The top 1% of wealthy have never had it so good - So why are they so outraged?

Since you have the answer for everything explain to me this....my fiance who has to work 48 hours a week on commission to pay the mortgage on a home that doesn't hold the same value it did last year and can't get an adjustment on the payment, also is stuck working for a company that keeps hiring people that don't know how to do the same job my fiance was hired to do and does it far better and with quality comparable to about 1% of the people in his industry but he is having to make money for the people he works with because he has to finish the work they can't do. He however can't just up and leave because of this house without taking a hit on his perfect credit. He works hard and deserves more but the owners of the companies he works for just ignore the problems as do most upper management/owners. So instead of paying him a salary he's worth and training the people who can't do their job they choose to ignore him. He knows if he leaves they will go under like the last two places he worked at and it wasn't due to the recession but poor ethics and employees with no skill. He can't afford to open a business because of the debt insued during the gas insanity where we were spending ruffly $800 a month. He however does not want to open a shop in Florida either because he's tired of dealing with idiots and people with such sh** work ethic that he feels that if he buys the equipment he can do a better job himself than someone that claims to be a professional...So he's beat down by management to stay their slave even though he makes more than all of them combined because they are too stupid to put him on salary and he can't change jobs without incuring a two hour drive or ruined credit. How do you suppose he get out of this mess?

I would like to see your point make front page.

They do actually do this in some european countries, where it all hits on the same rate. I think that's not the best way of doing things though. Even if it costs 30 grand for a speeding ticket, i think we could all agree that's far to much money for a government to extort from it's citizens (whether they can afford it or not).

lol, but regressive fines are ok for the poor?

My point is that as your income level drops, you are already being charged that "30k ticket" as relates to your income to fine ratio. The punishment doesn't fit the crime if the punishment is different simply depending on how much money you make. (another example -Bail! Have, get out of jail not-so-free card Vs. Stay in jail till they get to you.)

Cigs are something you choose to buy, so I don't agree with that. (Also I think they're gross ;)

Just a funny tax story... I went to Oregon for the first time a while ago and when I bought lunch I was shocked not to have to pay sales tax. ($5 is really $5?!) I thought it was interesting because I had never really thought about it, living in California my whole life.

would you rather wealth trickle down or poverty trickle up.

I think its pretty much apparent that trickle down economics did not work. Maybe you would rather us have a Plutocracy than a government? Thats what the right wing is really gunning for, the dismantlement of our government in favor of corporate control. You obviously have very little understanding of Enlightenment philosophy and economics.

Nope, history proves that trickle down works provided the govnment doesn't grab it all up and prevent it from trickling down.
What you mean by saying i don't have understanding is that i haven't drank the class envy koolaid that the govnment gives the small minded to misdirect their attention from it's failed policies. For example it blames oil companies for our energy problems when they are caused precisely by govnment regulating and taxing gas production at every stage and then taxing highly at the pump, all the while prohibiting us from using the oil we have -- forcing us to buy from opec. yeh its the greedy oil companies and their 8cent a gallon profit that is the problem and not the govnment. this is just an example of how you are of little understanding and are easily led by the nose.

No, it was from lifting commodities trading regulations during the Bush administration. Regulations are what tells corporations its not cool to dump toxic waste into our water supply and what not. I think the only history you are reading is Limbaugh's, or maybe too much Ayn Rand.

regulations say it is cool to dump toxic waste in the water, if you pay xx$ to senator so and so
Regulations also say that a lender must make high risk loans to people who can't pay them back and then pay barnie frank and chris dodd for the privelege, this may crash the economy, but regulations don't care because every liberal knows that americans have a Right to own a home.
Regulations say that oil companies must pay the govnment for each and every stage of the production of gasoline, and they are forbidden to use american oil, making us dependent on foreign oil -- this makes oil high priced but regulations don't care because every liberal knows that drilling for oil destroys the environment etc etc. Every problem we have can be traced to govnment and it's "regulation" but liberals don't care because they have been (sold) i mean told that it's corporations and those greedy corporations that are the problem. Don't be so gullible.

I'm not so gullible, because I do this thing called reading, as opposed to listening to Hannity and Fox news. Apparently you approve of Corporate Fascism over a Democracy.

monty reads Coultergeist and thinks her twaddling idiocy is "right on the money" so it's obvious he doesn't have a clue other than what the right wing says. The cpacity for rational independant thought doen't exist there so arguing with it is useless, Just like almost everything else the Limbaugh shittohead losers are expected to think.

monty is a lost cause. Most of us just ignore him like any other barking dog.

There is no such thing as "corporate fascism" fascism is when govnment dips it's dirty hands into the dealings of corporations -- much like what the govnment is doing now by using it's power to steal ownership of corporations and then sharing the spoils with it's supporters(the union) and other favorite liberals.
This is cronyism and fascism at it's finest. If you had a problem with haliburton -- just wait till you see the profit making arrangements that obama is making with G.E, Goldmans Sacs, Big health insurance etc
And every remaining "free" facet of american life will be Dictated by one of his 20+ czars.
If you think this is a good thing, you need your head examined.

