We’ve mentioned before that there is a trend toward eliminating the middle class in America, and our view is that a decade from now, there will be no middle class. We’ll simply have the rich oligarchs and corporatists who will run the political and economic machine, and the working class who’ll do their bidding – kind of like the population make-up of the former East Block countries under socialism/communism.
It’s hard to believe, especially because a systematic destruction of the middle class is not going to occur overnight (unless of course we have a collapse-event like hyperinflation play out). We are slowly watching the middle class be decimated with higher tax rates, wage cuts, debt and the loss of future job opportunities to outsourcing.
The proof is in the pudding. The following 22 statistics prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that the middle class in America is being destroyed, seemingly by design.
We’ve summarized the statistics below for easy reading. The original article, brought to our attention by Check It News, can be found at Business Insider.
- 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.
- 61 percent of Americans “always or usually” live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
- 66% of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.
- 36 percent of Americans say that they don’t contribute anything to retirement savings.
- A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.
- 24% of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.
- Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008.
- Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.
- For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.
- In 1950, the ratio of the average executive’s paycheck to the average worker’s paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.
- As of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.
- The bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
- Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.
- In the United States, the average federal worker now earns 60% MORE than the average worker in the private sector.
- The top 1% of U.S. households own nearly twice as much of America’s corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.
- In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks.
- More than 40% of Americans who actually are employed are now working in service jobs, which are often very low paying.
- For the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million Americans in 2011.
- This is what American workers now must compete against: in China a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour and in Cambodia a garment worker makes approximately 22 cents an hour.
- Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009.
- Approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 – the highest rate in 20 years.
- The top 10% of Americans now earn around 50% of our national income.
We’d like to believe that we will come out of this economic slump and see renewed growth through innovation and competition. The direction of our government, however, suggests that this is not the goal. Rather, we are being constantly herded into a nanny state mentality of having to depend on our government for income, food, housing, bank loans, and retirement.
The shift from free market capitalism to cradle-to-grave socialism will require trillions of dollars of wealth and it’s going to come out of the pocket of the middle class, until they are no more.
Wow – amazing statistics and a real eye-opener. Thanks for putting this together at SHTF.
I have long suspected that the middle class is being targeted, and as you say it is becoming painfully obvious (well, to all those who have their eyes open I should say). You simply cannot 1) remove the job base or ability to find decent-paying jobs (through globalization, free trade, outsourcing and off-shoring), 2) decimate savings (through inflation and financial crisis) or make it difficult to save for one, 3) continue to raise taxes on everything in sight), and 4) continue to drive up the cost of everyday goods/services such as electricity and food. We all know the eventual outcome.
I suspect out politicians know too, and is why every one of them is a traitor to this country. Please do the only thing you can in November – vote the incumbent of your state out. A complete change of the guard. If we can’t at least do that I’m afraid there is not much hope.
Just electing a new batch of democrats or republicans (including tea partiers) wont do squat. Â That’s just more of the same. Â The problem is that once you look at the other parties, you’re down to the greens, the commies, the racists, and a handful of other slugs. Â 🙂
We should start a protest movement where everyone goes into the booth and writes their own name down in every race for every office. Â Those idiots who have to count the ballots sure would be pissed.
What a bullshit article.
If the middle class goes, it will be by suicide, not murder.
Look at that list of 22 items…a WHOLE LOT of them are simply because the middle class got fat, dumb and lazy.
Take #5, for example:Â “A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.”
Well, EXCUUUUSE ME….whose fault is that ? Â
Maybe instead of buying a new car every 3 years ( or more stupid, leasing one ) or flinging their money away at Disneyworld EVERY YEAR, just maybe they should have used their brain a bit, worked a bit harder, and put away a bit more…..oh…yeah….that returns us to fat, dumb and lazy.
#20:Â Â Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009.
So what ?
Wife and I married young ( I was 19, she was 17 ) Left home with everything we owned in the backseat and trunk of a well used, 3rd hand, 1963 Rambler.
Today, late 50’s, we are one of those “millionaires”…..which, by the way, ISN’T that much money anymore….both have advanced college degrees, for which we paid cash as we went. About 1/2 million in cash, physical metals, stocks, etc…..another million in real estate. Owe no one for anything, and no, almost none of it was inherited.
NAFTA, Remember that huge sucking sound Ross talked about in his campaign? 20 years later the jobs are gone and they are not coming back. So how do we fix it? We don’t, we let the whole damn national and global financial system collapse and start over.
