9 out of 10 Americans completely wrong

[Foxfyre]

Who Rules America: Wealth, Income, and Power

we can see that the numbers change from year to year, but on average not much has changed since early in the century to present.

You mean the USA has always been a lie and a cheat? · ·

Anyway, interesting link. (Not the Heritage Foundation, of course; the one above)
.

yea I know about the link. but what interest me they make a simple thing so complicated. So much spin from the left and right to try to find the truth. I guess thats why its so much fun to try to figure it out.

You may enjoy doing the digging necessary to figure it out. I often enjoy doing the digging to figure stuff out.

But they make it look so complicated so few will bother to look for the truth. Or who just don't have the time and patience to do it. And we have far too many, mostly good, honest, hard working Americans, who are frustrated or angry or bitterly partisan or discouraged or whatever who are more than willing to believe the propaganda that is put out there and buy into the stated conclusions however dishonestly and/or unethically the are presented. And of course there are those who are being paid or coerced or brainwashed into deflecting away from the truth of a lot of this stuff.

 

[numan]

Much of life (if not most of it) is based on dumb luck and who your parents are.

Professional athletes of any caliber (much less exceptional talents like Jordan) make up less than one percent of one percent of the population.

There are tons of musicians. Very few of them make any money at it.

Some businesses are created by self-made men, but those are few and far between. Most businesses are just shuffling of chairs by people at the top of the ladder.

The brain-dead will go to their graves never understanding these simple facts.

They hate thinking even worse than death.
.

 

[RKMBrown]

Numan do you have anything to say or are you just here to troll?

 

[Mertex]

Yes...but do you two need Food Stamps or any other government subsidy to make ends meet?

Heck no. Hell no. Never... I've never been out of work, not one day, and I don't plan on ever being out of work. I've never collected a dime of government checks and I don't plan on ever having to either. That said, I've paid millions into the system, so if anything catastrophic ever happens and I end up unable to work for over a decade and my savings runs out and my family won't take me in... never mind just shoot me if that happens.

And that appears, is what they want me to do. Shoot my kids, my husband and myself so we won't end up on the dole. Civilization? I think we lost that a long time ago.

RK sounds like a drama queen! No one ever "plans" to be out of work! The truth is, most Republicans claim they would never accept help, but they are the first in line when they are desperate. My Republican friend's daughter was hurt during Katrina, her apartment was destroyed. She has two kids and no husband and my friend and her husband were having to foot the bill to help her as she had no type of insurance. Then she found out that the government was providing assistance, and she said to me, "Oh, I'm so glad they're helping her, it was a real drain on our budget".

Someone said "conservatives have no hearts" and I believe it is true. Many of them claim to be Christian, yet they are so greedy and money hungry, they can only think about themselves and their own.

What is really puzzling is that they support the War in Iraq, the billions of dollars we flushed down that toilet, for what? To give Iraq a democracy? I would rather help our own Americans than worry about Iraq having a democracy. And now they want us to jump in help Syria's enemies (which happen to be Muslim, too)! Go figure!

The funniest part, they think all Liberals are on welfare, and that no conservative is. The truth is that poor Republican conservatives don't realize they are supporting a party that wants to throw them under the bus.

 

[Flopper]

Sure every one likes to deal with local businesses but are you willing to pay $9 for a T shirt available at Walmart for $2.75 and batteries at Mom and Pop Sundries for $15 available at Target for $9. People quickly forget that $2.75 T shirt was probably made by a 10 year old working 50 hours a week in a fire trap for practically nothing. Everyone likes the personal service and advice but how much is worth?

What's practically nothing to you is just enough for that little 10 year old to feed his family. Contrary to ignorant misconceptions, parents in developing nations don't let their children work because they are evil parents. The country is so unproductive the children has no choice but to work as well. And with low productivity comes lower wages. If the children didn't work, families would simply stave to death.

What are their alternatives otherwise? Thievery, Drugs Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Prostitution?

There is some truth in what you're saying, particular in Africa and some parts of Asia. However, when manufactures lands big orders with the box store chains, in order to make a profit they have no choice but to hire children because the cost of adult labor is too high.

 

[AmazonTania]

There is some truth in what you're saying, particular in Africa and some parts of Asia. However, when manufactures lands big orders with the box store chains, in order to make a profit they have no choice but to hire children because the cost of adult labor is too high.

No. No it isn't. In places where they do have child labour, the participate rate among children ages 7 -14 is rarely ever above 20% according to the World Bank. If children were the preferred employees when it came to making a profit, this number would be much hire.

Majority of the workers in developing nations are adults age 15+.

 

[RKMBrown]

Heck no. Hell no. Never... I've never been out of work, not one day, and I don't plan on ever being out of work. I've never collected a dime of government checks and I don't plan on ever having to either. That said, I've paid millions into the system, so if anything catastrophic ever happens and I end up unable to work for over a decade and my savings runs out and my family won't take me in... never mind just shoot me if that happens.

And that appears, is what they want me to do. Shoot my kids, my husband and myself so we won't end up on the dole. Civilization? I think we lost that a long time ago.

