OT alternative wealth statistics

[Bruce]

Math isn't your strong suit is it Ken? Of course 50% is greater than 60% but just because I have an IQ 50% higher than you doesn't mean that you can bench press 60% more than me.

You don't seem to understand the difference between "owning 60% of the wealth" and "paying 50% of the income tax." The two are barely related. Many of those 5% paying 50% of the taxes have very little "wealth" ie assets. Most of them are doctors, lawyers and business owners that blow every penny they make just like the poor guy does. They just blow it on more expensive things like European vacations and cars and "stuff."

[todd]

You're kidding yourself if you think there aren't people on the left who don't want to take money away from the wealthy and distribute it "more fairly". As for paying their fair share, it has been pointed out about two dozen times in this thread that the top 5% of wage earners earn about 35% of all income, but pay 56% of all income tax. Conversely, the bottom 50% of wage earners earned about 14% of all income, but paid 4% of all income tax. If you want a progressive tax system, it looks like we've got it.

todd

[Silvan]

Nobody will be able to afford to buy the burgers either, so we'll all just be unemployed and living on welfare, paid for by... Hrm....

[Charlie Self]

bruce responds:

Makes you want to weep it's so heartrending.

Charlie Self "Character is much easier kept than recovered." Thomas Paine

[John McCoy]

Renata wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I don't think that's a supportable statement at all. Crime affects the poor, both in number of incidents and economic impact, far more than it does even the moderately wealthy.

John

[Everett M. Greene]

Of which "largess and services" are the wealthy taking advantage to a higher degree than others? Most public services (police, fire protection, sanitation, etc.) are provided on a per capita basis (or close to it) and the wealthy get no more benefit than the poorest.

[Fletis Humplebacker]

"todd"

You are confusing the issue with facts.

[Renata]

Now, who has the mansion that needs protectin' from burglars? The lovely Porsche? Who has loads of dough that needs protectin'? If you ain't got nothing, what the heck do you need to protect? OTOH, you might be a tad jealous that some folks just get all the breaks and try to even things out by takin's a bit from the richer folk.

Renata

smart, not dumb for email

[Doug Miller]

Sadly, that's not the way it works in the real world. The poor are victims of crime *far* more often than the wealthy.

-- Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?

[todd]

I know it doesn't sound as good in a sound bite as "we want these rich people to pay their fair share". I think a lot of people would be surprised to find out that they are, in fact, rich by the definition of many on the left. I also enjoy listening to people like Warren Buffet who think the rich are undertaxed. With a net worth of 30 billion or so, if he thinks he's undertaxed, he should send a few billion extra to the Treasury Department.

todd

[DIYGUY]

[Doug Winterburn]

He could really show the strength of his convictions by emulating the old Millionaire TV show with about 10 or 20 of his 30 billion and create

10,000 or 20,000 new millionaires from the available pool of poor people. That way, he'd eliminate the big scrape off of government. But can you imagine the chorous of wailing when all those new millionaires saw over half of their new found wealth disappearing down the gullet of the government animal.

-Doug

[Mark & Juanita]

Something I have found that helps with the mental gymnastics when encountering statements from such as Mr Buffet who say the rich need to pay their fair share, or Barbra Streisand who say we must protect the environment (while living in a mansion and being driven around in limos) is you need to add the things they fail to add to their statements that provide what they really mean. In Buffet's case it is something on the order of "The other rich need to pay their fair share", or Barbra, "We [you] need to preserve the environment for me" HTH

[Charlie Self]

Is that a little bit like the "Don't eat animals" guy who wears leather shoes and belt?

Charlie Self "Character is much easier kept than recovered." Thomas Paine

[todd]

private plane. Her justification was that "it was going there anyway".

todd

[Fletis Humplebacker]

"todd"

Or Rosie ODonuts railing against gun ownership while being protected by armed guards.

[Fletis Humplebacker]

Not only that but many of those new millionaires will be broke again in no time. I don't envy the rich, I just don't want to do what it takes to get there. Often the rich kids squander inherited money by not having the personal makeup of the overacheiver that got it in the first place. I suppose that's true redistribution of wealth in action.

[John McCoy]

Renata wrote in news:ct0b10hulfeqehc66kv3985om6d7glgo7u@

4ax.com:

You sort of missed the point.

Firstly, there's much less crime in wealthy areas - in large part because it takes a lot of effort for criminals to move from where they're at to where the rich folk live, and criminals tend to be lazy. So the guy with the Porsche is at less risk of it being stolen than the guy with the beatup 79 Cutlass.

Secondly, if the Porsche is stolen, the owner calls the insurance, goes to work in his other car, and goes out & buys a new Porsche when the insurance pays off. The guy with the 79 Cutlass, on the otherhand, is screwed if it's stolen - no insurance, no money to replace it, and how's he going to get to work today?

John