This 6 minute video sums up the shocking facts of American wealth and inequality

[beagle9]

It's the 'bad for the country' or 'good for the country' assessment that concerns me. In my view, the job of government is protecting freedom and ensuring justice. I specifically don't want a government that takes of the cause of making us 'better' people (richer, healthier, smarter, more productive, etc....).

Yes, but isn't it actually a by product of good governments actions, that creates an environment in which makes us (richer, healthier, smarter, and more productive, etc.) ???

If we don't have someway to monitor the playing field by a neutral office, then we can and will be abused, but it also is depending on the office as is held, and by whom it is that is controlling that office at any given time in which sets us up to be abused, and this be it in one way or another possibly, so I agree with the poster who said if we have a liberal controlling that office, then it will be a liberal fix, and such a fix may not suit the majority of Americans at all, but due to the power in which the office affords the people in charge of it, we could be abused by that office under such leadership, and that is a serious problem that we all face together in America as citizens.

 

[NightFox]

Thats great your happy. But that doesn't change the facts and statistics proving too much inequality is bad for our country. If you cared about your country you'd recognize something needs to be done.

No, they don't, gross wealth inequality is a symptom not the problem, the underlying machinery that causes gross wealth inequality is "bad" for our country. The root cause is a gross imbalance of power that allows central planners and social engineers to skew the economic field in a myriad of both obvious and non-obvious ways in favor of wealth transfer and wealth preservation on the upper end of the scale. Until people recognize that the unrestrained economic interventionism of government is the instrument that is creating the symptom they're concerned about and act accordingly it's only going to continue to get worse.

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." -- Lord Acton

So your saying gross wealth inequality is good for the country? Cause unless your saying that your not really disagreeing with my statement.

No if I had wanted to say that I would have said that, what I said was that gross inequality of wealth is a SYMPTOM of a problem that isn't good for the country and that attacking the SYMPTOM will never resolve the root cause.

 

[Vox]

Do you want to expand on that a little? It seems to me that it's getting harder and harder to find enough oil to satisfy world demand. More Frankenstein science is needed to grow enough food to go around. And people, especially out west are fighting over water rights.

Water rights are an example of a government granted or taken monopoly. We live on a water planet there is plenty of water. The trick is that getting H2O to where people have decided to take up permanent living status can be difficult. I have my own water well. It's a thousand feet deep. If the county did not let me get my own water that would be monopolistic control over what's right under my feet. But I can also get nearly all the water I need by collecting rainfall if I so desired to create a large enough catch system for my acreage.

On oil, the folks telling us we are running out have been debunked. It appears there is money in publishing gloom and doom stories regarding oil availability, global warming, etc type doom and gloom science. Dry oil wells fill up. It's magic. Or not. The folks saw dead dinosaurs in tar pits and conjectured that oil is from the dinosaurs. ROFL yeah not so much. There is a moon around Saturn I believe where it rains oil. ROFL yeah no dinosaurs there, go figure. Maybe oil is really just a product of heat and pressure from the mantle? Carbon and hydrogen, the basis of fuels, are not rare elements.

On food... hell we have so much extra food that our government is paying farmers to not farm, and paying other farmers to convert their food to gas, and paying still other farmers to send food donations to countries around the world, many who are harboring terrorists desiring to kill us. We even have some cities that ban people from growing their own food in their yard cause the people would rather have manicured grass.

Interesting bit about oil. However, even if it does 'regenerate', if oil companies are fracking like there's no tomorrow, that tells me it's not regernating fast enough to meet demand.

Speaking of fracking, you'd better hope that they keep that shit away from your aquifer. Watch Gasland if you want to see the downside. And as far as aquifers go, the big one that supplies the midwest is shrinking. Probably a bunch of others too.

Regarding food, I'll have to agree with you on the conversion to alcohol. Short sided, wasteful... Sounds like capitalism. ;-) I don't know how many farmers are being paid not to produce any longer but also agreed, that has to go.

Gasland was paid for by Gazprom with the aim of destroying the rivals with lies. Typical chicago style politics, though from the opposite side of the globe.

Fracking is not worse than traditional methods. But it posas a threat to the monopolist.

 

[Gadawg73]

I just got back to the office. I took in a case yesterday where witnesses are at a crappy trailer park in the county north of here. I followed leads for 5 hours today up there.
Called work ethic, something employees have behind their #1 priority at the work place which is how many benefits they get.

 

[JoeNormal]

I just got back to the office. I took in a case yesterday where witnesses are at a crappy trailer park in the county north of here. I followed leads for 5 hours today up there.
Called work ethic, something employees have behind their #1 priority at the work place which is how many benefits they get.

