How much of the 99% are you?

[roni]

Originally Posted by minnjim

$5500 for a Mac?!?!
And sorry, but you should not put the average 18 year old in charge of anything more than a french fryer.

It is well nigh impossible to spend that much for a Mac. Now, if they were adding up the cost of the software installed on the computer, that could be easy.

[melliedee]

[ACE]

All people need enough so that they have something to live for, with out something to lose, people will do things they normally wouldn't do. Desperate people do desperate things
If they have something to lose ( a good paying job , house , car etc) they are less likely to do things to jeopardize what the top 20% have worked so hard to achieve.
Simple concept that has brought down many people and governments through out time.

[Rissask]

Originally Posted by ACE

All people need enough so that they have something to live for, with out something to lose, people will do things they normally wouldn't do. Desperate people do desperate things
If they have something to lose ( a good paying job , house , car etc) they are less likely to do things to jeopardize what the top 20% have worked so hard to achieve.
Simple concept that has brought down many people and governments through out time.

Totally agree.

[Ginger]

It is really easy to sit in your overstuffed armchair in your big home with your full belly and talk about how hard your work/worked to get to where you are and anyone who hasn't achieved what you have are just slackers or lazy and need to get it together.

There are many, many very hard-working people out there, some working three or even four jobs that just enable them to live with their family of four in a one room apartment in the worst area of town and put the basics on the table. Many people have obstacles that you or I can not even imagine.

Some people come from poverty and work themselves haggard to get ahead. Then an accident happens, a back gets injured, a car accident, a work accident. Maybe they were working under-the-table at nights to try to squirrel away a bit of cash to help their kids go to college, then they injure themselves…no insurance, no pay. They can't work, within a year their savings is gone, and they are living in a tent under an overpass.

It's not far-fetched: it happens every day. Those people are not just slackers who don't work hard. They are people who had no choice in the family environment or demographic they were born into, and have had some form of hard luck come their way.

I feel it is really sad to see people so easily chastise others without walking a mile in their shoes, or at least stretching their minds and hearts to imagine that walk. Many of us may be fortunate, we may have worked hard, we may have had many different advantages over others in our own society. Living in a very affluent neighbourhood (but not being affluent myself…life circumstance, bad breaks, and such..roll your eyes as you see fit) I see the result of that kind of thinking every day in the children my kids go to school with; the kids who look down on the ones not being driven to school in Escalades or being bought BMW's for their 16th birthday.

And not everyone chooses to spend 14 hours a day, 6 days a week working. Some people put more value in time spent loving their children and taking moments to recognize the joy in being alive. That doesn't mean it is fair that they can not afford appropriate housing or proper food because the upper 20% are busy ruining the economy, given multimillion dollar bonuses and bail-outs at taxpayer expense, not to mention giant tax breaks to corporations while taxing the shit out of food and goods. And most importantly for many, the fact that our environment is threatened by the tactics of extreme corporate greed and regulatory bribing.

Donating to charity is awesome. But its more awesome when done with anonymity or by way of action, versus just thrown' the dollah bills around to relieve yourself of appearing gauche.

[Jacko]

Nice to see you back, Ginger!

[horizon200]

Originally Posted by ryberg

Well this would fit better over here, now, and there must be some people who'll want to comment on it, given its content and that stated desire to know what the OWS agenda is.

Then they discuss the study that came out with these telling results:

And this commentary:

So, in the "Actual Column" 40% of the population don't have anything?

[user 6507]

So how many other people here are going to fess up and admit they're in the 1-20% bracket?

We seem to have quite a few well traveled people around here, and I've seen some pics of luxurious new houses etc....condos being built in Playa-people apparently "retired" in their 40's, nice trips to Europe every year etc.-that all takes some moolah, so I guess we all ain't poor. I think we might have been slightly upper middle class until our property values and retirement portfolios tanked under Obama (and continue to tank)-now we're just middle class (and falling every day), certainly nowhere near the upper echelons.

I suspect the people who fit the above category may be targets of resentment, right along with the one per-centers.

[D33RHUNT3R]

Originally Posted by StephenB

So how many other people here are going to fess up and admit they're in the 1-20% bracket?

