Let me tell you about the very rich.

Others who manipulate government ito growing the gap between rich and poor to their advantage?

I would have them contribute their fair share rather than have the State redistribute the nation's wealth into their pockets, as they have co-opted - via their inordinate influence, power, and wealth - government into doing.

If the primary role of government is to protect the life and property of every American, and lives are unquantifiable, that leaves property as the applicable metric by which the fairness of one's share is determined.

So, let everyone contribute to the society from which they extract their wealth in proportion to what they have accrued to be protected, whether one is amongst the rarified financial elite or the potless poorest of their fawning bum kissers.


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Allegations that the rich have become richer under Obama, or what responsibility Republicans or Democrats might have for the privileges of the rich or the suffering of the poor, misses the point entirely.

Anyone who is a student of history -- not just the tiny, tiny subset that is the history of the USA -- knows that obscenely rich, powerful people and a struggling underclass are standard features of every human society since civilization was invented. Demonizing the rich for being or seeking to become rich, or the poor for alleged inadequacies that make them poor, are self-serving popular myths that make us feel morally superior, but are otherwise nonsense.

Human societies seem to have a fundamental need for a geometric progression of wealth and power, no matter what the underlying political philosophy. So, Jackster makes a key point when he notes that socialism ultimately just creates an aristocracy of "the people", toppling one wealthy elite to create another, equally privileged. (However, I doubt that, as Jackster claims, the rich prefer socialism / big government, or care very much what social and political regime they work under. Once you're past your first million, it all works. Still, it would be very interesting to survey the very rich and see what sort of government they do prefer.)

My key point is that you can rail against the rich all you want, but they will always be there, ignoring your angst and outrage. Arguably, they are an essential element of society; you can't have social mobility unless you have some higher level to "mobilize" towards.

The only change in this reality in all of human history was the emergence, during the Renaissance, of a middle class. They are important because they made an income-tax financed government possible.

The poor are, obviously, not a source of income for government. The rich, even if heavily-taxed, are a small minority that are also not much help to the government coffers. And, if you press them too hard, they move themselves or their money elsewhere. No amount of legislative tinkering with tax rates is going to change this, ever.

The middle class are numerous in all successful countries, but not rich or powerful enough to ward off taxation or flee to a tax haven. So, they are the only social layer whose taxation matters. If you consider yourself to be in this class, congratulations! You are the bedrock of modern society, and the IRS (or Revenue Canada, up north where I am) loves you to pieces!

 

Then just throw your hands up and walk away.

But if you actually look at the policies proposed and enacted...you'll see that the Democratic party as a rule DOES work for the middle class...and the GOP does not.

 

Look, let me honest, I have rich friends/family, middle class friends/family, and poor friends/family. Christmas was interesting because I gave gift cards to ALL because who the hell needs the hassle? Rich friends/family gave me Christmas cards, no gift cards or anything, Middle class friends/family gave me gifts and some gave gift cards. Poor family/friends gave me food because of nobility. Here is the deal. Rich people don't part with their money and are extremely selfish. You want to act like they fuel the economy and they don't. That is life and there is nothing bad, but that is life, period.

 

That's the result of GOP Congress more than Obama's Presidency

 

I spent years doing HVAC work many different kinds of homes...rich poor and otherwise. Wealthy people never tip and they act like anyone doing work for them is ripping them off. Middle class people almost always tip and they act like you're doing them a favor.

Poor folks are just poor. They feel pain whenever they have to call a tradesman. I always try to go the extra mile for them and shave the bill as best I can. It sucks to be poor. I know. I was there.

 

Sounds like you are against people with low incomes paying no income tax. Or you're all for a fair flat tax right?

 

You need new friends.

 

Been there; done that.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! ... 1929?​

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Sounds as if you don't think that financial elites such as hedge funds managers should not be paying taxes like the vast majority of Americans, but it isn't just a matter of income tax rates and loopholes.

Again, putting aside collective responsibility of protecting and preserving Americans' commonweal, and recognizing that every American has an equal right to their person being protected, simply put, the government's primary responsibility is protecting private assets. All Americans should pay for that service according to the value of the personal assets they are having protected. Since the top 10% of families now own 75% of the nation's wealth, the top 10% of families should be paying the government 75% of the nation's taxes to protect it.

 

Asinine statement and totally irrelevant. The truth is, the rich don't wish to part with their money.

 

My opinion, when the economy is on a down swing and how the groups react.

The rich - A head cold
The middle class - The flu
The poor - Pneumonia

 

but theres a way to target these guys while helping the rest right? like by lowering the tax rate for those people you mentioned and closing loopholes that the hedgefund guys and the corporations that can afford armies of lawyers use to pay 0 taxes?

im sure one of the candidates proposed this.

