rightwinger
Award Winning USMB Paid Messageboard Poster
- Aug 4, 2009
- 287,424
- 166,044
- 2,615
Exploitation of the poor, huh? Let's hear some specifics. Exactly WHO among the rich is "exploiting the poor", and how? WHAT "great crime", precisely? Details, asshat. Let's have some.
Here is our current distribution of wealth..
One way to see the distribution of wealth in the U.S. is to imagine a group of 100 people who have a $100 between them. Evenly distributed each would have one dollar of wealth. Alas, that is far from the actual distribution. According to the most recent study, Currents and Undercurrents, by the Survey of Consumer Finance (Federal Reserve, Department of Treasury, 2006) wealth is distributed accordingly:
50 individuals at the bottom have a nickel. ($0.05 times 50 = $2.50)
The next 40 each have $0.70 of wealth (40 times $0.70 - $28.00).
The next 9 each have $4.00 of wealth (nine times $4.00 = $36.00)
The last richest individual has $33.40 (one time $33.40).
Given this example the rightwing chooses to attack those with a nickle and demand that they pay more. They also call them lazy, ignorant and deserving of their economic status.
Over the last thirty years this distribution has moved more from the 50% working class to the 1% wealthy. This is not because the wealthy have worked hareder, taken more risks or produced more product. It is because they have manipulated the system to get more tax breaks, more shelters, more loopholes, government subsidies to their business....all with a promise that they would eventually "trickle down" the wealth to the lower classes.
Guess what? It didn't happen
Why is everyone that wants to keep their $ "rightwing"?
When I buy a gallon of milk I do not pay more for it than the guy behind me. How do I receive more public benefit than he does? We both receive the same amount of defense of the country, roads, police protection, etc.
Why do I have to pay a higher tax rate because I WORK HARDER than the next guy?
You get more of what you reward and lessof what you punish. We are where we are now because wealth is taxed unevenly. Wealth is earned. You want more wealth you reward it, NOT punish it.
The typical standard for US wealth was manufacturing jobs. You started a company, worked hard, produced a product, created jobs....win-win all around
Todays mega wealthy are not creating jobs, not producing anything of value......They make money by moving it from one place to another and taking a huge dividend every time they do. They don't get mega wealthy by taking risks. They get that way by making sure there is no risk involved.
Its the old "Golden Rule"...he who has the gold, makes the rules. They lobby for legislation, tarrifs, labor laws, environmental waivers, tax incentives...all to ensure that they keep more money
Meanwhile the standard of living for working Americans has declined. It now takes two incomes to raise a family. My father barely graduated high school, worked for the phone company climbing poles....yet he managed to raise four kids and send them to college without my mother working. The house he bought on a laborers salary is the same size as the one I was able to afford on an engineers salary