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

[koshergrl]

Pablum for the masses.

 

[koshergrl]

"Wilkinson and Pickett claim that ‘more equal societies almost always do better’ – a universalist, sweeping statement – which cannot be substantiated by most of their data."

Vague and undefined, sort of like all of Brain's *facts*....

"The book’s success, itself a tipping point, taps into deep psychological yearnings and liberal guilt about affluence, inequality and the direction of our society in recent years. This is wish-fulfilment and what Isaiah Berlin called the propensity of human beings to want to make the mess of the world into ‘symmetrical fantasies’ (6)"

....

"Time and time again the interviewer, Iain Ferguson, mentions neo-liberalism and other political concepts, reads ‘The Spirit Level’ in this way, and gets replies which are filled with liberal vagueness and a lack of political intelligence. "

...

"‘The Spirit Level’ isn’t on its own, but part of an industry of books including Layard’s ‘Happiness’ (9), Oliver James ‘Affluenza’ (10) and Neal Lawson’s ‘All Consuming’ (11), which reflect the growth of a health and well-being and anti-consumerist trend. There is in this a profound loss of confidence in progress: once felt to be the exclusive property of the left, but now they feel seized by the liberationist forces of the market. And then there is the whiff of nostalgia, a yearning for a simpler time which was more egalitarian and filled with less choice and ‘stuff’."

...
"There is a deep, moralising, middle class liberal superiority in all of this: of people who have gained from the labour market and consumed enough preaching at the rest of us."

So true.

"This industry, ‘Happiness’, ‘Affluenza’, ‘The Spirit Level’ and ‘All Consuming’ are a manifestation of the times we are living in: of a deep sense that something has gone wrong, a sense for meaning, structure and the desire for an over-arching interpretation for what has happened to our societies. Instead, serious research and political work need to be undertaken which goes back to fundamentals, asks difficult questions and does not try to create a new faith, religion or groupthink to challenge the existing order and orthodoxies."






The Fantasyland of ?The Spirit Level? and the Limitations of the Health and Well-Being Industry | openDemocracy

 

[Brain357]

As you know, they aren't facts. It's just
propaganda and outright lies.

Then you must have some stats that refute them. Please share. Just repeating yourself with nothing to back it up is getting tiring.

You haven't established any *facts*. You posted a link to a garbage article, with a bunch of big shiny and completely ridiculous graphs.

When you post some *facts* then we'll talk. But I don't waste time on disputing garbage. It's garbage, everybody knows it's garbage, and you just post it to confuse imbeciles into going along with you.

I didn't think you had anything to refute them. Your losing quickly.

 

[Brain357]

Crime and teen pregnancy can be reduced with policies that support intact families.
The government should stop spending money that encourages broken families.

So the conservative approach is bigger government telling people how to live? Sounds very conservative. Explain just what policies they support then.

So the conservative approach is bigger government telling people how to live?

Who said that? Link?

I'm waiting for you to tell me. That seems to be what your saying. But please give some more details.

 

[Brain357]

"Wilkinson and Pickett claim that ‘more equal societies almost always do better’ – a universalist, sweeping statement – which cannot be substantiated by most of their data."

Vague and undefined, sort of like all of Brain's *facts*....

"The book’s success, itself a tipping point, taps into deep psychological yearnings and liberal guilt about affluence, inequality and the direction of our society in recent years. This is wish-fulfilment and what Isaiah Berlin called the propensity of human beings to want to make the mess of the world into ‘symmetrical fantasies’ (6)"

....

"Time and time again the interviewer, Iain Ferguson, mentions neo-liberalism and other political concepts, reads ‘The Spirit Level’ in this way, and gets replies which are filled with liberal vagueness and a lack of political intelligence. "

...