Spending 5 hours in a crappy trailer park constitutes a strong work ethic?

 

[RKMBrown]

The point is there is money to earn. The government takes it or prints it that's how they earn it. Come up with something people want or need. Or invest in those that do, you can get your share just learn how to do it.

We don't live in a fantasy world. Even if everyone in this country had a smart business sense, the system does not make it possible for everyone to become a millionaire or anything even close to that. 1% of the population controls 40% of the wealth. Does that not mean anything to you?

It means you only value wealth. I could easily make 100 times what I make now. I'm not interested.

 

[Billy000]

The point is there is money to earn. The government takes it or prints it that's how they earn it. Come up with something people want or need. Or invest in those that do, you can get your share just learn how to do it.

We don't live in a fantasy world. Even if everyone in this country had a smart business sense, the system does not make it possible for everyone to become a millionaire or anything even close to that. 1% of the population controls 40% of the wealth. Does that not mean anything to you?

It means you only value wealth. I could easily make 100 times what I make now. I'm not interested.

Bullshit. I don't care how savvy of a business man you are, I seriously doubt it. If it so easy as you suggest, then why do most small businesses go belly up regardless of how hard the owners work?

 

[MikeK]

I encourage you to watch the 6 minute video completely and keep an open mind.

I do understand this topic has been discussed thoroughly already, but I think it is interesting how it samples the perception of the issue by the American people.

Wealth Inequality in America - YouTube

As you sit on your computer, with your AC blowing, cable television in the background, bitching about wealth inequality, ask yourself: do you have a real point to make?

Yes, things are worse now then ever before. The twenties wealth dissparity, nothing compared today. The fifties? No.

In the mind of a leftist, there is no worse time than today. Tomorrow is imminent destruction and apocolypse, and today is doom.

I am below to poverty line. I am sitting on my Ipad, with the AC blowing, watching my flatscreen 50 inch TV with my dog laying next to me. I am content with my life, working for more. Why I can be content and you and the millions of immature fucking bitches like you can not is the reason you will never be anything more than you already are.

What you either cannot or will not understand is there are many millions of your fellow Americans who not long ago were as content as you and I and many others but have since, through no fault of their own, become unemployed or "under-employed" and are either homeless or on the verge of that. And even if the misfortune of so many others is not a sympathetic concern, you need to understand the unfortunate circumstances of so many others can, and eventually will, catch up with and affect you and me unless something radical is done to correct the situation.

What the corporatist propagandists like Limbaugh, Hannity, et al, don't tell you is the health of a nation's economy depends heavily on circulation of the nation's wealth resource. Circulation is caused by people spending money. The more spending, the greater the circulation. Ordinary people spend most of their money. Rich people hoard most of theirs. The more they have, the more they hoard. This impedes circulation and slows the economy.

Ronald Reagan introduced Supply Side economics, which is the same scam Milton Friedman foisted on the people of Chile when he became Augusto Pinochet's economic advisor -- and I'll assume you know what happened to that country as the result. This so-called "trickle down" system in fact serves to gradually siphon up the wealth of a nation to the coffers of a tiny percentage of well-positioned individuals -- the One Percent in the U.S. example.

The fact is the Keynsian Demand Side system, which attended the most prosperous and productive years in our history ('40s to '80s) involves higher taxes on upper class hoarders and distributes more of the Nation's wealth resource to the middle class -- who spend it, thereby maintaining healthy circulation. If we can't reverse the trend commenced by Reaganomics, put an end to exporting American jobs, impose serious tariffs on import products, and impose appropriate taxes on the money hoarders, then you and I stand an excellent chance of being affected by the same misfortune as those whom you seem content to ignore.

 

[RKMBrown]

We don't live in a fantasy world. Even if everyone in this country had a smart business sense, the system does not make it possible for everyone to become a millionaire or anything even close to that. 1% of the population controls 40% of the wealth. Does that not mean anything to you?

It means you only value wealth. I could easily make 100 times what I make now. I'm not interested.

Bullshit. I don't care how savvy of a business man you are, I seriously doubt it. If it so easy as you suggest, then why do most small businesses go belly up regardless of how hard the owners work?

I did not say it's easy. Why do you assume if I can do it, anyone else can?

Working hard does not equal working smart. You can try all you want but you won't get to china by digging straight down.

Most small businesses go belly up because the owners did not know what they were doing. Bad idea, bad execution...

 

[Billy000]

I encourage you to watch the 6 minute video completely and keep an open mind.

