Mitt Romney and his ‘not very much’ problem
As an aside in acknowledging that he pays roughly 15 percent of his income in taxes, a lower share than many middle-class Americans, Mitt Romney also mentioned that he “gets speaker fees from time to time, but not very much.”
Campaign disclosure forms express that “not very much” in stark numerical terms: $374,000 in speaking fees from February 2010 to February 2011, when Romney ceased accepting paying gigs in order to run for president full time.
From Romney’s point of view, his description of that income is correct and understandable. If you have an estimated net worth of $270 million, $374,000 truly is “not very much,” a mere 0.14 percent of your wealth. On the other hand, from the point of view of most Americans, that same sum is really quite a lot. In fact, Romney’s income from speeches alone would put him in the fabled top 1 percent in terms of household income.
The issue is relevant not because it feeds some sort of voter envy over Romney’s wealth. It’s relevant in terms of perspective. Romney’s dismissal of $374,000 as “not very much,” when in fact it’s more than 99 percent of American households make each year, tells you a lot about how the world looks through his eyeballs. As the son of one of Detroit’s most powerful auto executives, and as a highly successful venture capitalist himself, he has experienced the world from a very different vantage point than most of his fellow Americans.
Does that matter? Well, the GOP critique of Barack Obama has focused on a claim that, raised partially overseas, he was not exposed to the full “American experience” and is thus less than fully American. He doesn’t understand us; he’s not one of us. That’s the crux of the whole “birther” phenomenon, as well as claims from the likes of Newt Gingrich that Obama is an “anti-colonialist” who somehow absorbed the political viewpoint of the foreign-born father that he almost never saw. It has even led black Americans as diverse in viewpoint as Cornel West and Herman Cain to question Obama’s authenticity as an American black man.
In a sense, Romney also grew up and continues to reside in a foreign land, a place with very different rules, customs and culture than most Americans experienced. It formed his world view in a way that he can never fully escape, in part because there is little evidence that he had tried. And on the campaign trail, that managerial instinct to focus on the numbers rather than the human impact reveals itself repeatedly.
It comes across, for example, when Romney tried to claim recently that he too has lived in fear of getting the pink slip, although his campaign later ducked questions about when that fabled time might have occurred. It was akin to John Kerry asking “who among us does not like NASCAR”? And when asked in Nevada — ground zero of the foreclosure boom — what should be done to address the housing crisis that continues to put hundreds of thousands of American families out of their homes, Romney’s blunt answer was “don’t try to stop the foreclosure process, let it run its course and bottom out.”
That is the viewpoint of a CEO or outside consultant who is trained to see workers as units of production, and desperate homeowners clinging to their property as an obstacle to efficient markets. Don’t get me wrong: There is a place, even a need, for such bottom-line attitudes in a capitalist system.
The question that voters have to answer in 2012 is whether that place is the White House.
– Jay Bookman
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564 comments Add your comment
Thulsa Doom
January 18th, 2012
3:19 pm
“Planning. That’s what you need.”- Redneck convert
See. Even Redneck Convert gets it- who woulda thunk he would get it? Even libruls are not beyond hope.
md
January 18th, 2012
3:19 pm
“So you’re saying a home mortgage is a relatively new creation?”
No…..and neither are foreclosures.
Choices my dear Watson…….choices.
Mighty Righty
January 18th, 2012
3:19 pm
“However many jobs might be generated by a Keystone pipeline,” he said, “they’re going to be a lot fewer than the jobs that are created by extending the payroll tax cut and extending unemployment insurance.”
-Acutal Obama quote
Funny how Democrats spend years arguing tax cuts don’t stimulate the economy, but this particular cut will per noone less than Obummer himself. Also it is funniy how this particular “tax cut” is actually steraling money from Social Security which means it is cominig from the workers future earnings! Just keep drinking the kool ade, you liberals are going to pay the piper.
ME
January 18th, 2012
3:19 pm
I not only want to see Mitts taxes, That fat cat should tell us how much money he has in the bank, what kind of car he drives, the thread count his sheets are, and how many times a month he and his wife have relations.
Keep Up the Good Fight!
January 18th, 2012
3:20 pm
Wow, when Jimmy Stewart said in that movie where he jumps off the bridge that the banks money is invested in your home and your home and your home, the movie ended because each of those people said “why no Jimmy, we scrimped and saved and bought those homes on our own without no loans”. And when all those homes and farms were lost to foreclosure in the Great Depression it was because they scrimped and save and then made the purchase.
