"Income Inequality": So What?

[Procrustes Stretched]

Life isn't fair. Sucks, doesn't it? Just get over that fact.

Life isn't fair and no one here (at least I think) is advocating for total income equality across the entire country. Personally, I like the fact that I live in a nation where if I work hard, make smart decisions, I could become very wealthy.

However, I think it’s totally appropriate to explore the idea that EXCESSIVE greed and EXCESSIVE, concentrated wealth could be a bad thing for a nation. The fact is that the inequality gap is growing in the United States.

Keyword = growing.

I have absolutely no problem with there existing an income gap, however it just troubles and concerns me to see it continue to grow in an almost exponential fashion. Today, the top 1% may own 40% of all wealth in the nation, but tomorrow it could be 50%. Perhaps in 20 years that number could rise to 60-70%. Do you think it will be economically and socially beneficial to have a nation where 1% of the citizens horde 70% of all of the profit, all of the benefit that our great nation generates for themselves? I don’t think that’s a very good setup.

Our country is like a giant living body, and if you cut off oxygen to the legs, arms, ect, that body will begin to function less and less efficiently.

.

I fully agree with much of what you just posted, especially the bolded line. The greed you refer to is kept alive and actively fed by those who we have voted to represent us, as well as the entities that buy them. As a matter-of-fact, if you "follow the money", you will not doubt find that the pot of gold at the end of that rainbow will be clutched most possessively by someone involved in government.

blaming who we elect again? yeah right. It's ignorant people like you who vote one way because of the money spent convincing you shit smells like roses. Money corrupts the process, but there is nothing like an ignorant electorate that allows money to corrupt so easily.

Money influences those we elect, but those we elect know how ignorant people like you are.

 

[hortysir]

Life isn't fair and no one here (at least I think) is advocating for total income equality across the entire country. Personally, I like the fact that I live in a nation where if I work hard, make smart decisions, I could become very wealthy.

However, I think it’s totally appropriate to explore the idea that EXCESSIVE greed and EXCESSIVE, concentrated wealth could be a bad thing for a nation. The fact is that the inequality gap is growing in the United States.

Keyword = growing.

I have absolutely no problem with there existing an income gap, however it just troubles and concerns me to see it continue to grow in an almost exponential fashion. Today, the top 1% may own 40% of all wealth in the nation, but tomorrow it could be 50%. Perhaps in 20 years that number could rise to 60-70%. Do you think it will be economically and socially beneficial to have a nation where 1% of the citizens horde 70% of all of the profit, all of the benefit that our great nation generates for themselves? I don’t think that’s a very good setup.

Our country is like a giant living body, and if you cut off oxygen to the legs, arms, ect, that body will begin to function less and less efficiently.

.

I fully agree with much of what you just posted, especially the bolded line. The greed you refer to is kept alive and actively fed by those who we have voted to represent us, as well as the entities that buy them. As a matter-of-fact, if you "follow the money", you will not doubt find that the pot of gold at the end of that rainbow will be clutched most possessively by someone involved in government.

blaming who we elect again? yeah right. It's ignorant people like you who vote one way because of the money spent convincing you shit smells like roses. Money corrupts the process, but there is nothing like an ignorant electorate that allows money to corrupt so easily.

Money influences those we elect, but those we elect know how ignorant people like you are.

While the "other side" votes for people that tell them the roses smell like shit

damned hippies

 

[Liability]

I think I see what the dufus libs are TRYING to say.

By the phrase "income inequality" they are simply complaining that the rich keep getting richer and that the gap between their level of accumulated wealth and the average level of wealth of the majority of us is wider now than it used to be.

They don't see ANY problem with this complaint, either.

And they STILL try to pretend that they aren't actually expressing envy, jealousy and class warfare rhetoric.

They have no credibility WHATsoever.

 

[hortysir]

I think I see what the dufus libs are TRYING to say.

By the phrase "income inequality" they are simply complaining that the rich keep getting richer and that the gap between their level of accumulated wealth and the average level of wealth of the majority of us is wider now than it used to be.

They don't see ANY problem with this complaint, either.

And they STILL try to pretend that they aren't actually expressing envy, jealousy and class warfare rhetoric.

They have no credibility WHATsoever.

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

I think I see what the dufus libs are TRYING to say.

