General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forumscalimary
(81,565 posts)olegramps
(8,200 posts)DiverDave
(4,891 posts)well, till the next episode of 'Dancing with the stars' comes on. Then they will forget they were mad.
liberalmike27
(2,479 posts)Redistribution, would not be necessary, if the wealth and income wasn't so poorly distributed in the first place. In fact, we should be talking about the proper distribution, with a BMI (Basic Minimum Income) or jobs program, or higher wages, not just the minimum but up the scale. And for Christ's sake, Democrats need to purge this idea of "free trade agreements," without tariffs. We KNOW they do not work, it isn't simplistic at all to say they are destroying the American Economy, and robbing us of jobs, and giving workers less, and less control. It's just accurate to say that.
erronis
(15,429 posts)Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)Wella
(1,827 posts)And then they'll have everyone poor, except themselves.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)MisterP
(23,730 posts)"God created the universe in such a manner that all in common might derive their food from it, and that the earth should also be a property common to all. Why do you reject one who has the same rights over nature as you? It is not from your own goods that you give to the beggar; it is a portion of his own that you are restoring to him. The earth belongs to all. So you are paying back a debt and think you are making a gift to which you are not bound."
--some commie, probably
ND-Dem
(4,571 posts)before but suddenly I'm hearing about him every week. did a movie come out or something?
MisterP
(23,730 posts)as "Commies" because they were quoting Ambrose
freshwest
(53,661 posts)kairos12
(12,892 posts)Dpm12
(512 posts)locks
(2,012 posts)titled How Income Inequality Benefits Everybody is a gem. He extols the efficiencies of outsourcing and the beauty of income inequality in a capitalist system. Most of the column is from a book by John Tamny, a Forbes editor. I loved the quote "The best way to spread the wealth around is to leave it in the hands of the wealthy." Since George has plenty left in his hands I am waiting for the time when some of it spreads to me.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)olegramps
(8,200 posts)appalachiablue
(41,188 posts)WillTwain
(1,489 posts)Dumbest fuck out there.
raven mad
(4,940 posts)without transportation elsewhere, one matchbook, one knife, and a tent. That's it.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)HUNGRY polar bears.
raven mad
(4,940 posts)Along with Newt, Cheney, GWB, and a few others - let 'em eat cake............. LOL! Send 'em in on a snow machine with a one-way only tank of gas............
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)At a speed far beyond that of an Olympic athlete.
A bear might get indigestion from Cheney, though. I don't know if even a polar bear's gut can handle that much concentrated evil.
raven mad
(4,940 posts)Cheney'd go down easy!
rickford66
(5,530 posts)We use it to start our wood stove. Stossel's also.
daleanime
(17,796 posts)MoreGOPoop
(417 posts)K & R
appalachiablue
(41,188 posts)99Forever
(14,524 posts)jeepers
(314 posts)raven mad
(4,940 posts)WillyT
(72,631 posts)Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)WDIM
(1,662 posts)We are all valuable and the "rich" needs us more than we need them.
DeadEyeDyck
(1,504 posts)I am under 30, classified as a minority and make over 250 k/yr. I just pulled a lady from a competitor by paying her more. But is my success making anyone poorer?
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)YOHABLO
(7,358 posts)Bonx
(2,079 posts)rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)Which are you doing? At 250 k a year, you aren't the problem one way or another, esp if you are paying your fair share of taxes. But I don't want to be building airports for you. Those that acquire billions without creating anything are the problem. They are stealing wealth from someone. The greatest middle class the world has ever seen was built because the wealthy were forced to pay their fair share and regulated from stealing our money. Then came supply-side, I hope you don't support that. Trickle-down was the biggest farce perpetrated on Americans. The results of supply-side amounted to the redistribution of wealth from the middle and lower classes to the wealthy class. If this continues we will be the best defended paupers in the world.
StrongBad
(2,100 posts)The only way to make money without creating something is by investing.
Please logically show how investing money in a financial instrument equates to stealing wealth from someone.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)truly interested if you said, "I believe." Of course if someone holds up a bank they can acquire money. Or if the defraud someone with money. The bank bailout move a trillion dollars from the lower classes to the wealthy. And what does investing mean. How does that "make" money? If I go to Las Vegas and win a million dollars, did I make that money? Or did it move from someone else's pocket to mine. Most investing is straight gambling. Money is moved from the losers to the winners. If the wealthy don't pay taxes and I pay to build an airport, I lose wealth and they get to keep their wealth. I call that stealing. They get wealthier and I get poorer.
