Ann Romney: "I don't even consider myself wealthy"

I knew a guy who was a mentor of sorts to me and he was wealthy. He was probably worth a couple million 30 years ago.

He was always working on something because he was a true entrepreneur and he loved solving problems. He literally could have gone out and done or bought anything he wanted at any time but he would always hold off on a purchase or a vacation until he met some self determined benchmark.

He never thought he was wealthy in fact he was more responsible with his money than anyone I knew.

Maybe that's why he actually was wealthy huh?

We should learn something from that.
I believe there are quite a few millionaires who fit the description of your friend. They have accumulated a reasonable amount of wealth and they use it to lead comfortable, secure, relatively unexceptional lives -- and there is nothing wrong with that. The problem lies in the accumulation of excessive wealth that reflects the kind of malignant and contagious greed which has operated to severely damage our economy and sabotage the middle class.

My personal idea of the level at which reasonable wealth becomes excessive wealth is twenty million dollars. I believe that amount of money would enable anyone to own a fine home (or two) and lead a secure and comfortable life. I further believe America would be a much better place if the tax law mandated confiscation of accumulated personal assets in excess of twenty million dollars.

And I have no doubt that some of the most vigorous and outraged protests of that declaration will come from individuals who will never earn more than $75k and probably will never be able to pay off their credit card debt.

There is no such thing as excessive wealth.

Not is there in the size of the 'pie'.

(And that wasn't targeted at you but those that belive in 'Zero Sum Game') ;)
 
It's interesting how many on the left talk about having a "world view" of politics, economics and foreign policy. Yet when discussing wealth do not. All Americans are excessively wealthy on a world scale.
Some Americans are excessively wealthy on a world scale. But unless you are referencing the most impoverished nations of the world, the fact is there is increasingly more poverty in America than in any of the world's developed nations.

I believe what you mean to say is America is one of the wealthiest nations in the world, which is quite true. But the problem is distribution. Most of our wealth is possessed by the fewest number of citizens.

For America's Least Fortunate, The Grip Of Poverty Spans Generations

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/us/14census.html?pagewanted=all

Poverty in America likely to get worse, report finds | Business | guardian.co.uk

The imbalance has been brought about during the past three decades and was facilitated by the furtively systematic elimination of all the federal regulations which had formerly prevented the financial maneuvering.
 
There is no such thing as excessive wealth.
Then you see nothing wrong with the smallest percentage of Americans controlling the largest amount of the Nation's wealth while an increasing number of formerly secure middle class workers are being forced into poverty?

financial_wealth_pie_chart.png


You don't consider the imbalance to be excessive? Even though you know (or should know) that the preponderance of this imbalance is the result of devious and formerly illegal financial maneuverings, such as usurious interest rates, Credit Default Swaps and Collateralized Debt Obligations, and numerous other banking and Wall Street schemes and scams?

You don't consider corporate CEOs who once earned 30 times more than their average corporate employee now earning 300 times as much and bringing home $500 million bonuses excessive? Even though many of their employees have lost their pension or had them reduced?

Where does this notion that there is no such thing as execssive wealth come from? How did you arrive at that conclusion? Can it be you just don't know what's been happening in your own country?

Where are you positioned on the above chart?
 
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I just read the quote. AR wasn't saying she wasn't wealthy. She was making the simple point that one can be prideful about their money and then lose it. I think it was kind of a lame point, but it's not the point that libs want to pretend that it is.
What I believe she meant is "I don't even consider myself wealthy" (in comparison to our friends, the Koch Brothers, et al).

It's really not a lame point, Old Sport. My understanding is it's the way most rich people think. They consider themselves underprivileged if they have the smallest yacht on the dock at Hyannis.
 
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I'm glad that Romney is a self made rich man. That means he won't have the need to feather his nest with taxpayer and lobbyist money.

:laugh: this is priceless... rich people don't try to get richer. :laugh:
 
I just read the quote. AR wasn't saying she wasn't wealthy. She was making the simple point that one can be prideful about their money and then lose it. I think it was kind of a lame point, but it's not the point that libs want to pretend that it is.
What I believe she meant is "I don't even consider myself wealthy" (in comparison to our friends, the Koch Brothers, et al).