By the phrase "income inequality" they are simply complaining that the rich keep getting richer and that the gap between their level of accumulated wealth and the average level of wealth of the majority of us is wider now than it used to be.

They don't see ANY problem with this complaint, either.

And they STILL try to pretend that they aren't actually expressing envy, jealousy and class warfare rhetoric.

They have no credibility WHATsoever.

Adam Smith:

But what improves the circumstances of the greater part can never be regarded as an inconvenience to the whole. No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.

Where wages are high, accordingly, we shall always find the workmen more active, diligent, and expeditious than where they are low.

 

[kwc57]

This is not capitalism. This is an oligarchy, a grand pyramid scheme. The scum at the top want to hold onto their wealth, which is more than they will ever need. They know they cannot sway public opinion in their favor without tricking blue collar folks into buying the bs they are giving away. Apparently it is working from the clueless bs I read here coming from the right.

I'm tired of listening to you spew your bitter, wealth envy bullshit. Why don't you give us a little historical perspective on your particular experiences. I'm betting you dropped out of high school and have worked a succession of entry level jobs thinking you were going to "make a living". I'd be interested to know the actual truth, so spill it.

There is a way to get ahead in America and it hasn't changed. You behave and keep your nose clean, you develop a real work ethic starting with a minimum wage job as a kid, you work smarter and harder and make yourself stand out to your management, you get an education in a field that is in demand and pays well. You get a job in that field and use your knowledge, experience and work ethic to move up and get ahead.

The term "working hard" is meaningless. Moving one heavy rock from one place to another is "hard work", but it won't put a roof over your head or food in your belly. There will always be grunt labor jobs that are "hard" that won't pay much money because any fool can do them.

I'm sick of reading the endless pro-wealthy and pro mega-corporate, as well as the hate filled bs of anything moderate or democratic coming from you and your lame side so I guess we're even. I highly doubt you'd view anything I state as truth, but I could be wrong. Have you ever been wrong? Hell, you refuse to recognize reality or facts/data so what would make me think you'd believe anything I'd state?

I'll make you deal you spill the beans on your life story and I'll oblige the same. All you'll get from me until is that I hold a bachelor of science degree with a minor.

Hate filled BS? Dude, are you looking in the mirror.......because you're the bitter, wealth envy guy who wants to stick it to the "man" for being "unfair".

Sure, I'll spill the beans. I was born in 1957 to parents who grew up in houses with no running water or electricity, grown up in the depression and went thru WWII. My dad plowed the family farm with a team of mules before he graduated high school and enlisted in the Marines in 1942. When he got out, he and my mom married. He went thru a succession of jobs before moving to the "city" and working 32 years at a meat packing plant. He was a disciplined, moral, Christian man who didn't drink or cuss. His only vice was smoking. Over time, his pay increased because he was an asset to the company. He put a roof over four kids heads, clothed us, fed us and paid for a college education he never had. He did better than his parents and he was determined in kind that his kids would do better than him. He built a den, master bedroom and bathroom onto our modest two bedroom, wood frame house. My 82 year old mother still lives there. Eventually, he was able to by a lot and cabin at a lake as well as a travel trailer he and mom pulled all over the country in retirement. He was a life long Democrat and a union member.......but the Democratic party from then to now are two entirely different animals.

Me, I minded my P's and Q's because I knew I'd get the belt if I got out of line or got in trouble. I respected my teachers and my elders and paid attention in school. I dug ditches for the plumber across the street from us when I was 14. When I was 16, I went to work stocking shelves in a department store. From there I went to work in a grocery store where I started by doing carry out, then bagging, cashier and eventually working in the office. I learned a lot about business, work ethic, customer service, etc. while working those jobs.

Upon graduation in 1975, I went to college and graduated there in 1979. I started working part time at a bank as a courier. Then I became a teller and eventually went full time. After a couple of years doing that, I was hired as a customer service rep for a bank that did data processing for banks across the state. I got married and had a furnished apartment and two car payments. Money didn't go far, but we made it. Eventually, we were able to buy our own furniture, then a brand new house. I became a customer service supervisor and then a customer service officer. After about 6 years working there, banks hit the skids in the late 80's and the bank decided to get out of the data processing business. I knew I would lose my job as we shed customers, so I found another job with a company that did data processing for savings and loans. I was on the conversion teams that converted new S&L customers off of their old data processing system onto ours. After 5 or 6 years, the bottom fell out of the S&L's and I was "deconverting" customers off of our system over to the surviving S&L's or banks that were buying their assets. I know my days were numbered there and went to work for one of the largest banks in the state as an operations officer overseeing their checking account system. Banking was changing and larger regional banks were buying up the larger state banks. I saw it coming and went to work for another data processing company who I've worked for 16 years now.

