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11 Things The Wealthiest 400 Americans Could Buy Their Country

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FilmFestGuy said:
Egypt - revolution. Colombia - drug wars. Georgia - half-demolished by Russia.

Again, good company.

A stable happy nation requires a fat and happy middle class. If you want a ****-storm, concentrate the wealth into just a few hands. When everyone else gets tired of it, things are going to look really bad.

This Ayn Rand fantasy world that some people are living in, where the capitalists can just take all their money and live on an island with no employees, customers, or servants is actually frightening.
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Oh, so now it's certain allies whose income inequality we should seek to imitate? You yourself said we have comparable inequality to the UK and Australia...Australia which, btw, has single payer healthcare. Income inequality by itself means absolutely nothing. Complaining about a healthcare system that inefficiently allocates price is one thing...but I have no respect for armchair class warriors. It's not about Ayn Rand fantasies. It's about proletarian pipe dreams.
 
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TurtleDude said:
rich people don't maintain or increase their wealth by hoarding it and they don't stay wealthy by doing stupid things with wealth if there is hoarding going on now its because Obama is creating massive uncertainty.
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The trend has been to invest it in off-shore tax free investments. That is hording it as far as our economy is concerned.
 
TurtleDude said:
rich people don't maintain or increase their wealth by hoarding it and they don't stay wealthy by doing stupid things with wealth if there is hoarding going on now its because Obama is creating massive uncertainty.
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some get it by the dumb luck to be the result of breeding by other rich people ... lets not forget that important category of inherited wealth.
 
And some just play rich people online.
 
Catawba said:
The trend has been to invest it in off-shore tax free investments. That is hording it as far as our economy is concerned.
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well there is an easy fix for that-make America less hostile to investment. Of course that means people like you will be upset but policy shouldn't be tailored to make those envious of the rich feel better
 
Envious of the rich? Well, if the tradeoff is I lose every ounce of empathy and compassion I ever had? Yeah. Poor is better.
 
haymarket said:
some get it by the dumb luck to be the result of breeding by other rich people ... lets not forget that important category of inherited wealth.
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One flaw in your envious attack on those who are better off than you are is how did their families get rich

and how do they stay rich.

hard working smart people tend to produce hard working smart kids. Legacies at yale graduated with higher overall GPA's than non legacies.
 
BDBoop said:
Envious of the rich? Well, if the tradeoff is I lose every ounce of empathy and compassion I ever had? Yeah. Poor is better.
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great-I am happy you are happy with your lot-that is a sign of success. But your rants about the rich belie your claims in that post
 
SgtRock said:
Question. If there wern't any rich people what would you aspire to be? Answer. A worker with no hope to advance. Socialism saps the desire to exceed out of the citizenry. Why be an entrepreneur, you will gain nothing by being ambitious. Rich people like Bill Gates who started out a working stiff with a vision made something of himself. Many evil rich people like Gates are also phi'lanthropist who donate billions to charitable causes worldwide. Enough of the class warfare already.
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So being rich is the only thing you can imagine that might motivate people? Making money is the ultimate and singular goal in life?
 
atrasicarius said:
So being rich is the only thing you can imagine that might motivate people? Making money is the ultimate and singular goal in life?
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Seems so. And apparently none of them has hit that wall yet where they would give everything they have to bring a loved one back to life.
 
TurtleDude said:
One flaw in your envious attack on those who are better off than you are is how did their families get rich

and how do they stay rich.
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Your lame self serving charge of ENVY has been flushed where it belongs many times. "You just hate me cause I'm beautiful. yeah- right - whatever. But still you reach to retrieve it.

How do they stay rich? Capital gains taxed at lower rates than people labor and pay.

Why do you writhe in obvious discomfort when the topic of inherited wealth is discussed frankly and honestly?
 
BDBoop said:
Seems so. And apparently none of them has hit that wall yet where they would give everything they have to bring a loved one back to life.
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I think a lot of people get to that point. Problem is no amount of giving away of our material possessions will get us that and we are smart enough to realize it.
 
haymarket said:
Your lame self serving charge of ENVY has been flushed where it belongs many times. "You just hate me cause I'm beautiful. yeah- right - whatever. But still you reach to retrieve it.

How do they stay rich? Capital gains taxed at lower rates than people labor and pay.

