[Ache]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKKQnijnsM

[Quinny]

It's interesting how little interest this thread has provoked. The banned TED talk on the same page is even more enlightening.

[Pops]

It is no longer news to most people on this site.

The Walton family for example has a net worth greater than the bottom 40% of Americans. First, 30% own nothing and never did and second, so what?

Sam convinced us he could sell cheap stuff cheaper so we dropped the local mom & pop stores like a hot rock and bought 2 pieces of junk from sam instead of one from M&P, at least that's what we thought.

Even if we did get more cheap stuff, the bottom 30% still have nothing except twice as much junk and half as many places to buy it...


Sam just held the knife, he didn't make us turn our neck.


--
Having said that, I'm not sure why half the population thought it was fair the Waltons should only pay 15% taxes on their income.

[Fishman]

Amazing isn't, that the wealth inequality has so dramatically worsened during the Obama Administration? And poverty has expanded so much, so many on welfare, so few jobs. While the money they do get from the government is slowly be dried up in value. Strangely, those that chase "wealth inequality" seem to create the most.

[PrestonSturges]

And just think how worse the wealth inequality would be if it weren't for the socialist "redistribution of wealth" that keeps funneling revenue from the wealth generating blue states to the parasite red states.

The plummeting life expectancy in red states is starting get attention. I'm not sure if anyone has compared them to Mexico, but there should be a number of conservative counties with a lower life expectancy than Mexico.

Also companies like Walmart rely on the federal government to provide their employees with food stamps because they earn so little. The employees are working, but it's basically the Walton family collecting the welfare benefits.

[Plantagenet]

Amazing isn't, that the wealth inequality has so dramatically worsened during the Obama Administration? And poverty has expanded so much, so many on welfare, so few jobs. While the money they do get from the government is slowly be dried up in value. Strangely, those that chase "wealth inequality" seem to create the most.

Obama is a classic example of the "articulate incompetent" personality type. He talks a good game but he's too incompetent to follow through on his various promises

[PrestonSturges]

Gee Plant, I bet I could find 10 or 20 examples of you calling Obama inarticulate.

It's just a shame Mittens lost because the economy is gathering speed pretty much the way it was predicted, and if Mitt had won they would declared this was vindication of Romney's cuts to "entitlements." Mitt was all set to cash in on others peoples work, and he would have convinced himself that he deserved all the credit.

[Outcast_Searcher]

And just think how worse the wealth inequality would be if it weren't for the socialist "redistribution of wealth" that keeps funneling revenue from the wealth generating blue states to the parasite red states.

The plummeting life expectancy in red states is starting get attention. I'm not sure if anyone has compared them to Mexico, but there should be a number of conservative counties with a lower life expectancy than Mexico.

Also companies like Walmart rely on the federal government to provide their employees with food stamps because they earn so little. The employees are working, but it's basically the Walton family collecting the welfare benefits.

Actually, for those who see economics as something other than taking from the productive to give to those who can't or won't earn a living or to whom one wants to buy votes from -- the 50ish years of the left wing's "war on poverty" has gradually caused more and more of the poverty they (supposedly) were trying to eradicate in America.

Instead of trying to give people good solid values to want to EARN a living, and providing the education in which to do so -- the left has repeatedly infantilized the people whom they claim to want to help with "givaway" programs, and kept them ignorant via poor schools. So you have more poor, but a real nice voting block to keep the left wing politicians in power by simply saying "I will give you more".

So how has that worked out there Preston? Far more people on food stamps than ever. Far more people in "poverty" than ever.

Maybe its time to look at values that provide real incentive to produce and that opportunity. But what would the left wing do without all those dependency votes?

By offering millions of people many staple goods at consistently low prices, Walmart has done more to help alleviate poverty than any 10 government programs. But let's not talk about that, since calling all corporations (and things capitalistic) "evil" is the mantra of the left.

I guess it's a great game as long as those votes keep rolling in. Kind of hard on the constituents you claim to be helping though. How do you folks who claim to be so morally superior sleep at night?

[careinke]

Have you ever noticed that whatever "war on" the Feds try, they just get more of what they are warring against. Cases in point; the war on poverty, the war on drugs, the war on terrorism, etc.

I have an idea, lets start a formal war on education and a war on the environment.

[AgentR11]

Well, I don't place wagers as a matter of principle; but if by route you mean a greater than a 20% spread in popular vote between the R and D candidates, I think you're really dreaming. If by route, you really mean, "narrow victory artistically enhanced by the magic of the Electoral College system", then you might be right. So I guess it all depends.

I suspect 2014 will see the R's hold the house and make some improvement in their position in the Senate; and I suspect that in 2016, the presidential race will be closer than a 10% popular vote spread between R&D, with the winner dependent upon which way the 3rd lion in the San Diego zoo sneezes next thurs right before noon.

A better question for the thread, does wealth inequality matter all that much when everyone has more than enough calories to eat to sustain themselves?

[FarQ3]

I believe that the Cyprus situation will have older Americans concerned. Many recounted stories of how the banks stole peoples money in the great depression will be revived in memories of "advice from Grandma & Granddad"

We all know that the US banking system isn't in great shape. Are we about to see yet another great theft from the middle class?

Cyprus is small, but many will now be more wary than ever as to where their money is held.

Coupled with US budget and debt extension talks this may be a defining period.