The largest transfer of wealth in the history of the world...

[Ray From Cleveland]

"Three owners of Walmart — Rob, Jim, and Alice Walton — have seen their combined personal wealth increase over $48 billion. In 2018, Walmart’s CEO Doug McMillion made 1,118 times the pay of Walmart’s median worker. Yet Walmart refuses to provide hazard pay to its workers."

How would paying their employees hazard pay make it any less hazardous for them? Does McDonald's pay their employees hazard pay? Does your grocery store? How about your convenience store? How about cab or bus drivers? How about a waitress, bar tender, flight attendant, or poll worker this past election?

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Driving this exploding inequality are 12 companies whose profits are coming at the expense of workers and communities. These 'Delinquent Dozen' companies are emblematic of the corporate greed that has grown rampant over the last 40 years.

You're free not to work for these corporations.
Free not to buy from these corporations.
Free to cry like a baby about these corporations.

And also free to invest in these companies to share in their profit.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

You keep using the word "theft" in relation to taxation without telling me what moral right you have to your pre-tax income. The billionaires you worship only have their money because government created the laws and institutions (corporations) that made their fortunes possible.

A democratic government can redistribute those fortunes the same way a corporate government did in creating the private wealth.

The moral right I have to my money is I created it, not government and not people who didn't. I have a moral right to my home, my rental units, my car, my electricity, my computer, my television. Why do I have this moral right? Because I created the money to have these things. I invested in my IRA which is now helpful that I'm no longer working, even though I haven't touched it yet. It was my money that created this profit and security. Why would I be obligated to give it to somebody who didn't do what I did, and instead, had children they could never afford, the newest iPhone, a leased car they trade in every three or five years for another new car? I never had a new car in my life, but I should give my money to these people?

"Liberals believe if you make money, you are not entitled to it, but if you want money, you are."
Ken Blackwell

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Because we kill their children for money.
That lifestyle you're so proud of has been paid for with the lives of innocent children, and I suspect you will never give their murders a second thought.

A U.S.-Backed Militia That Kills Children May Be America’s Exit Strategy From Its Longest War

"The 10 raids resulted in the deaths of at least 51 civilians, according to The Intercept’s reporting. In most cases, men and boys as young as 8, few of whom appear to have had any formal relationship with the Taliban, were summarily executed.

"Some died alone, others alongside friends and family.

"Several raids were accompanied by airstrikes or, in at least one instance, the detonation of hand-laid explosives targeting structures known to be occupied by civilians."

So we are to blame instead of their own people who picked a fight with us? We weren't bothering Osama. Yet he came here and killed over 3,000 of our people because he didn't like our lifestyle, our religious freedom, and freedom in general. Are we not to respond because of our fear of innocent casualties? These cowards attack us killing our innocent and children, and then when we go there to kick their ass, they are hiding in school buildings expecting us not to attack them in concern of the innocent. Who put the lives of their innocent at risk, us or them?

 

[georgephillip]

The late Dr. Walter E Williams used to tell his story about when he was teaching economics in college. He said a frequent question he got was "Dr. Williams, what is the key to financial success?" Dr. Williams replied "It's simple really. The key to financial success is please your fellow man.

Walter Williams appears to be someone who became relatively successful in spite of the "Masters of Mankind" and their vile maxim: "all for ourselves and nothing for other people."

The key to financial success today requires bribing the NYSE for the right to locate your computer as close as possible to the Exchange's mainframes:

Race to Control U.S. Senate: “Georgians for Kelly Loeffler” Campaign Committee Packed with NY and CA Trading Firm Billionaires

"As exposed in the Michael Lewis bestseller, Flash Boys, and characterized by Jonathon Trugman as 'a high-priced, high frequency brothel,' the New York Stock Exchange has devolved into a wealth transfer scheme for the one percent.

