Everybody hears "I worked hard for my money" from the top .01%

[Prosper]

I would like to define that in a metric. How many calories does a person burn making a billion dollars?

[Hoyt]

1. I don't think calories burned is a valid metric, in this case.

Now, burning calories working for politicians that help you pay lower taxes, doesn’t count either.

I think if everyone supported tax levels Bloomberg is espousing and contributed to causes, we’d be in great shape.

[Loki Liesmith]

2. This is a silly argument

[ck4829]

7. Yes, that they have "worked hard" for their money IS a silly argument

I work hard for my money too, I still live paycheck to paycheck. And none of that money I have is going to dark money campaigns to lower what I pay for my rent, groceries, or in other ways to complain that others to keep their money-grubbing hands out of my bank account.

[Loki Liesmith]

11. Lol no. The labor theory of value is bunk.

You think people should get a salary in proportion to the physical quantity of energy they expend. Lol.

[Prosper]

18. People should not attribute success to hard work. Success

is luck, looks, skill, talent, charisma, intellect, net working and some sort token activity.

[lapfog_1]

3. are you telling me that only work that involves max caloric burn rates

is valuable?

Because I was always told that working smarter rather than harder was what I should strive for in life.

[Prosper]

9. Replacing working harder with working smarter is what the

rich do and I agree with that analysis. So why do they always stress working harder and always saying work hard enough and you can be anything you want to be. Never hear don’t raise my taxes because I worked smarter for that money. The working hard and work hard enough are just the result of right wing propaganda. If a person earns a billion dollars then they were lucky. I worked hard for my money for the top .1% is just a defense against paying taxes. I have no problem with people making big money, my problem is with the ones that hoard the money out of the economy. Make all possible to make but then spend it back into the economy buying factories or real estate or yachts but spend it. Spending is the way to prosperity and real wealth.

Jeff Besos pledges 10 billion to fight climate change. If he paid that to the people that worked hard to make that 10 billion and all the other billions the country would be on its way to prosperity.

[lapfog_1]

10. I always have to do the math

As of 2018, Amazon employed 798,000 people.

10B / 798000 = 12,500 per employee (assuming even distribution) or about $6.25 an hour raise over what they are paid now.

It's a decent whoop for a someone making minimum wage in a distribution center.

However, it's not game changing and, while I think this is better stimulus than tax cuts for the rich, even with 798K workers... it isn't likely to make much of a dent in the economy.

That said, we should fight for a living wage... at least $15/hour.

but robots are going to replace those 798,000 people... and fairly soon (5 years tops).

fighting climate change or funding education for higher skilled jobs is the real question... and $12,500 a year for 2 years ($20B) of training is likely the better investment for both the average distribution center worker and for the economy (long term).

OTOH, 10B for climate change is not nothing... just not enough to seriously address the issue (that is more like 1 to 2 Trillion over the next 10 years).

[madinmaryland]

19. It's a big whoop for people making $60K also.

That would be a nearly 15% raise. The money would be plowed right back into the economy.

6.25 x 2000 hours > $12K. Not chump change.

ETA - that assumes everyone is getting that Is getting that 6.25 raise.

[Greybnk48]

4. Yeah, those trust funds are back breakers.

You don't even know if the women you're having sex with love you, or if they're just in it for the money you're paying them. Sheesh!

[drray23]

5. Bloomberg was never handed a trust fund.

He build his fortune from scratch. So did Bezos, Musk or Gates.
Trump however got it handed from his dad.

[Nature Man]

8. and cocaine will never snort itself!

[Laelth]

6. That was Bloomberg's worst moment in tonight's debate.

He said that, but let's be honest, Mike. Did you work 100,000 times harder than the average American? No? Then you got lucky, and, to his credit, he did say that too, but the "I worked hard" argument irks me because I know that some person making $1,000,000/year is NOT working 20 times harder than I am. That argument is pure crap. It's nothing more than a moral justification for greed.

-Laelth

[Loki Liesmith]

12. It's not that they've worked harder for it.

It’s that he did work for it and it is his property by way of the right of others to have given that money to him for the work he did.

To decide there’s a maximum amount of money someone can earn is to argue that another person is not free to give Bloomberg one dollar more than that amount. It is an imposition on the freedom of a customer to spend where they choose.

[Prosper]

13. I've never said to limit or put a cap o what they earn. I said make as much money as possible but

spend it back into the economy. Either spend it or have it taxed tremendously. Making billions and them sitting on it or hoarding it into non working funds or non jobs producing ventures imposes poverty. Money was made to facilitrate trade. It is inhuman to create poverty by taking money out of the economy. Spend money. Put money back into the hands of people who will spend it.

[Midnight Writer]

14. The most money I ever made involved very little work.

When I got my first Union Job, it was hard physical work, but I took some of my earnings and put it into an Index Mutual Fund.

Grew modestly, nothing spectacular, but steady. Added to the Fund a couple of times over the years, when I could afford it.

Now, 40 + years later, because my account has grown so much, I am earning more from the Mutual Fund than I made working full time. And I am retired and just sit on my ass all day.

[Prosper]

17. Said:" And I am retired and just sit on my ass all day."

Unless you just said that for effect you should find some sort of total body cardio. Shame to waste that smart investing.

[Midnight Writer]

20. I guess I meant "sit on my ass all day" relative to working.

I nearly said sit with my thumb up my ass all day, but I decided to spare my fan base the visual.

I agree on exercise (and diet). I walk several miles a day, do pushups, situps, dips, chinups. As for diet, instead of grabbing fast food sandwiches like a did when I was working, I now cook from scratch so I can control the ingredients. I go for low carb, high fiber and plenty of protein, and watch my salt and fat intake.

[Prosper]

21. Good deal. I am 75 and have known so many people that died

within a few years of retirement. I figured you said that for effect but just wanted to make sure. One good friend actually had cigarette smoke stains above his chair. He sat in a corner and read newspapers and watched TV and smoked cigarettes and died. Vary food and activities.

[Midnight Writer]

22. My Dad did that. Sat in front of TV chugging liter bottles of pop, smoking, eating junk food.

My Mom always told me it is easier to learn from other people's mistakes before making your own.

[Poiuyt]

15. Yeah, coal miners and dairy farmers are such deadbeats

If only they’d work harder

[Kaleva]

16. I've worked hard to be able to live comfortably on $1200 a month SSDI