Four Sordid Tales of Selfishness of the Super-Rich

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/four-sordid-tales-selfishness-super-rich



1. Ebola's Not Worth the Money If Only Africans Get Infected

World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Dr. Margaret Chan recently stated: "Ebola emerged nearly four decades ago. Why are clinicians still empty-handed, with no vaccines and no cure? Because Ebola has historically been confined to poor African nations. The R&D incentive is virtually non-existent. A profit-driven industry does not invest in products for markets that cannot pay."

2. Going To Their Graves Without Paying What They Owe

Charles Koch, who is very much alive, said "I want my fair share - and that's all of it."

His dream is coming true. $30 trillion has been taken since the recession, most of it financial gains, almost all of it by the richest 1%, one-hundred thousand of whom made an estimated $18 million each in three years, and most of whom are so rich that they can let their portfolios sit nearly tax-free until they die, at which point an almost non-existent estate tax ensures nearly tax-free fortunes for their fortunate sons and daughters (only about one out of a thousand estates are taxed).

3. Inventing Rules That Take Money from the Poor

A collection of contrived laws and policies effectively transfer money from the middle class to the rulemakers:

---Capital Gains: Pay less for just owning stocks

---Carried Interest: The astonishing claim that hedge fund profits are not regular income

---Payroll Tax: Multi-millionaires pay a tiny percentage compared to middle-income earners

---Roth IRAs: A tax loophole for the 20% of Americans who own 95 percent of the financial wealth

---Derivatives: Risky financial instruments are the first to be paid off in a bank collapse

---Bankruptcies: Businesses can get out of debt, students can't

4. Treating Less Fortunate People As If They Don't Exist

Compelling research by Paul Piff and his colleagues has demonstrated that the accumulation of wealth leads to a sense of entitlement and qualities of narcissism. For example, rich people are more likely to flout traffic laws, to take items of value from others, and to cheat when necessary to win a prize or position.

[orpupilofnature57]

1. Believe him or not it's a great analogy " A camel through the eye of a needle "

$$$$$$$$ addiction is the root of All our problems .

[L0oniX]

12. Greed is not a harmless sin.

[LiberalElite]

2. There's that "sense of entitlement again" -

except according to the MSM and right wing trolls on comment blogs WE'RE the ones who have it!

[orpupilofnature57]

22. Have them explainan how, and they get Loud .

[aggiesal]

32. It's called Affluenza! n/t

[Enthusiast]

3. Kicked and recommended a whole bunch!

Way to go, xchrom!

[Nye Bevan]

4. Zuckerberg donates $25 million to fight Ebola

http://money.cnn.com/2014/10/14/technology/zuckerberg-ebola/

So I guess there are exceptions.

[TBF]

6. He has done this on other

occasions as well. So they do vary and that's a very important point. The larger problem is systemic - that we allow individuals to accumulate so much rather than acting as a community. I don't care whether we do away with currency and divvy up resources, or figure out how to tax and redistribute appropriately, but something has to give. There has to be a better way for 7.1 people to share this planet than a handful living in extreme luxury while millions suffer.

[fasttense]

30. Well said

I wish I could recommend your comments.

[TBF]

31. Thanks - I think others

see it too. We've gone through a very conservative time in this country but I remember better days (my dad was in a trade union back when there were still manufacturing jobs in this country).

[L0oniX]

13. Baby ...bath water.

[BrotherIvan]

23. FFS

Zuckerberg was the highest paid CEO in 2012 with an income of $2.3 BILLION. His donation of $25 million was surely a tax write off. Bill Gates and other robber barons do charity work for the tax write offs and to avoid paying taxes all while putting out press releases of how saintly they are. I'm glad he gave the money, but will not sanctify him. If he wanted to give a year's or even a month's salary ($192 MILLION) that would be something to applaud.

[TBF]

5. I can't believe they can call

themselves Christians while screwing over everyone around them. If that is what winds up in heaven I want no part of it.

[daleanime]

7. K&R....

K&R....K&R....K&R...K&R...

[7962]

8. Anyone can have a Roth IRA, you can start with 500.00

Or convert a normal IRA to a Roth

[Nye Bevan]

14. Actually if your income is too high you are ineligible for a Roth IRA.

If a married couple earns more than $191,000 they are not eligible,

http://www.rothira.com/roth-ira-limits

[7962]

17. I guess that particular point in the OP is completely wrong, then. Thanks!

I didnt know there was an upper limit.

[stevenleser]

27. Although you can apparently get around that upper limit, like Romney and 9000 others did.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-17/how-to-join-9-000-u-s-taxpayers-with-romney-sized-iras.html

There are 9000 Americans with at least $5 million in their IRA's who have used a loophole.

