Top Earners Double Share Of National Wealth

[....lybob]

So is this from personal experience with the 1% or what you've heard/read?

maybe stuff like this

 

Koch

[birdog1960]

So is this from personal experience with the 1% or what you've heard/read?

both and in both groups. and i've met people i respect in both groups as well.

[Chef Jim]

maybe stuff like this

 

Koch

 

And the 1% is all like that?

 

You guys are hilarious.

[....lybob]

So is this from personal experience with the 1% or what you've heard/read?

or maybe something like this

 

retirement-heist

[Chef Jim]

both and in both groups. and i've met people i respect in both groups as well.

 

So how many of the 1% do you feel you met or read stories about?

[birdog1960]

So how many of the 1% do you feel you met or read stories about?

huh, and you accuse me of being drunk? lets change the question. the answer depends on how you define the terms. of the historical figures that you consider great human beings, what portion comes from the most wealthy stratum? those you consider sinister?

[GG]

hyperbole? maybe. stupid? if you say so. the point is, that in general, self service and promotion are the highest priorities of this group, often at a high price to everyone else. i dislike this about many in the bottom stratum but at least it's understandable. survival instincts and greed are very different things.

 

And that's the difference between envy and laissez faire. I don't particularly like many of the real people I've met in the higher income strata. But I don't wish them ill and simply don't want to socialize with them, while recognizing the value they add to the economic ecosystem. You may think that the self promotion is reprehensible. That may be, but does it take food off your table? Doubtful.

 

My concern resides with my immediate family and my ability to provide for them. I could care less if somebody makes a hell of a lot more than I do and have more things than I do. I could care less if they're not the greatest company to be around. More power to them, as long as they don't affect me personally.

Edited October 27, 2011 by GG

[Chef Jim]

or maybe something like this

 

retirement-heist

 

The way that companies have found to create a pension plan [for executives] with tax breaks is by buying large amounts of life insurance on the workforce. A policy is basically a giant tax-sheltered investment pool. It's like an IRA, where you put money into it and it grows tax-deferred. And you would get the death benefit tax-free. Essentially, it was a tax dodge.

 

bull ****. They are not a tax dodge they are well legal under the current IRS system. Oh and here's the great part. Not only is the death benefit tax free so is the income the wealthy executives can pull out of them. Suck on that 99%ers.

[....lybob]

And the 1% is all like that?

 

You guys are hilarious.

And if you weren't either a robot or autistic you'd understand that the occupy wall street movement is not protesting your piddling company- they are protesting both the bribers (financial industry, military industrial complex, Big energy, pharmaceutics,etc and the bribed our whorish politicians. The core grievance is political influence being blatantly bought by corporate money.

[Chef Jim]

huh, and you accuse me of being drunk? lets change the question. the answer depends on how you define the terms. of the historical figures that you consider great human beings, what portion comes from the most wealthy stratum? those you consider sinister?

 

No, sorry I'm asking the questions here. You said you vilify the 1% because you've met a few and have read about a few others. A few does not the 1% make.

 

And if you weren't either a robot or autistic you'd understand that the occupy wall street movement is not protesting your piddling company- they are protesting both the bribers (financial industry, military industrial complex, Big energy, pharmaceutics,etc and the bribed our whorish politicians. The core grievance is political influence being blatantly bought by corporate money.

 

And they're good to do that if that's what their message was. If that's the case then why are we vilifying the 1%? I still haven't gotten an aswer to that.

[GG]

And if you weren't either a robot or autistic you'd understand that the occupy wall street movement is not protesting your piddling company- they are protesting both the bribers (financial industry, military industrial complex, Big energy, pharmaceutics,etc and the bribed our whorish politicians. The core grievance is political influence being blatantly bought by corporate money.

 

Is that their protest, or your interpretation of it?

[birdog1960]

And that's the difference between envy and laissez faire. I don't particularly like many of the real people I've met in the higher income strata. But I don't wish them ill and simply don't want to socialize with them, while recognizing the value they add to the economic ecosystem. You may think that the self promotion is reprehensible. That may be, but does it take food off your table? Doubtful.

