War on The Rich: Dumbest Idea in History of Man

[zeke]

Only about 2% of the current wealthiest 1% inherited their wealth. The rest earned every penny.

You are dead wrong about this Boss. Let Google be your friend and teacher.


A 2011 study by Edward Wolff and Maury Gittleman found that the wealthiest 1 percent of families had inherited an average of $2.7 million from their parents.

Does not disprove my statement.

Sure it does Boss. That's what being wrong means. You've been disproved of your statement by facts.
Wtf is wrong about saying; ok, I didn't think it was that much? You sure you be rich?

We are rich boss, i';s ok to admit a mistake. Matter of fact, it makes it easier to "communicate" with the lessor's. We will still be rich when we do.

ANd yea boss another fact; the upper 10% like me and you (that's about 30 million of us boss) yea we pretty much are the ones that have the money to go to a lot or all of the professional sports events that we chose.
My companies often buy box seats to share with other rich people.
My wealthy friends may take in two or three games a week end. They are sports nuts. They spend more money on luxury boxes and food and drink than the middle class man will spend on entertainment for the year.

So does me and you and our sports loving friends help to drive the cost to go and see a professional game higher than the average joe can usually afford? Sure. So what? That's why we built the nose bleed seats.

The middle and lower class guys help us pay these athletes tremendous sums to entertain us by sitting at home consuming advertising. You know how that works? Right?

Any way, later.

 

[MikeK]

[...]

That is EXACTLY what freedom means when it comes to the acquisition of wealth, sans unethical and illegal behavior. There is nothing unethical or illegal about honestly acquiring wealth through the free market capitalist system.\

[...]

Do you mean like this fellow? (And by no means is he the only one.) What his example affirms is the adage that behind every great fortune lies a great crime:

(Excerpt)

Do you think Angelo Mozilo stops to reflect on what went wrong with Countrywide Financial, the company he founded and built with his bare hands over four decades of toil? Do you think he lays awake at night wondering if maybe he helped inflate an economy-destroying housing bubble by offering increasingly risky loans, while lying to his investors about the soundness of those loans, right up until Countrywide was ruined and had to be bought by Bank of America, which Countrywide is still poisoning to this day?

Angelo Mozilo Has No Regrets Former Countrywide CEO Sleeps Like Big Leathery Baby

(Close)

This guy is a prime example of what has happened to our Economy -- and why his type is the reason One Percent of the population has acquired and is hoarding the bulk of the Nation's wealth.

 

[MikeK]

[...]

That is EXACTLY what freedom means when it comes to the acquisition of wealth, sans unethical and illegal behavior. There is nothing unethical or illegal about honestly acquiring wealth through the free market capitalist system.\

[...]

Do you mean like this fellow? (And by no means is he the only one. What his example affirms is the adage that behind every great fortune lies a great crime:

(Excerpt)

Do you think Angelo Mozilo stops to reflect on what went wrong with Countrywide Financial, the company he founded and built with his bare hands over four decades of toil? Do you think he lays awake at night wondering if maybe he helped inflate an economy-destroying housing bubble by offering increasingly risky loans, while lying to his investors about the soundness of those loans, right up until Countrywide was ruined and had to be bought by Bank of America, which Countrywide is still poisoning to this day?

Angelo Mozilo Has No Regrets Former Countrywide CEO Sleeps Like Big Leathery Baby

(Close)

This guy is a prime example of what has happened to our Economy -- and why his type is the reason One Percent of the population has acquired and is hoarding the bulk of the Nation's wealth.

 

[MikeK]

COMMUNISM! That is what you are preaching!

You're sounding a bit like 1950s Senator Joe McCarthy who incessantly raved about communists taking over America when that prospect was about as likely as is your turning White and sprouting wings.

For the third time; I have proposed an individual net worth ceiling of twenty million dollars, a prospect which is anathema to the most basic premise of the communist economic model.

If you lived in a communist country and you were found to have accumulated and held $20million in personal assets you either would be shot or imprisoned for life. So, your personal insults and nasty disposition notwithstanding, if you intend to continue in this discussion please try to suppress your ghetto orientation and maintain a civilized atmosphere.