I was able to move from job to job without missing a single day of work in 33 years now because I work hard and more importantly "smart" and built a solid reputation. Those evil rich bankers wanted me because I increase their bottom line. They pay me pretty decently for it too. My wife on the other hand, only has an associate degree from a junior college and has managed to out earn me by about 35% over the last 10 years or so. She works "hard" using her brain muscle.

Our son is 19 and a sophomore in college. Education was a top priority in our home. He knew it and his teachers knew it. The first day of school, his teachers would get an email from me stating so and that if there were any issues, I wanted them to let me know so we could work together to resolve them. We checked his homework every night. He became an honor student and was in the gifted class. He has chosen an engineering field of study that is highly sought after. His college is one of only two with an accredited program and there are only about 200 total in his program. Large corporations seek these students out for paid internships after their sopomore year and the vast majority graduate with a job waiting for them that pays in the high 5 figures and sometime the low 6 figures. He will do better than his mother and I.........because like my father before me, we planned it that way and instilled the needed values in him. He is an Eagle Scout and has worked since he was 16 and had to buy his own truck while maintaining straight A's. He already has a strong work ethic and laughs at the kids who think their boss "owes" them something for simply showing up.

So, those are my beans. The rules to the game are fairly simple. It worked for my dad back when he started in the late 40's and early 50s, me in the late 70's and early 80's and my son now. Anyone can do it. America is still the land of opportunity. Quit worrying about what the guy at the top has and why you think it isn't fair and that the government should take it and give part of it to you. Instead, ask what he did right that you can emulate and earn your own piece of the pie.

Like I said earlier, CAN'T never did anything.

 

[Againsheila]

There should be income equality as soon as there is equality of work ethic and talent.

So you think when the rich start working as hard as the maids and janitors, they should lose money, got it.

 

[Liability]

I think I see what the dufus libs are TRYING to say.

By the phrase "income inequality" they are simply complaining that the rich keep getting richer and that the gap between their level of accumulated wealth and the average level of wealth of the majority of us is wider now than it used to be.

They don't see ANY problem with this complaint, either.

And they STILL try to pretend that they aren't actually expressing envy, jealousy and class warfare rhetoric.

They have no credibility WHATsoever.

Adam Smith:

But what improves the circumstances of the greater part can never be regarded as an inconvenience to the whole. No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.

Where wages are high, accordingly, we shall always find the workmen more active, diligent, and expeditious than where they are low.

Nothing in your inept attempt to quote Smith addresses your irrational class warfare contentions.

The far greater part of the American people are far better off than "poor and miserable," you dishonest slug. Except for a very few, the folks classified as "poor" in our society live like Kings compared to ye days of olde. In fact, most everybody in America (again, with fairly few exceptions) lives better than the Kings in those bygone days.

And American wages are anything but low, you partisan hack propagandizing dip-shit moron.

 

[kwc57]

There should be income equality as soon as there is equality of work ethic and talent.

So you think when the rich start working as hard as the maids and janitors, they should lose money, got it.

If they did the work of maids and janitors, they'd deserve to lose money.

 

[Ernie S.]

I think I see what the dufus libs are TRYING to say.

By the phrase "income inequality" they are simply complaining that the rich keep getting richer and that the gap between their level of accumulated wealth and the average level of wealth of the majority of us is wider now than it used to be.

They don't see ANY problem with this complaint, either.

And they STILL try to pretend that they aren't actually expressing envy, jealousy and class warfare rhetoric.

They have no credibility WHATsoever.

Adam Smith:

But what improves the circumstances of the greater part can never be regarded as an inconvenience to the whole. No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.

Where wages are high, accordingly, we shall always find the workmen more active, diligent, and expeditious than where they are low.

Does Smith offer a solution?

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

Adam Smith:

But what improves the circumstances of the greater part can never be regarded as an inconvenience to the whole. No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.

