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Census finds record gap between rich and poor

I will be honest. Bill you are our future.
At 64? not so much, I have about 20 years left. But the wife and I have paid to educate 2 children, one has Bachelors in Economics and co-owns a lucrative website, other BS in premed, masters in education, teaching science to 8th graders.
But we are still contributing, to our grandchildren's education.
The formula for the future has far too many factors, all of them unknowable...
 
At 64? not so much, I have about 20 years left. But the wife and I have paid to educate 2 children, one has Bachelors in Economics and co-owns a lucrative website, other BS in premed, masters in education, teaching science to 8th graders.
But we are still contributing, to our grandchildren's education.
The formula for the future has far too many factors, all of them unknowable...

My parents and grandparents helped me alot with my education.
 
Another class-warfare soldat.

Punishing wealth isn't going to create jobs. How about giving all a nice tax break and gutting the fat, bloated, oppressive, intrusive pig called government?

.

You hold it down, I'll stick a fork in it...

In my area, a lot people have been laid off from ATK, thanks to the Shuttle program ending. I would like to think that we can put those engineers and technicians and scientists to work solving some of our energy problems. NASA has never been totally all about space...instead, some grad students will get grants to study the sex life of ultra-conservatives in Alabama, or some similar silly subject...
 
My parents and grandparents helped me alot with my education.
Be sure and thank them...ours did, after visiting with friends who are still paying off student loans, and most of their friends had parents with just as much money as me and the wife....
We may drive old cars, but we ain't uneducated hill-billies...
 
Be sure and thank them...ours did, after visiting with friends who are still paying off student loans, and most of their friends had parents with just as much money as me and the wife....
We may drive old cars, but we ain't uneducated hill-billies...

Oh I do thank them all the time. And now they are helping with this fairly serious heart condition thing I have going on.
 
Oh I do thank them all the time. And now they are helping with this fairly serious heart condition thing I have going on.
Hope that turns out OK. We have a grandchild with inoperable brain tumor, so far it has responded well to chemo, but you can only get so much of that, then they turn to radiation. Good thing that they have really good medical insurance...
Still, we have to help them some...
 
Hope that turns out OK. We have a grandchild with inoperable brain tumor, so far it has responded well to chemo, but you can only get so much of that, then they turn to radiation. Good thing that they have really good medical insurance...
Still, we have to help them some...

A friends of mines son had one of those and he graduated High School this year. While he has his problems the kid has a very great out look on life despite his disabilities. For me I'm looking at a heart transplant in a few years. And I'm under constant montering by the doctors. I swear the guys are really vampires because of all the blood they are constantly taking:mrgreen:
 
So what is the answer? Get yourself elected to public office (dictator) and force the rest of the country to accept your idealism? Doesn't work that way....you do the best you can with the choices given you. Govt of, by, for the people doesn't exist the way we think it should be. Given a choice, everybody would refuse to pay taxes. Then where would we be? Anarchy, revolution? You steer the ship of state just the same as you do a real ship, you make small changes in rudder position to change direction. The rich may complain, the middle class may complain, but the fact remains, we will pay the taxes assessed. Spitting into the wind is not the way to make the wind change direction.

This is a discussion board. If everyone accepted the status quo as it is, this place would be rather dead and boring.
 
A friends of mines son had one of those and he graduated High School this year. While he has his problems the kid has a very great out look on life despite his disabilities. For me I'm looking at a heart transplant in a few years. And I'm under constant montering by the doctors. I swear the guys are really vampires because of all the blood they are constantly taking:mrgreen:
Situations like yours, my granddaughter, are what govt health care should be for, to make sure you have access to good care for catastrophic medical issues. People shouldn't have to sell their homes to pay for illnesses beyond their control...
 
This is a discussion board. If everyone accepted the status quo as it is, this place would be rather dead and boring.
I would never call you boring, irritating, perhaps....but not boring..:2wave:
 
I would never call you boring, irritating, perhaps....but not boring..:2wave:

I am not a topic-rather the environment on the board is, and if everyone accepted the status quo-as you seem to suggest there wouldn't be much conversation.
 
I am not a topic-rather the environment on the board is, and if everyone accepted the status quo-as you seem to suggest there wouldn't be much conversation.
Can't let it go one post without a snide remark, can you?
 
Situations like yours, my granddaughter, are what govt health care should be for, to make sure you have access to good care for catastrophic medical issues. People shouldn't have to sell their homes to pay for illnesses beyond their control...

Oh the bills are a ****ing nightmare. My diagnosis isolated left ventricular non compaction is a fairly newly accepted diagnosis. I think our resources in medicine could be spent more wisely vs the system of profit we currently have. I do think it should be a planned economy since I had no choice in this. And most people have no choice in becoming to conditions like this.
 
Oh the bills are a ****ing nightmare. My diagnosis isolated left ventricular non compaction is a fairly newly accepted diagnosis. I think our resources in medicine could be spent more wisely vs the system of profit we currently have. I do think it should be a planned economy since I had no choice in this. And most people have no choice in becoming to conditions like this.
My parents were pricks in a lot of ways, but they passed on fairly good genes health wise. 3 of my siblings decided to push their luck with some drinking, and a lot of smoking, but they will probably still make it to their mid 80's....
 
