How about this for a new rule:

[Initech]

The next rich fucker who makes $250K+ a year, hires a full time nanny and gardener, and complains about "not living in their means", gets to live on $10 an hour (or less) for the next five years. Only then can you actually have the right to complain about "living in your means".

Every week it's the same fucking bullshit. Some rich fucker complains about how "they're not living in their means" because of ridiculous taxes. First it was Ben Stein. OK maybe he's not the first but he's definitely part of a growing and scary trend, especially for someone who contributes absolutely nothing of value to society, aside from hawking products and being the "Bueller Bueller" guy. Then it was that guy from Illinois University. Then it's Rush Limbaugh - who actually fled New York to move to Florida because he was sick of paying high taxes.

They complain about paying taxes for services they're not using. Guess what? The rest of us do use those services. Freedom isn't free. Pay up. George Carlin was right - the rich make all of the money, pay none of the taxes. Then they complain about freeloaders. How's that for fucking irony?

"The I've Got Mine And Fuck You" crowd is the ones that are in control, not the proverbial "haves and have nots". The bottom line is that the rich are at war with the rest of us. I refuse to use the term "middle class" the same way I refuse to use the term "consumer". It's just words that the rich use to divide us, and then they can laugh all the way to the bank. I say if they keep complaining and complaining about not living in their means, they should get to live on the same wages as the rest of us do. I think that's the only way they'll even begin to understand our problems.

[stray cat]

1. Why 250,000? How about anyone over poverty?

[Maine-ah]

2. do you want the middle class paying even more than what

we already pay? Take any more out of us, and you'll put us in the ranks of poverty.

The people making 250k are pretty well off and should have no problem living with in their means. The middle class are struggling to remain middle class.

[laughingliberal]

16. I would guess that's exactly what he wants. nt

[Initech]

4. Define "over poverty".

The people making the $250K are the ones that are complaining. I don't hear anybody making below that complaining.

[blondeatlast]

6. Do people over poverty complain because they have to choose between their nannies and paying

their fair share?

No. No, they don't. Sorry that that subtle difference eludes you. We of the middle class get it.

[dkf]

3. The rich do pay taxes. 42% of Americans pay no federal income tax.

If you are paying federal income tax I guess you are considered rich.

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[TheKentuckian]

22. I've both net paid (every year) and written checks to the IRS and never have broke 45k

I've made 15,500 and net paid. I net paid when I was a teenager working 16 hours a week.

It is certainly not only the rich that carry the load and make the wheels go round and round.

[laughingliberal]

23. This guy said 47%:

http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201004080030

[Ruby the Liberal]

5. That would be an awesome experiment. Like the Dan Aykroyd/Eddie Murphy movie 'Trading Places'

But I need to temper that with the fact that there ARE people who have no budgeting sense and live outside of their means. They take out a mortgage based on the fact that the realtor/loan officer tell them that they can refinance in a few years before rates go up, and the underwriting is based on 2 incomes instead of one. One person loses their job, or decides to quit working to raise kids, go to school, illness, whatever and the original game plan is no longer applicable. I know many who have found themselves in this position. Yes, they were conned, yes, they didn't fully understand the loan program, but at the end of the day, they didn't think the financing plan through. This is a ~30 year commitment for most people and in many cases they don't take into account that their situation may change.

I put ~80-90% blame on the banks/mortgage brokers and the rest on borrowers whose eyes were bigger than their stomach.

[Initech]

7. Yeah, great analogy, I love that movie.

Yeah there are people that don't budget. One of my dad's friends started a business and absolutely had to have the latest and greatest everything - computers, vehicles, a fancy high-rise office, you name it. It didn't last very long to say the least. I definitely know a thing or two about not budgeting.

[Ruby the Liberal]

8. I volunteer as a budget counselor

I SOOOO wish people would ask people like us to sit down with them after the realtor has dangled the McMansion in front of their eyes for a "spreadsheet reality session" before they sign the papers.

There is so much heartbreak out there right now.

My biggest piece of advice is to average the borrower's salaries and limit the purchase qualification to that in case of job loss (or other incapacity) and limit the realtor to your budget, no matter how much they try to move you up the ladder. If the salaries are extremely disparate, lower the average.

[ejpoeta]

12. part of it is 'i deserve this'. it's not so much about affording it as

deserving it. i watch these shows on tv where people are looking at houses and you can see they really want the biggest best one. i like when there are two people and they buy a five bedroom house. why do you need a five bedroom house? in the old days they used to buy a starter house and move into a bigger house when they outgrew the first one.

[Ruby the Liberal]

14. Excellent point. nt

[ejpoeta]

9. they are playing a dangerous game. see, as long as there is a middle class to aspire to....

there are people who are doing ok and the poor have something to hope for, then the rich are safe. but once the middle class is gone and there are enough people who can't feed their kids and living in squalor, then the rich are going to have to worry about more than living within their means. i am not making threats, i am just observing history.... when the rich have all the money and the rest of the population is struggling to feed their kids you end up with something akin to revolution. think of france and what happened to marie antoinette. it may take a while yet, but there will come a point where people at the bottom are going to look at those rich fuckers and decide that they have more than they need and they are sick of living in squalor while the rich live it up.

[Ruby the Liberal]

10. I am actually surprised we haven't seen this yet.

The great electronic babysitter is keeping it all at bay.

I remember reading a year or so ago that the iconic image of the current economic situation will be a family living above the grandparent's garage with the light of the TV shining through the one lone window.

You want to see people in the streets? Triple their DishTV/Cable bill.

[lunatica]

11. I agree with your history context, but would add a unique American element to this

Americans have guns, so the poor will be armed.

The job opportunities for security services and body guards will skyrocket.

[ejpoeta]

13. you are probably right. it kind of scares me really. you see these tea party people so angry.

but the faux news shows have directed this anger towards the dems and 'liberals'. it should be directed at the 'representatives' but they have people so brainwashed right now.... now think about this.... imagine if there were no social security or medicare. that is what these folks want to get rid of isn't it? 'entitlements' as that lady on real time suggested without any more specifics. you want to see people rioting in the streets? those old folks at the 'we want our country back' rallies would shift their ire real quick if they lost THEIR programs. and i know they weren't ALL old people.

[Ruby the Liberal]

15. These idgets don't get that they are called 'entitlements' because people pre-paid for them

therefore they are 'entitled' to get their investment back.

[ejpoeta]

18. it's for them, so it's not an entitlement. you hear people claiming

that social security is a ponzi scheme? medicare and social security are entitlements too.

[reggie the dog]

19. i really hope the high school kids keep rioting here in France

in the local right wing bastion called "les alpes maratimes" a town called cagnes sur mer was the site of a wonderful riot between kids and coppers on friday, the kids threw rocks at the cops and pulled dumpsers and plastic garbage cans in the street and lit them on fire! all this as part of our national protest and strikes going on OVER RETIREMENT

[Initech]

20. It seems like thats where we're headed.

[laughingliberal]

21. K & R nt

[Taitertots]

24. It is the new "let them eat cake"

I hope it ends as badly for them as the last person who tried it out.

[laughingliberal]

25. Kick nt