Liberals War on Wealthy: A Quagmire!

Mojo said:
From 2007: "An article in The Washington Times alerted me to research from 6th November by Michael Franc at The Heritage Foundation. Mr Franc shows that the wealthiest Americans are increasingly likely to vote Democrat:

"Democrats now control the majority of the nation's wealthiest congressional jurisdictions. More than half of the wealthiest households are concentrated in the 18 states where Democrats control both Senate seats. This new political demography holds true in the House of Representatives, where the leadership of each party hails from different worlds. Nancy Pelosi, Democratic leader of the House of Representatives, represents one of America's wealthiest regions. Her San Francisco district has more than 43,700 high-end households. Fewer than 7,000 households in the western Ohio district of House Republican leader John Boehner enjoy this level of affluence."


http://britainandamerica.typepad.com/britain_and_america/2007/11/richer-american.html
Click to expand...

Yes we are aware of that it is nothing new.
 
Dixie said:
All the blood, treasure, sweat and tears, invested by pinhead liberals who have waged all-out war on the rich, and for what? Well of course, it's to benefit politically from it. It is through class warfare, the democrats seek to tap into the jealous emotions of those who are the "have-nots" in society. It's easy to charge these emotions with rhetoric, because a vast majority of Americans have been raised without manners or respect for others, they really have no moral foundation, so it's easy to blame all your problems on someone else. There isn't much spiritual foundation left, so the notion of coveting your neighbor's things, never enters their warped little minds.

Class warfare is nothing new, it has gone on for centuries as a means of shaping politics, and for the better part of the past century, has been the most frequently used tool of the socialist progressives. We continue to see it deployed daily, as the liberals attempt to pull a few more over to the dark side. Why do they do it? Because it works! The ignorant, gullible, and dumb, will ultimately be on the front-line of this war. Leading the charge to hate the wealthy, soak the rich, redistribute the wealth in the name of social justice!

I can't recall who said it, but it was a noted economist of the time, he said, if you took all of the wealth of the world and equally distributed it out to every man, woman, and child across the board, that within 20 years, relatively the same disproportional gaps in class would exist again. It is part of the human condition, some men strive for prosperity more than others. Some people have more drive and ambition than others, we are not all equal in our levels of motivation, or need for accomplishment. People who have amassed great wealth, are very good at making money, they would again make good money. Subsequently, those who are not very wise with the coin, would soon find themselves the "victim of misfortune" again. In 20 years, everyone is right back to where they started from.

What does this all mean? Well, it means there can never be an end to the War on The Rich! It's a quagmire, like Vietnam and Iraq! Even if the above-noted scenario were to somehow come to fruition, there would still be liberals clamoring for some restriction on the money-smart people! It's not fair that HE comes up with all the great ways to make a fortune, and I DON'T! So... the Class War would continue. It's not a winnable war, or a war that can have a satisfactory conclusion. Just another endless quagmire, orchestrated for the sole purpose of advancing socialism.
Click to expand...

You may know it, but it seems not everyone does.
 
cawacko said:
Without any comparisons what are we suppose to take away from those numbers? Obviously the top 5% increased the amount of their holdings but is it a zero sum game where the middle class must lose?
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The middle class has been shrinking, and mostly over the last 30 years.

slide_9163_121657_large.jpg


(This chart, from UC-Berkeley professor Emmanuel Saez, shows income inequality is at an all-time high.)

• 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.
• 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
• 66 percent of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.
• 36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything to retirement savings.
• A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.
• 24 percent of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.
• Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008.
• Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.
• For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.
• In 1950, the ratio of the average executive's paycheck to the average worker's paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.
• As of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.
• The bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
• Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.
• In the United States, the average federal worker now earns 60% MORE than the average worker in the private sector.
• The top 1 percent of U.S. households own nearly twice as much of America's corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.
• In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks.
• More than 40 percent of Americans who actually are employed are now working in service jobs, which are often very low paying.
• or the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million Americans in 2011.
• This is what American workers now must compete against: in China a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour and in Cambodia a garment worker makes approximately 22 cents an hour.
• Approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years.
• Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009.
• The top 10 percent of Americans now earn around 50 percent of our national income.

http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/the-u.s.-middle-class-is-being-wiped-out-here%27s-the-stats-to-prove-it-520657.html?tickers=^DJI,^GSPC,SPY,MCD,WMT,XRT,DIA
 
christiefan915 said:
The middle class has been shrinking, and mostly over the last 30 years.

slide_9163_121657_large.jpg


(This chart, from UC-Berkeley professor Emmanuel Saez, shows income inequality is at an all-time high.)

