Overpaid teachers are not the reason for the US deficit

[cecilia]

can I get an AMEN?

 

[cybereye]

This guy isn't investing his money right.]

These guys didn't invest their money right.

This guy invested right - because he invested other people's money and paid himself big bonuses whether the bets paid or went bad.

Not only does he use other people's money, but he realizes that the people he hurts can't get him back so he doesn't have to care about how they feel. That makes him smarter than all of us.

Next time when you post a video, I am unable to understand what the talk is about because I can't hear very well. Again, Brain does not mean smart or dumb. I am aware that my money is more value than the guy who manage my money see that value. Do you really think he cares about my money? The guy who manages my money is adviser and he not a boss. I have used other people money as well so I don't take as much risk with my money. I don't want to abuse other people money because they gave faith with me and I would have a better odd when I need other people money again when time come. Don't get me wrong, I have gotten burn from other people that I never got it back. I took a small risk, not my whole net egg. People got greed and not use their head to reduce the risk of wrong. You can blame the banks that took their homes. The person who took the loan for the house should really think hard about the money he is taking as a risk. Do you really believe the government is going to protect you from the thief or trust the government itself? Not me.

 

[cybereye]

Look at the amount of wealth the workers are taking home.

Yup. The income of people who work for a living is going down as a share of the wealth there is. That must be because workers are getting stupider. All workers should be investing instead of working. Gosh, just imagine how wealthy we would be if everybody invested instead of working. Then we could all buy all the stuff we want and no-one would have to ever work. That would be smart, yes?

I don't know about stupider. I had gotten layoff 2 times and I am taking a part time job. I bet that chart does not count as part time job as well. It may just point out on full time job income, base on people cheating on the income tax, too many people are on welfare, or people are getting their pay cuts. I am still investing my money while I am poor than before, but it not stopping me using my brain to reduce the lost or find an opportune to make money. There is an old saying "No use to cry over spills milk."

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

There is an old saying "No use to cry over spills milk."

I admire your sentiment but the fact remains that you are not going to get rich the way you are going. There is a good chance you will continue to get poorer. Some of the richest people have no qualms whatsoever about cheating you out of what's yours. Why should they have? They don't know you and they believe that they are better than you, they must be because if you were better than them you would have more money than they do. They have a different ethic. It is OK to cheat you because you are a sucker. There is another old saying. "A fool and his money are soon parted". Not only does this mean that a person who is foolish is easy to bamboozle, but anyone who is bamboozled deserves to lose his money. The problem is that over time cheats win. The more they win the easier it becomes for them to cheat. You end up with a ruling class who would be considered criminal if you honestly looked at the situation but they have managed (as lords and kings before them did) to convince those they cheat that this is simply destiny and their divine right because they are chosen by providence.

The only defense is solidarity and mutual assistance. There is another old saying "united we stand, divided we fall" or as Benjamin Franklin phrased it "We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."

These days people who insist on hanging together are lampooned and derided as "communists" or in the new parlance "socialists". We are educated to see unions as bad for us and fraternal organizations as kooky and suspicious. There is another old saying that reflects but inverts Franklin's and has been doctrine to the ruling classes since before Rome and that is "Divide and Conquer".

 

[cecilia]

when I was in (catholic) college, I recall a class where we learned about Predestinarianism. I'm going to assume that the really smart people already know what I am talking about - and the others (americans?) will have to look it up.

the rich - like the koch bros - believe in a form of Predestinarianism, in my opinion. They feel THEY deserve their wealth because they figured out how to steal it away from those bad po' people. Or because they were born with it and, of course, that PROVES they deserves it!
And they actually think poor people are fat and lazy and want to be poor.
And that poor people are always trying to figure out how to get their precious money away from THEM. (Project much?)

Just for the record, I have known various well off (even millionaires) people who were quite generous, were grateful for everything they had and were happy to share it, even with the those who have less money. They had no delusions that they were "special". They knew they were basically lucky.

 

[cybereye]

I admire your sentiment but the fact remains that you are not going to get rich the way you are going. There is a good chance you will continue to get poorer. Some of the richest people have no qualms whatsoever about cheating you out of what's yours. Why should they have? They don't know you and they believe that they are better than you, they must be because if you were better than them you would have more money than they do. They have a different ethic. It is OK to cheat you because you are a sucker. There is another old saying. "A fool and his money are soon parted". Not only does this mean that a person who is foolish is easy to bamboozle, but anyone who is bamboozled deserves to lose his money. The problem is that over time cheats win. The more they win the easier it becomes for them to cheat. You end up with a ruling class who would be considered criminal if you honestly looked at the situation but they have managed (as lords and kings before them did) to convince those they cheat that this is simply destiny and their divine right because they are chosen by providence.

The only defense is solidarity and mutual assistance. There is another old saying "united we stand, divided we fall" or as Benjamin Franklin phrased it "We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."

These days people who insist on hanging together are lampooned and derided as "communists" or in the new parlance "socialists". We are educated to see unions as bad for us and fraternal organizations as kooky and suspicious. There is another old saying that reflects but inverts Franklin's and has been doctrine to the ruling classes since before Rome and that is "Divide and Conquer".