Where wages are high, accordingly, we shall always find the workmen more active, diligent, and expeditious than where they are low.

Nothing in your inept attempt to quote Smith addresses your irrational class warfare contentions.

The far greater part of the American people are far better off than "poor and miserable," you dishonest slug. Except for a very few, the folks classified as "poor" in our society live like Kings compared to ye days of olde. In fact, most everybody in America (again, with fairly few exceptions) lives better than the Kings in those bygone days.

And American wages are anything but low, you partisan hack propagandizing dip-shit moron.

Only an ignorant ideological tool would dare posit the wealthy do not engage in class warfare.

First: ¶ The New Gilded Age, 1980-?: Big gains at the very top, stagnation below. Between 1980 and 2004, real wages in manufacturing fell 1 percent, while the real income of the richest 1 percent — people with incomes of more than $277,000 in 2004 — rose 135 percent.

What’s noticeable is that except during stagflation, when virtually all Americans were hurt by a tenfold increase in oil prices, what happened in each era was what the dominant political tendency of that era wanted to happen.

Second: Since 1979 U.S employee compensation relative to the GDP of this country has been in free fall. The worker gained most of what was lost during the 1980s around 1999 only to realize a dramatic fall out again in 2000.


It was ye days of olde in America, that Dante was discussing. You pathetic imitation of a slug

WRONG!!!

I'm no great fan of all things progressive, or of most Progressives, but I'll rise to their defense here. Income inequality as a term, as you spin it, looks nothing like the term used by most credible and reasonable people.

The wealth gap. The income of the highest-paid Americans has soared while the income of the rest of Americans has grown little. The widening gap is cause for concern in all economic systems, but especially the economic system of a Capitalist Democracy, because killing off the middle class will make America a banana republic.

To have a middle class, there cannot be too wide a gap between those at the top and the rest of society, for when that happens there is just the wealthy and the struggling: the haves and the have nots.

America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was not so great a place to live for most Americans and immigrants, pre-FDR. Anyone who wants to argue that is welcome to have their butts kicked and handed to them on a plate of crow.

So it's not an income gap, it's a wealth gap. And the wealth gap is caused by disparity in incomes.
Really? Seriously?
America was a great place. That's why the largest immigration in the US in history occurred between about 1870 and 1930.

Yeah, the streets were paved with gold.

You should be ashamed of yourself for posing as a Jew and then spreading propaganda about things. DO you know where the inscription on the Statue of Liberty comes from? A Jew. A wealthy Jew who was appalled (Newt's favorite word) at the squalid conditions Jewish refugees to the New World were made to live in.

Fundraising for the statue had begun in 1882. The committee organized a large number of money-raising events. As part of one such effort, an auction of art and manuscripts, poet Emma Lazarus was asked to donate an original work. She initially declined, stating she could not write a poem about a statue. At the time, she was also involved in aiding refugees to New York who had fled anti-Semitic pogroms in eastern Europe. These refugees were forced to live in conditions that the wealthy Lazarus had never experienced. She saw a way to express her empathy for these refugees in terms of the statue. The resulting sonnet, "The New Colossus", including the iconic lines "Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free", is uniquely identified with the Statue of Liberty and is inscribed on a plaque in the museum in the base.

Statue of Liberty - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I not only do not object to income inequality, I endorse it.

I don't want to make the same amount of money as some derp who can barely fill the order at McDonalds.

I don't think a surgeon necessarily needs to make the same amount that I make or the kid in McDonalds makes.

I WANT there to be a financial INCENTIVE to wrok better, harder, faster and more productively. I WANT skill and effort and cleverness and productivity etc to be REWARDED.

The mindless rhetoric of the left about "income inequality" is absurd. It's like those mutants are marching around in a circle, carrying placards that demand an end to progress.

Such libs are derps.

You and the fucking morons who agreed with this post (gallantwarrior (Today), kwc57 (Today), The Rabbi (Today)) live in a fantasy world.

Throwing out absurdist bullshit may make you feel better, but all it does is expose your ignorance and stupidity.

No one has ever proposed a surgeon make the same as a laborer or the other way around. You just make shit up.

WRONG!!!

I'm no great fan of all things progressive, or of most Progressives, but I'll rise to their defense here. Income inequality as a term, as you spin it, looks nothing like the term used by most credible and reasonable people.

