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The Wild Ride of the Wealthiest 1%; And as go the rich, so goes much of the economy.
Topic Started: Oct 25 2011, 03:02 AM (574 Views)
campingken
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Why is it so easy to force the cons into accepting what they later claim they didn't want?
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BUCK
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This guy David Siegel has real class.

http://www.timeshareowners.info/forums/index.php?showtopic=128
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Chris
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colo_crawdad
Oct 27 2011, 09:32 PM
Speaking of the rich getting richer. . .
New Inequality Data Likely to Boost "Occupy" Movement[/urk]

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The study, released here Tuesday by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), found that the average after-tax real income of the top one percent of the nation's households grew by 275 percent between 1979 and 2007 - about seven times greater than the increase in income by the remaining 99 percent over the same period.
Given the claims o the right about the rich providing jobs, one would think that with tax breaks resulting in that, there should be absolutely no unemployment.

Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
~Mark Twain

The Top 1% vs the S&P 500
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According to a CBO report, the top 1% of income earners saw a 275% increase in their inflation-adjusted, after-tax income between 1979 and 2007.

By our quick math, that 275% increase works out to be an annualized rate of change of 4.83% over the CBO's oddly cherry-picked 28 year period from 1979 through 2007 (click the links for the years to understand why).

By contrast, our S&P 500 at Your Fingertips tool indicates that if the Top 1% had just invested their after-tax income in an S&P 500 index fund in January 1979 and then let it ride to December 2007 as the stock market peaked, fully reinvesting dividends all that time, they would have seen an inflation-adjusted, tax-free rate of return of 8.70%.


And that's without even bothering to work! If taxed at the maximum 1979 capital gains tax rate of 28%, their after-tax income would represent an annualized rate of return of 6.26% annually. Or rather, a 448% increase in their inflation-adjusted, after-tax income!*

So clearly, the Top 1% were total suckers for even bothering to put their money to work at all doing those other things they apparently did during those 28 years that pushed their effective rate of returns down. Like work!
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tomdrobin
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We often hear the term "entitlement mentality" bandied about. Most of the time it decrying the attitudes of those living of the government. Yet, the idea of entitlement isn't limited to the poor. How about those who reward themselves lavishly and pay their employees minimum wage. If you would ask them they would make a good argument why they deserves so much more. But, IMO it doesn't hold anymore water than the guy thinking the government owes him a check every month.
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Chris
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tomdrobin
Oct 29 2011, 05:10 AM
We often hear the term "entitlement mentality" bandied about. Most of the time it decrying the attitudes of those living of the government. Yet, the idea of entitlement isn't limited to the poor. How about those who reward themselves lavishly and pay their employees minimum wage. If you would ask them they would make a good argument why they deserves so much more. But, IMO it doesn't hold anymore water than the guy thinking the government owes him a check every month.
Why not, Tom? If those rich got their money by political means, OK, but if by economic means, they took the risks and earned the wealth, and those who work for them choose to do so. So why doesn't their argument hold water?
Edited by Chris, Oct 29 2011, 05:17 AM.
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tomdrobin
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If your in a position to take advantage of others, and gain from doing so, why is that any different than a powerful union extracting excessive compensation for their members?

I think it's all entitlement mentality. Most people aren't very objective regarding what they deserve relative to others, or what their worth is relative to others.
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Chris
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tomdrobin
Oct 29 2011, 05:24 AM
If your in a position to take advantage of others, and gain from doing so, why is that any different than a powerful union extracting excessive compensation for their members?

I think it's all entitlement mentality. Most people aren't very objective regarding what they deserve relative to others, or what their worth is relative to others.
"If your in a position to take advantage of others, and gain from doing so, why is that any different than a powerful union extracting excessive compensation for their members?"

The difference is the one employed economic means where all involved in exchange do so by free choice, and the other political means where some used the state's coercive powers to get what they want.


"Most people aren't very objective regarding what they deserve relative to others, or what their worth is relative to others."

And by what objective means is that determined?
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