Former Reagan administration official and CNBC host Larry Kudlow writes in the National Review about cheers and applause for Bush on the floor of the NYSE. Kudlow takes this to mean somehow that everyone else is wrong on Bush’s poor economic record and horrid job performance.
What kind of world is it you inhabit when the beyond very well to do traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange share anything remotely in common with the average American beyond living in the same country and breathing the same air?
Kudlow further says that Bush got applause because of 9/11. Okay, tell him to go to Harlem or even Manhattan and see if the response is the same as it is from very very rich stockbrokers.
maybe nothing Ollie….but those overpaid folks (I notice you didn’t comment on Bush’s call for reigning in the wages of the fat cats…) are the driving force for the currently booming economy. Who do you think is hiring people if not exxon, GE , etc…
Where do you think your patron George Soros made his millions?
You might have added see what happens if he goes to orange county North Carolina, home of that “Everyman” John Edwards, and the largest house in the county….
http://www.carolinajournal.com/exclusives/display_exclusive.html?id=3848
What kind of world is it you inhabit when the beyond very well to do traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange share anything remotely in common with the average American beyond living in the same country and breathing the same air?
It’s obvious that you know absolutely nothing about the trading floor and the people who work there.
Contrary to what you think, many of those people earn less than 6 figures, and those who are in the 6 figure area are not close to a million. Of course, you’re probably one of the people who think that earning $110,000 a year makes a person “rich.”
Get educated on the issue a little.
Yes, Jay, $110,000 a year is rich. It’s a lot more than the vast majority of Americans make. No wonder you’re so clueless on this issue. You think someone making $100k is just scraping by.
And no, while trading is a vital part of the economy (and the boom was 10 years ago, and it wasn’t localized to just the tippy top), the stock traders are not the engine that makes America run. It’s the millions of normal people showing up to work each day at a computer or the factory providing for their families.
Oliver WHY do millions of people have a job to show up to?
Because business are the motive force behind job creation. Investment is the motive force behind business.
This is economics 101.
You and nimrod think money grows on trees? You think jobs are just created out of the ether?
Ollie, both Wall Street and Harlem are IN Manhattan. Perhaps “maybe he should visit The Bronx” would’ve worked better.
Otherwise, great point.
Note that Prince Charles and his horse…er, wife had the guts to drop into Harlem. Bush would faint if he had to go too far north of 59th St. (Gracie Mansion notwithstanding).
And those businesses are ZERO without the people showing up to work their butts off for their families. You think CEOs make value on their own with a wand?
Randy: I stand corrected, New York geography is not a strong suit of mine, to me its all that stuff up there.
Of course they are oliver. The point is, there are few multibillion dollar business, that higher thousands of workers, but there are potentially thousands of workers for those jobs.
Ergo, like it or not, the workers are replaceable, the business are less so.
Hey Pedro and Jay, both of you are TOTAL FUCKING ASSHOLES. I’m sure I make more money than both of you. And why is that? Because I actually work for a living and unlike you I don’t waste the hours of the day being a worthless freeper trolling liberal blogs.
Yes, Jay, $110,000 a year is rich
How is that rich? Please explain.
I didn’t say somebody making that kind of money was “scraping by” but to say a person that makes that kind of money is rich is just ignorant. The median salary in the United States is close to $50K. Are you seriously going to argue that somebody who makes twice that is “very very rich” and therefore cannot identify with that person?
Shit, I make a little less than two thirds of that $110,000, which means I am on the cusp of being RICH! Wow. I guess when that extra $45K per year starts rolling in, I’ll be trading in my 2003 Explorer for a brand new Escalade and my wife will trade in her 1995 Ford Windstar for a BMW. I’ll be moving from my 1700 square foot home into my 25,000 square foot palatial estate. I can’t wait!
I’m sure I make more money than both of you.
Sucking d**k earns you a lot of cash, huh?
Quit moving the goalposts to now being “very, very rich”. $110,000 a year is rich and affords the person a very nice living. I don’t get what you get out of pretending otherwise. As you even point out, $110k is twice the number you give as the median income in our country (the census bureau says its closer to $43,318). In your reply you point out that you own two cars plus your own house. That isn’t too bad, is it? It sure isn’t poor.
