Morality of Wealth Redistribution

[Againsheila]

The hardest working people make the least money.

The Mexican farm workers and the people at McDonalds.

This country is totally fucked up. We are running huge deficits because the Republicans won't raise taxes on the rich by 3%.

its about risk and rewards. burn a burger no big deal. you won't even get fired over it. make a poor investment and you could lose millions of your own money. that's how the game is played. you're free to choose which player you want to aspire to be

yep, only these class warfare liberal assholes. Want the rich to take all the risk, but when their investments pay off and they get even richer. Well then they want to be able to say hey you don't need that much money lets take most of it and give it to the poor.

More bull. Paying the working people a living wage is not taking from the rich and giving to the poor. It's paying the working people what they EARN!!!!! Instead of the rich making all their money off of the poor and then letting our tax dollars buy food for their workers, they should pay for their own workers. Stop subsidizing the rich. That's what we're doing when we provide welfare for their workers because they are too greedy to share their profits with them. The Walmart family is a big example of the greedy making their money off of the poor and the taxpayer picking up the bill by providing welfare for their employees. This is nothing more than institutionalized slavery.

And our government, both the dems and the reps have made it possible with the influx of immigrants without which the rich would be forced to pay more as there wouldn't be enough workers. Remember Americans limit their children to less than replacement value, if we didn't take in more immigrants legally than all the other countries combined, our employers would HAVE to pay the workers more as they'd be more in demand.

No one envisioned that the average workers would be worse off today than in the 60's. They all thought we'd be like the Jetson's by now, with 3 day work weeks. Instead our government, owned by the corporations have made sure that we have institutionalized slavery and the rich can cry foul all they want but they have stolen our countries wealth. They've made their money off the sweat of the poor workers and they refuse to share the profits. Labor is a much smaller percentage of the budget today than it was in the 60's. Only greed can cause the greatest country in the world to go backwards and become a 3rd world country.

I am ashamed of those that claim that the rich "deserve" their 150% increase and the workers deserve their decline in wealth.

 

[Spoonman]

The hardest working people make the least money.

The Mexican farm workers and the people at McDonalds.

This country is totally fucked up. We are running huge deficits because the Republicans won't raise taxes on the rich by 3%.

its about risk and rewards. burn a burger no big deal. you won't even get fired over it. make a poor investment and you could lose millions of your own money. that's how the game is played. you're free to choose which player you want to aspire to be

What a bunch of bull. Nobody CHOOSES to work at McDonald's. They HAVE to in order to make ends meet. YOU were LUCKY. Count your blessing and quit being so greedy. Start working so that others can have the same opportunities you did. That means, stop worrying about getting a tax break and start worrying about raising the minimum wage to a living wage. Let others have the same chance to become wealthy as you did. You are a hypocrite if you think that everyone has money to invest. Most of the people on foodstamps are the working poor, talk about shameful. We're the richest country in the world and many in our own military who put their lives on the line for us have to get foodstamps so they can feed their children. You aren't worth their sacrifice because you are so greedy you don't think they deserve any better. Meanwhile, you lord it over the working class and sit on your investments and cry that you don't deserve to pay taxes. Good grief, talk about class warfare. You want to make sure that the poor never have a chance to be better.

you know what I started out with? zip. I could't afford to go to a good school. I had no one footing my bill. My parents worked hard and pushed my ass always. but they made ends meet and managed to save a little. I busted my as in school an got a scholarship, paid the rest on my own. When I graduated college I had $3500 in the bank, saved from working jobs like flipping burgers, cutting lawns and stocking warehouses while in school. And then i worked, then I took some risks. And I worked harder and started to move up. I had nothing handed to me. I'm not super rich. I'm very well off, but I'm not a player. But I worked for it. took chances but was smart about them. you've got to follow the leads. A perfect example. AIG. they were floating a little above $7 a share and risking bankruptcy. But obama was willing ot toss a ton of money at them. The government wasn't going to let them fail. You've got a sure bet there. that's taking a smart chance. Phillip morris, rumored dead in the water by massive lawsuits in the clinton years. Waxman all over their ass. stock dropped from the upper $80's to like $17. no one would touch it. I bought a ton. Why? becasue the government had just signed a master stettlement agreement with them and was poised to make more on a pack of smokes than there were. I bought a ton of stock, i bought a ton of options. huge risk, but I made a ton of money.

