Reuters gets to the heart 
of the economic downturn story.
American millionaires have seen their assets shrink by 30 percent during the economic crisis, a report said on Tuesday, with only 36 percent of them pleased with the performance of their financial advisers.
Of U.S. households worth $1 million or more, 55 percent are concerned they will not have enough assets to maintain their lifestyles, said Spectrem Group, a consulting firm specializing in the affluent and retirement markets.
Please, help.
I consulted with my financial adviser as well…
He said to put everything I had in tummy rubs. Okay!
Cue the cons: “Typical class warfare, OW. Gaaaaawd.”
55 percent are concerned they will not have enough assets to maintain their lifestyles
Funny how everyone on this side of the aisle seems to forget that part of their lifestyles include “employing other people”.
Maybe they should learn their lesson and stop voting Republican. Sure, millionaires do a lot better under Republicans when compared to middle class and poor people. But they do better under Democrats when compared to how well they do under Republicans.
SaveFarris: “Funny how everyone on this side of the aisle seems to forget that part of their lifestyles include ‘employing other people’.”
Actually, small businesses are a more efficient way to employ people than millionaires. Simply being a millionaire in no way implies you are employing people.
My brother in law is a millionaire. Nicest guy in the world. Lives well, but hardly like a king what with two kids in Ivy League schools and all. (A million bucks ain’t what it used to be.) But he’s a stockbroker. All his friends are stockbrokers, and they’re all millionaires. The only people they employ are the Salvadoran yard guys.
In other words, Farris is (surprise!) still a fool.
When I buy a candy bar, am I ‘employing’ someone at the Mars/Milky Way factory or ‘employing’ the person behind the counter at the convenience store? I mean, I’m the customer, and these jobs wouldn’t exist without my affluent lifestyle, right?
“When I buy a candy bar, am I ‘employing’ someone at the Mars/Milky Way factory or ‘employing’ the person behind the counter at the convenience store? I mean, I’m the customer, and these jobs wouldn’t exist without my affluent lifestyle, right?”
The velocity of money is different for different goods. For luxury goods, the velocity is rather low, so it is not as good for the economy as it would be for more middle class goods.
Five people buying 5 $1 chocolate bars is going to help the economy more than 1 person buying a $5 chocolate bar, for instance.
Additionally, rich people have a greater access to buying outside of the economy. You taking a vacation in France is not going to help the local economy very much.
Speaking of fool let us examine Brucie’s logic. He insinuates that the only people they employ are the yard guys. Now Ferris most likely didn’t mean just the people directly employed by his smarter sister’s husband friends but the also the people who built his house, who sold him his cars, who sell him his groceries, etc.
But Brucie just can’t wait to trash a common sese observation about how the economy works. Either Brucie understands more than he lets on about how the world works and he is a hypocrite or he doesn’t understand and is ignorant. Of course there is a third possibility, that he is an ignorant hypocrite. In any event Farris comes off sounding much more intelligent.
I don’t have much pity for millionaires, in fact I don’t give them much thought at all. But Parthenon is right although he is trying to score snarky points. This post is an example of Ollie stirring up a class warfare theme.
You taking a vacation in France is not going to help the local economy very much.
Unless you’re flying on a Delta 767.
Or staying at the Hyatt.
Or renting a Cadillac at Hertz.
Or you booked through Orbitz.
Or packed your gear in Samsonite.
“This post is an example of Ollie stirring up a class warfare theme.”
We have a winner!
And AO saying Ferris is intelligent is like a flea telling an ant that his is really big. Or, like a horse telling a donkey that his shit doesn’t stink.
SaveFarris: “Unless you’re…”
Wow. You are a dumb one.
I knew that previously, but you are actually going to argue that tourism to another country is good for the local economy.
Simply amazing.
Hey AO, still think SaveFarris sounds intelligent?
I have a very slow connection and while the millionaire loaded in a second, it took time to load your financial advisor and i was very curious of who he was. When i discovered i had a laugh. You are lucky!