Finally, you are at least half right...some folks aren't paying their fair share, the RICH are getting away with robbery. They are stealing from the country that gave them the opportunity to get rich...
The part you got wrong, I do mind, a lot. And as usual, you label me as something I am not....just because I am willing to support the country that took me in to the Navy, and trained me, and gave me the skills to be employed in civilian life, I am somehow a marxist. Where did you get your skills? I hear working on an oil rig usually requires more brawn than brain, depending on what you do...

You have a six figure retirement income--including social security--and you some how have the gawl to claim that rich folks are stealing?

Really?!?
 
I dont. The government is there only to serve the people. A business only exists to make money. Our government may fail at times, maybe often but I do beleive its an evil we have to live with. It just needs to be small and not get involved with morals.

No other comments on my ideas?


One of the things that government does, is protect us from out of control corporations. That being the case, who protects us from out of control government?
 
You have a six figure retirement income--including social security--and you some how have the gawl to claim that rich folks are stealing?

Really?!?

Six figure retirement income and you call him a Marxist.:lamo
 
Six figure retirement income and you call him a Marxist.:lamo
apdst doesn't understand the many ways to accumulate retirement income. He thinks drawing a company retirement (small), AND social security AND navy retirement all at once is illegal. Millions of people are doing it, have been for a long, long time...
 
apdst doesn't understand the many ways to accumulate retirement income. He thinks drawing a company retirement (small), AND social security AND navy retirement all at once is illegal. Millions of people are doing it, have been for a long, long time...

The poor lad is easily confused Bill.I guess we gotta give him some slack. ;)
 
apdst doesn't understand the many ways to accumulate retirement income. He thinks drawing a company retirement (small), AND social security AND navy retirement all at once is illegal. Millions of people are doing it, have been for a long, long time...
Nevermind that McCain is married to an heiress and has plenty of assets, he is now collecting social security and he will also get retirement from being a US senator. Everyone who paid into social security, collects social security, no matter if they have a separate pension or retirement fund. For most people, social Security isn't enough to live on, so it would be foolish for anyone to just count on that when they retire.
 
Nevermind that McCain is married to an heiress and has plenty of assets, he is now collecting social security and he will also get retirement from being a US senator. Everyone who paid into social security, collects social security, no matter if they have a separate pension or retirement fund. For most people, social Security isn't enough to live on, so it would be foolish for anyone to just count on that when they retire.
My mother never worked outside the home, my father had SS and a union job pension, and the combination was barely enough. Their retirement years were much like their early years, watching every penny. That is no way to live...
 
Boo...if the rich continue to excel (get richer) and the poor continue to fail (and are given excuses to fail) then how does ANYONE expect that gap to NOT grow? The reality is that UNLESS the poor shift gears and TRY, they will NEVER succeed. Blaming the rich may make people feeeeel better...but it WILL NOT solve their problems. No amount of handout programs will solve their problems. They HAVE to decide to first and foremost get UP.

I think many are stuck, not just the few who actually do what you accuse, but those who see things as you do. That any reason has to be an excuse (two very different things). If we know some people will fail, even if all of us are perfect people, we shold plan on how to handle that.

Let's take a sports analogy. New Orleans and Indy were two pretty good teams in the super Bowl. They worked hard and succeeded. Yet, one lost.

And while we can probabaly explain why the LA Rams weren't a good football team, they didn't get up and say we just don't want to win. If all the teams were talented, hard working, and run smartly, there would still be last place teams.

This isn't about blame. Trying to make it about blame misses the point completely. We need a middle class and it is fair to discuss how best to perserve it. To ask, what can we do? And you can do this without demonizing either the wealthy or the poor.
 
Almost goes without saying, the main cause of "poor" is lack of education, whether it is the fault of the kid, the parents, the schools, whatever.
There are several ways to succeed, but almost always the best way is thru education.
Many poor don't see the value of education, many rich just want to pay for their own kids and let the rest remain ignorant.
We have had so much progress in technology in the last few decades, it is understandable that the education system is lagging in its responsibilities. Hopefully the public will acknowledge that and demand more from govt. Certainly the curriculum needs massaging.
 
Everyone who paid into social security, collects social security, no matter if they have a separate pension or retirement fund.

For now. Thanks to the damage that the boomers have done to our country, SS will almost certainly be means-tested by the time my generation gets ready to retire.

For most people, social Security isn't enough to live on, so it would be foolish for anyone to just count on that when they retire.

There are tens of millions of people who do just that. 25% of people over 65 get 90+% of their income from SS. 2/3 of people over 65 get 50+% of their income from SS.
 
Census finds record gap between rich and poor



Even if the release of this was timed, it's still relevant to the midterms and taxes.

Now is not the time to give an additional tax break to the wealthy and super-wealthy.

Yup, that's to be expected. With the corporate capitalist system we have and the protection of the aristocracy in government; this is really the only way it could be. Of course, continual support of the status quo will just make this even worse. It's a real war on the middle class and economic mobility. Those on top don't want to fall down; thus you must close down mobility. The poor stay poor then and the rules get set up to allow the already established to reap a system of stifled competition. Yay for the Republocrats.
 
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