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| Wealth Inequality in America | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Mar 5 2013, 12:13 PM (407 Views) | |
| tomdrobin | Mar 5 2013, 12:13 PM Post #1 |
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Fire & Ice Senior Diplomat
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This YouTube Video Explains it quite clearly. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKKQnijnsM |
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| Banandangees | Mar 5 2013, 07:49 PM Post #2 |
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Fire & Ice Senior Diplomat
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The orator said something about "all people needing to work and work hard." I suppose he meant in school (education), in family life (parenting), in government (efficient/non-wasting). No doubt certain folks are over paid: CEOs (most didn't usually build the company they work for) Athletes (compare the pay of ARod with Mantle or Maris) Hollywood (they're actors for God sake.... not real contributors) Gates and Buffets .... investors... not much sweat there But, I do believe in incentive. If dangling a compensation carrot produces good, ethical, hard working increase in production (that makes companies grow resulting in more jobs for more people), then that person has earned his/her increased compensation over the average. I have no problem with increased effort and job dedication resulting in "growth" bringing more wealth to that person. Edited by Banandangees, Mar 5 2013, 07:51 PM.
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| Mountainrivers | Mar 5 2013, 08:46 PM Post #3 |
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Fire & Ice Senior Diplomat
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I think most people would agree with you Ban. But that's not the point of the video. Wealth has been concentrated in the hands of a relative few at the expense of the many. The video didn't say it but that is a recipe for disaster eventually. The fact that most people don't have enough money to buy the products and services that they produce, means the economy will suffer along with the people and eventually the people will revolt. Neither of those things are acceptable, so redistribution is necessary at some point. |
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| Banandangees | Mar 5 2013, 09:50 PM Post #4 |
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Fire & Ice Senior Diplomat
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Greater efforts must be made by government to allow businesses to grow and flourish so that people do have opportunity to work at some level rather than just "spread the wealth" as an answer. That effort would take many various forms from local to global. Throwing money at education when all we've thrown at it to date has not grown well educated young people, when compared to other nations, is futile without doing sincere studies by independent sources to identify whey our education system has failed.... as compared to other better student educated nations. Perhaps identification of all the reasons and taking steps to correct those reasons would do it's own part in self wealth distribution instead of government nanny care distribution. Take steps that reduce government dependency. Weigh the downside of easing some government business regulation against the growing dependency because of lack of work opportunity. What I'm saying is that government should exhaust every effort of negotiation and compromise to increase our own national economy to reduce the wealth gap by available opportunity. Can we say that there is government leadership to that end existing today. This is what Chris Christie has recently said about our present national government leadership: (watch/listen to the entire video.... I think he is "dead on balls accurate.") "I don't have the first damn idea what they're doing down there! |
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| Mountainrivers | Mar 5 2013, 10:01 PM Post #5 |
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Fire & Ice Senior Diplomat
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I've come to like Christie since he first appeared on the national scene as a big-mouth fat ass know-it-all. He says what he thinks and he has some good ideas. However, I think it's much easier to talk the talk than it is to walk the walk so to speak. I agree we need to alter our education system so that we are teaching kids what they want to learn rather than what the administrators want them to learn. Not knocking a well-rounded education, but what good does reading Shakespeare do for a kid who only wants to work on cars? We do have some good schools and our universities are the best in the world, so I'm told. I keep hearing that regulation reduces work opportunity, but I haven't seen any evidence to support that. Technology is the biggest driver of loss of jobs, imo. There doesn't seem to be any solution for that. When greedy businessmen require employees to work longer hours in order for the boss to make more money, it eliminates the need to hire additional workers. So, I would ask you what you think the government can do, short of hiring people itself, to entice businesses to hire more people? |
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| tomdrobin | Mar 5 2013, 11:49 PM Post #6 |
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Fire & Ice Senior Diplomat
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The progressive era post WWII was a really golden era when the country invested in it's people, in infrastructure and in science and technology. High taxes on the wealthy paid for most of it. Some of the wealthy didn't like that, and set about to change public policy by promoting the limited government message. We have been on that track for the last 30 years, with continuing tax cuts skewed toward the wealthy and a constant push for deregulation. The evidence is right there to see, it has not worked very well. The economy works better when everyone has the opportunity to participate fully, and government invests in the future. And, the only way to do that is to insist that those who have done extremely well support the system. Some are too short sighted and greedy to realize no one benefits from wealth inequality. |
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| Mountainrivers | Mar 5 2013, 11:50 PM Post #7 |
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| Pat | Mar 6 2013, 12:42 AM Post #8 |
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There is an old parable and modern take that goes like this. If you take $100 and divide it equally among ten people, within short order, most of it will end up in the hands of one, a lessor amount in another and some in a third---diminishing as you go until a few have nothing. this is after all have started on an even playing field. We are not all born with the same drive, ambition, brains and dreams. And luck generally sways to towards those who are. I think it might have some genetics involved, but it is there. About the best you can do is remove all unfair advantages in the system, and then turn them loose. Regardless of even or uneven, if you redistribute, it will all come back around anyway. It's just the way it is, like the fate of an apple turned loose from the branch. It falls downward every time, and depending on a few outside influences. the projection is straight down. |
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| Sea Dog | Mar 6 2013, 12:47 AM Post #9 |
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So, Pat, are you an advocate of the animal kingdom, where if the litter is larger than the number of teats, the weakest simply starve? |
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| Mountainrivers | Mar 6 2013, 01:01 AM Post #10 |
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"We are not all born with the same drive, ambition, brains and dreams. And luck generally sways to towards those who are. I think it might have some genetics involved, but it is there." Precisely why we need occasional redistribution. It's the folks not born with those attributes or attained through environment, who do most of the heavy lifting, and they get little reward for their efforts, although we can't do without them. |
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