So Who Are The 1%?

[Mulligan]

Yes. I guess, like many of you, I am in the top 1% and I feel guilty about it while reading this article.

Anyone who gives up a whole decade of their life learning the crafts of their trade, pays enormous tuition costs, pays outrageous premiums for liability insurance, and makes life and death decisions DESERVES every dollar they make. Most Americans I believe respect doctors and feel they deserve all the fruits of their labor.

 

[eridanus]

Income inequality grows, according to the CBO.

Income More Than Doubles for Top 1 Percent From 1979 - ABC News

The poor can get jobs with the cartels, though.

Mexican drug cartels recruiting 'expendable' Texas teens | khou.com Houston

 

[haha]

As a nation we are failing on so many fronts, but taxing the people who are successful even more than they are already taxed will only seal our fate. It is demagogic nonsense. Who does me more good- some incredibly rich guy who is paying a very large amount of income tax, or some of the 48% who pay no income tax? We can also hope that Warren Buffet will run his company and keep his mouth shut about his populist BS.

What we need is radically improved K-12 education- and I don't mean more money to the already hopelessly hamstrung public school system. Charter schools. Niall Ferguson has a recent Newseek article about a group of those nasty Wall Streeters who play poker and raise money to fund some Charter Schools in Harlem. Students at these schools are vastly outperforming those in nearby and more costly public schools. We mainly need people who are employable in profit-making enterprises, not more make-work. How does Germany have a very successful manufacturing sector? By making their training and education rational, not based on the fantasy that somehow smothering young people of all degrees of aptitude with the debt for a college eduation will pay off for them or the country.

We need a rational national energy policy, but since there appears to be no rational being in government, how likely is that? So far our energy policy is keeping our heads in the sand, and fantasizing about windmills and the Whole Earth Catalog. We need improvements in meaningful infrastructure. Things like a modernized higher capacity electrical grid. If peak oil flow rates do show up, we will need all the elecrical power we can get to run our Chevy Volts

We need to bring back Glass-Steagall. Pay attention to Paul Volcker while we can. He is the only honest man left and he is getting old.

We need to make our immigration entirely a skills based preference system. We need a border barrier that works. If Americans won't pick fruit, take them off welfare and they likely will. Failing that, import fruits and vegetables from Mexico.

Do like Portugal and legalize small (personal) quantities of any drug. So what if some idiot occasionally offs himself, they do it all the time anyway. Offer non-mandatory treatment for addicts who actually want to get well. If the dope market collapses, suddenly a lot of people will be looking for honest work. Pimping is very poor cash source compared to drugs

And if it is still possible, Wake Up Americans!


Ha

 

[harley]

As a nation we are failing on so many fronts, but taxing the people who are successful even more than they are already taxed will only seal our fate. It is demagogic nonsense. Who does me more good- some incredibly rich guy who is paying a very large amount of income tax, or some of the 48% who pay no income tax? We can also hope that Warren Buffet will run his company and keep his mouth shut about his populist BS.

What we need is radically improved K-12 education- and I don't mean more money to the already hopelessly hamstrung public school system. Charter schools. Niall Ferguson has a recent Newseek article about a group of those nasty Wall Streeters who play poker and raise money to fund some Charter Schools in Harlem. Students at these schools are vastly outperforming those in nearby and more costly public schools. We mainly need people who are employable in profit-making enterprises, not more make-work. Hwy does Germany have a very successful manufacturing sector? By making their training and education rational, not based on the fantasy that somehow smothering young people of all degrees of aptitude with the debt for a college eduation will pay off for them or the country.

We need a rational national energy policy, but since there appears to be no rational being in government, how likely is that? So far our energy policy is keeping our heads in the sand, and fantasizing about windmills and the Whole Earth Catalog. We need improvements in meaningful infrastructure.

We need to repeal Glass-Steagall. Pay attention to Paul Volcker while we can. He is the only honest man left and he is getting old.

We need to make our immigration entirely a skills based preference system. We need a border barrier that works. If Americans won't pick fruit, take them off welfare and they likely will. Failing that, import fruits and vegetables from Mexico.

Do like Portugal and legalize small (personal) quantities of any drug. So what if some idiot occasionally offs himself, they do it all the time anyway. Offer non-mandatory treatment for addicts who actually want to get well. If the dope market collapses, suddenly a lot of people will be looking for honest work. Pimping is very poor cash source compared to drugs

And if it is still possible, Wake Up Americans!


Ha

I need to +1 this and quote it before it disappears! Well said.

 

[ERD50]

I need to +1 this and quote it before it disappears! Well said.

+1 - copied and saved to my hard drive!

-ERD50

 

[Leonidas]

I'm mostly in agreement with Ha as well, except for that last part (a. No half measures on dope - make it legal in all quantities or keep it illegal. And b. selling booty is extremely lucrative and it's a renewable resource as well. Don't underestimate how much money Americans spend on getting some ass).

And I would only add: Turn off the TV and get off your ass.

 

[ls99]

I'm mostly in agreement with Ha as well, except for that last part (a. No half measures on dope - make it legal in all quantities or keep it illegal. And b. selling booty is extremely lucrative and it's a renewable resource as well. Don't underestimate how much money Americans spend on getting some ass).

And I would only add: Turn off the TV and get off your ass.

+1

 

[eridanus]

We mainly need people who are employable in profit-making enterprises, not more make-work. Hwy does Germany have a very successful manufacturing sector? By making their training and education rational, not based on the fantasy that somehow smothering young people of all degrees of aptitude with the debt for a college eduation will pay off for them or the country.

Are you suggesting that higher education should be more subsidized? That's been going out since the late 80s when state budgets started cutting public university funding.

We need to repeal Glass-Steagall. Pay attention to Paul Volcker while we can. He is the only honest man left and he is getting old.

Eh? Glass-Steagall was repealed by the Gramm-Leach bill. That led to CBOs and SIVs and Enron.

 

[haha]

Are you suggesting that higher education should be more subsidized? That's been going out since the late 80s when state budgets started cutting public university funding.



Eh? Glass-Steagall was repealed by the Gramm-Leach bill. That led to CBOs and SIVs and Enron.

Sorry, brain fart. Bring back Glass-Steagall is what I meant. Thanks for catching that error.

Ha


Thomas Frank: Bring Back Glass-Steagall - WSJ.com

 

[harley]

I'm mostly in agreement with Ha as well, except for that last part (a. No half measures on dope - make it legal in all quantities or keep it illegal.

I agree about making it legal in all amounts, but the effect on Portugal's crime and social problems has been incredible just by decriminalizing small amounts (of all drugs) for personal use.

- There were small increases in illicit drug use among adults, but decreases for adolescents and problem users, such as drug addicts and prisoners.
- Drug-related court cases dropped 66 percent.
- Drug-related HIV cases dropped 75 percent. In 2002, 49 percent of people with AIDS were addicts; by 2008 that number fell to 28 percent.
- The number of regular users held steady at less than 3 percent of the population for marijuana and less than 0.3 percent for heroin and cocaine - figures which show decriminalization brought no surge in drug use.
- The number of people treated for drug addiction rose 20 percent from 2001 to 2008.

Scribd

So even a slightly more reasonable judicial slant toward drugs would pay off significantly, from both a cost and social basis. But I still agree with you and Peter Tosh. Legalize it!

 

[mickeyd]

I noticed a story on the news today refering to the "56%" that caught my attention. It was refering to the percentage of Americans that pay federal income tax. I guess that's me...