 

[MikeK]

So now, Mr. Brilliant.. you sell your $41 million asset to someone... does the asset value suddenly become less? Are you selling it to a homeless person? How are they buying it if they don't have more than $20 million in wealth?

[...]

The proposed limit refers to personal assets, not business (corporate) assets, which must necessarily remain limitless to sustain a healthy, vibrant national economy. So the obvious answer to your question is they borrow the capital from a bank or a financier.

What do you mean by wish your junior partner well as you retire? Are you going to take half the corporate assets with you and leave the husk of the company to him?

I mean you leave with $20million in personal assets, leaving the remainder in the corporate account, with a "pension agreement" having your junior partner replenish your $20million holdings whenever a legitimate need arises to diminish them, such as post-graduate university costs for your four or five very well educated children -- or you decide to donate a few million dollars to your favorite socialist charity.

The objective: Spread it around. Keep it moving. Horizontal distribution.

Oh, that's right... you've now constructed the caveat of "no limit on corporate assets" ...well Mr. Genius, just so you are aware, MOST people who's wealth is in excess of $20m, are already incorporated and most of that wealth is already "corporate assets."

Corporate assets and personal assets are separate financial entities.

Under the conditions of a limited personal assets mandate, making personal use of corporate assets is a serious crime. I recommend twenty years with no parole to discourage the practice.

 

[Boss]

You're still spewing Communism, Mikey.
Now, you have suddenly implemented a plan whereby banks and finance companies would essentially own all the businesses. Banks and finance companies backed and controlled by the government or state. Communism.

And what is to prevent this "rich person" from simply forming a corporate entity? As I said, most uber-wealthy individuals are already doing this. Also... how do you plan to confiscate wealth held in other nations far from your shores? You don't seem to have thought this out very well, Mikey.

As I said in the OP, the "war on the rich" is the dumbest idea in human history. Here you are literally ready to destroy our free nation and become a communist regime, in order to "punish the rich" which you will never touch. It's amazing... even Vietnam was a better idea!

 

[Boss]

The objective: Spread it around. Keep it moving. Horizontal distribution.

A better objective: Motivate more people to become successful capitalists and generate great wealth for themselves in the process. Stop worrying about the wealth at the top and create more wealth at the bottom instead. Stop whining about what others have and go get you some of your own, it's there, it can be done, it's being done every day.

You're sounding a bit like 1950s Senator Joe McCarthy who incessantly raved about communists taking over America when that prospect was about as likely as is your turning White and sprouting wings.

Turns out McCarthy was correct because.. here we are!

 

[MikeK]

[...]

Whenever you've established a maximum wealth, everything scales accordingly. You have no more incentive to gain wealth because, what would be the purpose of it?

The substance of your indoctrination is predicated on the huge fortunes accumulated by such notable wealth hoarders as the Kochs, the Waltons, Gates, Bloomberg, Buffet, et al. The effect their anomalous achievements have on your perceptions is such you no longer think of twenty million dollars in personal assets as wealth.

What is it you want that you could not obtain with twenty million dollars? How much would it take to satisfy you? Are you even vaguely aware of how how deeply the pathology of greed has become embedded in the American culture? And do you know your position in this discussion has become an angry effort to justify and promote the nature and exercise of unadulterated greed?

How many people do you personally know who have twenty million dollars in personal assets?

 

[Boss]

But it is relevant to mention that a major component of FDR's New Deal was imposition of a ninety-one percent tax rate on the rich as one means of redistributing hoarded wealth. And because of existing proscriptions (since repealed) I don't believe too many of them left the Country.

No. FDR imposed a 91% tax rate on top income earners (not the rich). Big, BIG difference!

The effect was, the "top income earners" became essentially non-existent. Rich people, however, continued to plug along just fine. You see.... RICH people do not have to earn incomes. They certainly don't have to earn the top incomes. So all FDR did was ensure no one would be trying to earn high incomes. It didn't "redistribute" a damn thing.

The redistribution of wealth happened when Reagan CUT the top marginal rates and enabled smart wealthy people to engage in capitalist ventures again, without the burden of massive taxation. It created the longest period of peacetime economic prosperity in American history.