I had nothing any other burger flipper didn't have, except drive and the willingness to go for it.

 

[Againsheila]

its about risk and rewards. burn a burger no big deal. you won't even get fired over it. make a poor investment and you could lose millions of your own money. that's how the game is played. you're free to choose which player you want to aspire to be

What a bunch of bull. Nobody CHOOSES to work at McDonald's. They HAVE to in order to make ends meet. YOU were LUCKY. Count your blessing and quit being so greedy. Start working so that others can have the same opportunities you did. That means, stop worrying about getting a tax break and start worrying about raising the minimum wage to a living wage. Let others have the same chance to become wealthy as you did. You are a hypocrite if you think that everyone has money to invest. Most of the people on foodstamps are the working poor, talk about shameful. We're the richest country in the world and many in our own military who put their lives on the line for us have to get foodstamps so they can feed their children. You aren't worth their sacrifice because you are so greedy you don't think they deserve any better. Meanwhile, you lord it over the working class and sit on your investments and cry that you don't deserve to pay taxes. Good grief, talk about class warfare. You want to make sure that the poor never have a chance to be better.

you know what I started out with? zip. I could't afford to go to a good school. I had no one footing my bill. My parents worked hard and pushed my ass always. but they made ends meet and managed to save a little. I busted my as in school an got a scholarship, paid the rest on my own. When I graduated college I had $3500 in the bank, saved from working jobs like flipping burgers, cutting lawns and stocking warehouses while in school. And then i worked, then I took some risks. And I worked harder and started to move up. I had nothing handed to me. I'm not super rich. I'm very well off, but I'm not a player. But I worked for it. took chances but was smart about them. you've got to follow the leads. A perfect example. AIG. they were floating a little above $7 a share and risking bankruptcy. But obama was willing ot toss a ton of money at them. The government wasn't going to let them fail. You've got a sure bet there. that's taking a smart chance. Phillip morris, rumored dead in the water by massive lawsuits in the clinton years. Waxman all over their ass. stock dropped from the upper $80's to like $17. no one would touch it. I bought a ton. Why? becasue the government had just signed a master stettlement agreement with them and was poised to make more on a pack of smokes than there were. I bought a ton of stock, i bought a ton of options. huge risk, but I made a ton of money.

I had nothing any other burger flipper didn't have, except drive and the willingness to go for it.

And a higher spending power for your minimum wage.

 

[Againsheila]

What a bunch of bull. Nobody CHOOSES to work at McDonald's. They HAVE to in order to make ends meet. YOU were LUCKY. Count your blessing and quit being so greedy. Start working so that others can have the same opportunities you did. That means, stop worrying about getting a tax break and start worrying about raising the minimum wage to a living wage. Let others have the same chance to become wealthy as you did. You are a hypocrite if you think that everyone has money to invest. Most of the people on foodstamps are the working poor, talk about shameful. We're the richest country in the world and many in our own military who put their lives on the line for us have to get foodstamps so they can feed their children. You aren't worth their sacrifice because you are so greedy you don't think they deserve any better. Meanwhile, you lord it over the working class and sit on your investments and cry that you don't deserve to pay taxes. Good grief, talk about class warfare. You want to make sure that the poor never have a chance to be better.

you know what I started out with? zip. I could't afford to go to a good school. I had no one footing my bill. My parents worked hard and pushed my ass always. but they made ends meet and managed to save a little. I busted my as in school an got a scholarship, paid the rest on my own. When I graduated college I had $3500 in the bank, saved from working jobs like flipping burgers, cutting lawns and stocking warehouses while in school. And then i worked, then I took some risks. And I worked harder and started to move up. I had nothing handed to me. I'm not super rich. I'm very well off, but I'm not a player. But I worked for it. took chances but was smart about them. you've got to follow the leads. A perfect example. AIG. they were floating a little above $7 a share and risking bankruptcy. But obama was willing ot toss a ton of money at them. The government wasn't going to let them fail. You've got a sure bet there. that's taking a smart chance. Phillip morris, rumored dead in the water by massive lawsuits in the clinton years. Waxman all over their ass. stock dropped from the upper $80's to like $17. no one would touch it. I bought a ton. Why? becasue the government had just signed a master stettlement agreement with them and was poised to make more on a pack of smokes than there were. I bought a ton of stock, i bought a ton of options. huge risk, but I made a ton of money.