 

Who tips construction workers? I used to do construction in my 20s and never once got tipped. You tip waitresses, bartenders, and taxi cabs. That's it.

 

IMO, there is little difference, other than zeros at the end of the ebt card, between a welfare queen, a hedge fund manager, a politician, & a stockbroker. They all depend on the working man to feed, clothe, house, & protect them. They are all leeches on the working man, & produce NOTHING. they are leeches on society, & make their living by conning the working man & manipulating the system, which is set up for them to exploit.

 

So long as the working man agrees to this "exploitation" then it isn't exploitation. It's a win/win situation where both parties are happy with the agreement.

If you don't like a contract, then don't agree to the contract.

 

spoken like a looter...

No i don't have any choice in this 'contract'. Hordes of moochers elect looters to fleece the working man & plunder his increase. Who among the producing citizens of America agrees to the 18+ Trillion dollar debt? Who wants all the wasteful govt programs that are rife with fraud & corruption, while the working man scrimps & ekes out a living?

If you give me a choice, it would be NO!! NO, NO, a thousand times, NO! The fiscal insanity of the looting govt con men is criminal, & should be prosecuted.

 

If your first sentence hadn't taken such a nose dive in inaccuracies, which says Democrats and Republicans are "split mostly even" the rest of your post would have been interesting. Too bad, because now, the rest of it no longer adds up, or can be taken seriously; http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...sidential-election-super-pac-donors.html?_r=0

 

Do you?

 

The jealousy is so thick you can cut it with a knife.

 

That's different, and nothing to do with the free market. That's armed robbery.

 

Generous homeowners...not of course conservatives.

 

how does killing things like Social Security so the !% can be richer help improve your life?



no one wants to tax the hell out of the 1%, we just want to make sure the 1% is not paying less tax per dollar then the middle class is


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This graphic is absurd. If someone owns a manufacturing business, they work hard to produce whatever widget they are making. They invest time & money in management, marketing, jumping through regulatory hoops, & trying to keep a professional labor force. You cannot hire 'low wage part time workers' to do this, unless you are operating with a grant, like a solyndra type operation, & you don't really care if it succeeds or not, since you are just plundering the taxpayers, anyway.

1. Manufacturing businesses must pay double taxes, one for corporate earnings, & again on any salaries or profits the owners make. The tax 'cuts' you imagine are seldom significant enough to hire new workers or expand the business.
2. Only a fool or a democrat would hire part time, low wage, unskilled workers to increase overhead for some manufacturing product.
3. The skilled manufacturing workers, many of them union & highly paid, create products that must compete with foreign made products that get preferential treatment by the politicians, prices manipulated by the foreign govts, & restrictions put in place by anti business fools who have no concept of an economy, & think money grows on trees or can be simply printed.
4. If the product does not sell because of lower priced, foreign competition, or too much overhead, too much taxation, too many regulation to jump through, low demand from an depressed economy, or any other factors, then the business owner(s) go belly up & lose all their investment in time & money. Where is this 'money' if the product does not sell? They still have the business overhead, the cost of operations.. there is no more money, if the product does not sell. There is no logic at all, on this point.
5. Everybody loses. The worker loses his job. The business owner loses their investment & operations, the local govts lose revenues. The only winners are the foreign competitors, who can now raise prices with less competition, & the stupid federal politicians, who pad their portfolios with kickbacks, raises they give themselves from the treasury, lavish gifts & contributions from other business & manufacturing owners who want to avoid the fate of the others who went belly up, & other moochers who reward the looting politicians for letting them ride the govt gravy train.

And then of course, we have the ivory tower fools, who sit in public funded institutions, drawing public funded, secure wages, taking no risks, managing no operations, without a clue or a care in the world, talking down their noses at those who actually PRODUCE something useful for humanity. They vilify & demonize the ONLY part of the human economy that produces anything, while cheering crony capitalists, public funded fiascos in 'green' industry or other delusions, imagining whirled peas & blaming everything on the producers, who PAY for their livelihood, and who merely enable the money shufflers, the deadbeats, the scoundrels, & the crooks who are plundering the treasury & driving us to bankruptcy.

This is only a propaganda meme, to deceive the simple minded who have no concept of how human economy works. It feeds & traps people in the Great Fiction, that govt can enable you to live off of everybody else. But eventually, you will run out of other people's money, & the nation will collapse in a lurid heap of dependency. THIS is what you are promoting.

 

I asked you a simple hypothetical question and you replied with a "look squrell!" Deflection answer that I did not present a question about.

Try again.