"‘The Spirit Level’ isn’t on its own, but part of an industry of books including Layard’s ‘Happiness’ (9), Oliver James ‘Affluenza’ (10) and Neal Lawson’s ‘All Consuming’ (11), which reflect the growth of a health and well-being and anti-consumerist trend. There is in this a profound loss of confidence in progress: once felt to be the exclusive property of the left, but now they feel seized by the liberationist forces of the market. And then there is the whiff of nostalgia, a yearning for a simpler time which was more egalitarian and filled with less choice and ‘stuff’."

...
"There is a deep, moralising, middle class liberal superiority in all of this: of people who have gained from the labour market and consumed enough preaching at the rest of us."

So true.

"This industry, ‘Happiness’, ‘Affluenza’, ‘The Spirit Level’ and ‘All Consuming’ are a manifestation of the times we are living in: of a deep sense that something has gone wrong, a sense for meaning, structure and the desire for an over-arching interpretation for what has happened to our societies. Instead, serious research and political work need to be undertaken which goes back to fundamentals, asks difficult questions and does not try to create a new faith, religion or groupthink to challenge the existing order and orthodoxies."






The Fantasyland of ?The Spirit Level? and the Limitations of the Health and Well-Being Industry | openDemocracy

Are there some sort of facts in all that or your link? Cause I'm not seeing them. I don't see any statistics or anything. Seems to be all fluff. But if there are some good statists please pull them out and post.

 

[koshergrl]

Then you must have some stats that refute them. Please share. Just repeating yourself with nothing to back it up is getting tiring.

You haven't established any *facts*. You posted a link to a garbage article, with a bunch of big shiny and completely ridiculous graphs.

When you post some *facts* then we'll talk. But I don't waste time on disputing garbage. It's garbage, everybody knows it's garbage, and you just post it to confuse imbeciles into going along with you.

I didn't think you had anything to refute them. Your losing quickly.

No, I haven't lost anything. You have yet to state any *facts*. You post a link to a piece of bullshit propaganda, and you think that will serve.

It doesn't. You can't *win* with a faulty premise, and your premise, whatever it is, is massively faulty.

 

[billyerock1991]

seven out of top ten wealthiest in Congress, Democrats...where is that equality now....

1. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.): $188.6 million

2. Rep. Darrel Issa (R-Calif.): $160.1 million

3. Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.): $152.3 million

4. Sen. Jay Rockefeller ( D-W.Va.): $83.7 million

5. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas): $73.8 million

6. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.); $70.2 million

7. Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.): $56.5 million

8. Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.): $53.5 million

9. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.): $49.7 million

10. Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.): $46.1 million


Read more: Top Ten Wealthiest Members of Congress - Fox News

and all the republicans have tripple the money that these dems have ... seems you forgot to point that one out ... whys that???

 

[Brain357]

You haven't established any *facts*. You posted a link to a garbage article, with a bunch of big shiny and completely ridiculous graphs.

When you post some *facts* then we'll talk. But I don't waste time on disputing garbage. It's garbage, everybody knows it's garbage, and you just post it to confuse imbeciles into going along with you.

I didn't think you had anything to refute them. Your losing quickly.

No, I haven't lost anything. You have yet to state any *facts*. You post a link to a piece of bullshit propaganda, and you think that will serve.

It doesn't. You can't *win* with a faulty premise, and your premise, whatever it is, is massively faulty.

Then your saying the statistics in my link are incorrect? Give us some statistics that refute them then. Or else you lose.

 

[Brain357]

You haven't established any *facts*. You posted a link to a garbage article, with a bunch of big shiny and completely ridiculous graphs.

When you post some *facts* then we'll talk. But I don't waste time on disputing garbage. It's garbage, everybody knows it's garbage, and you just post it to confuse imbeciles into going along with you.

I didn't think you had anything to refute them. Your losing quickly.

No, I haven't lost anything. You have yet to state any *facts*. You post a link to a piece of bullshit propaganda, and you think that will serve.

It doesn't. You can't *win* with a faulty premise, and your premise, whatever it is, is massively faulty.