I had nothing any other burger flipper didn't have, except drive and the willingness to go for it.

And a higher spending power for your minimum wage.

Not to mention more affordable college tuition, a better economy with more job opportunities. An economy where our jobs were here, not overseas and we actually had ladders that you could climb, not rungs missing due to jobs being sent overseas.

 

[Spoonman]

you know what I started out with? zip. I could't afford to go to a good school. I had no one footing my bill. My parents worked hard and pushed my ass always. but they made ends meet and managed to save a little. I busted my as in school an got a scholarship, paid the rest on my own. When I graduated college I had $3500 in the bank, saved from working jobs like flipping burgers, cutting lawns and stocking warehouses while in school. And then i worked, then I took some risks. And I worked harder and started to move up. I had nothing handed to me. I'm not super rich. I'm very well off, but I'm not a player. But I worked for it. took chances but was smart about them. you've got to follow the leads. A perfect example. AIG. they were floating a little above $7 a share and risking bankruptcy. But obama was willing ot toss a ton of money at them. The government wasn't going to let them fail. You've got a sure bet there. that's taking a smart chance. Phillip morris, rumored dead in the water by massive lawsuits in the clinton years. Waxman all over their ass. stock dropped from the upper $80's to like $17. no one would touch it. I bought a ton. Why? becasue the government had just signed a master stettlement agreement with them and was poised to make more on a pack of smokes than there were. I bought a ton of stock, i bought a ton of options. huge risk, but I made a ton of money.

I had nothing any other burger flipper didn't have, except drive and the willingness to go for it.

And a higher spending power for your minimum wage.

Not to mention more affordable college tuition, a better economy with more job opportunities. An economy where our jobs were here, not overseas and we actually had ladders that you could climb, not rungs missing due to jobs being sent overseas.

The ladders are still there. you are totally missing the point. Companies recruit out of colleges. Many big companies have a policy that part of managments bonus is based on how well they recruit and how well they move people they recruit through the organization. White collar jobs are not outsourced techical jobs are still there, they are different. we are in a faster paced environment. They can't find enough computer techs, nurses, healthworkers. engineers, electical technitions. Factory work is gone. Union wages out priced them to the point they weren't competitive in a global market. But there are plenty of manufacturing jobs. now they are just technical and require training. becasue people are running high tech equipment. Solar installers are going to be in huge demand over the next 10 years. who is making themselves capable to fill those positions?

 

[snjmom]

Oh, please, listen to yourself. You are defending the people that DESTROYED OUR ECONOMY.

Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, and the rest of the sub-prime Democrats sent the economy into a tail spin, and Obama drove it into the ground.

Hedge fund managers had nothing to do with it.

This is a bat-shit crazy statement.

The market didn't freeze up because of a few sub-prime foreclosures. It froze because no one could trust the other players. And that shit falls squarely on the financial sector. As for needing 100,000 to play, institutional investors are the largest investors in hedge funds. You know pension funds, school endowments, charitable foundations. Yep, never touched the common man, did they?

 

[Againsheila]

And a higher spending power for your minimum wage.

Not to mention more affordable college tuition, a better economy with more job opportunities. An economy where our jobs were here, not overseas and we actually had ladders that you could climb, not rungs missing due to jobs being sent overseas.

The ladders are still there. you are totally missing the point. Companies recruit out of colleges. Many big companies have a policy that part of managments bonus is based on how well they recruit and how well they move people they recruit through the organization. White collar jobs are not outsourced techical jobs are still there, they are different. we are in a faster paced environment. They can't find enough computer techs, nurses, healthworkers. engineers, electical technitions. Factory work is gone. Union wages out priced them to the point they weren't competitive in a global market. But there are plenty of manufacturing jobs. now they are just technical and require training. becasue people are running high tech equipment. Solar installers are going to be in huge demand over the next 10 years. who is making themselves capable to fill those positions?

No, you are missing the point. You went to college at a time when you could make enough on minimum wage with ONE job and still go to college. You were able to better yourself that way. That opportunity is no longer available to most minimum wage workers in this economy and hasn't been for many years. Minimum wage just doesn't have the spending power it did when you were working your way up the ladder. Plus the ladders are missing rungs. Our jobs have been sent overseas. Even my nephew, who went to MIT on a scholarship and had much help from his parents ended up going back to school to become a lawyer because HIS jobs was done away with in today's economy. A job that required a degree from MIT. A job working for INTEL. You must be nuts if you think today people have the same opportunity that you did and that they can work to better themselves, it's just not available to most workers.

