Excellent Commentary on American Wealth Gap.

I'll admit reading some statistics in a report about wealth inequality at first makes you feel like something should be done. But then back in the real world it gets pretty blurry on what if anything should be done. The wealthy (and their forefathers) have taken actions that earned that wealth and kept it. Any "solution" to this problem has to involve the transfer of wealth from the rich to the poor. What would that solve? NOTHING.

One of the first examples showing this is to study the financial behaviors of lottery winners. After winning millions 70% of them end up broke. Here is an article detailing I believe 17 cases of this: www.businessinsider.com.... Ask yourself, how do the wealthy who as many say "haven't earned it" and are born into it manage to keep it when all these lottery winners cannot? Are they smarter than the lottery winners? Luckier? Just being born into wealth doesn't mean you are rich your whole life. With the facts above it isn't a stretch to say taking a million dollars from the rich and giving it to everyone in America wouldn't solve anything. 70% would probably be broke again - then what? Give them another million? You can't let them live in poverty right?

There will always be people who are poor, don't want to be rich or work, and/or cannot manage money and make poor financial decisions. If you are a 20 year old unmarried woman with no education and no skills do you think it's a good financial decision to have a kid? or two kids or three kids?

America has been waging a war on poverty for how many years now? Fifty? All these countless government assistance programs have been running for decades and we have more people in poverty and out of work than ever. We need to just admit these programs don't work at creating wealth. They do work at creating citizens dependent on the government for everything. And they are okay with it! I will never understand it.

Spookybelle

buster2010
reply to post by Spookybelle

 

How exactly are people being forced into poverty?

Wealthy people moving jobs overseas and cutting jobs to increase profit forces people into poverty. These poor wealthy people that are already making record profits are screwing over America just for more money. Greed should be viewed as a mental illness.

So what you are telling me is that because some company moved their jobs overseas that there is absolutely nothing people can do to get out of poverty.

Nothing at all, that's it, game over, there is no chance for them ever to escape poverty?

If there are no jobs in the area then what else is there but poverty? Starting a business costs money moving to another city where jobs are costs money so how is a person that was barely getting by going to be able to do any of these.

Spookybelle
A disparity in wealth is irrelevant as long as their is a path available for everyone to earn as much as they are motivated to.

If people do not want to work for it or are not smart enough to get it than it should not be given to them. As far as I know, there are multiple paths to wealth in the US.

There is nobody out to purposefully limit any specific group other than the individuals limiting themselves.

I don't mean to be insulting, but, your last line speaks of how naïve you are...you have no idea the lengths the wealthy will go to protect their own personal fortunes, and the continued accumulation of more.

the KOCH BROS are worth 31 billion each...and they are still trying to bribe politicians for tax breaks, and elimination of regulations, that would adversely affect their OWN yearly income.
here's just a tidbit of their own sociopathic thinking...
www.truth-out.org...
they want to eliminate the minimum wage and are spending millions to bring that about...

reply to post by Cabin


Seriously wrong????

What is wrong is that people are pushed to focus on what others have, and hate them. Instead of earning and working for what they want, and not hate others.

Nothing like pushing the masses to tear down others, in a fool's attempt in raising them up.

macman
reply to post by Cabin

 

Seriously wrong????

What is wrong is that people are pushed to focus on what others have, and hate them. Then to earn and work for what they want, and not hate others.

Nothing like pushing the masses to tear down others, in a fool's attempt in raising them up.

nobody needs to push the masses...the masses experience the unfairness and inequity everyday. it is people like you, that tries to shame people into silence and inaction, for thinking they are being unfairly compensated for their work.

reply to post by jimmyx


Yeah, because the Walmart greeter should be making as much as the store manager.

Nothing like pushing crap, to back crap up.

Spookybelle
A disparity in wealth is irrelevant as long as their is a path available for everyone to earn as much as they are motivated to.

If people do not want to work for it or are not smart enough to get it than it should not be given to them. As far as I know, there are multiple paths to wealth in the US.

There is nobody out to purposefully limit any specific group other than the individuals limiting themselves.

But there isn't a path right now... I think capitalism, in its purest form is the best thing that we humans have to hope for in terms of an economic model... we don't have capitalism right now, we have a public/private partnership that manifests itself in crony capitalism that quite frankly, isn't any different than what the Soviets had during their heyday. The elitists, the guys at the top, legislate themselves markets, disrupting the free market and causing chaos... that in turn causes the wealth gap. Both conservatives and liberals have it wrong, they're rooting for opposite sides in what is already a partnership, not understanding that everyone is getting screwed in the process because not only have the not been invited to the game, many of them don't even understand it is being played.

jjkenobi
I'll admit reading some statistics in a report about wealth inequality at first makes you feel like something should be done. But then back in the real world it gets pretty blurry on what if anything should be done. The wealthy (and their forefathers) have taken actions that earned that wealth and kept it. Any "solution" to this problem has to involve the transfer of wealth from the rich to the poor. What would that solve? NOTHING.

One of the first examples showing this is to study the financial behaviors of lottery winners. After winning millions 70% of them end up broke. Here is an article detailing I believe 17 cases of this: www.businessinsider.com.... Ask yourself, how do the wealthy who as many say "haven't earned it" and are born into it manage to keep it when all these lottery winners cannot? Are they smarter than the lottery winners? Luckier? Just being born into wealth doesn't mean you are rich your whole life. With the facts above it isn't a stretch to say taking a million dollars from the rich and giving it to everyone in America wouldn't solve anything. 70% would probably be broke again - then what? Give them another million? You can't let them live in poverty right?

There will always be people who are poor, don't want to be rich or work, and/or cannot manage money and make poor financial decisions. If you are a 20 year old unmarried woman with no education and no skills do you think it's a good financial decision to have a kid? or two kids or three kids?

