Are the Rich Really Getting Richer?

[szh]

What? Try again.

Not worth it.

I am going to stay out of this thread ... like I said I would earlier, but didn't.

Z

[IBCoupe]

I really don't know what you were talking about. I don't think at any point I wrote anything that would justify this:

So ... now a formal report from the "US Department of the Treasury" is something you will not believe?

I don't believe I said anything about the Treasury report. I believe I said something about the stupid, misleading talking points that the article linked to in the OP tries to pull from them.

[stebo0728]

Look, all the original post was intended to do was to call into question the common conception (or misconception as it may be) that the rich keep getting richer at the expense of the rest of us. It was not meant to be an argument for or against any type of policy, just to address one particular source of rhetoric. Dont take it as anything other than that. The gap is there, the gap is widening, the box that contains the wealthy is getting larger, but the individuals contained within are much more fluid, and not really benefiting at the expense of anyone else.

[IBCoupe]

The gap is there, the gap is widening, the box that contains the wealthy is getting larger, but the individuals contained within are much more fluid, and not really benefiting at the expense of anyone else.

I don't think you can say that. That some people in the upper tract are benefiting inconsistently is not to say that they're not benefiting at the expense of anyone else. Yes, there's economic growth, so everybody's better off, but there's still a huge gap.

[stebo0728]

Oh, I'm not disputing the gap, its indisputable. What I AM disputing is that it shouldn't exist, and that it exists only as evidence of one class subverting another. Thats class warfare, its helpful for winning elections, but not much else.

[IBCoupe]

Well, in all honesty (and I mean no offense), Stebo, that sounds like you're dismissing it because it's inconvenient.

Why does the gap exist? Why don't we see a greater range of incomes?

[stebo0728]

I would argue a similar gap exists in initiative.

[IBCoupe]

I would argue a similar gap exists in initiative.

And what do you mean by that?

[stebo0728]

You get by getting, and you miss out by not getting. How much of America is comfortable with the mundane? Hell in many ways I am, but I dont b*tch about not making enough. If I wanted to make more I could get off my lazy a** and make more. America is not full of "go-getters" anymore. Sometimes I think we'd be better managed by first generation immigrants, who still have balls, and havent fallen into the eternal slump that the rest of America has. Everyone wants more, but most are too lazy to reach for it.

EDIT
Does reaching out and taking advantage of an opportunity that no one else cared to equate to taking advantage of all the people who failed to do it before you?

[IBCoupe]

So either it's random chance that leads to two kinds of income or there are only two kinds of people - go-getters and slackers? Go-getters are rich, and slackers are poor?

[stebo0728]

Random chance may throw things in your way, but yes, with little exception, I would say go-getters and slackers pretty much sums it up. The line may be a bit less distinguishable in economy such as ours, but I would argue that trying to pick winners is what got us in the mess we're in now.

[IBCoupe]

I can't say that I accept your theory, but I don't know what evidence, aside from anecdotal, that I could go find to make you wrong.