Why do you resist being called rich?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have about $15M liquid and $5M in real estate. I really only stopped worrying once I hit $10M

You are a walking advertisement for why the long term capital gains rate makes no sense. Capital gains should be taxed as ordinary income.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have about $15M liquid and $5M in real estate. I really only stopped worrying once I hit $10M

You are a walking advertisement for why the long term capital gains rate makes no sense. Capital gains should be taxed as ordinary income.

I don't disagree, but just FYI, I still work (because I enjoy it)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

This is such BS. No one is taking your money and giving it to someone else. Taxes go for a fraction of welfare and the rest for running this country.

Wrong. Redistribution is already the largest function of the federal government, via programs like social security, medicare, and medicaid which constitute more than half of all federal spending.

You are right. But the BIGGEST financial redistribution over the last 30 years has been into the top 1%. The top 1%, 2%, 5% and 10% now own significantly more of the personal wealth of the nation than they did 30 years ago. The tax laws, loopholes, have now gotten to the point that the wealthy and the rich pay less into the system than they have in many years. Yes, even restoring the taxes to the Clinton levels as the fiscal cliff was set to do still means that those making over $250K net are taking home more than any other time (other than during the Bush 43 years) than they have in the last 30 years.

The problem is the way lobbying has changed predominantly in the last 20 years. It used to be that lobbyist groups would go to a member of Congress and say they needed an earmark to fund a project. The member of Congress would find a bill to tag some allocation of money to the project and when that bill passed, the earmark would allocate funds. However, now with the new push against traditional earmarks, when a lobbyist wants to get an earmark, they go to their member of Congress and instead of tagging a single expense to a bill, the member of Congress tags a change to the tax code onto a bill. The problem with this is that the tax code change does get the lobbyist what they need, but also many other people in the same class/category as the lobbyist gets the same tax break. It is currently estimated that tax code earmarks have topped $8B, which is significantly more than traditional earmarks have cost. And this is another part of why the deficit is geting bigger and why wealth redistribution is going on. The amount of wealth redistributed upwards via earmarks is far greater than the wealth distribution of money downward by social programs.

I am pissed I wasted my time reading that long & misguided piece of crap response.

Darling, DCUM is, by definition, a waste of time. If your time is so precious, why are you here in the first place?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:18:08, that is the biggest load of baloney bullshit I have ever read in my entire life. Enjoy feeling "poor" forever. God, 18:02 is soooo right.

Does the D in DCUM stand for dumb or delusional? You are not "poor" at HHI 400, but neither are you rich, er wealthy -- the new definition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:18:08, that is the biggest load of baloney bullshit I have ever read in my entire life. Enjoy feeling "poor" forever. God, 18:02 is soooo right.

Fine, whatever suits you. Enjoy being called rich, while you are running the rat race to afford the basics and maybe a few luxuries.

It's funny to me how people are not realizing that they are being screwed. The truly rich want you to believe that having a home that doesn't fall apart in a safe area with good schools, being able to save some for retirement and kid's college education (with college being pretty much a prerequisite to any crappy non-labor, non-service job), being able to afford healthcare and modest vacations is a blessing reserved for the rich. They want to keep you down and brain wash you. All of this is middle class and what middle class people are entitled to and should demand. We should demand that having a roof over our head, meals on the table that are not junk food option only, access to college for kids, healthcare ARE BASICS, the very basics our society should have in order to consider ourselves the 1st world country. The truth the money is so devalued now and you don't realize this. 500K is not what it used to be, 1 mil dollar home is an entry level home in many areas and nothing spectacular and this is going to stay, it's no bubble, it's the inflation. A million is no longer a million. Got a million? Try losing your job, falling ill, losing insurance and see how quickly you will be wiped out. Wake up, people, and stop brainwashing yourself that you are rich because you can afford an entry level foreign car or a house in the inner suburb or a nice resort vacation as long as you still pull your weight at a JOB. Try losing your job and see how all of this goes out of the window, this doesn't happen to truly rich. You are working class and maybe you are comfortable or well off, or upper middle class. But you have no idea how the truly rich live, your problems are not their problems.

Thank you for that. The brainwashing is amazing to me.
Just the phrase "saving for college" would not be uttered by a rich person. Ever.

[Anonymous]

We have almost a million. Really not what is was 30 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have almost a million. Really not what is was 30 years ago.

Adjusted for inflation, a million is exactly what it was 30 years ago.

[Anonymous]

As you were pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, did you happen to attend a public school. When you first entered college, did you receive federally backed student loans. Or, did you receive a full-scholarship from donors who wrote it off on their taxes. Did you get back and forth to school and work by car, metro, train? When you purchased your first home, was it backed by Fannie or Freddie?

During your dirt poor impoverished years, you somehow did not perish. Is that because your family was assisted with some form of WIC, Food stamps, section 8, etc. Did you receive a warm meal for lunch in your public funded school. Did you feel in form of safety as you walked pass a police officer driving or walking through your neighborhood?