"The New York Stock Exchange allows high frequency traders to co-locate their computers next to the stock exchange’s main computers so they can gain a speed advantage over other customers at a monthly cost that only the richest hedge funds and Wall Street trading houses can afford to pay."

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

The late Dr. Walter E Williams used to tell his story about when he was teaching economics in college. He said a frequent question he got was "Dr. Williams, what is the key to financial success?" Dr. Williams replied "It's simple really. The key to financial success is please your fellow man.

Walter Williams appears to be someone who became relatively successful in spite of the "Masters of Mankind" and their vile maxim: "all for ourselves and nothing for other people."

The key to financial success today requires bribing the NYSE for the right to locate your computer as close as possible to the Exchange's mainframes:

Race to Control U.S. Senate: “Georgians for Kelly Loeffler” Campaign Committee Packed with NY and CA Trading Firm Billionaires

"As exposed in the Michael Lewis bestseller, Flash Boys, and characterized by Jonathon Trugman as 'a high-priced, high frequency brothel,' the New York Stock Exchange has devolved into a wealth transfer scheme for the one percent.

"The New York Stock Exchange allows high frequency traders to co-locate their computers next to the stock exchange’s main computers so they can gain a speed advantage over other customers at a monthly cost that only the richest hedge funds and Wall Street trading houses can afford to pay."

When you place an order, does it cost you more or less when a high frequency trading
firm is on the other side of the trade?

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

The late Dr. Walter E Williams used to tell his story about when he was teaching economics in college. He said a frequent question he got was "Dr. Williams, what is the key to financial success?" Dr. Williams replied "It's simple really. The key to financial success is please your fellow man.

Walter Williams appears to be someone who became relatively successful in spite of the "Masters of Mankind" and their vile maxim: "all for ourselves and nothing for other people."

The key to financial success today requires bribing the NYSE for the right to locate your computer as close as possible to the Exchange's mainframes:

Race to Control U.S. Senate: “Georgians for Kelly Loeffler” Campaign Committee Packed with NY and CA Trading Firm Billionaires

"As exposed in the Michael Lewis bestseller, Flash Boys, and characterized by Jonathon Trugman as 'a high-priced, high frequency brothel,' the New York Stock Exchange has devolved into a wealth transfer scheme for the one percent.

"The New York Stock Exchange allows high frequency traders to co-locate their computers next to the stock exchange’s main computers so they can gain a speed advantage over other customers at a monthly cost that only the richest hedge funds and Wall Street trading houses can afford to pay."

I never heard of that, but how much more are you going to make by trading three or four seconds faster? Day traders have always tried to get in as fast as possible. They hold on to stocks for an extremely short time, and it's perfectly legal.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

how much more are you going to make by trading three or four seconds faster?

Fractions of a second.

 

[georgephillip]

You may make a good hamburger, but you only please your self and perhaps your family. People start hiring you for their cookouts, so you please your fellow man by the dozens. You open up a restaurant with your hamburgers, and you please your fellow man by the thousands. You then franchise your restaurants and you please your fellow man by the hundreds of millions. Every step you took to please more of your fellow man, monetary rewards followed.

How many of your excellent burgers can you personally produce?
At some point you will have to hire others to help you become rich.
Will you pay your workers the full value of what they produce, or will you resort to exploitation?
Will you franchise your restaurants on Wall Street?
Where do those speculators get their wealth?
Do you hope to become a billionaire?

Do Billionaires Destroy Democracy and Capitalism? - Evonomics

"So how do you become a billionaire? Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor, explains four sources of wealth:

• "Inherited Wealth: around 60 percent of wealth in the US is inherited. The best chance you have of becoming a billionaire is to marry or be born into intergenerational riches.
• "Monopolies: Jeff Bezos’ Amazon accounts for nearly 50 percent of all e-commerce retail sales in America. Our patent and trademark systems, which have been extended in duration, create billionaire like George Lucas and Oprah Winfrey.