• 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.
• 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
• 66 percent of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.
• 36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything to retirement savings.
• A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.
• 24 percent of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.
• Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008.
• Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.
• For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.
• In 1950, the ratio of the average executive's paycheck to the average worker's paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.
• As of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.
• The bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
• Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.
• In the United States, the average federal worker now earns 60% MORE than the average worker in the private sector.
• The top 1 percent of U.S. households own nearly twice as much of America's corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.
• In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks.
• More than 40 percent of Americans who actually are employed are now working in service jobs, which are often very low paying.
• or the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million Americans in 2011.
• This is what American workers now must compete against: in China a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour and in Cambodia a garment worker makes approximately 22 cents an hour.
• Approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years.
• Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009.
• The top 10 percent of Americans now earn around 50 percent of our national income.

http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/the-u.s.-middle-class-is-being-wiped-out-here%27s-the-stats-to-prove-it-520657.html?tickers=^DJI,^GSPC,SPY,MCD,WMT,XRT,DIA
Click to expand...

My goodness, look at all that "emotional ammunition" for your battle! Isn't it so easy to persuade others to believe like you, when these overwhelming facts are right there for everyone to see? Again, the objective class warfare seeks to achieve is not possible, and can never be obtained. Even if we turned every one of those statistics upside down, and reversed the situation entirely, within a generation, we would be right back to where we started from. It's the human condition, it's how things are meant to be, regardless of how much we wish they could be different. You are on the front-lines of a losing battle, in a war you can never win. The Rich are NOT your enemy!
 
Dixie said:
My goodness, look at all that "emotional ammunition" for your battle! Isn't it so easy to persuade others to believe like you, when these overwhelming facts are right there for everyone to see? Again, the objective class warfare seeks to achieve is not possible, and can never be obtained. Even if we turned every one of those statistics upside down, and reversed the situation entirely, within a generation, we would be right back to where we started from. It's the human condition, it's how things are meant to be, regardless of how much we wish they could be different. You are on the front-lines of a losing battle, in a war you can never win. The Rich are NOT your enemy!
Click to expand...
No, but they aren't our friends, either and they sure do like to steal from us every chance they get!
 
Rana said:
No, but they aren't our friends, either and they sure do like to steal from us every chance they get!
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I am literally surrounded by rich liberal people. Why are they not my friends and what are they stealing from me?
 
cawacko said:
That's not wealth. Wealth are people that live on my street in $20 to $30 million homes and those are just one of the homes they own.

I'm from Ohio I know what small towns look like. Even if you make $250k/yr in a town where homes only cost $100k that doesn't make you wealthy.
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I don't think there are residential properties here even for $10 million. The Steelers might pay $2-3 million, and that's high end. It's just not that expensive to live here.

A few years ago I worked with a guy who left Pgh. and moved to San Francisco. He was contacting us with all the details of his journey across country and his experiences on arriving, and in every single call or email he said how expensive it was to live in SF.

To make a long story short, if I and many, many Pghers were making $250K a year, we'd consider ourselves wealthy. It's all relative.
 
Dixie said:
My goodness, look at all that "emotional ammunition" for your battle! Isn't it so easy to persuade others to believe like you, when these overwhelming facts are right there for everyone to see? Again, the objective class warfare seeks to achieve is not possible, and can never be obtained. Even if we turned every one of those statistics upside down, and reversed the situation entirely, within a generation, we would be right back to where we started from. It's the human condition, it's how things are meant to be, regardless of how much we wish they could be different. You are on the front-lines of a losing battle, in a war you can never win. The Rich are NOT your enemy!
Click to expand...

You're mistaking me for someone else. I never claimed the rich were my enemy. If someone wants to say that we'd be back at the starting point if the statistics were reversed, fine; however I consider that hypothesis, not fact. Using lottery winners as your example (if it was you) is meaningless. I'm pretty sure statistics show that the greatest number of ticket buyers are low-income. Rich people aren't trying to increase their wealth by playing the lottery.

Whether it's deliberate or not, you're coming across as a person who blames the poor for their problems, and thinks any social program is just another way of picking your pocket.
 
christiefan915 said:
I don't think there are residential properties here even for $10 million. The Steelers might pay $2-3 million, and that's high end. It's just not that expensive to live here.

A few years ago I worked with a guy who left Pgh. and moved to San Francisco. He was contacting us with all the details of his journey across country and his experiences on arriving, and in every single call or email he said how expensive it was to live in SF.

To make a long story short, if I and many, many Pghers were making $250K a year, we'd consider ourselves wealthy. It's all relative.
Click to expand...

I definitely agree about relativity to where one lives. I go by the Chris Rock example he gave in 1998. He said Shaquille O'Neil is rich, the white man who pays him is wealthy.

In your area someone might be able to live like a rich person on $250k but wealthy is going to have transcend neighborhoods and states.

