9 Ways The One Percent Are Screwing You Over

I haven't got much to say (as usual), just wanted to share the list. I know many people are aware of all 9, but its a good read so take a look - well worthy of ATS's time

9

“Trickle down” economics work by removing barriers to investment—meaning that the rich splash a lot of money around and the effects of that reach ordinary guys like you or me. All well and good—until the super-rich decide that investing is a fools’ game, because hoarding is where it’s at. Suddenly, the trickle down model inverts, and the economy becomes like a giant vacuum-cleaner, sucking money from the middle class’s pockets and dumping it into Mr Burns’ bank account. And thanks to things called tax havens, there it stays—forever.

- prepare to be pissed off, the article lists things such as off-shore accounts amounting to 31 trillion. HSBC and their dealings with drugs cartels. The Koch Brothers and more.

Here is the link

In sum: unless a handful of greedy fools start sharing their loot, America as we know it may well be done for.

Sharing?
If someone stole your car would they be "sharing" it if the police recovered it?
There is no difference, they didn't just "game" the system to become so filthy rich, they also broke a myriad of laws to get there. They've ruined our economy, sent our jobs overseas for a few extra$, sunk the dollar, raped the land and dumped in the waterways. They've lived the high life off the sweat of our collective brows now it's time for their ride to end.

Not only should they pay their "fair share" once again but much of what they have should be repossessed and distributed back to those who it was stolen from. That includes the bailouts as well. They own and operate our government and until that changes nothing else can.

reply to post by n00bUK


I prefer "trickle up" economics.

S&F&

Well, let's see here. The "bottom" almost 50% of America does an even better job at Number 8: "Avoiding taxes" than the 1% even does (i.e. They pay NOTHING). Number 7 is a complete joke in most inner city communities, with insane repeat offender rates combined with almost no enforcement of penalties so long as the crimes are committed against others in the inner city and don't spill out into the higher income level suburbs, so the division between the dregs and the 1% again seems to be focused on little more than what's in the thug's wallet. Number 6: Killing Democracy. How can the 1% kill something which was already destroyed decades ago? Again, let's compare and contrast the top to the bottom... The top vote with their money, OK... and that differs from voting for whoever your paid union chief tells you to vote for in what way, again? What about the 47% on some form of federal meal ticket? They're voting based on their bottom line, too... Lord knows they don't want to cast a vote which breaks the status quo of me, a middle class taxpayer, footing their living expenses, right? Number 5, WHAT THE $%^# DO YOU CALL TAXES? I have to work until April just to pay for a bunch of damn idiots I've never met and honestly could care less about to get their WIC, their subsidized housing, and their medical care. Which leads to the number 4: Destruction of Wealth, specifically my own wealth. Freaking thieves! Destroying the environment? Seriously? Have you ever worked on the permitting side of an engineering project? Sneezing on a wetlands is like finding damn hen's teeth these days. Number 2... Making "me" pay for their mistakes... Oh yeah, how much in tax payer dollars goes towards Planned Parenthood again? Could this list get any easier to compare and contrast? Oh lookie! It can!!! NUMBER 1: DESTROYING AMERICA! Jesus Christ is that ever a disingenuous claim to lay at the feet of the haves. America, a nation built on individuality and actual drive and we're not supposed to admit that what has destroyed it is collectivism and sloth?

Please...

reply to post by burdman30ott6

Number 2... Making "me" pay for their mistakes... Oh yeah, how much in tax payer dollars goes towards Planned Parenthood again?

This one irritates me. Yes, there are rich people at the head of large business. Fine. There are also millions upon millions of average Americans that have their money invested in these companies. Not to mention all the jobs provided. If -insert company that I own a lot of stock in- went out of business, I'd be losing a ton of money. If I lost a ton of money maybe I wouldn't have purchased that new TV, or car, or gone out to dinner and tipped the nice young man working to get through college 30%.

This whole thing is incredibly complicated and it's so easy to blame 'the 1%' for all of our financial woes. I too am disgusted that people making the kind of money we're talking about here don't give more back, but the issue isn't so cut and dry. It's not just a tiny percent of the population deviously screwing over poor people. I guarantee the rest of the world looted the coffers of the 99% nothing would change all that much.

reply to post by burdman30ott6

Well, let's see here. The "bottom" almost 50% of America does an even better job at Number 8: "Avoiding taxes" than the 1% even does

I'm sorry... but is your Avatar... *THE DEVIL*?

Originally posted by soficrow
reply to post by n00bUK

 

I prefer "trickle up" economics.

S&F&

Correction: "trickle up" poverty.

Take from hard workers and give to non working people, and you'll discourage people from working hard. Even now employment for college grads is dropping, it's just too expensive (college loans, etc.) to get ahead.

I pay 45% tax on the money I make, and another 9% sales tax on the money I spend, which ironically is 54%, the same percentage of people in the US that don't work.

Every quarter I write big checks to the IRS and State. That's money I could use to hire someone. But I can't because much of it is being handed to people that don't work.

Why the hell do we pay taxes anyway, if the Fed can print all it wants? They could fund government with vapor money, we'd not pay income tax (which was unconstitutional until bankers created the Federal Reserve and the IRS), and we'd spend like crazy on jobs and products.

reply to post by Dbriefed


Correction back atcha. Trickle down economics gives $$$ to the top and counts on prosperity trickling down (it doesn't).

Trickle up economics gives $$$ to the bottom layer and counts on wealth travelling up the pipeline.

...It's an economics joke in academic circles.

reply to post by soficrow


You realize thats just meaningless propaganda, right?

You must be a pigeon, depending on government support in some way.

Trickle-up poverty was tried in Greece, it was tried in Cyprus, and it ended up to be a path for corruption, mismanagement, massive bureaucracies, and entitlement-based justification for lazyiness.

My welfare sister could turn a $1000 gift and buy liabilities that dig her 10x deeper; car she can't afford, another baby, down payment on a new 30% loan, a party with wrong people drugs then cops and court. She could turn a silk purse into a pigs ear. People who didn't earn their own money don't know how to handle it, from welfare sisters to trust fund babies.

I grew up in a nice neighborhood where abandoned FHA/VA 3br houses were given to people from Watts, who saw them as apartments and rented to two more families. The moms taught their 15yr old daughters welfare, how more babies meant a bigger check, and those daughters taught their daughters. Dads were other kids who had no real parents and made money by being bike thieves and burglars and started pretend gangs that turned real when they stole guns.

That's the trickle up utopia for you. My sister became a crack whore, my hometown became a hood. Kids in Cyprus are begging other kids for food. A great depression is hitting Europe (which risks spreading to the US) with unemployment far higher than was the unemployment rate in the US during our Great Depression. This was all created by the 'feeding the pigeons' effect of entitlements and trickle-up failure.

At first the pigeons and the old men feeding them feel happy, then the pigeon population explodes, everything is crapped on and people are figuring out ways to get rid of the hungry and aggressive pigeon population. Don't be a pigeon.

The economy and as an extension our government has become one huge mess. Not one single entity (1%, poor, middle class, etc) is responsible but rather all are responsible either through negligence, laziness, or lawlessness. The system is broken beyond the point of fixing and we need to just wait for it all to come crashing down. Hopefully, that will be enough to wake the people up so we can rebuild, but somehow I doubt it. The more I look at history and times past where this has happened, what rises from the ashes is usually far worse than what was before (Medieval Europe post Roman Empire, Roman Empire post Roman Republic, Nazi Germany post WWI). Oh well I guess we'll get what we deserve. Tis a pattern that will repeat itself again here and again later in history for ever and ever.