Why its time to take our country back to that older generational time that …. exists only in the mind of the Doomed Team.
Thulsa Doom
January 18th, 2012
3:21 pm
Midori
January 18th, 2012
3:15 pm
Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son. — Midori to Thulsa Doom
Holy cow. Midori is wearing out the Animal House quote vault. I wonder if she will ever come up with something original? Who am I kidding?
Butch Cassidy
January 18th, 2012
3:22 pm
Btw, I’m sitting at a restaurant on 9th and 16th, and I see a lot of people eating and walking around. Perhaps I need to inform them they are not planning accordingly and that even leaving the comfort of their homes poses risks that they may not have considered.
md
January 18th, 2012
3:25 pm
Amazing how folks here like to inject silly thoughts into what others have said. Don’t recall anyone saying folks should not use mortgages………..but it is telling how many must think mortgages are a risk free instrument……………
Thulsa Doom
January 18th, 2012
3:25 pm
Matti
January 18th, 2012
3:15 pm
Thusla,
“Jesus forgives you. (Or so I’m told.)”
Matti, yes. He forgives all of us. Especially the hyper judgemental ones so there’s good news for you too!
A question?
January 18th, 2012
3:26 pm
Butch, arent 9th and 16th about 7 blocks about from each other?
md
January 18th, 2012
3:26 pm
That Butch….he does like to be silly…..and dramatic. Matti there with you? Drama King and Queen…..
Butch Cassidy
January 18th, 2012
3:27 pm
md – “Choices my dear Watson…….choices.”
Great, when will you be releasing your book on the top 10 most financially secure, guaranteed never to lay anyone off or close, lifetime of job security companies to work for?
Keep Up the Good Fight!
January 18th, 2012
3:27 pm
Don’t recall anyone saying folks should not use mortgages………..but it is telling how many must think mortgages are a risk free instrument……………
I don’t recall anyone saying mortgages are risk free…. you can point to someone actually making that claim, right? Talk about injecting silly thoughts and claims.
Donovan
January 18th, 2012
3:27 pm
I knew it was coming and I expected the typical hypocritical oration from the Democrat side, but once I actually read it from Bookman I can’t stomach the cheap class warfare crap that personifies the liberal assault from the Democrat Party.
It’s ok for Bill Clinton to have received $80 million dollars in the past 8 years for his speaking engagements, but it’s not ok for Mitt to receive his “small” amount from his speaking engagements. The liberal media was very silent about their darling Bill, weren’t they? As a matter of fact, the Democrat’s darling Bill has often bragged about how much he has been paid. HYPOCRITES!
It was ok for the richest candidate of all time, John Kerry, to sit on a $780 million dollar fortune, but not get chastised for it by the liberal media. HYPOCRITES!
Mitt donated all of the earnings from his books and never took a dime, whereas John Kerry gave zero contributions up until the time of his running. HYPOCRITES!
Mitt Romnery is wealthy due to his investments. The “tax laws of this country” allow him to be taxed at 15%. That’s the benefit of risking one’s money into all or nothing investments. You liberals can stop with the 1% distinction because it’s a cheap character assassination trick and a cheap form of group persuasion. You know it and I know it.
Mr. Bookman’s support and idolization of his party’s figurehead is disgusting for all the wrong reasons. He and all of his liberal goose steppers give praise to a president that claims to be fighting for the middle class. However, this presidential hypocrite lives like a king on the public dole and not his own money. His angry wife is famous for traveling in separate jets to destinations around the world and taking a vulgar entourage along for the ride. HYPOCRITES!
Every ounce of economic misery has come from Obama, Reid, Pelosi, and the Democrat rabble in Congress.
Now we have breaking news that Mr. Bookman’s hero has rejected the proposed pipeline from Canada. A project that would have created untold new jobs, lessened our dependence on foreign countries for energy, and allows China to replace us as a customer.
I am throughly disgusted by the antics of liberal class warfare. I am throughly disgusted by the way Democrats twist good into bad.
Those of you who support such retaliation are low class citizens and not worthy of the free air that you breathe. Although I am aware of your nervousness of losing the election, your contempt for good people shows your soiled character.
Thulsa Doom
January 18th, 2012
3:29 pm
keep up,
And since that time I believe the people from the great depression era that have recently died and the ones that are still alive have and will give us the greatest transfer of generational wealth in history.They recovered, lived frugally, prospered, and most of all saved their money. A little history lesson and some knowledge of that generation would perhaps help you out of your mudhole of liberal ignorance.
