Unfortunately it seems like the average american citizen is still not able to answer the question “Is it possible for a person or company to have too much money?” with anything but “I don’t know” or worse “That’s the American way!”.
2 Likes
FTA:
“I’m not fooling anybody,” she told me. "I don’t have any friends. And that’s sad. … I go to work, come home, take them where they gotta go, if they gotta go somewhere, come back home, lay down, go to work.
Weird, because that’s life for most of top 10% as well. : (
Yeah, all those numbers suck… I bet there are a lot of people who wish the concept of money didn’t even exist. Except it does and we have to live with it. What makes it better is the gratification for what we do have. The simple things that America is literally (I am not religious, so don’t take this word that way) “blessed” with. Our disease and famine is low, our government isn’t raiding villages or slaughtering innocent people, and we have a luscious environment. There are countries that have to deal with all this and that is life for them.
Our focus needs to be more on enjoying life for the more simpler things, that money could never buy. Enjoy your friends and family with actual conversation face to face because no one forces you to wear a burka. Enjoy a park or reservation because we make an effort to maintain natural habitats which I can say first hand are beautiful. Join organizations or clubs with people who have the same interests as you do. America is diverse, but we find ourselves just like others sometime and we have the freedom to express our love for our passions. Learn something new or teach someone a skill you have. Perhaps one for the other- trade is the best currency.
Enjoying life is the purpose of it all. What is the point of being wealthy if no one cares about money. Appreciate your loved ones: friends, family, partners… Everyone is just trying to get through life. We’re lucky to have a head start, but we still take it all for granted. Let’s stop thinking about the money, so we can focusing on loving and caring for one another so we can end the killings in school; corrupt governments for selfish agendas; and disassembling communities because everyone is afraid of everyone else.
And you don’t think these two are related?
8 Likes
Having read your further comments, I see that you don’t think they are related. This reflects either incredible naiveté or a libertarian (American flavor) bent. Either way, you’re out of touch with reality.
2 Likes
At least, not in America…
4 Likes
This is not just a trend anymore. This is a development. If it continues it will mean a roll back to a society basically like it was some 250 years ago. A very small number of people controlling everything by virtue of birth and a very large number of people who may or may not scrape a living by working for them.
4 Likes
I want to agree, but I can’t really tell if it did that the way they intended, personally. For you and me it’s far more than a slogan, but I’m not sure how many opened their eyes or changed their minds. An example; When someone screams “Are ya ready for some FOOTBAAAAAAAALL?!” in a poorly imitated Hank Jr. I know what they’re referring to, but I still do not enjoy football any more than before…
I see what you mean, but I do think the effects of Occupy go further than we often realize. For instance, the following came up on Democracy Now! yesterday, when Dan Cantor the director of the Working Families Party was being interviewed. Just think, the new mayor of NYC was an active supporter of Occupy; he even got arrested himself as a protestor!
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask you about the effect of Occupy, what it—the changing the conversation, even on the Working Families Party. Yes, New York’s newly elected mayor, Bill de Blasio, visited Occupy Wall Street in October of 2011. At the time, he was New York City’s public advocate.
BILL DE BLASIO: (Bill de Blasio, New York City public advocate.) It’s my job to make sure the city government of New York is treating people properly. And it’s all of our jobs to protect the First Amendment and to honor a movement, a meaningful, heartfelt movement that’s speaking to what people are feeling all over this country. I say to the mayor: This is not the right way to proceed. We need negotiation. We have seen for weeks—I want to show equal respect to the police department of New York City and to the protesters, who for weeks have worked together, have kept this peaceful, have shown respect to each other and the surrounding community. That’s how we need to proceed. We need negotiation. And there’s still time to do it. It’s up to the mayor and everyone at City Hall now to change course, to sit down with the people from Occupy Wall Street and find a peaceful way forward. Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Bill de Blasio visiting Occupy Wall Street in 2011, also got arrested protesting a hospital closure. Dan Cantor?
DAN CANTOR: Yeah, I think I was next to him when he said that. We are living in the Occupy—in the world Occupy made, for sure. Whether or not they’re still in Zuccotti Park—they’re not—we are the beneficiaries of what they did in terms of making this inequality, which is, from our point of view, the core issue of our time—economic inequality, racial inequality, environmental inequality, and so on. So, that’s a magnificent accomplishment by the young people who did that. And now it’s our task to sort of bring that into the electoral moment, into governing, and so on, and try to redress some of those things. So I think, yeah, it’s impossible to overstate what that “99 percent” meant in terms of people’s consciousness.
