a 21 year old daughter who is one of those with the ability to succeed beyond her and my wildest expectations. I am amazed by things she does. Honestly, the sky is the limit. I do not want to see her hamstrung by a bunch of socialist policies and ideas. I will not support artificial limits on ones productivity, simply to prop up the lack of productivity of another.

[mcwoodduck]

I was on a jobsite for a new building and it was getting ready to be handed over to the owners and occupied.
They wanted me to look at the heating and water heatin equipment nadn make sure it would work.  I asked why and he said this is the point when the Union members will sabotage the equipment, break items and cause problems to extend the job.
With the Government putting it's hand out and demanding about 1/3 of the cost of the total cost of the building in fees, fines, plan check and permits and then the workers addin about another 1/4 of the budget in extending the job there is no wonder why we are not building new Apartments, Hotels, office buildings, and tearing down older buildings and building bigger and better ones.  Then you have the government intervention of demanding the building be used this way or that. 

[Plenty Coups]

Simple to understand! The 1% create and control the money. The Federal Banking system is anything but Federal or The U.S. Government. Anytime a central banking system creates and controls the monetary system of a country it is doomed. The interest the country pays to the Federal Reserve is in the end paid with labor. We have reached the threshold of exploitation of labor and resources both man made and natural with in this country. The major banks now expand into other countries to extract cheap natural resources and cheap labor to maintain the gross inequities they create.


I agree all folks are not equal! HOWEVER skilled labor and unskilled labor is NOT fairly compensated by any stretch of the imagination. I have worked many a carpenter who not only possessed and used skills superior to another yet whose wages with in the same company where much lower. Without regulation in such matters all too often if a business owner can push,cajole and otherwise cheat an employee they will. This is a symptom of a central banking system operating under the pretense of  capitalism.Bottom line of capitalism is profit irregardless of the social or economic consequences.


It is the love of money the creates oh so much of the worlds woes.

[scootrd]

My Friend of 43 years got his pink slip today . Marty is 58 and had 27 1/2 years in with his company as a machinist .  2 1/2 years to go before retirement. His boss (33 years old ) who is remote and lives is in California called him Friday night after work and told him on Monday they were letting him go with two weeks severance. Next week would be his final week .

But hey the execs got there quarterly performance pay bonuses for the first quarter. Guess that's all that matters nowadays.

Prayers to Marty and his family tonight

[/url]

[351 power]

it really is hard to watch so many people fight so hard for a corrupted system bent on taking advantage of them. trusting in the power of commerce that is slowly crushing them. went on a cruise last yr. first time for me. it was disturbing to listen to the crew talk about where they are from, how long they had been on the boats, etc., know that unless we value the work of others the value of our own work diminishes. world wide economies should raise the value of labour in other nations but it is only devaluing the labour in the richer nations. and it's very easy to generalize against unions but private contractors and tradespeople can just as easily live a dishonest life. the road is leading downhill at present

[Empty Quiver]

agination.Without regulation in such matters all too often if a business owner can push,cajole and otherwise cheat an employee they will. This is a symptom of a central banking system operating under the pretense of  capitalism.Bottom line of capitalism is profit irregardless of the social or economic consequences.


It is the love of money the creates oh so much of the worlds woes.

There is another side to this too. A carpenter must tell an employer to go pound sand on occasion,  let him build his own apartment complex.


The love of money keeps a carpenter working for a substandard wage rather than becoming a fry cook.


I will credit the union this, they are willing to tell an employer no we will not do the job for that price. When independent contractors as well as union contractors agree, the wages rise. Until that time it is no different than driving across the street to save $0.03 on a gallon of gas. Somehow we all see that as okay and a reasonable approach to saving money.

[Plenty Coups]

"Until that time it is no different than driving across the street to save $0.03 on a gallon of gas. Somehow we all see that as okay and a reasonable approach to saving money."


Not all of us feel that way. I for one am truly trying to make a difference in this world in the hopes that my grandsons are more than just meat for the grinder.


In this unbalanced wage problem we discuss that the very upper echelon of wealth controls a grossly out of balance proportion in relationship to actual value of work produced. Yet Americans in particular continue to stick our heads in the sand about how a private business (The Federal Banking System) controls money, wealth and power into the hands of a select few to create the very real out of balanced natural distribution of wealth.

[Empty Quiver]

I can understand that as an individual it is hard to understand the spread.


These rich SOB's got that way and continue to be that way and expand that wealth buy doing something that makes people hand over their money. When they quite doing that thing, whatever it may be, people will stop giving them money.


Ask yourself this. Who is to blame for the salary "outrage" in professional sports. Do you hold the owners responsible for meeting the demands of the players? Do you hold the players responsible for demanding and holding out for higher salary contracts? They are both rich, neither party "needs" that sort of money do they? Guess what, it is the fans fault. We buy the tickets and demand to see the very best show we can see, and we pay more to see winners.  The players deliver the product the fans demand, but the owners arrange the meeting.