We have lawyers telling corporations how to word job descriptions so they can bring in people from overseas and no American will qualify for that job. You don't give a damn about those who've had college educations and lost their jobs to immigrants brought in from overseas because the corporations can get away with paying them less. You don't give a damn about the minimum wage worker working two jobs just to feed himself. You just lord it over all those you think you are better than because you believe (erroneously) that you worked "harder" than them and deserve your riches while they deserve to be poor and hungry.

Times are not like they were then, even you admit that, yet you think you are better than them and deserve more than them because you were lucky and lived in a time when jobs were plentiful and when you could work your way through college and better yourself.

 

[bripat9643]

This is a bat-shit crazy statement.

The market didn't freeze up because of a few sub-prime foreclosures. It froze because no one could trust the other players. And that shit falls squarely on the financial sector. As for needing 100,000 to play, institutional investors are the largest investors in hedge funds. You know pension funds, school endowments, charitable foundations. Yep, never touched the common man, did they?

"A few sub-prime foreclosures?" Only a small percentage of the sub-prime mortgages were foreclosed on. Fanny Mae and Freddie Max were each bailed out to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. The hedge funds went into the tank because they bought derivatives that were based on bundles of mortgages, many of which were sub-prime and not worth the paper they were printed on.

The blood sucking tics are all trying to point the finger at anything other than their giant milch cow with 50 million teats, but no one is fooled.

 

[snjmom]

its about risk and rewards. burn a burger no big deal. you won't even get fired over it. make a poor investment and you could lose millions of your own money. that's how the game is played. you're free to choose which player you want to aspire to be

What a bunch of bull. Nobody CHOOSES to work at McDonald's. They HAVE to in order to make ends meet. YOU were LUCKY. Count your blessing and quit being so greedy. Start working so that others can have the same opportunities you did. That means, stop worrying about getting a tax break and start worrying about raising the minimum wage to a living wage. Let others have the same chance to become wealthy as you did. You are a hypocrite if you think that everyone has money to invest. Most of the people on foodstamps are the working poor, talk about shameful. We're the richest country in the world and many in our own military who put their lives on the line for us have to get foodstamps so they can feed their children. You aren't worth their sacrifice because you are so greedy you don't think they deserve any better. Meanwhile, you lord it over the working class and sit on your investments and cry that you don't deserve to pay taxes. Good grief, talk about class warfare. You want to make sure that the poor never have a chance to be better.

you know what I started out with? zip. I could't afford to go to a good school. I had no one footing my bill. My parents worked hard and pushed my ass always. but they made ends meet and managed to save a little. I busted my as in school an got a scholarship, paid the rest on my own. When I graduated college I had $3500 in the bank, saved from working jobs like flipping burgers, cutting lawns and stocking warehouses while in school. And then i worked, then I took some risks. And I worked harder and started to move up. I had nothing handed to me. I'm not super rich. I'm very well off, but I'm not a player. But I worked for it. took chances but was smart about them. you've got to follow the leads. A perfect example. AIG. they were floating a little above $7 a share and risking bankruptcy. But obama was willing ot toss a ton of money at them. The government wasn't going to let them fail. You've got a sure bet there. that's taking a smart chance. Phillip morris, rumored dead in the water by massive lawsuits in the clinton years. Waxman all over their ass. stock dropped from the upper $80's to like $17. no one would touch it. I bought a ton. Why? becasue the government had just signed a master stettlement agreement with them and was poised to make more on a pack of smokes than there were. I bought a ton of stock, i bought a ton of options. huge risk, but I made a ton of money.

I had nothing any other burger flipper didn't have, except drive and the willingness to go for it.

And fucking luck. Two parents. With savings. Good health and mental capacity. Housing. And lucked out on the investments.

Not everyone has that kind of luck.

 

[snjmom]

This is a bat-shit crazy statement.

The market didn't freeze up because of a few sub-prime foreclosures. It froze because no one could trust the other players. And that shit falls squarely on the financial sector. As for needing 100,000 to play, institutional investors are the largest investors in hedge funds. You know pension funds, school endowments, charitable foundations. Yep, never touched the common man, did they?

