You obviously don't understand what constitutes poverty in this country. Thee are plenty of people working multiple jobs to try to make ends meet that are still under the poverty line. There are people in the military whose families are on food stamps.
Your assumption that people are poor only because they "fucked up" is ridiculous. It has no basis in fact whatsoever. The idea that everybody could be a wealthy CEO or entrepreneur if they just worked harder and didn't "fuck up" is not only a complete fallacy, it's completely impossible. You can't run an economy on nothing but CEOs and entrepreneurs. You need people to be responsible for the production and distribution of goods and services. You need maintenance workers, law enforcement and teachers. You need a military
Not everybody can be a rich CEO, and everyone didn't have to be 40 years. 40 years ago people were paid a decent income, had fully comprehensive health benefits, and defined benefit pension plans fully vested by their companies. Today those pensions are gone; you have to pay into a 401(K) if you want any retirement. You're charged more and more in premiums and out of pocket for health care To top it all off, the income of CEOs is now 380 times what the average worker makes. Salaries and wages have been flat for over ten years now. 50% of the country lives paycheck to paycheck because they can't keep up with inflation because their salaries haven't kept up with it.
But go ahead and tell that police officer, soldier, teacher, waitress, truck driver and factory worker that the reason none of them are wealthy is because they all fucked up. I'm sure they'll be delighted to hear it from you.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2013-02-26 12:37 pm (UTC)Your assumption that people are poor only because they "fucked up" is ridiculous. It has no basis in fact whatsoever. The idea that everybody could be a wealthy CEO or entrepreneur if they just worked harder and didn't "fuck up" is not only a complete fallacy, it's completely impossible. You can't run an economy on nothing but CEOs and entrepreneurs. You need people to be responsible for the production and distribution of goods and services. You need maintenance workers, law enforcement and teachers. You need a military
Not everybody can be a rich CEO, and everyone didn't have to be 40 years. 40 years ago people were paid a decent income, had fully comprehensive health benefits, and defined benefit pension plans fully vested by their companies. Today those pensions are gone; you have to pay into a 401(K) if you want any retirement. You're charged more and more in premiums and out of pocket for health care To top it all off, the income of CEOs is now 380 times what the average worker makes. Salaries and wages have been flat for over ten years now. 50% of the country lives paycheck to paycheck because they can't keep up with inflation because their salaries haven't kept up with it.
But go ahead and tell that police officer, soldier, teacher, waitress, truck driver and factory worker that the reason none of them are wealthy is because they all fucked up. I'm sure they'll be delighted to hear it from you.