The wealth gap. The income of the highest-paid Americans has soared while the income of the rest of Americans has grown little. The widening gap is cause for concern in all economic systems, but especially the economic system of a Capitalist Democracy, because killing off the middle class will make America a banana republic.

To have a middle class, there cannot be too wide a gap between those at the top and the rest of society, for when that happens there is just the wealthy and the struggling: the haves and the have nots.

America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was not so great a place to live for most Americans and immigrants, pre-FDR. Anyone who wants to argue that is welcome to have their butts kicked and handed to them on a plate of crow.

So it's not an income gap, it's a wealth gap. And the wealth gap is caused by disparity in incomes.
Really? Seriously?
America was a great place. That's why the largest immigration in the US in history occurred between about 1870 and 1930.

Immigrants to America were poor wretched creatures who had absolutely no chances back home. Chances here were promised to be far better than the reality. Okay, I have no problem with that. Most people that immigrated left a better start for their kids -- opportunities not found back home.

But to suggest their experience was good, is to deny reality. Many suffered, many perished of disease from terrible working conditions. We had the Robber Barons raping and pillaging as they went along. We even had wealthy hiring thugs and murderers to maim and kill poor people asking to be treated better at work.

wake the fuck up. I'm no progressive or socialist, but being an honest person I admit all socialism is not evil incarnate. No, many socialist ideas have made America and the world a better place -- a better place that allows a cretin like you to spout your bullshit anger and hate for your fellow man -- your fellow man, the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free...

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

First: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/18/opinion/18krugman.html

Second: America's 30 Years Of Phony Prosperity link within link goes to BusniessInsider

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

Adam Smith:

But what improves the circumstances of the greater part can never be regarded as an inconvenience to the whole. No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.

Where wages are high, accordingly, we shall always find the workmen more active, diligent, and expeditious than where they are low.

Does Smith offer a solution?

yes, and it's not a whacky wingnutty Free Market free of regulations. It's not a class war on the poor by the wealthy at the top.

 

[Againsheila]

There should be income equality as soon as there is equality of work ethic and talent.

So you think when the rich start working as hard as the maids and janitors, they should lose money, got it.

If they did the work of maids and janitors, they'd deserve to lose money.

So, you admit, the "work ethic" has nothing to do with the income gap. Thank you.

 

[Fordsflylow]

So, what does anyone of you who plans on voting for romney (richer than all previous 8 presidents COMBINED) think he is going to do for you the working man/woman?

Do you think he is going to reduce your tax rate to what he pays (15%)?

Do we all get to put our money in off-shore accounts, then keep it secret like he does?

What do you think his wealth has to do with the way he would govern? Does barack obama govern differently because he is black? Does the fact that he has 8 million make him more noble than a man with a bit north of 200 million? It seems like you just have a problem with rich Republicans.
You have no apparent problem with John Kerry, Mark Warner, Herb Kohl, Jay Rockefeller, Richard Blumenthal, Dianne Feinstein or Frank Lautenberg. Yes 7 or the 10 wealthiest US Senators are evil rich guys.

Even though you never answered my question's I'll answer yours. I guess that's how you con job's like it. Right!?!

Wealth has all to do with how he will govern and for whom he will govern/listen too. If one has never had to scrape to get by is likely to be out of touch with the majority of the population. Add to it that romney is so secretive in what he pays (more likely DOESN'T pay) in taxes adds to my being questionable on his motives. Why does he want to be thee pres sooo bad?

In addition, the super pac's aligned with the con party in general are also VERY SECRETIVE, and they supply money for all candidates. What's to hide if they're on the up and up as they and you will likely CLAIM?

How one makes their money and what they do with the money is very important. I dispute your $8 million figure as to obama's wealth President Obama and Vice President Biden

I have a problem with rich assholes dem or con. Just cause someone is wealthy does not necessarily make them an asshole. What they do or don't do with the money does show if they are or aren't an asshole. Get it?

 

[Liability]

So, what does anyone of you who plans on voting for romney (richer than all previous 8 presidents COMBINED) think he is going to do for you the working man/woman?

Do you think he is going to reduce your tax rate to what he pays (15%)?

Do we all get to put our money in off-shore accounts, then keep it secret like he does?