Since you like Forbes here is one stating how inequality is damaging the economy:
How Income Inequality Is Damaging the U.S. - Forbes

 

[Gadawg73]

Amazing how naive and gullible the liberal is.
We are assisting my daughter move into her apartment in Athens this weekend. She has a room mate that she went to high school with.
The room mate is a good young lady, did very well in high school and her parents divorced 5 years ago.
Her father makes twice what I do in the telecommunications business and her mother is dating a former pro athlete that lives in a million dollar home near here. Her mother works as a paralegal making over 50K a year.
During the move this weekend the father was in Hilton Head at his condo playing golf, the mother in Destin at the beach.
So my wife and I, one of my sons and some friends of my daughter moved her in the apartment. 20 year old girls need help with heavy furniture.
This girl lives with her mother who has money from a trust from her parents. The father is loaded.
But she qualifies for full grants, food stamps and other programs as she is over 18 and lives most of the year in the apartment.
We do not fault this girl at all as it is not her fault her parents are pieces of shit.
I called the father last night "Hey man, why aren't you here helping your daughter?" His reply "Don't they have people to help at the university there, ya know I pay taxes?" even when this is an off campus apartment complex. His next line was "She has a Pell grant to help her move" which is BS.
My wife went out and bought everything the apartment needs such as drapes and such, stocked the pantry and filled the fridge and freezer as of now this girl has no money other than a few hundred dollars left from her working her summer job. Her grandfather gave her a car and she paid the insurance.
We are always willing to help friends, family and our community when they are in need. This young lady has been abandoned emotionally by her parents and financially also.
And both of them have plenty of money.
This is the norm these days sports fans as this daughter of mine is the third I have had in Athens at UGA. Parents doing anything and everything to get their kids on the government tit and abandoning them after age 18.
Sure, there are many poor kids that do not fit this model and those are the ones that should be receiving most of the assistance for college.
But every other kid we see over the last 11 years since my first started has parents that did the same thing.
Gamed the system as the system is so easily gamed.
And folks actually believe this is income "inequality".
We need to hold the parents accountable and force them to be responsible for their children even after the child is age 18 if the parents have considerable assets.
We don't and will not as the system is set up so that the family can bow out 100% if they want to.
The easy way out, fuck the family, friends and community. Force government to plunder the cash from someone else.

Sounds like the rich are gaming the system. So you can see we need to take steps to eliminate all this inequality. Clearly it's out of control.

LOL, ya think!
And the middle class.
Most people on food stamps have cash for other things.
Most people under age 25 on food stamps HAVE FAMILY THAT WOULD HELP them if there wasn't an easy tax payer funded alternative for them.
You are the naive and gullible citizen I speak of.
What I posted flew 20 feet over your head.

 

[Gadawg73]

I didn't think you had anything to refute them. Your losing quickly.

No, I haven't lost anything. You have yet to state any *facts*. You post a link to a piece of bullshit propaganda, and you think that will serve.

It doesn't. You can't *win* with a faulty premise, and your premise, whatever it is, is massively faulty.

Since you like Forbes here is one stating how inequality is damaging the economy:
How Income Inequality Is Damaging the U.S. - Forbes

Did you read your own link?
GOVERNMENT actions is what causes it.

 

[Brain357]