I do understand this topic has been discussed thoroughly already, but I think it is interesting how it samples the perception of the issue by the American people.

Wealth Inequality in America - YouTube

As you sit on your computer, with your AC blowing, cable television in the background, bitching about wealth inequality, ask yourself: do you have a real point to make?

Yes, things are worse now then ever before. The twenties wealth dissparity, nothing compared today. The fifties? No.

In the mind of a leftist, there is no worse time than today. Tomorrow is imminent destruction and apocolypse, and today is doom.

I am below to poverty line. I am sitting on my Ipad, with the AC blowing, watching my flatscreen 50 inch TV with my dog laying next to me. I am content with my life, working for more. Why I can be content and you and the millions of immature fucking bitches like you can not is the reason you will never be anything more than you already are.

What you either cannot or will not understand is there are many millions of your fellow Americans who not long ago were as content as you and I and many others but have since, through no fault of their own, become unemployed or "under-employed" and are either homeless or on the verge of that. And even if the misfortune of so many others is not a sympathetic concern, you need to understand the unfortunate circumstances of so many others can, and eventually will, catch up with and affect you and me unless something radical is done to correct the situation.

What the corporatist propagandists like Limbaugh, Hannity, et al, don't tell you is the health of a nation's economy depends heavily on circulation of the nation's wealth resource. Circulation is caused by people spending money. The more spending, the greater the circulation. Ordinary people spend most of their money. Rich people hoard most of theirs. The more they have, the more they hoard. This impedes circulation and slows the economy.

Ronald Reagan introduced Supply Side economics, which is the same scam Milton Friedman foisted on the people of Chile when he became Augusto Pinochet's economic advisor -- and I'll assume you know what happened to that country as the result. This so-called "trickle down" system in fact serves to gradually siphon up the wealth of a nation to the coffers of a tiny percentage of well-positioned individuals -- the One Percent in the U.S. example.

The fact is the Keynsian Demand Side system, which attended the most prosperous and productive years in our history ('40s to '80s) involves higher taxes on upper class hoarders and distributes more of the Nation's wealth resource to the middle class -- who spend it, thereby maintaining healthy circulation. If we can't reverse the trend commenced by Reaganomics, put an end to exporting American jobs, impose serious tariffs on import products, and impose appropriate taxes on the money hoarders, then you and I stand an excellent chance of being affected by the same misfortune as those whom you seem content to ignore.

Very well said.

 

[Billy000]

It means you only value wealth. I could easily make 100 times what I make now. I'm not interested.

Bullshit. I don't care how savvy of a business man you are, I seriously doubt it. If it so easy as you suggest, then why do most small businesses go belly up regardless of how hard the owners work?

I did not say it's easy. Why do you assume if I can do it, anyone else can?

Working hard does not equal working smart. You can try all you want but you won't get to china by digging straight down.

Most small businesses go belly up because the owners did not know what they were doing. Bad idea, bad execution...

But the numbers just aren't there. Big corporations purposely lobby for laws for small businesses not to succeed. I mean is that really so hard to believe? Corporations are completley self interested. They will do anything for profit. Even at the expense of the country at large.

You should know that a successful business is also based on a blind luck to a small extent. Happy circumstances that fall into place that make it so smart business men can succeed.

 

[hazlnut]

No, none of the 'Conservatives' are going to comment on it, because it shows how great the perception of both liberals and conservatives of the distribution of wealth strays from the reality. It is a sad comment on the state of this nation that so much of it's wealth is owned by so few.

What is truly bothersome is that so many actually believe this is good for the economy and the country.

Because that's what Fox News tells them to believe.

They don't understand that that imaginary 'Welfare Mom' in their bigoted little heads... She doest really exist, or the number of people who simply don't work and live off welfare is so insignificant, it doesn't really matter. What matters is that at our current rate of wealth being distributed upwards through a corrupt tax system and rigged game -- these tea bag conservatives' grandchildren will be dirt poor -- third world poor -- slaves living off welfare -- no matter how many times their tea bag heroes threaten to shut down the government.

They are handing our country over to the super-rich as they continue to vote against their best interests.

 

[RKMBrown]

Bullshit. I don't care how savvy of a business man you are, I seriously doubt it. If it so easy as you suggest, then why do most small businesses go belly up regardless of how hard the owners work?

I did not say it's easy. Why do you assume if I can do it, anyone else can?

Working hard does not equal working smart. You can try all you want but you won't get to china by digging straight down.

Most small businesses go belly up because the owners did not know what they were doing. Bad idea, bad execution...

