Comments on: For Average Joes, Mixed Feelings On Wealth

Debate Over "Spread The Wealth Around" Comment Reveals Complicated (And Contradictory) Feelings

[boosterprez1]

Homespunlady:

Life and success are all about CHOICES....merely stating that you have an MBA doesn''t tell the whole story, does it? In your educational trek, what route did you choose? Was it a route that would later prove lucrative? Was it in a field that was hungry for graduates?

Simply getting an education may not be enough. Again, it is often about the choices we make for ourselves. And I disagree with the "it''s who you know" mentality....A majority of the billionaires in the world are self-made, many of them high school and college dropouts...but they had dreams and they had ideas....what ideas did you profer?

I suggest that it is YOU who is not being truthful...

You should really see the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness" with Will Smith...a great movie that dispels the notion that Big Brother is necessary to get ahead in life...

[andor3]

or to look at it another way, the middle class has been the economic engine of the USA in modern times, a bridge between the top and bottom of the scale, and the driver of the American dream and culture. Focusing on the health (or lack of) in the middle class is a smart economic strategy. Obama gets it.

[homespunlady]

There is no incentive to get ahead in life if, instead, government will hand you what you lack...without incentive, there is no progress....without progress, no national wealth...
Posted by boosterprez1 at 01:28 PM : Oct 25, 2008


So HOW can you reconcile that idea with GWB?

THAT man has "LIVED OFF THE GOVERNMENT", FAMILY and "friends" all his life.

although your description DOES have SOME truth - King George has DEFINITELY arranged for this nation to have "no national wealth"...

[andor3]

"It is not the governments job to make everyone wealthy...it is ONLY their job to make OPPORTUNITY available to everyone...and that they have done!"

No, the evidence is clear the opportunity and motivation is not well distributed in America now. When wealth is generated, it is done through government policy. The distribution of that wealth is determined by government policy. When rich people get richer and the middle class shrinks and loses all motivation to contribute, the policy is broken and the economy will (correction: did) crash. Policy must be fixed: good regulation sets the framework.

[homespunlady]

Posted by boosterprez1 at 01:28 PM : Oct 25, 2008

I''m sitting here having gotten TOP State scholarship that I couldn''t use since my parents had NO money to send me and the scholarship didn''t cover expenses even AFTER I put in a full shift plus overtime in addition to my college - so I joined the military.

It took decades between assignments but I FINALLY got college degrees up through an MBA.

I believed in HONESTY, ETHICS, FAITH and "playing by the rules.

Know what I got for all that? POVERTY

You just aren''t TELLING THE TRUTH.
The REAL way the WEALTHY get there is CONNECTIONS -either through family, "friends", "associates", or "social organizations" such as fraternity/sorority, Masonic type or "special relationships".

This has led to corruption and a SHRINKING of the power base that is the "hidden" true route. Without that knowledge of "it''s not WHAT you Know but WHO YOU KNOW"; all the "hard work" you espouse is useless.

A growing majority are not falling for your delusion of "blame the victim" anymore.

That''s WHY there''s a growing push for MORE UNIONIZATION, MORE grouping together of health-care responsibility without the AIG type "middlemen", MORE emphasis on REAL education, etc.

If you''re idea was correct this nation would NOT be SHELLING OUT 5 to 10 TRILLION to BAIL OUT your beloved "hard working" FINANCIAL FAT CATS!

[boosterprez1]

It is not the government''s job to make everyone wealthy...it is ONLY their job to make OPPORTUNITY available to everyone...and that they have done!

The key word in the key phrase of this article:

"The top tenth of U.S. households now EARN an average of 11.2 times what those in the bottom tenth make, according to the Census Bureau."

They earn it...it is not given to them....and everyone has that same opportunity.

There''s no doubt that an assembly line worker works just as hard in eight hours as a CEO of a Fortune 500 company...but what effort, what risk, what investment did they each make?

The assembly line worker likely graduated from high school and went to work. The CEO excelled in school, went on to 4-7 years of college, where he/she also excelled and earned a spot within a company, working their way up the ladder. The risk, the effort, the investment of higher education made that climb possible.

Why should people be given rewards for little effort in getting ahead?

There is no incentive to get ahead in life if, instead, government will hand you what you lack...without incentive, there is no progress....without progress, no national wealth...

[homespunlady]

This was an interesting bit of statistics cited on Bill Moyer''s Journal:

"the 30-nation Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development - or OECD - is out this week with a new report on global gaps between rich and poor. Guess which great industrial nation had the fourth highest inequality in incomes - behind Mexico, Turkey and Portugal? Right. Us.

Here''s precisely what the report says: "Rich households in America have been leaving both middle and poorer income groups behind. This has happened in many countries but nowhere has this trend been so stark as in the United States." Now there''''s some real spreading around of the wealth - in one direction: up."

To Check out the report I believe this will get you there:

http://www.oecd.org/els/social/inequality

[misha128-2009]

Choose the candidate and choose the means you desire to distribute wealth. McCain offers welfare=like refundable credits for health insurance even available to those that do not work and Obama chooses to concentrate revised tax rate decreases to the middle class. You get wealth redistribution with wither candidate.