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Who cares about a gap? Is it jealousy that some here don't want people to have big houses? Big cars? vacations? For those who have done well good for them! For those who have inherited, well, good for them as well. Their fathers, grandfathers, etc worked for that so they could pass it on.
Since when did everyone start worrying so much about some stupid gap between the rich and the poor. Perhaps those who think it's a problem should look in the mirror. Maybe if they put the same amount of effort into bettering their own careers, increasing their own net worth, and investing some of their funds instead of trying to see how they can just take from the rich this country could go back to how it once was. You know, instead of trying to bring the rich down why don't the poor try to move up? Simple really.
Equality of opporuntity vs equality of outcome debate.
Equality of opportunity is the way to go. Fix the public schools, ensure that college is accessible to qualified students who may not have the financial support (loans are perfectly fine, but people from lower SES need to be able to access them, that means ensuring that you only provide loans to decent schools that turn out graduates the workforce needs).
Equality of outcome is useless. It just never works. It's the stereotype of the lottery winner than ends up worse off than before ten years later after becoming insanely wealthy. Some people just are economic losers. You can give them money to make them rich and they'll burn it all.
Who cares about a gap? Is it jealousy that some here don't want people to have big houses? Big cars? vacations? For those who have done well good for them! For those who have inherited, well, good for them as well. Their fathers, grandfathers, etc worked for that so they could pass it on.
Since when did everyone start worrying so much about some stupid gap between the rich and the poor. Perhaps those who think it's a problem should look in the mirror. Maybe if they put the same amount of effort into bettering their own careers, increasing their own net worth, and investing some of their funds instead of trying to see how they can just take from the rich this country could go back to how it once was. You know, instead of trying to bring the rich down why don't the poor try to move up? Simple really.
Many people do put effort into their careers and go no where. The poor have been moving up but there are not enough higher positions for all the poor to move up. Why are the rich bringing the poor down because by paying them less that is what they are doing.
1. When defining poor don't just do it by income which is what the US Census Bureau does. I understand why - because it is easier to count income. But a lot of poor people households in the US have more than one TV, more than one car, computers, other electronic devices and other "stuff" plus they own a home. Some also get some form of welfare (food stamps, housing, etc.). That is hardly comparable to people who don't have a roof over their heads or know from where their next meal is coming.
2. The poor suffer from "dwindling choice syndrome" and it started when they screwed up in school. Graduate high school, get a job, don't have a baby out of wedlock, don't hang out with losers, don't marry a loser, don't do drugs. Each one of those things contributes to dwindling choices later in life. You need to maximize your choices so you aren't a pimple on the ass of society. Too bad they don't teach you that in school.
Some suggestions:
1-No big houses.
2-No big cars.
3-No foreign adventures.
4-Curtail wastage.
5-Domestic peace.
Dispel the myth that everyone is "middle class". If you make under, say, $150,000/yr. then you're below middle class. The psychological effect may trigger a change in political economic reality that would lessen the gap. But maybe not. Worth a try.
Dispel the myth that everyone is "middle class". If you make under, say, $150,000/yr. then you're below middle class. The psychological effect may trigger a change in political economic reality that would lessen the gap. But maybe not. Worth a try.
You really can't define middle class for all of America by a set salary. I can buy a mansion in Texas for 500,000, that'll buy me a 30 year old town home here in San Jose.
Also, considering the average household income in the U.S is 50,000 dollars, I think 150,000 might not be the threshold for entering the middle class.
You really can't define middle class for all of America by a set salary. I can buy a mansion in Texas for 500,000, that'll buy me a 30 year old town home here in San Jose.
Also, considering the average household income in the U.S is 50,000 dollars, I think 150,000 might not be the threshold for entering the middle class.
True.
Middle-class is basically people who can afford a house, two newer cars, take a vacation, enjoy small luxuries, all without stressing their finances. It never meant "the average class." It mean the class that was between the majority (working-class) and to elite. $150,000 is a good solid number of middle-class in much of the country. In San Jose that's barely getting in the door for middle-class. It's not far off median family income for San Jose. Given, it's a middle-class area. Most people in the San Jose area are well educated and have middle-class job responsibilities. It's just the cost of housing means at $150k you're not going to enjoy a typical middle-class consumption.
1. A more steeply graduated income tax.
2. Eliminate the mortgage interest deduction.
3. Institute certification programs for technical jobs to replace watered-down, overrated, exhorbitantly-priced college degrees that confer asolutely no competitive advantage because everyone and their dog has one.
One way, happening every day throughout the world, is the lowering of the fertility rate.
Read recently about the labor problems in the San Joaquin valley agricultural district, the lack of immigrant labor, and one issue raised was the nosediving of the fertility rate in Mexico, now around 2.0, fewer and fewer immigrants coming across the Border. No longer can they pay them a measly $8 an hour, this year $10, and in some areas $12 an hour.
The rich have always been dependent on lots and lots of cheap labor, and excess population. Even in India, the rich are complaining about the higher wages they have to pay their domestic help!
Pay people a living wage, no matter what they do.
There is no reason a food worker should live in poverty.
No one who works in this country should ever live in poverty.
Yea, it's just that simple.
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