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Forget the reasons or spins on them: is this not shocking in a land of ballyhooed equality?
Does this represent, truly, the differences in all the factors that possibly could factor into a result of this magnitude?
I'd argue that working on strategies to bring these numbers more into alignment should be a major goal of our collectives selves.
160 years after slavery officially was ended, this astounding disparity shouldn't exist.
Follow Ups:
Equality of OPPORTUNITY is, or should be the goal,
NOT
Equality of OUTCOME
Too much is never enough
...should employment income be taxed more than passive investment income?
Helps the rich get richer...
So they can buy more people in congress to change the tax laws further in their favor.
I don't have the exact #s at my disposal. they are buried in a spreadsheet i accumulated when I was researching this, and related issues.
For Example: The Wealthiest 5% of taxpayers, pay something like 85% of ALL taxes. Those are not the exact numbers, but a very representitive of the 'facts'. The lowest income 'Fifth' (20%) pay very little if any NET tax.
Is the tax code up for sale every couple years? No question about it. But, the WHOLE THING is driven by government spending. Gov. at all levels, and particularly the FEDS, spend a huge total. Last firm numbers I had totaled to about 13000$ per person, per year. Crazy.
The governement is also clearly involved with items not strictly authorized by the Constitution. The 9th and 10th amendments CLEARLY limit Federal Power.
I would love it if Obama, who sponsered the Simpson Bowles Commission had actually LISTENED to some of the recommendations from that group.
And speaking of the FED, theirs a REAL arguement for you!
One other point. How BIG a check to you think a Very Wealth Person could write as a %age of net worth? Very small, I'd wager. The point is that most of the 'excess wealth' is tied up and while it IS making money for the principle holder, it is also creating jobs and wealth and infrastructure for everyone else. High taxes on that kind of money and income will result in LESS of it available for loans and business growth.
Too much is never enough
truly Free Market.
Until our Elderly voters acknowledge that their bootstraps were provided by the US Gov't (in the '50s thru '80s), we're going to continue this neo-gilded age.
Central's own Uninformed Circle Jerk.
At the request of the Moderators,
This space has been deleted
...glad to see you jerking.
.
Looks like you're getting your wish with the decline of unions and concentration of wealth in an ever shrinking percentage. Or perhaps you mean a "truly Free Market" isn't such a good thing?
Don't tell anyone, but yes: if anyone in the Middle Class longs for the return of a truly free market, they don't know their history.
The first half of the book, "Flags of our Fathers" provides an excellent thumbnail sketch of working life in America in the '30s/'40's before Unions and Gov't investment.
It's just bizarre to me that the generation that benefited the most from Socialism...thinks they "built it themselves."
popularity: he went after the Robber Barons. Note what they were called. Not "great entrepreneurs." They weren't venerated, genuflected to like the wealthy are today.
Fact is, there is NO such thing as laissez-faire. Railroad, shipping, oil, real estate--- pretty much all the areas of the greatest of wealth accumulation in early America were the result of government "interference" in the economy. Left to its own, of course, a group of competitive people would accomplish nothing. Only a government can instill order, rules, and allow for a fairer game. It wasn't the government that demanded to increase banking rules: it was the banks themselves that were collapsing left-and-right years ago.
... Your prose is a great over simplification of what actually happened but I can't disagree with the principle element of your comments.
Smile
Sox
Please pass my humble recommendation along to the boys at Green Door, except don't tell the creepy ex-alcoholic.
The final stage of a truly free market economy is called feudalism.
All the middle class people who are in favour of a free market are essentially cutting off the economic branch they themselves are sitting on.
d
... Something you excel at.
Smile
Sox
"In 2011, about one in four American Indians and Alaska Natives1 (26.4 percent) lived in poverty. In contrast, about one in 10 non-Hispanic whites (11 percent) lived in poverty (U.S. Census Bureau 2013). Not surprisingly, the Native American population is a relatively low-wealth population. In 2000, Native Americans’ median wealth was equal to only 8.7 percent of the median wealth among all Americans (Chang 2010, 14). For most Americans, a home is a key source of wealth. Native Americans, however, have a significantly lower homeownership rate than whites, and the homes they do own tend to be worth much less than those of whites (Insight Center for Community Economic Development 2009, 1)."