You’re partly right Andy. We did let a lot of this happen – or should I say my parent’s generation did. Very typical of baby boomers – hate to say it. You had it good, grew up when America had a strong manufacturing base and a can do attitude, when one decent income was enough to keep a family afloat. Now that everything’s falling apart you come out of the woodwork and want to blame the generation that succeeded you. This is exactly why we remain divided as a country.
Good for you that you made it and are successful. My only hope is that you investigate the reasons as to why less and less people are able to be so, and (hint) it’s not completely their fault.
I agree with Andy. I am self employed and own several businesses. Never went to college just worked hard most of my life and had almost a million in cash, savings and stocks when the divorce hit (which just ended last year). It wiped me out financially and put me in some serious debt.
But I am not crying. I have all but eliminated the debt and my businesses are recovering even in these wicked economic times.
If you can’t find a job, build a business. No one is stopping you from that, in fact, there is literally billions of dollars for free from grants etc. out there to help you.
The current administration is screwing up big time and I see a major trend toward socialism. Problem with that is it masses all the money into a huge government with all that corruption and eventual always fails because they spend all the money.
So make your business an international business so you can survive any economic calamity.
My parents paid their way through school too, and have outcomes similar to Andy’s. Â I thought about going back to school and changing careers. Â I finished my two year, but getting to the 4 year or 6 year degree would mean that I would have to pay out north of $40K dollars a year, while keeping a full caseload. Â The alternative would be anywhere from $80-120K in student loan debt. Â School is not nearly as affordable as it used to be. Â Paying your way through school now is only realistic if 1) you’re going to a low-tier school, 2)you can accomplish your education goal at the community college level, or, 3) you’re already very wealthy.
Similar situation also here Jonny V. My father paid his way through state school simply by working a paper route. This was back in the late fifties-early sixties. He also was able to buy a new car with that money.
By comparison, when I went to state school yearly tuition was $16,000/year (1995). Now 15 years later it is $38,000/year at that same school. Luckily I have a decent paying job and don’t have a need to go back to school, but I feel very sorry for those kids and their parents who are looking at enrolling right now.
Why these increases are so destructive is because real median family income has been falling since 1973.
Just saw where “International Living” magazines recent poll asking readers if they were considering expatriation, Â a whopping 96% said YES. Â Those guys are the 1% ers. Â The old “tax the rich” crap is going to cause all the wealth of the nation to leave.
I’m not in that 1% class, and not even in Andy’s class, however,  I have found myself  thinking about it , recently.
I am a small business owner. Â Been in business over 20 years and have seen ups and downs, but never like this. Â Before I loose everything to business debts and taxes, Â I will JOHN GALT it.
Costa Rica is nice.  ST Kitts and Dominica  still sell citizenships.
just saying…..seems more and more producing Americans are having the same thoughts. Â Â Change indeed!
I’m glad you are doing well Andy, but that doesn’t change the facts. The facts say your cash, stocks and real estate will be impacted.
For now my wealth in business and equity in real estate is 60% gone. All of which I can trace to unintended consequences of bad government regulation.
The article it self is not BS, just fact. Its the fat, dumb and stupid which I believe make up about 60% of the population that’s BS. Lets remember 47.3% of the population now recieve some kind of government check.
lostinmissouri, I suspect the rich have been leaving or in the least have been building foreign homes to escape to for some time. It just doesn’t get much publicity (unless George Bush buys 30,000+ acres in Uruguay or wherever it was in South America). This is probably a stealth reason why tax revenues have been declining the past several years, those with the ability to pay them have been steadily leaving.
This reminds me of FDRs gold confiscation back in 1932. The rich knew it was coming before the announcement was made and arranged to transport their holding offshore, so by the time the safety deposit boxes were cracked open it was only the little guy who was harmed.
I don’t know where I heard it but I heard Ecuador is nice for a number of reasons. Also has a diverse climate depending on whether you want to live nearer the ocean or the mountains. Interestingly, it is also the highest point on earth near space due to the equatorial bulge, so if you’re worried about global warming and ocean levels rising that would be the place to go.
