Posted on 09/25/2011 6:52:23 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
This past week, President Obama tried to sell his new “millionaires’ tax” to the Rust Belt. “What’s great about this country is our belief that anyone can make it,” he said in Cincinnati on Thursday, praising “the idea that any one of us can open a business or have an idea that could make us millionaires.” But who are the millionaires Obama is talking about? And will a tax on them help the economy? Let’s examine a few presumptions about the man with the monocle on the Monopoly board.
1. Millionaires are rich.
Being rich has gotten more expensive. A $1 million fortune was unusual in the early 19th century. The word “millionaire” wasn’t even coined until 1827 by novelist (and future British prime minister) Benjamin Disraeli. In 1845, Moses Y. Beach, editor of the New York Sun, published a small pamphlet called “Wealth and Biography of the Wealthy Citizens of New York City.” The price of admission to Beach’s list, which was wildly popular, was a mere $100,000.
By the time the first Forbes 400 list of the richest people in America was published in 1982, the smallest fortune featured was $75 million. There has been so much wealth creation in the past 30 years — much of it thanks to the microprocessor behind modern-day fortunes such as Dell, Microsoft and Bloomberg — that only billionaires are on the list. Today, $1 million in the bank generates only about $50,000 per year in interest. That isn’t chump change, but it’s roughly equal to the 2010 median household income.
2. Millionaires think they’re rich.
“Rich,” like “poor,” is a relative term. A family living on the American median income of $50,000 a year might think that one living on $500,000 is rich.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The 5 Myths about Millionaires:
1. Millionaires are rich.
2. Millionaires think they’re rich
3. Millionaires pay proportionately less income tax than poorer people.
4. Millionaires share the same political beliefs.
5. Obama’s “millionaires’ tax” won’t seriously limit investment.
CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE DETAILED EXPLANATIONS AS TO WHY THEY ARE MYTHS.
After reading this, I really feel sorry for them and I hope I never became a millionaire.
“what’s great about this country is our belief that anyone can make it”
that’s just amusing coming from a guy talking about how he wants to take their money... therefore making the possibility of ‘making it’ even less likely
wouldn’t this be the definition of crushing the American dream??
I don’t feel discouraged from reaching millionaire status, I do feel that so long as the kids aren’t spoiled, that’s what counts.
I like that poster! And dollars to donuts the guy didn’t inherit his wealth, either. Looks like a hard-working dude.
And what's even greater is that I can take it away from them. (The ones who are stupid enough not to donate to my re-election funds, that is)
Pinch me. I must be dreaming that I am reading this in the WaPo.
On a serious note, I personally would rather earn little nowadays, than perpetuate the funding for this controlling bloated government. The less I am forced to give them, the better.
Again, I agree with that as well, it’s true as well that you don’t have to be rich to live the happiest life. In my family, it was mostly board games like clue and fiddling around with other kids making monster movies or our own soundtracks with casette tapes and our kid skills at music. It was probably pretty cheap living compared to the entertainment some kids have nowadays.
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The one on the left has a body that’s worth a million bucks, so I guess they are both millionaires.
We bought land in the middle of nowhere twenty years ago. IT was dirt cheap at the time. We paid it off in about ten years. Since then the area has exploded and the land has become worth several million. On paper, we are million heirs, but we are just as broke as we ever were.
Myth 6: It’s all just luck and being in the right place at the right time.
As for political beliefs, it’s how you make it that determines which party you’re a part of, not just personal opinion or upbringing. IF you make it via working on a business, you’re apt to be more conservative; if you make it by happenstance and ‘being at the right place at the right time’ and know how to market yourself, you’re more likely to be liberal. Half of Wall Street spends time getting lucky (in more ways than one) and so they are apt to be more liberal. More than anything, if you understand that you have to sweat to get your coin, you are more eager ot keep it for yourself.
There’s a difference between assets and liquid. You have millions worth of assets, but not millions in the bank, in cash that you can withdraw any time.
Millionaire farmers abound here, over a million in tillage and harvesting equipment, a 60X100 shop, $100,000 in grain bins, 3500 acres of dryland wheat farm, living in a double wide and driving a four year old pickup. Net worth well over 2 million, though, it just isn’t liquid assets—its the means of production.
And if your wealth was inherited, you are more likely to be a leftist.
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