"A few sub-prime foreclosures?" Only a small percentage of the sub-prime mortgages were foreclosed on. Fanny Mae and Freddie Max were each bailed out to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. The hedge funds went into the tank because they bought derivatives that were based on bundles of mortgages, many of which were sub-prime and not worth the paper they were printed on.

The blood sucking tics are all trying to point the finger at anything other than their giant milch cow with 50 million teats, but no one is fooled.

Between 2004 and 2006, when subprime lending was exploding, Fannie and Freddie went from holding a high of 48 percent of the subprime loans that were sold into the secondary market to holding about 24 percent, according to data from Inside Mortgage Finance, a specialty publication. One reason is that Fannie and Freddie were subject to tougher standards than many of the unregulated players in the private sector who weakened lending standards, most of whom have gone bankrupt or are now in deep trouble.

During those same explosive three years, private investment banks — not Fannie and Freddie — dominated the mortgage loans that were packaged and sold into the secondary mortgage market. In 2005 and 2006, the private sector securitized almost two thirds of all U.S. mortgages, supplanting Fannie and Freddie, according to a number of specialty publications that track this data.



Read more: Private sector loans, not Fannie or Freddie, triggered crisis | McClatchy

The FM's exposure was due to purchasing those same privately originated MBS's. The funds were screaming for more, the banks and mortgage lenders couldn't put them together fast enough.

While there is plenty of blame to pass around, the failure of the government lies in allowing the wild west casino to keep playing. I blame Greenspan and his "market will regulate itself" fantasies.

 

[Chris]

This is a bat-shit crazy statement.

The market didn't freeze up because of a few sub-prime foreclosures. It froze because no one could trust the other players. And that shit falls squarely on the financial sector. As for needing 100,000 to play, institutional investors are the largest investors in hedge funds. You know pension funds, school endowments, charitable foundations. Yep, never touched the common man, did they?

"A few sub-prime foreclosures?" Only a small percentage of the sub-prime mortgages were foreclosed on. Fanny Mae and Freddie Max were each bailed out to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. The hedge funds went into the tank because they bought derivatives that were based on bundles of mortgages, many of which were sub-prime and not worth the paper they were printed on.

The blood sucking tics are all trying to point the finger at anything other than their giant milch cow with 50 million teats, but no one is fooled.

Only 6% of mortgages were in default when the market collapsed.

The market collapsed because Wall Street was running a $516 TRILLION DOLLAR derivative Ponzi scheme. Just to give you an idea of how big a scam that was, the GDP of all the countries in the world in one year is $50 trillion dollars. The only one that warned about what was about to happen was Warren Buffett. You can read about it at this link...

Derivatives are the new ticking time bomb Paul B. Farrell - MarketWatch

 

[Foxfyre]

The CRA in the Carter Administration was well intended and had some pretty good rules and did help a lot of folks get into their first hmes with minimal down payments. But those folks also had to have a decent credit rating and a steady source of income to qualify for those entry loans. So the defaults were only slightly higher than with people taking out conventional loans.

But over time, politicians started using the CRA like all the rest of the government to buy votes and increase their own power, influence, and personal fortunes. Groups like ACORN got into the act and, by backing influencial politicians such as our President, wielded great power through influence in Washington. They started forcing the financial institutions to relax rules about credit ratings and reduce down payments even more.

Also:

A man named Bruce Marks became quite notorious during the last decade for pressuring banks to earmark literally billions of dollars to his organization, the "Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America." He once boasted to the New York Times that he had "won" loan commitments totaling $3.8 billion from Bank of America, First Union Corporation, and the Fleet Financial Group. And that is just one "community group" operating in one city — Boston.

Banks have been placed in a Catch 22 situation by the CRA: If they comply, they know they will have to suffer from more loan defaults. If they don't comply, they face financial penalties and, worse yet, their business plans for mergers, branch expansions, etc. can be blocked by CRA protesters, which can cost a large corporation like Bank of America billions of dollars. Like most businesses, they have largely buckled under and have surrendered to their bureaucratic masters.

Consequently, banks in every community in America have been forced to hold a portfolio of bad loans, euphemistically referred to as "subprime" loans. In order to compensate themselves for the added risk of extending these loans, many lenders have increased the lending fees associated with mortgage loans. This is simply an indirect way of doing what banks always do — and what they must do to remain solvent: charging effectively higher rates of interest on riskier loans.

