Rich People: Just Leave America
pajamasmedia.com
pajamasmedia.com
The first, obvious way is in the causes of our current recession.
The second way is how when "normal" people think of "rich" people, their first thought is often of someone in the financial industry, as opposed to someone who started a successful company that makes something people want. The feeling that rich people are just stealing our money is much more strongly reinforced by looking at "Wall Street fat cats" than a successful entrepreneur.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two government controlled agencies, are at the heart and soul of this as well. They bought every crappy sub-prime mortgage that they could find, and now they're gone and the American taxpayer is holding the bag.
Then there was the Community Reinvestment Act, which you'll be excited to hear is still very much in force, which allows "community groups" to coerce banks into making mortgage loans that don't meet traditional standards. Example: ACORN used to break into bank board meetings while chanting their demands for more loan money.
There was Chris Dodd, head of the Senate Banking Committee lo these last 2 1/3 years, running for President and paying no attention to what was going on, while accepting vast bribes, sorry, "campaign contributions", from the financial industry and blaming everyone else for the problems.
Oh yeah, then there are the banks (e.g., The Bank of Marin) that want to give the TARP money back but can't, because the TARP law requires government permission and Obama won't let them. Power and control.
The government has just committed for $7 trillion and will probably go to $12 trillion before this is done. Either taxes are going to explode in the future or the government is going to have to turn on the printing presses. We certainly won't be able to borrow that kind of money anymore. Either way, I don't want to be around, and I'm a long way from rich. Unfortunately, I'm also a long way from young, and most countries strongly prefer young immigrants.
The famous investor Jim Rogers recently sold his NY condo and moved to Singapore. He believes that China is the wave of the future and that America will soon be broke. America will soon be Argentina, the fifth wealthiest country in the world a century ago, now broke and unable to borrow money.
Why shouldn't we discuss them here? Let me quote one of my favorite writers: Myself. ;)
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=243606
I'm often tempted to disagree with the effective HN ban on political issues, because it leaves so many of the most important facets of life off the table.
But, alas, I think [it] is correct. This is a terrible forum for discussing political issues -- because the signal-to-noise in politics is very low (any political discussion is mostly about team-building, horse-trading, and tooth-baring, not problem-solving or analysis and certainly not software or technology) and we don't have the time to wade through waist-deep piles of personal statements, deal memos, and threats; because this site draws people from very diverse political backgrounds who will take a very long time to reach equilibrium if they start team-building, horse-trading, or baring their teeth; but mostly because the place just works better if there's some focus. It helps us to know when to shut up.
If you can't find another site that is suitable for hosting your political debate, why not build one?
Yes, I'm aware this is an example of a bad comment for the rest of you, so don't feel bad about downmodding me. :)
I don't know how many stories you have to read about how people actually stop being poor before you figure it out -- centralized charity giving never works for the same reason socialism never works. Distributed small intelligent adaptive systems will beat overengineered centralized systems hands-down. We know this without a doubt in technology, yet when some politician tells us they have the single plan to deal with poverty, or homelessness, or whatever somehow our critical thinking skills go to sleep and we sit there with a dumb smile on our face.
It's good to see a good writer talk about his own experience in such personal terms. The whole point (for me) in startups is helping other people and by doing so moving ahead financially. I don't know how we got into this mindset of us versus the rich. It's sad to see it continue.
This is the strongest point in the article. I was commenting on the Washington Post site yesterday in response to somebody complaining about Virginia rejecting $125M in blood money, who said:
"it sucks I cannot find a good, full-time job in my line of work"
I responded:
"Yes, it does, but you're being picky. I don't like the idea of my taxes going to people like you who are hunting for a dream job. It should go to people who actually can't find work."
A good segment of Democrats in the US are talking out of their asses because they are not truly for redistribution of wealth, but rather are driven by a bizarre sense of entitlement. Case in point: All of Obama's nominees who have cheated their taxes.
Steal from the rich when you're poor, then steal from the poor when you're rich. At least Republicans don't advocate the former.
You can talk about economic theory without pointing fingers. Once you start identifying real parties and real people, other commenters will turn off their reasoning skills and start yelling "It's politics! It's politics! We can't have that here!"
And they'll be right.
Politics is an unusual thing -- it demonstrates how basically irrational people are. For me, that makes it an interesting problem in communication: because may times the difficult things to talk about are the most important.
A minority of "the rich" are those who got there by being productive, innovative, and talented people. As long as we nurture a culture in which they can thrive (e.g. Silicon Valley) they'll stay, regardless of whether the tax rate is 35% or 40% or even 50%. They're working for subjective reasons, not more money.
If the greedy, stupid, and criminal rich leave the country en masse, that wouldn't be a bad thing. "Losing" the uncultured, conservative, whiny and entitled real-estate new money who fuck everything up (like the OP) would be a benefit, not a loss.