Butch Cassidy
January 18th, 2012
3:29 pm
A question? – “Butch, arent 9th and 16th about 7 blocks about from each other?
Sorry man, I should have said 9 East and 16th. Between Union Square West and 5th Ave.
My bad!
Welcome to the Occupation
January 18th, 2012
3:30 pm
Donovan: “I knew it was coming and I expected the typical hypocritical oration from the Democrat side, but once I actually read it from Bookman I can’t stomach the cheap class warfare crap that personifies the liberal assault from the Democrat Party.
Bill Clinton … John Kerry .. bla bla bla .”
Where did you take it into your head that criticism of the class warfare of the financier class against workers is actually emanating from, or has to emanate from the Democratic party?
YOUR party SUCKS! But MINE is GRRRRRREAT! (formally That Black Guy)
January 18th, 2012
3:30 pm
Adam
January 18th, 2012
1:18 pm
RB: Same to you: That’s a cop out from a coward. If YOU believe YOU should be paying LESS, do it. Apply your same idiotic stance to the government and see what happens.
______________________________________________________________________________
Is it against the law to pay LESS than you owe? YES
Is it against the law to pay MORE than you owe? NO
These 2 things are NOT the same.
Mighty Righty
January 18th, 2012
3:33 pm
What I would like to know is how Obama financed his college education? Where did he get his money? Who paid fo rit? He went to the most expensie universities in the country. Columbia, Harvard, not cheap baby. He came from a middle class family. Student loans? Somewhere I read he had applied as a foreign student. Did he? Where would he get that idea? I think Obama should release not only his transcripts, but his application for admission paper work. All the lefties think it doesn’t matter what his grades were or for that matter any paper work relating to his birth or college
so why not? Seems fair to me. Nothing to hide, release it, all of it.
Matti
January 18th, 2012
3:35 pm
Hmmm… Donovan thinks we’re stupid and don’t know that the tax code favors the rich because the rich get themselves and their friends elected and in order to enact the tax codes that favor the rich.
Donovan also thinks it IS class warfare to point out the extreme and growing discrepancies between the wealthiest Americans and everybody else, but it’s NOT class warfare to support policies that make it EASY for that to happen.
Donovan also thinks “class” distinctions have a legitimate place in the great American experiment, because he called us “low class” and decided (by virtue of his own class’s privilege to do so) that we don’t deserve air.
Donovan, MAN I WANNA PARTY WITH YOU! I bet you’re more fun than a freezing mud pit full of lice-covered starving children with machine guns pointed at their nasty little low-class heads, aren’t you? How’d we get so lucky?
md
January 18th, 2012
3:36 pm
“Great, when will you be releasing your book on the top 10 most financially secure, guaranteed never to lay anyone off or close, lifetime of job security companies to work for?”
Exactly!!!………as there is no such thing.
So folks might…..just might……want to plan accordingly.
Mighty Righty
January 18th, 2012
3:39 pm
Donovan
January 18th, 2012
3:27 pm
Well said.
Bruno
January 18th, 2012
3:40 pm
Howdy again gang–Looks like the blog crowd has thinned considerably.
I wanted to discuss a new book out that I believe directly addresses the ideological divide in our country between liberals and conservatives. The book is called “Ameritopia” by Mark Levin.
http://www.amazon.com/Ameritopia-Unmaking-Mark-R-Levin/dp/1439173249/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1326918138&sr=8-1
From the amazon.com website: “…this leading conservative thinker explores the psychology, motivations, and history of the utopian movement, its architects, and its modern day disciples – and how the individual and American society are being devoured by it. In Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America Levin asks, what is this utopian force that both allures a free people and destroys them? In the end, Levin’s message is clear: The American republic is in great peril. The people must now choose between utopianism or liberty.”
I haven’t read it yet, but Levin reportedly presents an overview of Western philosophical thought in relation to Utopian thinking, from Plato to Hobbes. His conclusion is that the Utopian vision presented by these thinkers depends on a strong, centralized government with a corresponding loss of individual freedom. In contrast, he presents the ideas of Locke and de Tocqueville, which are the basis of Americanism: freedom, independence and self-reliance. Levin’s argument is that we’re slowly moving away from freedom and self-reliance toward the opposite all based on the premise that we can somehow create the Utopian Society which no one else has been successful in creating yet.