• "Insider Information: Hedge fund billionaire Steven A. Cohen made “hundreds of millions of dollars of illegal profits” – through his expertise in insider trading. This is not an isolated incident.
• Politics: You can invest in politicians – or even bet on them, like racehorses – through your timely campaign contributions. Americans for Tax Fairness estimates that Charles Koch and David Koch and/or Koch Industries could save between $1 billion and $1.4 billion combined in income taxes each year from the Trump tax law―"

 

[georgephillip]

When you look at the uber wealthy like Bezos, Cook, Gates, Dorsey, they did exactly what Professor Williams used to teach. They pleased their fellow man by the tens of millions if not hundreds of millions.

Would they have done anything different if society had expected them to pay their fair share in taxes as they have done many times during the last century?

Do Billionaires Destroy Democracy and Capitalism? - Evonomics

"The rate was almost 80% in World War 1, over 90% in World War II, and pushed down over time by Republicans to a low of 37%.

"This 37% top tax rate seems ridiculously lower compared to Scandinavian countries that pay a top income tax rate of 70%.

"What do Scandinavians get back for this very high marginal tax rate.

"They get back 'freedom from insecurity.'

"Scandinavians don’t have to pay for medicines, surgeries, college education, maternity leave, longer vacations, and so on.

"The evidence is clear that many Americans might prefer to live in a country with higher taxes on the rich, than in today’s America where at least 15-20% of U.S. citizens can’t meet their basic needs without help.

"Yes, most of us have plenty to eat but the important things we need like health care and a college education are priced as luxury goods."

Do you believe a college education and health care are luxury goods? It's obvious Bezos, Cook, Gates, etc. etc. do.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

You may make a good hamburger, but you only please your self and perhaps your family. People start hiring you for their cookouts, so you please your fellow man by the dozens. You open up a restaurant with your hamburgers, and you please your fellow man by the thousands. You then franchise your restaurants and you please your fellow man by the hundreds of millions. Every step you took to please more of your fellow man, monetary rewards followed.

How many of your excellent burgers can you personally produce?
At some point you will have to hire others to help you become rich.
Will you pay your workers the full value of what they produce, or will you resort to exploitation?
Will you franchise your restaurants on Wall Street?
Where do those speculators get their wealth?
Do you hope to become a billionaire?

Do Billionaires Destroy Democracy and Capitalism? - Evonomics

"So how do you become a billionaire? Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor, explains four sources of wealth:

• "Inherited Wealth: around 60 percent of wealth in the US is inherited. The best chance you have of becoming a billionaire is to marry or be born into intergenerational riches.
• "Monopolies: Jeff Bezos’ Amazon accounts for nearly 50 percent of all e-commerce retail sales in America. Our patent and trademark systems, which have been extended in duration, create billionaire like George Lucas and Oprah Winfrey.

• "Insider Information: Hedge fund billionaire Steven A. Cohen made “hundreds of millions of dollars of illegal profits” – through his expertise in insider trading. This is not an isolated incident.
• Politics: You can invest in politicians – or even bet on them, like racehorses – through your timely campaign contributions. Americans for Tax Fairness estimates that Charles Koch and David Koch and/or Koch Industries could save between $1 billion and $1.4 billion combined in income taxes each year from the Trump tax law―"

Will you pay your workers the full value of what they produce, or will you resort to exploitation?

Define the "full value of what they produce"

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Would they have done anything different if society had expected them to pay their fair share in taxes as they have done many times during the last century?

First off, nobody actually ever paid those rates. However rates were still high, and John Kennedy seen that as a problem on our economy which is why he had them lowered. Much like today, businesses passed on their losses to the American consumer, so we eventually pay all those taxes anyway.

Secondly, during the time, travel was much more risky and expensive. We didn't always have satellites in the sky, radar or the technology we have today. A company owner moving overseas would have to fly or ship his board members to wherever for meetings. He would have to do the same with major stockholders. Shipping costs would outweigh the savings of tax and labor.

