Where is Trump's Beautiful Healthcare Plan? Here's Warren's...

[Into the Night]

So capitalism is supposed to work by taking as much profits for yourself and sharing as little as you can with your workers to achieve...what? Wealth? To what end? Make the world a better place?

The workers are capitalism too, dumbass. They market their skills to an employer (their customer). Yes. Capitalism makes the world a better place. It creates wealth. It is the only economic system that does.

*looks around*

Sure doesn't look like the world's a better place, does it?

I must really suck to be you.

You can't appreciate the low cost personal computer you are using right now. You can't appreciate the websites you use every day. You can't appreciate the readily available food and water supplies you use. You can't appreciate the fuel you use. You can't appreciate the communications systems you use.

You are jaded. You are miserable because your liberal masters have told you to be miserable.

Gawd that must suck.

[LV426]

"He earned the $30M for fucking a subordinate" is one of the strangest arguments I've ever heard.

[Into the Night]

And it's not like many billionaires even worked hard for the wealth they inherited.

Bill didn't inherit his wealth. Neither did I. Neither did Trump. They took the wealth that was given them and multiplied it many fold. Your avarice is obvious.

[LV426]

"No you see, he worked really hard to have sex with one of his co-workers as he's CEO of a billion dollar company. Yes, yes...hard work there. Definitely $30M's worth."

[Joe Capitalist]

And it's not like many billionaires even worked hard for the wealth they inherited.

Unless you think "not drowning in a bowl of soup before the Trust Fund kicks in" is hard work?

So how many billionaires inherited their wealth? Do you have any idea?
Bill Gates didn't inherit wealth. Neither did Michael Bloomberg or Jeff Bezos or Donald Tru....oops. Nevermind.

[LV426]

So how many billionaires inherited their wealth? Do you have any idea?

Most of them. Most wealth in this country is generational. Our President is a perfect example.

Bill Gates didn't inherit wealth. Neither did Michael Bloomberg or Jeff Bezos or Donald Tru....oops. Nevermind.

Bill Gates made over $30B as a retired person.

Taken together, much of the best available evidence suggests that the median dollar of wealth in the United States has been inherited by someone in the richest 5 percent of families
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-po...s-distributed/

[LV426]

What is wasteful spending?

Medicare for All, or a $30M golden parachute for a CEO who couldn't keep his dick in his pants?

[LV426]

So how many billionaires inherited their wealth? Do you have any idea?
Bill Gates didn't inherit wealth. Neither did Michael Bloomberg or Jeff Bezos or Donald Tru....oops. Nevermind.

Of course there are going to be some people who rose from nothing, but Bezos, Gates, Bloomberg, Howard Schulz...when did they all make their vast fortunes? When did they all come up? They are Boomers, who grew up in relative safety and prosperity of a New Deal and Great Society era. And aren't they all white men? They're all perfect examples of the government creating the conditions for them to thrive...Howard Schulz? Lived in public housing. Michael Bloomberg? His father was an immigrant. Jeff Bezos? Also educated in public schools. All those men grew up during the Post-New Deal and Great Society.

[LV426]

What Medicare for All and free public colleges do is give the opportunity for everyone, not just white men, to prosper. All those billionaires mentioned...they're all Boomers...so they grew up in an era where Big Government provided for things like public education and health care, giving them the tools they needed to become prosperous as adults. Pulling that ladder up behind you while trickling down "charity" doesn't create the same opportunities for women and people of color to achieve the same level of prosperity.

Also, sitting on piles of gold that you will never use didn't work out too well for Smaug.

[Joe Capitalist]

So, Bill Gates retired in 2014, and since he's been retired, his wealth has increased from $76B to $107B, a 39% increase.

How did a retired person manage to work hard and grow his wealth by 40%? Both things can't be true.

That's about 7% a year gain which is a pretty normal annual return for the S&P 500 over the last 100 years. Gates doesn't have $76B sitting in some savings account. It's invested in probably a very diversified portfolio. So there's nothing abnormal about growing your wealth by 40% over five years. I'm surprised you couldn't figure that out on your own.
And don't disparage my boy Bill Gates. He retired to dedicate the rest of his life to giving away his billions to worthy causes.

[Joe Capitalist]

Most of them. Most wealth in this country is generational. Our President is a perfect example.

Bill Gates made over $30B as a retired person.

Taken together, much of the best available evidence suggests that the median dollar of wealth in the United States has been inherited by someone in the richest 5 percent of families
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-po...s-distributed/

Most inherited their wealth? So is that 51% or 99%? "Most" really doesn't narrow it down.

[Joe Capitalist]

Of course there are going to be some people who rose from nothing, but Bezos, Gates, Bloomberg, Howard Schulz...when did they all make their vast fortunes? When did they all come up? They are Boomers, who grew up in relative safety and prosperity of a New Deal and Great Society era. And aren't they all white men? They're all perfect examples of the government creating the conditions for them to thrive...Howard Schulz? Lived in public housing. Michael Bloomberg? His father was an immigrant. Jeff Bezos? Also educated in public schools. All those men grew up during the Post-New Deal and Great Society.

So what's the difference between them and the Boomers that DIDN'T become billionaires?

[Joe Capitalist]

Bingo.

Wait. I thought you said:

DonaldvoTrumpovich:
I am also a Capitalist. A Flaming Capitalist.
Into the Night:
I don't believe you.

You really need to work on that delusional disorder, Laura.

delusional
dih-loo-zhuh-nl

—adjective

having false or unrealistic beliefs or opinions: Senators who think they will get agreement on a comprehensive tax bill are delusional.
Psychiatry. maintaining fixed false beliefs even when confronted with facts, usually as a result of mental illness: He was so delusional and paranoid that he thought everybody was conspiring against him.

[cawacko]

I loathe the idea of taxing success. Billionaires are wealthy because they worked hard, educated themselves and took enormous risks. Their employees didn't take the risks. The entrepreneurs did. With high risk comes high reward. The billionaires earned every penny because they followed the rules of Capitalism and made it work. And now, people condemn them for being successful and working hard? I hate the mindset "You have more money than you need so the only fair thing is to give me some". That's not the way Capitalism is supposed to work. Anybody in America can become wealthy if they do these three things:

Work hard
Educate yourself
Obey the law

It's that simple.

We can point out some individuals who have earned their wealth through ill gotten ways but on the whole you are spot on. Anecdotally when I look at people I know who are rich or the few that have real wealth, I know they worked their *ss off. While someone like me wastes their time on a board like this those guys sacrifice a lot to get to where they are.

Now there are people who work their *ss off and aren't rich. And having more money doesn't necessarily make someone a better person. But folks try to diminish the effort and risks many of these well to do people took to get where they are.

[cawacko]

That's about 7% a year gain which is a pretty normal annual return for the S&P 500 over the last 100 years. Gates doesn't have $76B sitting in some savings account. It's invested in probably a very diversified portfolio. So there's nothing abnormal about growing your wealth by 40% over five years. I'm surprised you couldn't figure that out on your own.
And don't disparage my boy Bill Gates. He retired to dedicate the rest of his life to giving away his billions to worthy causes.

This is just a mindset I don't understand. First off we wouldn't end homelessness. That aside, does Bernie think Gates has $100m sitting in a bank account somewhere? Not even a thought to what it would do to markets and the economy trying to abstract this wealth from him. And of course the belief that the government can spend the money better than Gates can.