Andy – A few questions: Do you have children? Ever served in the military? Family ever have any catastrophic illness you were responsible for?  Ever worked for an outfit, that went belly up, ate the employees retirement plan and had the government go along with it all.  I know folks that have had to face that particular employment retirement situation a couple of times.   Happened a bunch back in the 1980’s. 10 / 20 years with an outfit – outfit goes broke – the employees ended up with the retirement fund taken over by the Federal government.   My case – the Courts handed my estimated $1250.00 per month  retirement to the Feds for lockboxing and now it’s down to an estimated $510.00 per month.   By the time I can retire – I’ll owe the government money for their managing the account.  Â
It’s nice you’ve done well.   Bless your little heart.Â
>kind of like the population make-up of the former East Block countries under socialism/communism
in scientific terms, communism is absence of salary, market and money. East block countries had salary, market and money. The system it’s called “state capitalism”. Communism never existed to date, it is a revolutionary program for the future. So US now is transforming in a state capitalism. Maybe it will develop in a counter-revolutionary way, in a fascist regimen like Nazi Germany and East block countries. A big war is also possible before a new free-market durable cycle begins. A civil war and a world communist revolution is a better perspective IMHO. In communism no capital/monetary crisis will be possible, because no capital and money will exist. Start studying Marx and Lenin, plz.
Good comments all!
Orso – Communism does require a salary and money, though not in the traditional sense that we are used to now. Money is nothing more than a symbol to represent time and energy yield. Those subjects of communist rule are required to work in order to acquire their needs. While a purely communist government may not require a Federal Reserve Note, they would require, for example, a ration card to determine who gets how much food. This is essentially a currency system. I think we can both agree, that if we look at the most basic of needs, i.e. food, that production capacity must exist. The production must come from labor, thus a human worker must perform that labor in one form or another. He is then “rewarded” for his toiling with rations from the party. If you don’t work or believe in ideas contrary to the communist mentality, you are simply “eliminated” from the work force. We can look to the 100 million people who were wiped off the planet in the last century for clear evidence of this.
Though you may disagree that “communism” existed in its scientific form, my reference to the East Block took into consideration the actual communist parties of the time. That’s what they called themselves, and that’s what I referred to them as.
Communism simply cannot work in it’s pure scientific form, in my opinion, as the human species is simply not designed for such a system. Biologically speaking, our fight-or-flight survival instincts are similar to reptilian fear responses systems. What I mean by this is that humans, at the core level, operate from a system of fear, or lack. It is this lack (of food, water, air, etc.) that drives us to “gain.”
Communism assumes that humans are willing to simply give up, arbitrarily, what they have gained from their personal productive abilities and give to those who need (again, arbitrarily defined by other humans). Given this scenario, communism assumes it can just draw up a dividing line between those with the ability to produce/provide and those with the need. However, because the line is arbitrarily created by those who believe themselves to be more knowledgeable and powerful (the ruling class) than the workers, there will always be those workers who, because of their ingrained fear response systems, will refuse to allow their productive capacity to be taken (essentially a fear of loss).
If one looks at communism from a scientific perspective, then other sciences, like the biological sciences of human development (emotional, spiritual, physical) must also be taken into consideration. And based on this, my opinion is that genetically/scientifically, humans are incapable of living within a purely communist system of government.
Our core functions depend on the fear of loss, the opposite effect of which is the necessity to gain.
It’s just how we are built.
So the commies can continue to push this flawed economic ideology on the masses, but the world will never be purely communist until the human races evolves into a species without fear response systems. Given that all biological entities on this planet have an ingrained survival mechanism, I find it hard to believe that any such transition will occur. Thus, I believe communism is doomed to failure for a number of reasons, but the main one is that human beings are not designed to operate that way.
Just my 2 cents.
My children have understood from the beginning that if they want to attend college they had better start saving for it and/or work your butt off in school and earn scholarships.    If we TEACH our children from our actions and our past mistakes they will learn. (I have a lifetime of mistakes for them to learn from). If we TEACH our children that they don’t need half the crap the world tells them they need they will learn to live with less.  If we TEACH our children right from wrong they will learn to know the truth. If we TEACH our children not to be fat and lazy they will learn to work and maybe even enjoy it.  The list goes on and on…………  No television to stare at, no latest and greatest game boy junk, no free car when your 16…………. your not entitled to have a cell phone cause all your friends have one…….  Opps! I strayed from the topic.  Or did I ?  Who gives a crap about all the rich people. Good for them, maybe some of them even worked for it, like Andy. That’s excellent if that’s what is important to you.  Money does not = happiness….    Oh, and by the way. If we TEACH our children that our government is crooked and that they only look out for their own kind, maybe, just maybe they will grow up and help make some changes that are positive and not grow up to be stupid, lazy government fed pigs.
