Frosty Loc: Minnesota

Republicans would have you believe that poor people don't want to work because they recieve too much and are comfortable on welfare and the wealthy don't want to work because too much of their income goes to taxes. Bottom line.....pay poor people less and the wealthy more.

Steven Seward Loc: Cleveland, Ohio

I don't agree with either of your statements. I live in an area of Cleveland where I deal with poor and homeless people all the time, yet my work has me dealing with the super-rich. I can tell you unequivocally that most of the people who are on welfare are lazy and do not want to work. They are comfortable living off the Government. They usually make no attempts to find a job. The rich people generally do not work because they have to make money. They are already well off and most of them could retire at any time. They work because they have goals and aspirations, and tax policies are not going to deter them from that, even though they may try to avoid high taxes.

Frosty Loc: Minnesota

It appears from what you have experienced that there is no need to cut taxes on the wealthy as they will continue doing wh**ever they do, which is to collect the wealth others produce and that the poor would work if they could make enough money to live better than they presently do.

Steven Seward Loc: Cleveland, Ohio

Again, I think you are mischaracterizing something about the rich. They don't "collect wealth others produce." They do the same thing that every poor and middle-class person does. They trade things with people. For instance, the richest man inAmerica is Bill Gates. His company makes computers and software. Microsoft employs about 125,00 people to do the work. Bill Gates and his partner Paul Allen used to do the work all by themselves, but they found so many customers that they could not keep up. They then trade their computers and software with hundreds of millions of people for money. The workers are not forced into working, and the customers are not forced to buy. They simply trade with each other and the vast majority are happy with making those trades. Everybody wins.

I think it is destructive to automatically think that rich people are somehow inherently evil. The poor operate on the same principles I outlined above.

Frosty Loc: Minnesota

I don't believe that rich people are necessarily evil nor do I think they are necessarily hard working and good. Many fortunes have been made under dubious circumstances. Gates didn't invent Widows but bought it.

Many very wealthy people do not produce anything. For instance stock traders or commodity traders that buy and sell products that farmers produce or oil traders that buy and sell petroleum. These people make a fortune off products others produce and never even see it. They produce nothing and make money off price fluctuations.

CEOs make fortunes off stock options and take no risk doing so. If this tax reform passes, corporate officers stand to make a lot of money because according to a Wells Fargo survey, most companies intend to use much of the money to buy back stock. So while the capitalization of the company remains the same, the stock held by corporate officers increases since there are fewer stock owners. I can't say these people work hard for their money and they receive a favorable tax benefit besides. They aren't inherently evil but they really don't earn (in the traditional sense) their money either. Poor people don't operate under the same principles, as you suggested.

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

This is the dumbest post I have seen on this board for a long time, sorry Frosty, you are usually much better than this. I guess you must be frustrated with the tax bill, you should stop listening to the demonic rhetoric and just sit back and see what happens, Trump is already growing the economy at a much healthier pace than Obama did in any of his 8 years. I know that the dems love to lie about Reagan and what his tax cuts meant for this country, however government reporting documents a different story.

GDP growth under Reagan, 1983 - 4.6% 1984 - 7.3% 1985 - 4.2% 1986 - 3.5% 1987 - 3.5% 1988 - 4.2% Median incomes during the same years rose from $19,155 in 1982 to 25,872 in 1988, clearly about a 25% increase in Household income during Reagan's two terms....

ole sarg Loc: south florida

Trump has done nothing to grow the economy. Obama's policies were and are paying off. Now we will see if Trump's policies pay off but I tend to believe that he will be as successful as Bush 2!

Notice how Reagan's growth rate declined as he was in office. He cut taxes and the economy immediately began to tank! I guess Carter did better than one believed!

thom w Loc: San Jose, CA

"I can tell you unequivocally that most of the people who are on welfare are lazy and do not want to work. They are comfortable living off the Government. They usually make no attempts to find a job". With all due respect, you can't know this. It may look like it to you. I can't even swear that you are wrong, but there is no evidence to back up what you say. You are taking (giving you the benefit of the doubt for integrity) a small snapshot and extrapolating into a group t***h. It really doesn't work that way. How could you possibly think you have witnessed a large enough sample to accurately come to this conclusion?

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

You are dumber than a box of rocks. Rescans economic numbers speak for themselves.

Frosty Loc: Minnesota

Thanks Blurry. It is a dumb statement. It was meant to be, because it follows the republican line of reasoning. They argue that the poor get too much financial help so they don't want to work. This may be true in some cases. On the other hand they argue that the wealthy have no incentive to work because so much of it goes to taxes.

Joining the two Republican arguments together is, as I said, decrease what the poor receive and allow the wealthy to keep more. Sorry, if you have issues with the statement. I do too but it is the result of republican arguments for how to deal with the two extremes in the wealth spectrum. It's Republican logic and it's is part of this new tax "reform".

As for Reagan, you quote how the aggrate of income rose under his tax cuts. Most of increase in income went to the weathy, (a goal David Stockman admitted was the real purpose of the cuts). Who exactly benefited the most? Answer: Those that needed It the least and it is the cause of the huge and growing income disparity we see today.

Your reply reminds me of the story about two ordinary guys sitting in a bar. Bill Gates walks in. Now it can be said that the average wealth of the three people is in the billions. While what you said may be true, it is very deceptive.

Frosty Loc: Minnesota

[quote=Blurryeyed] ........Trump is already growing the economy at a much healthier pace than Obama did in any of his 8 years. I know that the dems love to lie about Reagan and what his tax cuts meant for this country, however government reporting documents a different story.

Please Blurry, explain to us naive disbelievers what exactly has trump done to cause the economy to grow, a trend that was actually in place when he took office. Did he make businesses pay employees more which would help? He has no power to do this. Are more people employed? Yes, but this was an upward trend when Obama was in office and is just a continuation. Are more coal miners employed as promised ? I don't know but I doubt it. So, what did Trump do. Tweets don't grow the economy.

Steven Seward Loc: Cleveland, Ohio

If you don't believe me, just look at the people who receive unemployment benefits. When unemployment benefits are extended for a longer time, people tend to stay on them longer and only start really looking for a job when the benefits are about to run out. These are not even the people on welfare. They are much worse.

Alan Krueger, who headed Obama's economic team did research on this:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/30/alan-krueger-unemployed-jobless_n_941713.html

Checkmate Loc: Southern California

How long did it take to be that stupid or did you copy that down from your 1st grade teacher. Maybe next year you will get to go to 2nd grade on your 30th birthday. Just think
how you will be ore advanced compared to Dirtbagger, he got passed to 2nd grade of his 65th birthday.

Checkmate Loc: Southern California

Why do you want to RAPE the pocket books of those who obviously have much more than you under the guise of helping others who don't want to work? Is it because
your life is a failure and you want to live off the fruits of others labors? Quit sniveling and whining and get on you own feet and give them money out of you own pocket.

Frosty Loc: Minnesota

[quote=Checkmate]

Please don't ever change your ugly avatar. Whenever I see it, I scan past it since experience has shown that there is never anything original or worthwhile contained within and I would h**e to accidently read some of it. Thank You.