Wealth Inequality In America

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Rx Senior
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While I somewhat agree Kruser... Did those CEO's get there by not working hard, or not attending school/college and doing their best? I am sure there is a tiny percentage that got there by sheer luck, but they put themselves in that position.

I agree 100%, but that being said I still have to go back to asking the question, "How much money do you truly need"

Most guys that high up are just competitors. Their game is how much money can I make. You just have to ask the question if it's fair. I know life is not fair, but they essentially are making their money off everyone else, are they that deserving of such wealth. So much wealth that they couldn't spend it all if they wanted to? I don't know, I am on the fence. Like you I argue, "Well they worked their ass off, they earned it" On the other side you think of people starving and living in conditions they do and think, man so much good could be done with wealth that great.
 

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The answer is not giving the money away. I absolutely hate our programs that just give things away. People don't learn that way, they become animals. They can't survive on their own. We are creating a monster by giving out so many handouts without requiring anything in return. That being said there is a solution, I don't know what it is and unfortunately because of the politics all the good solutions are impossible to make happen.
 

RX resident ChicAustrian
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I agree 100%, but that being said I still have to go back to asking the question, "How much money do you truly need"

Most guys that high up are just competitors. Their game is how much money can I make. You just have to ask the question if it's fair. I know life is not fair, but they essentially are making their money off everyone else, are they that deserving of such wealth. So much wealth that they couldn't spend it all if they wanted to? I don't know, I am on the fence. Like you I argue, "Well they worked their ass off, they earned it" On the other side you think of people starving and living in conditions they do and think, man so much good could be done with wealth that great.
How much of the problem is that it is easier to make money investing oversea that it is in America?
 

Kev

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Anybody can be a millionaire if they plan properly and invest regularly. Go read about rule 72 and the power of compound interest.

If you were to invest 10K at the age of 25 and get 12% on that your money will double every 6 years. So check this out:

Age 25: 10K
31: 20K
37: 40K
43 80K
49: 160K
55: 320K
61: 640K
67: 1,280,000

Its real fellas. Go study it and to all you young dudes. STASH THE 10K Don't say that you can't afford to. The truth is that you can't afford not to.

Now let's look at a guy who starts saving at age 35:

35: 10K
41: 20K
47: 40K
53: 80K
59: 160K
65: 320K

The trick is starting early. If you dont save early you miss the boat on the power of compound interest. If you start young you come out smelling like a rose. Pass this along to all of your friends, kids and family. It's golden advice.

Lastly, we'll get some naysayers that will say you can't get 12% interest. I'm not talking about this year or last year or during the stock market slump. Im talking about an average since 1950. The market will come back, it has highs and lows etc. Just gotta do your homework on your stocks and make sure you're not sticking around in something stagnant or a stock that is poorly managed. (or a product that is obsolete)
 

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I agree 100%, but that being said I still have to go back to asking the question, "How much money do you truly need"

Most guys that high up are just competitors. Their game is how much money can I make. You just have to ask the question if it's fair. I know life is not fair, but they essentially are making their money off everyone else, are they that deserving of such wealth. So much wealth that they couldn't spend it all if they wanted to? I don't know, I am on the fence. Like you I argue, "Well they worked their ass off, they earned it" On the other side you think of people starving and living in conditions they do and think, man so much good could be done with wealth that great.
As much as you want.
 

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What stopped everyone who is complaining about millionaires, from becoming millionaires themselves?

Was it bad choices in life? Was it them not trying hard enough in school? I believe in something called "Personal Responsibility" here in America... Everyone has a chance, but what they do with it is mostly their own fault.

So many people came from absolutely nothing, and have become some of the greatest people in our country, because they took responsibility for their life and worked hard to become what they are.


Yes sir.....who cares what someone makes....if you want to make more, work harder......pretty simple formula.
 

RX Genius
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So the CEO of a company "deserves" to make 380 X's more money than the average employee? The average employee who has a college education. The average employee who works his ass off. The average employee that will never make it to CEO status regardless of how hard he works or what degree he has next to his name.

I can't stand Welfare programs and I am all for getting rid of the income tax and doing a "Fair Tax" where we tax consumers on the products they buy. But you aren't going to convince me that the distribution of wealth in America is where it needs to be these days. The Cost of Living continues to skyrocket in America yet me and my wifes check continues to stay stagnant and we actually lose more money from month to month due to taxes. I have a masters and my wife has a doctorate...don't tell me that we should have "worked harder".

We both have good to great jobs for a "middle class" American but things are not easy due to the ever increasing COL. Yet we have people in the top 1% making more money than they will ever know what to do with. I am not arguing that we take money from anyone, but we need to get our priorities straight.

We have the same problems now that America had during the early days of the Industrial Revolution. Immigrants and factory workers were working for pennies a day while the owners of these businesses were making millions. Not until unions formed and the government interfered did we start to see the workers start to gain some leverage, ie. better working conditions, better pay, 40 hour work week, etc.

Did these hard working factory workers deserve to live in the slum and ghetto? Did these hard working factory workers deserve to be paid pennies when the business was thriving? Did these hard working factory workers deserve to live in cholera infested communities because they couldn't afford to move into a better area?

