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Do the wealthy have too much power in the United States?

Do the wealthy have too much power in the United States?

  • Total voters
    56
TurtleDude said:
you are making a silly assumption. the top one percent are nothing like the billionaires you whine about. 400K a year puts you in the top one percent. Many doctors, some lawyers, small business owners. and who is to say who deservers the wealth they have? some bitter guy on a board? LOL
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He is referring to the billionaires, you know he is, the top people at goldman sachs, etc.. do not work harder then a diamond miner, construction worker...
 
Dovkan said:
Anyone who actually believes someone on wall street works harder then a diamond miner in Africa or a sweatshop worker, they are delusional.
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anyone who believes grunt labor is more valuable than what a CEO or a top trial lawyer or doctor does is idiotic. Billions can do sweatshop labor. Very few people can consistently hit a 100 MPH fastball or return Kevin Anderson's tennis serve. Very few people can safely remove a brain tumor or handle a 8 week federal jury trial. That's why those people with those rarer skills get paid so much more than a sweatshop worker.

reality --its what's for breakfast
 
TurtleDude said:
you are making a silly assumption. the top one percent are nothing like the billionaires you whine about. 400K a year puts you in the top one percent. Many doctors, some lawyers, small business owners. and who is to say who deservers the wealth they have? some bitter guy on a board? LOL
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400k a year would not put you in the super rich class. Not talking about these people. These people pay more in tax than Corporations & billionaires.
 
TurtleDude said:
anyone who believes grunt labor is more valuable than what a CEO or a top trial lawyer or doctor does is idiotic. Billions can do sweatshop labor. Very few people can consistently hit a 100 MPH fastball or return Kevin Anderson's tennis serve. Very few people can safely remove a brain tumor or handle a 8 week federal jury trial. That's why those people with those rarer skills get paid so much more than a sweatshop worker.

reality --its what's for breakfast
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Oh, I'm not talking about doctors, or sports player, I'm talking about looking at excel spreadsheets, making money off of people's debt, stocks, planning corporate meetings.. You call it grunt labor, have you worked in a sweatshop? A diamond mine? What do you do?
 
Dovkan said:
He is referring to the billionaires, you know he is, the top people at goldman sachs, etc.. do not work harder then a diamond miner, construction worker...
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and the guy playing tennis on the satellite tour might well train as hard as Rafa Nadal. But Nadal makes more money in prizes and certainly endorsements than all the players combined ranked 250-1000. Is that fair? of course it is.
 
Dovkan said:
Anyone who actually believes someone on wall street works harder then a diamond miner in Africa or a sweatshop worker, they are delusional.
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True why should they be worth anymore. They sure as hell couldn't dig a ditch.
 
TurtleDude said:
and the guy playing tennis on the satellite tour might well train as hard as Rafa Nadal. But Nadal makes more money in prizes and certainly endorsements than all the players combined ranked 250-1000. Is that fair? of course it is.
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You actually think the CEO of goldman's sachs is a hard working individual who cares about other human beings in any sort of way?
 
Dovkan said:
Oh, I'm not talking about doctors, I'm talking about looking at excel spreadsheets, making money off of people's debt, stocks, planning corporate meetings.. You call it grunt labor, have you worked in a sweatshop? A diamond mine? What do you do?
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Me, I am a retired federal attorney who is now a full time coach of an Olympic sport-training would be olympians and world team members. I am also a partner in two investment holding companies and a partner in a rather profitable farming operation in Illinois.
 
kjwins said:
True why should they be worth anymore. They sure as hell couldn't dig a ditch.
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Let alone swelter in the sun for 10 hours a day to provide for a family, I love the argument of "They need to work harder"
 
TurtleDude said:
Much envy I sense in this one Master Yoda

Seduced by the jealous side of the force he has been Obi Wan
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TurtleDude said:
Much envy here too. what makes them
"scum" I love watching people impotently rant about corporations.
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So what's your position on those that are wealthier than you but believe the wealthy hold too much power?
 
TurtleDude said:
Me, I am a retired federal attorney who is now a full time coach of an Olympic sport-training would be olympians and world team members. I am also a partner in two investment holding companies and a partner in a rather profitable farming operation in Illinois.
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So, you're hard work, since you insulted the hard work of most laborers around the world, consists of coaching, with access to water and food whenever you want, safe conditions, your own decisions on breaks, etc.. A partner in investment holding companies.. Ah yes, the hard labor that must require. "Partner" obviously means you go to the farm and actually do the farm work. Just saying.
 
Dovkan said:
You actually think the CEO of goldman's sachs is a hard working individual who cares about other human beings in any sort of way?
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actually my former law school girlfriend is a top executive at Goldman Sachs. I saw her last at our 25th College reunion (we went to the same College and the same Law school). We had a friday night dinner where most of us were wearing tee shirts, shorts or jeans etc. She was in a silk blouse, business suit, hose and heels. I said WTF and she said after dinner she was catching a train from New Haven down to her office in NYC to finish up some report she was working on. I saw her the next day wearing the same suit. She admitted she got 1.5 hours of sleep on the train coming back. Yeah she made about 2.5 Million that year in bonuses. She works hours most people have no clue about. and if she screws up, it costs lost of people Millions upon millions in dollars; what people working menial jobs don't have is worries about consequences that effect thousands.

and claiming someone like her doesn't care for people is just specious garbage
 
Dovkan said:
So, you're hard work, since you insulted the hard work of most laborers around the world, consists of coaching, with access to water and food whenever you want, safe conditions, your own decisions on breaks, etc.. A partner in investment holding companies.. Ah yes, the hard labor that must require. "Partner" obviously means you go to the farm and actually do the farm work. Just saying.
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Some is rich
some is poor
that's the way the world is
but I don't believe in lying back
and saying how bad your luck is

Joe Strummer
 
Lutherf said:
Absolutely we do!