[Nye Bevan]

28. Those are not Roth IRAs.

Those are "traditional" IRAs which do not provide for a tax deduction.

[stevenleser]

29. Ahh. OK, thanks for pointing that out. nt

[kairos12]

9. The French invented the National Razor for these types in 1789. How about importing this

French product to the U.S.?

[Hotler]

10. Better yet we build our own........

just show up at Zuccotti park on Wall St. and start building one and add one of those pick a number machines so people are called in order.

[d_b]

20. that what it will take

hopefully in my lifetime

[GoCubsGo]

21. No need.

They've been seeing to it that this country is armed to the teeth. One of these days, that's going to backfire on them.

[redruddyred]

35. & don't forget the xtra security cameras

up and around wall street.

[L0oniX]

11. Hey! Are you trying to get us to not like rich people?

Good ...and you're preaching to the choir. I'm sure a few here who do make their living from stocks will be displeased. Thanks much.

[Thespian2]

15. Will the time come

when the slaves revolt? Burn the ill-gotten gains of the GREEDY BASTARDS. Perhaps burning four or five homes of a slave-master would cause their private army, including the police, to go ballistic. Could be the start of the real revolution in North America.

[heaven05]

16. amerikan capitalism at it's best

and it's most greedy, piggish recipients. This is NOT a democracy that helps the majority. In fact since 1980, the minority(1%) has been trying to make slaves out of the majority(99%). Period. The really sad part of that is a large portion of that 99% keep voting for the people making them slaves. Stupid.

[CrispyQ]

18. Did Koch really say that?

"I want my fair share - and that's all of it."

What a fucker.

[yeoman6987]

19. I don't think the Ebola situation is necessarily

Greed. We didn't have Ebola in the United States. However, Africa has it. They certainly have scientists and rich in Africa. They didn't do any research at all? Sounds incredibly doubtful.

[Jackpine Radical]

24. I'm glad to see someone else around here knows about the work of Piff & Keltner.

[woo me with science]

25. K&R Important, important post.

[nikto]

26. Real people have big stock portfolios----Subhumans don't

Many of us subhumans just don't have stock portfolios.
Amoebas don't have them either.

So...
people without stock portfolios = amoebas




Do you really have the gall to assert that amoebas have the same rights as real people?



Gosh, that would be...unreasonable.

[blkmusclmachine]

33. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[LynneSin]

34. I have to say that I have issues with the first one. Personally I agree which much of what was said

Ebola has been around for decades and include this last outbreak which has been the largest outbreak of all time, there's probably 20,000 people total who have died from this disease. Before this last outbreak usually no more than a handful to a few hundred tops would be all that would die of it.

So I have to wonder, why would we invest millions or even billions of dollars investigating a disease that has killed only a few thousand people when there are far greater issues in Africa where that money could better bet spent. By far the 3 greatest issues I can think of in regards to Africa and health issues would be things like AIDs/HIV, Malaria and Hunger - all 3 which have killed millions yet all 3 which not only are treatable but can be preventable. To me that seems like a better investment in money.

There is a known cure for Ebola and in the end that is to isolate the sick and the dead so the virus can no longer find another host. Once the virus cannot find new hosts it will die out. It is not an airborne virus so it's spread is not as easy as you think. So the millions being donated today for Ebola would be better served investing in better sanitation and infrastructure with these hospitals in Africa than to research a cure for a disease that has killed less than 20k people in over 4 decades.

The other 3 points extremely extremely valid points!

[IronLionZion]

36. Roth IRAs are actually for the rest of us who are not fabulously wealthy

For a single person like me, its for those making less than $114,000. For married people, its 181,000. So rich people can't have it because they would have reached the upper limit. http://www.rothira.com/roth-ira-limits Its actually a very good idea to get one. I started one because it forces me to save for the long term so even if I am short on cash at any moment, at least I have my roth that I can't dip into until retirement.

And through my personal experience, when it comes to traffic laws, I am wary of walking across the street in the presence of luxury cars or beat up cheap cars, but feel safer around normal middle class cars for some reason. They people trying to run me over tend to be working class men in pick up trucks, the rich assholes mostly just honk or drive around us out of a sense of entitlement as if they have some place important to be and don't have time for pedestrian crossings. I recently saw a BMW do this to a family with an elderly war veteran at the Arlington national cemetery.

On a related note, I've seen the pro-lifers push a random pregnant woman out of the way on the sidewalk until she fell, and they couldn't be bothered to help her up.

[woo me with science]

37. kick

[woo me with science]

38. kick