RK sounds like a drama queen! No one ever "plans" to be out of work! The truth is, most Republicans claim they would never accept help, but they are the first in line when they are desperate. My Republican friend's daughter was hurt during Katrina, her apartment was destroyed. She has two kids and no husband and my friend and her husband were having to foot the bill to help her as she had no type of insurance. Then she found out that the government was providing assistance, and she said to me, "Oh, I'm so glad they're helping her, it was a real drain on our budget".

Someone said "conservatives have no hearts" and I believe it is true. Many of them claim to be Christian, yet they are so greedy and money hungry, they can only think about themselves and their own.

What is really puzzling is that they support the War in Iraq, the billions of dollars we flushed down that toilet, for what? To give Iraq a democracy? I would rather help our own Americans than worry about Iraq having a democracy. And now they want us to jump in help Syria's enemies (which happen to be Muslim, too)! Go figure!

The funniest part, they think all Liberals are on welfare, and that no conservative is. The truth is that poor Republican conservatives don't realize they are supporting a party that wants to throw them under the bus.

WOW don't you have "everyone" figured out.

 

[AmazonTania]

And from USC - EDU
Who Rules America: Wealth, Income, and Power
we can see that the numbers change from year to year, but on average not much has changed since early in the century to present. So what is the problem?

Table 4: Share of wealth held by the Bottom 99% and Top 1% in the United States, 1922-2010.
. . . . . . .Top 1. . . . Bottom 99
. . . . . . .percent. . . percent

1922. . . . 63.3%. . . .36.7%
1929. . . . 55.8% . . . .44.2%
1933. . . . 66.7%. . . . 33.3%
1939. . . . 63.6%. . . . 36.4%
1945. . . . 70.2%. . . . 29.8%
1949. . . . 72.9%. . . . 27.1%
1953. . . . 68.8%. . . . 31.2%
1962. . . . 68.2%. . . . 31.8%
1965. . . . 65.6%. . . . 34.4%
1969. . . . 68.9%. . . . 31.1%
1972. . . . 70.9%. . . . 29.1%
1976. . . . 80.1%. . . . 19.9%
1979. . . . 79.5%. . . . 20.5%
1981. . . . 75.2%. . . . 24.8%
1983. . . . 69.1%. . . . 30.9%
1986. . . . 68.1%. . . . 31.9%
1989. . . . 64.3% . . . .35.7%
1992. . . . 62.8%. . . . 37.2%
1995. . . . 61.5%. . . . 38.5%
1998. . . . 61.9%. . . . 38.1%
2001. . . . 66.6%. . . . 33.4%
2004. . . . 65.7%. . . . 34.3%
2007. . . . 65.4%. . . . 34.6%
2010. . . . 64.6%. . . . 35.4%

Every crisis needs a boogy-man. That's the problem.

 

[Skull Pilot]

You can claim that it's whiny, but that doesn't make it less true.

It's not true at all.

Unless of course you are brain dead and can literally do nothing but drool into a cup.

Much of life (if not most of it) is based on dumb luck and who your parents are.

Bullshit.

 

[rightwinger]

It's not true at all.

Unless of course you are brain dead and can literally do nothing but drool into a cup.

Much of life (if not most of it) is based on dumb luck and who your parents are.

Bullshit.

Your family structure has a lot to do with how successful you are in life

Want to bet on the prospects of a child born to a single mother against a child born to millionaires?

 

[Skull Pilot]

Much of life (if not most of it) is based on dumb luck and who your parents are.

Bullshit.

Your family structure has a lot to do with how successful you are in life

Want to bet on the prospects of a child born to a single mother against a child born to millionaires?

So you marginalize peoples' accomplishments by calling then dumb luck?

I can give you plenty of examples of people born poor, to single mothers etc who are by all accounts successful.

They became successful because they chose to be and they worked for it, sacrificed and did what others would not do and you want to call it luck.

 

[rightwinger]

Bullshit.

Your family structure has a lot to do with how successful you are in life

Want to bet on the prospects of a child born to a single mother against a child born to millionaires?

So you marginalize peoples' accomplishments by calling then dumb luck?

I can give you plenty of examples of people born poor, to single mothers etc who are by all accounts successful.

They became successful because they chose to be and they worked for it, sacrificed and did what others would not do and you want to call it luck.

Once again conservatives fall back on single instances to prove theories. Look at the population as a whole and tell me what percentage of children from single mothers become millionaires compared to those born to wealth

 

[Skull Pilot]

Your family structure has a lot to do with how successful you are in life

Want to bet on the prospects of a child born to a single mother against a child born to millionaires?

So you marginalize peoples' accomplishments by calling then dumb luck?

I can give you plenty of examples of people born poor, to single mothers etc who are by all accounts successful.

They became successful because they chose to be and they worked for it, sacrificed and did what others would not do and you want to call it luck.

Once again conservatives fall back on single instances to prove theories

That one person can overcome poor beginnings is proof. But there are literally tens if not hundreds of thousands of people who have overcome poor beginnings to become successful.

