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Do the rich deserve what they get?
St. Louis Post Dispatch ^ | 3//5/2011 | Todd Frankel

Posted on 03/06/2011 4:48:19 AM PST by mmanager

ST. LOUIS • It was late morning at the coffee shop, and the professor wanted to talk about rich people.

Mark Rank usually focuses his attention on the low end of the income charts, on poverty. As a professor of social welfare at Washington University, he's considered a top academic expert on that topic and social justice.

But he was moved to join a reporter here, at a back table of Kayak's Coffee across the street from his school, to talk about income inequality because of an interview in last Sunday's Post-Dispatch with Thomas A. Garrett, a St. Louis Federal Reserve vice president and economist. Garrett wrote a paper titled, "U.S. Income Inequality: It's Not So Bad," which argues that the rich's getting richer doesn't make the poor any poorer.

It doesn't matter, Garrett argues, that the distance between the rich and everyone else, from the middle class on down, stands at its widest point since the 1920s Gilded Age. "My point is, the social ills that are the result of having a low income are not because other people have more," he says. "It's because those at the bottom don't have enough income. The resource pie is not fixed. If I make more than you, it's not that I've taken it from you."

(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: communism; leftists; liberalism; marxism; redistribution; socialism
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More community organizing through our colleges.

FUBO!!

1 posted on 03/06/2011 4:48:20 AM PST by mmanager
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To: mmanager

“Do the rich deserve what they get? “
*********************
***************************

Yeh, eventually, like the rest of...us...


2 posted on 03/06/2011 4:51:36 AM PST by gunnyg ("A Constitution changed from Freedom, can never be restored; Liberty, once lost, is lost forever...)
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To: mmanager
"professor of social welfare at Washington University"

LOL

Another "intellectual", with a Doctorate in "social welfare". Where could this person get a REAL job? IF it were not for political correctness and race-baiting, he'd be un-employed.....


3 posted on 03/06/2011 4:51:43 AM PST by traditional1 ("Don't gotsta worry 'bout no mo'gage, don't gotsta worry 'bout no gas; Obama gonna take care o' me!)
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To: mmanager
As a professor of social welfare at Washington University, he's considered a top academic expert on that topic and social justice...

... in other words, a communist.

4 posted on 03/06/2011 4:53:14 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer (The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.)
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To: mmanager
Jesus taught that the poor will always be with us. I don't need any other lessons in the subject or lectures from an "expert" in social "justice" (who probably got quite rich in being this) to provide further clarification.

No matter what we as a society can do, the notion that some poverty-free utopia can exist on Earth is folly.

5 posted on 03/06/2011 5:02:41 AM PST by pnh102 (Regarding liberalism, always attribute to malice what you think can be explained by stupidity. - Me)
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To: pnh102

well said.


6 posted on 03/06/2011 5:05:13 AM PST by NewLand (semi-retired FReeper from 20th century)
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To: mmanager

Tell ya what...everybody on FR send me $100 and I’ll get back to you all with my findings.....:)


7 posted on 03/06/2011 5:05:20 AM PST by Salamander (I may be lonely but I'm never alone...and the nights may pass me by......but I never cry.)
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To: mmanager

“My point is, the social ills that are the result of having a low income are not because other people have more,” he says. “It’s because those at the bottom don’t have enough income. The resource pie is not fixed.”

Its about envy and greed - wanting something that someone else worked for.

I live in what the government calls “poverty” and I have everything I need. Home with AC, cars, Mp3 player, computer, internet, cable TV.

Good grief - I don’t want money from someone else - I have too much pride and independence.

I do not want to be beholden to anyone.


8 posted on 03/06/2011 5:05:27 AM PST by 30Moves
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To: mmanager

Here's another way of thinking about what they deserve: In 1980, the average CEO earned around 42 times what the average worker earned. Today, the average CEO earns over 400 times that.

Now are you going to make the argument that today's CEO is 10 times better than the average CEO in the past? I don't think so. We have been rewarding only the top end. So basically all the economic gains over the last 30 years have been concentrated at the top 20 percent — and really the top five and one percent of household incomes. There's a really skewed picture. It goes against the sense of America's strength being a strong middle class. What we're doing is hollowing out the middle class.

One could ask the question: Has rewarding the upper management to such an extent produced greater wealth for the nation in a proportional ratio?

Some will say yes. Some say no. While thinking about it remember - you can blame the government but show me where the captains of industry and corporations have united to fight government's overbearance and taxation?

Instead those same people give to both sides of the aisle attempting to buy exemptions.

When will all of these supposedly conservative boards of corporations stand and say, "Enough. We can't compete carrying the weight of regulations and taxes. Either stop it or we all leave."

