Just 400 Americans Have More Wealth Than Half Of All Americans Combined - Polidicks

This is a bad thing but I think Michael Moore is a fucking leech

Doesn't China have some trillionaires that they pretend don't exist.

[QUOTE=Lilolia;32995278]What I have never understood is why these big companies (The biggest ones in the world) continue to actively seek out more profits? They are infinitely rich and have the money to do whatever they want. Why cant they start releasing their products a little cheaper and make them more accessible for people, the sales would probably even out by volume and they would actually be doing a good thing for everyone.[/QUOTE] Shareholders can fire board members/CEOs if they don't like the direction the company is going in, and shareholders want money so they get their investment back so they want the company to go in the direction that gets the highest payout. The Board, not wanting to loose their job, do what they say.

[QUOTE=OvB;32997263]Shareholders can fire board members/CEOs if they don't like the direction the company is going in, and shareholders want money so they get their investment back so they want the company to go in the direction that gets the highest payout. The Board, not wanting to loose their job, do what they say.[/QUOTE] Hence why it all boils down to Wall Street and similar.

And I bet all four hundred are idle billionaires with no vision, donating to charity every now and then to buy their ticket to Heaven, and generally just spending money to acquire more money.

[QUOTE=Doctor Zedacon;32988908]400 have more than approximately 185399760. Those 400 are 0.000216% of the 185399760. They are 0.000129% of the entire population. How is that for scary?[/QUOTE] [B][I]The 99.999871%[/I][/B]

[QUOTE=Eudoxia;32997478]And I bet all four hundred are idle billionaires with no vision, donating to charity every now and then to buy their ticket to Heaven, and generally just spending money to acquire more money.[/QUOTE] Bill Gates could fund SETI for 236,000 years. Or build 13 Large Hadron Colliders.

And people get angry that we tax the richest one percent more. I mean I remember being amazed when I heard the richest 1% had half are wealth but actually its the richest 0.000216% have most of it.

How many threads are there going to be with every different variation of the same statement?

[QUOTE=Eudoxia;32997478]And I bet all four hundred are idle billionaires with no vision, [B]donating to charity every now and then to buy their ticket to Heaven[/B], and generally just spending money to acquire more money.[/QUOTE]On a mostly unrelated note, the bolded part reminded me of something I saw while studying religion: [URL="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+19%3A23-24&version=NIV"]Matthew 19:23-24 - 23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”[/URL] According to the bible, right from the mouth of Christ himself, it is said that rich people cannot enter heaven. All those religious conservatives who think it's ok to own that much money need to read the bible again.

[QUOTE=Jenkem;32995559]They probably earned it, they're entitled to it.[/QUOTE] They didn't make that money through labor and probably not even through actually building a business. Most of the money made when your rich like that is through loans and for most starting out with such an amount comes from inheritance. Not to mention studies show that to a certain point having more money doesn't even make you happier. When you have a billions dollars having 60 billion more wont make a difference.

[QUOTE=LunchboxOfDoom;32990694]He looks stereotypically Jewish.[/QUOTE]He is Jewish, actually.

[QUOTE=OvB;32997897]Bill Gates could fund SETI for 236,000 years. Or build 13 Large Hadron Colliders.[/QUOTE] I kinda like Bill and it's nice to donate to charity, but what about implementing actual [B]ideas[/B] with your money? Consider Elon Musk. Sold PayPal and with that money he made Tesla Motors and produced the world's first electric car that doesn't suck shit, and created SpaceX that is singlehandedly revolutionizing eveyrthing. Now THAT is not an idle millionaire. [editline]28th October 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=Zenreon117;32995998][url]http://robinhoodtax.org/[/url] [/QUOTE] The accent of the guy in the video is awesome.

[QUOTE=Eudoxia;32998212]I kinda like Bill and it's nice to donate to charity, but what about implementing actual [B]ideas[/B] with your money? Consider Elon Musk. Sold PayPal and with that money he made Tesla Motors and produced the world's first electric car that doesn't suck shit, and created SpaceX that is singlehandedly revolutionizing eveyrthing. Now THAT is not an idle millionaire.[/QUOTE] This is what the 1% should be doing. Not hoarding the money so that they can buy infinite houses, and letting the economy stagnate. They should be starting projects like space exploration, or funding pre-existing scientific/ cultural/ whatever endeavours. But nope, capitalism!

