Zone1 Should A Handful Of Billionaires Own More Wealth Than The Bottom 50% Of All Americans?

[Mac-7]

It is wrong when there are so many people living in scarcity, even homeless. Allowing people to have millions, not to speak of billions, leads to cronyism and eventually war. Armies of lobbyists in the halls of government, legally bribing politicians to pass laws that serve the vested interests of the wealthy at the expense of the working-class. The public suffers and eventually, that leads to social unrest and civil war. The ruling-class are a bunch of leeches, living off of the labor of others.

Close the border and stop the invasion from Mexica if you want to reduce and/or end poverty in America

Build the wall and close the refugee loophole

 

[rightwinger]

I said contributions are voluntary, not taxes. You libs love to use the word "contribution" instead of mandatory taxation.

View attachment 740865
Hmmm, don't see "tax" in there.

Taxes are the price we pay to live in a civilized society

It is how citizens contribute to that society

 

[Captain Caveman]

At the urging of Republican Senators Hawley and Rubio, a new think tank is working out ways for the GOP to changetheir messaging.

They want to shift their rhetoric from support for corporations and the morbidly rich to pretending they care about working people. This new organization will, they say, “think differently about labor vs. capital than Republicans have in recent generations.”


It’s a cynical effort to capture Trump’s working class base. He’d promised he’d bring our jobs home from China, empower labor unions, raise taxes on the rich so high that “my friends won’t ever talk to me again,” and give every American full health insurance that cost less than Obamacare. Those promises helped win him the White House.

All were lies, but the GOP base bought it and gave him tens of millions of votes; now Hawley, Rubio, et al think they can bottle that populist rhetorical magic and repeat Trump’s shtick for 2024.

Which raises the existential question both economists and politicians have debated for centuries:


America has had two different but clear answers to that question during the past century.

From the end of the Republican Great Depression with Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal in the 1930s until 1981 (including the presidencies of Republican Presidents Eisenhower and Nixon, who maintained the top 91% and 74% income tax rates), the answer was unambiguous: “The economy is here to serve average Americans.”

Income and wealth during that time rose at about the same rate for working class Americans as they did for the rich, something we’d never before seen in this country.

This was not an accident or a mistake. It was the very intentional outcome of policies put into place by FDR and then maintained by both Democratic and Republican administrations for almost 50 years during that pre-Reagan era.

And then came the Reagan Revolution, when Republicans decided that the middle class wasn’t as important as giant corporations and the very wealthy after all, and that the rest of us are here to serve the rich.

Should a Handful of Billionaires Own More Wealth than the Bottom 50% of All Americans?

At the urging of Republican Senators Hawley and Rubio, a new think tank is working out ways for the GOP to change their messaging. They want to shift their rhetoric from support for corporations and the morbidly rich to pretending they care about...

m.dailykos.com

Im sure this will hurt the feminine sensibilities of certain moderators, so I expect it to be moved with not much intelligent input.

The billionaires are billionaires because of two things - they reaped what they showed and everyone buys the billionaires goods and/or services.

Disgruntled people have the same opportunity as everyone else to create a business, work hard, and reap what they sow. No one is under any obligation to buy a Tesla, use Amazon, or install and use Windows 11. If the bottom whatever percentage stopped buying from the top whatever percentage, the gap will likely narrow. Anyone in the bottom whatever percentage does that..... anyone...

 

[Captain Caveman]

Taxes are the price we pay to live in a civilized society

It is how citizens contribute to that society

Yes, and they're there to pay for socialist programs that contributes the most to national debt

 

[rightwinger]

Yes, and they're there to pay for socialist programs that contributes the most to national debt

Programs that help We the People are not Socialist

If we can spend more on our Military than the next seven nations combined, we can afford programs to help the people

It comes down to priorities

 

[DukeU]

I have no interest in buying an electric vehicle. Damn things catch on fire.Nor am I interested in going into space as a tourist. I rarely visit Twitter. Sorry, Elon Musk.

We have more in common than you might think. No interest in electric vehicle whatsoever and have never been on Twitter once, or FB for that matter.

I doubt Elon noticed though.

 

[martybegan]

Let's both be clear on something together here. Markets can only function if the state is there to maintain order and to enforce contracts. That and religion is needed to make sure all is morally good and everyone gets together to guide the whole process as best they can.

That's reality.

Sure, some clown tries to skew everything for their benefit and the state's supposed to keep it all in check, but we're talking real life on the Planet Earth. Things will ALWAYS be imperfect because perfection is always impossible.

So. Be specific and name names and dates. Just what is it u want changed?

I dont' want anything changed, I am saying giving power to the government to decide who can be wealthy results in those making the choices to select themselves.

 

[Woodznutz]

You first.

I, and my family are doing our part.

I and wife: Two kids.
Son and wife: Two kids
Daughter and SO: One kid
My Brother and wife: Two kids.
His son: No kids
His daughter: No kids
My sister and husband: Two kids
1st son: No kids
2nd son: No kids

The only ones that might have kids are my brother's daughter and my granddaughter. The rest have no plans to marry (one nephew is gay). Do we get a cookie?

 

[Woodznutz]

Technology is a two-edged sword, and the weaponized edge will be the one most used.

I just watched the PBS documentary on Martin Borough, the father of the "Green Revolution". His 'technology' has brought the world and the earth to the edge of catastrophe.

That be Norman Borlaug.