 

My concern resides with my immediate family and my ability to provide for them. I could care less if somebody makes a hell of a lot more than I do and have more things than I do. I could care less if they're not the greatest company to be around. More power to them, as long as they don't affect me personally.

then accepting the premise that many elites aren't people you would choose to be around, do we really want a system that relentlessly encourages more people to try and be like them? it's not about envy.

[Chef Jim]

then accepting the premise that many elites aren't people you would choose to be around, do we really want a system that relentlessly encourages more people to try and be like them? it's not about envy.

 

AHA!!!!!! So it's the system and not the 1%! Now you're getting it.

[....lybob]

No, sorry I'm asking the questions here. You said you vilify the 1% because you've met a few and have read about a few others. A few does not the 1% make.

 

 

 

And they're good to do that if that's what their message was. If that's the case then why are we vilifying the 1%? I still haven't gotten an aswer to that.

I'll just speak for myself, I begrudge no one getting rich through providing a better good or product I begrudge the hell out of someone getting rich through fraud or gaming the system, I think this country has a two tier legal system on the lower tier we have more people imprisoned on a per capita bases than anywhere else on earth (The United States has 4% of the world's population and 25% of the world's incarcerated population) but on the upper tier during a financial crisis with trillions of wealth destroyed no one is prosecuted. We are fast reaching the point where government is losing all legitimacy (in many ways OWS is a response to Obama's total failure to fulfill his promised reforms). As for the slogan 99%, it's a lot catchier than trying to fit ( constitutional amendment refuting Citizens United, Campaign reform, reinstate Glass Stegal, abolish Financial Services Modernization Act, 1% financial transaction tax, etc etc)

[DC Tom]

or maybe something like this

 

retirement-heist

 

In other words, no personal experience.

 

All you had to say. "No personal experience." That's all Chef asked.

[Chef Jim]

I'll just speak for myself, I begrudge no one getting rich through providing a better good or product I begrudge the hell out of someone getting rich through fraud or gaming the system, I think this country has a two tier legal system on the lower tier we have more people imprisoned on a per capita bases than anywhere else on earth (The United States has 4% of the world's population and 25% of the world's incarcerated population) but on the upper tier during a financial crisis with trillions of wealth destroyed no one is prosecuted. We are fast reaching the point where government is losing all legitimacy (in many ways OWS is a response to Obama's total failure to fulfill his promised reforms). As for the slogan 99%, it's a lot catchier than trying to fit ( constitutional amendment refuting Citizens United, Campaign reform, reinstate Glass Stegal, abolish Financial Services Modernization Act, 1% financial transaction tax, etc etc)

 

Really?? No one?

[Rob's House]

And if you weren't either a robot or autistic you'd understand that the occupy wall street movement is not protesting your piddling company- they are protesting both the bribers (financial industry, military industrial complex, Big energy, pharmaceutics,etc and the bribed our whorish politicians. The core grievance is political influence being blatantly bought by corporate money.

I thought they were boycotting big soap?

 

So the biggest corporations have bought, paid for, and basically run the government, and the way to combat this is to give the government they own more control over their industries? I'm sure all the big execs at Google, GE, Goldman, etc. are shitting themselves with fear.

[Chef Jim]

I thought they were boycotting big soap?

 

 

So there's the joke.

 

The OWSers wanted to give us their platform but they couldn't find a soapbox to get up on.

[IDBillzFan]

It's sad to me that our country has suddenly become a place where the more successful you are, the more you should be hated, vilified, scorned and held up as a symbol of all this is wrong the the US.

 

When the hell did personal achievement and success become bad?

[Rob's House]

It's sad to me that our country has suddenly become a place where the more successful you are, the more you should be hated, vilified, scorned and held up as a symbol of all this is wrong the the US.

 

When the hell did personal achievement and success become bad?

People like lybob mean well, they just never took the time to really understand how economies work. They think if not for these rich people hoarding all the money that everyone would be doing much better.