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)brooklynite
(94,911 posts)I know that part of the point of a post like this is to vent, but not every "rich" person (my wife included) is stealing from the poor. I know a great many (do the "Patriotic Millionaires" ring a bell?) would work to get Democrats elected and would be happy to have their taxes raised.
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)Or it's just like the good cops who let the bad cops get away with crime.
bread_and_roses
(6,335 posts)Quite likely not every rich person approves the current system, perhaps he or she is not a willing party to the theft ... but they are the beneficiaries of a system that takes from the many to give to the few.
Probably many of the "rich" would not personally grossly underpay workers, or take food from the mouths of children, but that's what the system that makes them rich does.
Nor does the charitable giving by some of the rich - sometimes loudly lauded here - make any difference. Nor can any individual rich person rectify the grand theft by, say, giving away all their money and becoming poor - or even "upper middle-class." The money would just end up concentrated in a very few pockets, the way it is now.
That's the system. The "rich" do not exist without exploitation of the rest of us - poor, working class, "middle-class" (whatever that means .... ). The "rich" do not exist without the destruction of the Commons, on which the rest of us depend, because the Commons is the source of wealth. The rich do not exist without a system that makes many poor. That's why the fight is against a system that creates such gross inequality, not against individuals.
Historically, when things get bad enough "the poor" in their rage go after individuals - and then we see the mansions burn and heads on pikes. Our current Oligarchs seem to have forgotten that, or more likely are comfortably (and probably rightly) secure in the ultra-militarization of our law-enforcement to protect them.
As for voting for Democrats as an offset to the grand theft .....
(Parenthesis because we are not defining our terms)
PowerToThePeople
(9,610 posts)Great reply! This was spot on.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)Do you support supply-side economics? That's how the wealthy got wealthy, from stealing money. It is possible to create wealth, but most wealth in the last 30 has been stolen wealth.
brooklynite
(94,911 posts)Why do you think I work to elect people who will raise my taxes?
Funny think: I thought people became wealthy by having other people voluntarily given them money for products or services they want.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)give the money for a product? How about when the wealthy don't pay for their taxes and we pay for their defense?
Initech
(100,129 posts)bhikkhu
(10,725 posts)...doing so is how most of them got that way. The better among them got rich by making stuff people are happy to give up their money for (Jobs comes to mind), but a great many of them get rich by giving people no choice, or clever deceits. All of them could easily stand to be a bit less rich, and they'd be happier and healthier people living in a more equal society (whether they think so or not).
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)K&R
[center][/center]
ctsnowman
(1,903 posts)hifiguy
(33,688 posts)Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)nolabels
(13,133 posts)The public in mass have been led to believe that nothing can be changed and so they stay that way. The public as single unit has been fenced in physiological barriers that would be easily overrun if a large enough percentage headed that way. People like Elizabeth Warren scare people who want everybody to think the same. It's not because of the things they know but because they think different from the way they supposedly should have been trained. Learned helplessness is contagious. The reason things are like they are is because people have been indoctrinated to think that way.
If you believe things are that way, then they are
freshwest
(53,661 posts)I'm talking about something else. Some of us want a different way for society to be organized. Peace out.
And I'm getting ticked off at all my replies and updated being time outed by DU the last 24 hours. They load forever, and I'm clicking over and over. No other website is aggravating me like this lately.
Waiting, waiting, waiting for DU...
nolabels
(13,133 posts)It's the way things are organized and priorities that are set.
We all probably agree there is a or problem(s) but just what it is and how to describe what it could be is probably like watching the three blind men describing what an elephant is.
I wouldn't fret about DU too much either, after 13+ yrs here i have seen it change a lot too, but its still got a lot to offer
taught_me_patience
(5,477 posts)And really comes off as sour grapes. I'm surprised there are so many recs... I'd unrec if I could.
StrongBad
(2,100 posts)Is this a reference to the collapse in stocks and 401ks during the 2008 crash?
You know that one is able to actively monitor and change the investments within your 401ks, right? So how is it anyone's responsibility that someone lost on a bad investment? It's not anybody else's responsibility to decide on how to invest your money.
Besides, if you didn't sell during the crash all of those losses would have been recouped by now and you actually would be quite profitable.
This seems like a lot of meaningless bluster.
brooklynite
(94,911 posts)...since this thread doesn't seem to have been intended to accomplish anything more useful.
obliviously
(1,635 posts)George Soros, Warren Buffett, the Kennedy's, Teresa Heinz etc.........