OT: Wealth Redistribution Experiment

[alarmclock]

Not to be a liberal apologist but the underlying pricinple is that it’s not just hard work, but intrinsic capability that determines success. In essence God hands out different quality brains with different capabilities. You ended up with a better-than-average brain, and thus better-than-average earning potential. The kicker is that you didn’t do anything to earn it–you couldn’t possibly have, unless you believe in reincarnation. So, as a society, those who undeservedly ended up with good brains are obligated to help those who undeservedly ended up without good brains.

Mmmmm… brains….

[ibjames]

it’s not about brains

it reminds me of my high school, I went to an inner city school with high teen pregnancy and high dropout rates. Not many students went to college.

My high school teachers would always talk about how many of us aren’t smart enough for college.

College is not about smarts, it is about work ethic.

My brother in law has been in remedial classes his whole life. He has to study longer, and work harder to learn material. He has a college degree and makes pretty good money. He doesn’t have many friends, isn’t the brightest bulb, but he works hard, and makes good money. He took 5 1/2 years to complete college, but he finished, he’s even thinking of working on his MBA.

Why should I or my brother in law work hard to make a good salary just to get taxed like crazy so my money can go to someone who is hanging out watching tv collecting employment (like my other brother)

[ibjames]

it’s not about brains

it reminds me of my high school, I went to an inner city school with high teen pregnancy and high dropout rates. Not many students went to college.

My high school teachers would always talk about how many of us aren’t smart enough for college.

College is not about smarts, it is about work ethic.

My brother in law has been in remedial classes his whole life. He has to study longer, and work harder to learn material. He has a college degree and makes pretty good money. He doesn’t have many friends, isn’t the brightest bulb, but he works hard, and makes good money. He took 5 1/2 years to complete college, but he finished, he’s even thinking of working on his MBA.

Why should I or my brother in law work hard to make a good salary just to get taxed like crazy so my money can go to someone who is hanging out watching tv collecting employment (like my other brother)

[ibjames]

it’s not about brains

it reminds me of my high school, I went to an inner city school with high teen pregnancy and high dropout rates. Not many students went to college.

My high school teachers would always talk about how many of us aren’t smart enough for college.

College is not about smarts, it is about work ethic.

My brother in law has been in remedial classes his whole life. He has to study longer, and work harder to learn material. He has a college degree and makes pretty good money. He doesn’t have many friends, isn’t the brightest bulb, but he works hard, and makes good money. He took 5 1/2 years to complete college, but he finished, he’s even thinking of working on his MBA.

Why should I or my brother in law work hard to make a good salary just to get taxed like crazy so my money can go to someone who is hanging out watching tv collecting employment (like my other brother)

[ibjames]

it’s not about brains

it reminds me of my high school, I went to an inner city school with high teen pregnancy and high dropout rates. Not many students went to college.

My high school teachers would always talk about how many of us aren’t smart enough for college.

College is not about smarts, it is about work ethic.

My brother in law has been in remedial classes his whole life. He has to study longer, and work harder to learn material. He has a college degree and makes pretty good money. He doesn’t have many friends, isn’t the brightest bulb, but he works hard, and makes good money. He took 5 1/2 years to complete college, but he finished, he’s even thinking of working on his MBA.

Why should I or my brother in law work hard to make a good salary just to get taxed like crazy so my money can go to someone who is hanging out watching tv collecting employment (like my other brother)

[ibjames]

it’s not about brains

it reminds me of my high school, I went to an inner city school with high teen pregnancy and high dropout rates. Not many students went to college.

My high school teachers would always talk about how many of us aren’t smart enough for college.

College is not about smarts, it is about work ethic.

My brother in law has been in remedial classes his whole life. He has to study longer, and work harder to learn material. He has a college degree and makes pretty good money. He doesn’t have many friends, isn’t the brightest bulb, but he works hard, and makes good money. He took 5 1/2 years to complete college, but he finished, he’s even thinking of working on his MBA.

Why should I or my brother in law work hard to make a good salary just to get taxed like crazy so my money can go to someone who is hanging out watching tv collecting employment (like my other brother)

[jficquette]

[quote=ibjames]it’s not about brains

it reminds me of my high school, I went to an inner city school with high teen pregnancy and high dropout rates. Not many students went to college.

My high school teachers would always talk about how many of us aren’t smart enough for college.

College is not about smarts, it is about work ethic.

My brother in law has been in remedial classes his whole life. He has to study longer, and work harder to learn material. He has a college degree and makes pretty good money. He doesn’t have many friends, isn’t the brightest bulb, but he works hard, and makes good money. He took 5 1/2 years to complete college, but he finished, he’s even thinking of working on his MBA.

