Well, Boo-Fu*king-Hoo, somebody start a charity. The Super-Rich are losing money.

[TalkingDog]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/business/economy/21inequality.html

The rich have been getting richer for so long that the trend has come to seem almost permanent.

snip

But economists say — and data is beginning to show — that a significant change may in fact be under way. The rich, as a group, are no longer getting richer. Over the last two years, they have become poorer. And many may not return to their old levels of wealth and income anytime soon.

/snip

Give me affordable health care and I try to pretend to give a flying fuck.

[Xithras]

1. This is a problem in a progressive taxing system where the rich pay a larger share of govt revenue

California is an example of that, where nearly half of tax revenue comes from the top 5% of earners. The (Democratic) state controller has said, several times, that most of our reduction in tax revenue can be traced to the reduction of taxable income among our largest taxpayers. Some have gone from paying millions in taxes, to paying none at all or close to it.

[TalkingDog]

5. The long and the short of the tax issue

is that we are all going to be paying more, like it or not, if we want the goods and services we are used to.

Unless you guys get that marijuana legalization initiative on the ballot. What's the word there?

[Xithras]

8. Gathering signatures.

But that doesn't really matter in this discussion anyway. Even the most wildly optimistic projections don't have pot raising more than a few hundred million in tax revenue. That's a lot, but it's a drop in the bucket when compared to the rest of the states financial problems.

And that's the optimistic estimate. Some more pessimistic ones put total revenue at only a few tens of millions, once market forces kick in and the price of pot drops.

[TalkingDog]

10. You are correct. It's not part of this discussion.

But I was curious and on this end of the country there isn't much news about it. Thanks for the update.

[Name removed]

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[HopeHoops]

2. The super-rich already HAVE a charity - it is called the Republican Party.

They keep them well stocked with oodles of money.

[scheming daemons]

3. +1 n/t

[guitar man]

4. Well golly gee

I wonder why that is happening? I didn't get a raise last year, but my health insurance and other health costs are skyrocketing. I had planned to trade my wife's car in this year and get her a new one but no way could we afford it. I could use a new pair of boots but I'll have to make these old ones last a little longer, and I guess I'll have to sew up the holes in these old jeans instead of buying new ones, and the home theater sound system I wanted to upgrade, well that's out of the question....dropped cable tv a couple of years ago, can't afford it on my salary.

I wonder, what if my salary had kept up with the cost of living and my healthcare costs hadn't ballooned? Could that have something to do with it. Naw, surely not. I don't think my ability to buy a new car, new boots and jeans or a new receiver and speakers has anything to do with the super rich, does it? You think they might own some kind of interest in the companies a regular working guy like like me buys things from? No....it must be something else causing their troubles, if they are super rich surely they would be smart enough to know that.

I have to wonder though....how are the super-rich that own big interests in the health insurance racket doing these days? :shrug:

[Name removed]

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[Marr]

9. Have they become poorer in relation to the middle class? I doubt it.

The middle class-- what remains of it-- is being shoved into poverty. That's a direct result of the rich getting richer. The super wealthy have wrecked our economy for their own gain. Those little bumps in the road they whine about are just people they're running over.

[Kansas Wyatt]

11. Wicking Up Hardship is the blow back from Trickle Down Economics

It's their reward for placing everyone below them in a hardship, due to their greed.

When you destroy those you count on to bring you wealth, then you eventually destroy your ability to get more wealth.