Originally Posted by Mutt
the middle class shouldn't be so worried about the super rich - they've always existed and always will. most normal people don't even dream of being that rich and don't care.
it's the public sector workers getting paid fat paychecks and moreso fat pensions and always asking for more that should piss them off.
small businessman, whether he/she runs a sandwich shop, carpet cleaning, sells insurance, whatever - that person risks his own money to start his business, pays rent, pays for equipment, pays some employees, works his ass off, small business owners typically take NO vacations until years into a small business when it's successful. If that person works their ass off they will make the 70K per year the garbageman makes, the school nurse makes, the teacher makes, guys in trade unions make, middle management types working for the federal and state goverment - teachers put in 3 years of undergraduate school and one year of teachers college, wow what a huge undertaking that is, takes a real genius and so much work to make it through that. the small businessman has to pay for his own retirement - the only upside for the small businessman is the chance his business takes off and he makes $200,000 or $2,000,000 a year. I don't have stats but I bet just as many of those small businessmen go bankrupt as those who make it big.
Somebody posted an article here not that long ago about state employed California beach lifeguards - retiring in their 40's with $800,000 pensions! That's the middle class's tax money funding those pensions.
A good teacher is worth 70K a year or more - 75% of them aren't good teachers, they do the minimum, inspire nobody, make an upper middle class income with job security and have a nice pension waiting for them at retirement.
the basics of our economy are fucked up and you can't blame one party for it, the world has changed and adapting to it is hard - so people lash out at the rich for causing all the problems when the rich are only a small part of it. Stop running out and buying iPhones that are manufactured overseas, stop shopping at Walmart and support the small businesses in your cities, stop buying BMW's and Audis .................. of course the middle class is shrinking - the jobs that have replaced the well paid manufacturing jobs of yesteryear are low paying service jobs.
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