Why should I or my brother in law work hard to make a good salary just to get taxed like crazy so my money can go to someone who is hanging out watching tv collecting employment (like my other brother)[/quote]

Thats great about your brother. Nothing more warming then to hear about someone who overcame barriers to reach their goals.

John

[jficquette]

[quote=ibjames]it’s not about brains

it reminds me of my high school, I went to an inner city school with high teen pregnancy and high dropout rates. Not many students went to college.

My high school teachers would always talk about how many of us aren’t smart enough for college.

College is not about smarts, it is about work ethic.

My brother in law has been in remedial classes his whole life. He has to study longer, and work harder to learn material. He has a college degree and makes pretty good money. He doesn’t have many friends, isn’t the brightest bulb, but he works hard, and makes good money. He took 5 1/2 years to complete college, but he finished, he’s even thinking of working on his MBA.

Why should I or my brother in law work hard to make a good salary just to get taxed like crazy so my money can go to someone who is hanging out watching tv collecting employment (like my other brother)[/quote]

Thats great about your brother. Nothing more warming then to hear about someone who overcame barriers to reach their goals.

John

[jficquette]

[quote=ibjames]it’s not about brains

it reminds me of my high school, I went to an inner city school with high teen pregnancy and high dropout rates. Not many students went to college.

My high school teachers would always talk about how many of us aren’t smart enough for college.

College is not about smarts, it is about work ethic.

My brother in law has been in remedial classes his whole life. He has to study longer, and work harder to learn material. He has a college degree and makes pretty good money. He doesn’t have many friends, isn’t the brightest bulb, but he works hard, and makes good money. He took 5 1/2 years to complete college, but he finished, he’s even thinking of working on his MBA.

Why should I or my brother in law work hard to make a good salary just to get taxed like crazy so my money can go to someone who is hanging out watching tv collecting employment (like my other brother)[/quote]

Thats great about your brother. Nothing more warming then to hear about someone who overcame barriers to reach their goals.

John

[jficquette]

[quote=ibjames]it’s not about brains

it reminds me of my high school, I went to an inner city school with high teen pregnancy and high dropout rates. Not many students went to college.

My high school teachers would always talk about how many of us aren’t smart enough for college.

College is not about smarts, it is about work ethic.

My brother in law has been in remedial classes his whole life. He has to study longer, and work harder to learn material. He has a college degree and makes pretty good money. He doesn’t have many friends, isn’t the brightest bulb, but he works hard, and makes good money. He took 5 1/2 years to complete college, but he finished, he’s even thinking of working on his MBA.

Why should I or my brother in law work hard to make a good salary just to get taxed like crazy so my money can go to someone who is hanging out watching tv collecting employment (like my other brother)[/quote]

Thats great about your brother. Nothing more warming then to hear about someone who overcame barriers to reach their goals.

John

[jficquette]

[quote=ibjames]it’s not about brains

it reminds me of my high school, I went to an inner city school with high teen pregnancy and high dropout rates. Not many students went to college.

My high school teachers would always talk about how many of us aren’t smart enough for college.

College is not about smarts, it is about work ethic.

My brother in law has been in remedial classes his whole life. He has to study longer, and work harder to learn material. He has a college degree and makes pretty good money. He doesn’t have many friends, isn’t the brightest bulb, but he works hard, and makes good money. He took 5 1/2 years to complete college, but he finished, he’s even thinking of working on his MBA.

Why should I or my brother in law work hard to make a good salary just to get taxed like crazy so my money can go to someone who is hanging out watching tv collecting employment (like my other brother)[/quote]

Thats great about your brother. Nothing more warming then to hear about someone who overcame barriers to reach their goals.

John

[CricketOnTheHearth]

Grapes vs Grape-pickers

In this world there are two main types of people: the grapes and the grape-pickers. Grapes are people who work for their living. They may work 2 or 3 minimum-wage jobs just to make ends meet, they may have worked their way through college like your brother, or they may be a doctor working of $100,000+ in med school loans. The vast majority of grapes earn under $250,000 a year. CEOs of large corporations, and there are about 500 or so of them, are the exception to this.

Then there are the grape-pickers. These are the guys who make their living off “investments”, from dividends that roll in. They are the string-pullers, the ones who push for this law or that law, who move millions of dollars around which influences where the grapes can live, where they can work, and even if they get to work a decent job at all.

It was grape-pickers who engineered this subprime/ald-A/CDOs housing mess, and they made a lot of money off the little grapes they picked– grapes who are now getting laid off, seeing their houses foreclosed upon, or both.

Grape-pickers make up less than 10% of the American population (probably less than 5%, actually) and have something like 50% of the wealth in this country. Obama proposes to “redistribute” the wealth from the grape-pickers to the grapes. The grape-pickers can well afford it– as Warren Buffett, grape-picker extraordinaire, has happily told the media on more than one occasion.