We are our own worst enemy. Unless of course you want a bit of that Best Money Can Buy item. Hate Bill Gates, or Steve Job? There is a pretty fair likelihood we would not be chatting without those two. What is that worth to you and a couple billion other folks around the world? A single buck from each of those using a computer is a pretty small thank-you for those fellows efforts.

[351 power]

pro sports are entertainers and they will fade. inequality comes to the table every day forever

[Oldshooter]

I will not support artificial limits on ones productivity, simply to prop up the lack of productivity of another.

I can agree with that.


There is always going to be the haves and the have nots. Some of it is luck of the draw and some of it is what you make of it. If I was poor ( not that I am rich ) I would be resentful of those that have what they need. Some that have what they need are resentful of those that have what they need and also what they want. Carpenters don't make enough money, ball players make too much. It's supply and demand. If carpenters made millions there would only be one or two buildings built. When the country gets in dire straits maybe ball players won't make much cause there won't be folk paying to see em play. Although they played during the depression.



This seems to be the rule, not my rule but the rule of the world. If you do something or have something that is of value to others you get ahead. If you don't you may only get by or go through the grinder.  If someone artificially props you up someone else is going to go through the grinder. Once the wealth gets spread and there is no more wealth to spread everyone will suffer because there won't be a reason to get ahead or make wealth. Someone will want a piece of your pie. So you will wait for your slice and no one will get pie.

[DDZ]

I will not support artificial limits on ones productivity, simply to prop up the lack of productivity of another.

I can agree with that.

There is always going to be the haves and the have nots. Some of it is luck of the draw and some of it is what you make of it. If I was poor ( not that I am rich ) I would be resentful of those that have what they need. Some that have what they need are resentful of those that have what they need and also what they want. Carpenters don't make enough money, ball players make too much. It's supply and demand. If carpenters made millions there would only be one or two buildings built. When the country gets in dire straits maybe ball players won't make much cause there won't be folk paying to see em play. Although they played during the depression.

This seems to be the rule, not my rule but the rule of the world. If you do something or have something that is of value to others you get ahead. If you don't you may only get by or go through the grinder.  If someone artificially props you up someone else is going to go through the grinder. Once the wealth gets spread and there is no more wealth to spread everyone will suffer because there won't be a reason to get ahead or make wealth. Someone will want a piece of your pie. So you will wait for your slice and no one will get pie.

Thats just it. To get ahead or make a living, one has to make themselves of value to someone that will hire them. Its pretty easy to lay around and do nothing, when there is a big fat government stealing money off those who labor, and passing it out with no strings attached to those who wish to do nothing. Its also easy to bitch and moan about those with money, and vote for the government that is going to steal more of it from them, and pass it out to those that wish to not make themselves valuable, and seek employment.
There are able bodied people that lay around their whole lifetime, bitch about people having to much, and never make themselves of any value so someone would want to hire them, and we label this as giving to the poor.
This does nothing but breed more of the same.
Single mothers have a litter of kids with no father, because they have a government that will give them more money for having more kids, and living without a father. We also label this giving to the poor. Our society doesn't talk about this, nor is it seen as a problem that needs fixed. Isn't it so much easier to just complain about those that have wealth, not paying their fare share?

The top 10% of wage earners in this country do pay a very large portion of the tax revenue taken in by government. People with money also give to charities, where a much higher percentage of money goes toward actually helping people compared to a government taking it and spending it on themselves to get reelected.
It cost taxpayers 1.4 billion last year to entertain the Obama family. From his 50% increase in czars, to fancy vacations, to his large staff with big wage increases, and air force one flying around like a scheduled airline. Why is there not the frequency of complaining about the lifestyles of our elected, as there is about people with wealth that they earned? Again its just so much easier to complain about government not stealing enough of others wealth.         

   

[Empty Quiver]

Scoot,,,,sorry to hear about your friend , Marty. I don't know how old EQ, MCWD, and a few others are, but if you are a male American worker, either labor, or middle management and approaching mid-fifties age_ _I can not emphasize how extremely important that you have a 'plan'...some kind of plan for ending up unemployed several years before you planned to retire. Terminating mid-fifties guys is all too common...to replace with newer cheaper latest edition employees that are manipulatble and jump thru hoops.. BEWARE,,,it is highly probable you will be cut loose before you plan....This is SOP in the US nowadays to turn mid-fifties employees loose...and replace with a temp or foreign worker. You will often be asked to train your replacement.  Likely, you will not find a job paying as much as previously unless you're a rock star at something..  This is demoralizing_ _often you may be terminated by a 30 something, or even somebody your own age who stays on...HAVE A PLAN, I've seen this happen to 50 something guys so many times, often they are liquidity strappeed and cash in retiremnets and so forth. Avoid this...HAVE A PLAN!!  This is a common occurrence in the youth oriented capitalistic US. HAVE A PLAN.
 