We seem to have quite a few well traveled people around here, and I've seen some pics of luxurious new houses etc....condos being built in Playa-people apparently "retired" in their 40's, nice trips to Europe every year etc.-that all takes some moolah, so I guess we all ain't poor. I think we might have been slightly upper middle class until our property values and retirement portfolios tanked under Obama (and continue to tank)-now we're just middle class (and falling every day), certainly nowhere near the upper echelons.

I suspect the people who fit the above category may be targets of resentment, right along with the one per-centers.

Its all about playing class warfare.. its all they got with Obama tanking... I'm poor compared to most of you and I'm not taking the bait... I dont begrude anybody anything they have ...


EDIT exception roni... He needs to pay way more.... He obviously has a lot of guilty about his wealth...

[gingele]

Originally Posted by StephenB

So how many other people here are going to fess up and admit they're in the 1-20% bracket?

We seem to have quite a few well traveled people around here, and I've seen some pics of luxurious new houses etc....condos being built in Playa-people apparently "retired" in their 40's, nice trips to Europe every year etc.-that all takes some moolah, so I guess we all ain't poor. I think we might have been slightly upper middle class until our property values and retirement portfolios tanked under Obama (and continue to tank)-now we're just middle class (and falling every day), certainly nowhere near the upper echelons.

I suspect the people who fit the above category may be targets of resentment, right along with the one per-centers.

Your post makes a lot of very erroneous presumptions.

First of all, my sympathies with the OWS movement were put right out there in plain language yesterday (you happened to agree with my post on the subject, if you'll recall) and those sympathies have zero to do with harboring resentment against any single individual.

Second of all, the difference between income in the 80th percentile (approx $92,00 a year) and income in the 99th percentile (over $320,000 a year) is different by several orders of magnitude.

Your effort to lump the those groups together is either indicative of your failure to understand the issues surrounding income disparity in this country, or it is a very lame (and somewhat transparent) attempt to make this into a "we are all in this together" solidarity-with-the-1% kind of thing. And I think you are a pretty smart guy, so...

[roni]

Originally Posted by D33RHUNT3R

EDIT exception roni... He needs to pay way more.... He obviously has a lot of guilty about his wealth...

I do not have wealth and I am not guilty about what I do have or how I got it.

I do not receive any of it through a program that I think should be terminated.

[Jacko]

Originally Posted by StephenB

So how many other people here are going to fess up and admit they're in the 1-20% bracket?

We seem to have quite a few well traveled people around here, and I've seen some pics of luxurious new houses etc....condos being built in Playa-people apparently "retired" in their 40's, nice trips to Europe every year etc.-that all takes some moolah, so I guess we all ain't poor. I think we might have been slightly upper middle class until our property values and retirement portfolios tanked under Obama (and continue to tank)-now we're just middle class (and falling every day), certainly nowhere near the upper echelons.

I suspect the people who fit the above category may be targets of resentment, right along with the one per-centers.

"Fess up"? That is an odd way of saying it...I agree with gingele's post, but I have no problem being "wealthy" and still being supportive of many of the ideals of the protesters. Where do you see the conflict?

[gingele]

[Mikey]

Originally Posted by StephenB

So how many other people here are going to fess up and admit they're in the 1-20% bracket?

We seem to have quite a few well traveled people around here, and I've seen some pics of luxurious new houses etc....condos being built in Playa-people apparently "retired" in their 40's, nice trips to Europe every year etc.-that all takes some moolah, so I guess we all ain't poor. I think we might have been slightly upper middle class until our property values and retirement portfolios tanked under Obama (and continue to tank)-now we're just middle class (and falling every day), certainly nowhere near the upper echelons.

I suspect the people who fit the above category may be targets of resentment, right along with the one per-centers.

What is the income or assets needed to be at the 20% mark? I have seen what they think the 5% mark is. Do they have a breakdown so one can figure out where the hell they stand in their system?

[gingele]

Originally Posted by Mikey

What is the income or assets needed to be at the 20% mark? I have seen what they think the 5% mark is. Do they have a breakdown so one can figure out where the hell they stand in their system?

"their system"? Again, what is up with the "us versus them"? You thin the OWS folks are just making this shit up?

The actual data can be found at the US Census website, but if you just want to know where you stand, try this: Political Calculations: What's Your U.S. Income Ranking? - Individuals and this one for Households (more than one wage-earner)