And quite frankly, both server and homeless guy were grapes in this little scenario. Servers’ wages are not much better than minimum wage; they need those tips to survive. The kinder thing in this scenario would have been to give the server his tip and give the homeless guy a $5-spot. Because as is pretty clear from the essay, the guy writing it was a bigger grape than either of them.

[CricketOnTheHearth]

Grapes vs Grape-pickers

In this world there are two main types of people: the grapes and the grape-pickers. Grapes are people who work for their living. They may work 2 or 3 minimum-wage jobs just to make ends meet, they may have worked their way through college like your brother, or they may be a doctor working of $100,000+ in med school loans. The vast majority of grapes earn under $250,000 a year. CEOs of large corporations, and there are about 500 or so of them, are the exception to this.

Then there are the grape-pickers. These are the guys who make their living off “investments”, from dividends that roll in. They are the string-pullers, the ones who push for this law or that law, who move millions of dollars around which influences where the grapes can live, where they can work, and even if they get to work a decent job at all.

It was grape-pickers who engineered this subprime/ald-A/CDOs housing mess, and they made a lot of money off the little grapes they picked– grapes who are now getting laid off, seeing their houses foreclosed upon, or both.

Grape-pickers make up less than 10% of the American population (probably less than 5%, actually) and have something like 50% of the wealth in this country. Obama proposes to “redistribute” the wealth from the grape-pickers to the grapes. The grape-pickers can well afford it– as Warren Buffett, grape-picker extraordinaire, has happily told the media on more than one occasion.

And quite frankly, both server and homeless guy were grapes in this little scenario. Servers’ wages are not much better than minimum wage; they need those tips to survive. The kinder thing in this scenario would have been to give the server his tip and give the homeless guy a $5-spot. Because as is pretty clear from the essay, the guy writing it was a bigger grape than either of them.

[CricketOnTheHearth]

Grapes vs Grape-pickers

In this world there are two main types of people: the grapes and the grape-pickers. Grapes are people who work for their living. They may work 2 or 3 minimum-wage jobs just to make ends meet, they may have worked their way through college like your brother, or they may be a doctor working of $100,000+ in med school loans. The vast majority of grapes earn under $250,000 a year. CEOs of large corporations, and there are about 500 or so of them, are the exception to this.

Then there are the grape-pickers. These are the guys who make their living off “investments”, from dividends that roll in. They are the string-pullers, the ones who push for this law or that law, who move millions of dollars around which influences where the grapes can live, where they can work, and even if they get to work a decent job at all.

It was grape-pickers who engineered this subprime/ald-A/CDOs housing mess, and they made a lot of money off the little grapes they picked– grapes who are now getting laid off, seeing their houses foreclosed upon, or both.

Grape-pickers make up less than 10% of the American population (probably less than 5%, actually) and have something like 50% of the wealth in this country. Obama proposes to “redistribute” the wealth from the grape-pickers to the grapes. The grape-pickers can well afford it– as Warren Buffett, grape-picker extraordinaire, has happily told the media on more than one occasion.

And quite frankly, both server and homeless guy were grapes in this little scenario. Servers’ wages are not much better than minimum wage; they need those tips to survive. The kinder thing in this scenario would have been to give the server his tip and give the homeless guy a $5-spot. Because as is pretty clear from the essay, the guy writing it was a bigger grape than either of them.

[CricketOnTheHearth]

Grapes vs Grape-pickers

In this world there are two main types of people: the grapes and the grape-pickers. Grapes are people who work for their living. They may work 2 or 3 minimum-wage jobs just to make ends meet, they may have worked their way through college like your brother, or they may be a doctor working of $100,000+ in med school loans. The vast majority of grapes earn under $250,000 a year. CEOs of large corporations, and there are about 500 or so of them, are the exception to this.

Then there are the grape-pickers. These are the guys who make their living off “investments”, from dividends that roll in. They are the string-pullers, the ones who push for this law or that law, who move millions of dollars around which influences where the grapes can live, where they can work, and even if they get to work a decent job at all.

It was grape-pickers who engineered this subprime/ald-A/CDOs housing mess, and they made a lot of money off the little grapes they picked– grapes who are now getting laid off, seeing their houses foreclosed upon, or both.

Grape-pickers make up less than 10% of the American population (probably less than 5%, actually) and have something like 50% of the wealth in this country. Obama proposes to “redistribute” the wealth from the grape-pickers to the grapes. The grape-pickers can well afford it– as Warren Buffett, grape-picker extraordinaire, has happily told the media on more than one occasion.

And quite frankly, both server and homeless guy were grapes in this little scenario. Servers’ wages are not much better than minimum wage; they need those tips to survive. The kinder thing in this scenario would have been to give the server his tip and give the homeless guy a $5-spot. Because as is pretty clear from the essay, the guy writing it was a bigger grape than either of them.

[Author]

Posts