It's really not a lame point, Old Sport. My understanding is it's the way most rich people think. They consider themselves underprivileged if they have the smallest yacht on the dock at Hyannis.

It sounds like you are letting your biased view of wealthy people get in the way of objective analysis.

BTW - The Obamas are rich. They also had their political standing bought and paid for by rich people. What exactly do you want to hate about the Romneys that is not present with the Obamas?
 
Ann Romney: "I don't even consider myself wealthy"

Hillary Clinton said she was a fiscal conservative. Lots of people in politics have no realistic sense of who they are.

Hillary is also full of crapola. The only reason we aren't reminded is she doesn't speak in public as much as she used to.

Like her comment that al Jazzera was real news.

It is real news. Way better than any of the home brewed network shit we have here.

I know I know, it "sounds all muslimy sand person" to you. You must hate algebra too!
 
Hillary Clinton said she was a fiscal conservative. Lots of people in politics have no realistic sense of who they are.

Hillary is also full of crapola. The only reason we aren't reminded is she doesn't speak in public as much as she used to.

Like her comment that al Jazzera was real news.

It is real news. Way better than any of the home brewed network shit we have here.

I know I know, it "sounds all muslimy sand person" to you. You must hate algebra too!

Al jazzera does do "real news" (at least the English version). But there's no doubt that Clinton's contrast to American news was disingenuous. She doesn't like that outlets like Fox News aren't giving her a pass to do what the f she wants and it shows in that analysis.
 
Hillary is also full of crapola. The only reason we aren't reminded is she doesn't speak in public as much as she used to.

Like her comment that al Jazzera was real news.

It is real news. Way better than any of the home brewed network shit we have here.

I know I know, it "sounds all muslimy sand person" to you. You must hate algebra too!

Al jazzera does do "real news" (at least the English version). But there's no doubt that Clinton's contrast to American news was disingenuous. She doesn't like that outlets like Fox News aren't giving her a pass to do what the f she wants and it shows in that analysis.

Oh fucking please. Fox News is not at all "news" compared to Al Jazeera or the BBC.
 
It is real news. Way better than any of the home brewed network shit we have here.

I know I know, it "sounds all muslimy sand person" to you. You must hate algebra too!

Al jazzera does do "real news" (at least the English version). But there's no doubt that Clinton's contrast to American news was disingenuous. She doesn't like that outlets like Fox News aren't giving her a pass to do what the f she wants and it shows in that analysis.

Oh fucking please. Fox News is not at all "news" compared to Al Jazeera or the BBC.

Fox News uncovers/discusses items that the rest of the American news agencies bury. Even if they play to the right, they are an invaluable staple. Even if I was a committed lib I would acknowledge that. The role of the media is transparency and the other outlets are not doing that in ways that they should.
 
Al jazzera does do "real news" (at least the English version). But there's no doubt that Clinton's contrast to American news was disingenuous. She doesn't like that outlets like Fox News aren't giving her a pass to do what the f she wants and it shows in that analysis.

Oh fucking please. Fox News is not at all "news" compared to Al Jazeera or the BBC.

Fox News uncovers/discusses items that the rest of the American news agencies bury. Even if they play to the right, they are an invaluable staple. Even if I was a committed lib I would acknowledge that. The role of the media is transparency and the other outlets are not doing that in ways that they should.

That the rest of the news agencies bury? Sorry, but Fox is in the business of creating news stories that cater to its narrative... even if that means putting out talking points that pundits and anchors are supposed to bring up. Most of it is totally bogus bullshit.
 
The peasants might want to argue the point, but obama shouldn't want to get into a battle with Romney as to who has the most financial excess.

Trip to India
Trip to Spain
Date night in New York
Ten car motorcade to Mt. Rushmore

Even obama himself wouldn't take that on.

You forgot the daughter's spring break in Oaxaca with her 12 friends and 25 secret service agents. Did you know that Oaxaca is on the United States to dangerous travel to? I guess that is why there were 25 secret service agents to 12 kids at the week long slumber party.
 