The business is nothing without the workers, and if you watch wall street you know the CEOs are quite replaceable.
both harlem and the NYSE being IN Manhattan…that construction seems a little awkward…
and now i noticed someone else already noted that, so now I’m just another dick from NYC. oh well…
Quit moving the goalposts to now being “very, very rich”.
Those were your words dude, not mine.
In your reply you point out that you own two cars plus your own house. That isn’t too bad, is it? It sure isn’t poor.
I didn’t say I was poor. But you did say:
What kind of world is it you inhabit when the beyond very well to do traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange share anything remotely in common with the average American beyond living in the same country and breathing the same air?
$110K a year affords a nice living, but it hardly separates them from “average Americans.” It is NOT rich. Upper middle class? Yes. But not rich.
Oliver how much money can one make a year, and still be considered someone who is just working to make a life for their family? Just curious.
And if CEO’s are so replaceable, how come you know their names, but don’t know the name of the 3rd assistant rivet assembler when HE gets laid off?
Because the CEO gets a $200 million golden parachute when he gets the boot and that makes more news than someone laid off in order to spike the stock price.
$110,000 is rich, only the deluded would deny that. I think making more than twice the median income of Americans is rich.
Oliver, if making $110k is rich, how can a bunch of rich Senators (all of which make at least $165,200 per year) even remotely identify with average Americans?
so I ask again…how much (little?) do you have to make before you can be counted as someone working hard to suppor their family?
At what point does the work of the “rich” lose value, at least in your eyes?
And a good question by Jay. Edwards: Rich as stink taking money from deformed babies. Obama: Sweetheart land deals…rich. Hillary: Hell, great cattle deals, real estate, who knows what else…rich.
But based on Oliver, looks like none of them can understand the “average” american…they make too much money to really be considered “working”.
Jay: most of them can’t, but a lot of them worked their way up and are able to remember where they come from. Someone making $110k can be working hard to support their family, and I don’t think being rich automatically devalues someone, but you can’t pretend that it’s not a lot of money to be bringing home. The way I see things, once someone is bringing in 60, 70, 80 they’re quite well off. I sure would like to make that kind of money and I’m certainly working towards it and beyond, but I won’t pretend once I get there that I don’t have a lot of money.
but a lot of them worked their way up and are able to remember where they come from.
As are many of the people who work as floor traders on Wall Street. Perhaps you shouldn’t be so quick to pass judgment on them simply because they applauded President Bush.
That’s exactly my point. Anyone applauding Bush and with such a lofty position has nothing in common with the average guy.
Pedro, do some reading for the love of God.
That’s exactly my point. Anyone applauding Bush and with such a lofty position has nothing in common with the average guy.
No, that is what you assume and unfortunately, it is a piss-poor assumption.
And let me tell you something Oliver. Earning what I do is nice. But you know what? Providing for a family of four along with the expenses that come with it - taxes, mortgage payments, credit card payments, utility bills, food bills, clothing bills, health care bills etc., eat into that. Just because somebody makes $70K a year, doesn’t mean they’re flush with cash.
You need to think a little more about this stuff before you write it. At least you admitted that what truly bothered you was somebody applauding the President.
One question for you Oliver- is a person who lives in San Francisco or New York City, or Boston, or D.C. making $110,000 a year rich? (Sure- someone making that kind of money in North Platte, Nebraska might be considered rich.) How about a person who has worked for 20 years, who is now finally making $110,000 a year but has two kids in college, a third in high school and a mortgage, and finds out their spouse has cancer? Are they still rich?
(The point is, “rich” is in the eye of the beholder. A floor trader at the NYSE might make $50,000 to $100,000 a year living in or near one of the most expensive places to live in the country.)
Yes, $110,000 a year is rich. Why is those so hard for you guys to comprehend? Regardless of whether its SF/NY/LA/DC it’s a lot more money than the vast majority of people make. Maybe you’re all trying to assuage some kind of guilt by pretending that it’s not, but it is. And Jay, I didn’t say the money made you a Rockefeller, but it’s not scraping by either.
Actually, the really big point here is that the democrat party is interested in class warfare, rather than uniting the country.
