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I think it matters how hard a person worked to get there. It's one thing to work hard and hit a home run, something else to be born on third base and trot in on someone else's double-play grounder.
Even Bill Gates and Donalt Trump were born on second base
I have never in my life had feelings like that. Unless someone is mean to me personally I like everyone no matter where they are on the socioeconomic spectrum.
Do I feel anger, bitterness, jealousy towards the rich? Complex question.
1. I don't feel any of those things simply because they have more money than I do.
2. Most of our pensions (or what is left in them) is tied into the stock market, and in the past few years I have come to realize that the game is fixed. Wall Street types made a crap-load of money through questionable (and many times illegal) moves. Their actions demolished the life-savings of many people - money that these people (who "did the right thing" and who saved their entire working lives) will never ever get back. Their actions almost took down the entire US economy (and by default) the economies of the world. Their actions affected EVERYTHING - what our homes prices are worth, how much money we have in savings, at what age we can retire, the unemployment rate, the increased burden on safety nets, and on and on. How many lost their jobs, received fines or went to jail for that? For all of that I am angry and bitter.
3. Many highly paid but underperforming CEO's of large corporations have been bought out of their contracts over the past few years. How many of us will ever receive a $250 million contract buyout because we did a lousy job for the company? For that I am angry and bitter.
4. Our government now picks which companies will survive and which will fold. We taxpayers (who are struggling to keep a roof over our heads and food on our tables) paid billions of dollars so that certain companies can keep running, so that CEO's (who allowed their companies to become so distressed) can continue to receive oversized paychecks, so that union workers can continue to receive high wages and oversized pension plans. No company executive worth his or her salary (plus bonuses and stock options of course) just wakes up one morning and realizes that their company is in trouble, that their product is not cutting it in the open market, that they cannot afford to pay the salaries and sweet-pensions that have been negotiated by union bosses on behalf of their workers. Things aren't fine one day and catastrophic the next. The signs were always there but were ignored. As it goes for mega-corporations so it goes with cities all over the country. It didn't just happen. The signs were always there that they were headed for the cliff. Nobody had the guts to do anything about it and for that I am angry and bitter.
5. I have been reading all these stupid threads about Wal-mart recently. All the anger about low wages and extended hours and "I bet they're eating Thanksgiving dinner with their familiy while the lackeys work the holidays". Walmart employs hundreds of thousands of people. It provides low quality merchandise at a price point that people want. It has been hugely successful because it has a hugely smart business model. I can't knock them for that. Walmart was built from nothing. An idea. And that is (or was supposed to be) what this country was supposed to be all about. Nobody is being forced to work for Walmart. The wages are low. But the wages across the country for positions at all levels are dropping. It goes back to Wall Street and their decisons - and back to the government and their decisions - and back to CEO's and their decisions - why wages are dropping. Do I despise people who are rich? No. What I despise is a rigged system where everybody in power (government and big business and Wall Street) is tied to each other. Who gives who a donation. Who went to Ivy League college with who. Who worked with who. Who is beholden to who. It's an incestuous relationship that is toxic to a large percentage of the population of this country. Us minions don't stand a chance in a closed game that is ultimately rigged. For that I am angry and bitter, because playing by the rules and working hard increasingly seems like a fools game. The good guys don't always win, and sometimes I wonder if the good guys will ever win again. Everybody in this country really doesn't have a fair shot - and I'm not using fair shot in the slogan-y Obama-way.
6. I am angry and bitter because the state of our country has succeeded in pitting people against each other. We whine about minimum wage jobs and working the holidays. We whine about highly paid CEO's. We whine about Romney being too rich to be president, when I highly doubt that there is ANY politician who is not extremely financially comfortable. None of them live in the real world. All of them live in a bubble. Does it matter if they have $500 million or $50 million or $5 million or $1 million? Rich is rich is rich. We whine about free birth control and made up wars on women. We whine about gays not being able to marry and whether or not we should call illegal immigrants, illegal immigrants. We whine about whether or not we should say Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays. We whine about being groped at the airport. We whine about people gaming the system - who do not look for work and have no intention of looking for work because Big Brother will take care of them. And I'm part of that too. I do plenty of whining and I don't have any answers or solutions. But we're in trouble in this country and we had better figure something out soon because we can't go on like this. The debt will get bigger, more and more people will become effective wards of the state, we'll make more concessions to our freedoms and justify those concessions somehow in our minds so that we can sleep at night and continue to believe that those concessions won't effect us and our own lives, we'll progressively find reasons to hate and envy more people, and..........you get the point.
Sometimes I get angry at society for making certain people rich, like Britney Spears or What-the-Fka-Flame or the gumby who invented Bumper Nuts.
That reminds me of an idea I had a few years ago...maybe I should launch it after all.
(Hmmm...looks like someone has already got a similar business by that name, they're selling online so I presume they've got it trademarked...gotta go to Plan B for a name)
Why are you waiting for "others" to create jobs. You can start your own business and create your own job.
Yes, if you have enough money (which varies greatly by location and type of business). State and local regulations often create financial barriers to bootstrap businesses.
You do realize this is part of the reason Romney lost. He said jobs.. jobs... jobs and the parasites said no... no ... Nooooooooo
If you're an unskilled burger flipper with a job, then jobs...jobs...jobs will probably make you worse off rather than better off, so why would you want to vote for someone iukely to make you worse off?
It's most instructive that you can't seem to follow along with the discussion. If there WERE a "mental gulag" you'd be denied admission because they'd conclude there was nothing to work with.
The POOR do not need the RICH to live more than the RICH need the POOR. That is the discussion we are having.
The capitalist system REQUIRES a class of low skilled, low wage people who will provide LABOR. Certain occupations will NEVER net prosperity, yet we NEED labor to do those occupations to maintain our way of life. To deny that is the height of idiocy.
"Labor" only shares in economic prosperity of capitalism when collectively bargained for. And "the rich" are certainly not going to pay more in taxes to ensure the janitors of the world get beyond subsistence standard of living.
In the end, if the system were to collapse, who would "feel it" more in terms of their lifestyle: The "rich" or "the poor?" The plastic wife of an obese rich banker is not going to fair as well as a working woman who has put in her time and energy to support her family through her labor.
So, who REALLY needs whom?
It's all true.
And, if those running the show at the top don't quit juking around up there, we might just get an opportunity to see just how true your words are.
When I see a rich person, I laugh at all their jokes and try to show that I'm interested in them as a person. They might give me some money if I try hard enough.
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ka-Flame or the gumby who invented Bumper Nuts.
