Two-Tiered 1%--Issues With The Top 1% OR The Top .05%?

by Justitia Themis 82 Replies latest social current

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  james_woods

  I like red > Are you saying green is ugly?

  I like red too. I cannot recall ever seeing a green Ferrari, but I am sure it would probably be ugly.

  I think something needs to be done to revitalize the middle-class and stop our trend towards repeating the 1920s. > Are you saying no one should be able to own property?

  Obviously not - I am one of the die-hard conservatives here.

  There is a big difference between a doctor (or lawyer) who drowns in student loans and a trust fund baby. > Are you saying we should not allow any inheritance and trust funds should be done away with?

  Again, obviously not. I admire those who made it entirely on their own - but I also strongly believe that once they have made it, they should be able to keep during life and then bequeth their rewards to who they wish at death.

  James Woods Posting= person makes a statement > James Woods takes the statement to an extreme (reductio ad absurdum) rather than addressing the real statement.

  I am not sure what you meant by that, but I was reacting to a statement made above that suggested all rules are made by the rich.
• 

  LV101

  DESIGNS --- ARMAND HAMMER made money in Russia? His American Oil Co. (Occidental Petroleum) hit it big in LIBYA --- and at one time this co. owned 98% of the country's oil. His company grew food for the Libyans and owned/manufactured Best Fertilizer. In the 70's his oil co. was the only American oil co. that could travel/explore in Russia (his mother was Russian born) but never heard of them striking it rich (employees were hoping) like Libya -- he may have become wealthy from his supplying them w/medical supplies they desperately needed.

  LV101
• 

  Berengaria

  The real issue is that a certain socialistic (or Marxist) view holds that large amounts of wealth should be confiscated (or prevented from happening in the

  first place) for the perceived "good" of society.

  Hogwash. You are as brainwashed today as you ever were by the likes of the JW's. This is pure right wing talking points.
• 

  botchtowersociety

  "Hogwash!"

  squawk

  "Poppycock!"

  caw

  "Brainwashed!"

  cluck

  "Talking points!"

  gobble

  This is how Beks responds to what she does not agree with.

  Then she spouts hogwash, poppycock, talking points, usually gleaned from a brainwashing site.

  What a (bird-brained) zealot.
• 

  Berengaria

  "Hogwash!"

  squawk

  "Poppycock!"

  caw

  "Brainwashed!"

  cluck

  "Talking points!"

  gobble

  This is how Beks responds to what she does not agree with.

  Then she spouts hogwash, poppycock, talking points, usually copy-pasted from a brainwashing site.

  What a (bird-brained) zealot.

  Projection on your part Burn. I copy and paste far, FAR less than you or your buddy DudeRockNeck. You appear to agree with most of what he spews, no matter how questionable or downright false.

  Tell me where I am wrong in my above comment? James is well known for boldly pressing forward in his fantastic characterizations of the opposition, even when faced with facts. Where are these people who believe that "large amounts of wealth should be confiscated (or prevented from happening in the first place) for the perceived "good" of society."

  I understand that you are bored. The site has become rather dull lately. I'm sure that the lack of posts from myself and others you may find challenging, has left you with an emptiness. No reason to be rude. I would respond better with some interesting conversation than with the ponytail pulling tactics of your last post.
• 

  james_woods

  Hogwash. You are as brainwashed today as you ever were by the likes of the JW's. This is pure right wing talking points.

  Beks - what I posted about income & wealth re-distribution is directly taken from the communist manifesto by Karl Marx. There are many here on JWN who have openly stated that they have no problem with Marxism and this philosophy. Many people in the Wall Street demonstrations are walking around with signs and chanting that they support this philosophy. I strongly suspect that Obama supports it in principle.

  Have you read "The Communist Manifesto" lately? I have a copy here in my office for reference.

  I was pointing out that I disagree with it. No right-wing propaganda here - just a statement of political opinion.

  BTW - I do not think there are any Ferraris in Cuba; if there are, I am sure they belong to high government officials.
• 

  james_woods

  A second post - on Justicia's title question: The top 1% or top .05%...?

  Look at this statistic taken from the quote in the original post:

  Available data isn't exact, but a family enters the top 1% or so today with somewhere around $300k to $400k in pre-tax annual income and over $1.2M in net worth.

  Does anybody honestly think that a family such as described above could possibly have any undue influence on our lawmaking system (other than their vote)? Such an idea is plainly silly - this is just simply not enough money to influence the political system, even if the person wanted to. It is barely upper middle class.

  Political influence in a meaningful sense has to come from people or corporations with many hundreds of millions and, of course, the will to do so. The number may well be even less than .05% in that sense.

  Note that this is just as likely to come from the left as from the right - examples would be Buffett and Soros. Note that the largest recipient of political contributions from the Wall Street banks is Barack Obama.

  I think this illustrates that Obama's class warfare "tax the rich" rhetoric is plainly aimed at people who simply have no political influence for the class warriors to fear - people making $250,000 or so and with relatively modest property and savings of just over a million $. This also describes a great number of small business people who are providing jobs and barely surviving in today's downturn economy.

  Think about it.
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  Mary

  A highly complex set of laws and exemptions from laws and taxes has been put in place by those in the uppermost reaches of the U.S. financial system. It allows them to protect and increase their wealth and significantly affect the U.S. political and legislative processes. They have real power and real wealth. Ordinary citizens in the bottom 99.9% are largely not aware of these systems, do not understand how they work, are unlikely to participate in them, and have little likelihood of entering the top 0.5%, much less the top 0.1%. Moreover, those at the very top have no incentive whatsoever for revealing or changing the rules.

  An excellent article Justita and I think the above statement sums up what a large part of the problem is. I was stunned last year when it was revealed that many of the big businesses who accepted the US government bailout were still giving the top executives multi-million dollar bonuses! WTF? When the entire American economy basically collapsed, how the hell can there be any justification on these guys paying themselves one extra red cent?

  It's the same old golden rule: whoever has the gold, makes the rules.
• 

  designs

  Cuba Communist, it took Fidel all of two weeks to become the next Dictator, now that guy has Millions stashed away as all Dictators do. Social unrest is historical, and born from intolerable living conditions and fraud. These Protests are healthy, I hope politicians see this as a warning. Congress and the Senate should have sitins. Let Paul Ryan and Eric Cantor and my cousin Mitch McConnell walk over and around bodies on the way to work, let them see the Public's outrage at their decisions.
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  botchtowersociety

  Think about it.

  This