Look at the population as a whole and tell me what percentage of children from single mothers become millionaires compared to those born to wealth

More excuse making. Just because most people don't, or won't do something does not mean they can't. That you want to accept that they can't is just like a liberal.

 

[rightwinger]

So you marginalize peoples' accomplishments by calling then dumb luck?

I can give you plenty of examples of people born poor, to single mothers etc who are by all accounts successful.

They became successful because they chose to be and they worked for it, sacrificed and did what others would not do and you want to call it luck.

Once again conservatives fall back on single instances to prove theories

That one person can overcome poor beginnings is proof. But there are literally tens if not hundreds of thousands of people who have overcome poor beinnings to become successful.

Look at the population as a whole and tell me what percentage of children from single mothers become millionaires compared to those born to wealth

More excuse making. Just because most people don't, or won't do something does not mean they can't. That you want to accept that they can't is just like a liberal.

You are the one making the claim that circumstances of birth have no influence on how successful you are in life (see post 349)

Burden of proof is on you

 

[Skull Pilot]

Once again conservatives fall back on single instances to prove theories

That one person can overcome poor beginnings is proof. But there are literally tens if not hundreds of thousands of people who have overcome poor beinnings to become successful.

Look at the population as a whole and tell me what percentage of children from single mothers become millionaires compared to those born to wealth

More excuse making. Just because most people don't, or won't do something does not mean they can't. That you want to accept that they can't is just like a liberal.

You are the one making the claim that circumstances of birth have no influence on how successful you are in life

Burden of proof is on you

Start with these 20 people.

20 Inspiring Rags-to-Riches Stories - Yahoo! Finance

Like i said that one person overcomes poverty is proof.

 

[rightwinger]

That one person can overcome poor beginnings is proof. But there are literally tens if not hundreds of thousands of people who have overcome poor beinnings to become successful.



More excuse making. Just because most people don't, or won't do something does not mean they can't. That you want to accept that they can't is just like a liberal.

You are the one making the claim that circumstances of birth have no influence on how successful you are in life

Burden of proof is on you

Start with these 20 people.

20 Inspiring Rags-to-Riches Stories - Yahoo! Finance

Like i said that one person overcomes poverty is proof.

Sorry, 20 doesn't cut it

Your burden of proof is to show that most people who are rich rose from poverty

Go at it

 

[Lonestar_logic]

I'm not claiming any authority.

But you did say "If the labor of the veteran employee is 10 times more valuable than the apprentice, but he's being paid 30 times more there is something askew about that."

So what I'm basically asking is how did you arrive at these numbers, 10 times more valuable and 30 times more pay?

Did you just pull this out of your ass with no real world experience to back it up?

Those numbers were used for the point of illustration. There is no one number that's true for every employee. Each worker is providing some amount of value-added, and is paid in some sort of proportion relative to the value-added.

Each worker negotiates his own terms and agrees with the salary or he wouldn't hire in.

I make over ten times what most of the guys here make and that's because of my experience and my ability to bring work in. The employer determines what value is placed on what position and he looks at job history and experience as factors in deciding what the employee is worth.

 

[Lonestar_logic]

Much of life (if not most of it) is based on dumb luck and who your parents are.

Bullshit.

Your family structure has a lot to do with how successful you are in life

Want to bet on the prospects of a child born to a single mother against a child born to millionaires?

Why not bet on the prospects of a child born to middle income parents?


Oh well that just fucks you all up!

 

[Skull Pilot]

You are the one making the claim that circumstances of birth have no influence on how successful you are in life

Burden of proof is on you

Start with these 20 people.

20 Inspiring Rags-to-Riches Stories - Yahoo! Finance

Like i said that one person overcomes poverty is proof.

Sorry, 20 doesn't cut it

Your burden of proof is to show that most people who are rich rose from poverty

Go at it

I never said most people who are rich rose from poverty did I?

I said people who want to can overcome poverty to be successful.

You said they are incapable of doing so.

 

[RKMBrown]

Start with these 20 people.

20 Inspiring Rags-to-Riches Stories - Yahoo! Finance

Like i said that one person overcomes poverty is proof.

Sorry, 20 doesn't cut it

Your burden of proof is to show that most people who are rich rose from poverty

Go at it

I never said most people who are rich rose from poverty did I?

I said people who want to can overcome poverty to be successful.

You said they are incapable of doing so.

Skull his point was incorrect... but for a different reason than you are arguing.

The only thing he really said is that people who grow up around bad influence may in fact be poorly influenced and that this bears out through statistics. We all have free will and can ignore influencers, but we would probably all agree that good influence is better than bad influence. What he fails to include is that having poor parents and/or single moms is not necessarily a bad influence any more than having rich parents and/or married moms is always a good influence. He does this by classifying people under a broad swath. It's like saying all republicans are for the wars in the ME because most are.

What is important is why some percentage of families are a bad influence. And what is a bad influence and why do some kids repeat the bad in a cycle of rage, drugs, hate, poverty, welfare, ... vs. looking at the bad influence as bad influence and breaking the cycle.