CNN Lou Dobbs:10-28-06 Broken Government - The Do Nothing Congress, this follows the War on the Middle Class.

[PELarson]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn
I do not think there is a ?war on the middle class?

What I do believe is that a capitalist system like ours favors the upper class because they have the money and the leverage of ownership.

Rich guy owns $10,000 in stock
I own $1,000 in stock
When the market goes up 10% the rich guy?s wealth increases by an amount almost equal to mine.
By time the market doubles I am at only $2,000 and he is at $20,000.

So the question is how do we find a ?fair? way to balance out the playing field so to speak?

Stick to whatever it is you really do.

Your knowledge of how the stock market works is abysmal.

Corrected -
IF you and the rich guy own the same stock when the stock goes up 10%, not the market as a whole, you will both have the same increase in your equity in whatever the shares represent, a company or maybe you own shares in one of the many funds.

Now if the market as a whole increases by 100% but your stock remains stagnent or decreases and you both keep ownership in the stock. Neither of you will see any increase in your equity stake.

Until you sell the stock you don't realize a gain or a lose. It is in other words a theoretical.

 

[ProfJohn]

Originally posted by: PELarson
Until you sell the stock you don't realize a gain or a lose. It is in other words a theoretical.

It was a hypothetical example. Do you not understand that?
Some of you seem so busy trying to find ways to attack ME and prove ME wrong that you seem to miss the point of half my posts.

I own $1000 worth of GE
Rich guy own $10,000 worth of GE
GE increases 10%
My shares are now worth $1100
His are now worth $11,000 so his stock value has increased by an amount nearly equal to my entire investment.
When the stock doubles my worth is $2000 and his is $20,000. His increase in value is five times my entire portfolio.
Now take this example and imagine a guy with $1 million in GE stock, when it doubles he now has $2 million in stock. We both have doubled our value, but my increase in value from $1000 to $2000 does not change my life style. While his increase from $1 million to $2 million can certainly change his life style. Now let?s say my car breaks down and I have to sell half my stock to repair it, I am now back to $1000. Meanwhile his car breaks down so he goes and buys a new BMW and he still has nearly all of his $2 million left.

That is why the rich compile wealth faster than the not so rich.

If this overly simple explanation is wrong then please correct my mistakes.

 

[PELarson]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn

Originally posted by: PELarson
Until you sell the stock you don't realize a gain or a lose. It is in other words a theoretical.

It was a hypothetical example. Do you not understand that?
Some of you seem so busy trying to find ways to attack ME and prove ME wrong that you seem to miss the point of half my posts.

I own $1000 worth of GE
Rich guy own $10,000 worth of GE
GE increases 10%

Now you have it. You recieve a B- for this lesson. Try the book "Understanding Wall Street" a well written book that should help you gain the knowledge you so obviously lack.

 

[Wreckem]

The real problem in America is excessive consumption.

Living beyond your means and excessive consumption is killing the middle class.

They go hand in hand, the excessive consumption pushes people to living beyond their means with massive consumer debt.

The baby boomer generation has really fvcked up this country in so many ways it isnt even funny anymore.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: Wreckem
The real problem in America is excessive consumption.

Living beyond your means and excessive consumption is killing the middle class.

They go hand in hand, the excessive consumption pushes people to living beyond their means with massive consumer debt.

The baby boomer generation has really fvcked up this country in so many ways it isnt even funny anymore.

Yep blame the little guy, the very same ones you applauded for driving the China Consumer Economy. :roll:

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally posted by: ntdz
I hate Lou Dobbs with an absolute passion. Not only do I disagree with him, but I hate his wording. The whole phrasing "The war on the middle class" just absolutely disgusts me. I don't see him refusing his high pay and giving it to charity or some "poor" middle class family. If he things are bad here, he should go check out Europe, let alone Asia, Latin America or any other continent for that matter. France is waging a pretty successful war on the middle class themselves, instead of "lowering their wages," they're just eliminating their jobs. I guess it's Corporations' fault for outsourcing just so they can survive in the global marketplace, not the unions who drove up the cost of labor so much or countries like China whose labor is virtually free compared to here that it became unprofitable to continue manufacturing goods here.

In other words, by allowing the economic force of Global Labor Wage Arbitrage to affect the American economy, the politicians are waging what amounts to a War on the American Middle Class.

I don't blame Corporations for foreign outsourcing or for trying to make a profit. Rather, I blame the U.S. government for not putting up tariffs and for not reducing immigration and eliminating the foreign work visas (H-1B, L-1). I blame the government that sets the playing field.

Of course, you know my prediction. In the near future America will have a massive population of 450 million people and it will be a third world country. That's what happens when you merge your economy with the likes of the 2.6 billion impoverished people in India, China, and Mexico.

 

[Craig234]

I own $1000 worth of GE
Rich guy own $10,000 worth of GE
GE increases 10%
My shares are now worth $1100
His are now worth $11,000 so his stock value has increased by an amount nearly equal to my entire investment. ..

That is why the rich compile wealth faster than the not so rich.

If this overly simple explanation is wrong then please correct my mistakes.

John, I can hardly believe you are making such elemental mistakes.

First, it's more like you own $1000 and he owns $10,000,000, but that's another issue. It's not that he gets more but you get the same percent.

It's that the ultra wealthy are going up far MORE than an equal percent. Over a period of years, American even at the 90th percentil of wealth saw an increase of 34% in their income while the top 0.1% saw an increase of 497%.

So your $1000 becomes $1344 while his $10,000,000 becomes $49,700,000 - because there's a lot more going on than your stock.

This is why even looking before Bush, just from 1977 to 1998 or so, the share of wealth of the bottom 95% went from half of America's wealth to under a quarter. That's not an equal percentage change; if it were the share would remain unchanged.

Your post suggests that you are unaware of what's happening in America on this topic.