Truth hurts, and I'm gonna tell you a little hard to swallow truth...
tax the rich more............... you're gonna pay more for rent.......... stupids!
tax the rich more............. your groceries are gonna cost more........ stupids!
Two-Tiered 1%--Issues With The Top 1% OR The Top .05%?
by Justitia Themis 82 Replies latest social current
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Berengaria
I'm cooking and I'm certainly no economist, so you're going to have to give me some time to plow through this crap and address what I feel comfortable with. If you feel like having a discussion.
I've been reading and living this subject for thirty years, and if you really think that a couple of blog posts or even references to papers by "experts" are going to make me believe that we do not have a serious problem with income/wealth inequality in this country, you're wrong.
5. Set all the numbers aside for a moment. If you’ve lived through the past four decades, does it really seem like America is no better off today? It doesn’t to Jason Furman, the deputy director of Obama’s National Economic Council. Here is Furman back in 2006: “Remember when even upper-middle class families worried about staying on a long distance call for too long? When flying was an expensive luxury? When only a minority of the population had central air conditioning, dishwashers, and color televisions? When no one had DVD players, iPods, or digital cameras? And when most Americans owned a car that broke down frequently, guzzled fuel, spewed foul smelling pollution, and didn’t have any of the now virtually standard items like air conditioning or tape/CD players?”
I don't care who this is, it's plain stupid.
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DaCheech
I know plenty of (low-middle class) people that have house cleaning 2x a month, and lawn care service.
I would never trade living today (even under welfare) with any other place in time
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DaCheech
and if things get tough, I could survive (and enjoy it) on a loaf of bread and a couple of cans of beans!
ingrates!
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William Penwell
As the ecomony does a downward spiral, there will be a point where the bottom 99.5% of the people will say enough is enough and there will be a revolt. As long as the 99.5% were buying into the American dream that moving up the finacial later look viable, the top .5% were able easly control the money flow. We have been living on a finaciall bubble caused by easy credit but this is beigining to burst. It will be interesting to see how long it will take the average working person to revolt.
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Berengaria
Oh good lord. Here is the context for Furman's comment. I should have flipping known better than to think that you or yours could have an honest conversation.
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Jason Furman on the American Standard of Living
Jason Furman on American earnings and inequality:
American Prospect Online - ViewWeb: Walk and Chew Gum at the Same Time. by Jason Furman: Damn Matthew Yglesias. Somehow he hacked into my computer and stole my argument on the Rose-Mishel debate -- before I had even written it. Damn he's good. As Matt points out, the debate over what has occurred in the last 30 years is largely irrelevant to the policy prescriptions and political strategies we adopt to ensure that America becomes an even better place over the next thirty years.
But the facts are not entirely irrelevant.... I would much rather we all... spend our time figuring out what to do about rising inequality. But... Rose is right, people are substantially better off than they were 30 years ago.... [T]oday's workers are earning more than their counterparts did 30 years ago.
Ignore the statistics for a second and use your common sense. Remember when even upper-middle class families worried about staying on a long distance call for too long? When flying was an expensive luxury? When only a minority of the population had central air conditioning, dishwashers, and color televisions? When no one had DVD players, iPods, or digital cameras? And when most Americans owned a car that broke down frequently, guzzled fuel, spewed foul smelling pollution, and didn't have any of the now virtually standard items like air conditioning or tape/CD players?...
A long life -- it's four years longer today than it was in 1975. A college education -- 38 percent of young adults are enrolled today, compared to 26 percent back in 1975. A home -- also more common today than in 1975.... (this was 5 years ago)
Some of the wage statistics that Mishel tosses around suffer from a number of limitations, virtually all of which bias the picture in the same way. The biggest one is that wages... are reported after the cost of increasingly generous and technologically advanced health insurance is factored out.... Health isn't the only problem with the wage data; other benefits have grown as well -- in addition to the fact that the wage comparisons rest on a measure of inflation that is almost universally believed to be biased and ignore the influx of immigrants who weren't in the data back in the 1970s.
But if you are capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time, then read Mishel to learn about the large rise in inequality and the large disconnect between productivity growth and compensation for the typical worker.... [O]ur economic system does a decent job of delivering strong productivity growth... even when inequality widens, the majority of Americans are still doing better.... But I also want more Americans to share in those gains, and thus support investments in education, progressive savings incentives, and more generous tax credits to make work pay -- especially for childless workers who have been left behind by our increasingly child-centric tax system....
[I]f we're not happy with the way our society distributes the gains from our economy -- and I personally wouldn't be happy with the state of things even if someone [were to] convince me that inequality was actually decreasing -- then the final part of a solution is a more progressive fiscal system....
A good politician -- think Bill Clinton -- can talk optimistically about America's successes but also constructively about overcoming our probelems and challenges. Surely even us lesser mortals can aspire to do the same.
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Berengaria
Living standards and inequality are not the same thing. Ask the families of the people who died on the bridge in Minnesota, or those in New Orleans when the levees gave, or all of those Americans who have had their homes foreclosed on, if their standard of living has risen. While CEO pay and corporate profit has gone through the roof. It's like saying our slaves are not really slaves, because we treat them so well.
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DaCheech
so berengaria says it is a human right to own a house?
It may be a human right to have shelter, but to own?
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DaCheech
The truth hurts, the foreclosures are there because: people bought stuff they could not afford!
Who wants a 1,200 sq/ft house when you can have this 4,000 sq/ft house? the wonderful banker said: "you can have it"............
and your want, and pride, and gullibility, and your stupidity put you into that "dream home".............
and why fix it up over time, the man said: "we'll give you another $50k cash to do anything you want"!
and your want, and pride, and gullibility, and your stupidity took the cash too!
and your (middle class) real estate agent, laughed while they were inflating the prices of the home, so their 6% commission would be higher!
put the blame on the .5%, go ahead and put the blame on wall street.................. but the (real) blame is on the ego, and want more right now mentality!
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Berengaria
Cheech I want to thank you. You are now my personal trainer. You will help me work my self control muscle. Your every post has me bulking up.
Must have protein.