Amazing how naive and gullible the liberal is.
We are assisting my daughter move into her apartment in Athens this weekend. She has a room mate that she went to high school with.
The room mate is a good young lady, did very well in high school and her parents divorced 5 years ago.
Her father makes twice what I do in the telecommunications business and her mother is dating a former pro athlete that lives in a million dollar home near here. Her mother works as a paralegal making over 50K a year.
During the move this weekend the father was in Hilton Head at his condo playing golf, the mother in Destin at the beach.
So my wife and I, one of my sons and some friends of my daughter moved her in the apartment. 20 year old girls need help with heavy furniture.
This girl lives with her mother who has money from a trust from her parents. The father is loaded.
But she qualifies for full grants, food stamps and other programs as she is over 18 and lives most of the year in the apartment.
We do not fault this girl at all as it is not her fault her parents are pieces of shit.
I called the father last night "Hey man, why aren't you here helping your daughter?" His reply "Don't they have people to help at the university there, ya know I pay taxes?" even when this is an off campus apartment complex. His next line was "She has a Pell grant to help her move" which is BS.
My wife went out and bought everything the apartment needs such as drapes and such, stocked the pantry and filled the fridge and freezer as of now this girl has no money other than a few hundred dollars left from her working her summer job. Her grandfather gave her a car and she paid the insurance.
We are always willing to help friends, family and our community when they are in need. This young lady has been abandoned emotionally by her parents and financially also.
And both of them have plenty of money.
This is the norm these days sports fans as this daughter of mine is the third I have had in Athens at UGA. Parents doing anything and everything to get their kids on the government tit and abandoning them after age 18.
Sure, there are many poor kids that do not fit this model and those are the ones that should be receiving most of the assistance for college.
But every other kid we see over the last 11 years since my first started has parents that did the same thing.
Gamed the system as the system is so easily gamed.
And folks actually believe this is income "inequality".
We need to hold the parents accountable and force them to be responsible for their children even after the child is age 18 if the parents have considerable assets.
We don't and will not as the system is set up so that the family can bow out 100% if they want to.
The easy way out, fuck the family, friends and community. Force government to plunder the cash from someone else.

Sounds like the rich are gaming the system. So you can see we need to take steps to eliminate all this inequality. Clearly it's out of control.

LOL, ya think!
And the middle class.
Most people on food stamps have cash for other things.
Most people under age 25 on food stamps HAVE FAMILY THAT WOULD HELP them if there wasn't an easy tax payer funded alternative for them.
You are the naive and gullible citizen I speak of.
What I posted flew 20 feet over your head.

What you posted had very little to do with the topic and I took from it what I wanted. I am no fan of welfare or food stamps. But I'm smart enough to see that wage inequality is what makes those things grow.

 

[Brain357]

No, I haven't lost anything. You have yet to state any *facts*. You post a link to a piece of bullshit propaganda, and you think that will serve.

It doesn't. You can't *win* with a faulty premise, and your premise, whatever it is, is massively faulty.

Since you like Forbes here is one stating how inequality is damaging the economy:
How Income Inequality Is Damaging the U.S. - Forbes

Did you read your own link?
GOVERNMENT actions is what causes it.

Do you pay attention to anything? Here I go again for the slow. I am arguing that it is bad. Not how we got it, not how to fix it. Simply that it is in fact bad for our country. Many here seem to be in some kind of denial of the obvious, including you.

 

[koshergrl]

I didn't think you had anything to refute them. Your losing quickly.

No, I haven't lost anything. You have yet to state any *facts*. You post a link to a piece of bullshit propaganda, and you think that will serve.

It doesn't. You can't *win* with a faulty premise, and your premise, whatever it is, is massively faulty.

Since you like Forbes here is one stating how inequality is damaging the economy:
How Income Inequality Is Damaging the U.S. - Forbes

Actually, that isn't what Forbes is saying at all. The piece you linked is just a critique of ANOTHER article, and in fact Forbes says a lot more research is needed...

Additionally, the slant of the article is that falsely propping up a failing economy is the problem...continuing to fund programs when the money is running out.

And that sounds like a clarion call to conservative policies...not socialist ones.

 

[Gadawg73]

Since you like Forbes here is one stating how inequality is damaging the economy:
How Income Inequality Is Damaging the U.S. - Forbes

Did you read your own link?
GOVERNMENT actions is what causes it.

Do you pay attention to anything? Here I go again for the slow. I am arguing that it is bad. Not how we got it, not how to fix it. Simply that it is in fact bad for our country. Many here seem to be in some kind of denial of the obvious, including you.

