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Originally posted by WhatTheory
You act like most rich people just had the money handed to them on a silver platter. A lot of them were poor at one time and worked their ass off to get ahead whether by creating a business or moving up in a large corporation.
Also, don't you realize the rich already pay more than their fair share of taxes. The top 50% of wage earners pay about 97% of all federal income taxes. Do you want to take all their money.
Originally posted by dizziedame
If it were not for hard working wealthy people nobody would have a job.
Use your brain OP.
How many poor people hire folks to work? The answer is none.
I paid more taxes to support our sorry government than most people make in a lifetime.
The good people that were employed by me were very happy. They got above normal wages, paid vacation, Christmas bonus that was a weeks extra pay, sick day pay even if they stayed home and went fishing, paid time off to go to doctor or other necessary things and I treated them with the greatest respect because together we made each other a decent living.
Without the wealthy there would be no factories that have unions that demand outragious wages. Without the wealthy there would be no businesses that would hire people.
Originally posted by TXRabbit
so you have to save month's worth of change to buy a pizza but you obviously can pay your ISP bill huh? Did you get the PC you used to post this with after saving for 18 years working 6 jobs?
Please man, we know it sucks NOT being rich but don't lie about the condition. It does nothing but disrespect those who TRULY have nothing.
P.S. I'm rich haha!
Originally posted by v01i0
reply to post by jontap
Is it tad bad? Howcome you have time to type on ATS?
I have to say, it is far better here where I live. I don't work right now, so I have lots of leisure (especially when I just returned my research for review), yet I have all the stuff I could want. Gee, maybe the fantasy of richness and property have done tricks to the americans.
-v
To the extent possible the rich have created an entire alternative structure: they don’t fly on the same planes, their kids don’t go to the same schools, they don’t fight in the wars, they have hotels that you will never enter (can you afford 50K a night?) They live in a system parallel to that of ordinary people.
The rich must never, ever, be allowed to opt out of the shared social and economic experience. Fly first class? Sure, but not on private jets. Drive in a limo? Sure, but not fly in a helicopter avoiding congestion. Get a room to themselves in the hospital? Sure, but not jump the queue for treatment in front of anyone.
As soon as you let money allow people to avoid the queue entirely, those people with power will not care about what is happening to ordinary people anymore.
This is true of general inequality as well. Why don’t the rich take the decline of the middle class seriously? Why aren’t they extending UI? Why do they yawn about the current economic crisis? Why did they do nothing to stop it from happening when any idiot could see it coming?
Because it’s not their experience. For over 30 years they have gotten rich, rich, rich! Everyone they know who matters to them — their friends, their spouses, their mistresses and boy-toys, their children — are doing not “just fine” but gangbusters! And after the 2008 financial collapse, their wealth has rebounded and corporate profits are at near all-time highs.
Life is good, baby! There aren’t any real problems. Not for the rich. And, as George Bush so memorably said, “who cares what you think?” - Ian Welsh
Source: www.ianwelsh.net...
*** Also another guy I serve meals to says he uses the library's computer. Just be aware it is a public computer.edit on 10-12-2010 by ofhumandescent because: Added used book shops...........very good places, often can find rare and very cheap books - I've even traded books at a couple.
Originally posted by WhatTheory
You act like most rich people just had the money handed to them on a silver platter. A lot of them were poor at one time and worked their ass off to get ahead whether by creating a business or moving up in a large corporation.
Also, don't you realize the rich already pay more than their fair share of taxes. The top 50% of wage earners pay about 97% of all federal income taxes. Do you want to take all their money.
Originally posted by dizziedame
I paid more taxes to support our sorry government than most people make in a lifetime.
Every 34th wage earner in America in 2008 went all of 2009 without earning a single dollar, new data from the Social Security Administration show. Total wages, median wages, and average wages all declined, but at the very top, salaries grew more than fivefold…
…The number of Americans making $50 million or more, the top income category in the data, fell from 131 in 2008 to 74 last year. But that’s only part of the story.
The average wage in this top category increased from $91.2 million in 2008 to an astonishing $518.8 million in 2009. That’s nearly $10 million in weekly pay!
You read that right. In the Great Recession year of 2009 (officially just the first half of the year), the average pay of the very highest-income Americans was more than five times their average wages and bonuses in 2008. And even though their numbers shrank by 43 percent, this group’s total compensation was 3.2 times larger in 2009 than in 2008, accounting for 0.6 percent of all pay. These 74 people made as much as the 19 million lowest-paid people in America, who constitute one in every eight workers.
Source: www.ianwelsh.net...