You keep looking at Black and white. It will never be in black and white. When you say "cheat"? How do you define cheat? Some people just say "sore loser" or just can't except the lost it got into. How do you define rich? A person got more money than me, a person took more money from me, or I made more money than before. How do you define fool, a dumb person or a person that goes against the crowd? I have discovered that I am a fool, so I have to find a bigger fool than me to reduce my loss or profit from it. I can also says, I am going to short the stock because people who believe the stock market is going up. Am I a fool because I apart my money or I am a fool because I am going against the crowd? Some people may blame me for cheating because I made money when the stock market went south. My point is that your argument is far too general and it will never be clear about your and my view of what is right and wrong. When you says I am going to get poorer. why? sure I won't be rich like millionaire, but I will be richer then the last time.

 

[cecilia]

what is rich = that's easy.
rich is when you have SOOOOOOO much money that you NEVER, EVER think about paying your rent/mortgage. The idea or concern Never enters your mind.

Poor is when you think about where your next dollar will come from because you HAVE to scrape enough together to pay your rent or you will become homeless. And this thought is ALWAYS in your mind, it NEVER leaves your thoughts. You wake up thinking about it. you go to sleep thinking about it and think about it ALL day long. It is an exhausting way to live. And people who are rich simply have no clue what it feels like.

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

You keep looking at Black and white.

Oddly enough ... I don't. I try to take the broad view and see the complexities. Obviously it is difficult to portray the complexities in small posts but in the big picture it isn't always necessary to understand what goes on in aggregate.

Most of the time it is small committed groups that have disproportionate effects on societies.If those small groups are particularly influential you can glean a great deal from examining them. Psychopaths and sociopaths do more than their fair share of murdering, for example. Many of these influential groups are, by nature, outliers - not average. If you spend your time looking close in at average people you will not understand the people who are really causing change. You are just looking at the people who are being changed.

It will never be in black and white. When you say "cheat"? How do you define cheat?

This was precisely my point. If I get you to sign a contract, maybe the contract is deceptively worded - maybe I just tell you it's all boiler-plate, you don't really need to read it, everyone signs the same thing, - or whatever other excuse - and you find out later that the contract allows me to take much more money from you for much less service than you thought then that would be cheating - but only for the person on the losing side. The person on the winning side just thinks you are a loser who should be more careful next time. They may even feel like they have done you a service by "educating" you. These guys, amongst themselves, will be on watch for such stuff so between themselves it may just seem like fair game - but the difference is like two grown men fighting for a prize and a grown man taking candy from a kid. Some people can quite happily cheat you and not feel like they are doing anything wrong because you should have known better. There are others who can cheat you, rape you and then kill you and simply not care because they can't empathize.

How do you define rich?

If we go by the average family income and plot it by percentile then I am rich. I'm in the top 10% for my country. On the other hand, in my city maybe not so much. In my neighbourhood I'm closer to average. People compare themselves to those around them. Billionaires tend to compare themselves to other billionaires. Dairy farmers compare themselves to other dairy farmers, not the cows that make the milk. CEOs compare themselves to other CEOs, not the cows that work the assembly lines, tills and back offices.

I can also says, I am going to short the stock because people who believe the stock market is going up.

Shorting is just a bet. Of course, it is a bet using someone else's stock so strictly speaking there is some cheating going on - but not as much cheating as with a naked short.

My point is that your argument is far too general and it will never be clear about your and my view of what is right and wrong. When you says I am going to get poorer. why? sure I won't be rich like millionaire, but I will be richer then the last time.

My argument makes it hard to know what is wrong or right and then you say I'm black and white? These are two opposite statements.

As to whether or not you will be richer than last time, that depends where you wealth is and how quickly you are accumulating new wealth. Specifically I cannot say but if the general trend continues more people will lose wealth over the next decade than people will gain it. You should, if all goes well, gain wealth over time, but your children will have less at your age than you do - probably, if things don't change direction.

 

[cecilia]

Income Inequality Costing Americans Their Happiness

Americans are happier in times when the gap between rich and poor is smaller, a new study finds.

The reason, according to research to be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Psychological Science, is that when the income gap is large, lower- and middle-income people feel less trusting of others and expect people to treat them less fairly.

The study also provides a potential explanation for why American happiness hasn't risen along with national wealth in the last 50 years.

"Income disparity has grown a lot in the U.S., especially since the 1980s," study researcher Shigehiro Oishi of the University of Virginia said in a statement. "With that, we've seen a marked drop in life satisfaction and happiness."

imagine THAT!!!

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

I won't be rich like millionaire, but ...

But guess who IS rich like millionaire. More than half of congress critters. When law makers are wealthy, guess what kind of things they have on their minds when making laws. Tax the wealthy? Hell no. Tax the poor? Of course. They deserve it because they are too lazy to be rich.

But what does it take to get rich? Well, the willingness do behave in a way that might seem to little people to be unethical.

And of course, even if you are responsible for a gargantuan balls up you can do well so long as you saved the company money before the fact and did whatever it took to make it look like you were cleaning up but instead were trying to hide the evidence. That kind of a "fixer" is always an asset.

 

[cecilia]

Where In The World Can Teachers Get Paid What They Deserve?