US poverty level highest since the mid 1960s

[eynon81]

[The Dude]

[spacemonkey]

Imo, if somone has massive wealth, hit by the taxman hard, still has massive wealth after the hit, then im ok with that. Massive wealth line =??, thats the question. We know about what the lower poverty line is, why don't we know about what the upper level absured line is? Or is it their no line at all, and I can own the entire world if I can create the right gizmo or scam.

[Spider]

[exploited]

Being rich doesn't make you evil, or a villain. And people should be rewarded generously for their innovations. But in a world where ten million children starve to death every year, the concept of compensating people millions for inventing the pet rock, or allowing people to be billionaires merely by collecting rent, becomes clearly immoral.

This is especially the case since we, the taxpayer, are the ones that enable such success. We pay for infrastructure and police, we fund public education and research programs, we basically paid for all the biggest technological developments of the past half century, and yet the people who profit most from our investments consist of no more than 5% of the population. Coupled with the existence of extreme poverty, I just don't see how such wealth can be morally justified.

I personally think that almost no one truly deserves monetary wealth exceeding a hundred million a year. And not only that, but such wealth is actually bad for the economy... if monetary wealth past the line listed above was seized and redistributed equally among all citizens, it would kick off growth and productivity never seen before.

[The Dharma Bum]

The idea that you can simply invent something and become wealthy is kind of flawed. Most of the people who are characterized as "inventors" by history would be best be described as industrialists who usurped the inventions of the truly innovative and incorporated them into the commercial structure, accruing vast wealth in the process.

[The Dharma Bum]

[exploited]

[Spider]

[exploited]