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    Lex Luthor's Saintly TwinHamilton Nolan
    6/16/16 3:19pm

    Can you, or any Gawker reader, think of any possible reason why the poor did not have any income growth?

    Can you, or any Gawker reader, point out where it is written than anytime the rich have income growth, there must be a corresponding rate of growth among the poor?

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      caekislove-caekingitupLex Luthor's Saintly Twin
      6/16/16 3:23pm

      Well, you see there’s this thing called the Social Contract. Now, it’s not a literal contract, but it is an tacit agreement of sorts between the rich ruling class and everyone else that they occasionally throw us a bone and in exchange, they get to stay rich and don’t have their heads chopped off.

      It seems like a pretty sweet deal for the rich, but lately, they seem to feel like they’re not obliged to uphold their end of the bargain.

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      PeabodyHereLex Luthor's Saintly Twin
      6/16/16 3:24pm

      Er, how about the social contract?

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    I'll take Neoliberalism over Trump any day of the weekHamilton Nolan
    6/16/16 3:21pm

    There’s another way to look at this, which is that the quality of the things we spend money on in 2016 are so dramatically better than they were in 1975 that it’s stunning. Yes, healthcare is more expensive, but a knee replacement, a heart valve replacement and cancer treatment will yield far better results than ever before in history. If you had wanted to start a business in 1975, you would have had to rent office space, pay for furniture, phones, etc. Now, one can literally run a business off your iPhone, for 5% of the cost. Cars are much safer, clothing is actually cheaper, and you can watch 100 years worth of movies on Netflix for less than $10.00 a month. Income cannot be seen as the sole metric for measuring quality of life.

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      PeabodyHereI'll take Neoliberalism over Trump any day of the week
      6/16/16 3:23pm

      Thank regulation for the improvements.
      Thank deregulation for the decline in accountability.

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      Murry ChangI'll take Neoliberalism over Trump any day of the week
      6/16/16 3:29pm

      No, but if the poor and middle class stop getting a decent income, all of what you’re talking about stops happening.

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    SlickWillieHamilton Nolan
    6/16/16 3:19pm

    There are rich people in Mississippi?

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      RobNYCSlickWillie
      6/16/16 3:22pm

      Of course. Someone has to bankroll Beauregard’s senate campaign.

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      c201822SlickWillie
      6/16/16 3:24pm

      Right? What the hell is wrong with them. Obvi the first thing any normal person would do upon gaining wealth would be relocating out of Mississippi immediately.

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    Mew-Tang-ClanHamilton Nolan
    6/16/16 3:15pm

    No Arizona? It’s been a while since we haven’t been on a top-ten that’s awful.

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      Deadly the EternalMew-Tang-Clan
      6/16/16 3:16pm

      Same with Texas! WTF?

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      ReburnsABurningReturnsDeadly the Eternal
      6/16/16 3:28pm

      Well, a part of the reason that Texas isn’t on the list is because all of those rich people in places like New York are getting more rich by shipping good jobs to Texas. New Yorkers lose good jobs, rich New Yorkers get to save a little bit of money, and middle class and upper middle class Texans in some parts of the state have extremely good job prospects.

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    Joann PrinzivalliHamilton Nolan
    6/16/16 5:03pm

    Taxation must be fixed. Graduated marginal tax rates should start increasing at about $250 AGI approach 90% once AGI reaches over $500,000.

    Reduce taxes on the working class and middle income taxpayers - and establish income support for the poorest through a Negative Income Tax (there were pilot programs during the Johnson Administration’s War on Poverty, but when George McGovern tried to explain it in 1972 it came out as gibberish). If people cannot find work, or don’t want to work, we can still support their basic life needs.

    Total executive compensation must not exceed 40 times the income of the lowest paid employee (including employees of contractors and subcontractors). (excess would be taxed at a confiscatory 100%) This would work better than setting a minimum wage.

    Take one piece of Trumps platform and tinker with it - that tariff he doesn’t understand - but provide that the tariff is based on the difference in cost of foreign workers v. American workers - some manufacturing and some call centers, etc. will come back to the US. But companies don;t have top abandon their operations in other countries - just pay their workers like they would pay Americans, and there would be no tariff. (This might seem crazy, but if foreign workers are better paid, they can afford more goods, and some of those goods might be American goods). As an alternative, establish monetary exchange rates based on salaries of typical workers or some kind of cost of living factor (Hey, I am not an economist).

    Tax offshore income and penalize these reverse merger things like the one that allowed Burger King to become Canadian.

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      Michael ZaiteJoann Prinzivalli
      6/16/16 9:11pm

      Graduated Capital Gains would be nice too.

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      Joann PrinzivalliMichael Zaite
      6/17/16 10:25am

      I was ranting off the top of my head - if I were to be putting together a comprehensive program, that would be a “thing” as well.

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    Sparky PolastryHamilton Nolan
    6/16/16 3:14pm

    HOLY SHIT!

    Only 15?

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      caekislove-caekingitupSparky Polastry
      6/16/16 3:26pm

      But Officer, I swear she said she was 18!

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    sonofnielHamilton Nolan
    6/16/16 3:14pm

    Edit: Was asking what the cutoff for the top 1% was, but I found this in the article:

    To be in the top 1 percent nationally, a family needs an income of $389,436. Twelve states, 109 metro areas, and 339 counties have thresholds above that level.

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      PeabodyHeresonofniel
      6/16/16 3:26pm

      That’s a lot of money back now.

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    Crown_JewHamilton Nolan
    6/16/16 3:20pm

    Which is it, HamNo.... are you one of us 99% or not?

    “And 99% of you ain’t winning.”

    “...in the real world where the other 99% of us live.”

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      ghostandgoblinHamilton Nolan
      6/16/16 4:09pm

      What do the numbers look like for .1%?

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