Food for thought:

In 1901 Andrew Carnegie sold Carnegie Steel (Later called US Steel after JP Morgan bought it) to JP Morgan for 480 million dollars.
 

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Handicapper
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Never made much sense to me how much ceo's earn. Just seems like bad economic business sense from the company point of view.

lolololololololo

And this is what you learned in business school.

BAWAHAHAHA
 
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The real problem is that our political system is broken.

When you can gain more political power by giving away freebies to the cock-roaches and freeloaders in order to get their votes, you end up with the shit state of the union we have now, where > 50% pay no income tax at all, 47 million getting free food from the government.

47 Million Food Stamp Recipients = 75.4 Percent of Obama’s Votes

Fire it up 62


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1114_foodstamps.gif
AP
47 Million Food Stamp Recipients = 75.4 Percent of Obama’s Votes
By Ron Meyer, American Majority Action
If all 47 million food stamp recipients voted for President Obama, it would account for 75.4 percent of Obama’s 62.3 million votes.
Harry Hopkins, FDR’s close adviser who ran the WPA, once described Roosevelt’s strategy as “tax & tax, spend & spend, elect & elect.” He believed that if Roosevelt put everyone on the federal payroll, either through aid or federal jobs, that Rooselvelt would never lose. FDR won four presidential elections in a row before his death removed him from office.
Did Obama use his idol’s model to win this election?
Food stamps rolls have grown nearly 50 percent—by more than 15 million recipients (up from 32 million)—under the Obama administration. During that same time, the unemployment rate has stayed the same. Either those outside of the workforce have been decimated by the Obama economy or this administration is making a conscious effort to get more Americans reliant on government. Or both.
Welfare programs now cost taxpayers a record-high $750 billion. While government “charity” has grown, so has poverty—and so has the Democrats’ poll numbers.
The candidates and their PACs spent $6 billion for the election. Should we add the $750 billion in federal welfare to Democratic campaign spending total?
Not everyone on food stamps votes or votes Democrat (and no one polls this subset of the population), and I don’t want to overstate the effects of the growth in welfare.
But, if citizens vote in their own personal, short-term interests, with 49 percent of the population receiving some sort of federal aid, Republicans will never win another election. Thankfully many of those 49 percent are elderly voters who want a bright, debt-free future for their children.
In fact, conservatives should take heart that this election was as close as it turned out. It means that at least some of those receiving federal aid are open to conservative anti-poverty ideas.
While liberals throw federal money at voters, conservatives must offer them something more substantial. It’s tough to beat politicians handing out free stuff, but we have to hope that careers and purposeful opportunity will appeal to American people’s ethos.

 

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Guy playing basketball making $20MM/yr, golfer making $20MM, hollywood actor getting paid $20MM for shit movie...that is what makes no sense. These CEO's actually get out of bed before noon and bust there asses employing tens of thousands of people.

I believe none of that makes any sense. I mentioned sports players and coaches in an earlier post
 

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lolololololololo

And this is what you learned in business school.

BAWAHAHAHA


You dont believe ceo's are overpaid?

And what the hell does this have to do with business school? This is more of a political discussion then anything else.
 

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You dont believe ceo's are overpaid?

And what the hell does this have to do with business school? This is more of a political discussion then anything else.
Isn't that pretty much for the company to determine. Athletes, actors, I'm sure there some crazy salaries out there.
 

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There any good ceo behind the scenes clips/movies out there? Would love to see what the CEO of a major company actually does on a day to day basis.
 

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pay is not based on the AMOUNT of work.

if that were the case a ditch digger would make a million dollars a year and a baseball player would make $10 a game.

a baseball player makes what he does because the number of people that could do it as well as him are limited, and the amount people willing to pay is great.

the number of people that can be a ceo is very limited, if you have a poor ceo the company will either be broke within a year or swallowed up by another company in no time.

successful business owners are few.

in this country anyone can open up a business very few can keep one running, and even fewer can manage and maintain fortune 500 sized company.

lebron james = big money because there are less than 20 guys on the planet that can do what he does
towel boy = shitty money because there are more than 4 billion people on the planet that can do that job
 

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let's pretend we are the CEO of apple, the board wants to know whether they should increase the dividend or buy back stock with the cash on hand.

for all you future ceo's out there what is your answer?
 

RX Genius
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let's pretend we are the CEO of apple, the board wants to know whether they should increase the dividend or buy back stock with the cash on hand.

for all you future ceo's out there what is your answer?

The CEO of Apple is Tim Cook and he is from Robertsdale, Alabama (right outside of Gulf Shores) in Baldwin County. He is an Auburn graduate and makes right under 400 million dollars a year just from his Apple salary. He is also on the board of directors for Nike.
 

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The CEO of Apple is Tim Cook and he is from Robertsdale, Alabama (right outside of Gulf Shores) in Baldwin County. He is an Auburn graduate and makes right under 400 million dollars a year just from his Apple salary. He is also on the board of directors for Nike.

not bad for the son of a shipyard worker and housewife. he also went to public school.

when I see a guy like this making this kind of cheddar I ask myself, "how did he do it?", not because I am jealous, but because I want to do it too.

sometimes I think 99% of Americans look at a guy like this and say, "that's not fair that he makes so much, I work way harder than he does..."

oh well
 

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