The rich are different — and not in a good way...

So you got a new "talking-points" email this week?... "18%" is your new mantra?

Well, it's better than "wannabe national government"... Are you an idiot-savante? It would explain a lot...

No, if you do all of what's in my list, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid would be funded out at least another 100 years, and within 15 years, we would have a surplus... What you ignore at your own peril, conveniently, is how the US went down the tubes at the end of Hoover's administration...(which are the same policies the teabaggers want to do now.) It didn't work then, and it's destroying us now... If it hadn't been for Hoover and the plutocrats, there wouldn't have been an FDR...

But enjoy your fantasy world. Why don't you go start your umpteenth thread on spending, the 18%, the wannabe national government, and then you can amuse yourself for hours...

This thread is about the total lack of empathy, and the selfishness of the rich... The budget and the spending have nothing to do with it.

:Off Topic

archer wrote: How exactly does wanting an equitable tax system make me a communist? so far the only bullcrap here is yours.

Can you give your definition of an 'equitable tax system'?

chickaree wrote: Funny, I wouldn't think selfishness is a partisan thing nor is wealth. Why does every issue have to be turned into a left vs. Right argument by a few hyperpartisans? I doubt many of us posting here are rich.

The conclusion drawn is because the analysis quoted is taken as an absolute truth rather than a working hypothesis. Were you to take and rigidly apply this thesis it would quickly break down because there are many exceptions. One that comes to mind is Bill Gates. I do believe he and his wife are called philanthropists. I don't imagine they got that label by not having empathy.

It's so easy to sling barbs to serve your purpose and that is why this post was made. No matter how you wish it, LJ, the study you site does not prove what you assert. Chickaree nailed it, selfishness nor wealth is partisan no matter how you would like to spin this for your own mental comfort or elevation through the broad brush stroke denigration of others who disagree with your perspectives.

Libtards are jealous of the rich....they simply can't understand why the rich are smarter than them. It's hilarious to watch and listen the libtards blame the ill of the world on the rich when it's liberals who steal from the middle class day in and day out and then enslave the poor with entitlements.

The Viking wrote:

archer wrote: How exactly does wanting an equitable tax system make me a communist? so far the only bullcrap here is yours.

Can you give your definition of an 'equitable tax system'?

You asked a liberal that question? rofllol rofllol rofllol rofllol

Equitable Tax System to a socialist liberal is to tax the producers over half of their income and give it to the non-producers in exchange for enslavement and votes.

LadyJazzer wrote:

PrintSmith wrote: The only plan that is a responsible plan is to look at the historic revenues of the DC government as a percentage of GDP and limit the spending of the federal government to that amount or less every year, preferably at least 1% of GDP below historic levels of revenue.

No... That is not "the only plan"... <sigh>

So, just for fun, I just searched a catalog of my "greatest hits" for Revenue Enhancers and Tax-Cuts:

REVENUE:

Social Security: Remove the $106,800 limit, and tax all the income at the individual's share, but keep the $106,800 limit for employer contributions.... Problem solved for the next 150+ years....

Restore the Bush tax-cuts... ALL of them.

Remove the subsidies for oil companies.

Remove the subsidies for corn/ethanol

Remove (or means-test) the farm subsidies for large agri-business

Remove the tax-breaks for corporate jets

Lower the corporate tax rates from 35% to 28%-25%, but close EVERY damned loophole so that the EFFECTIVE tax rate really IS 25%... (The current effect tax-rate is around 18% or less.)

Remove the tax-break for hedge-fund managers so that they pay the full personal tax-rate on their earnings instead of the 15% capital-gains rate.

Close ALL tax-breaks for companies that move their jobs off-shore.

Continue to close EVERY off-shore income-sheltering device; Swiss bank accounts; Cayman Islands; Ireland; ALL of it. Give the companies 1 year to repatriate their off-shore assets. No 5% rate for bringing them back... ONE YEAR to bring them back or there will be a 5% PENALTY on top of the applicable taxes.