[QUOTE=imasillypiggy;32998089]Not to mention studies show that to a certain point having more money doesn't even make you happier. When you have a billions dollars having 60 billion more wont make a difference.[/QUOTE] Those studies can suck egg. Money does make you happy if you use it in consideration AND if there's not an near-infinite amount sitting in a bank account, waiting to be spent on the most ridiculous curiosities. I'd definitely choose being "rich" in the sense that every month, tax/other fees deducted, I'd have a 'sizeable' amount of money left (say, 2000 - 2500 euros) to spend at my leisure. It gives a great sense of spending freedom while maintaining the need to THINK about how much you spend on what, and if you need it anyway. I mean how fucking comfortable would it be? Your own decent-size apartment (2-room?), gallery of books, movies and games, huge TV, gaming PC waiting for your soothing caress, comfy-chair with that side-table thing for eating cereal while watching early-morning shit, a couch ALL to yourself, fridge has only things YOU eat, not the mixed pile of crap that everyone grabs something from. Wouldn't that be like... the dream for a modern male(female?)teen-adult? Isn't it so much more preferable to those ridiculously over-sized mansions and villas, 5 yachts (of which you only use 1, once a year), garage full of exotics that you can't drive without bumping a pedestrian and all the hassle of being TOO rich?

[QUOTE=Ridge;32997979]How many threads are there going to be with every different variation of the same statement?[/QUOTE] For every thread about every paragraph in the biography of Steve Jobs

[QUOTE=just-a-boy;32998472] I'd definitely choose being "rich" in the sense that every month, tax/other fees deducted, I'd have a 'sizeable' amount of money left (say, 2000 - 2500 euros) to spend at my leisure. It gives a great sense of spending freedom while maintaining the need to THINK about how much you spend on what, and if you need it anyway.[/QUOTE] 2000-2500 Euros a month is a drop in the bucket compared to what the richest people in America have. Think millions to "spend at their leisure" every month

[QUOTE=just-a-boy;32998472]Those studies can suck egg. Money does make you happy if you use it in consideration AND if there's not an near-infinite amount sitting in a bank account, waiting to be spent on the most ridiculous curiosities.[/QUOTE] I said to a certain point. Its about upper middle class where having more money doesn't really make a difference. Of course being homeless will make your life suck way worse then being a millionaire though.

[QUOTE=Zeke129;32998547]2000-2500 Euros a month is a drop in the bucket compared to what the richest people in America have. Think millions to "spend at their leisure" every month[/QUOTE] I'm well aware of how 2500 euros is a speck of dust next to what they earn, and that's the point of it for me. I don't need and couldn't possibly need those millions or however much MORE they earn. I'm perfectly content with having a decent pay to enjoy my life in a city somewhere. It's the ludicrous excess of everything I don't understand at all about these people.

some statistics [img]http://i.imgur.com/KO6cv.png[/img] [img]http://i.imgur.com/sfQzK.png[/img] [img]http://i.imgur.com/Sy2a3.png[/img] the last one doesn't seem that bad, right? well, that one is telling us that average income [i]fell[/i], and the bottom 90% took most of that hit. [editline]wef[/editline] adjusted for inflation I don't see how anyone can look at this and say there's nothing wrong with the income gap

They can say all they want - the actual transition from expressing disapproval to getting off one's ass and trying to do something about it is still hard to incite in people.

[QUOTE=Eluveitie;32988809]And I bet those 400 people are unsatisfied and want more wealth.[/QUOTE] Well Bill Gates is probably in the 400 people and he seems very contempt so much so that he donates a lot of of his fortune.

I just hope the Occupy protests don't turn into full riots like the race riots of the late 1970's

Holy shit, we need to cut taxes more. We can't stop until 400 people have ALL the monies!

[QUOTE=Eluveitie;32988809]And I bet those 400 people are unsatisfied and want more wealth.[/QUOTE] Poor man wanna be rich Rich man wanna be king And a king ain't satisfied 'til he rules everything [editline]28th October 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=Van-man;32988857]Now where's that modern day Robin Hood when we need him?[/QUOTE] Serving jail time for theft.

[QUOTE=Capitulazyguy;33000686] Serving jail time for theft.[/QUOTE] Which is where these 400 should be. Using massive amounts of money to buy political policy that transfers money away from the rest of the country and into their ever-swelling bank accounts? Sounds like theft to me.

[QUOTE=TBFundy;32997094]This is a bad thing but I think Michael Moore is a fucking leech[/QUOTE] Cool opinion. Ever watch actually any of his stuff?

[QUOTE=Lilolia;32995278]What I have never understood is why these big companies (The biggest ones in the world) continue to actively seek out more profits? They are infinitely rich and have the money to do whatever they want. Why cant they start releasing their products a little cheaper and make them more accessible for people, the sales would probably even out by volume and they would actually be doing a good thing for everyone.[/QUOTE] As a public company, they're legally required to pursue short term profits before anything else.

[QUOTE=just-a-boy;32999269]They can say all they want - the actual transition from expressing disapproval to getting off one's ass and trying to do something about it is still hard to incite in people.[/QUOTE] But the OWS protests already exist. People ARE off their ass. It's happening right now.

[QUOTE=just-a-boy;32999146] I'm perfectly content with having a decent pay to enjoy my life in a city somewhere. It's the ludicrous excess of everything I don't understand at all about these people.[/QUOTE] Then you will probably do very well for yourself in life (in terms of happiness).