What do you think his wealth has to do with the way he would govern? Does barack obama govern differently because he is black? Does the fact that he has 8 million make him more noble than a man with a bit north of 200 million? It seems like you just have a problem with rich Republicans.
You have no apparent problem with John Kerry, Mark Warner, Herb Kohl, Jay Rockefeller, Richard Blumenthal, Dianne Feinstein or Frank Lautenberg. Yes 7 or the 10 wealthiest US Senators are evil rich guys.

Even though you never answered my question's I'll answer yours. I guess that's how you con job's like it. Right!?!

Wealth has all to do with how he will govern and for whom he will govern/listen too. If one has never had to scrape to get by is likely to be out of touch with the majority of the population. Add to it that romney is so secretive in what he pays (more likely DOESN'T pay) in taxes adds to my being questionable on his motives. Why does he want to be thee pres sooo bad?

In addition, the super pac's aligned with the con party in general are also VERY SECRETIVE, and they supply money for all candidates. What's to hide if they're on the up and up as they and you will likely CLAIM?

How one makes their money and what they do with the money is very important. I dispute your $8 million figure as to obama's wealth President Obama and Vice President Biden

I have a problem with rich assholes dem or con. Just cause someone is wealthy does not necessarily make them an asshole. What they do or don't do with the money does show if they are or aren't an asshole. Get it?

Your only problem with assholes (since you clearly are one) is IF they are rich.

Your objection is to them being rich.

You are jealous, envious and full of class warfare "thinking."

But I repeat myself. I already noted that you are an asshole.

 

[kwc57]

So you think when the rich start working as hard as the maids and janitors, they should lose money, got it.

If they did the work of maids and janitors, they'd deserve to lose money.

So, you admit, the "work ethic" has nothing to do with the income gap. Thank you.

Not really, no. CEO's and janitors can both have a good work ethic. It isn't THE determining factor in wealth though. It is a factor, but not THE factor. The main factor is the "worth" of your job. A janitor is paid a wage commiserate of their skill and experience. It's a job that some mentally challenged people are taught to do. I don't think you can teach someone with downs syndrome to run a Fortune 500 company even if they have a great work ethic. Do you?

 

[kwc57]

I'm tired of listening to you spew your bitter, wealth envy bullshit. Why don't you give us a little historical perspective on your particular experiences. I'm betting you dropped out of high school and have worked a succession of entry level jobs thinking you were going to "make a living". I'd be interested to know the actual truth, so spill it.

There is a way to get ahead in America and it hasn't changed. You behave and keep your nose clean, you develop a real work ethic starting with a minimum wage job as a kid, you work smarter and harder and make yourself stand out to your management, you get an education in a field that is in demand and pays well. You get a job in that field and use your knowledge, experience and work ethic to move up and get ahead.

The term "working hard" is meaningless. Moving one heavy rock from one place to another is "hard work", but it won't put a roof over your head or food in your belly. There will always be grunt labor jobs that are "hard" that won't pay much money because any fool can do them.

I'm sick of reading the endless pro-wealthy and pro mega-corporate, as well as the hate filled bs of anything moderate or democratic coming from you and your lame side so I guess we're even. I highly doubt you'd view anything I state as truth, but I could be wrong. Have you ever been wrong? Hell, you refuse to recognize reality or facts/data so what would make me think you'd believe anything I'd state?

I'll make you deal you spill the beans on your life story and I'll oblige the same. All you'll get from me until is that I hold a bachelor of science degree with a minor.

Hate filled BS? Dude, are you looking in the mirror.......because you're the bitter, wealth envy guy who wants to stick it to the "man" for being "unfair".

Sure, I'll spill the beans. I was born in 1957 to parents who grew up in houses with no running water or electricity, grown up in the depression and went thru WWII. My dad plowed the family farm with a team of mules before he graduated high school and enlisted in the Marines in 1942. When he got out, he and my mom married. He went thru a succession of jobs before moving to the "city" and working 32 years at a meat packing plant. He was a disciplined, moral, Christian man who didn't drink or cuss. His only vice was smoking. Over time, his pay increased because he was an asset to the company. He put a roof over four kids heads, clothed us, fed us and paid for a college education he never had. He did better than his parents and he was determined in kind that his kids would do better than him. He built a den, master bedroom and bathroom onto our modest two bedroom, wood frame house. My 82 year old mother still lives there. Eventually, he was able to by a lot and cabin at a lake as well as a travel trailer he and mom pulled all over the country in retirement. He was a life long Democrat and a union member.......but the Democratic party from then to now are two entirely different animals.

