A compilation of articles and videos regarding income inequality in the United States

I dont get how they view this as fair? I mean the country is in a massive debt hole, they own a significant portion of the wealth, but then want the guys who have basically not seen a proper pay raise in the last few years (probably a drop in income relatively) to pay for it all? how does that work... the ones most able to pay and contribute to the recovery of the country are the ones skipping their duties leaving those less able, to foot the bill. Guess its a case of "I'm alright jack" .... " fuck everyone else, if the country goes to the dogs, I'll just float away on my yacht". I agree you must have an element of looking after number one, but clearly people are taking this too far.
 
Just remember this (and I can't remember the source of the theory) but it is said that if all the wealth in the world were to be taken from everyone, put into a pot and distributed equally between every person on the planet, within a generation it would all be back where it originally started.

I agree, but at least we would have equal starting opportunities, to show individual skills and justify richness by saying that "they earned it". The more disparities there are in the beginning, the more money is used to create opportunities instead of rewarding them, the more we will be living in socially unfair cultures.

What was the line? Oh yes: "Gentlemen, when I first started Reynholm Industries, I had just two things in my possession: a dream, and six million pounds. Today, I have a business empire the like of which the world has never seen the like of which" (Mr. Reynholm, "The IT Crowd" - Season 2 - Episode 2).

Being a millionaire isn't as big a deal as it was years ago. Anyone making 200k+ a year individually or in a family can with careful investment and savings save up a fortune over 1 million dollars. So that would include almost every working professional family in the country. Yes there are some mega rich senators, but the median worth for Congress was 765k for House, and 2.38 million for Senate. That is not unreasonable considering lots of them are lawyers, doctors, executives etc. in their previous jobs.

Aren't people making 200k+ a small portion of the total? Say like 3% of the population, so 7,5 million people over 250 million? Yes, they are many people, but I don't think they are that many. Moreover, 1 million dollar now is worth way less than 1 million dollar 30, 40 or even 50 years ago.
 
For the last 20-30 years the Democrats have largely quit talking to (and fighting for) the poor and middle class. That let the Republicans step in and slowly convince everyone that up is down, black is white, etc etc etc when it comes to economics. There's an excellent, if dated, book by Thomas Frank called What's the Matter with Kansas? that explains the phenomenon pretty well.

Thanks I'll have to check out that book.
 
This is interesting:

MINT-TAXES-R4.png
 
For me a major issue is that we have rich hoarders like Warren Buffet. I want the rich to buy super mega yachts and statues of themselves made out of gold. Why? Because it creates jobs. Bill Gates didn't build his mansion, the working class did. We haven't seen that for a while and thus the money has ended up in sinks unused and undistributed.
 
You have a point. But there is just a limited amount of money that you spent in a "useful" way. I've I had unlimited funds... well what would I buy? A cool house, a couple of nice cars that I can actually drive (so not hundreds just to put them in a barn). And that's it. It just makes no sense to buy 3 mega yachts or so. So at one point, you just have to hoard the money when it keeps coming.

What I don't get is why these people like Buffet keep working. Are they "enjoying" earning money so much? Honestly, if I had a job that made me that rich, I'll just skip out of business and enjoy life. That doesn't mean being lazy... But find a nice hobby.

Well Abramowich does that kind of. He bought himself a soccer club. But the most undeserving millionaires are sport guys imo... Why does such a person have to get millions just for running around in a stadium?
 
If you mean players by sports guys then I would say are deserved as they make a crap ton of money for the team owners. They also go through their cash like water so I can't complain.

As for Buffet, I'm guessing he enjoys his work too much to quit. Not that he can't work in the Buffet Saucer floating above the Buffet towers on Buffet Island.
 
This is interesting:

MINT-TAXES-R4.png

It makes sense that those who control the majority of the wealth would pay the most in taxes. Simply put, our government knows that others can't afford to. The poverty line for a family of 4 is $22,350. If you taxed these people at the normal rate, which right now is around 35%, they wouldn't have enough money to get by and would end up needing government assistance.

Dividends are taxed at 15%. Typically, the people who can afford to own dividend producing financial assets are not those making $22,350/yr. The low dividend tax rate is how people like Warren Buffett are taxed at a rate of less than 20%.
 
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It makes sense that those who control the majority of the wealth would pay the most in taxes. Simply put, our government knows that others can't afford to. The poverty line for a family of 4 is $22,350. If you taxed these people at the normal rate, which right now is around 35%, they wouldn't have enough money to get by and would end up needing government assistance.

Dividends are taxed at 15%. Typically, the people who can afford to own dividend producing financial assets are not those making $22,350/yr. The low dividend tax rate is how people like Warren Buffett are taxed at a rate of less than 20%.

Yes, I agree however, the families of four between the poverty line and $51K don't pay into income taxes. Granted that they pay into taxes through payroll and excise taxes, you can't rely on the middle class that seeks to grow to carry the burden.

http://themoderatevoice.com/69631/fox-and-tea-partys-phony-tax-complaint/
 
This "middle class" thing... what constitutes the middle class over there, anything between the poverty line and the top tax bracket?
 
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The second point is that if you live at the poverty line, you shouldn't have two kids. It's economically unfeasible. Wrap it up and you won't suffer as badly.
 
At the poverty line you can't always afford birth control. It also doesn't mean that they where at the poverty line when they had the kids.
 
The second point is that if you live at the poverty line, you shouldn't have two kids. It's economically unfeasible. Wrap it up and you won't suffer as badly.

The vast majority of people in this world don't set out thinking "gee, I want to be poor."

[video=youtube;nWroQs-L9pU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWroQs-L9pU[/video]
 
Lewis Black for President.
 
The bad news: Republicans, aided and abetted by many conservative policy intellectuals, are fixated on a view about what?s blocking job creation that fits their prejudices and serves the interests of their wealthy backers, but bears no relationship to reality.
Krugman
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/30/opinion/krugman-phony-fear-factor.html?src=me&ref=general


george carlin on the american dream
http://shoqvalue.com/george-carlin-on-the-american-dream-with-transcript
[video=youtube;acLW1vFO-2Q]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q[/video]
 
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What I don't get is why these people like Buffet keep working. Are they "enjoying" earning money so much? Honestly, if I had a job that made me that rich, I'll just skip out of business and enjoy life. That doesn't mean being lazy... But find a nice hobby.

He enjoys doing what he does. The man fascinates me, his kids got almost none of his money (saw an interview with Peter Buffet and he said he got about 90K when he turned 19 and some advice how to invest it, and later on 1 Billion to turn into a charity that couldn't be used by him or his wife) and he has repeatedly said he will die broke with the money going to really help people. In that same interview with Peter Buffet he said that growing up he didn't realize just HOW rich his dad was until he was in his 20's.
 
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