Close the loophole that allows ANY Congressperson or Senator to collect benefits, pensions, health-care, etc., if they were expelled, removed from office, or committed a crime while in office where it could be proved that they used their office for financial gain, selling their vote, bribery, or any other malfeasance of their office.

Return the Inheritance taxes to their pre-Bush levels.

Do away with the REIT tax loophole; (Real-Estate Investment Trusts), that cute trick that companies like Wal-Mart uses to create shell companies to buy property and then lease it back to the company, tax-free.

Change the mortgage-interest deduction so that any homes over $500,000 are means-tested and on a sliding scale based on income-level.

Change the rule that lets millionaires spend as few as 14 days on their luxury yachts and declare them at the same rate as second "home mortgages."

Change Medicare, so that coverage is means-tested... The more you make over $500,000, the more you contribute in co-pays, and the less benefits you get.

..............

I'm sure there are others, but those are the ones that come to mind.

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TAX-CUTS:

MILITARY:
1) Close unnecessary bases, particularly in Europe and the Middle East where they aren't needed.
2) Do away with no-bid contracts.
3) File lawsuits to recover money from contractors who don't perform, or do shoddy work, or don't fulfill contractual obligations.
4) Bring troops back home from unnecessary wars... Stop the fantasy that "We won't leave until we win"... There IS NO "WINNING" here... There is "declare we've won" and get the hell out.
5) Shutdown programs that the military doesn't need and want, but are only being funded because of defense-industry lobbying, and pork-barrel reasons having to do with the fact that they are done in some congressman's or senator's district.

Leave Medicare and Medicaid alone.

Rescind the cute little law that gives Congress-critters automatic raises when no one is looking... MAKE them have to approve it...in the light of day... Not at 2am in the morning when the cameras aren't turned on, and where the public has to be able to see them do it.

Approve and support the Consumer Protection Agency

Approve and support the Financial Regulations recently passed.

Approve and support the Affordable Health Care Act.


Admittedly some of these could be considered as much "tax-cuts" as revenue-raisers, but the theme is the same.

Must See Chart: Tax Breaks for the Rich Versus Budget Cuts

http://www.good.is/post/must-see-chart- ... dget-cuts/

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I refer to the salient quotes from the original post:

Psychologist and social scientist Dacher Keltner says the rich really are different, and not in a good way: Their life experience makes them less empathetic, less altruistic, and generally more selfish.

Because the rich gloss over the ways family connections, money and education helped, they come to denigrate the role of government and vigorously oppose taxes to fund it.

Then there is the problem of Tea Partiers’ own class position. While they are funded by the wealthy, many do not identify themselves as wealthy (though there is dispute on the real demographics). Still, a strong allegiance to the American Dream can lead even regular folks to overestimate their own self-reliance in the same way as rich people.

The Party of Selfish has no other solution than: "Screw the middle & lower classes....but protect the tax breaks for the wealthy." Boom...The End...

Sociopaths...

rofllol Screw the rich right? Make them pay astronomical amounts in social security taxes but then means test away their benefits? So you essentially just increased their tax rate without any benefit.

Deny domestic oil companies tax breaks so they move overseas? Thanks for raising the unemployment rate in Colorado and increasing natural gas costs for the poor.

Still thinking that "trickle down" is going to work....? rofllol

residenttroll wrote:

The Viking wrote:

archer wrote: How exactly does wanting an equitable tax system make me a communist? so far the only bullcrap here is yours.

Can you give your definition of an 'equitable tax system'?

You asked a liberal that question? rofllol rofllol rofllol rofllol

Equitable Tax System to a socialist liberal is to tax the producers over half of their income and give it to the non-producers in exchange for enslavement and votes.

I didn't expect an answer from her. But that is a great definition

I think history has shown that the privileged have little concern for or understanding of the underprivileged. i follow the wisdom of my lord and seek to not become more invested in my belongings than in my soul.

"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least among you, you did not do for me.'" Matthew 25:41-45


"People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." 1 Timothy 6:9-10


"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money." Matthew 6:24

"The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again: but the righteous sheweth mercy, and giveth." Psalm 37:21

At what level of income is someone rich? It feels like anyone with more than me.