 

[Boss]

Keep in mind the main objective here is horizontal distribution. Spread it around. Increase circulation, which increases spending, which increases demand for products, which increases jobs.

Once you've spent wealth it is gone. So the spending would only happen until the money ran out, then all the new jobs and demand would vanish. Then what? You've hobbled the wealth, they don't have anything left. Do we scavenge the banks and financial institutions?

Your "plan" is a recipe for FAILURE! Just as it has FAILED every single time it has been tried in human history. The ONLY thing that creates more wealth, more millionaires and billionaires than anything ever devised by man, is FREE MARKET CAPITALISM!

 

[initforme]

The "war" on the rich should be changed to the "emphasis" on the rich. They deserve a break right?

 

[initforme]

Free market works..trickle down does not.

 

[Boss]

What is it you want that you could not obtain with twenty million dollars?

$20m is only worth $20m TODAY! In a free market capitalist system which continues to generate and create wealth! In YOUR system, that same arbitrary amount becomes the most anyone can have, so the supply of wealth is limited and thus, more valuable. This means, people will sell their goods and services at a higher price seeking precious wealth in limited supply. Currency becomes essentially worthless, as you cart wheelbarrows of money to the grocery store to feed your family. Eventually, $20m isn't that much money. You go to the boss for a raise and he says... Sorry, can't do it... the government says you're at the maximum amount you can make. You can't get another job because they tell you that you're already making the most you can.

...And those old wealthy people? They have cashed in their chips and are enjoying Mai Tais on a beach in Belize. ...And then you realize, this was the dumbest idea in the history of man.

 

[Boss]

How many people do you personally know who have twenty million dollars in personal assets?

Countless people, and you want to know something else? Not a single one of the people I know like that are GREEDY! They are the most benevolent and philanthropic people I know. They give away more of their wealth than you probably earn each year.

Those who are GREEDY are the parasites like YOU, who think they should be entitled to the wealth of others. Who believe THEY should decide when someone has enough, or how much is enough.

 

[Boss]

Free market works..trickle down does not.

Any free market capitalist economy IS trickle down. Sorry if you can't comprehend that, but it's exactly what happens in ALL free market systems.

 

[initforme]

Well then let's make sure its well regulated so those at the bottom of the trickle actually get at least a tiny little crumb... that's if you decide to let them have it.

 

[francoHFW]

OP- Sure is. No such thing exists, hater dupe of the greedy idiot rich.

 

[Boss]

Well then let's make sure its well regulated so those at the bottom of the trickle actually get at least a tiny little crumb... that's if you decide to let them have it.

Again, there is nothing keeping anyone at the bottom other than lack of motivation. Every single year, millions of people go from middle class to wealthy, from poor to middle class, and even from wealthy to poor sometimes. It's not a matter of someone deciding to let you have something. You have to take the initiative and earn the wealth you desire.

We seem to have a lost generation (or two) who somehow think, because they were raised with a box of Fruit Loops and video games instead of parents, that the world owes them something just for the sake of being graced by their presence.

 

[initforme]

Well a college education is basically the only possible way to make it to become rich. Anything less won't get it done. Less people doing blue collar jobs will be a good thing.

 

[Boss]

Well a college education is basically the only possible way to make it to become rich. Anything less won't get it done. Less people doing blue collar jobs will be a good thing.

That's also not true. It's much more difficult to become wealthy without a college degree, but it can be done. There are a good many wealthy people who either didn't have a college degree or didn't use their degree to become wealthy. I have a degree in Psychology... never earned a penny of wealth from it.

No, what it takes is hard work, determination, drive and ambition. But first, you have to believe in yourself and believe that you can become successful. As long as you wallow in self-pity and blame the world for your situation, not a damn thing is going to change for you. There are no "magic beans" and we don't live in a fairy tale. You have to take the initiative and devote yourself to becoming successful. That's the only formula for success that I am aware of.

Oh sure, you can cheat or break the law and become wealthy that way, but most of the people who take this path end up failing in the end. Just as most people who are handed wealth will blow it and squander it in short order.