Half of congress are millionaires. Does it bother you?

[SgtSpiderMan]

Rich people fuck up money. Some poor people manage their money as best they can without ever playing the lotto.

Here's where you ask another dumb question.

Never said rich people don't fuck up money. Show me someone who doesn't manage their money the best they know how.

 

[Disgustipated]

Never said rich people don't fuck up money. Show me someone who doesn't manage their money the best they know how.

See? You're impossible.

Anyway. ..

I never said you did.

Donald Trump.

 

[SgtSpiderMan]

See? You're impossible.

Anyway. ..

I never said you did.

Donald Trump.

He did the best with his money he knew how. May not have been smart, but it was the best he knew how to do.

 

[Disgustipated]

He did the best with his money he knew how. May not have been smart, but it was the best he knew how to do.

You know that how? Everything publicly proves otherwise.

Fuck. Never mind.

 

[SgtSpiderMan]

You know that how? Everything publicly proves otherwise.

Fuck. Never mind.

Let's see the public moves he made where he knew he was going to take a bath but did it anyway.

 

[Disgustipated]

Let's see the public moves he made where he knew he was going to take a bath but did it anyway.

Did I ever say he knew he was going to take a bath?

 

[mikey2much]

The rich never have enough

If a man is smart enough to become a millionaire before he runs for office I feel a little bit better about him or her unless the are after raw power.

It's hard to bribe a man who feels they have all the money they need.

They never reach a point where they feel they have enough. They want all they can get and now they own the government. It been bought and paid for already. They will change laws to make it even worst than it is now.

 

[Que]

They never reach a point where they feel they have enough. They want all they can get and now they own the government. It been bought and paid for already. They will change laws to make it even worst than it is now.

Damn that currency manipulating George Soros, am I right?

 

[patient1]

I have to respond to this one. I saw another, but yours by far was the front runner!
Ask the minimum wage earner, say a woman whose husband left her high and dry to raise a family of 2, 4, or even six kids. She was born with a learning disability, yet she busted her behind to support hose children all her life. Couldn't afford health care so she was labeled a leach on society because she had to resort to public aid.
Or the man who busted his chops on a hot roof trying to take care of his family, but fell short because some politician somewhere decided that man's worth was so much less than his own.
Are you really that moronic? Do you think every person in this country can reach the same pinnacle as our self serving politicians or pompous degreed sons and daughters of decadence? Or do you think they're simply undeserving?

Actually, the book "The Millionaire Next Door" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Millionaire_Next_Door discovered that a lot of self-made millionaires were roofers. That and a lot of doctors and lawyers were struggling to make ends meet because of expensive educations, conspicuous consumption, per pressure, etc.

The Lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math.

 

[doowdniw]

The Lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math.

Doesn't take a math genius to understand, "You have better odds of being struck by lightning." Come on Power Ball!!!

 

[PoppingTom]

If a man is smart enough to become a millionaire before he runs for office I feel a little bit better about him or her unless the are after raw power.

It's hard to bribe a man who feels they have all the money they need.

I understand the thought, but my poor German soul feels exactly the opposite.

Whoever managed to become millionaire knows best how to sell himself, knows how to make the most fortune out of his position, knows how to compete against others.

What he doesn't know so well is: what are the needs of those who need help? How to forget te ego and the powerplay to do the best for other people than himself? How to get integrity about a topic and really fight for it, have conscience about it, may compromise sometimes, but never sell it ?

To be a millionaire and become a politician in our country is no good thing, as people say : you're a chief, doing things for chiefs. Not a worker, doing things for workers.

But maybe there's no other way to survive in Washington. But I would feel bad about it.

 

[Sean Renaud]

Okay, 85 people in the U.S. are richer than and own more than the rest of the population. 2% of the population are millionaires while the middle class is fading out of sight. Am I the only person outraged that these blood suckers are making their fortunes off those who have the least to give? Apparently it doesn't bother our legislators. At least half of them are living comfortably within the laws and rules they either create or have the power to change. Why should they trifle with the ones who are struggling to "climb the ladder" when they're living in comfort?
PLEASE do not come at me with a redistribution of wealth being a socialist concept! That is not at all what this is about.
My question is this.: Why does the general population continue to elect the "haves" and refuse to seek out visionaries who can actually bring about real change instead of these money grabbing cardboard cookie cutter politicians who have run us into the ground?