As an aside I wonder how much athletes take into account cost of living when signing their contracts? The Steelers and 49ers could each offer a player a $10 million contract but with the state's high taxes and local high cost of living the 49ers offer would probably net the player a lot less than the Steelers offer.
 
christiefan915 said:
You're mistaking me for someone else. I never claimed the rich were my enemy. If someone wants to say that we'd be back at the starting point if the statistics were reversed, fine; however I consider that hypothesis, not fact. Using lottery winners as your example (if it was you) is meaningless. I'm pretty sure statistics show that the greatest number of ticket buyers are low-income. Rich people aren't trying to increase their wealth by playing the lottery.

Whether it's deliberate or not, you're coming across as a person who blames the poor for their problems, and thinks any social program is just another way of picking your pocket.
Click to expand...

I don't see him saying what your last sentence says. I interpret it as him saying the cream is going to rise to top no matter what you do.
 
cawacko said:
I don't see him saying what your last sentence says. I interpret it as him saying the cream is going to rise to top no matter what you do.
Click to expand...

Okay, he didn't say it directly, not in that post anyway. I'm going by what he's said in plenty of other threads.

I don't understand why he's even bringing up the term "class warfare", and I don't agree with his comment that "...liberals who have waged all-out war on the rich..." The states with the highest levels of poverty are red states so why would blue state liberals wage a war that doesn't benefit them?
 
cawacko said:
I definitely agree about relativity to where one lives. I go by the Chris Rock example he gave in 1998. He said Shaquille O'Neil is rich, the white man who pays him is wealthy.

In your area someone might be able to live like a rich person on $250k but wealthy is going to have transcend neighborhoods and states.

As an aside I wonder how much athletes take into account cost of living when signing their contracts? The Steelers and 49ers could each offer a player a $10 million contract but with the state's high taxes and local high cost of living the 49ers offer would probably net the player a lot less than the Steelers offer.
Click to expand...

Just for kicks check out these links of two houses for sale in one of our ritziest suburbs.


http://www.prudentialpreferred.com/property/index.cfm?fuseaction=propertymls&MLS=845901


http://www.prudentialpreferred.com/property/index.cfm?fuseaction=propertymls&MLS=833773
 
christiefan915 said:
Just for kicks check out these links of two houses for sale in one of our ritziest suburbs.


http://www.prudentialpreferred.com/property/index.cfm?fuseaction=propertymls&MLS=845901


http://www.prudentialpreferred.com/property/index.cfm?fuseaction=propertymls&MLS=833773
Click to expand...

That Beaver St. home looks amazing. That is pretty expensive though! It seems to have an urban feel to it.

The Blackburn house is what I envision more of the Midwest where you have a large home with lots of land at a (relatively) low price.
 
Dixie said:
All the blood, treasure, sweat and tears, invested by pinhead liberals who have waged all-out war on the rich, and for what? Well of course, it's to benefit politically from it. It is through class warfare, the democrats seek to tap into the jealous emotions of those who are the "have-nots" in society. It's easy to charge these emotions with rhetoric, because a vast majority of Americans have been raised without manners or respect for others, they really have no moral foundation, so it's easy to blame all your problems on someone else. There isn't much spiritual foundation left, so the notion of coveting your neighbor's things, never enters their warped little minds.

Class warfare is nothing new, it has gone on for centuries as a means of shaping politics, and for the better part of the past century, has been the most frequently used tool of the socialist progressives. We continue to see it deployed daily, as the liberals attempt to pull a few more over to the dark side. Why do they do it? Because it works! The ignorant, gullible, and dumb, will ultimately be on the front-line of this war. Leading the charge to hate the wealthy, soak the rich, redistribute the wealth in the name of social justice!

I can't recall who said it, but it was a noted economist of the time, he said, if you took all of the wealth of the world and equally distributed it out to every man, woman, and child across the board, that within 20 years, relatively the same disproportional gaps in class would exist again. It is part of the human condition, some men strive for prosperity more than others. Some people have more drive and ambition than others, we are not all equal in our levels of motivation, or need for accomplishment. People who have amassed great wealth, are very good at making money, they would again make good money. Subsequently, those who are not very wise with the coin, would soon find themselves the "victim of misfortune" again. In 20 years, everyone is right back to where they started from.

What does this all mean? Well, it means there can never be an end to the War on The Rich! It's a quagmire, like Vietnam and Iraq! Even if the above-noted scenario were to somehow come to fruition, there would still be liberals clamoring for some restriction on the money-smart people! It's not fair that HE comes up with all the great ways to make a fortune, and I DON'T! So... the Class War would continue. It's not a winnable war, or a war that can have a satisfactory conclusion. Just another endless quagmire, orchestrated for the sole purpose of advancing socialism.
Click to expand...

We can't afford the tax cuts.
 
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