Why do you writhe in obvious discomfort when the topic of inherited wealth is discussed frankly and honestly?
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I have no guilt-as Patti Smith noted, Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine.

You are upset you didn't get such a family and you want to even things up with those who did

YOu are also mad that those who invest money aren't taxed as high as the envious want because you cannot understand that jacking up taxes on capital gains hurts the USA as capital flees the nation

envy and spite is a piss poor substitute for economic reality
 
TurtleDude said:
I have no guilt-as Patti Smith noted, Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine.

You are upset you didn't get such a family and you want to even things up with those who did

YOu are also mad that those who invest money aren't taxed as high as the envious want because you cannot understand that jacking up taxes on capital gains hurts the USA as capital flees the nation

envy and spite is a piss poor substitute for economic reality
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So this is where I return your serve in kind and tell you that your self-serving self-imposed delusions are a poor substitute for actual debate?

Nobody envies you and your continual whine about it is delusional and self serving in the extreme. We do not want to be you. Nobody wants your family. nobody wants your farm. get over your bad self.
 
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haymarket said:
So this is where I return your serve in kind and tell you that your self-serving self-imposed delusions are a poor substitute for actual debate?

Nobody envies you and your continual whine about it is delusional and self serving in the extreme. We do not want to be you. Nobody wants your family. nobody wants your farm. get over your bad self.
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That is pretty interesting given your admitted feelings about the rich
 
TurtleDude said:
well there is an easy fix for that-make America less hostile to investment. Of course that means people like you will be upset but policy shouldn't be tailored to make those envious of the rich feel better
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We already have the lowest effective tax rate of any of the industrialized nations. You want the US to become a third world nation so we can have the low tax rates they do? Should we drop full-time wages to $1hour? Already our income inequality is equal to many third world nations. 1 in 7 Americans live in poverty. Is the country not poor enough for you yet?
 
Catawba said:
We already have the lowest effective tax rate of any of the industrialized nations. You want the US to become a third world nation so we can have the low tax rates they do? Should we drop full-time wages to $1hour? Already our income inequality is equal to many third world nations. 1 in 7 Americans live in poverty. Is the country not poor enough for you yet?
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That is one trade-off they are happy with, yes. America suffers. As long as they have theirs, cool beans.
 
Truckstop said:
I think a lot of people get to that point. Problem is no amount of giving away of our material possessions will get us that and we are smart enough to realize it.
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I disagree. If they'd ever truly been at the breaking point, they would KNOW that money is not everything. Money can't buy happiness, obviously! Who are the most miserable, bitchy, cold, harsh people on this board? The ones who claim to be rich. I don't believe we have a millionaire on this board, nevermind the alleged 'several'. Happy people who are well and truly blessed don't go to message boards so they can anonymously attack people hour after day after week after month. They have FULL LIVES. So - no. I don't believe we have anybody on this board who is actually wealthy, in any sense of the word.
 
BDBoop said:
That is one trade-off they are happy with, yes. America suffers. As long as they have theirs, cool beans.
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Well, I wouldn't say all, but many. Turtledude for sure, judging by his posts.
 
Catawba said:
We already have the lowest effective tax rate of any of the industrialized nations. You want the US to become a third world nation so we can have the low tax rates they do? Should we drop full-time wages to $1hour? Already our income inequality is equal to many third world nations. 1 in 7 Americans live in poverty. Is the country not poor enough for you yet?
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our corporate tax rate is the highest or one of the two or three highest

so you are admitting that the massive war on poverty is a failure

and taxing the rich more doesn't give the poor the tools to become self sufficient

most of the things that cause people to be poor has nothing to do with the rich and how much tax they pay

breeding before marriage, doing drugs and dropping out of HS isn't caused by the rich
 
TurtleDude said:
your quote below is a pretty good reflection of that
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What is wrong with my quote? Why does it bother you so much? Asking people to drop to their knees in thanks is as old as the Bible. Our society does allow the wealthy privileges that other societies do not allow. What is wrong about that?
 
UtahBill said:
Hey, I asked first !!!!:2razz:
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O.K. I'll answer. Because those who would lead this prosecution came from the very companies that should be seeing prosecutions. Timmy Geithner would do anything he could to protect those who put him where he is at.
 
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