Posted on 12/03/2012 12:58:02 PM PST by lbryce
The angle of a just-released New York University study is, of course, that ole' left-wing canard known as "income inequality," but the findings are still useful in drawing other conclusions, and not ones that are very pleasant. Is America now a bigger version of Chicago, where Democrats and the media have so expertly rigged the electoral game that, even as their policies fai,l they're able to stay in power?
According to the study, we are now back to 1969 levels with respect to median net worth in this country. A large part of this is the housing crisis we've yet to recover from, which cost the middle class 18% of its net worth. The news isn't much better with respect to median incomes, which have dropped to $26,364, setting us all the way back to 1999.
And as middle class incomes declined, the debt-load among the middle class has increased "significantly."
In a nutshell: those of us in the middle class earn less, are worth less, and owe more. Meanwhile, during this same period of time, the wealthy increased their wealth by an unbelievable 71%.
Normally, I don't care about the gap between the rich and the rest of us. I'm not rich, and at the age of 46, it's probably safe to say I'll never be rich; but I didn't care because I begrudge no one their success. But that was before…
Before we looted the Treasury and mortgaged the futures of generations to bail out the Too Big To Fails; before we started losing ground while the Bailed Out prospered.
What's especially troubling, though, is that it didn't have to be like this.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
lib-tard: but... but... but... the democrats have been in charge since jan 2007... and they’re supposed to want to help the little guy?!
conservative: of course they’re trying to the little guy... help guy into a situation where he must vote for govt assistance and social programs... you know... for democrats
“Obviously that guy worked a lot harder than you, your kids and your grandkids. Only a red-card carrying communist would think otherwise.
Stop being a taker 21twelve!!!”
Hopefully ksen is being ironic rather than serious. The assumption that an executive of a failed TARP bailed-out bank “worked harder than” 21twelve and therefore earned his loot is unwarranted. A financial system which gives privileged TBTF institutions get-out-of-bankruptcy-free cards when their reckless managers bet the farm and lose is ALREADY “red”. This “when our bet pays off, the profits are ours; when our bet turns up snake-eyes we socialize the loss to the peons” system is communism for the well-connected. Such robbery by the TBTF bankster nomenklatura is called “hardly working”, not “working harder”, and is as reprehensible as any Red Soviet commissar’s racket.
Yes, I was being sarcastic in that post. It disturbs me that barring direct stories like this a large swath of FReepers do argue the way I just did but unironically.
Example #1: The whole takers/makers meme.
Median income $26,364? Is this a typo? You’d have a very hard time making a go of it alone with that even here, with a cost of living that is comparatively low. What’s that, around $12.50 an hour or so?
“Half our country is living off the other half.
Actually, 1% of our country is living off the other 99%.
12 posted on Monday, December 03, 2012 4:51:48 PM by ksen”
“Yes, I was being sarcastic in that post. It disturbs me that barring direct stories like this a large swath of FReepers do argue the way I just did but unironically.
Example #1: The whole takers/makers meme.”
Are you being sarcastic about the “1% vs the other 99%” too? Because that’s equally ludicrous. It’s true that a certain part of “the 1%” belongs in the “taker” category, but they make their way in the world by cultivating an ever larger audience of less ambitious “takers” who will settle for voting as instructed in return for crumbs from the tables of the “well-connected”. One wing of these ‘crony capitalists’ got together recently to compare notes and plan the next cycle of looting: http://freebeacon.com/see-no-evil/
No, no, no, no - times are great. That’s why Obama won a second term.
Sorry, I’ll try to keep my words simpler.
Ow! You’re even more cynical about the upper class than I am!
I’ve known a bunch, from my days working in Big Pharma, and they’re worse scum than you can imagine. Deal with multi-million dollar suits for a few hours (especially the lawyers), and you’ll feel like you need a shower.
I have a friend that is in the same business as I am, and was just bemoaning that the last job he worked on just added to the National Debt, and seriously wished he hadn't done it.
I WILL work on government jobs, but somewhat feel the same way. Although I like to think that by charging lower rates and doing a better job than my competitors - I'm saving the government money. My one main government client has laid off LOTS of people and my work for them has pretty much dried up. People say “oh - that's too bad” (for me). But I tell them “Yeah. But I'm glad that the government is FINALLY seeing that they need to cut back too.”
But it is a bit of a conundrum when having a conservative view point, but then doing work for the government. Or for government mandated work.
I recently moved on (”Forward!”) from 30+ years in finance, last 23 of which was in a line whose customers are lenders of and investors in real-estate-backed loans. There were some who gave you that “need a bath”/”hold-on-to-your-wallet” sensation to be sure, but many others who were in it for the long haul and truly appalled at what the banksters pulled off in the decade leading up to the latest housing bust.
Bill Black, an expert in sniffing out and prosecuting loan fraud, has their number: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_K._Black - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_AuvLTJNh0 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9HKKyNPe4k -
“crony capitalists”
That was a great way for Palin to put it. On one hand I am very pro business. Even big business. And yes, even banks. But it is/was hard to justify that when they get bailed out, get one-sided tax breaks, etc. Then it really isn’t capitalism anymore.
welcome to the dark side 21twelve. As an old friend of mine on this site used to say, “Come on in, we’re all on the cool side of the lake of fire.”
I catch the joke. And the implication. I can’t tolerate racism, regardless.
The featured parasite in the video was black. White trash would have served the rhetoric better.
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