Here on the blog, that seems to be the main difference between the conservative thinkers like md, EC, Doom and myself vs. the liberal thinkers here like USinUK, Matti, et. al. In fact, USinUK told me directly yesterday that promoting self-reliance will lead directly to looting and rioting, e.g the London riots last year.
For me, freedom and self-reliance have worked well so far.
Jm
January 18th, 2012
3:40 pm
How did the idiots at beaver ridge elementary get hired in the first place?
Teacher quality is awful.
Paul
January 18th, 2012
3:42 pm
philosopher
“Bring on the tax returns and LET THE FUN BEGIN.”
What fun? In spite of Gov Perry’s and Newt’s innuendo, all we’ll likely see is that Romney, as is his opponent, Pres Obama, is really rich and obeyed the law.
Really, those are the only reasons politicians press for release of personal information:
1. Hoping for something damaging
2. Voyeurism (nosiness)
stands for decibels
January 18th, 2012
3:42 pm
Where did he get his money? Who paid fo rit?
And where the “whitey tape” at?
Butch Cassidy
January 18th, 2012
3:43 pm
Bruno – “For me, freedom and self-reliance have worked well so far.”
Me too. But unlike many on this blog, I don’t turn my back on the rest of the population and poop on them.
Paul
January 18th, 2012
3:43 pm
Mighty Righty
“What I would like to know is how Obama financed his college education? Where did he get his money? Who paid fo rit?”
That was discussed on this blog a couple years ago.
Weren’t you here then?
Jm
January 18th, 2012
3:43 pm
Butch is one of those millionaires that are in favor of raising taxes on millionaires. Assuming it is not them.
See bloomberg.
Only 25% of millionaires really support higher taxes on themselves.
Butch Cassidy
January 18th, 2012
3:45 pm
Jm – “Butch is one of those millionaires that are in favor of raising taxes on millionaires. Assuming it is not them.”
Nope. 1. I’ve never divulged my net worth, merely indicated that I’m not hurting. And 2. I have repeatedly said that I have no problem with my taxes being raised.
Tiffany's Acct Mgr
January 18th, 2012
3:46 pm
Mitt only got $374,000 for speaking engagements………WoW, I guess no body wanted to hear what he had to say.
I love the Gop debates and press releases. Especially when it’s only about 40 people in the room and they use camera angles to make to room look full.
Mitt pays 15% in taxes but we must re-do the tax codes. Why didn’t you guys re-do the tax codes with W was in office for 8 years. You call liberals dumb.
“Mission Accomplished” enough said
bman
January 18th, 2012
3:48 pm
At least I know about where Romney has been, what he has accomplished, his father etc… A successful and smart guy.
Count me in
md
January 18th, 2012
3:48 pm
Bruno……one has to admit that the thought of being “taken care of” from cradle to grave is awful alluring……..look at somebody like Adam (not picking on you Adam…but I am), he can dream up an excuse for just about every scenario imaginable……..
What we need is more folks that raise their own hands and say “yep, I screwed up”, time to make better choices and move on.
And no, I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth……never even lived in a house until my teens….and it was a rental too. I’ve had the joy of screwing up constantly….learning from it and moving on.
AmVet - “A lot of so-called conservatives don’t know what the word means." ~Barry Goldwater
January 18th, 2012
3:49 pm
That was discussed on this blog a couple years ago.
Paul, it could have been yesterday and it would still have no impact.
When it comes to knowledge of empirical data and actual penitent facts the far right wingers have permanent immunity!
The funniest part is that the quasi-fascists and birthers just got humiliated last year over their idiotic obsession with certain “papers”.
Now they want to demand even more.
Amazing…
Thulsa Doom
January 18th, 2012
3:50 pm
Butch Cassidy,
Few if any of the cons here believe in turning their backs on people and “pooping” on them. Just about all of us believe in a basic safety net. I’ve no problem with helping people with 6 months or so of unemployment benefits. But 99 weeks? You can’t find a job or start your own small business in 2 years or go back to school to learn a new vocation in 2 years? The safety net is there and I support it. But I don’t want a basic safety net to become a way of life as it has for many.
Matti
January 18th, 2012
3:52 pm
For me, freedom and self-reliance have worked well so far.
