Did you ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?

Finance has a competitive advantage which sucks capital away from objectively productive pursuits because it offers 30:1 returns on investment compared to maybe 8% on a real investment. Government’s role is to ensure that dangerous disparities in power between competing constituencies are reconciled in a way that benefits the most.

This happens often in land use, where more profitable land uses are restricted in order to create space for less profitable, but economically essential uses. In gentrifying areas, luxury housing often crowds out job producing light industrial uses because housing generates hundreds of dollars per square foot while production generates tens per sq/ft.

At the end of the day, the costs of finance arguably outweigh the fleeting “prosperity.” But so long as the profits generated by finance are sufficient to both crowd out production as well as purchase elections, these people will ride the economy down the tubes like Slim Pickens rode the H Bomb in “Dr. Strangelove.”

I’ve worked 2 jobs most of my life, and I’m close to 60. I’ve saved a lot and watched a lot of it get ripped off by jugglers & clowns like Mr. Little Lord Fauntleroy here, and I certainly don’t appreciate his aggravating disdain and arrogance. I’m also like: well, yeah, Lord Hoo-Hah, you just go move along to… ??? good luck with that. No one likes you anyway.

To imply that this ginned up “better” somehow shouldn’t pay his fair share in taxes bc he “works so hard” and “creates jobs” is just stupid.

It’s quite something else how successful the 1% have been in getting a big portion of the population to vote and act against their own interests, while demonizing those of us who highlight the reality of what’s really happening.

This here recession: like, it’s not bc of my slackerdom. It’s bc of greedheads like Lord HaHa here, who gambled and played around with my money and lost my money (but not his money). And frankly, this aristocratic sack of shite could care less about anyone not in the 1% club, including dumb conservative serfs who support his b.s. He’s not gonna toss any of us – conservative or liberal – any more bones or crumbs than he absolutely has to, no matter how much we might try to suck up to him. Sheesh.

I think that this Lord is the very guy that I saw interviewed (on video) at the Financial Times in a clip yesterday. I honestly almost emailed them to inquire who did the spoof; then I realized that it was almost certainly ‘real’. (Or maybe it was another Lord-like type, a UK bankster saying it was all quite pleasant to be in a business where you get to take a cut of the government giving you money that you then lend out at interest — quite the toff, he wuz. Bet his wife has lovely posh frocks and a full calendar of charity auction dates.)

I’m pleased that technologies like online video and the Internet are making it possible for more people to get glimpses of these attitudes.

The insolence is so authentic it’s comedic, assuming you prefer your comedy inky black.

No one is going to begrudge you the results of your labor. The difference between you and Goldman’s is they do not make honest money. Their money is made by manipulating the markets, the government and the laws. If you were selling dope to get your duplexes, we’d probably have a problem with that, because it is blood money. So too is Goldman’s. Just take into consideration the number of people who have had their retirement plans delayed because of the high risks Goldman and other marketeers were taking that collapsed the market last year. Wouldn’t you be a little pissed also?

What we want is an honest and level playing field, where each has the opportunity to gain as much as he/she is willing to put into it. Right now, that is not the case, and the burden of their foolish quests is being passed onto every American.

This is aside from them buying legislation that increases their wealth at the expense of working class peoples. A whole nother episode. ;)

no haters here.

But, about that share of after tax income …

Hmmm. That might suggest their tax burden is no burden at all, eh?