People that do not have money and have to depend on government is bad.
Wow, thanks for sharing that as if we did not already know that.
I focus on SOLUTIONS, not crying about the obvious.
The problem is too much government regulation, spending and taxes with little to no control on monitoring the existing 86 overlapping welfare programs.
NOT that folks are uneducated, unskilled and having kids when they can not afford the ones they already have and government offers incentives for them to stay that way and the result is a rapidly growing class of folks in poverty.
We have know that for 40 years. Are you just now figuring that out?

 

[Brain357]

Did you read your own link?
GOVERNMENT actions is what causes it.

Do you pay attention to anything? Here I go again for the slow. I am arguing that it is bad. Not how we got it, not how to fix it. Simply that it is in fact bad for our country. Many here seem to be in some kind of denial of the obvious, including you.

People that do not have money and have to depend on government is bad.
Wow, thanks for sharing that as if we did not already know that.
I focus on SOLUTIONS, not crying about the obvious.
The problem is too much government regulation, spending and taxes with little to no control on monitoring the existing 86 overlapping welfare programs.
NOT that folks are uneducated, unskilled and having kids when they can not afford the ones they already have and government offers incentives for them to stay that way and the result is a rapidly growing class of folks in poverty.
We have know that for 40 years. Are you just now figuring that out?

Yes I recall you saying we should be more like China.

 

[Brain357]

No, I haven't lost anything. You have yet to state any *facts*. You post a link to a piece of bullshit propaganda, and you think that will serve.

It doesn't. You can't *win* with a faulty premise, and your premise, whatever it is, is massively faulty.

Since you like Forbes here is one stating how inequality is damaging the economy:
How Income Inequality Is Damaging the U.S. - Forbes

Actually, that isn't what Forbes is saying at all. The piece you linked is just a critique of ANOTHER article, and in fact Forbes says a lot more research is needed...

Additionally, the slant of the article is that falsely propping up a failing economy is the problem...continuing to fund programs when the money is running out.

And that sounds like a clarion call to conservative policies...not socialist ones.

I don't see where Forbes says that at all. They clearly thought the article was important enough to share it. I do see where they reference what the author of the article says:

Rauch concedes that there is much more research to be done, but he concludes that

“The era when Washington economists and politicians could dismiss inequality as a second- or third-tier issue may be ending. And progressives, potentially, have a case against inequality that might put accusations of “class warfare” and “politics of envy” behind them.

 

[Cecilie1200]

Like I mentioned in my post, it's bad for the economy. The economy slows as inequality gets greater.

Here is another supporting what I've been saying
Here's Why Income Inequality Really Is A Big Deal - Business Insider

In other words, you really have no frigging clue, other than reading the article titles and the names of the magazines.

No actually they agree with what I have been saying. You seem to have no clue.

Really? Allow me to quote from Forbes:

Rauch writes that "In a democracy, politicians and the public are unlikely to accept depressed spending power if they can help it. They can try to compensate by easing credit standards, effectively encouraging the non-rich to sustain purchasing power by borrowing. They might, for example, create policies allowing banks to write flimsy home mortgages and encouraging consumers to seek them. Call this the “let them eat credit” strategy.

Then “the economy, propped up on shaky credit, becomes more vulnerable to shocks. When a recession comes, the economy takes a double hit as banks fail and credit-fueled consumer spending collapses.”

In other words, the danger to the economy from wealth inequality isn't the inequality itself, but people like you, eating their livers out in envy of those with more, and the politicians who pander to you and try to interfere and make things "more fair".

But you don't seem to have caught any more of the article than just the headline. Why is that, I wonder? Is it because you didn't understand it, or because you never read it at all?

 

[Cecilie1200]

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.

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.

The "facts and statistics proving too much inequality is bad for our country"? Which would those be, since not one of you has yet to provide ANY facts or statistics that prove anything except that there IS "wealth inequality", and that you leftists don't like it. I continue to await these alleged "facts and statistics".

 

[Cecilie1200]

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?

Only a strong work ethic would convince ME to spend 5 hours in a crappy trailer park, talking to the crappy people who live there.