[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vision-master', 'I') see, you are not poor.

an you despise us too....

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', '
')And I guess that's your point, right? Having money and getting a break is morally superior to being hard up and getting one?

[KingM]

There is always a parasitic class. There is a big number on the bottom that suck as much as they can out of the system and lack either the ability or the desire to produce enough on their own to keep from starving. Then there is a parasitic group on top that sucks up the productive wealth by extracting rents and other value transference from the people actually producing. They are far smaller in number, but far more efficient.

The difference between the two groups, apart from size and efficiency, is that you can get rid of the bottom group when times are tough. You can't get rid of the top group, no matter what. There will always be warlords, a priestly class, pharaohs, shoguns, a politburo, investment bankers, or whatever they call themselves in a given era. When times get tough, they don't suffer, they make others suffer. First, the vast parasitic underclass starves or is enslaved, and then they tighten the screws on the productive classes.

[Lore]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dsula', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', '
') What mechanism do the TeaParty have in mind to redistribute wealth downward?

[vision-master]

I say the rulers/ wealthy are going to fail.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KingM', 'T')hen there is a parasitic group on top that sucks up the productive wealth by extracting rents and other value transference from the people actually producing. They are far smaller in number, but far more efficient.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lore', 'T')he disparity is not between the rich and the poor, that has always been a wide gap, but between the wealthy and the middle class.

[dsula]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vision-master', 'I') see, you are not poor.

an you despise us too....

[vision-master]

an the weathly has convinced you it's bc of all those poor losers who don't pay taxes.

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dsula', 'A')nd I understand that there are high earners out there that deserve it.

[dsula]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vision-master', 'a')n the weathly has convinced you it's bc of all those poor losers who don't pay taxes.

[vision-master]

You could be next?

We all are living in a bubble.

The bubble pops, then what?

many ppl have gone from hard working middle class to the bottom.

It happened to my brother a couple years ago.

Who's going to HELP you if it all unravels.

[dsula]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'W')hat makes people upset is stuff like this:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A') chief executive officer of a Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 index company was paid, on average, $9.25 million in total compensation in 2009.

[KingM]

It's important to understand the orders of magnitude in wealth between the poorest and the richest. I would say someone in the U.S. trying to support a family who is making $25,000 a year is poor, wouldn't you agree? This year, due to a variety of circumstances not likely to be duplicated, my wife and I made roughly $250,000 before taxes. I feel pretty flush. We took a trip to France with the whole family, saved a good chunk of money, etc.

I have a friend who is a NY Times Bestselling author. I don't know how much she made last year, but I know a couple of years ago when she had a successful book and one of her other books was turned into a made-for-tv movie, she made well over $2,000,000. This is the same difference in income from mine as I am from the poor working class guy who tries to support his family on $25,000.

There are people out there like athletes and celebrities, who make ten times more than she does. To them, she's the poor guy making 25K. And what's even more crazy, is there are hedge fund managers and the like who make ten times more than they do. The difference in wealth between them and my rich author friend is the same as between the woman making $2,000,000 a year and the guy hanging drywall for 10 bucks an hour.

And you know what? There were several hedge fund managers who made 10 times more than that!

Think of it this way. One hundred thousand Mexican laborers working forty hours a week hanging drywall worked two hundred million man hours at ten bucks an hour and made less in 2009 than James Simmons, head of the hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, who received 2.5 billion (2,500,000,000.00) in compensation last year.

What did he do? He extracted money in small percentages from lots of other people so they could invest their savings. For that, he was paid more than 100,000,000 laborers.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', '
')
I mean I don't have anything against an orthopedist making $250k or a plumber either for that matter.

[Lore]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dsula', 'I') agree, but that's the exception. Small and medium size companies are the norm, maybe even owner operated. They deserve what the earn. Even if it's millions.

To solve your big company problem you don't have to tax at an insane level. Much better is to break up companies. Limit the size to a few 1000 employees, or limit their value. That's what solves the problem much better than high taxes.

[Cog]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('deMolay', 'A')s usual no body would answer the question. Especially Ludi. Just saying.

[vision-master]

Tell us what happens?

[Livewire713]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vision-master', 'T')ell us what happens?

[Cog]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vision-master', 'T')ell us what happens?