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There's several people here that seem to say a return to feudalism is Ok.....White collar crime is ignored, banksters go free, gaming and rigging the system permitted, cheating and avoiding taxes all ok,,  runaway inequality to the extant that the world has never before seen such wealth accumulation in the hands of so few.
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You can tell who your rulers are by who you're not allowed to criticize...Voltaire.
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..TM7

I am quite sure I will not retire from my present company. The work is pretty physical and I am getting to that age. I have a plan and have had from the day I started this job.


My plan has no room for class envy, I have no plan to soak the rich for my sustenance. My efforts will be directed towards lifting myself up and not towards dragging someone down. I won't have time or energy enough to worry about what the "banksters" are doing. I plan to be busy living my own life, not fretting over the lives of people I have no business with.


Maybe that is the problem here I worry about my own business and don't mind other peoples business.

[45-70.gov]

Scoot,,,,sorry to hear about your friend , Marty. I don't know how old EQ, MCWD, and a few others are, but if you are a male American worker, either labor, or middle management and approaching mid-fifties age_ _I can not emphasize how extremely important that you have a 'plan'...some kind of plan for ending up unemployed several years before you planned to retire. Terminating mid-fifties guys is all too common...to replace with newer cheaper latest edition employees that are manipulatble and jump thru hoops.. BEWARE,,,it is highly probable you will be cut loose before you plan....This is SOP in the US nowadays to turn mid-fifties employees loose...and replace with a temp or foreign worker. You will often be asked to train your replacement.  Likely, you will not find a job paying as much as previously unless you're a rock star at something..  This is demoralizing_ _often you may be terminated by a 30 something, or even somebody your own age who stays on...HAVE A PLAN, I've seen this happen to 50 something guys so many times, often they are liquidity strappeed and cash in retiremnets and so forth. Avoid this...HAVE A PLAN!!  This is a common occurrence in the youth oriented capitalistic US. HAVE A PLAN.
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
 
There's several people here that seem to say a return to feudalism is Ok.....White collar crime is ignored, banksters go free, gaming and rigging the system permitted, cheating and avoiding taxes all ok,,  runaway inequality to the extant that the world has never before seen such wealth accumulation in the hands of so few.
.
.

.
.
You can tell who your rulers are by who you're not allowed to criticize...Voltaire.
.
.
.
..TM7

I am quite sure I will not retire from my present company. The work is pretty physical and I am getting to that age. I have a plan and have had from the day I started this job.


My plan has no room for class envy, I have no plan to soak the rich for my sustenance. My efforts will be directed towards lifting myself up and not towards dragging someone down. I won't have time or energy enough to worry about what the "banksters" are doing. I plan to be busy living my own life, not fretting over the lives of people I have no business with.


Maybe that is the problem here I worry about my own business and don't mind other peoples business.

UNCOMMON  WISDOM

[45-70.gov]

SO  WHY IS INEQUALITY A PROBLEM??


every one is doing better  over the last few decades/generations
just some  are doing a lot better....but the poor are still doing better


so seems like all is well


if  every one  got a 10%  raise...
..people would scream for a flat rate raise as the rick benefit too much
just like they scream about a tax cut ''for the rich''

[Empty Quiver]

Maybe I need to move to a coast because I just don't see a problem.

[scootrd]

SO  WHY IS INEQUALITY A PROBLEM??


every one is doing better  over the last few decades/generations
just some  are doing a lot better....but the poor are still doing better

Do you Honestly believe this ?

GDP growth has been steadily slowing down during the last three decades.
Wages have essentially stagnated during the last 12 years yet the Consumer Price Index went up by 27% during the same period. (less wages yet higher costs for consumables).
The medium household income has decreased by $3,719 between 2000 and 2010,
The net worth of the median household has plummeted since 1983, from $73,000 to $57,000 in 2010
Private sector jobs on the whole that are being created are low wage jobs, that have not replaced the higher wage jobs outsourced overseas.
More than 46 million Americans are now living below the poverty Threshold. That's the highest number since the Bureau started keeping track of the statistic in 1959.

The majority of Americans wages have not kept up with escalating costs within any consumer sector. Economic trends and indicators are not in the favor of the middle-class. We have entered an era of slow economic growth, high global competitiveness, and market’s saturation in developed countries.

(Source: Economic Policy Institute).

"every one is doing better  over the last few decades/generations"-  Not hardly. Nothing could be further from the truth for what once was our thriving middle class.

[45-70.gov]

i see the glass is half full
some see  the glass is  half  empty


our satisfaction with life can never be  equal
and what is more important then happiness??