So, is there something similarly negative about Native-Americans, by dint of their "culture?"
Perhaps, just perhaps, could it be that when people from such different cultures fail to thrive at such an alarming level--- it may have something to do with their history, with the centuries of oppression? Again, it isn't germane to doing something about it.
The reason I didn't want to get into the reasons, as opposed to solutions, is that (as can be seen from those first who responded---some of whom prefer to use racist terms and laugh off concerns as "politically correctness") the discussion then becomes racist very quickly.
The problems of minorities all are similar: in Germany, the Portuguese and Turkish workers are characterized in similar ways to minorities here: lazy, unmotivated, "not like us."
Anyone here ever been to Turkey or Portugal? Suffice to say the opinions of many Germans are racist, having no basis in fact.
Edits: 12/18/14
Again, you stated: "Forget the reasons".
Again, I ask "Why?" Why forget the reasons?
give away all your wealth and take yourself out of the equation. Obviously you are guilty.
I don't know about the 'take yourself out' part, but 'give away everything you have' seems a reasonable way to help cure the world's woes.Maybe George Soros, Warren Buffett, Barbra Streisand, Diane Feinstein, Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey (never mind, she's Black, so it's ok), George Clooney, Martha Stewart, Matt Lauer, Bill Moyers, Joe Biden, John Kerry, etc., etc., would be willing to join Tinear's "Give It ALL Away!" movement.
:)
Edits: 12/19/14
I'd add Michael Moore to the list.
And, I'd get Al Sharpton to PAY HIS TAXES.
Too much is never enough
I purposefully stated the goal was to suggest how to improve a disgraceful situation.
It is obvious that the subject of race is a no-starter with more than a few here.
It is amusing to recall how the Irish, Germans, and E. Europeans were characterized when they arrived here in the 19th century. Indistinguishable insults from those today leveled against African-Americans.
What's the difference?
The Irish, being white, faced primarily ECONOMIC prejudice. Racism, per se, wasn't a factor. Still, many Irish did change their surnames, making them English.
Different culture amongst black people and white people. I am a wasp I seen black brothers who I know live for the now. While I am paranoid of getting laid off and I want to retire early. Black brothers I know my age chase tail, I invest and worry constantly about my future. I do not live for the now.
Although you can't label every black person as the same, however the black people I know spend everything they got as soon as they make it. And I am talking about black brothers making 6 figures.
"Forget the reasons...".
Why?
and now, LOL, said Middle/Lower Class Caucasians **are** the very Poor whom they hated.
Bullshit.
Quite to the contrary, the reasons are critically essential.
If an amplifier has insufficient current available, the only way to improve it is to know the REASON.
If a loudspeaker has an overly-bright high end, the only way to fix it is to know the REASON.
If Caucasian-American 'A' makes 10x more than Caucasian-American 'B', there is a REASON.
> If Caucasian-American 'A' makes 10x more than Caucasian-American 'B', there is a REASON.>
Sometimes the reason is simply being in the right place at the right time when an opportunity is handed to you - like Bill Gates, one of the world's richest men.
Otherwise the "reasons" are very complex.
Uh huh....
The Caucasian Middle Class has lost or is losing all the hard-won "Welfare" (er..."worker rights") that once masked the "sins" we typically attribute only to the Poor, whether it be laziness, outmoded skills, drug/sex abuse, inconvenient pregnancies, etc.
The more we adapt Free Market policies, the less "superior" we're going to look as Caucasians, and I suspect that there will be a change in voting patterns.
You can see your future self if you simply observe life in the pre '40s.
"The Caucasian Middle Class has lost or is losing all the hard-won "Welfare" (er..."worker rights") that once masked the "sins" we typically attribute only to the Poor, whether it be laziness, outmoded skills, drug/sex abuse, inconvenient pregnancies, etc. "
You really ought to run for Senator or something, 'cause that sentence sounds great but doesn't say anything.
In any case, the reasons are not moot, they're critical.
sorry, you aren't interested in an honest discussion. I'll pass.
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