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    mobiuschiHamilton Nolan
    6/05/13 1:34pm

    I am sick of people complaining about wall street. You know what? You can secure yourself financially by opening an IRA and maxing it out on low cost ETFs from Vanguard. Instead of wasting your time on shit sites like Pinterest, read a book on investing. Stop whining about others getting rich in the stock market and take advantage of it. How the fuck else are you going to save for retirement? Put your money in a bank and earn 0.001%? Buy iPhones?

    I am a middle class guy who saves a good amount and invests and have done great since 2009. Of course if you don't have a job or cannot make ends meet, then I sympathize. But for others...STFU.

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      Hamilton Nolanmobiuschi
      6/05/13 1:40pm

      Good advice but hard to do if you don't have any money.

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      APersonamobiuschi
      6/05/13 1:46pm

      As a person who graduated into a clusterfuck economy, I never had the chance to amass any cold hard cash. How can you invest what you don't have?

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    RealSchneidmanHamilton Nolan
    6/05/13 1:51pm

    Here's my question: What do you mean by inequality? Because that is a really vague term. You seem to indicate income inequality. But even that, what do we do about that besides for raising the minimum wage?

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      Hamilton NolanRealSchneidman
      6/05/13 2:00pm

      Income inequality, and even more importantly wealth inequality. Both are huge problems in America. Here is some very informative background reading, also linked above:

      http://www.slate.com/articles/news_…

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      Sherlock HomeyRealSchneidman
      6/05/13 2:42pm

      Well, taxing long term cap gains at the same rate as normal income would be a good start.

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    Excited_UtteranceHamilton Nolan
    6/05/13 1:32pm

    Unemployment is an even bleaker picture when you look at the U6 - which I'd argue is a more accurate picture of the real economy. It's about double the reported unemployment rate:

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      Hamilton NolanExcited_Utterance
      6/05/13 1:40pm

      Indeed.

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      APersonaExcited_Utterance
      6/05/13 1:48pm

      I knew it! I fucking knew it! The 7.5% figure being floated around seemed awfully low to me. Thank you for this chart.

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    GumbyDammit!Hamilton Nolan
    6/05/13 1:27pm

    And since the political will has to come from the people too busy sucking up to the 1% and falling over themselves to make laws to exclusively benefit the 1%, nothing will change. The corporations have captured the legislative branch. It's the Emperor's New Clothes all over again.

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      ARP2GumbyDammit!
      6/05/13 1:35pm

      And executive. I voted for Obama, but he's been a huge wimp when it comes to reigning in Wall Street (and other areas, but I digress). In my mind, he's the lesser of two evils at this point.

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      raphiepieGumbyDammit!
      6/05/13 2:16pm

      People need to open their eyes and realize that it doesn't matter how hard you work you can't get ahead when the playing field is this off and elect people who care about the middle class.

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    Johnny ChundersHamilton Nolan
    6/05/13 1:26pm

    Our economy, where everyone works at WalMart and sells each other Chinese-made crap, is the best in the world. Anyone who says different is a Muslim.

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      Not A SnortJohnny Chunders
      6/05/13 1:37pm

      You should be CEO of Goldman Hacks.

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      Johnny ChundersNot A Snort
      6/05/13 1:50pm

      Yes, I'd be good at it. "You: work harder! You: enlist in the armed forces to secure unfettered access to foreign markets. You: bombard your neighbors with crappy propaganda about the unquestionable preeminence of capital."

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    Cannikin_MK3Hamilton Nolan
    6/05/13 1:27pm

    Hell even some editorials on Wall Street Journal: Market Watch are saying how fucked up the system is. The Wall Street Journal!

    marketwatch.com

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      KaiFromDogtownCannikin_MK3
      6/05/13 1:33pm

      Yes, but read the comments to get some true insight into how people in that community are thinking.

      Or, don't bother, and allow me to summarize: "it's all Obama's fault!"

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      ARP2KaiFromDogtown
      6/05/13 1:38pm

      Obama sure as hell hasn't been the enforcer we hoped he would be. So, he shares some of the blame.

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    shinobi42Hamilton Nolan
    6/05/13 1:30pm

    I'd like to see companies whose employees are on food stamps have to pay additional taxes to fund the aforementioned food stamps, and possibly an additional clerical penalty. It's absurd that we're subsidizing a corporation's ability to pay people less than a living wage.

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      lt823shinobi42
      6/05/13 2:29pm

      That sounds nice in theory but would probably do more harm than good. All taxes discourage the behavior that is taxed. Personal/corporate income taxes tend to work really well because the desire to generate more income often overcomes the distortion caused by the tax (although not always). As I understand your suggested tax, it would effectively discourage paying employees below a certain amount. A corporation could avoid that either by paying the employees more OR replacing the employees with fewer employees that do more work, foreign workers, or automated/computer systems. If employees are not being paid enough to live on, the much better approach is to tax high income earners and then redistribute through social welfare programs. Obviously you flag a valid problem, we don't want to set up a system where corporations have no incentives to pay their workers more, but the way to approach that is not a tax but rather a phase-out system for the benefits. Ultimately there is going to be some inefficiency, but that's pretty much impossible to avoid with a welfare system, and the positives of welfare systems outweigh their inefficiency.

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      NormaBatesshinobi42
      6/05/13 2:34pm

      Yes. The Optimistic side of me could even see this being an issue that both Left and Right could agree on. Hate paying taxes so others can collect government benefits? Me too! Let's demand that corporations pay their employees, not the middle class taxpayer.

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    KaiFromDogtownHamilton Nolan
    6/05/13 1:25pm
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      APersonaHamilton Nolan
      6/05/13 1:57pm

      Dear Job Creators,

      You had one job... just ONE.... and you mucked it all up.

      Sincerely,

      Everyone

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        Not A SnortHamilton Nolan
        6/05/13 1:36pm

        Thank you, HamNo, for finally confirming what my wallet has been telling me since summer '08.

        On a related subject, I would really appreciate it if you could change your avatar from the Hamigator* to Hamtaro. That way when I come to get my fill of ultra depressing economic news I can at least smile at the friendly hamster face that I love. Thanks in advance.

        *or is it a Hamodile? I'm too depressed to look it up.

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