No, it doesn't anger me at all, nor should it. There are much better things to be upset about in the universe to be perfectly honest.

The idea that by and large lower educated people have the education or intellect to change things is absurd. We have a lot of problems in our system but not only is the average income of the people involved not one of them even if it was there are virtually no ways we could fix this that wouldn't make an already complex system more complex.

I hope not. The only way people level fields is by dragging soil from the high side. You never see them trucking in soil to raise the low spots. Ends up with the high side lacking topsoil and the low-side still has the marshy problem it had before.

Best thing to do is terraces. Each field of play has to abide by agreed upon rules and anyone is welcome to make the incremental step up to the next arena with some effort.

The only way to make a millionaire and a pauper equal overnight is to give the pauper 1/2 a million that you stole from the millionaire.

In a week the pauper has far less than 500K and the millionaire will be headed for his second earned million. Look at lottery winners. Sudden wealth is no prescription for success in life.

That's the only way things can be done in an economy. Where would you get this "soil" from other than the the high side? Fucking Mars?

I guess you could explain your terraces idea in detail, it may be plausible.

Who said anything about making the millionaire and the pauper equal at all much less overnight. How is that even desirable.

The lottery winner isn't a good point of anything and is really a weak argument brought on by people I used to think are stupid. I now understand they think everybody else is stupid and hopes nobody calls them out.

Never said everyone would.

You really think there are people out there who can't learn something about money management?

The roofing guy is a different situation. It sounds like he has a skill but is being screwed over by a politician.

There probably are people who can learn so little about money management that it would be pointless to keep teaching them. I mean the correct answer and the one you're looking for is "no, there aren't people out there who can't learn something about money management." But Steven Hawkings can learn something about Physics so. . .you're point is kinda dumb.

Yes, lots of poor people have poor money management skills, lots of them have never really made it to a stage where money management (in the way you're talking) are realistic things for them to have learned. If your rent is north of 60% of your income all the money management in the world isn't going to make a lot of difference. You simply don't have enough money to begin with. Now where they tend to get into trouble is they think 60+% is normal and give them a million dollars they'll either get a place that large or find some way to make up the difference and that's absolutely true. But that's not the primary reason the entire middle class is dissappearing is because nobody outside the 1% knows how to handle money at all.

 

[mikey2much]

That seems to be the problem

Damn that currency manipulating George Soros, am I right?

Soros isn't the problem, or if he is, I could name a dozen right wing wealthy donors who would make his money look like small change.

And, yes, you are just to the right of every aspect of common sense.

But that seems to be the majority's point of view. If you can believe that the last election shows how america thinks.

The last election could just as well be an indication that the american voter sees the government as too far gone to save. I see it that way.

So you are in good company, in so far as you and your right wing friends agree.

For america, in my opinion, it is not so good.

 

[BoyNextDoor]

Half of congress are millionaires. Does it bother you?

Not at all. It bothers me that the electorate can not be bothered to vote.

 

[unregistered]

 

[DustOnDaBotl]

Yes, lots of poor people have poor money management skills, lots of them have never really made it to a stage where money management (in the way you're talking) are realistic things for them to have learned. If your rent is north of 60% of your income all the money management in the world isn't going to make a lot of difference. You simply don't have enough money to begin with. Now where they tend to get into trouble is they think 60+% is normal and give them a million dollars they'll either get a place that large or find some way to make up the difference and that's absolutely true. But that's not the primary reason the entire middle class is dissappearing is because nobody outside the 1% knows how to handle money at all.

