We are fucked.

[Dawgs]

Not because of Obama, or Clinton, or Perry, or Bachmann, or Romney.

We are fucked because Americans are INSANE.

I just spent the last hour looking for articles on the top 1% and how much they spend on taxes, and I made the mistake of reading the comments below the articles. Here are a few of the articles I found.

http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2011/09/26/why... /
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/th...

Prepare to be dumbfounded, because either these people are super fucking rich, or they are just fucking dumb. I'm going with fucking dumb.

The obvious win-win is to cut and simplify taxes. Revenue to government may drop the first year or so but will hold steady or rise after that. So, we get to keep more of our own money AND raise more for the government AND increase GDP. Yes, it really does work that way. Ask Kennedy and Reagan and Bush who tried it and got those results.

Apparently, history and facts don't matter with this one. But, they write well.

I love the standard rhetoric spewed out about how the rich have lawyers to take advantage of loopholes. Guess what, if there's a loop hole in a tax law, it's there for everyone to use and abuse. They make it sound like it's a secret club with a password and handshake and only a "rich" person accompanied with a lawyer can enter. Stop with the rhetoric and stick to the facts please. That goes for both sides.

This one thinks that we are all rich, smart tax professionals, that have plenty of time on our hands. What the Fuck.

I want everyone to get rich also..but why should a successful person be forced to give it to someone else...and everyone will not get richer by giving the gov. the money to distribute

Apparently the rich will be forced to hand their money to other people by this ones logic.

I can't believe I still get shocked by this stuff.

These people REALLY ARE STUPID. It's gotten so bad that they are taking the side of the rich. And not just the $500,000 rich person, but the top .01% that make in the hundreds of billions. And part of their defense is to attack the poor. This is some seriously fucked up shit.

We are screwed if we can't defeat this.

[Fire Walk With Me]

1. While we talk and talk and talk, the banks and corporations take and take and take...

[banned from Kos]

2. Ha! Comments on the best news sites are fucked up - NYT or WSJ

You get what you pay for mostly.

[RKP5637]

3. A portion of this country is plain F'en stupid, there's no getting

around it with nice words, they are just plain F'en stupid. It's not even ignorance anymore.

[stuntcat]

12. yes

I've seen enough, years of it. It's made me afraid, and so glad I'm 41, not 4.

[RKP5637]

15. I'm a little older and when young I recall everyone trying to obtain an education and

to gain knowledge as reasonably possible. I'm astounded by the "proud to be stupid" attitude by many in this country and in the same breath thinking we are the leaders of the world for eternity. In the future, these individuals will be shoveling sh** for the rest of the world. I don't think many of them have any grasp of life outside of the US.

[Blue_Tires]

34. +1

[Juneboarder]

4. Faux News

My parents used to be liberal thinking people until the birth of Fox News. I'd say over the last 15 years, my parents have turned from poor to middle class liberal thinking adults to mostly rethuglican thoughts. They are still poor and suck money from the government on a monthly basis to the fine tune of $5000/month between SSDI for the two of them.

Faux News - FAR FROM fair and balanced. :puke:

[Scuba]

5. Thirty years of right-wing propaganda on all major networks ...

... makes the lie the "truth".

[Sarah Ibarruri]

14. Yes, but what about when it defies common sense? Why do they believe it then? It's something else

at work. I think it's something imbedded in the spirit of 'Americanism.' A certain spirit of serfdom.

[Scuba]

19. No, laziness. Much easier to go with "we're good, they're evil" than...

...to try to sort out all the BS.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

22. But risking their own lives and their offspring's? That makes those people incredibly stupid. nt

[Scuba]

23. Yeah, sad isn't it? BTW, I enjoy your posts. n/t

[Sarah Ibarruri]

24. Thanks, Scuba. I'm always a little afraid of pissing off someone (but not afraid enough, obviously)

LOL! :)

In any case, I really do hope the dumber of us learn, and the sleepy of us wake up. Our country is at stake here.

[Scuba]

27. If you don't piss ANYBODY off, you're not pushing hard enough. n/t

[Sarah Ibarruri]

28. Thanks! That's what I always try to tell myself. nt

[sinkingfeeling]

6. Question to the first responder: Then why is revenue down by 24% between 2001 and 2011?

[midnight]

7. Several years ago, I was listening to a discussion about America, and

their was an opinion given that we are the most entertained community on the planet... But I do think we are waking up now... It may not be broadcast on the news, and If the FEC starts what appears to be a new way to censor, starting in a few weeks, we might loose this wonderful opportunity that we have now-the internet. However, I do think facts have been used when convenient and omitted when not convenient. The Rubert Murdoch trials are pulling back the curtain on what may have been suspected but is now being proven. For decades this man news agencies have blackmailed, bribed police, and used lies to manipulate our citizenry and the rest of the world.... You just can't put that Genie back into the bottle...