But this is discriminatory!, complained the "community organizations." Thus, if one browses the ACORN web site, one can read of their boasts of having "predatory lending laws" passed in numerous states which outlaw such fees, prohibiting banks from protecting themselves from the added risk involved in making forced loans to "subprime" borrowers.
The Government-Created Subprime Mortgage Meltdown by Thomas DiLorenzo

When you force financial institutions to make loans to people with poor track records for managing money, who don't pay their debts if they don't feel like it, you're going to start having more defaults. When the economy is good it works because there are plenty of good loans to offset the bad ones. But when the economy is bad, people who have no credit rating to protect and little or no investment in their homes just stop paying for those homes. And when the number of bad loans has been hugely and artificially inflated, then the whole house of cards comes crashing down.

The ones to blame are those who put this kind of system into effect and who went before the cameras almost every day to defend the solvency of Freddie and Fannie when the Bush Administration first started sounding the alarm years ahead of the 2008 crash.

 

[thereisnospoon]

Horse shit.

The top 26 hedge fund managers were averaging $826 million dollars a year running the Ponzi scheme. They skimmed it off the top of THE SAVINGS OF HARD WORKING AMERICANS. And then, the Ponzi scheme ran out, the government GAVE THEM BACK THE MONEY THAT THEY STOLE AND NO ONE WENT TO JAIL!!!

You'll have to be clear about who was given what. You have to have a minimum of $100,000 to invest in a hedge fund, so no "working Americans," as you refer to losers, were ripped off by investing in hedge funds. The federal government did not give any money to any hedge funds.

Oh, please, listen to yourself. You are defending the people that DESTROYED OUR ECONOMY.

Really? How? PLease explain using facts. No blogosphere opinions allowed.

 

[thereisnospoon]

What a bunch of bull. Nobody CHOOSES to work at McDonald's. They HAVE to in order to make ends meet. YOU were LUCKY. Count your blessing and quit being so greedy. Start working so that others can have the same opportunities you did. That means, stop worrying about getting a tax break and start worrying about raising the minimum wage to a living wage. Let others have the same chance to become wealthy as you did. You are a hypocrite if you think that everyone has money to invest. Most of the people on foodstamps are the working poor, talk about shameful. We're the richest country in the world and many in our own military who put their lives on the line for us have to get foodstamps so they can feed their children. You aren't worth their sacrifice because you are so greedy you don't think they deserve any better. Meanwhile, you lord it over the working class and sit on your investments and cry that you don't deserve to pay taxes. Good grief, talk about class warfare. You want to make sure that the poor never have a chance to be better.

you know what I started out with? zip. I could't afford to go to a good school. I had no one footing my bill. My parents worked hard and pushed my ass always. but they made ends meet and managed to save a little. I busted my as in school an got a scholarship, paid the rest on my own. When I graduated college I had $3500 in the bank, saved from working jobs like flipping burgers, cutting lawns and stocking warehouses while in school. And then i worked, then I took some risks. And I worked harder and started to move up. I had nothing handed to me. I'm not super rich. I'm very well off, but I'm not a player. But I worked for it. took chances but was smart about them. you've got to follow the leads. A perfect example. AIG. they were floating a little above $7 a share and risking bankruptcy. But obama was willing ot toss a ton of money at them. The government wasn't going to let them fail. You've got a sure bet there. that's taking a smart chance. Phillip morris, rumored dead in the water by massive lawsuits in the clinton years. Waxman all over their ass. stock dropped from the upper $80's to like $17. no one would touch it. I bought a ton. Why? becasue the government had just signed a master stettlement agreement with them and was poised to make more on a pack of smokes than there were. I bought a ton of stock, i bought a ton of options. huge risk, but I made a ton of money.

I had nothing any other burger flipper didn't have, except drive and the willingness to go for it.

And fucking luck. Two parents. With savings. Good health and mental capacity. Housing. And lucked out on the investments.

Not everyone has that kind of luck.

Ahh yes..You libs view those who have accomplished anything as having won the lottery of life.
You lefties will do anything to avoid discussing the concepts of hard work, education and personal responsibility.

 

[thereisnospoon]

Not to mention more affordable college tuition, a better economy with more job opportunities. An economy where our jobs were here, not overseas and we actually had ladders that you could climb, not rungs missing due to jobs being sent overseas.

