Is Redistributing Wealth a Bad Thing? You Betcha!

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I asked the Right Wingers here a few days ago if by their definition of redistribution of wealth (a progressive tax policy), wouldn't that also include workers' wages that have remained stagnant while the top income earners' wages have increased dramatically over the last decade...and none bothered to answer. It's easier to keep pumping out the rhetoric without actually thinking it through.

Companies can pay their workers whatever they think is fair. If the workers don't like their wages,

they can find a better company to work for. Ultimately the market sets the price.

The flip side of that is that employees should be able to organize to use their solidarity for negotiating a fair wage. The government's role is to support both companies and their worker's rights, with the same regard.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

One of the problems of the American public is that their attention span has grown far too short -- so that brief, cogent arguments, such as those of OP, are not read by those who feel nonetheless well qualified to comment.

Oh give me a break. I have more attention span than you can possibly imagine. However, I do not choose to waste it reading posts on VJ.

...why even post here, then?

[NickD 203]

One of the problems of the American public is that their attention span has grown far too short -- so that brief, cogent arguments, such as those of OP, are not read by those who feel nonetheless well qualified to comment.

Oh give me a break. I have more attention span than you can possibly imagine. However, I do not choose to waste it reading posts on VJ.

Companies can pay their workers whatever they think is fair. If the workers don't like their wages,they can find a better company to work for. Ultimately the market sets the price.

Exactly. Why would a company increase wages if people are willing to work for the same amount? It doesn't make sense.

Feel our current taxing system and energy companies are doing a damn good job on redistributing the wealth coupled with our huge trade deficit. Heard that police action in Iraq is costing us 760 million dollars per day, is it that high? Our troops must be filthy rich by now. Sure I keep on hearing George say, we need money for our troops. But also heard we are paying insurgents millions not to shoot at us.

Wouldn't it be cheaper if a terrorists does come into this country to fly a plane into a building for 25 million that we pay him 100 million not to? Heck, even offer him a hundred virgins

Also heard Cynthia McKinney, the Green Party candidate really criticize the democratic house of representatives for lack of leadership and failed promises. Have to agree with her, been on my congressman's back about these issues. But he tells me that Nancy is the blocker. That is carrying this republic thing too far, when only three people are effectively in charge.

[peejay 327]

I asked the Right Wingers here a few days ago if by their definition of redistribution of wealth (a progressive tax policy), wouldn't that also include workers' wages that have remained stagnant while the top income earners' wages have increased dramatically over the last decade...and none bothered to answer. It's easier to keep pumping out the rhetoric without actually thinking it through.

Companies can pay their workers whatever they think is fair. If the workers don't like their wages,

they can find a better company to work for. Ultimately the market sets the price.

The flip side of that is that employees should be able to organize to use their solidarity for negotiating a fair wage. The government's role is to support both companies and their worker's rights, with the same regard.

Another one of your many contradictions. Labor is still a matter of supply and demand. Since you seem to love open borders and illegal aliens' rights to work in our country as they see fit...where is the bargaining power? There's millions more behind the current crop that will gladly work for even less. In one post you crow about unlimited immigration (legal and illegal) and in another you talk nonsense about unionizing under such conditions.

Unions didn't really take hold and flourish in this country until the Great Wave at the beginning of the 20th century was cut to a trickle in the 1920's. On the flip side...unions have been dwindling ever since the huge increases in immigration from the 1965 immigration bill took hold along with the extra pressure of rampant illegal immigration to skew the numbers up even more.

People that don't learn from history are condemned to repeat it again over and over.

[mawilson 2,133]

Since you seem to love open borders and illegal aliens' rights to work in our country as they see fit...

He wants open borders and illegal aliens rights to work in our country as they see fit and

give them the right to demand better wages from our employers.

[HAL 9000 96]

damn this guy is truly obsessed with illegals.

[peejay 327]

damn this guy is truly obsessed with illegals.

And you seem to be really obsessed with me and my bloodpressure.

[Peikko 1,575]

We all are.

You did actually read the OP?

[HAL 9000 96]

damn this guy is truly obsessed with illegals.

And you seem to be really obsessed with me and my bloodpressure.

So get over it.

[diadromous mermaid 36]

Well-to-do individuals also did extremely well. Based on data prepared by the Internal Revenue Service from tax returns filed during the post-9/11 recovery (2002 to 2006), household income grew by $863 billion during the period. The 15,000 families at the top of the income scale saw their annual incomes go from about $15 million a year to nearly $30 million. They alone accounted for more than 25 percent of all of the growth in income for the entire country. The remaining 1.7 million families in the top 1 percent of households accounted for nearly another 50 percent.