When I was 18 I didn’t throw all my belongings in the back seat of a used 1963 Rambler it was a 1974 Chevy Vega hatchback with the screwed up warped block and head that didn’t match.
I went to college but the joint went bankrupt. So I picked out Ricker College in Houlton Maine, it went bankrupt too.
So I worked at Texas Instruments but got fired for coming in late twice. So I rode my bicycle across New England but my brakes failed and I almost got hit by a car. Then I joined the Marines but had to get out because there was no promotions to Staff Sgt.
I was expecting a tax refund from work this year but the treasury department stole the money because I owed on a student loan.
I bought a dog …and guess what happened to him.
“Andy – A few questions: Do you have children? Ever served in the military? Family ever have any catastrophic illness you were responsible for?  Ever worked for an outfit, that went belly up, ate the employees retirement plan and had the government go along with it all.”
Bill:
No kids of our own. Raised a nephew and a couple others.
US Army 1971-75. Joined so wife and I could get married…it was either that or go to work in the coal mines. E-1 going in, E-5 when I got out.  Used GI Bill to go to school, along with working full time.
No, never had a major illness in the family. Both parents dropped dead of heart attacks…..father when I was 17, and mother 10 years later. No, I never worked for a company that went belly up…..in fact, I’ve been self employed as carpenter/builder for most of my life (never used the Masters degree I have except for a short stint as a public school teacher during the last housing disaster of the 80’s….beginning salary, by the way, was $12,000/yr in 1982 )….so I never had a retirement plan that I didn’t provide for myself.
Thank you for the blessing.
Patriot One:
I have no doubt what is coming could well affect cash, stocks and real estate.  We are well diversified with preps, food growing ability, and metals, both precious and semi-precious ( lead/brass ).
Good stuff Mac!  It is deliberate and we know who is behind it. Only federal workers, police and fire will make middle class wages if you do not own a business. These are the people who serve and protect the lawyers and lobbyists.
Personally, I feel sorry for those Chinese garment workers making 86 cents per hour, having to compete with those cambodians at 22 cents per hour. How are those poor Chinese going to buy a bank forclosure at that rate? just saying …. 🙂
Andy – Sounds like you’ve been working you butt of like the rest of us. I always thought on my gravestone, if I get one, it should say “nobody ever gave him anything”.    All I ever had I’ve had to work for.  I’m sure most of us here can say the same thing. I say it’s something to be proud of. No silver spoon here.
Today most people believe that to be a member of the middle class one should at least graduate from college. About one fifth of people graduate from college. They tend to marry among themselves. Suppose half of them marries non-college grads. 20%+10%=30% This means that nome more than 30% of the next generation can be in the middle class. If one considers the fact that being a college graduate does not guarantee you a place in the middle class, the figure becomes much smaller.
Hey Bill! Â Don’t overlook silver spoons! Â You can usually get them cheap down at the thrift store to add to your SHTF stockpile! Â 🙂
Joe – don’t give up. Try another dog….. A big one!
Jonny V - I’ll take all of the silver spoons I can get. I just hope I have something to eat with it!   Â
“We’ll simply have the rich oligarchs and corporatists who will run the political and economic machine, and the working class who’ll do their bidding – kind of like the population make-up of the former East Block countries under socialism/communism.”
I lived in the former East Block. The economic situation did not seem that scary. Everybody had a place to live as well as access to decent medical care and education. There was a lot of social mobility. For example, the KGB chef Primakov grew up in an orphanage. The communist elite did not live like oligarchs, but rather like the American upper middle class. They had luxury items like cars with automatic transmissions, sausage made from horse meat, tree-bedroom apartments and country homes in gates communities. The biggest problem was religious persecution, which was not severe everywhere. If you were not a member of the communist party, in Romania you could knock yourself out being Orthodox, and in Poland being Catholic. In fact I remember how a Polish bishop was blessing a monumnet on TV right after the speeches of communist officials and before young communists brought flowers and expressed their deep appreciation for the fallen WW II heroes.
Its getting more and more difficult to get that social mobility in the US, AB because university tuition is becoming more and more expensive while wages are decreasing overall and purchasing power is declining at the same time.
