Income Inequality

[jbird4049]

My personal experience with The Poor has left me unhopeful. Perhaps yours has been better?

This is America, I'm more concerned that people who have pushed for the Bass Ring get a taste.

The Poor is not a condition, it's a state-of-mind. Not having money does not relate to not having ambition, but being The Poor does.

The poor often become The Poor when they get kicked in the teeth once too often. Using my family, and their friends, as examples as being merely the poor. One side actually owned a bank, richest people I think in the county. And then came the Great Depression. Or the members who lost everything from the Luftwaffe. Or the friends who came from working class from the same time. Or the not so extreme cases of family elsewhere in the country. After the the Great Depression and Second World War and into the 60s we were a sorry lot. But there were plenty of chances, and as my Dad said about him, and Mom, they knew, or felt enough to keep it together and keep trying until they succeeded.

But where are the cheap housing near orchards, and canneries, and good schools, and excellent cheap colleges? Or the unionized factories, or the companies like Hewlett-Packard that would take ex-marines and give them a life long career? Or government programs that takes a working mother, pays(gives) a nursing degree and a job?

Just about every path my family and their friends took either no longer exists or is much much muchharder, much less forgiving of mistakes. Aside from the willingness to work and an abundance of chances, there is nothing different from them and poor people today. Well except for all the economic winds in their sails.

If my screwball family, and their friends, were transported to today, they would probably, almost certainly, remain poor, or working class.

I saw a guy posting into this forum just a few days ago; working 3 jobs, long shifts, minimum wage, no money, lots of ambition. I didn't consider him poor. Were your relatives poorer than that?

Opportunities to get something from that hard work? And the minimum wage in 1968 was around $10.80 in today's dollars with housing much cheaper.

For a while the ex-bankers were all living in a car, and on the road. Of course, a lot of other people back then were living a suddenly more mobile lifestyle, too. While they were reduced to bank clerks, farm workers, canneries, and other menial work, after the war, their children got the almost free education,' or just got hired even without a degree. Even with the "right" degrees people can have trouble now.

[jbird4049]

How many doctors and/or lawyers have a wealth of more than a million. I bet a lot in the US.

One reason btw, why health care costs are so high in the US:

Two reasons for that. A government supported cartel that limits the number of new doctors, and the insane amounts of student debt they have to pay off.

Yeah, it's a racket. My year there were 16,000 M.D. graduates that couldn't get Residencies. My degree cost something like a half-million dollars when you factor in Opportunity Cost. Huge scam, other nations don't do this shit.

16,000? I knew there were artificial limits, but that's nuts. There are swaths of states that don't hardly have doctors.

[Martin Hash]

Yeah, worse, it doesn't take brainiacs to be doctors, like engineers for example, but the pay & prestige is a lot higher, so bright people become doctors for the wrong reasons.

p.s. I'd know.

[Martin Hash]

The Poor stay poor. People who are "temporarily embarrassed millionaires" aren't poor.

[Montegriffo]

.......... like when?

1776. kill yourself.

Huh... hey Monte, was the 18th century British economy Socialist in nature? First I've heard of it, you fuckin Commie.

West Indies company was obviously handing out equal wages and stuff, and that goofy King George just couldn't stop with the handouts, amirite?

Oh yeah, we were rocking socialism 90 years before Das Kapital came out. That's why we overthrew the monarchy, became a republic, redistributed the wealth of the aristocracy and became a classless society.
Well known for it, I'm surprised you had to ask.
Power to the people!

[Okeefenokee]

Is that ad hominem, or a compliment?

"Income inequality," "wealth inequality," any kind of "inequality" other than equal protection under the law is bumper-sticker sophomore year sloganeering. Meaningless hooey. People do seem to lap it up and beg for more though, so it has that going for it.

I think that most people would satisfied with a level playing field. What pisses people of is that it right now is is slanted towards those who have, away from those who don't. They own the legislature and they have all the benefits.

I believe that is why Trump was elected. The old gang has no trust capital left.

In truly socialist countries like mine used to be, people wouldn't be satisfied with a level playing field but wanted the rich taken down. The US is no where near that kind of thinking. A fair break is what most Americans want. No more and no less.

Bam! Right there! Thank you!

You already have an even playing field. You don't live under Saddam's Baath party, and you look like a squalling infant with this asinine attempt to pretend as though you do. There are no laws saying poor people aren't allowed to go to college. There are no bars to employment in high paying jobs for people who aren't affiliated with the correct clique.

But please, continue on with your incessant whining and bitching about how bad it is that you have so little opportunity. It's pretty much the same as Cuba under Castro out there, amiright? Let's make some signs and have a protest.

[SuburbanFarmer]

I think that most people would satisfied with a level playing field. What pisses people of is that it right now is is slanted towards those who have, away from those who don't. They own the legislature and they have all the benefits.

I believe that is why Trump was elected. The old gang has no trust capital left.

In truly socialist countries like mine used to be, people wouldn't be satisfied with a level playing field but wanted the rich taken down. The US is no where near that kind of thinking. A fair break is what most Americans want. No more and no less.

Bam! Right there! Thank you!

You already have an even playing field. You don't live under Saddam's Baath party, and you look like a squalling infant with this asinine attempt to pretend as though you do. There are no laws saying poor people aren't allowed to go to college. There are no bars to employment in high paying jobs for people who aren't affiliated with the correct clique.

But please, continue on with your incessant whining and bitching about how bad it is that you have so little opportunity. It's pretty much the same as Cuba under Castro out there, amiright? Let's make some signs and have a protest.

I'm pretty sure that there's some sort of middle ground between living under Castro or Sadaam, and egalitarian utopia.... or is that binary in your head?

[TheReal_ND]

At least Hitler made the trains run on time :snicker:

[jbird4049]

At least Hitler made the trains run on time :snicker:

It was the Italians under Mussolini that made that claim. The Germans never had that problem.

[jbird4049]

Bam! Right there! Thank you!

You already have an even playing field. You don't live under Saddam's Baath party, and you look like a squalling infant with this asinine attempt to pretend as though you do. There are no laws saying poor people aren't allowed to go to college. There are no bars to employment in high paying jobs for people who aren't affiliated with the correct clique.

But please, continue on with your incessant whining and bitching about how bad it is that you have so little opportunity. It's pretty much the same as Cuba under Castro out there, amiright? Let's make some signs and have a protest.

I'm pretty sure that there's some sort of middle ground between living under Castro or Sadaam, and egalitarian utopia.... or is that binary in your head?

Careful there. Nuance can be difficult for some.