Middle class losing ground as rich get richer

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(burritos @ Oct 4 2006, 06:53 PM) [snapback]328180[/snapback]</div>

The Great Wall was built with slaves and unemployed soldiers. But the pyramids were built with free men that were professional craftsmen and had a high standrd of living. We know this because we have found their work towns and the 'mail' they sent to one another. The transAmerican Railroad was also built with paid labor: The Irish and civil war vets in the east and mainly Chinese in the west. All paid for their labor.

 

So many simplistic answers. Taxation in the US does contine a large amount of income distribution. WHO gets to decide how much profit is too much. WHO decides when you are greedy. My point?...I think you should MOVE if you live in an area where houses average 1/4 a million. People who live in areas where houses average 50K can think I should move since houses here average 100K. People in Ethiopia probably think ALL of us are greedy capitalists.

This discussion would be more meaningful if we defined our terms.

Greed- wanting what you do not have (covet) or wanting more than you need to provide adequate food, shelter, and security.

Excess profit- a corporation CANNOT have excess profit, only the individual shareholders or owners can.

Well, there are biblical answers. God says we should endeavor to expand our wealth but we should then spend it for the glorification of God...that includes helping the needy and spreading the gospel.

Me, I agree that the LOVE of money is the root of all evil (that love part is the part most people forget), that we are to lay up our treasures in heaven..not on earth. Where our treasures are, there also is our heart.

A lot of people ask why I am retiring now when I could keep working on a deferred retirement plan and leave with 1/2 a mil. in 8 years. Or just stay 8 more years and let my pension rise by another 20 percent.

Why?, because I have a house, a car, clothes, everything I need and when I leave, another young aspiring person can get a good job and raise a family.

I see a lot of people who simply rationalize their own choices about money (including me) or simply blame others as being worse, thereby making them look better. Money is a tool, just like a hammer, and it is how you use it that should determine whether or not you build, or you destroy.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Schmika @ Oct 6 2006, 08:34 PM) [snapback]329228[/snapback]</div>

what a great reason to retire! i don't think i've seen anyone think of it as making room for someone else to build a career and provide for a family.

and hey, congrats

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hyo silver @ Oct 6 2006, 10:21 AM) [snapback]328918[/snapback]</div>

This is possibly true, but it doesn't feel like it. A few years ago I heard some British pundit say that in America there is no left-wing party as both main parties are heavily on the right, one slightly less than the other. I don't know if this is true now but if there is the beginnings of a truly left-wing party (the Greens?) in America I'll guess it could take many years to successfully change the voting pattern of the masses away from the present 2 parties.

Look at the history of the Liberals in the UK. In the 19th century they were seen by many as "radical" and likely to destroy the fabric of society. But they eventually did form a government in 1906 (100th anniversary this year!). They introduced old age pensions for the first time to the disgust of the Tory right but pensions in old age were an enormous step forward. Then after WW1 the Liberals started to decline and were gradually replaced by the Labour Party, which since WW2 has been one of the two major political parties. If we ever see another Liberal government here it's likely to be some years from now.