Somewhat OT: Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1% - 30 years of greed

[dgk]

A good read on greed:

[Tony Hwang]

You have to go way back where it all started. Nixon and Greenspan. Over the years since, U.S. governments neglected her watch dog role on financial establishments. This is the result we are in now. Err, Greenspan was mathematician.

[trader4]

What's good about it? It starts out with total bias and a clear agenda:

"And that is after payment of the taxes that the superrich and their Republican apologists find so onerous."

Like the super rich don't also support and contribute huge amounts to the Dems? Both parties get huge contributions from the wealthy. Obama regularly goes to $35K a seat fund raisers. And that both parties then are beholden to these folks?

The rest of it is a bunch of nonsense too. Like attributing the fact that lawyers earnings grew substantially over the last 3 decades to Reagan deregulation? WTF?

[HeyBub]

1. Greed is good.

1. First there was "Global Warming" to get those with nothing going in their life all exercised. That became "Climate Change" as the AGW premise was adequately challenged. Now it's "Climate Chaos" as a diminished number of supporters try to salvage the concept.

Those that were disillusioned drifted until they glommed on to the "Income Disparity" movement. In a few months, they'll all be agitating for the criminalization of "Parrot Plucking" or painting your house in horrid colors (i.e., white).

1. I'm personally agnostic on the subject of "wealth redistribution." If, somehow, we could make it happen, in only a few months the country's wealth would be back to its original condition.

[dgk]

The whole system is so skewed towards the wealthy that I only see income tax as a way to get any sort of balance.

That doesn't undo the gross stealing of wealth that went on during the past few decades. Maybe some sort of wealth tax to deal with that.

Of course, then the very wealthy just skip town, err, country. They have no loyalty to America, they've spent the last decade doing everything they could to loot it.

[ChairMan]

It's been going on since the begining of time. BFD There will always be rich and there will always be poor. Life is not fair and everybody is not equal. But everybody has the same opportunities to make a better life for themselves. It's *their* choice to make on how they live their life. This class warfare shit is complete bullshit and the gvmnt can"t do anything to change it. All the gvmnt is doing is distracting peoples attention and making them mad at rich people while they(gvmnt) screw you while you're not looking

[HeyBub]

Er, that begs the question of whether anything SHOULD be done about it. My view is that attempting to do something about the distribution of wealth is meddling with the primeval forces of nature and could lead to unimaginable problems (fish in the ocean becoming cannibals, winds blowing up and down instead of to and fro, etc.).

[BobR]

The whole income disparity movement is just a ploy to get people to blame someone else, preferrably someone with money, for all their problems instead of blaming the government and the current idiot in charge.

Can't totally agree with your last statement, it would probably take at least one generation for it to fully return but would agree that within a year maybe two their would be a huge number crying that they are below the poverty line and wanting handouts.

[BobR]

OR...we could end up like CUBA where the entire friggen country is dirt poor, 50+ years behind the rest of the world and now trying to figure out how to get people off the government dole and back to work.

In my mind is has always been about an equal opportunity to persue happiness which doesn't mean equal opportunity to be rich. I know a lot of very happy and fulfilled people who aren't even close to being rich.

The problem for most people is that by the time the realize it was their choice (assuming they ever do) they have already made so many bad choices that they have already determined their destiny. Many more could change by making the right choices but are either too damn lazy or would rather go through life blaming someone else.

But that won't keep the morons from trying and screwing up everything in the process.

BINGO!

[Higgs Boson]

**This is the same Greenspan that was shocked! shocked!!! when the ****hit the fan in Fall 2008 He's on record saying that he thought the market would work. **That's what the Bush and Obama admins. get for hiring Libertarians and keeping them on for so long Head up his ***, or rather up his juvenile convictions.

True, much of this started with Nixon, but Reagan really got the ball rolling by, inter alia, starting to break the labor movement. The real culprits are Roger Ailes and the other far-far-far-Right crooks that have transformed the Republican party into something Eisenhower would not recognize.

HB

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Remember Eisenhower's speech about "military industrial complex? He was so right/

[Tony Hwang]

What happened to Cuba. We lost Cuba after winning it from Spanish. We exploited her real bad. All the American companies making $$$ on sugar and fruit. And Nickel mining to make artillery shells/bombs during WW II. They only bribed Batista and his cronies. Never paid a dime as tax.When Castro tried organizing union at Ni mine they tried to get rid of him. No wonder. The rest is history. We are good at making friend into enemy. At peak time they shipped 1.3 million tons of sugar States side per month procude dirt cheap using Jamaican, Haitian labor.

[trader4]

Perhaps it's the Democrat party that you should worry about people no longer recognizing, as evidenced by the debacle in the last election. Democrats like Kennedy who cut taxes and was strong on defense are long gone. Now the Democrat party is the home of loon socialists like you.....

[Tony Hwang]

Sorry correction. 1.3 million pounds, not tons.

>

[trader4]

Reagan restored respect for America in the world. We were no longer being held hostage by the likes of Iran. His strategy for DEFEATING the Soviet Union, which included that military buildup, worked beyond anyones wildest dreams. And he did it while everyone, Nixon/Kissinger, George Will, Ted Kennedy, was telling him he was wrong.

The Soviet Union is on the ash heap of history. Hundreds of millions are freed. Even Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative looks like remarkable foresight, given what's going on in Iran and North Korea. Long live the truth!

[trader4]

h.- Hide quoted text -

Sure they do. The top 1% already pay 40% of all income tax. The bottom

50% pay nothing. How much more fairness do guys like you want?

[trader4]

Who exactly did this looting? Bill Gates? Steve Jobs? Mark Zuckerberg? Larry Page? Andy Grove? Investors in those companies that made a lot of money?

Everybody wants to know, who's the bad guy? Or are you just mad because you didn'h have the guts and smarts to make lots of money yourself?

[Tony Hwang]

Hmmm,,, At what cost? What happened after his term? He did things like drunken sailor. Like ruin the future for the sake of present?

[Tony Hwang]

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Hi, May I ask 40% of what? Counting all the money they hid in Swiss bank or off shore? Didn't Buffet say tax me more?

[HeyBub]

Forty percent (actually 36%, but who's counting) of all revenue collected by the federal government in the form of income taxes.

I don't think Buffet ever said "tax me more." What he said was he paid a lower rate than his secretary. That is because his income comes from capital gains, not wages. Oh, by the way, the IRS is suing his company for some enormous sum in unpaid taxes.

As an aside, I believe Ross Perot pays not income taxes either. His income is derived solely from the interest on tax-free municipal bonds.