2 Likes
Some people HERE in this country do not have that luxury of “not thinking about the money”, because they will be out on their asses if they don’t make rent, or they have to make a faustian choice between groceries and the power. Or they risk losing everything because they happen to get sick.
Just because class war doesn’t look like a slaughterhouse, doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.
9 Likes
I think the problem is two-fold in regards to where we got in wealth disparity.
-
The majority of Americans are enablers. So many of us take on debt for ‘Needs’ that are actually ‘Wants’ with no apparent thought to consequences. Sure, We’re interested in American jobs, wages and benefits, but that goes right out the window in lieu of buying something online at 10% above cost with no taxes. We have given our collective asses over to others thinking that We can do things like They do financially. But hey, we can’t. Sure, Capitalists have made things worse, broken promises, laws and outright lied to Us. But WE continue to prop up the system with our buying habits.
-
The cost of having children now is crazy. I’m not saying NOT to have kids, but the financial and emotional burden of raising a children is substantial. Most stories I read about the mom having three jobs and no time to spend for themselves generally are from large families. At what point do we ask “Why did you have three or more kids?”.
I don’t want to say this with a total “It’s not their fault” tone in regards to the Rich. But when I see what kind of cars people drive, what cell phones they have, how many kids they have in the backseat I do have to wonder when they decided to buy into this terrible nightmare of a dream…
I don’t think it makes sense to say that the cost of raising children is a cause of the growing wealth disparity, because Americans of all income levels are having fewer children today than their counterparts did a generation or two ago. It’s not like there’s been a new trend of poor people having more kids over the last 30 years.
It’s the wealth disparity that’s making it more difficult for ordinary people to raise a family, not the other way around.
6 Likes
It is if the cost of raising kids goes up and it is, wouldn’t you agree?
Actually, let me edit here; I don’t want to imply that the disparity is either/or in regards to wealth disparity. I am saying that having children is a choice that effects our overall well-being. If it is established that the costs of having a child are incredibly expensive, then shouldn’t that be considered in having children, regardless of where the costs come from.
I personally have no debt to speak of and live like I make 2/3 what I actually make a year. I don’t use credit cards and use a credit union, not a bank. If I had one or two children on my current wages I would fall lower into the statistical category regarding wealth disparity. But I made a choice not to have kids. And not to live within a different class of people. I did it because I see the games the wealthy want me to play. We have choices and they include things like whether or not we shop at WalMart…
The problem is that the cost of kids is rising faster than working-class income. That’s a symptom of the growing income gap. Frankly statements like “the real problem is people having more kids than they can afford” sound like victim-blaming to me, especially when people today are having fewer kids than ever and it’s a struggle for most working-class folks to raise even one or two children.
7 Likes
How easy is it to get cheap/free birth control in the states? As opposed to here & the NHS? I would imagine the antipathy of a fair-sized set of the populace to organisations like Planned Parenthood doesn’t help, either.
And “I won’t have a family because I can’t afford it” is a choice that more and more Americans are being pressured to make. Frankly, I find that situation totally f***ed-up. Human procreation shouldn’t be a privilege reserved for the ever-shrinking portion of Americans above a certain income threshold.
5 Likes
Right, this “the wealth gap isn’t the problem, it’s that (the poor aren’t getting richer/they’re having kids they can’t afford/etc.)” argument is something like saying “the problem isn’t that sea levels are rising; it’s that beach houses aren’t getting any taller.”
2 Likes
I’m sorry to imply it as a black and white issue. Do you think people are simply not having kids because they can’t see being able to afford it?
Nowhere have I said the wealth gap isn’t a problem. I am saying that it is a choice to make in the climate of such disparity. In other words, using your analogy, I’m saying “The sea levels are rising whether we like it or not. Until we solve this debacle we better start moving inland.” Am I happy with this choice? No. But with what appears to be an average of $200-250,000 cost of raising a child, what would you suggest in the current financial climate?
Yes, I do think that is a major factor for many people. You implied that you yourself are one of them.
1 Like