The ladders are still there. you are totally missing the point. Companies recruit out of colleges. Many big companies have a policy that part of managments bonus is based on how well they recruit and how well they move people they recruit through the organization. White collar jobs are not outsourced techical jobs are still there, they are different. we are in a faster paced environment. They can't find enough computer techs, nurses, healthworkers. engineers, electical technitions. Factory work is gone. Union wages out priced them to the point they weren't competitive in a global market. But there are plenty of manufacturing jobs. now they are just technical and require training. becasue people are running high tech equipment. Solar installers are going to be in huge demand over the next 10 years. who is making themselves capable to fill those positions?

No, you are missing the point. You went to college at a time when you could make enough on minimum wage with ONE job and still go to college. You were able to better yourself that way. That opportunity is no longer available to most minimum wage workers in this economy and hasn't been for many years. Minimum wage just doesn't have the spending power it did when you were working your way up the ladder. Plus the ladders are missing rungs. Our jobs have been sent overseas. Even my nephew, who went to MIT on a scholarship and had much help from his parents ended up going back to school to become a lawyer because HIS jobs was done away with in today's economy. A job that required a degree from MIT. A job working for INTEL. You must be nuts if you think today people have the same opportunity that you did and that they can work to better themselves, it's just not available to most workers.

We have lawyers telling corporations how to word job descriptions so they can bring in people from overseas and no American will qualify for that job. You don't give a damn about those who've had college educations and lost their jobs to immigrants brought in from overseas because the corporations can get away with paying them less. You don't give a damn about the minimum wage worker working two jobs just to feed himself. You just lord it over all those you think you are better than because you believe (erroneously) that you worked "harder" than them and deserve your riches while they deserve to be poor and hungry.

Times are not like they were then, even you admit that, yet you think you are better than them and deserve more than them because you were lucky and lived in a time when jobs were plentiful and when you could work your way through college and better yourself.

I have seen whining on this subject, but this post really takes the cake.
Shut the fuck up....
Your nephew has a degree from MIT that was paid for by scholarship money and you have the gall to complain?!!!!! That kid has more opportunities than he will ever realize.

 

[thereisnospoon]

I have a slight problem with the math, but according to these charts, the bottom 80% have lost wealth while the top 21% have gained a lot of wealth, the top 1% has gained 150%

Yeah, I know, it adds up to 101%, that's why I have a slight problem with the math.

No one has "lost wealth"...The chart clearly shows while the two bottom quintiles wages remain steady, those in the upper three have seen wages increase.
So what?.....Is it somehow criminal for people to use their work ethic or education to improve themselves?
I get pretty pissed off when I have to think about people on the class envy train looking cross eyed at me because I did the work necessary to become more well trained and certified in my line of work which helps me to earn more money. Ya know what? Fuck 'em.
I'll do what I want.

Of course you will, because you don't give a damn about anyone but yourself. That's what's wrong with our country today, greed, and power only in the hands of the wealthy making sure the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. You don't give a crap because you don't work a minimum wage job. You think you're better than them because you've had better luck. Trust me, you haven't worked harder at all.

Do you know that in 1968, minimum wage had the highest spending power in history? That a minimum wage worker could afford his own apartment, to buy a car, and to go to college part time? I know because that's exactly what my brother did at the time. He worked his butt off to do it too. You don't get that same advantage with a minimum wage job today, in fact even those making more than minimum are working 2 jobs to make ends meet and don't have the time or the money for any classes to improve their lives.

YOU were LUCKY!!! That's all you have that they don't. You sure as hell didn't work any harder than they work.

Luck has nothing to do with it, genius.
I started working as a junior in high school. So don't fucking tell me about luck greed or anything else. And please spare me the horse shit story about min wage workers in 1968.
You're just another self indulged whiner who thinks the world owes them something.
Luck......Oh sure.....
Your post is this.....WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[thereisnospoon]

Why is it you people think that because some have more therefore someone else MUST have less?

Because the only way a tic sucking on the government tit can get more is to take it from someone else. A tic on the ass of society cannot comprehend the concept of producing wealth. They only understand the concept of taking wealth.

A tic like Big Oil?

A tic like Wall Street bankers?

A tic like every other blood sucking lobbyist in Washington?