Me too! Yay! Of course, I manage to scrounge up the gratitude and humility to chalk that up to 1 – being born healthy into an American family who could provide for my needs and education, 2 – being smart enough to finish school and get a mediocre, somewhat helpful degree, 3 – being savvy enough to land a job and work my way up, 4 – remaining healthy enough to take restaurant jobs when I was laid off, 5 – THANK GOD THANK GOD THANK GOD having healthy children who did not require constant hospitalization, medication, or have other special needs, 6 – being able to find another job within six months of losing mine when I got laid off several times, 7 – being able to purchase a home whose value did not put me under totally water when it tanked, 8 – not being sucked in by EVERY psycho freak who woo’ed me.
Gratitude! Thank God! Wishes that everyone could be as LUCKY as I am, and prayers that I never become so arrogant to believe I created all that good LUCK all by myself! Thank you. Thankyousomuch!
Butch Cassidy
January 18th, 2012
3:53 pm
Thulsa Doom – “The safety net is there and I support it. But I don’t want a basic safety net to become a way of life as it has for many.”
I agree with you on that. What I don’t agree with is mds ascertation that people are poor or homeless simply becuase of “choices”.
md
January 18th, 2012
3:53 pm
“Me too. But unlike many on this blog, I don’t turn my back on the rest of the population and poop on them.”
Come on Butch….name names.
Maybe their idea of help and yours are not the same…..but help none the less. But I’m not too sure how one would make a claim such as yours on an anonymous blog…….you meet with bloggers away from the blog??
Bruno
January 18th, 2012
3:54 pm
Me too. But unlike many on this blog, I don’t turn my back on the rest of the population and poop on them.
And how is that?? By expressing cheap sympathy?? By demonizing conservatives?? By demanding that others fund giveaway programs which have not made a dent in the poverty rate in nearly 50 years??
Or, don’t tell me, you might actually give money directly to charities for the poor which you agree with ideologically–Charities which have conditions placed on them, for example. Probably not, given the low rate of charitable giving among liberals.
Bottom line, Butch, there’s nothing heroic about spending other people’s money.
(ir)Rational
January 18th, 2012
3:55 pm
Jump up peoples.
Thulsa Doom
January 18th, 2012
3:55 pm
“In fact, USinUK told me directly yesterday that promoting self-reliance will lead directly to looting and rioting, e.g the London riots last year.”
Bruno,
Are you quoting her accurately. Cause that just seems out and out crazy that self- reliance would lead to rioting and plundering like in London. And it also sounds like a straight out call for submission to being controlled by a central authority and giving up your freedom, especially economic freedom, to a monolithic govt bureaucracy that will tell you what you can do, where you can live, how much you can make, etc. Sound like a call to self slavery via govt. Its frightening to think that people think that way.
Joe Hussein Mama
January 18th, 2012
3:56 pm
AmVet — “The funniest part is that the quasi-fascists and birthers just got humiliated last year over their idiotic obsession with certain “papers”.
Wait for it. There’s going to be more hilarity next year. Hawaii Senator Daniel Akaka (D) is retiring. One of the leading candidates to succeed him is former Governor Linda Lingle (R).
Now, before our conservative friends and associates get all worked up over possibly gaining a seat in the Senate, consider this. Governor Lingle, along with the state head of the department of vital records (I don’t recall his exact title; I haven’t lived out there in 20+ years), was the one who looked at President Obama’s birth certificate and said ‘nothing wrong with this, he’s good to run for President as far as we’re concerned.’
So Republican candidate Lingle is, at least in part, the source of a great deal of the birthers’ agita. Not to mention that Hawaii Republicans tend to be the sort of Republicans that conservatives on Jay’s board would call RINOs. I can hardly wait for the shrieks and howls of outrage when they finally figure it out.
Butch Cassidy
January 18th, 2012
3:57 pm
Bruno – “Bottom line, Butch, there’s nothing heroic about spending other people’s money.”
I agreee, but I have yet to find a way around my taxes paying for the building of schools, road maintenance, lunch programs and busses for other peoples children. I chose not to have any, why should I pay for theirs?
md
January 18th, 2012
3:57 pm
“I agree with you on that. What I don’t agree with is mds ascertation that people are poor or homeless simply becuase of “choices”.”
Never made that claim, but there are “some” that fit that description. To deny that is to deny the law of averages……..
Bruno
January 18th, 2012
4:00 pm
not being sucked in by EVERY psycho freak who woo’ed me.
Sure, sure, Matti, rub it in again.
