The Cellar

The Cellar (http://cellar.org/index.php)
-   Politics (http://cellar.org/forumdisplay.php?f=5)
-   -   Obama - The beginning (http://cellar.org/showthread.php?t=19325)

Shawnee123 03-11-2009 08:09 PM

OK...I thought you were mad because of the pay raise, which comes from wages paid by us, the taxpayers.

If others choose to perk some of them, what does that have to do with the pay raise you are against?

classicman 03-11-2009 08:15 PM

I was referring to this chart

http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/wealth_summary_img.php

classicman 03-11-2009 08:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shawnee123 (Post 544215)
OK...I thought you were mad because of the pay raise, which comes from wages paid by us, the taxpayers.

If others choose to perk some of them, what does that have to do with the pay raise you are against?

I'm not mad at the pay raise - I don't like that its automatic though. I would like them to openly vote for it, like everything else.

Happy Monkey 03-11-2009 08:18 PM

I think Congress should get a constant multiple of the Federal minimum wage.

Redux 03-11-2009 08:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by classicman (Post 544219)


Average is not as meaningful as median.

Average the top (Harmon's $397 million) and the bottom (Hastings -$5 million) and you still have an "average" of nearly $200 million....so what? how meaningful is that?

sugarpop 03-13-2009 12:42 PM

I have a problem with them getting raises every year when they aren't willing to address raising the minimum wage every year and giving the lowest earners a REAL living wage.

classicman 03-13-2009 02:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redux (Post 544223)
you still have an "average" of nearly $200 million....so what? how meaningful is that?

I dunno, Anyone here have 1/200th of that? Post next.

sugarpop 03-13-2009 04:27 PM

Personally, I don't think anyone should be allowed to have over a billion dollars in personal wealth. Really. Who needs that much money?

Redux 03-13-2009 04:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by classicman (Post 544898)
I dunno, Anyone here have 1/200th of that? Post next.

Hey, when you make a claim that ALL members of Congress are getting "rich as shit", I'm just trying to understand how these bottom 25 in net worth ($0 or less) are getting rich:
http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/over...ilter=C&sort=A

IMO, its no better than your equally bold statement that virtually ALL economists dont share Obama's economic growth projections.

The facts dont support your generalizations.

lookout123 03-13-2009 06:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sugarpop (Post 544926)
Personally, I don't think anyone should be allowed to have over a billion dollars in personal wealth. Really. Who needs that much money?

WTF? allowed? Do you not have even the slightest idea what made this country successful?

sugarpop 03-13-2009 08:51 PM

Yes, I do. Do YOU?

Why do you think we don't grant titles of nobility in this country? Why do you think it's written into the constitution that patents and copyrights should be for a limited amount of time?

lookout123 03-13-2009 11:19 PM

Those are totally unrelated to the issue of limiting how much of a person's earnings they have the right to keep. If I earn $100 I have to pay taxes and the rest is mine. If I earn $100,000,000,000 I should pay taxes and then... not get to keep the rest of it?

classicman 03-14-2009 12:05 AM

FWIW - Anyone here believe that Joe Biden is worth only $215,997. There is no way on earth that is possible.

Also, Alcee L. Hastings (D-Fla) 2005, 2006, 2007 $-2,115,006
What are the odds of this man having the EXACT same net worth 3 years in a row?
I also noticed that in 2007, 20 of the bottom 25 were D's and 14 of the top 25 were D's. Not sure what that means, but it makes me question this data.

lookout123 03-14-2009 12:57 AM

Net worth figures are easy to mess with. One person could give five different figures without lying. It all depends on the assets and expenses included or excluded.

sugarpop 03-14-2009 01:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lookout123 (Post 545036)
Those are totally unrelated to the issue of limiting how much of a person's earnings they have the right to keep. If I earn $100 I have to pay taxes and the rest is mine. If I earn $100,000,000,000 I should pay taxes and then... not get to keep the rest of it?

The point is, those things were written into the Constitution because the FFs didn't want to create a country of peasants and nobility, or one where the nobility had all the money and power, and where they could run roughshod over the people. So we don't have titles of nobility, but one could argue that we have nobility just the same. We have created the same inequality that existed in Europe that the FFs were hoping to avoid.

They wrote the thing about patents and copyrights to create innovation and progress. They wanted people to invent things for the good of society, not for the good of the self. Greed and corruption were the things they were fighting. You know, it was a revolution. They were fighting the establishment.


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 10:32 PM.

Powered by: vBulletin Version 3.8.1
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.