Help the poor! Buy more yachts and helicopters and buildings that need networks and servers that work!

The article below was a fwd to me from someone who shall remain nameless because she would kill me if I put her name here. Anyway, it had me steaming and pulling out what little hair I have left. Thought I’d share. Try to make it to the end in one piece. My response is below the article.

Billionaires up, America down
By Holly Sklar, McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceSunday, October 21, 2007
When it comes to producing billionaires, America is doing great.Until 2005, multimillionaires could still make the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans. In 2006, the Forbes 400 went billionaires only.
This year, you'd need a Forbes 482 to fit all the billionaires.
A billion dollars is a lot of dough. Queen Elizabeth II, British monarch for five decades, would have to add $400 million to her $600 million fortune to reach $1 billion. And she'd need another $300 million to reach the Forbes 400 minimum of $1.3 billion. The average Forbes 400 member has $3.8 billion.When the Forbes 400 began in 1982, it was dominated by oil and manufacturing fortunes. Today, says Forbes, "Wall Street is king."Nearly half the 45 new members, says Forbes, "made their fortunes in hedge funds and private equity. Money manager John Paulson joins the list after pocketing more than $1 billion short-selling subprime credit this summer."The 25th anniversary of the Forbes 400 isn't party time for America.We have a record 482 billionaires — and record foreclosures.We have a record 482 billionaires — and a record 47 million people without any health insurance.Since 2000, we have added 184 billionaires — and 5 million more people living below the poverty line.The official poverty threshold for one person was a ridiculously low $10,294 in 2006. That won't get you two pounds of caviar ($9,800) and 25 cigars ($730) on the Forbes Cost of Living Extremely Well Index. The $20,614 family-of-four poverty threshold is lower than the cost of three months of home flower arrangements ($24,525).Wealth is being redistributed from poorer to richer.Between 1983 and 2004, the average wealth of the top 1 percent of households grew by 78 percent, reports Edward Wolff, professor of economics at New York University. The bottom 40 percent lost 59 percent.In 2004, one out of six households had zero or negative net worth. Nearly one out of three households had less than $10,000 in net worth, including home equity. That's before the mortgage crisis hit.In 1982, when the Forbes 400 had just 13 billionaires, the highest paid CEO made $108 million and the average full-time worker made $34,199, adjusted for inflation in $2006. Last year, the highest paid hedge fund manager hauled in $1.7 billion, the highest paid CEO made $647 million, and the average worker made $34,861, with vanishing health and pension coverage.The Forbes 400 is even more of a rich men's club than when it began. The number of women has dropped from 75 in 1982 to 39 today.The 400 richest Americans have a conservatively estimated $1.54 trillion in combined wealth. That amount is more than 11 percent of our $13.8 trillion Gross Domestic Product (GDP) — the total annual value of goods and services produced by our nation of 303 million people. In 1982, Forbes 400 wealth measured less than 3 percent of U.S. GDP.And the rich, notes Fortune magazine, "give away a smaller share of their income than the rest of us."Thanks to mega-tax cuts, the rich can afford more mega-yachts, accessorized with helicopters and mini-submarines. Meanwhile, the infrastructure of bridges, levees, mass transit, parks and other public assets inherited from earlier generations of taxpayers crumbles from neglect, and the holes in the safety net are growing.The top 1 percent of households — average income $1.5 million — will save a collective $79.5 billion on their 2008 taxes, reports Citizens for Tax Justice. That's more than the combined budgets of the Transportation Department, Small Business Administration, Environmental Protection Agency and Consumer Product Safety Commission.Tax cuts will save the top 1 percent a projected $715 billion between 2001 and 2010. And cost us $715 billion in mounting national debt plus interest.The children and grandchildren of today's underpaid workers will pay for the partying of today's plutocrats and their retinue of lobbyists.It's time for Congress to roll back tax cuts for the wealthy and close the loophole letting billionaire hedge fund speculators pay taxes at a lower rate than their secretaries.Inequality has roared back to 1920s levels. It was bad for our nation then. It's bad for our nation now.Holly Sklar is co-author of "A Just Minimum Wage: Good for Workers, Business and Our Future" and "Raise the Floor: Wages and Policies That Work for All of Us."

MY RESPONSE:
The above article disregards basic economics. The author pokes fun at the billionaires that buy yachts and helicopters, yet ignores the fact that those yachts and helicopters are built by regular "Joe's" like me.She cites the foreclosure rates, but fails to mention the cause: people spending beyond their means. I don't own a $400,000 home because I know damn well that I can't afford one. But some day I will - as long as billionaires keep buying yachts and helicopters and building offices that need networks and servers that work.
Oh and by the way - Washington keeps 28% of my salary. Before I even see it. Wouldn't that money be put to better use if I spent it on a yacht rather than on some stupid Government project that never even gets off the ground?
Healthcare - oh, boy. Since WHEN is this considered some basic human right or something? I have health insurance because I have a job. My employer is nice enough to offer it, and pay a part of it - but they don't have to. I pay $400 a month for it, too. Even though I'm not sick enough to cost that much. Why is it so expensive? Because people without a job fall down and go boom, too. And hospitals cannot refuse to treat them. Who pays for it? I DO!!! I'm not saying that I mind all that much - I'm all for helping people in need - but I don't want the Government in charge of it. It would only cost more!
Investments - What is an investment? It's a bet. A gamble. That's it. Anyone can buy. There's no secret club you have to join. You just need the start-up capitol, and be willing to risk it. Fine, raise taxes on investors. Who will it hurt? ME!!! I have EARNED the money that I invest. And I have therefore EARNED the money I gain by investing it into companies that employ people who build yachts and helicopters and buildings that need networks and servers that work.

I wonder how much Holly Sklar made off her stupid book? I sure hope she spends it on yachts or helicopters or buildings that need networks and servers that work.

Comments

Wayne said…
The official poverty threshold for one person was a ridiculously low $10,294 in 2006.

While it would require living in a decidedly bad part of town, I worked it out, and I could live on that much by myself. No luxuries, and either no car, or an old junker that I could work on by myself, with just basic liability insurance.

But that income level is below the amount a person making minimum wage at a full-time job makes. If I couldn't better that within 6 months, I would either be in a city with a terrible economy (much worse than the national average), I must not be trying, or I must REALLY suck at interviewing skills.

The family-of-four poverty level would actually be easier to live on, because rent would be a lower fraction of the total. Plus qualifying for the Earned Income Credit makes the total actually higher than that, because you get back more taxes than you pay in.

Right now, the grocery bill for my family of four is about $200/wk, but I could cut it down to under $150 if I had to. I still wouldn't like the part of town I would have to live in to get the rent level I am figuring ($600/mo), but if you're not a single parent or have a stay-at-home parent, there's not much excuse to be pulling in only that much. Heck, I could buy a second-hand pushmower and make more than $20k a year, working about 3 days a week.

As for rich people - not only do people like this want to punish them for working hard, taking risks and winning, but they will make it harder for the rest of us to get there.

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