The liberal east coast universities have enormous endowments so if you are a minority and radical enough you have a better chance of getting a free ride AKA BHO.
The system is now DESIGNED to make a college education more difficult to achieve and reduce the number of college graduates. If you can borrow enough, do work study, and get grants and scholarships you will be so burdened by the debt, that if you can get a really good job, you will be repaying for it for a very long time. Essentially then you, are working white collar poor, slaving away for the man.
The answer of course is get a law degree, become a litigator, and specialize in medical malpractice and traffic accidents suing insurance companies for a living. (Personal injury lawyer please, we wouldn’t want to call these parasites ambulence chasers would we?). You could pay for your education in a hurry and then run for President.
‘Middle class wiped out’ article on yahoo news. I starting to think all is not lost.
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/the-u.s.-middle-class-is-being-wiped-out-here's-the-stats-to-prove-it-520657.html?tickers=^DJI,^GSPC,SPY,MCD,WMT,XRT,DIA
OR!, you could take your law degree to work for Monsanto and persecute American farmers. Â Then, as a reward for your service to the “community” you could have Monsanto stooges grease the skids for you to be appointed to the US Supreme Court.
Don’t laugh, that’s exactly how Clarence Thomas made it. Â Look it up.
It is time to eliminate the political class.
and the moral of these stories…. the baby boomer generation has destroyed this country. i’ll spare the historical timeline… think about it!
Comments””Any evil that befalls a man is due to self infliction'” Plato. People’s destiny is shaped by their actions which is a reflection of their beliefs. Money isn’t everthing, it’s nice to have but sometimes it’s a curse, earn it honestly and spend it wisely and you will live a blessed life.
I always hear my employees complaining about how they are always short of money, they ask for advances and I help them whenever I can, but those who are really hard workers and spend their money wisely are always thankfull and never ask me for anything, then I realized the Idiots that can’t make it usually have some kind of vice, gambling, drugs and alcohol, love to spend their time in hockey arenas or sport lounges drinking beer, and sometimes they can’t make it to work because of the 24 ounce flue.
So everytime I drive by a casino, or the sports arena and I see the parking lots full, I say to myself, thing aren’t that bad yet because people can still afford to spend money on stupid things.
But the most important point of all, I see people always buying what ever they want, not what they need, then later worrying about how they’re going to make the payment.
“”Wants and distractions are the worst kind of evil””. Plato, he also said””Slavery doesn’t take anyone people give themselves up to it””.
Excuse me for my previous errors and for my bad English, I have no time to correct.
I completely agree with you about communism’ ideology. You’re perfectly right referring to flawed communist east block ideology, and I made a mistake when I missed yor reference to contradictorial communist parties of the time, claimed as proletarian, but actually dictatorial. Now let’s go back to comminism as a scientific theory. It is a scientific, not a simple ideology, because it is not contradictorial. But it is a theory, nobody proved yet if workers will succeed in maintain the power and nobody proved yet if the transition from Lenin’ state capitalism to communism will perform. Inside Marx’ Capital, is crystal-clearly explained why money and capital are not only symbols: money can generate other money ****EXCLUSEVLY **** getting the merchandise shape and transforming itself in capital, through workers exploitation (Carl Marx, The Capital, 1st book, Section 2, Cap. 4, Par. 1). Capitalistic production is the better system envised to extract the capital, throught salaries. But for the most part of human existence (during primitive communism), the production system was unaware of salary, money and capital. So, it is perfectly possible that – genetically (man in its present form is dated back to 150.000 years ago) – mankind will organize itself without money and exploitation. Marx was the first to understand that cultural evolution is such as important as genetic evolution. We cannot compare cultural horizon at pharaons’ time with cultural achievement at the time of internet. Our ideologies are directly derived from materialistic ways of production (dialectic materialism): making the transition to communist way of production will bring new cultural categories you cannot imagine today. You have also to understand that the communist way of production is partially well developed in our factories, today: imagine the mess if, inside a General Motors production plant, the propulsion sector of the factory would be in competition with the transmission sector, trying to throw them away from the market: absolutely not: they cooperate in perfect relationship. Communism will extend this cooperation to the entire world production system: today, only the losses are collectivized, the profits are privatized. This is a contradiction communism will brilliantly resolve.You refer to a future communistic way to assign foods, etc via ration cards centrally planned. This is perfectly possible, in a highly automated production organization; probably, it will be the system adopted during a particular phase of transition to communism. Capital and exploitation will not wiped out from one day to another. It