As I have read some of the posts on this thread, there is a big fallacy looming in the background. The issue has been framed around the existence of a supposed class warfare. In my view, class warfare means that there is war between two classes, and for that to be the situation, that means that most all members of one class are engaging in deliberate antagonism and aggression against the other class, and vice versa. As they say, it takes two to tango. If only one is waging war, and the other is not fighting back, then it is not really war, it’s just a beating. Although, I do sometimes feel that what is really going on right now is more of a beating than warfare, but even that is not an accurate assessment of our current reality.
One of the common retorts by right wingers in this forum and everywhere else they express themselves, is that we liberals are jealous of what the rich have and that we simply hate the rich. Right, OddBall? Often times that is the only and final argument that is posited by the cons, especially when they can’t come up with a real argument. Right, OddBall?
The real issue is that there is a massively inequitable lopsided concentration of wealth and income at the top in our society here in the USA. In fact, we are the second worst offender of this inequity in the world. The problem is that our current economic system is way to heavily biased in favor of the wealthy and this bias effectively provides and allows an inequitable transfer of the wealth that is created by the working people of this great country to the wealthy few. This inefficient and inequitable economic system is specifically a result of and is supported by our specific economic structure, our current political system, our current legal system, our government and even in part by our culture. It is systemic, and it needs to be fixed or this inequity will continue worsening, which, beginning with Reagan, is certainly the case.
I don’t hate rich people, most rich people are good people. The wealthy and well-to-do people I have known and currently know and have worked with are, by and large, honest, hard working, intelligent, knowledgeable, self disciplined and moral people that are very good citizens. I have known some rich people that are dishonest, lazy, greedy, larcenous, and even stupid, but those are a small minority of the wealthy people I have known. You will find that at every level of society. So, this is not an indictment of the rich, it is an indictment of the system. So, don’t take it so personally, you dumb cons (the dumb cons can take ‘you dumb cons’ personally, however, I meant that personally).
When the criterion of a class is defined by the income and wealth one possess, there are definitely distinct classes here in the USA. Briefly, the top 15% own 85% of the nation’s wealth, conversely and unfortunately, that means that the bottom 85% own only 15% of the wealth. That’s lopsided, wouldn’t you say? It gets worse: the top 1% own 37%, the top 10% own 71%, the bottom 60% own only 4% and the bottom 40% (and there are a lot of cons and pubs (pronounced ‘pubes’
own less than a mere 1% of the nation’s wealth. That’s lopsided, wouldn’t you say?
Now, all those of you who believe that the lopsided concentration of wealth and income is perfectly OK, and that it is the way things should be, and furthermore, the concentration should be even worse, please respond by saying “yes” and posting here and please give your reasons. Remember, I don’t hate rich people and I am not envious (I’ve got my own, I am doin’ fine.). I just vehemently hate and rigorously oppose those of you who answered “yes”. In fact, I harbor nothing but the most intense contempt for you and your ilk. What is so stupid is that many of those of you who would answer “yes” are not among the wealthy. You, stupid, consistently vote and argue against your own best interest. That, among other things, is why we liberals think (know) that you right wing cons and pubs are so stupid.
I’d prefer that we spend our energy on this thread about how to fix the system and enable the system to more justly reward and compensate more people instead of overcompensating and over rewarding the few at the top and under compensating and under rewarding everyone else. When things would be more equitable, then many more hard working Americans could afford a more adequate standard of living and be safer and healthier and happier.
This should and can all be done within a healthy market economy. Don’t let those larcenous right wingers tell you that the only possible version of a market economy is complete and absolute laissez-faire completely unregulated capitalist market economy. That’s crap!
This is not class warfare, but it is a beating by the larcenous few right wingers and some on the left that are purely political animals that are waging a beating on American working class (which by the way is at least the bottom 95% of us Americans). They are and have been able to skew the economic system in favor of the wealthy at the top because there are too many voting right wingers that have been successfully duped to vote against their own best interest (there are a lot of pubs and cons in the ranks of the bottom 95%, they just aren’t smart enough to realize it). Wake up you numb skulls!