So, if there are 1,715,000 families in the top 1%, that means there are 169,785,000 families earning income? I thought there were only 138 million taxpayers, and that includes 40 million that either have no liability or pay no tax.

[sereia 0]

I asked the Right Wingers here a few days ago if by their definition of redistribution of wealth (a progressive tax policy), wouldn't that also include workers' wages that have remained stagnant while the top income earners' wages have increased dramatically over the last decade...and none bothered to answer. It's easier to keep pumping out the rhetoric without actually thinking it through.

Companies can pay their workers whatever they think is fair. If the workers don't like their wages,

they can find a better company to work for. Ultimately the market sets the price.

The flip side of that is that employees should be able to organize to use their solidarity for negotiating a fair wage. The government's role is to support both companies and their worker's rights, with the same regard.

Another one of your many contradictions. Labor is still a matter of supply and demand. Since you seem to love open borders and illegal aliens' rights to work in our country as they see fit...where is the bargaining power? There's millions more behind the current crop that will gladly work for even less. In one post you crow about unlimited immigration (legal and illegal) and in another you talk nonsense about unionizing under such conditions.

Yes, just like my old industry as a chef in a restaurant. Why hire a culinary graduate as your line cook and pay them $20/hr or more when you can hire an illegal immigrant minimum wage and hear less complaints?

They absolutely RUINED the restaurant industry.

[Peikko 1,575]

..."Actions taken by this administration during the past eight years include:

* Refusal to adjust the minimum wage for inflation for 10 years, driving it in inflation-adjusted terms to the lowest level in half a century. Studies have repeatedly shown that freezing the minimum wage affects not only those working at minimum wages but also those well up the income ladder.

* Refusal to enforce hourly wage violations so that many employers could pay less than the legal minimum and refuse to pay legally required overtime with little concern over being caught or penalized.

* Appointment of a National Labor Relations Board that constantly abridged the right of workers to organize or file just grievances, and provided employers with considerable assurance that union efforts to organize their workplaces would fail regardless of wages and working conditions.

* Use of federal regulatory powers under the Taft-Hartley Act to harass and weaken labor unions.

* Lackluster enforcement of immigration laws allowing unprecedented numbers of undocumented workers to enter the United States and assume paying positions in a wide array of industries.

* Failure to enforce U.S. trade agreements with nations such a China. As the Commerce Department notes on their website, "The Chinese Government makes no secret of its support for state-owned enterprises. Foreign companies should not expect a level playing field." Yet the United States has taken no effective action to force China to abide by our trade agreements as our annual trade deficit with China more than tripled over the past eight years.

From the OP article. Does anyone read the things or just comment on the comments?

[Ban Hammer 13,352]

I asked the Right Wingers here a few days ago if by their definition of redistribution of wealth (a progressive tax policy), wouldn't that also include workers' wages that have remained stagnant while the top income earners' wages have increased dramatically over the last decade...and none bothered to answer. It's easier to keep pumping out the rhetoric without actually thinking it through.

Companies can pay their workers whatever they think is fair. If the workers don't like their wages,

they can find a better company to work for. Ultimately the market sets the price.

The flip side of that is that employees should be able to organize to use their solidarity for negotiating a fair wage. The government's role is to support both companies and their worker's rights, with the same regard.

Another one of your many contradictions. Labor is still a matter of supply and demand. Since you seem to love open borders and illegal aliens' rights to work in our country as they see fit...where is the bargaining power? There's millions more behind the current crop that will gladly work for even less. In one post you crow about unlimited immigration (legal and illegal) and in another you talk nonsense about unionizing under such conditions.

Yes, just like my old industry as a chef in a restaurant. Why hire a culinary graduate as your line cook and pay them $20/hr or more when you can hire an illegal immigrant minimum wage and hear less complaints?

They absolutely RUINED the restaurant industry.

their desire for a better life overrules yours

[mendeleev 68]

One of the problems of the American public is that their attention span has grown far too short -- so that brief, cogent arguments, such as those of OP, are not read by those who feel nonetheless well qualified to comment.

Oh give me a break. I have more attention span than you can possibly imagine. However, I do not choose to waste it reading posts on VJ.

To the best of my knowledge, the only information I have on your attention span concerns what you post here. You were the one whose early reply in this string made it abundantly clear that you didn't read OP's text -- and then you complained that his text was too long so you didn't read it.

You gave clear, unambiguous data -- consistent with the generalization I made. If you don't like the fact that my generalization includes precisely you ... you know what to do ... before you reply, do two things: (1) read (2) think.

[akdiver 3]

..why even post here, then?

why not?