Thanks for the stereotypical image. So, if I'm to understand this, I guess you're saying that if a family living in squalor because a slum lord has charged them north of 60% of their income, they should remain living in the same conditions and let their money go to work for them somewhere else?
No one is is saying the playing field should be leveled to the point that the 1% should have the same income as the remainder of the country.
But there is NO excuse for anyone who breaks their back for a living to make a minimum wage and continue to sink deeper into debt. In Illinois there has been a debate over raising the minimum wage to 10 dollars an hour. Now even with 2 bread winners in the home, how is this family of 2.5 children going to stand any chance of a future? How do they send the kids to college, pay for medical, car insurance, rent, utilities or FOOD?!
Even if they eek out enough to cover these bare essentials, is this all life should have in store for them? Is their human worth less than the 1%?
And your statement on the poor having no money management skills is PURELY speculative. It is your opinion and yours alone. I have read stories of people who've lifted themselves up who were poor most of their lives and became successes. Your statements, Sir, are just the kinds of statements issued by the "haves" to keep the "have nots" suppressed and in line. This way, they can continue to live off the sweat equity of others, climb on their backs and lift themselves up.

 

[Sean Renaud]

I'm just gonna say you can't read and leave it at that.

 

[SgtSpiderMan]

Did I ever say he knew he was going to take a bath?

You did.

 

[unregistered]

 

[Sean Renaud]

You should be more concerned about how many lawyers are in the Congress.

Ideally it would be damn near 100% but Republicans prefer rank amateurs who have no business running a country so I'm guessing right now it's in the thirties?

 

[DustOnDaBotl]

I'm just gonna say you can't read and leave it at that.

You may be right. Sometimez Ah needz pitchers.
But what I get from you is a defense for the 1%. That is not why I posted this thread. It's not an attack on them. It is an indictment of our political system. Whoooo! Where'd that big word come from?!
How can 50% of our congress possibly "meet people where they're at" when many of them are so out of touch with the plight of an overwhelming percentage of the population?
Why not pass some real laws dealing with minimum wage and let people like the Walton's know that before they build their multi million dollar art museums, they need to take care of those who've actually worked and made their fortune for them?
Maybe loosen banking restrictions and de-louse our country by investigating and getting rid of predatorial institutions like pay day loan companies or title loan companies who feed off the poor.
There are a great number of things that can be done to improve the lives of the poor and the vanishing middle class.
Many experts agree that the status quo is not helping our country. It's only serving to destabilize it.

 

[Disgustipated]

You did.

Show me where I did.

 

[SgtSpiderMan]

Thanks for the stereotypical image. So, if I'm to understand this, I guess you're saying that if a family living in squalor because a slum lord has charged them north of 60% of their income, they should remain living in the same conditions and let their money go to work for them somewhere else?
No one is is saying the playing field should be leveled to the point that the 1% should have the same income as the remainder of the country.
But there is NO excuse for anyone who breaks their back for a living to make a minimum wage and continue to sink deeper into debt. In Illinois there has been a debate over raising the minimum wage to 10 dollars an hour. Now even with 2 bread winners in the home, how is this family of 2.5 children going to stand any chance of a future? How do they send the kids to college, pay for medical, car insurance, rent, utilities or FOOD?!
Even if they eek out enough to cover these bare essentials, is this all life should have in store for them? Is their human worth less than the 1%?
And your statement on the poor having no money management skills is PURELY speculative. It is your opinion and yours alone. I have read stories of people who've lifted themselves up who were poor most of their lives and became successes. Your statements, Sir, are just the kinds of statements issued by the "haves" to keep the "have nots" suppressed and in line. This way, they can continue to live off the sweat equity of others, climb on their backs and lift themselves up.

It's not speculative, it's pretty well researched.

I can't speak for Sean 100% but I'm pretty sure he's in favor of raising the minimum wage.

 

[Sean Renaud]

I can't even figure out where he got that we were in disagreement about anything other than I don't have a problem with Congress being made up largely of rich people and that I can't even fathom a fix for how to get "average" people into the job.

Granted Congressional elections are shorter than presidential ones but how many of us can afford to take six months off interviewing for a job we might not get? And can you come up with a solution for that that wouldn't result in thousands of people "doing their civic duty" every two years to run for office?

 

[KingOrfeo]

It's hard to bribe a man who feels they have all the money they need.

No one has ever been that rich.