Posted on 10/17/2011 7:15:17 AM PDT by C. Edmund Wright
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said repeatedly Sunday that Republicans agree that too few people control too much wealth in America.
"We know in this country right now that there is a complaint about folks at the top end of the income scales, that they make too much and too many don't make enough," Cantor said during an appearance on Fox News Sunday, toning down his earlier criticism of the Occupy Wall Street protests.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
The “report” is commentary and rebutal rather than factual reporting.
The ‘Pubbies need pitch this clown OUT of the party. RIGHT NOW!
One way to close the illusionary “Income Disparity” gap is to change the way the government calculates income.
When calculating “income” for the purpose of defining who is above or below the poverty line and who should pay taxes to the IRS the federal giovernment does not include welfare, food stamps, money paid by the government under the EITC plan, and the value of other government handouts.
Many people living on government handouts have real incomes substantially higher than a lot of hard working wage earners who actually have jobs, earn their own way and pay taxes.
When the government starts counting all welfare, government aid, food stamps, and other handouts as income the numbers of officially designated “poor” will decrease by a substantial amount.
But that won’t happen because the government needs to maintain the illusion that there is a great subclass of people living in poverty because of heartless, greedy American taxpayers who aren’t “paying their fair share”.
I hate to write this, but I agree that there is too much wealth in the hands of too few citizens. Before you lambast me, think about it seriously.
The government cannot correct this imbalance. It is up to the culture to correct the greed amongst many of our citizens. For instance, look at professional athletes whose insatiable demands are destroying pro sports to the point that many folks cannot afford to go to a pro ball game. In this case, perhaps they will inflict enough damage to their reputations that it will resolve itself.
The excessive compensation given to some of the CEO’s in the USA has caused serious repercussions, such as ridiculous bailouts, bankruptcies of companies whose stock holders relied upon their solvency for part of their retirement income, etc.. The problem that Wall Street has right now is that there is already a built-in bias against capitalism and the banking/financial industry specifically. It is fueled by the intelligentia in the education establishment and the liberal new media. When stories about bailouts by the government converge with huge compensation packages, it is like gasoline on a fire. That is what is happening right now.
Liekwaise, look at the exessive costs of entertainment tickets to movies, plays, etc.. But the entertainment types are liberals so they get by with their greed easier that the business leaders. I know it does not seem fair, but greed whether it is from a business CEA, a sports star, or a movie star remains what it is - excessive, and during times of high unemployment, it breeds distrust.
The free market system is still the best system for a prosperous economy - but excessive greed is destroying the trust that the general public has in free markets and specifically in capitalism. This is tragic.
OK.I make $1 million and you make $100,000. A miracle happens and the economy rebounds and now I make $2.5 million and you are making $200,000. Yikes, we have increased the “income disparity”. Can’t have that so lets go back to the $1 million/$100,000 plan.
Cantor is showing his ignorance and overall misunderstanding of how capitalism works.
If we have huge numbers of millionaires, say millions of them we are going to huge income disparity but a very rich population. There will always be people at the bottom at $0 or close to it. That is just human nature. So as a capitalist society progresses in terms of income or per capita GDP it is inevitable that income disparity will increase. What else would you expect?
Tammy Faye Boehner and Cantor would NOT be in their positions had it not been for Tea Party getting republican candidates in the House. IF the republicans manage to hang onto the House, those 2 MUST not be House leaders. This just goes to show there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between RINOs and libiots... they are ALL progressives and dont care about this republic.
>>> The free market system is still the best system for a prosperous economy - but excessive greed is destroying the trust that the general public has in free markets and specifically in capitalism. >>>
With due respect, your heart is in the right place but your diagnoses are way off. Capitalist greed is not killing capitalism, GOVERNMENT GREED is killing capitalism. You are free to never do business with any business or CEO you think is too greedy (and who are you to judge BTW).
But none of us can escape greedy government. The problem is government, government, government.
>>> OK.I make $1 million and you make $100,000. A miracle happens and the economy rebounds and now I make $2.5 million and you are making $200,000. >>>
HEY HEY WAIT A MINUTE!!! How come you get the 2.5 mill and I get the measly 200K? :)
The problem is less that there is too much income disparity, than that the tax scheme has been so poorly arranged that the rich are encouraged to invest more in unproductive speculation than in productive investments. To elaborate:
1) If someone has less than $10m, they tend to make “typical investments” in stocks, bonds, and other such interest bearing instruments.
2) From about $100,000 up to $10m, investments are so complicated that many people “with other things to do with their time”, will instead invest in mutual funds.
3) Beyond $10m to about $100m, they almost have to hire full time investment advisers and even staff, just to manage mutual funds, moving into hedge funds to guarantee dividends whether the market goes up or down.
4) More than $100m, most assets are in hedge funds, moving into much more speculative derivatives, which approaches the level of “gaming” or gambling. Yet such investments become increasingly disconnected to the “real” economy, and are just numbers on computers.
So optimally, the best way to reduce such disparity is not to try to impoverish the wealthy and extremely wealthy, but to redirect the tax structure, so that their investments are much less like gambling, and contribute more to the economy.
For example, by making “research and development” investments very attractive in a taxation structure, billions of dollars would be poured into it overnight, likely resulting in much technological and even hard science discovery and invention.
The RinoCracy will say and do anything to avoid Constitutional Government.
>>> Yup. Eliminate corporate taxes and irrational regulation, and there will be little point in paying off politicians for favors. >>>
DING DING DING, we have a winner! Exactly right. Which actually brings us to the heart of Campaign Finance Reform. McCain was wrong (as he usually is) with his template. He thinks there is too much money in politics. He is wrong. There is too much politics in MONEY (or in business anyway).
Republicans agree that too few people control too much wealth in America. "We know in this country right now that there is a complaint about folks at the top end of the income scales, that they make too much and too many don't make enough,"
Republicans KNOW there is a complaint, but that is a FAR CRY from agreeing with the sentiment.
Bingo! Why the GOP doesn't lash out at Obozo and his "let's level the playing field" when the top 10% of the wage earners foot almost 70% of the tax bill is beyond me. We idolize the poor in this country and I can't figure out why. I look at what the rich do for this country (over and above paying 70% of the bill) including invention, innovation, job creation, support for the arts, charity, etc. and then I look at all the poor do for us, like...(crickets)...I can't come up with one thing they do to contribute to society. Yet, we're supposed to be happy taking from those who contribute and give it to those who don't. Why?
How so you define greed and excessive greed. You can always not support anyone you feel is greeding. Well anyone except goevernment who will take everything you have and consider it far. Goevernment is the root of our present evail and situation.
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