You are selfish. You think you did it all by yourself as if you were God himself.

Public school--yes
Federally backed loans--No.
Scholarship--No.
Fannie or Freddie--No

Public Assistance as a child--No. My parents didn't believe in it.
Assisted Lunch program--No


Yes. I attended public schools and used the highways like everyone else. How that means I didn't achieve my success and that I am selfish, I will never understand. Do you have access to my accounts? Do you know what I donate or how many family members I assist or support. I disagree with your position, and somehow I am that evil, rich bitch. You have proven my point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

As you were pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, did you happen to attend a public school. When you first entered college, did you receive federally backed student loans. Or, did you receive a full-scholarship from donors who wrote it off on their taxes. Did you get back and forth to school and work by car, metro, train? When you purchased your first home, was it backed by Fannie or Freddie?

During your dirt poor impoverished years, you somehow did not perish. Is that because your family was assisted with some form of WIC, Food stamps, section 8, etc. Did you receive a warm meal for lunch in your public funded school. Did you feel in form of safety as you walked pass a police officer driving or walking through your neighborhood?

You are selfish. You think you did it all by yourself as if you were God himself.

Public school--yes
Federally backed loans--No.
Scholarship--No.
Fannie or Freddie--No

Public Assistance as a child--No. My parents didn't believe in it.
Assisted Lunch program--No


Yes. I attended public schools and used the highways like everyone else. How that means I didn't achieve my success and that I am selfish, I will never understand. Do you have access to my accounts? Do you know what I donate or how many family members I assist or support. I disagree with your position, and somehow I am that evil, rich bitch. You have proven my point.

There's always a poster or two on DCUM who will not accept any "self made" stories. They insist you were simply lucky. You have to let it go and enjoy your hard-earned success.

[Anonymous]

There's always a poster or two on DCUM who will not accept any "self made" stories. They insist you were simply lucky. You have to let it go and enjoy your hard-earned success.

Thank you. I should know better than to visit these forums much less express a position in opposition to the masses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not the PP but where do find a quality private in MoCo for $11,000, pray tell?

The point is that if you live in MoCo and send your child to private school, you are not middle class, you are rich. And the fact that you want "quality" private school means you are not rich. Even if the 1950's that pinnacle of middle class that several posters like to point to, middle class did not send their children to private school, let alone quality private school.

The point is that the people denying that they are rich in fact are very rich and are hiding the fact by obscuring where and how they spend their money. You've chosen to live in one of the top 3 or so areas of the Metro area in both cost and services. And you want quality private school. You've made some expensive choices. Middle class is not defined by what you have left after you pay for mortgage, Whole Foods shopping and private school. Sorry.

And there are some more affordable private schools in MoCo. I did amend my statement to saying that you'd probably pay $45K for 3 kids, so more like $15K per kid than $11K.
The Avalon School
200 W. Diamond Ave., Gaithersburg, MD; 301-963-8022; boys 2nd-12th grades; $10,450-$13,000; 158 students.

Butler School
15951 Germantown Rd., Darnestown, MD; 301-977-6600; pre-K-8th grade; $8,500 (half-day), $12, 800 (K-6th grade), $13,335 (7th-8th grade); 131 students.

Just a couple. There are 11 pages of Co-Ed schools in the Washington area. I got these from the first two pages. You can look for others.
http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/work-education/2010-washingtonian-guide-to-private-schools-coed-schools/indexp3.php

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

There's always a poster or two on DCUM who will not accept any "self made" stories. They insist you were simply lucky. You have to let it go and enjoy your hard-earned success.

Thank you. I should know better than to visit these forums much less express a position in opposition to the masses.

And there is always some DCUMer whose parents paid for everything until her husband took over who thinks she's self-made.

I don't believe successful people are "lucky," (I do believe they had advantages), but no one is "self made" -- you always had help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have almost a million. Really not what is was 30 years ago.

Adjusted for inflation, a million is exactly what it was 30 years ago.

What a ridiculous comment!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

There's always a poster or two on DCUM who will not accept any "self made" stories. They insist you were simply lucky. You have to let it go and enjoy your hard-earned success.

Thank you. I should know better than to visit these forums much less express a position in opposition to the masses.

And there is always some DCUMer whose parents paid for everything until her husband took over who thinks she's self-made.

I don't believe successful people are "lucky," (I do believe they had advantages), but no one is "self made" -- you always had help.

Yes, it is true that you need to have help, however, you earn this help. It doesn't come from nowhere, something you possess makes other people want to help you, be it your natural charisma, your ability to sell yourself and your ideas to others, your risk taking, your smarts and ideas, etc. People who are at power to help, don't just help anyone, if they chose you, you must have had something to offer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have almost a million. Really not what is was 30 years ago.

Adjusted for inflation, a million is exactly what it was 30 years ago.

What a ridiculous comment!

No kidding. I wonder how many Victorian rowhouses in Dupont I could have bought on 1 mil 30 years ago.. hmm. I surely would love to teleport myself back 30 years ago with 1 mil, see how much damage I could do then