9 posted on 03/06/2011 5:09:30 AM PST by raybbr (People who still support Obama are either a Marxist or a moron.)
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To: mmanager

I’m sure this professor of “social justice” makes 4 times more than the average American.

Let’s take his “wealth” and redistribute it.

And what in blazes is a professor of “social justice?”

Is that the name of the last person who exits the circus clown car?

It’s way past time to fire dopes like this. If universities don’t have the brains to stop giving useless degrees to chowderheads, then it’s time to shut down the entire university and start over.


10 posted on 03/06/2011 5:12:09 AM PST by sergeantdave (The democrat party is a seditious organization and must be outlawed)
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To: 30Moves
Its about envy and greed - wanting something that someone else worked for.

Isn't that what it really comes down to--doing as little work possible for maximum payoff?

11 posted on 03/06/2011 5:14:22 AM PST by randog (Tap into America!)
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To: raybbr
CEO compensation in some cases--failing companies, CEOs with golden parachutes--appear obscene. If that cash had gone into product development/refinement, or improved productivity, I suspect a lot of businesses no longer with us or operating overseas would still be here making profits and employing Americans.

My point is not about envy. It is about making good business decisions in the long term, not just for the financially well being of what often are short-terms CEOS.
12 posted on 03/06/2011 5:15:38 AM PST by Nepeta
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To: mmanager
As you have greater inequality, you have a greater and greater risk of distorting democracy. If only a small group of people hold more and more resources and money, they're really able to put a lot of pressure on the system to play out their agenda alone. So widening inequality really is detrimental to the principles of democracy.

Hmmmm. I think this is MORE than offset by the Attorney General of the United States identifying a specific ethnic group as "his people".

Yeah, the rich have a certain amount of access and influence due to their money and position, but the AG's "people" have power at the point of government guns. The parasite class have the power to rob the rich of more and more "tax" money, and have the AG's hired guns (also paid for by the "rich")to take it.

Holder has got to go.

13 posted on 03/06/2011 5:21:20 AM PST by PalmettoMason (It's easy being a menace to society when WAY OVER half the population is happy being sheep.)
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To: mmanager

Envy - the Democrat Party’s best friend.


14 posted on 03/06/2011 5:23:42 AM PST by badgerlandjim
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To: Nepeta
CEO compensation in some cases--failing companies, CEOs with golden parachutes--appear obscene. If that cash had gone into product development/refinement, or improved productivity, I suspect a lot of businesses no longer with us or operating overseas would still be here making profits and employing Americans.

You are correct. I have also made that point in other threads. I should have included in my original post.

Constantly skimming the profit off the top leaves a whole lot less for the actual corporation.

This was the reason my former employer closed: Taxation, regulation and NEVER putting any money back into the operation of the place. But. The top management still continued to pull down multi-million dollar bonuses.

15 posted on 03/06/2011 5:26:47 AM PST by raybbr (People who still support Obama are either a Marxist or a moron.)
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To: 30Moves
I live in what the government calls “poverty” and I have everything I need. Home with AC, cars, Mp3 player, computer, internet, cable TV.

Most of the people who live off the taxpayer teat have it far better than that and yet they still complain. You'd think that being "freed" from having the responsibility of paying for rent/mortgage, food, clothing, transportation and health care would make these parasites happy.

16 posted on 03/06/2011 5:27:52 AM PST by pnh102 (Regarding liberalism, always attribute to malice what you think can be explained by stupidity. - Me)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
As a professor of social welfare at Washington University, he's considered a top academic expert on that topic and social justice...

... in other words, a communist.

A communist with The St Louis Post Disgrace as a mouth piece.

17 posted on 03/06/2011 5:32:49 AM PST by TYVets (Pure-Gas.org ..... ethanol free gasoline by state and city)
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To: pnh102

As Rush told a caller last week, sure he makes alot of money but he gives more to charity and pays more in taxes in one year than shlubs like the professor makes in their lifetime. Without the rich giving to charities the poor would be even poorer. The rich already redistribute their wealth but it’s on their terms, not some social planners.


18 posted on 03/06/2011 5:34:29 AM PST by Russ (Repeal the 17th amendment)
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To: 30Moves
Its about envy and greed - wanting something that someone else worked for.

About envy:

Theft, destruction, murder, war, and voting Democrat are all fundamentally motivated by envy.

Greed is really an extreme form of envy. Leftists get caught up in greed far more than others. When someone accuses another of being greedy, they are usually projecting their own feelings of envy.

The evil goal of envy is not to compete and earn what someone else has, but to spoil, destroy, and ban them from having it.

When the emotion of envy transitions into action, it becomes hate. Envy and hate are closely related.

19 posted on 03/06/2011 5:35:04 AM PST by Reeses
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

He took a minor in Envy.


20 posted on 03/06/2011 5:35:24 AM PST by Eric in the Ozarks (Go Hawks !)
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