[quote=dumbrenter][quote=CA renter][quote=dumbrenter]when 90% of the population thinks nothing of exchanging their hard earned paycheck for a gadget of questionable value AND with the knowledge that they are paying for a 40+% profit margin, is it any wonder that the top 1% will soon have most of the wealth?[/quote]

Exactly. Not only the customers, but the employees who barely make enough to get by so that upper-level management and shareholders can get a bigger cut of the value the *workers* create. Those who make the most are the ones who control who the winners are — the ones who control where capital flows. “Hard work” has very little to do with it.

This is one of the main reasons that wealth is driven up in the absence of an intervening force (like govt); that, and the fact that it’s much easier to make $1MM/year when you already have $100MM vs. having to work for that $1MM…and don’t even get me started on the fact that these incomes are taxed at different rates.[/quote]

You misunderstood me. My point was that nobody is forcing the 90% to go out and buy an Ipad or I-whatever. These people have a choice not to buy those gadgets, not to participate in the markets Or at least get Apple to drop that insanely high profit margin for an appliance. Instead, these 90% dumb people choose the temporary gratification of getting this overpriced gadget and then complain in leisure about the 1% they just bought it from.[/quote]

+1

my point is that in this country out of the 90% that choose gratification, probably a good portion of them do so on borrowed time (IE credit). And when time runs out, and they are up shit’s creek, they cry foul and (1) ask for debt forgivenesss and/or (2) ask for wealth redistribution…

Just look no further than the auto industry…We’re starting to slightly recover, and new BMW’s are flying off dealer lots…You think people are really paying for them in full??