Rich people are just one form of low hanging fruit for the leftists ire. Rich people contribute more to the well-being of this country, on the whole, yet it is so easy for the liberals to point fingers at them, as if their toil is somehow worth less, or that they are not deserving of the same rights as the rest of america.
Pedro’s right - why can’t the rich man catch a break in this country?
If you’re rich, you’re probably not toiling anymore.
Though if you are, good on you.
Edwards: Rich as stink taking money from deformed babies.
Deformed babies have money? Jesus, Pedro…
why can’t the rich man catch a break in this country?
worked for O.J.
Quick story: My father, a couple years ago, thought it was likely that his job was going to be terminated, so he went on the job hunt. He’s in human resources, is a conservative Republican, and at the time was making appx $180,000/yr.
He was offered a job in Connecticut with a very slight raise (not sure how much). He promptly turned it down because, as both he and my mother told me, “We can’t afford to live in Connecticut.”
Now that, friends, is embarrassingly delusional thinking. I told them they were out of their minds.
Yes, we’re talking about an n of 1, a personal experience of mine, so this could just be an aberration in conservative thought. But maybe it’s not. If not, then cons are even more fucked in the head than I could possibly conceive.
why was that exactly?
Because they didn’t want to take a step down in lifestyle/savings rate/retirement savings to move to connecticut?
Some might call that fiscal responsibility.
Of course, the liberals are always railing against personal responsibility. You know, republicans are bad people because they suggest that maybe you can financial SUPPORT a kid(s) before you start delivering them at age 16…
Pedro,
Congratulations on maintaining your status as this blog’s most idiotic troll. Yes, $180,000/yr isn’t enough to live comfortably in Connecticut. We had a 5-bedroom house in Kansas with that money… but in Conn, surely they’d be living on the streets. Maybe they’d get lucky and find a studio apartment somewhere in the ghetto of Connecticut.
Are you serious? “We can’t afford to live in Connecticut”? Damn, Pedro, you lack perspective.
I make less than $20,000/yr here in L.A., not a cheap place to live, as a grad student, and I get by. I eat, I have a roof over my head, and I have cable. Nine times that much in Connecticut? Cardboard-box city. Make that an n of 2, now, with Pedro on board.
And I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about with personal/fiscal responsibility and liberals. Your beloved GW has been the picture of personal responsibility his whole life, hasn’t he? Oh, and the conservatives in power the last 6 years have been VERY fiscally-responsible, right? It’s not as though we’ve sunk into massive deficits or anything since the end of the Clinton presidency.
Goddamn, Pedro, you’re a complete imbecile. Get a clue.
I don’t know mambo, maybe the folks want to be able to support themselves in retirement?
maybe they didn’t want to live in a 3/4s of a million dollar box like you would in LA (I know, I lived in one).
You can “get by” living in a treehouse and drinking water out of the gutter.
When you actually start earning money, supporting a family and thinking about your future (i.e., grow up…)I suspect you will begin to understand the wisdom in their actions….
Or maybe not, I have little hope in the maturity of most leftists…
Yes, pedro, I’m sure that living in Connecticut would completely deplete their retirement funds such that they would be living from Social Security check to Social Security check. In retirement, they might have to subsist on roaches and mice caught in the gluetraps around their crumbling, weathered shack without plumbing. They might have to collect rainwater to drink. Who knows? Living in Connecticut is quite the tax and cost-of-living burden!
Getting back to the original point of this thread, your statements clearly indicate that you’re well out of touch with the average American. Maybe Oliver’s right, maybe conservatives are more likely, by their very nature, to be utterly fucking clueless when it comes to an average American’s financial situation.
Oh, and I’ll reiterate… you’re an idiot, Pedro.
Like I said…when you grow up you will better understand why grownups do the things they do…or you won’t, and you will forced to live on the meager outlay of the social security check.
when you grow up you will better understand why grownups do the things they do…
I can’t wait to understand why a consertative grownup would spend all day and all night monitoring a liberal weblog looking for discouraging words.
Do me a favor and be more smug and condescending about matters that you obviously have no perspective on. “Grownups.” I’m well aware of how far $180 thousand/year can go, regardless of locale. Why? Because I’m not an idiotic dick.
You, on the other hand…
Maybe peed will overstep the boundaries again and accuse you of being a child molester while you’re waiting to grow up.
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