America's 1% Has Taken $50 Trillion From the Bottom 90%

You are incorrect. The rich have always paid more than their share. They don't use any more government than the poor, but they are gouged simply because they have it. As progressives point at those with more demanding that they pay more, just know that people will eventually be demanding the same of you. The rich simply don't have enough money to support an irresponsible government. CA is an example.

 

Wealthy people are wealthy because they are better at making money than the rest of us. Why is this a surprise to anyone? I congratulate them. I never argue with success. I am happy to live in a country where earning wealth is possible. You should try it.

 

And when they blow themselves up on leverage the FED steps in to rescue them, making them even wealthier

 

1) Okay, let's call it 49/51 .. it's still a function of self-discipline and failure to adapt. No idea what you mean by 'your people', I'm not American.

2) Irrelevant. ADAPT or perish. The writing has been on the wall for years. It all comes back to individual choices.

3) No idea what you're getting at here. But seriously, you think it's tragic that First Worlders, with their endless comfort and safety, get grumpy enough to kill themselves when they can't have the latest iphone, or if they lose a job and have to consider moving somewhere more affordable? You're right about one thing though .. it IS lack of empathy which has caused that to happen in America. The Welfare State convinced the people they didn't need to strive or adapt. That's clearly a very very cruel thing to do to people.

 

A $24 minimum wage would also drive consumer prices upward to match it as well. The value of the dollar would go down, and you’d end up having McDonald’s burger-flippers demanding a minimum wage of $35 and hour. The words would change but the song remains the same.

 

So why are they renting? No one is forced to rent.

 

That is the reality. NO ONE is forced to work.

Argue that at your peril. Go ahead, try.

 

Fundamental error.

The 'elites' as you call them, are parasites, and will only exploit something as long as it pays to do so. Rent seeking behaviour therefore comes from the consumer, not the supplier. The supplier is merely reacting to that behaviour by exploiting a market.

No one does anything unless it pays off in some way. The citizenry moved from home ownership to renting for the same reason we stopped baking our own bread. Because it's 'easier'.

 

1) Yes, we all know wages have stagnated. But income is just one factor of financial security .. and the other factors can be adjusted to suit. If people aren't adjusting the other factors, they've made a clear choice not to. Nothing is eternal, and we have to keep adapting throughout life if we're to survive. Anyone who thinks they shouldn't have to adapt was clearly born either with a silver spoon in their mouth, or has a sense of entitlement not matching their circumstances.

2) You think it's 'yucky' when working and middle class families own a home via the effort of years of self-discipline? You think THAT'S bad, but people not doing anything to provide their family with a stable home are innocent victims? And no one has lost anything but the will to do what those who came before us did. IE, knuckle down, live frugally, live where you can afford, stay married, etc.

 

You could be right about that. Just more reason to transition to a worker co-op based economy.

 

Incorrect? Again? Lol

Saying the rich always paid more than their share is an opinion. Your opinion.

Yet I seem to recall a time after ww2 that had our middle class paying more fed income taxes in than the upper class. The gains at the top with losses in the middle changed the paradigm.

Well I believe in progressive taxation and wish my income gave me a high tax rate. Be proud to make that kind of dough.
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Sometimes the rich get favors from govt. Like United Fruit. What did it cost taxpayers to finance our overthrow of a south American country? To keep the bananas flowing?

 

What's stopping you from creating a chain of worker co-ops?

 

While their percentage may be less due to their source of income, the total is still more. Thats not my opinion.

In CA, in spite of paying the highest taxes, we are the poverty capitol of the US. The gap between the rich and poor is huge and there are few in the middle. Schools rank with the lowest and our roads are in bad shape. Many CA cities were on the brink of insolvency before Covid.

Results speak for themselves.

 

No one has enough money to support an irresponsible govt my fellow member! Rich or middle. So they owe trillions in debt!! Or we and our kids owe it!

Paying my taxes never bothered me. Been retired for years.

Taxes have been squandered. Much wasted. Fiscally irresponsible.

One can hope things get better and the people get smarter.

 

Ug. Zero sum economics.

6th grade civics people. 6th grade.

 

Damn. Sounds like the Mississippi delta that never had a middle class!this

Ca has big problems . It should be a shining western star.

In part a victim of illegal immigration , hb1 visa workers and offshoring our economy.

Then toss in inept governance by irresponsible leftism...and you got Ca.

Turning that state around is long term. Along with many other gutted states. When industry was sent to China some
areas lost big tax bases.

Damned cause/effect universe!


Common sense is being able to see how things are interconnected , industry, jobs, a tax base, and not destroying any of those things

 

Working in a place that someone else took the risk and put in the efforr to build no doubt

 

There are many ways co-ops can be financed.

Capitalism: We workers beg for crumbs from the chair we made.

Socialism: We workers vote on what should be done with the profits from the chair we made.

 

Capitalism: You're not forced to build chairs, and are free to start your own table factory and do what you like with the profits - if that's what you prefer. You can choose against poverty and wage slavery.

Socialism: You're forced to build chairs, and you're forced to accept that you will never have any real say in those profits. You will never have the opportunity to choose 'other', and/or become rich enough to have a say in those profits. You cannot choose against poverty and wage slavery.

 

A word of advice, meantime. Do NOT take your cues on this from old rich white men.

 

Not everyone can be a corporate executive or sit on a board of directors. The owner class represents a tiny minority of the country. And exploiting people is just wrong.

Cold War strawman. You have no argument.

 

1) That's beside the point. The only reality which matters is that under capitalism we have the CHOICE. And I'll remind you that a voluntarily entered agreement (to work in exchange for money) cannot be exploitation - since it is voluntary. Again, in a capitalist democracy no one is forced to be 'exploited'. It's the only system which gives you the freedom and power to choose differently. To choose against rent slavery, wage slavery, poverty, etc.

2) Not in the least. Try implementing a state socialist workers 'utopia' (which you must implement, if you want state mandated worker co-ops) and see how much choice you have in escaping your mandated poverty.

 

The only choice they have is which capitalist enterprise to be exploited by.

The state wouldn't control the co-ops. If it did they wouldn't be co-ops. Capitalism would just be illegal like slavery. You can't have capitalist democracy.

 

1) Not at all. We can choose whether we'll become wage slaves, or run our own business. We can choose to work like blazes for a couple of decades and invest every spare cent, then retire early on our investments. We can live off the land and not need much (if any) income at all. The choices are literally endless .. and there is nothing legally preventing us from choosing any of them.

2) Do you grasp that a profit driven enterprise (no matter who owns it ... the workers, the state, or an individual) IS capitalism?

 

Yes I suppose you could also choose to be a vagabond.

Capitalism is a profit driven hierarchical enterprise. It's when a few people at the top make all of the decisions and a mass group of people do what they're told. Socialism is workers' control over the means of production.