tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16594468.post7850886089701836356..comments2023-10-24T04:29:23.693-06:00Comments on Atheist Ethicist: Shiller and the Awfulness of the 1%Alonzo Fyfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05687777216426347054noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16594468.post-56523428321494737662011-12-08T11:12:48.530-07:002011-12-08T11:12:48.530-07:00I question your last comment,Alonzo. The rich do i...I question your last comment,Alonzo. The rich do invest in the stock market and they do buy bonds, but they invest in such a way as to avoid taxes. They buy tax free bonds. Unless they sell their stock at a gain they don't pay any tax on that capital gain while they own it. They use the loss of one stock to off set the gain of another. They move their money off shore to avoid taxes. It's a business to the rich yet they don't get a W-2, pay social security or treat their income as earned income. What small business wouldn't like those same tax breaks?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16594468.post-20731027526940118972011-12-08T09:25:28.774-07:002011-12-08T09:25:28.774-07:00Anonymous
Actually, above that threshold, people ...<b>Anonymous</b><br /><br />Actually, above that threshold, people do not take money out of circulation. They invest it. They buy bonds (to build highways and schools), stock (to build new offices and hire employees), or save it in a bank account where the bank loans it to people who buy cars and boats or to open a small business and the like).Alonzo Fyfehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05687777216426347054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16594468.post-85965326101350087032011-12-07T23:18:24.213-07:002011-12-07T23:18:24.213-07:00Above a certain threshold, wealth does not create ...Above a certain threshold, wealth does not create jobs. You get your first million, you buy a nicer car and house. Ten million, you buy another home or two, hire people to tend the grounds, hire a chef, a chauffeur, etc. But beyond a certain point there is just not enough stuff for you to buy and you end up hoarding wealth, thus taking it out of circulation -- it's not creating jobs, it's just sitting somewhere. That's one of the genuine social problems caused by such extremes.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16594468.post-59216642537148479252011-12-06T20:02:37.910-07:002011-12-06T20:02:37.910-07:00that depends. since the rich are buying over pric...that depends. since the rich are buying over priced luxury goods and the poor are not we could see how many jobs per dollar spent were created in the two job markets.<br /><br />i imagine that over pricing something creates no jobs. while mass producing millions of cheap things requires lots of jobs<br /><br />creating a diamond encrusted car would employ diamond smiths and luxery car mechanics at a specialty shop. lets say 100 people. on top of that giving themsleves a huge profit margin creates no jobs.<br /><br />mass producing a cheap car for the masses will take thousands of people, and many factories, potentially throughout the world.<br /><br />i would argue that with any percentage of the wealth that the rich use, would create less of a demand for jobs then the demand created by an equal percentage of wealth from the masses.<br /><br />the 1% got rich beucase the 99% had money to give them for the services they created. if the 99% has no money becuase they have to shoulder a debt crises while 42% of the countries wealth opts out.... the 1% go bankrupt from lack of demand and everybody loses. which is what we are, for some reason, currently doing.<br /><br />dipsobale income allows the rich to make money. remove the disposable income and the only people making money are landlords. (which is how feudalism works)Kristopherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08544209777124068097noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16594468.post-47275482272937786962011-12-06T11:54:02.903-07:002011-12-06T11:54:02.903-07:00Anonymous
The very idea that the top 1% create jo...<b>Anonymous</b><br /><br />The very idea that the top 1% create jobs, whereas the other 99% do not, is absurd.<br /><br />The top 1% - who control 42% of the wealth - are probably creating 42% of the jobs. Those, we can expect, are jobs that serve the interests of the top 1% - which includes the public relations and political manipulations they use to get more from society and pay less.<br /><br />While the other 99% are probably responsible for the other 58% of the jobs - growing food, building homes, educating their children, manufacturing dishwashers and automobiles, stocking shelves at the local retail stores.<br /><br />No matter which group gets the money, they will use it to create jobs. They will create the jobs that serve their interests.<br /><br />But, then, some PR firm out there has probably discovered that the nonsensical claim, "The rich create jobs" and "If you take their money you destroy jobs" are effective ways to manipulate people into acting to preserve or promote the wealth of the top 1%.<br /><br />Though, as you say, they have been given a lot of money in the past three decades built on this promise, yet the jobs they promised to create seem to be missing.<br /><br />That same money in the hands of the other 99% will create just as many jobs - jobs that serve the interests of the 99%, rather than the 1%.Alonzo Fyfehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05687777216426347054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16594468.post-32498203511506876332011-12-06T11:05:01.491-07:002011-12-06T11:05:01.491-07:00One argument in not taxing the top 1% more is that...One argument in not taxing the top 1% more is that they produce the jobs we need. They are the ones that benefited most from the Bush tax cuts that the Republications want to make permanent. If they produce jobs so should be spared added taxes, where are those jobs? The top 1% are not producing as promised.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com