will take many years after the revolution. Gradually, the production enormous potential of communism (without market competition and duplications, without crisis, without frauds, , without capitalistic intrinsec limits to robotization, without wars and famine, without need of capital to reach the biggest human goals, such the production in outer space or desert cultivation) will make useless at all the contingentation of cards, because mankind will have far more products than its needs, at far less daily workhours than today. When no more exploitation will occur, you will have no more surplus value extracted, no more money/cards, no more capital. It is also perfectly clear you cannot nowadays imagine communism organization methods in the future, in the same way in 1300 you could not imagine credit default swaps. You talk about the millions of humans killed by “communismâ€. State capitalism, and capitalism in general, mathematically and periodically needs to wipe off large amounts of capital (fixed and variable) to recover from inescapable overproduction crisis, when capitalists retire their capitals from production circulation. In communism, the workers class will rule, and will probably kill (or internate) evreyone will attempt to re-establish the exploitation regime. This is crystal-clear, it is called the worker dictatorship in comparison with actual bourgeoise dictatorship. Someone stupid man will be sacrificed instead of millions as today. A last word to your linkage between human fears of losses to human capitalistic production system. You are reversing what is universally accepted in philosophy and epistemology todays (Feyerabend already destroyed Popper many many years ago): it is not material production system (capitalism) that derives from ideologies (fears), but ideologies derivate from production systems: upon this basis, human ideologies and actions can change the materialistic world (in a world without exploitation and crisis and wars, no more fears): this is called dialectic materialism, and it is the more advanced scientific explanation of the human society now available: those who claim the contrary are only intellectual leftiest keynesian puppets at the ruling-class service, explaining us that “reforms†and fiat money can change the world. I like much more the libertarian, von Mises deflationist theories (the weaker have to soccumb), and also better than these are the “realistâ€, von Clausewitz-style philosophies: only through war a nation’ ruling class can perpetuate its dominion over the others. But this is only a trick to hide the fact that the war is headed by capitalists and suffered by worker classes from different nations. And is a duty for international worker classes to organize itself to take the power and kill capitalists. It is as simple like that.
I have come to the realization that money is the most poisonous, toxic substance on the earth. That is the only reason I can come up with for the behavior of the excessively wealthy.  I witness what it does to people first hand. Owners of the Company that I work for have let go hundreds of people due to the bad economy and given us pay cuts, all the while they spend millions on themselves for artwork, luxury cars, aircraft, mansions then make it a point to drive them in front of us to let us know how wonderful they are. What a slap in the face. Dont get me wrong. I have no problem with buying yourself things but don’t ask me to make sacrifices just so you can go and buy yourself ridiculous, unnecessary luxury items that most could only dream of having.
I have come to the realization that money is the most poisonous, toxic substance on the earth. That is the only reason I can come up with for the behavior of the excessively wealthy.  I witness what it does to people first hand. Owners of the Company that I work for have let go hundreds of people due to the bad economy and given us pay cuts, all the while they spend millions on themselves for artwork, luxury cars, aircraft, mansions then make it a point to drive them in front of us to let us know how wonderful they are. What a slap in the face. Dont get me wrong. I have no problem with buying yourself things but don’t ask me to make sacrifices just so you can go and buy yourself ridiculous, unnecessary luxury items that most could only dream of having.
Andy, good for you for making it. But you need to ask yourself if you earned it honestly. To get your wealth did you do it by lying, cheating and other dishonest deals? Did you have to stab numerous people in the back and ruin the lives of others to get what you have? If so then shame on you and you should become a politician. If you did it honestly then you are an exception and I take my hat off to you.
To WaitingForTheEnd: I don’t understand your logic. Should your company NOT let people go when the economy gets bad?? Should they just “carry” them lke their own little welfare program? As for what they do with their own money why should you care? Do you think you have some kind of right to their money? I do not understand either the jealousy or inability to understand business.
gone w/ wind… its funny how supposed  free market,  freedom seeking, self sufficient, liberty loving folks at this site cannot see how very socialist leaning there opinions are
Really, the democrats are poor precisely because they ARE democrats. Any group that believes a bleeding heart and redistribution of wealth for the intellectually or economically downtrodden need merely look at what happens after the fact to see you could give these people millions each and they would still need more assistance. Let them be poor. Who gives a f*ck?