Me, I minded my P's and Q's because I knew I'd get the belt if I got out of line or got in trouble. I respected my teachers and my elders and paid attention in school. I dug ditches for the plumber across the street from us when I was 14. When I was 16, I went to work stocking shelves in a department store. From there I went to work in a grocery store where I started by doing carry out, then bagging, cashier and eventually working in the office. I learned a lot about business, work ethic, customer service, etc. while working those jobs.

Upon graduation in 1975, I went to college and graduated there in 1979. I started working part time at a bank as a courier. Then I became a teller and eventually went full time. After a couple of years doing that, I was hired as a customer service rep for a bank that did data processing for banks across the state. I got married and had a furnished apartment and two car payments. Money didn't go far, but we made it. Eventually, we were able to buy our own furniture, then a brand new house. I became a customer service supervisor and then a customer service officer. After about 6 years working there, banks hit the skids in the late 80's and the bank decided to get out of the data processing business. I knew I would lose my job as we shed customers, so I found another job with a company that did data processing for savings and loans. I was on the conversion teams that converted new S&L customers off of their old data processing system onto ours. After 5 or 6 years, the bottom fell out of the S&L's and I was "deconverting" customers off of our system over to the surviving S&L's or banks that were buying their assets. I know my days were numbered there and went to work for one of the largest banks in the state as an operations officer overseeing their checking account system. Banking was changing and larger regional banks were buying up the larger state banks. I saw it coming and went to work for another data processing company who I've worked for 16 years now.

I was able to move from job to job without missing a single day of work in 33 years now because I work hard and more importantly "smart" and built a solid reputation. Those evil rich bankers wanted me because I increase their bottom line. They pay me pretty decently for it too. My wife on the other hand, only has an associate degree from a junior college and has managed to out earn me by about 35% over the last 10 years or so. She works "hard" using her brain muscle.

Our son is 19 and a sophomore in college. Education was a top priority in our home. He knew it and his teachers knew it. The first day of school, his teachers would get an email from me stating so and that if there were any issues, I wanted them to let me know so we could work together to resolve them. We checked his homework every night. He became an honor student and was in the gifted class. He has chosen an engineering field of study that is highly sought after. His college is one of only two with an accredited program and there are only about 200 total in his program. Large corporations seek these students out for paid internships after their sopomore year and the vast majority graduate with a job waiting for them that pays in the high 5 figures and sometime the low 6 figures. He will do better than his mother and I.........because like my father before me, we planned it that way and instilled the needed values in him. He is an Eagle Scout and has worked since he was 16 and had to buy his own truck while maintaining straight A's. He already has a strong work ethic and laughs at the kids who think their boss "owes" them something for simply showing up.

So, those are my beans. The rules to the game are fairly simple. It worked for my dad back when he started in the late 40's and early 50s, me in the late 70's and early 80's and my son now. Anyone can do it. America is still the land of opportunity. Quit worrying about what the guy at the top has and why you think it isn't fair and that the government should take it and give part of it to you. Instead, ask what he did right that you can emulate and earn your own piece of the pie.

Like I said earlier, CAN'T never did anything.

I played Fordy. Now it's your turn to tell us why you are where you are. Come on, man up.

 

[OohPooPahDoo]

That is like providing a solution to inequality in piano performance by cutting off fingers from more talented practitioners.

No, its not like that.

 

[Katzndogz]

In the short story Harrison Bergernon, Kurt Vonnegut envisioned a society of absolute equality. Dancers had cinder blocks tied to their feet so they would be as good as the worst dancer. People of intelligence had devices that would periodically interfere with their thinking so they would never get a better idea than the person with no imagination.

Harrison Bergeron

THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.

 

[OohPooPahDoo]

In the short story Harrison Bergernon, Kurt Vonnegut envisioned a society of absolute equality. Dancers had cinder blocks tied to their feet so they would be as good as the worst dancer. People of intelligence had devices that would periodically interfere with their thinking so they would never get a better idea than the person with no imagination.

Harrison Bergeron

THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.

Obviously we must pick between total forced equality and an ever growing income gap resulting in the eventual elimination of the middle class.

Those are the only two choices possible.