AHAHAHAahahhahaha. Yeah, because the unions have a strangle hold on the corporations haha! Man, you are a riot. Where the hell do you live? You must have never lived in an industrial town. You make it out like corporations are some saintly entities bound by the righteous truth of profit, and the evil forces of the workers are cheating CEO's out of their 4 million dollar bonus every quarter.

Here is just one example why you are wrong about everything...CEO's give themselves billions in bonuses while cutting healthcare benefits for the people actually doing the freaking work, and people like you want to complain about healthcare reform while also supporting anti-labor ideals. Labor is pissed because they work over forty hours a week if they are lucky and still can't afford healthcare or to send their kids to college.

I don't think it's a secret that the auto workers unions and the legacy healthcare costs strangled our big 3 auto makers to death. It doesn't happen as you say that a ceo cuts healthcare for the workers as this is all negotiated in the union contracts -- when the company does finally go under, vulture progressives in the govnment use the oportunity to seize ownership of the company and force it's owners (stockholders) to take a fraction of their investment dollar -- it then turns around and rewards the union for it's assistance in collapsing the company by giving it the lionshare of ownershop. It's just a big sleazy con game to give power to the central govnment.
Open your eyes man!

I believe dubyuh once referred to them as "my base"

that is the most ignorant interpretation of the facts i've ever heard.

A) those liberal havens are the same ones calling for a higher tax on the wealthy. odd...

B) Sweden taxes the bejesus out of it's citizens...did you type the wrong country...?

C) what? a 60% tax? i missed that one. but that still leaves you with 400,000$ a year not including bonuses. cry me a trucking river.

D) we have the highest wealth disparity in the nation in the last 90 years or something like that. we also have some of the loosest tax laws since the great depression.

"Sure he works harder and longer than you and risked everything he had over and over to make it but"
right, because if there's no thing this downturn has proven it's that the CEO's are the ones taking it on the chin while we little men get off scot free. nitwit.

"rich too despite the fact that you wont work over 40 hours and you spend your money on drugs and toys."

my god...you...you've overtaken John and unclecharlie, bravo sir, bravo. no one's arguing for everyone to be wealthy, i'd like everyone to have a livable wage, something they can support their family on and send their kids to college if they want to go if they're working 40 hours a week. sorry if that's "unamerican", but your idea of america (in terms of the market) looks an awful lot like indonesia or bangaladesh to me.

what's really cute is my version would look a lot like sweden :0

You are downright offensive. My father worked 40-80 hours a week in a factory only to have them cut benefits every year so the board members could give themselves larger and larger bonuses. He busted his ass all his life and now he is retired and worried that a single illness will bankrupt him because the healthcare that was promised as a part of his retirement has been slashed and slashed at every opportunity.

You really tell it like it is courage! Sweden is so capitalist "Made In Sweden" is on every thing I buy. I have so much more to say but Billy O just came on FOX so I got to go.

Courage don't ever give up Fools like you help us win.

"We the American working population
Hate the fact that eight hours a day
Is wasted on chasing the dream of someone that isn't us
And we may not hate our jobs
But we hate jobs in general
That don't have to do with fighting our own causes
We the American working population
Hate the nine to five day-in day-out
But we'd rather be supporting ourselves
By being paid to perfect the pasttimes
That we have harbored based solely on the fact
That it makes us smile if it sounds dope"

aesop rock.

That would be in line with figures repeatedly showing that massive sections of the American working class actually think they are living a middle class life, and constantly overestimate their position on the income ladder [i.e., significantly more Americans claim they fall under the "tax the wealthy" bracket than would actually ever pay higher taxes in a "tax the wealthy" system].

bill gates is a conservative??

why so we can hear people like you and johnA bitch about how little you make and how hard you work and how unfair the gov is?

nah, i think we'll just ignore you.

Maybe you are right. Instead of taxing American citizens we will borrow the money from China with interest! Such a brilliant plan! Oh wait, maybe we should raise taxes for 99% of the population. They are not rich because they don't work hard enough anyways, fuck'em!

but that would mean theat you or I could be equals to them some day... and we cant have that... that's capitalism.

No buddy, it's not just you. Lobbying is just corruption out in the open.

I agree with you but we both know the one percenters will always buy their way out of taxes.

Its hard for me to swallow 1 million a year. Its even harder to swallow 60 million a year. Some of these CEO gets 100 million dollar bonuses. 25% seems kinda low. I think if you get paid over 10 million 75%. if the CEOs think they can play god with our lives 99% tax.

When half the worlds population lives off a couple dollars a day. High taxes don't seem so bad.

That's the beauty of being rich. If you fuck up royally, you still get paid millions and the little guy gets stuck with the bill.

uh because they already paid 500,000 in tax.

montesooma you look like a fool with your %50 tax you think the rich pay. It shows us two things one your not smart and two your not rich. Anyone making over $372,950 tax rate is %35 and that is before a high end tax accountant does his magic.