But the numbers just aren't there. Big corporations purposely lobby for laws for small businesses not to succeed. I mean is that really so hard to believe? Corporations are completley self interested. They will do anything for profit. Even at the expense of the country at large.

You should know that a successful business is also based on a blind luck to a small extent. Happy circumstances that fall into place that make it so smart business men can succeed.

Fully understood. I would not even attempt to compete directly with a Major corporation that has billions in assets. Why would I want to do that? I'd find where they don't play and focus on that. I'd go where they might go in the future and sell to them. I'd land mine their business and make them pay to cross. I'd pray on the weaknesses of the large corporation. Or I'd find a way to make money somewhere else where no large corporations are even interested. You have to find a niche, preferable in something you enjoy and are good at. Then you have to actually want to make money... Once you start making money you then have to be ready for the copy cats and attacks that will be coming. It's a dog eat dog world.

 

[Brain357]

I just got back to the office. I took in a case yesterday where witnesses are at a crappy trailer park in the county north of here. I followed leads for 5 hours today up there.
Called work ethic, something employees have behind their #1 priority at the work place which is how many benefits they get.

Spending 5 hours in a crappy trailer park constitutes a strong work ethic?

The important part is the crappy trailer park. Having to spend time with the common folk is very difficult for the elite. Probably counts as a 12 hour day for him. If he broke a sweat it is probably a 14 hour day.

 

[Brain357]

Bullshit. I don't care how savvy of a business man you are, I seriously doubt it. If it so easy as you suggest, then why do most small businesses go belly up regardless of how hard the owners work?

I did not say it's easy. Why do you assume if I can do it, anyone else can?

Working hard does not equal working smart. You can try all you want but you won't get to china by digging straight down.

Most small businesses go belly up because the owners did not know what they were doing. Bad idea, bad execution...

But the numbers just aren't there. Big corporations purposely lobby for laws for small businesses not to succeed. I mean is that really so hard to believe? Corporations are completley self interested. They will do anything for profit. Even at the expense of the country at large.

You should know that a successful business is also based on a blind luck to a small extent. Happy circumstances that fall into place that make it so smart business men can succeed.

They aren't spending all that money on lobbyists for nothing.

 

[Billy000]

I did not say it's easy. Why do you assume if I can do it, anyone else can?

Working hard does not equal working smart. You can try all you want but you won't get to china by digging straight down.

Most small businesses go belly up because the owners did not know what they were doing. Bad idea, bad execution...

But the numbers just aren't there. Big corporations purposely lobby for laws for small businesses not to succeed. I mean is that really so hard to believe? Corporations are completley self interested. They will do anything for profit. Even at the expense of the country at large.

You should know that a successful business is also based on a blind luck to a small extent. Happy circumstances that fall into place that make it so smart business men can succeed.

Fully understood. I would not even attempt to compete directly with a Major corporation that has billions in assets. Why would I want to do that? I'd find where they don't play and focus on that. I'd go where they might go in the future and sell to them. I'd land mine their business and make them pay to cross. I'd pray on the weaknesses of the large corporation. Or I'd find a way to make money somewhere else where no large corporations are even interested. You have to find a niche, preferable in something you enjoy and are good at. Then you have to actually want to make money... Once you start making money you then have to be ready for the copy cats and attacks that will be coming. It's a dog eat dog world.

Well, I don't know what your business is, but if it is a successful one then you are most likely directly competing with a corporation with a similar product and model. Am I right? Plus, I am not even talking about competition in a horse race where one of you wins by a nose. I am talking about a corporation breaking your horse's legs before they even leave the stable.

 

[beagle9]

I encourage you to watch the 6 minute video completely and keep an open mind.

I do understand this topic has been discussed thoroughly already, but I think it is interesting how it samples the perception of the issue by the American people.

Wealth Inequality in America - YouTube

As you sit on your computer, with your AC blowing, cable television in the background, bitching about wealth inequality, ask yourself: do you have a real point to make?

Yes, things are worse now then ever before. The twenties wealth dissparity, nothing compared today. The fifties? No.

In the mind of a leftist, there is no worse time than today. Tomorrow is imminent destruction and apocolypse, and today is doom.

I am below to poverty line. I am sitting on my Ipad, with the AC blowing, watching my flatscreen 50 inch TV with my dog laying next to me. I am content with my life, working for more. Why I can be content and you and the millions of immature fucking bitches like you can not is the reason you will never be anything more than you already are.