Hey, you still gotta tip the skycap, right?
AO:
Guess what? People who aren’t millionaires buy things, too. I own a house, and two cars, and occasionally buy groceries. I’ll have to ask my smarter sister to be sure, but does that make me an “employer” too?
Now, it may have taken a slightly larger crew to build my brother-in-law’s house than my more modest abode, but I think I’m just as important a cog in “how things work” as the next fella. Maybe more so, since there are a hell of a lot more folks like me than there are folks like him.
As for the definition of the word “employee,” I’m pretty sure Farris meant it in the traditional sense. You know, the guy who signs the payroll checks. But I’m sure he’ll reappear soon to tell us, no, he meant everybody who works for somebody a millionaire might buy something from.
God, you’re a dumbass.
“Hey AO, still think SaveFarris sounds intelligent”
He sounds like a rocket scientist compared to most of the posting here.
When Ferris points out that even travel to a foreign country is intertwined with and benefits our economy he is mocked. I guess that point of view is a little too sophisticated for the experts here.
Nobody said that Brucie and his consumption weren’t part of the economy nor did anyone imply that the far right side of the bell curve doesn’t make an outsized contribution.
So why does he even bring it up as an arguement against Ferris? I had thouht Brucie might just be ignorant but he is making a strong case for the problem being a little deeper than that.
What am I, invisible? I’m RIGHT HERE, Amusie.
I bring it up as an argument against the idea that all millionaires are somehow engines of everyone else’s prosperity. Some are, like Gates, etc. Some are not, like my brother-in-law and his friends. Swell guys and all, but not exactly trickling down a lot of wealth by investing other people’s money in mortgage-backed derivatives or whatever the fuck.
I don’t claim to speak for Oliver, but maybe his point here was that who gives a shiny rat’s ass if Paris Hilton has to tone down her act?
Oh, and Farris has proven himself deserving of mockery long ago. His stubbornly clinging to 30 year old piss-on-’em economic theory is only the latest evidence.
Brucie,
It must be painful for your brother to be polite when you spout off your diatribes on economic theory. Your point was that the only contribution your BIL made to the economy was hiring 3rd world yard help. Farris was pointing out that benefits of trickle down economics.
I am not familar with the body of Farris’s posting on economics here but from what I’ve read so far in this thread he has you beat all to hell. Reading you mock him is like watching the dumb kids make fun of the bookworms in high school knowing that as the years go by their paths will cross at the local fast food joints. Make sure you ask Farris if he wants fries with his next order.
A somewhat morbid, but germane thought:
When Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy died, Ted Kennedy arranged for her to be declared a legal resident of Florida and had her estate probated there instead of in Massachusetts, saving the family literally milions in estate taxes — even though she had not left her Massachusetts home for over a dozen years.
When the Senior Senator passes, will his estate try to renounce his Massachusetts residency? It’s not entirely out of the question — he once had to repay some major property taxes because he had declared his DC-area home his primary residence for several years to take advantage of a “homesteading” tax break down there, until someone noticed that that would have disqualified him from his Senate seat.
And it’s ironic that Oliver continues to use Paris Hilton as his poster girl for this cause — back when people were arguing over whether the inheritance tax should be called the “death tax” or the “Paris Hilton tax,” it came out that it wouldn’t affect her either way — not only do the Hiltons use trusts and other mechanisms to avoid those taxes, Hilton had been publicly disowned by her family’s patriarch.
People like the Hiltons and the Kennedys and the Rockefellers and the Kerrys aren’t affected by these laws. They’re only for the little people.
Anyone ever notice that the five richest senators are all Democrats? (Kerry, Rockefeller, Lautenberg, Feinstein, Kennedy) And how did they get their money? Rockefeller and Kennedy inherited it, Kerry and Feinstein married it. Lautenberg is the only one who actually made his own fortune.
J.
“He sounds like a rocket scientist compared to most of the posting here.”
