American wealth distribution - is this a problem

[A.R. DIAMOND]

Wodin,
you may want to edit your post......JP was one of the richest even after his death.


The Morgan Estate

At the time of his death in Rome, in 1913, Morgan was one of the world's richest men, though not one of its best-loved. Alternately hated and praised because of his financial power, he won at least a measure of respect from fellow coin collectors. An impressive, rectangular John Pierpont Morgan Memorial medal was pictured in the American Journal of Numismatics and Proceedings of the American Numismatic Society 1913.

 

[Code]

My base salary is $26K ( I make an extra 2 or 3K with overtime). I rent a two bedroom 750 sq. ft. apartment and drive a 99 Chevy Cavalier. I have no problem paying my bills and am even putting some money in a Roth IRA. While I'm not rich likeBill Gates , I never considered myself to be in a bad position.

I didn't know I was POOR and LAZY until I read this thread.

I'm sure there are literally dozens of people who are smart and make 26k a year and are doing their part to get into a different tax bracket.

No shame in it. Kudos to those who are doing what it takes to make more money.

I used to work as a roofer when I was a teen and thought making 100 bucks a week was serious cash flow. The they told me I had to pay 35 of that 100 bucks to a union and I quit.

Fact is, there HAS to be an uneven distribution of wealth or we'd have slave labor....take your pick.

 

[ZenMachine]

I didn't know I was POOR and LAZY until I read this thread.

We did, we just didn't have the heart to tell you..

 

[MattTheSkywalker]

What I think is funny is that the Working Class of the Country (who call themselves the Middle Class for some reason) sneer at the poor and attribute all of these problems to moral defects, and think they will end up on the right side of the issue as long as they are arrogant and elitist. You can't bullshit yourself rich. It just can't happen.

Well said Doktor. People just want to have someone to look down on, and the poor are an easy, powerless target.

 

[A.R. DIAMOND]

http://www.time.com/time/time100/builder/other/barons.html


There is a good article about Morgan,Rockefeller and Carnegie

 

[Code]

There's no solution. "The poor will always be with us" isn't that what Jesus said? But, no other industrialized nation has the type of poverty America does though. We have a whole medium sized third world country within a country and it gets worse all the time.

What I think is funny is that the Working Class of the Country (who call themselves the Middle Class for some reason) sneer at the poor and attribute all of these problems to moral defects, and think they will end up on the right side of the issue as long as they are arrogant and elitist. You can't bullshit yourself rich. It just can't happen.

So if you know there is no solution and that the poor will always be here, why get your panties in a knot over people who also realize this?

We're a classist nation, hell the WORLD is classist. You want to clean shit and win a Nobel prize for it, you better head for another planet.

No one said the poor have mental defects. Being unmotivated is a personal choice, being slothful. Although I'm sure it's hard to be motivated when you make so little money.

I don't sneer at people who clean shit for a living, but I'm sure as hell not going to give them more money or respect simply because they do menial labor.

Respect doesn't (or shouldn't) be related at all to income. Respect is reserved for personal character like honor, integrity and honesty.

If you think a janitor deserves respect just because he makes sure there is plenty of soap in the bathroom you probably need to learn how and when to give out respect.

 

[underoos]

We have uneven distribution of wealth because of uneven distribution of ability, too. don't forget that.

Genetics plays a large part.

All you people seem to be mentioning is work ethic and birthright.

If you want to increase the overall wealth of people, try genetic engineering. Though it can be said that some of the gain would be mooted because of relativity, there would be an overall increase , too, I think...

 

[Code]

We have uneven distribution of wealth because of uneven distribution of ability, too. don't forget that.

Genetics plays a large part.

All you people seem to be mentioning is work ethic and birthright.

If you want to increase the overall wealth of people, try genetic engineering. Though it can be said that some of the gain would be moot because ability is relative, there would be an overall increase , too, I think...

I already mentioned that with the Harrison Bergeron reference.

But the skill is uneven because the motivation to learn new, profitable skills is uneven. And thankfully so, if everyone learned what I did then I'd have less marketable skills.

 

[Doktor Bollix]

.

No one said the poor have mental defects. Being unmotivated is a personal choice, being slothful. Although I'm sure it's hard to be motivated when you make so little money.

Neither did I. I said moral defects. And I was complaining of the way the working class apes the prejudices of their masters and sneers at the less fortunate (and luck has a lot to do with it, nobody picks their parents). Meanwhile the moral defects of the ruling class rarely inspires any outrage, unless the looting and pillaging of corporate America becomes surreally excessive, as with Enron et al.

 

[the nature boy]

I wonder what part education plays in terms of money distribution? What percentage of inner city or rural kids in bad schools move up the socio-economic ladder? and what percentage of kids in good schools move down?

I think one cause of the growing lower class is the lack of manufacturing jobs that have all gone to the 3rd world. Those people that once worked those jobs probably had to take a pay cut and work somewhere else.

But I think the answer lies in education.