Today a company owner can move anywhere he wants and travel in safety. He can have meetings on Skype or Zoom. He can keep track of his investments over his phone sitting on the toilet. Between labor costs, regulations and taxation, it's more beneficial for many companies to produce somewhere else and ship it back to the US.

Finally, why is it only the left that can define what a fair share is? The top 20% of wage earners in this country pay over 80% of all collected income taxes. In that way you are correct, they are not paying their fair share, they are paying so much more, especially when you consider nearly half of our people don't pay any income tax at all.

 

[georgephillip]

Which conditions are you whining about now?

Swamp draining.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

How many of your excellent burgers can you personally produce?
At some point you will have to hire others to help you become rich.
Will you pay your workers the full value of what they produce, or will you resort to exploitation?
Will you franchise your restaurants on Wall Street?
Where do those speculators get their wealth?
Do you hope to become a billionaire?

Yes, you hire labor to make those millions of burgers every year. What's your point? That's how jobs are created in the first place. When you open up a business, you are the one that has to take your own money to create it. You have to buy or lease the building, the vehicles, the production equipment, retrofit the building to your industry, get all the office equipment. If successful (which many businesses are not) your income is determined by how much of your product you can produce and sell. Why should employees share in your profits? They didn't take any risks. It's not their money that opened up the business.

Employees don't make money on the product they manufacture. They are paid a weekly or monthly salary, or work per hour regardless how much or little the company produces. If you want to get paid by how much you produce, you can get a job that pays piece work, or you can get a job as a salesman where you make commission based on how much you sell. If you want to share in company profits, you can try to find a job that has profit sharing as a benefit. If you can't find a job that offers that benefit, you can buy stock in the company you work for. The options are all yours.

There is no exploitation when two people make a business agreement. I have a job, the job pays X amount of money, you apply for the job, and if I call you to take that job, you have the ability to accept or decline. How is the value of your labor determined? You are worth as much as your employer can pay somebody else to do the same job and same quality of work that you do. No more, no less.

If you do a job anybody can do, it pays low wages. Why? Because your employer can easily find somebody else to do that job for low wages. If you have a skill or trade, you make better money. Why? Because there are many less people who have that skill or trade. Your employer will not be able to replace you with somebody that is willing to work for piss poor money. If you get into a profession like an engineer or accountant, you make better money than the skilled or trade workers, because there are many less of them than the skilled workers.

Like your employer, speculators make their money by investing into a product or company. These are not privileged people. You can become a speculator anytime you want. I spent a couple of years in the commodities market, and I had the time of my life. In the end I ended up losing, but what a rush buying and selling contracts. I lost money in the end, but what fun I had doing it. Do I hope to become a billionaire? Hell, I'd be happy just being a millionaire.

 

[georgephillip]

How much money do we get for each dead child? Link?

Looking for investment opportunities?

Over 160 children reported among drone deaths

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

How much money do we get for each dead child? Link?

Looking for investment opportunities?

Over 160 children reported among drone deaths

No. I'm looking for an answer. For the truth. From you. For once.

 

[georgephillip]

More moral right than you have to a single penny of my income.

I don't need any of your money, Parasite.

Drain a few more swamps

 

[georgephillip]

So what? You live under the same laws and have access to the same institutions.
But you're a whiney loser who failed your whole life.

I wouldn't "earn" my living by exploitation and lying any more than I would by selling drugs or robbing banks. I'll leave those funds on the table for useless eaters, like you.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

So what? You live under the same laws and have access to the same institutions.
But you're a whiney loser who failed your whole life.

I wouldn't "earn" my living by exploitation and lying any more than I would by selling drugs or robbing banks. I'll leave those funds on the table for useless eaters, like you.

Did all your employers exploit your skills? Did you have any?

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

More moral right than you have to a single penny of my income.

I don't need any of your money, Parasite.

Drain a few more swamps

I don't need any of your money,

That's good, because you sure don't have any moral right to my money.