Here's something pukeworthy from the New York Times reprinted on Malkintented's blog:
I want the wealthy to keep doing what they’re doing.
Barfbag yet?
The richest of the rich, in most cases, provide more value to the world via the items they create than any charity or government organization could dream of. Their wealth is an exact measure of the value they have provided to society.
The first line if true is really sad, I believe we can almost eradicate poverty if every government puts effort into it (of course if enough wealth is taken away from the rich, but the shithead who wrote the letter would never acknowledge that.) The second line is a load of crap. Most rich people are rich because of luck (stock market) or they already have wealth in their family and easily move up in the system. If anything, these people are rich because they take away from society, they are leeches. They cut wages of workers, pollute the environment, or cut corners to make their money. Let's not forget that the reason why many of these people are richer in the first place is because they are paying less taxes than they were 30 years ago. This might makes right mentality is wrong and because rich people are richer doesn't make them right.
But what I love about the letter, and by "love" I mean "hate" is who is writing it:
J. Todd Larson
The writer is the president of Citium Wealth Management and an adjunct professor in the M.B.A. program at Seattle University.
Lol! The letter is titled "Thank the rich", but it should be titled "Thank me." I see this all the time with journalism, the writer discloses some bias and expects that just mentioning that will make things better, but it doesn't. A president of a business writing something that basically says "thank us for screwing you, but we will lie about it and claim we are doing good" is about as terrible as you can get.
*Not all of them, I believe there can be a few rich people in existence, but they are in such low supply these days.
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Thank you for elevating me to "shithead" status. I'm honored that my letter merited a mention on your blog. A couple points of clarification: "most" rich people are not rich due to "luck"; Over 80% of the rich become rich during their lifetime; they go from poor to rich during their working years. The majority of those create businesses that sell products or services to willing customers. We have MRI machines, cancer drugs, and air travel due to the pursuit of wealth. While everyone wants to complain about how little the rich pay in taxes, the simple math is startling. The top 10% pay 70% of all taxes collected (the top 1% pay 40%). The bottom 50% pay 2.3%. Thanks for listening.
ReplyDeleteFinally, a comment not from my usual troll and unlike him, thank you for replying decently.
ReplyDeleteBut assuming you are the J Todd in the letter I found on Malkintented's blog, you are mistaken dude.
First off, you can't convince me in a million years that there is a single job that can elevate someone from poor to a billionaire without some sort of luck or loophole advantage either provided by family, the government, or fellow rich people in business friendly thinktanks to get them there. You also can't tell me that rich are rich because they are hard working, every blue-collar worker in the world would be rich if that were true. But they won't get paid that amount and it's the workers and the unions that deserve most the thanks for the good things in this country.
People make and invent stuff usually for altruistic reasons, not "pursuit of wealth." If they happen to get rich, it is only a side effect of making the world a better place. Also, they are helped along by government patents to make themselves wealthy.
When they invent something, they are exploring truth, science, and reality, they only made the discovery. Thomas Edison isn't famous for being rich, he's famous for being an inventer (plus he also "stole" some ideas from others). In a way, an invention belongs collectively to all mankind. To generically credit the rich for this kind of corrupts the common good and to credit the rich as a whole means you are crediting greedy people too. These people like I said got lucky, inhereted money, or gambled on Wallstreet, they are rich because they are lazy. With or without the inventers, the rich as a whole make excuses for their arrogance and greed. Most of them don't deserve thanks, but deserve to be spat on.
I've read those stats and they mean nothing. The rich are still getting richer at morbid rates and we are heading towards an Aristocracy. Despite anything you say, the tax rate deserves to be returned to 70% for the top 1%.
As for the "shithead" remark. I won't add to the insults, but I won't apologize. When someone writes a column titled "Thank the Rich" and then reveals themselves as one of the rich they are thanking, I can't help but to "jump to conclusions."