 

[Captain Caveman]

Programs that help We the People are not Socialist

If we can spend more on our Military than the next seven nations combined, we can afford programs to help the people

It comes down to priorities

I'll explain it this way. If government money is used to pay people's needs, the national debt increases. If the government uses the money to stimulate the economy, for example, labour schemes such as YTS that the UK did in the late 80's, it stimulates the economy, tax revenue increases.

The UK government has been busy sending winter fuel payments to households. A sizeable proportion don't have the money to pay for the increase in energy use, so the government payments cover part of the increase anyhow, it hasn't stimulated the economy, national debt has increased, tax revenue hasn't increased, and people are still worse off. And this is called helping the people? Two things that don't mix - Economy and Utopia.

I'm a 60's kid, I remember the days before central heating and double glazing. Many today feel entitled to government money to heat their houses, whilst they sit there in t-shirts on the latest iPhone and games console. Life is not sunshine and rainbows

 

[Red Front]

Close the border and stop the invasion from Mexica if you want to reduce and/or end poverty in America

Build the wall and close the refugee loophole

That would reduce poverty because Americans would have more job opportunities and there would be fewer drugs coming in. It's not the only thing we have to do, but it would definitely contribute to reducing poverty.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

The term "right of the poor" doesn't equate to "rights" in your convoluted brain? The homeless are entitled to be housed according to God. You deny that at your own peril as a Bible believer. Don't you believe in the Bible? Aren't you a Bible-believing Christian? Apparently not. But anyways, it doesn't matter. If society decides that every one of its members have a right to housing, then that's how it's going to be. The community decides such issues, not you or me as individuals. It's the community.

The term "right of the poor" doesn't equate to "rights" in your convoluted brain?

You have a Biblical verse that mentions housing, food, healthcare, education and employment are human rights of the poor?

The homeless are entitled to be housed according to God.

You already said you wouldn't give up your house to the poor.

If society decides that every one of its members have a right to housing, then that's how it's going to be.

Ping me when society decides that. LOL!

 

[Redfish]

No one is stopping you from building your own company, using the same tax codes and corporate welfare system, and becoming rich… Well except you!

Notice something that many of those Rich Billionaires are Democrat Voters, so tell us Skew why is it they vote Democrat?

to keep the loopholes and giveaways intact, by bribing their dem congresspersons.

 

[Woodznutz]

That would reduce poverty because Americans would have more job opportunities and there would be fewer drugs coming in. It's not the only thing we have to do, but it would definitely contribute to reducing poverty.

Then Americans better get off their butts and take those jobs else they will be filled by the immigrants. The economy can't wait for them to get off their pity pots.

 

[Redfish]

Then Americans better get off their butts and take those jobs else they will be filled by the immigrants. The economy can't wait for them to get off their pity pots.

if the illegals were not here and willing to work for peanuts, there would be no open jobs. Close the border the problem goes away instantly.

 

[Woodznutz]

I'll explain it this way. If government money is used to pay people's needs, the national debt increases. If the government uses the money to stimulate the economy, for example, labour schemes such as YTS that the UK did in the late 80's, it stimulates the economy, tax revenue increases.

The UK government has been busy sending winter fuel payments to households. A sizeable proportion don't have the money to pay for the increase in energy use, so the government payments cover part of the increase anyhow, it hasn't stimulated the economy, national debt has increased, tax revenue hasn't increased, and people are still worse off. And this is called helping the people? Two things that don't mix - Economy and Utopia.

I'm a 60's kid, I remember the days before central heating and double glazing. Many today feel entitled to government money to heat their houses, whilst they sit there in t-shirts on the latest iPhone and games console. Life is not sunshine and rainbows

I'm actually a '40's guy. We lived by the RR tracks. After the coal trains came by people would rush out to pick up the coal that fell from the overloaded coal cars. Even my well-to-do neighbor lady was out there with her pail. We did switch to oil heat when I was about five so I didn't have to shovel coal into the furnace. My older brother did however.

 

[Woodznutz]

if the illegals were not here and willing to work for peanuts, there would be no open jobs. Close the border the problem goes away instantly.

I think most illegals that do find work are smart enough to demand fair wages. In the west immigrants have virtually taken over the building trades, making very good money.

 

[Captain Caveman]

I'm actually a '40's guy. We lived by the RR tracks. After the coal trains came by people would rush out to pick up the coal that fell from the overloaded coal cars. Even my well-to-do neighbor lady was out there with her pail. We did switch to oil heat when I was about five so I didn't have to shovel coal into the furnace. My older brother did however.

When we went to bed, we skipped across the cold, past the ice on the inside of the window, and climbed into bed under the covers. You curled up into a ball, huffed for 5 minutes until it warmed up enough so you stick your head out of the covers. Despite radiators appearing in the 70's, mother and father just heated the living room via the gas fire. In the kitchen, the gas cooker oven was left on low to keep the chill off the room. In those days, it was colder and colder for much much longer.

 

[Redfish]

I think most illegals that do find work are smart enough to demand fair wages. In the west immigrants have virtually taken over the building trades, making very good money.

not true, most of them are paid under the table in cash, no taxes withheld, no SS withheld, etc, then they take the cash to western union and wire it to mexico or guatamala. close the border, let people come LEGALLY only.

 

[Orangecat]

Taxes are the price we pay to live in a civilized society

STFU with your canned response, drone.

It is how citizens contribute to that society

Taxation isn't voluntary and doesn't qualify as a contribution. Words have meanings, you illiterate imbecile.