How do they "produce wealth?" By stealing HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS in a $516 TRILLION DOLLAR DERIVATIVE SCHEME???

The more you repeat your nonsense, the more people will yawn at you.

 

[thereisnospoon]

The hardest working people make the least money.

The Mexican farm workers and the people at McDonalds.

This country is totally fucked up. We are running huge deficits because the Republicans won't raise taxes on the rich by 3%.

its about risk and rewards. burn a burger no big deal. you won't even get fired over it. make a poor investment and you could lose millions of your own money. that's how the game is played. you're free to choose which player you want to aspire to be

What a bunch of bull. Nobody CHOOSES to work at McDonald's. They HAVE to in order to make ends meet. YOU were LUCKY. Count your blessing and quit being so greedy. Start working so that others can have the same opportunities you did. That means, stop worrying about getting a tax break and start worrying about raising the minimum wage to a living wage. Let others have the same chance to become wealthy as you did. You are a hypocrite if you think that everyone has money to invest. Most of the people on foodstamps are the working poor, talk about shameful. We're the richest country in the world and many in our own military who put their lives on the line for us have to get foodstamps so they can feed their children. You aren't worth their sacrifice because you are so greedy you don't think they deserve any better. Meanwhile, you lord it over the working class and sit on your investments and cry that you don't deserve to pay taxes. Good grief, talk about class warfare. You want to make sure that the poor never have a chance to be better.

Oh I get it...Those 50,000 people Mickey D's hired two months ago were not there of their own volition. Those people were summoned there by the corporate authority and told they MUST work at Mc Donalds or ELSE....No one made the conscious choice to take the job....
Umm, increasing the minimum wage always results in the loss of jobs.
There is no such thing as a living wage because each individual has their own idea of a proper or desired lifestyle for them.
Living wage. HA!!!! That's a socialist worker's party angle to use the force of government to mandate massive wage increases. Essentially this creates nationalization of all private business. Well, fuck that.
You talk about low pay for soldiers. I agree. Yet your side continually attacks defense spending. HUH?!!!!
Can't have it both ways.
Persoanlly, I think military wages should be doubled. That money can be taken from some wasteful social program. Deal?

 

[Chris]

Because the only way a tic sucking on the government tit can get more is to take it from someone else. A tic on the ass of society cannot comprehend the concept of producing wealth. They only understand the concept of taking wealth.

A tic like Big Oil?

A tic like Wall Street bankers?

A tic like every other blood sucking lobbyist in Washington?

How do they "produce wealth?" By stealing HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS in a $516 TRILLION DOLLAR DERIVATIVE SCHEME???

The more you repeat your nonsense, the more people will yawn at you.

Data on the five-fold growth of derivatives to $516 trillion in five years comes from the most recent survey by the Bank of International Settlements, the world's clearinghouse for central banks in Basel, Switzerland. The BIS is like the cashier's window at a racetrack or casino, where you'd place a bet or cash in chips, except on a massive scale: BIS is where the U.S. settles trade imbalances with Saudi Arabia for all that oil we guzzle and gives China IOUs for the tainted drugs and lead-based toys we buy.

To grasp how significant this five-fold bubble increase is, let's put that $516 trillion in the context of some other domestic and international monetary data:

•U.S. annual gross domestic product is about $15 trillion

•U.S. money supply is also about $15 trillion

•Current proposed U.S. federal budget is $3 trillion

•U.S. government's maximum legal debt is $9 trillion

•U.S. mutual fund companies manage about $12 trillion

•World's GDPs for all nations is approximately $50 trillion

•Unfunded Social Security and Medicare benefits $50 trillion to $65 trillion

•Total value of the world's real estate is estimated at about $75 trillion

•Total value of world's stock and bond markets is more than $100 trillion

•BIS valuation of world's derivatives back in 2002 was about $100 trillion

•BIS 2007 valuation of the world's derivatives is now a whopping $516 trillion

Derivatives are the new ticking time bomb Paul B. Farrell - MarketWatch

 

[Uncensored2008]

Envy has nothing to do with it.

Envy has everything to do with it - it's all you have.

The wealth has already been redistributed to the super rich through tax loopholes and a $516 TRILLION DOLLAR derivatives Ponzi scheme.

Another moron leftist who thinks there is a static pile of wealth that is divied up.

You toss out the standard lie, right? You claim that the poor have gotten poorer - can we test your lie?