America has been waging a war on poverty for how many years now? Fifty? All these countless government assistance programs have been running for decades and we have more people in poverty and out of work than ever. We need to just admit these programs don't work at creating wealth. They do work at creating citizens dependent on the government for everything. And they are okay with it! I will never understand it.

Those programs weren't intended to create wealth, they were created for the exact reason you stated. Creating citizens dependent on the government for everything.

macman
reply to post by jimmyx

 

Yeah, because the Walmart greeter should be making as much as the store manager.

Nothing like pushing crap, to back crap up.

pushing crap??....the federal minimum wage hasn't been raised in 7 years....I wonder how many of the wealthy haven't increased their income in 7 years...all you have to do is look at the financial data for this nation...a growing poor class, a dwindling middle class, lack of jobs, lack of spending, anemic overall economic growth, coupled with a massive increase in wealth, to the already wealthy....this isn't opinion...it's all documented in the government's IRS, CBO, OMB financial records.

reply to post by jimmyx


Or, how about this.

Why not work to better oneself and earn the better jobs/careers?
Or is that just too much to ask the dumb people you supposedly are wanting "protected"?

I guess in your world, people are just too dumb, or something else, to be able to work for these things themselves.

Oh, I do love being lectured by Bill Maher. What is his personal wealth again?

Might as well parade Michael-Jabba the Hut-Moore out to trounce capitalism.

reply to post by jimmyx


So, the only solution is to raise minimum wage and not push people to earn the next step up in life.


Gotta love the Progressive way of thinking. You sure do base your thoughts on people being dumb and helpless.
Thank God you and the Govt are here to "help".

It's a rigged game. Doesn't matter what system/ism anyone wants to try so long as we continue to have secret monetary masters. The financial world was rigged and before most of our ancestors were literate. We'll see what ultimate effect the increasing awareness of the financial world being rigged has.

When ranch owners see this happening they either upgrade the latch or move/kill the cow unless it can be used as a pet, tool, or sideshow of some sort. Not invite it in for dinner and discussion.

This doesn't mean there isn't room for people to elevate themselves... but the closer someone is to the source of the money supply... the clearer the advantage they have. In order to get closer to the money supply source... they have to be willing to help sustain the rigged system which allows the financial advantage to exist and continue in the first place.

macman
reply to post by jimmyx

 

Or, how about this.

Why not work to better oneself and earn the better jobs/careers?
Or is that just too much to ask the dumb people you supposedly are wanting "protected"?

I guess in your world, people are just too dumb, or something else, to be able to work for these things themselves.

Oh, I do love being lectured by Bill Maher. What is his personal wealth again?

Might as well parade Michael-Jabba the Hut-Moore out to trounce capitalism.

While I can't disagree with your point about being lectured by maher I do find it odd that people like you and spooky seem to think everyone could be professional athletes, doctors, and engineers if only they weren't so damn lazy and unambitious.

We'd end up just having a bunch of overqualified people doing jobs that pay less than 10$ an hour. Wait we already do have that! But that's just because they're lazy right?

macman
reply to post by jimmyx

 

So, the only solution is to raise minimum wage and not push people to earn the next step up in life.


Gotta love the Progressive way of thinking. You sure do base your thoughts on people being dumb and helpless.
Thank God you and the Govt are here to "help".

I don't know why you are so worried...the push to make poor people more poor, and drive the middle class into the poor class, has been working for decades. union jobs have been slashed, company health benefits have been slashed or completely done away with, companies are now working people part-time so they don't have to pay them so much for full-time benefits, there were Clinton era cuts to welfare, a $2.13 minimum wage was passed into law for all food servers in restuarants back in the early 90's, tax write-offs for interest payments that helped the middle-class were done away with by Reagen, Clinton and the republican congress passed GATT and NAFTA, that sent good paying manufacturing jobs out of the country. H1-B visas for foreign workers to come into America to work for a limited time, and for a lot less than American workers were paid has grown ( here's Sen. teddy Cruz just this year proposing an increased by 500%) www.youtube.com...
so, if this is what you call "government giving help"...I can't wait to see what happens when they stop

reply to post by jimmyx


Seems to be that in order for the Govt to stay in power, it needs the people dependent upon it.

I am non-union, non Govt subsidized, not from a wealthy family yet I have managed to become upper middle class, with a new business being started.

I guess no one else can do this, without the Govt "helping" them.

The more liberal the U.S. becomes, the greater the wealth gap will become. These progressive policies are designed to obliterate the middle class, leaving a massive peasant population that the "elite" can rule over. Common sense stuff, yet liberals aren't able to wrap their minds around it.

It seems to be the same in most countries now.
Even Russia has a huge wealth inequality gap and seemingly the poor in Russia were better off under the Soviet Union which says alot about Capitalism.
I have no problem with people wanting to be wealthy but when it comes to the detriment of the rest of their society then I do have a problem with that or obscene wealth whilst makes me sick.
I was brought up to believe that hard work,determination to succeed and intelligence was what brought about wealth but as I got older I soon realised that its complete utter nonsense.
You should watch born rich on yt about wealth inequality in the US by Jamie Johnson an heir to the johnson & Johnson family.
It seems now that there is next to no social mobility and the majority of Americans are now realising that the American dream was all a big con as the country is now in financial dire straits.
The Capitalists of the world sold us on the idea of globalism which means we can get lots of cheap products made in slave labour countries but unfortunately all the manufacturing jobs went to those countries too.
Unfortunately I only see things getting worse in the future and I dont think a NWO is too far fetched as I believe that that is really what politicians and bankers and capitalists are aiming for.
A one world government,one world currency and an army to keep the minority rich controlling the world majority poor like the film Elysium but on this planet.