"The 1% and their agonizing ordeal" Topic

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We are the 99%, the evil powers that dominate this world and prevent those decent, honest, hard-working bankers from buying that new yacht, the gold plated toilet or that apartment in Monaco they always dreamed of …

Oh, please.

"You just get trapped at a certain level of expenditure," said Tony Greenham, a former investment banker at Barclays and head of finance and business at the New Economics Foundation. "You're in a peer group which aspires to and achieves a certain standard of house in a certain area, a certain type of holiday home, and certain schooling for your children."

So, the masters of the universe, the fearless captains of industry, the financial wizards who can think outside the box are too spineless to tell their friends "well, that's the way I want to bring up my family and what's it to you ?"

Really, if they want to pocket that amount of cash they should just keep their traps shut. So the plebs hate them – so what ? I thought they were fearless risk-takers who deserve their rewards. Well, being hated by the plebs is part of the reward package.

Thanks for the link. I always love it when Ariana Huffington talks about the evils of wealth. The best line in the article was:

Bankers might want to shed some of these costs by, say, sentencing their kids to rub elbows with the filthy Poors in public schools or owning just one house.

Just to be clear for those of you who didn't link through and read the second article, that's Huffington talking about others, not herself.

I have no time for either class warfare stuff or listening to the plights of those who face peer pressure to spend money they can't afford. For a while the financial sector did great things to make the economy more efficient, I am suspicious of whether these guys really earn the money they pull in.

As soon as someone says "I can't do this job without a speedboat" I'm suspicious. Unless they are James Bond or someone similar. Or run a whale watching business (these guys are great : eaglewingtours.com )

Class warfare is for places other than the US. It has no place here. Instead of trying to drag down those on high. Improve yourself.
As to having to live a certain way in order to 'fit in', that's just ridiculous. Live as you wish. Especially if you have the wherewithall to do so. If you can look yourself in the mirror and are ok with what you see, then who cares about the rest?

<Class warfare is for places other than the US. It has no place here. Instead of trying to drag down those on high. Improve yourself.>

Preach it, my brother…

Same same.

The 99% disappeared here in Colorado now that we have legal pot.

Vince

My heart bleeds purple for those who cannot live on a million a year.

Class warfare is for places other than the US. It has no place here. Instead of trying to drag down those on high. Improve yourself.

I generally agree with this statement, Robby; however, these are the s who devastated the economy resulting in millions in your country being thrown out of work making betterment of themselves a lot more difficult. So they deserve a bit of brown paint.

As well, everyone seems ready to disparage government, public sector, welfare recipients, etc, so I don't think this is much different.

With the greatest of respect,
--
Tim

What Tim said!

Its not class warfare.

Its not class warfare.

Because Americans have no class?

I don't think it's class war to note that :

The Top 1% of USA population own 42.7% of the wealth
The Top 20& own 93%
And the remaining 80% own 7% of the national wealth.

(Figures from Wiki from reputable sources)

What I see is a disproportionate distribution. You can call that class envy if you like – I don't care.

On the whole it boils down to – the richest are paying themselves too much, and the guys on minimum wage could do with a pay rise. If that makes me a commie-s-of-a-b, then so be it.