Butch Cassidy
January 18th, 2012
4:01 pm
md – “Never made that claim,”
Just as I’ve never claimed to be a liberal. As a point of fact, many times I have identified myself as a former Republican who stopped mindlessly following the pack after GW’s first term and I haven’t voted for anyone since. Yet, if I provide a counterpoint to the GOP flock, I must inherently be a “Lib”. Strange.
md
January 18th, 2012
4:04 pm
“Just as I’ve never claimed to be a liberal”
Don’t believe I ever made that claim either…….
Jm
January 18th, 2012
4:05 pm
Innovators have found a lot of cheap natural gas
Commie enviros are now sharpening their knives to try and stop gas exploration because their solar and wind is now extremely uneconomical
The commies should not be allowed to succeed
Thulsa Doom
January 18th, 2012
4:08 pm
“What I don’t agree with is mds ascertation that people are poor or homeless simply becuase of “choices”.”
Butch Cassidy,
A lot of times it is because of poor choices that begin early in life. Poor choices that lead to a criminal record and inability to hold a job much less get one, poor choices towards educational opportunities that are never taken advantage of, poor choices regarding starting families with men who have no intention of providing for their children, poor choices towards drugs, alchohol, friends and associates etc.
And then there are people who just make poor choices all their lives out of financial ignorance, living paycheck to paycheck and spending everything they make no matter how much they make.
And then there are people who think they have a seemingly secure job and career and lose everything. I knew a few of them when I was at Worldcom. I lost 30k in stock options but that was nothing. I have 4 former co-workers who collectively each lost between 1-2 million in stock options. Gone overnight. But they aren’t sitting around whining or homeless or anything like that. They got new jobs and started over and learned not to have all their eggs in 1 basket no matter how great you think your company is.
Some people but few of them do all the right things and still circumstances beyond their control hit and they lose everything and are destitute. I’m all for helping all of these people for a certain period of time. Again I’m just not for making it a lifestyle for anyone.
Jm
January 18th, 2012
4:09 pm
Butch
I don’t care if it’s a “B” or an “M”
I bet you’d be hacked if the charitable trust was ruled invalid, 39% of it was taken away and given to the government, and you got to play with the remainder.
Jm
January 18th, 2012
4:11 pm
Saw the inside of a Volt yesterday
It sucks
Go buy a Ford Fusion hybrid instead
2013 version looks awesome too
md
January 18th, 2012
4:15 pm
Good post TD……not that it will make a difference to those still looking for excuses.
And I can speak for those that lost their jobs by putting everything in one basket……also includes a certain 3rd party union that high tailed it out of town when they negotiated an all or nothing contract……we all got nothing. It was a good thing that I CHOSE to live in a very small house below my means and my survival account kept us afloat (along with selling most assets to include furniture) until I found 2 jobs to make ends meet.
So no, I’m not pooping on anyone……I just know enabling isn’t the answer.
Thulsa Doom
January 18th, 2012
4:25 pm
md,
I’ve been down and out twice in my life and started a business that went belly under and lost everything- every dime I had invested and saved. Dang near ended up homeless myself. Never did get back 30k that my biz partner owed me but that’s ok.But I didn’t get welfare, medicaid, food stamps, etc. all things that I’m sure I may have qualified for those 2 times. The thought of applying didn’t even enter my mind. It took awhile but things are great now and my future is pretty well planned out. If I got disabled temporarily I would be fine and in the next year or 2 if it happened permanently I would be fine. But after my experiences I’m a firm believer that prolonged assistance from govt only enslaves and enables people to stay on the dole. One question I would like to ask anyone who has been on public assistance or unemployment 2 years or longer. I would ask “What are you doing to improve yourself academically, vocationally, or 2 make yourself more marketable?”. You can learn a new trade in 2 years and then build from there. I’ve seen it done in much less time than that and by people barely making ends meet.
Jefferson
January 18th, 2012
4:29 pm
Md, I have to hand it to you, I think you are the smartest man you know, good choice.
md
January 18th, 2012
4:34 pm
“Md, I have to hand it to you, I think you are the smartest man you know, good choice.”
Then you think wrong, as I am just smart enough to know that I don’t know everything……life is a learning process…….but one has to be willing to learn.
And I do know that one will never help an alcoholic by giving him alcohol……..
Adam
January 18th, 2012
6:11 pm
md: Boy Adam……you might want to go visit a financial planner…….the first thing they will tell you is to have a 6 month supply of cash in an emergency fund for the “unknown”.
