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The ranks of the working-age poor in the United States climbed to the highest level since the 1960s as the recession threw millions of people out of work last year, leaving one in seven Americans in poverty. The overall poverty rate climbed to 14.3 per cent, or 43.6 million people, the Census Bureau said yesterday in its annual report on the economic well-being of US households. Gulfnews.com
While 43.6 million Americans live in poverty, the richest men of finance sure are getting pissy. First Steve Schwartzman, head of the Blackrock private equity company, compares the Obama administration's effort to close billionaires' tax loopholes to "the Nazi invasion of Poland." Then hedge fund mogul David Loeb announces that he's abandoning the Democrats because they're violating "this country's core founding principles" -- including "non-punitive taxation, Constitutionally-guaranteed protections against persecution of the minority, and an inexorable right of self-determination." Instead of showing their outrage about the spread of poverty in the richest nation on Earth, the super-rich want us to pity them?
Why are Wall Street's billionaires so whiny? Is it really possible to make $900,000 an hour (not a typo -- that's what the top ten hedge fund managers take in), and still feel aggrieved about the way government is treating you? After you've been bailed out by the federal government to the tune of $10 trillion (also not a typo) in loans, asset swaps, liquidity and other guarantees, can you really still feel like an oppressed minority?
You'd think the Wall Street moguls would be thankful. Not just thankful -- down on their knees kissing the ground taxpayers walk on and hollering hallelujah at the top of their lungs! These guys profited from puffing up the housing bubble, then got bailed out when the going got tough. (Please see The Looting of America for all the gory details.) Without taxpayer largess, these hedge fund honchos would be flat broke. Instead, they're back to hauling in obscene profits.
• What do these guys actually do that earns them such wealth?
• Is what they do productive and useful for society? Is there any connection between what they earn and what they produce for society?
• Did they help cause the crash?
• Did these billionaires benefit from the bailouts? If so, how much?
• Are they exacerbating the current unemployment and poverty crisis with their shenanigans?
• Why shouldn't we eliminate their tax loopholes (like carried interest)?
• Should their sky-high incomes be taxed at the same levels as during the Eisenhower years?
• Can we create the millions of jobs we need if the billionaires continue to skim off so much of our nation's wealth??
• Should we curb their wealth and political influence?
It's true that the billionaires live in a hermetically sealed world. But that doesn't mean they don't notice the riffraff nipping at their heels. And they don't like it much. So they've gotten busy doing what billionaires do best: using their money to shield themselves. They're digging into their bottomless war chests, tapping their vast connections and using their considerable influence to shift the debate away from them and towards the rest of us.
We borrowed too much, not them. We get too much health care, not them. We retire too soon, not them. We need to tighten our belts while they pull in another $900,000 an hour. And if we want to cure poverty, we need to get the government to leave Wall Street alone. Sadly, their counter-offensive is starting to take hold.
How can this happen? Many Americans want to relate to billionaires. They believe that all of us are entitled to make as much as we can, pretty much by any means necessary. After all, maybe someday you or I will strike it rich. And when we do, we sure don't want government regulators or the taxman coming around!
Source: www.huffingtonpost.com...
Originally posted by neo96
a clear difference obviously im sick of these threads and i hate them with a passion the rich,banks and corporations are all where they are now because obviously they are doing things you are not.
Originally posted by neo96
the persecution of minorites is a fact that is what the well off and so called rich are.
Originally posted by neo96in the world we live in the only constitutional rights are that of minorities but what thats what we are talking about.
Originally posted by neo96sooner or later the class warfare will have what it wants no more rich and then you will have no jobs no cars no homes, no ipods,no xboxs no ps3s and so on and so forth.
Originally posted by neo96like or not the reason you people are " poor" is its the life you have made for yourselves you have done nothing to bring yourselves out of it the only things you people are doing is whining and crying and moaning about things you and you alone have the power to do something about but no you just site there and wait for a handout, a "Stimulus check" and this is the biggest reason you are where you are right now and where you will always be.
Originally posted by neo96any "rich" person or "well off" person took his own destiny into his own hands and made the life he so wanted and thats why hes where he is thats why he is better off and his life will continue to be so.
Originally posted by neo96a clear difference obviously im sick of these threads and i hate them with a passion the rich,banks and corporations are all where they are now because obviously they are doing things you are not.
Originally posted by neo96 YOU HAVE noone to blame but yourselves americans have become soft, they have become fat and they have become stupid and they are clearly leading a self destructive life.
Originally posted by neo96people always go im a hard worker and blah blah blah. im telling you there is more to be sucessfully than just going to work putting in a full and comming home and sit on your couch.
Originally posted by neo96and it is that "i want it mentality" and "i deserve it" are the reasons they are in the situtations they are currently in and thats why you will always be there.
Originally posted by neo96the rich or well off have every right to complain for the simple fact they have earned their money thats a foreign concept to the majority of americans. too many people think that just cause someone has too much they dont deserve it and you are seriously mistaken.