We have the opportunity to use secret banks that pay us 1500% interest on our money without even having to deposit it. We have lunch with politicians who do our every bidding. If we want wages to go down we just drop a hint and BINGO, they secretly reduce wages by creating mysterious tax changes that only help us while screwing the poor. We have a secret internet that we use to communicate and we get emails every time some poor person gets a little uppity. It's a pretty cool gig when you get right down to it.
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Greetings, Lutherf. :2wave:

Well, you're in hot water now, mister! You were never to tell those secrets! If you're lucky, most people will think you were just using a bit of sarcasm to make a point, and you may not be penalized except for paying a huge fine to those who run everything around here. I hope for your sake that's the case! :lamo:
 
TurtleDude said:
actually my former law school girlfriend is a top executive at Goldman Sachs. I saw her last at our 25th College reunion (we went to the same College and the same Law school). We had a friday night dinner where most of us were wearing tee shirts, shorts or jeans etc. She was in a silk blouse, business suit, hose and heels. I said WTF and she said after dinner she was catching a train from New Haven down to her office in NYC to finish up some report she was working on. I saw her the next day wearing the same suit. She admitted she got 1.5 hours of sleep on the train coming back. Yeah she made about 2.5 Million that year in bonuses. She works hours most people have no clue about. and if she screws up, it costs lost of people Millions upon millions in dollars; what people working menial jobs don't have is worries about consequences that effect thousands.

and claiming someone like her doesn't care for people is just specious garbage
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I specifically claimed the CEO, first of all, yes, you define that sort of work, I wouldn't call that physically demanding, a 2.5 million dollar bonus? Where the hell is the 2.5 million dollar bonus for the diamond miner who works 14 hours a day in sweltering heat?
 
TurtleDude said:
Some is rich
some is poor
that's the way the world is
but I don't believe in lying back
and saying how bad your luck is

Joe Strummer
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Oh, but I do work to provide for my family since my dad cannot work anymore and would be completely left behind without GOVERNMENT support, this whole concept of rich and poor comes about under systems like capitalism.
 
Dovkan said:
I specifically claimed the CEO, first of all, yes, you define that sort of work, I wouldn't call that physically demanding, a 2.5 million dollar bonus? Where the hell is the 2.5 million dollar bonus for the diamond miner who works 14 hours a day in sweltering heat?
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my suggestion to you-work hard in school and get a job at Goldman Sachs after earning a JD/MBA from one of the top universities in the world rather than dropping out of HS and having to work in a diamond mine
 
TurtleDude said:
my suggestion to you-work hard in school and get a job at Goldman Sachs after earning a JD/MBA from one of the top universities in the world rather than dropping out of HS and having to work in a diamond mine
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Ah, yes, this argument is preposterous, first, you assume everyone lives in a house where they are properly fed, a country with proper education, a country with schooling, that they can learn at a level to gain some sort of scholarship, unless you argue from the point we all have massive amounts of wealth at birth, that these universities only accept a few people, that billions of people will never be able to reach that level no matter if they all tried, that you assume these people drop out of HS, that you assume the concept of HS and college exists in Africa to these laborers.. Jesus.
 
Dovkan said:
Ah, yes, this argument is preposterous, first, you assume everyone lives in a house where they are properly fed, a country with proper education, a country with schooling, that they can learn at a level to gain some sort of scholarship, unless you argue from the point we all have massive amounts of wealth at birth, that these universities only accept a few people, that billions of people will never be able to reach that level no matter if they all tried, that you assume these people drop out of HS, that you assume the concept of HS and college exists in Africa to these laborers.. Jesus.
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rather than tilting at windmills on a message board-why not move to South Africa and educate the diamond workers and tell them how they have it so bad and they are being exploited be De Beers
 
TurtleDude said:
rather than tilting at windmills on a message board-why not move to South Africa and educate the diamond workers and tell them how they have it so bad and they are being exploited be De Beers
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Assuming I can afford a plane ticket, have the means to leave my family. These people may not be able to acknowledge they're being exploited because they literally have to work for a tiny wage to survive, that's why capitalists go to other countries without labor laws, or very lax ones, to get cheap labor and exploit it for profit. I'd love for them to know.
 
MildSteel said:
I disagree. The non wealthy have a strong dependence on the wealthy for their survival, their information, and their views.
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and the wealthy have a dependence on social safety nets to prevent unrest and significant increases in their level of taxation, especially considering the current level of income inequality.

re : the French Revolution; US Depression
 
Helix said:
and the wealthy have a dependence on social safety nets to prevent unrest and significant increases in their level of taxation, especially considering the current level of income inequality.

re : the French Revolution; US Depression
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Woah, this actually makes sense. I never thought of it this way.
 
TurtleDude said:
my suggestion to you-work hard in school and get a job at Goldman Sachs after earning a JD/MBA from one of the top universities in the world rather than dropping out of HS and having to work in a diamond mine
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Dude your really not the kind of people we are talking about here. You sound like you worked your ass off. It even sounds like you give back some of what you have made. But the fact is not everyone is like you. There are people that control everything, & abnormal amounts of wealth. Most of there wealth comes from the suffering of others. They do all in their power & wealth to keep it that way also.
 
kjwins said:
Dude your really not the kind of people we are talking about here. You sound like you worked your ass off. It even sounds like you give back some of what you have made. But the fact is not everyone is like you. There are people that control everything, & abnormal amounts of wealth. Most of there wealth comes from the suffering of others. They do all in their power & wealth to keep it that way also.
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I agree, the only reason I point at turtledude is his disrespect of "grunt workers" as he calls them..
 
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