First of all, 6 months is not 30 years. Second of all, no one who is barely making ends meet to begin with, and trading rent for a mortgage (that likely reduced the amount he or she was paying every month), is going to be able to necessarily have 6 months worth of cash stashed away or even have the capability of getting to that point in anything less than a few years of saving. Call it an excuse if you want, the rest of us call that reality.
And I’ll leave the rest of your post alone……it’s just too baffling to comment.
I am not surprised that you find what I said baffling, considering your twisted logic on the rest of this and other things when you think you can apply “choices” to it.
Thulsa: Seriously? The wealth envy argument is only played by the cons?
Yes, seriously. You cons are the only ones who tell people the reason they want to adjust taxes on top earners is because of “wealth envy.” The Democrats and liberals do not claim that anyone is jealous of their wealth.
md
January 18th, 2012
6:17 pm
“First of all, 6 months is not 30 years. Second of all, no one who is barely making ends meet to begin with, and trading rent for a mortgage (that likely reduced the amount he or she was paying every month), is going to be able to necessarily have 6 months worth of cash stashed away or even have the capability of getting to that point in anything less than a few years of saving. Call it an excuse if you want, the rest of us call that reality.”
Which chapter of the Book of Excuses did that one come from?
Reality……saving money can be done a penny at a time Adam…..if one so chooses.
One less Beer a week……or Milky Way…..or whatever one might buy that is a want vs a need….
Can a Republican Elitist Win?
January 18th, 2012
6:48 pm
[...] Romney’s off-hand revelations about his low tax rate and high speaker fees, combined with his growing list of Clueless Things Only a One-Percenter Could Say, raise a [...]
Terrence
January 19th, 2012
7:12 am
Obama’s estimated net worth is $10.5 million. Biden’s estimated net worth is $500 thousand. Why didn’t the dems elect Joe Biden as their nominee?
Adam
January 19th, 2012
10:55 am
md: Call it an excuse if you want, the rest of us call that reality.”
Which chapter of the Book of Excuses did that one come from?
I see someone has a reading problem….
Reality……saving money can be done a penny at a time Adam…..if one so chooses.
Where reality meets math: Let’s assume you didn’t actually mean “a penny” and round up to say, $10 a week. You know, to account for the Mars bars or something…
That’s $520 a year. If someone is making $50k per year, 6 months worth of salary is about 19.5k, if we account for about 22% withholding tax in the calculation and take home pay is 39k per year. At a rate of $10/week, it would take 37 1/2 years to save up that much.
Let’s say it’s $50/week, or $2.6k/year. It would then take ONLY 7 1/2 years to save up that much!
If we are assuming, as all clearly rational and reasonable forward thinking people are, that the job might be gone in a single year, making it impossible to depend on 7 1/2 years worth of savings, let’s just see what it would take to save 6 months worth in one single year: $375/week.
So, if you’re a forward thinking and rational person, and you only have a take home pay of $750/week for your ENTIRE FAMILY to live on, you should save HALF OF IT every week for a whole year so you can have 6 months saved up.
Yep, TOTALLY reasonable to do that. That is TOTALLY something everyone SHOULD do, I mean if they were only making the “right” choices.
Most Americans Don’t Like Mitt Romney | 2012 President
January 19th, 2012
11:36 am
[...] also believes that the $374,000 he earned for speaker fees in one year is “not very much” money. $374,000 is enough to put him in the top 1% all by itself, but Romney is so [...]
Newt Gingrich Takes South Carolina Lead | 2012 President
January 19th, 2012
12:11 pm
[...] attention to the terribly out of touch things Mitt Romney says (like $374,000/year being “not very much” [...]
Chuck
January 19th, 2012
11:11 pm
Bookman, as ever, remains a scoundrel. A classless class-warrior. In 25 years of private enterprise, Romney’s made a lot of money, but no one can point to any malfeasance on his part, and he’s paid his taxes at the rate required by law.
Of course, to the pathetic, envious left, that’s all the indictment you need.
tomVincent
January 20th, 2012
2:47 am
Romney said “not much.” He did not say $375K. He was talking about the effect of his 2011 speech income on his 2011 tax rate. The media applied the not much phrase to his 2010 income. There is no reason to think Romney was thinking about 2010, since he was talking about the April filing of his 2011 return. Yes, Romney is rich and so was FDR and JFK. They have servants and I dont. So what.