Everyone blames welfare for increasing our taxes to allow millions to live of our money and not work. Though this has merit, it can be argued that extremely high incomes are hurting workers more than welfare.
The top 5% of the population (in terms of money) made 19 times more money than the bottom 20% in 2000 (it was 11 times in 1979).
Top 2% percent of the population holds 50% of the wealth.
Low paid workers fell sharply behind those in Europe since the 90s. Now, the bottom quintile in Germany makes 40% more than the bottom quintile in the US.
I guess by charging huge amounts for fuel, commodties and insurance, the rich deserve more than us?
http://multinationalmonitor.org/mm2003/03may/may03interviewsbernstein.html
http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2003/08/02.html
www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3620/is_200301/ai_n9196643
2006-09-26 10:28:23 · 11 answers · asked by ? 3 in Politics & Government ➔ Other - Politics & Government
Interesting stats. However I think lower income people are falling behind further and further and no help in attitude from the very elitist conservative upper clases and middle class conservative ' Christians'.
70 per cent of Americans with disabilities are unemployed or underemployed, not due to the myth that they're lazy but rather to the attitude of many employers and society who can't imagine working and having a disability.
Most disabled people get good educations, many are university educated, but societal attitudes and bias run deep and people say things to disabled people and about disabled people they'd never get away with saying to ethnic and religious miniorities.
2006-09-26 10:39:52 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
From President Harry Truman, I learned the expression: "There are lies, damned lies and statistics.
Neither group "hurts" the working class. People in that class work and get paid for what they do. Depending on tax status, some may not pay federal income tax and therefore are not hurt because no tax money (of theirs) is going to welfare recipients.
Ask yourself how are working class people hurt by rich people if the working class is working and earning money. The working class are not hurt. Some may even be making money off of rich people: bank employees, mutual fund employees, retails sales people, etc.
The rich pay most of the federal income tax. The bottom 50% of wage earners pay about 3% of the federal income tax collected. The top 3% of income earners pay about 50% of the income tax collected.
There is nothing wrong with being rich and nothing wrong with earning a lot of money. We all want to be there.
Your stats have muddled your thoughts.
If there were no rich people, all of the federal income tax burden will fall on the working class. Are you willing to pay 50% of your income in taxes? I don't think so.
Your last sentence makes no sense, grammatically or substantively. I cannot guess at what you are asking.
Ours is free market society. The markets control prices, not the government, not the rich, not the manufacturers.
2006-09-26 10:43:18 · answer #2 · answered by regerugged 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
What if I informed you the 2008 winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics envisioned the bursting of the housing marketplace bubble. He envisioned the recession. He envisioned the type of jobs that Bush's tax cuts might create could be particularly under the selection the administration needed us to have self belief. so a procedures, this guy has been lifeless-on. He additionally helps Barack Obama. i assume it in simple terms relies upon on which economist you ask.
2016-12-12 15:41:53 · answer #3 · answered by zabel 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
When the pay difference between the highest paid and the lowest paid gets too great, the middle class gets squeezed out.
Welfare should be available when needed, but not available as a permanent handout for the able-bodied.
2006-09-26 10:38:29 · answer #4 · answered by Nosy Parker 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Rich people don't get hundreds of billions of dollars a year in subsidies, welfare people do.
The middle class pays a most of the taxes, so they cover most of the cost of welfare.
Even if you raised the tax rate to 99% on the top 5%, it wouldn't change the middle class tax burden much; and the rich people would have much less incentive to risk millions/billions starting new businesses.
2006-09-26 10:44:08 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
What you are referring to is called envy.
If a baseball player makes $25,000,000 per year it doesn't cost me anything. If the government takes part of my money to gives it to someone who doesn't earn it, it costs me something.
So, I'd say welfare costs most Americans more than all the millionaires combined. Did you know that transfer payments (the technical term for welfare payments and other government give-aways) costs Americans over $1,000,000,000,000 per year? And that's just at the federal level. That's about twice the cost of national defense.
2006-09-26 10:42:54 · answer #6 · answered by SPLATT 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Where do you think we working people earn our income from? From the High Income people that create jobs and hire us.
Socialim is destroying Europe. In 20 years all of Western Europe will be Third World Nations.
Capitalism will still be making the USA the strongest and richest country in the world.
And we will be still supporting the whole world.
If China ever goes completely Capitalism along with our freedom, it will be the richest country in the world.
2006-09-26 10:39:48 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 3⤋
I think that they both hurt the working class, as neither pay as much of a percent on their earnings as the working class does.
2006-09-26 10:35:45 · answer #8 · answered by Gunrunner 2 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Greed and corruption by the wealthy and the government, which are one and the same.
2006-09-26 10:36:10 · answer #9 · answered by brainy_ostrich 5 · 2⤊ 2⤋
(criminal) Inflation and money hoarding by the rich are to blame
2006-09-26 10:33:29 · answer #10 · answered by Mark B 2 · 1⤊ 3⤋