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The OP's post seems like it can be summarized as "count your blessings, and appreciate what you have". I'm amazed that statement received such an antagonistic response. Its important to remember how lucky we are to be living in the developed world, and an appreciation for the condition that the vast majority of humanity lives in gives one a valuable perspective. In many ways the average middle class person lives better than Kings and Emperors did not very long ago.
Where I come from, televisions are still the size of a small computer monitor, people either walk or use public transport, 3-5 people live in a house or an apartment much less than 1000 sq ft, red meat on the table is a small side dish, and kids get 1 holiday present from the family.
Poor people, like I was, could get hospitalized without being bankrupt, but that's about the only luxury us poor people had and that was taken out of our small incomes by taxes.
Therefore, when I hear about complaining about high taxes in New York, or that the middle class is being destroyed, I have the urge to tell people to shut the **** up.
A poster from California claimed that his and his wife's income was a mere 80k each, and he thought he was low-middle class due to all the taxation.
No you *insert expletive here*, your wealth is what people from Siberia, a place where winter is 8 months long, only dream of.
Income != Wealth
Wealth is what you accumulate after you pay all your taxes and bills.
$200k is a whole lot of money if you live in rural Alabama, though.
I agreed with the basic premise of your OP, but others have made good points, too. Whether or not your income is "excessive" depends a lot on where you live and what your financial obligations are.
Location: Just transplanted to FL from the N GA mountains
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lerner
The OP's post seems like it can be summarized as "count your blessings, and appreciate what you have". I'm amazed that statement received such an antagonistic response. Its important to remember how lucky we are to be living in the developed world, and an appreciation for the condition that the vast majority of humanity lives in gives one a valuable perspective. In many ways the average middle class person lives better than Kings and Emperors did not very long ago.
If the original post wasn't in the politics and controversies section, and if the sentiment was "heartfelt" I'd agree. But... knowing this forum, and reading the posts here for a long-time... it wasn't. It was just another post vilifying those with more money no matter how hard they worked for it.
“If the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, you can bet the water bill is higher.â€
― Debbie Macomber, Mrs. Miracle
If the original post wasn't in the politics and controversies section, and if the sentiment was "heartfelt" I'd agree. But... knowing this forum, and reading the posts here for a long-time... it wasn't. It was just another post vilifying those with more money no matter how hard they worked for it.
“If the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, you can bet the water bill is higher.â€
― Debbie Macomber, Mrs. Miracle
The OP's post seems like it can be summarized as "count your blessings, and appreciate what you have". I'm amazed that statement received such an antagonistic response. Its important to remember how lucky we are to be living in the developed world, and an appreciation for the condition that the vast majority of humanity lives in gives one a valuable perspective. In many ways the average middle class person lives better than Kings and Emperors did not very long ago.
That was my initial thought also - grateful to be living in America, a land of opportunity and freedom.
But we are both wrong about that - the OP later explained about "need".
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheHurricaneKid
To me any income that goes above the actual need is excessive.
This "according to need" belief is a tenet of Marxism and Communism -- which was (and probably still is to an extent) the way his/her Mother Country operates. Distribution of Wealth and "each according to need". That's not the American way and never will be. We have opportunity - there is no limit to success, the Communist/Marxist type of system is very different. Sounds like the OP yearns for the Russian past, while ignoring that there was always a ruling Elite that actually made the decisions about what the citizen "needed".
The American way is NOT to make an arbitrary decision by some bureaucrat about what a a Citizen's "need" is or too determine how much success, income and wealth a Citizen may be "allowed" to have.
I don't want to every see that sort of Government or System in this country - those that do should take an extended visit to experience it before wishing for this. Envy is not a healthy state of being.
Compared to a sizable portion of the world population, even the homeless guy standing on the streetcorner holding a cardboard sign is RICH!
When I was a kid, living in a log cabin with no running water and no electricity, I was RICH! We always had enough to eat, good spring water to drink, fresh (whole) milk, a roof that didn't leak, and a warm comfortable bed. Oh, sure, some of what we ate was illegally killed wild game, but so what! Many people survived that way back then.
The only thing I had to fear were rattle snakes.
I have been to the deep recesses of Appalachia where they had no sewage,water systems.People so poor it makes your heart ache no money no hope just down right poverty.Folks from Webb West Virginia are rich compared to some of the places I have been.
The government war on poverty a trillion dollars spent has not improved things in some cases it has made it worse by making people dependant instead of being productive.
During the Great Depression my father went hungry for 3 days so his family of 8 could eat all the while working odd jobs before and after school.Hell to be the man of the house at 12...never a whine or wimper just good Scot Irish work ethic and temper.
Where I come from, televisions are still the size of a small computer monitor, people either walk or use public transport, 3-5 people live in a house or an apartment much less than 1000 sq ft, red meat on the table is a small side dish, and kids get 1 holiday present from the family.
Poor people, like I was, could get hospitalized without being bankrupt, but that's about the only luxury us poor people had and that was taken out of our small incomes by taxes.
Therefore, when I hear about complaining about high taxes in New York, or that the middle class is being destroyed, I have the urge to tell people to shut the **** up.
A poster from California claimed that his and his wife's income was a mere 80k each, and he thought he was low-middle class due to all the taxation.
No you *insert expletive here*, your wealth is what people from Siberia, a place where winter is 8 months long, only dream of.
you don't seem to understand the difference between wealth and income
I really think thats the goal...Make us as much like the rest of the world as they can.... Do they realize there are wicked rich people in other countrys as well? They don't seem to be doing any crying about that?
And they carried on about a war on women here for not giving out free birth control when a girl in the middle east was shot for wanting an education. They say it's homophobic to not want gays to get married while homosexuality is punishable by death in some countries. They complain about fracking here while their socialist utopia Norway is funded by oil. Liberals' problem is the multiculturalism doctrine ends up with adhering to that making them look like hypocritical fools.
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