Meet the 1%

The Times looks at the 1%. And yes, I pulled out a couple of my favorite facts from the article. Overall, it's a balanced piece:

 

People who make $380K a year are the new middle class.

 

“I don’t mind paying a little bit more in taxes. I don’t mind putting money to programs that help the poor,” said Anthony J. Bonomo of Manhasset, N.Y., who runs a medical malpractice insurance company and is a Republican. But, he said, he did mind taking a hit for the country’s woes. “If those people could camp out in that park all day, why aren’t they out looking for a job? Why are they blaming others?”

Because Sir, they've been out looking for jobs. Only there's four of them for every job that's available, because your fellow 1 Percenter would rather have 2 people do the work of 4, and pocket the difference.

 

And if those other two people were educated and/or trained well enough to add value to the company, they would be hired.

Don't blame the 1%. Blame the education system. Blame government subsidizing liberal arts degrees that don't do enough to help our economy. Blame individuals for sinking too much money into overvalued majors that didn't train them to add value to businesses. Blame tax policies that created a housing bubble and led to this. Blame traders that have turned investments into statistical formula gambling.

Don't blame the people who know how to make money within the system. I'm not going to hire two extra people just for their benefit. But I will hire two extra people if they can add value to my business — where it's better for both of us.

 

Exactly, Let the government hire those that can't bring value.

 

Yeah, screw the concept of education for the sake of raising the level of knowledge, for the sake of learning how to think critically, for the sake of fostering the creation of truth and beauty. The Ivy League should be glorified trade schools!

And that 1 percent scum better figure out how to hire more people, how to not ship jobs overseas, if they want to leave anybody to buy what they produce.

 

What we need is more community organizers.

 

Remember that time Obama invested in that start up company, and it grew into a major corporation?

That was awesome.

 

Joke all you want, but that would be a good thing.

 

Oh, education for the sake of education is wonderful. But that's often not enough to get you a job. We have far too many people studying soft sciences, great books, "liberal arts," psychology, anthropology, etc. For some of them, it will lead to a good job with sufficient skills. But not for the amount that we have. So people need to go into that realizing that those degrees cannot be the end of their educational road.

Look at the change in proportions in the past 25 years: http://marginalrevolution.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/EducationTabarrok.png

People would be incredibly better off if they double-majored in a soft science and a hard science. A communications/business combination, or a political science/engineering combination would give people incredible options.

 

It really marked the dawn of solar power as a viable energy alternative.

 

It's possible to criticize Romney for his work at Bain, but there are plenty of success stories as well.

Please give me one success story Obama had as a community organizer. I've never even heard him try to peddle a success story.