What you either cannot or will not understand is there are many millions of your fellow Americans who not long ago were as content as you and I and many others but have since, through no fault of their own, become unemployed or "under-employed" and are either homeless or on the verge of that. And even if the misfortune of so many others is not a sympathetic concern, you need to understand the unfortunate circumstances of so many others can, and eventually will, catch up with and affect you and me unless something radical is done to correct the situation.

What the corporatist propagandists like Limbaugh, Hannity, et al, don't tell you is the health of a nation's economy depends heavily on circulation of the nation's wealth resource. Circulation is caused by people spending money. The more spending, the greater the circulation. Ordinary people spend most of their money. Rich people hoard most of theirs. The more they have, the more they hoard. This impedes circulation and slows the economy.

Ronald Reagan introduced Supply Side economics, which is the same scam Milton Friedman foisted on the people of Chile when he became Augusto Pinochet's economic advisor -- and I'll assume you know what happened to that country as the result. This so-called "trickle down" system in fact serves to gradually siphon up the wealth of a nation to the coffers of a tiny percentage of well-positioned individuals -- the One Percent in the U.S. example.

The fact is the Keynsian Demand Side system, which attended the most prosperous and productive years in our history ('40s to '80s) involves higher taxes on upper class hoarders and distributes more of the Nation's wealth resource to the middle class -- who spend it, thereby maintaining healthy circulation. If we can't reverse the trend commenced by Reaganomics, put an end to exporting American jobs, impose serious tariffs on import products, and impose appropriate taxes on the money hoarders, then you and I stand an excellent chance of being affected by the same misfortune as those whom you seem content to ignore.

Yes, but where the defense against your writings is coming in from for the most part I think, is actually steeped in all the fears over the ones who are poised or wanting to take advantage of the forced shifting or redistribution idea, otherwise that is found in the hidden taxation and/or other ways in which they choose to use in advantage of now while in power. Many feel that what is being done or will be done instead, is not to help the system as you suggest by all of this, but rather it is to empower certain groups, cultures and ideologies in which continue to support bad cultures, bad religions, and bad corporations themselves whom are bad for American society, and this no matter what they do, and all for their contributions (votes or monetary) given, in order to affect social and domestic change in an agenda in which they have and are implementing everywhere they can quickly. They are driven by and for an ultimate goal in all of this change they want eventually, but will this goal suit all of America and the Americans as Americans are today, or does it only allow for some to share in the power once it is obtained by certain ones who want this power in this way ?

 

[Gadawg73]

I like the documentary on the lottery winners, folks that won multi millions and within years it was all gone.
No matter how much money you throw at some folks they always end up with nothing.
All the while fools claim that is "inequality".

 

[Gadawg73]

I just got back to the office. I took in a case yesterday where witnesses are at a crappy trailer park in the county north of here. I followed leads for 5 hours today up there.
Called work ethic, something employees have behind their #1 priority at the work place which is how many benefits they get.

Spending 5 hours in a crappy trailer park constitutes a strong work ethic?

Are you really this dense?
I went door to door in a large trailer park interviewing witnesses, it rained twice.
Spoke with numerous people.
You always start off with them saying "I do not know anything, I did not see anything, I do not know any of the parties involved, I do not want to get involved".
And I have to go from there.
And you think that makes it easy for me to get people to tell me what happened?
Wow, what planet do you live on?
And it is Saturday.
This is hard work gaining the trust of people to come forward and tell the truth to help in a civil case.
Again, are you really so dense you do not understand the real world?
My work is extremely difficult as you have to follow leads, nights and weekends.
Today is Saturday, I spent 5 hours there and 4 more on the road on another case.
You are not very normal there Joe.

 

[Gadawg73]

No, none of the 'Conservatives' are going to comment on it, because it shows how great the perception of both liberals and conservatives of the distribution of wealth strays from the reality. It is a sad comment on the state of this nation that so much of it's wealth is owned by so few.

What is truly bothersome is that so many actually believe this is good for the economy and the country.

Because that's what Fox News tells them to believe.

They don't understand that that imaginary 'Welfare Mom' in their bigoted little heads... She doest really exist, or the number of people who simply don't work and live off welfare is so insignificant, it doesn't really matter. What matters is that at our current rate of wealth being distributed upwards through a corrupt tax system and rigged game -- these tea bag conservatives' grandchildren will be dirt poor -- third world poor -- slaves living off welfare -- no matter how many times their tea bag heroes threaten to shut down the government.

They are handing our country over to the super-rich as they continue to vote against their best interests.

You are right, most moochers that plunder money from producers do work.
One job.
And they keep spitting out yard apes as fast as they can while they can not feed, clothe and house the ones they already have.
And that is somehow my fault in your puny brain?