There is no such thing as excessive wealth.
Then you see nothing wrong with the smallest percentage of Americans controlling the largest amount of the Nation's wealth while an increasing number of formerly secure middle class workers are being forced into poverty?

You are assuming that if some people make less then others will make more. That is an unprovable argument.

I have nearly quadrupled my income over the past 5 years. So it's your position that other people have had a proportional loss of income solely because I made more?



You don't consider the imbalance to be excessive? Even though you know (or should know) that the preponderance of this imbalance is the result of devious and formerly illegal financial maneuverings, such as usurious interest rates, Credit Default Swaps and Collateralized Debt Obligations, and numerous other banking and Wall Street schemes and scams?

Again you have no proof that all that money was made illegally. And really the housing bubble was more a result of the government manipulating the money supply than it was Wall Street's fault. Interest rates were kept artificially low even as the housing market was booming. If interest rates had been allowed to rise the bubble would not have inflated so fast and the expected downturn in real estate would not have been as bad.

You don't consider corporate CEOs who once earned 30 times more than their average corporate employee now earning 300 times as much and bringing home $500 million bonuses excessive? Even though many of their employees have lost their pension or had them reduced?

Private companies can pay their employees whatever they want. And you still have yet to prove that other people would make more money if CEOs made less.

Where does this notion that there is no such thing as execssive wealth come from? How did you arrive at that conclusion? Can it be you just don't know what's been happening in your own country?

Where are you positioned on the above chart?

My wife and I had an AGI of about 300K last year I don't know where that puts me in your little chart and I don't care.

My wife and I both grew up poor. In fact my wife had it even worse than I did. We both worked extremely hard for everything we have. In fact up until the past 5 years we both worked 2 jobs. We took a huge risk starting our business. So for you to say that people who are successful are making too much money irks me to no end. I fully expect our income to double or triple again in the next ten years and I won't feel the least bit guilty about it. And I don't feel the least bit jealous of the success of others.
 
aint goin to go over well in the hard hit Southern states

The Southern States aren't the issue. Cleetus and Bubba have been so convinced to vote against their own economic interests, even the fact the Romneys are Mormon Heretics will take those states out of the Red Column.

the place where this won't play well is in the midwest/Rust Belt. And if Romney can't make serious inroads there, he's done.
 
There is no such thing as excessive wealth.
Then you see nothing wrong with the smallest percentage of Americans controlling the largest amount of the Nation's wealth while an increasing number of formerly secure middle class workers are being forced into poverty?

You are assuming that if some people make less then others will make more. That is an unprovable argument.

I have nearly quadrupled my income over the past 5 years. So it's your position that other people have had a proportional loss of income solely because I made more?





Again you have no proof that all that money was made illegally. And really the housing bubble was more a result of the government manipulating the money supply than it was Wall Street's fault. Interest rates were kept artificially low even as the housing market was booming. If interest rates had been allowed to rise the bubble would not have inflated so fast and the expected downturn in real estate would not have been as bad.

You don't consider corporate CEOs who once earned 30 times more than their average corporate employee now earning 300 times as much and bringing home $500 million bonuses excessive? Even though many of their employees have lost their pension or had them reduced?

Private companies can pay their employees whatever they want. And you still have yet to prove that other people would make more money if CEOs made less.

Where does this notion that there is no such thing as execssive wealth come from? How did you arrive at that conclusion? Can it be you just don't know what's been happening in your own country?

Where are you positioned on the above chart?

My wife and I had an AGI of about 300K last year I don't know where that puts me in your little chart and I don't care.

My wife and I both grew up poor. In fact my wife had it even worse than I did. We both worked extremely hard for everything we have. In fact up until the past 5 years we both worked 2 jobs. We took a huge risk starting our business. So for you to say that people who are successful are making too much money irks me to no end. I fully expect our income to double or triple again in the next ten years and I won't feel the least bit guilty about it. And I don't feel the least bit jealous of the success of others.

Glad to hear of your hard work and success.
 
What a great attitude she has! I love it

I'll bet she's always been proud of the USA too
 

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