And considering how stupid you are, I’ll take that as a compliment.
Now, please fuck off you racist ‘tard.
You’re right, of course, AO. Trickle down economics have worked spectacularly for poor and working class folks for 30 long years. I should be grateful. Because, despite working two jobs and worrying all the time, I still struggle to save and pay for health care, but I CAN BUY CHEAP CRAP AT WAL-MART.
Tens of millions like me, and hardly any with millionaire brothers-in-law.
“People like the Hiltons and the Kennedys and the Rockefellers and the Kerrys aren’t affected by these laws. They’re only for the little people.”
You are such a fucking liar.
Little people don’t have estates. Hence, they are not affected by the state tax.
By the way, it takes a special kind of person to see a loophole being abused by anyone and think, ‘We should get rid of the law!’ in stead of ‘We should close the loophole.’
“Little people don’t have estates. Hence, they are not affected by the state tax”
CS,
Your grasp of reality economic or otherwise is tenuous at best.
Brucie,
“despite working two jobs and worrying all the time, I still struggle to save and pay for health care, but I CAN BUY CHEAP CRAP AT WAL-MART.”
When working that second job, be nice to Farris. He is the customer and remember to always ask him if he wants fries with that order.
Me: “Little people don’t have estates. Hence, they are not affected by the state tax”
AO: “CS, Your grasp of reality economic or otherwise is tenuous at best.”
I noticed you never gave any facts to dispute my claim.
The Estate tax doesn’t affect anyone who has $2 million or less in assets. (More if you are a farmer.) And that exemption grows to $3.5 million this year.
The Democrats were willing to increase that exemption to $10 million, but the Republicans want it gone. That’s shows they didn’t care about helping the little guy, but were only concerned with the very, very rich.
AO, unlike Mr. Henry I actually am a waiter. I can tell you from experience that the careerists in that sort of job are not as stupid as you’re implying. They’ve chosen a path that will not lead them to the economic promise land, that’s true. But watch the classist stereotypes. I’d hate for a Republican to look like an elitist; after all, we all know all the elitists are liberals, right?
I will admit that my posts on this thread were not my best. Weather kept me from doing much work, I argued on this and other blogs all day (addictive, isn’t it?) with people even thicker than Mr Monopoly Money here, and I just wasn’t very good.
Having said that, a hearty “Amen” to Parthenon, and a robust “Fuck You” to He of the Moustache and Monocle.
Why should there be an estate/inheritance tax at all? The deceased already paid taxes on it when they accumulated it in the first place…
J.
Jay Tea: “Why should there be an estate/inheritance tax at all? The deceased already paid taxes on it when they accumulated it in the first place…”
This is a separate issue and has nothing to do with whether or not the Estate Tax hurts the little person. And it is clear that the Extra Tax does not hurt the little person.
On that subject…
1.) The dead people are not paying the tax, they are already dead. It is the person getting the money that pays the tax, and they should be taxed because the inheritance is like an income.
2.) Money is double taxed all of the time. A mining company pays taxes on the ore they mine. The smelter pays taxes turning the ore into steel. The machining company pays more tax turning that steel into crankshafts. The Automakers pay more tax putting it into a car. And you pay even more tax when you buy the car.
Taxes are paid whenever there is an economic transaction.
“1.) The dead people are not paying the tax, they are already dead. It is the person getting the money that pays the tax, and they should be taxed because the inheritance is like an income.”
The greed of our Canadian socialist knows no bounds, he has no respect for the concept of private property. Instead it is all fodder for a welfare state government to confiscate and redistribute.
“Taxes are paid whenever there is an economic transaction.”
That is an oversimplification that has so many holes in it as an arguement that it serves no purpose other than show the shallowness of CS’s knowledge of economic affairs. As I recall this Canadian welfare state supporter had a career as a union business agent. It is the sort of thinking that put Detroit where it is today. LOL, ruin your own country, quit meddling with ours.