[RaleighNCDUer]

29. I disagree - we are not the most entertained.

We are the most distracted.

Most entertained would imply we are enjoying ourselves immensely, but the truth is most our 'entertainment' serves only to distract us and we don't have a whole lot of fun with it.

"I'm dancing as fast as I can!"

[Daphne08]

32. "Bread and Circuses"

It's sad, frightening and depressing when one recognizes the past in the present.

[newspeak]

35. isn't bread and circuses what the roman elite gave the plebes?

We even have reality shows today that to me are so shallow and vapid. Why in the world would I watch a show about someone who breeds like rabbits? Or a show about young women (bad girls) basically doing mean things and squabbling with each other. That is entertainment today? Some of it I think is just plain sick, and makes for a sick society.

[Daphne08]

36. Yes. Actually they gave them grain to make bread, but yes,

it was a way to distract the masses toward the end.

I can't watch that crap on TV either.

[justiceischeap]

8. I would guess that those are professionals

paid to post comments. WSJ is not going to cater to people in the middle class that the economy is affecting the hardest. I would also venture to guess if these are paid commenters then they are richer than most of the people being affected by the economy and fear for their money. I don't hear too many people in my economic tier complaining about being overtaxed but that certain segments are under-taxed.

[Uncle Joe]

25. I agree. n/t

[DaveJ]

9. And guess which party gets all the Stupid/Crazy/Cruel voters

The Repukes(Cult of Death) will take anyone.

[county worker]

10. I like the one were the rich don't have a loophole advantage.

I use to work for a CPA firm in downtown Los Angeles. We had some very rich clients. We subscribed to a service that gave us the possible loopholes in any upcoming tax legislation. Most of the practice was taking the loopholes and finding clients that could take advantage of them. That's how we made money. I assure you that all loopholes are not available to everyone.

For example, one we made a lot of money on (my boss made the money, I didn't) was this. A way to send your kid to college on the government.

You had to have a house that was paid off. Most people never have that but mose wealthy people do.

You set up a trust in your kid's name. You give the house to the trust. Then you buy the house back from the trust paying principal and interest. The interest is tax deductible and is the income to the trust. You take the income to the trust and use it to pay tuition and board for the kid.

Based on your marginal tax rate, a portion of what you spend on tuition and board was used to reduce your taxable income thus that portion of the tuition and board is on the government.

[tk2kewl]

11. I guess I should go out an by a learjet so I can take advantage of those...

same loopholes that everyone gets. :crazy:

[Sarah Ibarruri]

13. A huge part of the American population is ignorant, or has the spirit of a bunch of serfs

They feel the rich deserve certain rights. In fact, they don't even see them as rights, since rights are things you can be bestowed or not. They feel it's just 'the way it is.'

[DaveJ]

16. "You can't change the way things are"

That attitude has always infuriated me. It is a real shame. Yes, probably over half the people believe that no effort should ever be made to change things for the better. IMO, it is not really progressive, but normal, to be strive to change things for the better.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

21. Makes me angry too. That's serfdom. It's one sorry-ass way of thinking.

[woo me with science]

17. Take heart.

[GeorgeGist]

18. It's a topsy turvy wonderland ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR8LFNUr3vw

[Hoosier Daddy]

20. More Exposition in Title, Please

Unrecced.

[Dawgs]

26. Nope. We're not writing articles here.

Look through Latest Breaking News if you want exposition in your titles.

[chill_wind]

30. And one of the great things about being filthy rich

is that you can probably readily employ a lot of principle free proxy types in this shitty economy to astro-turf for you, on top. There clearly DO seem to be so many seriously stupid people, endlessly willing to vote against their own self interests on so many economic (and social) fronts, but I often get a strong sense there's also a lot more of the latter happening than we'll probably ever know, as well. All in all, very depressing.

K & R.

[chillspike]

31. They will defeat themselves (nt)

[kenfrequed]

33. this needs to be fixed

The facts are that money is a zero sum game. For these people to have gotten so grotesquely and insanely wealthy is because someone else had to do with less or that they caused massive debt and now want to assure it is levereraged on the backs of everyone else.

[L0oniX]

37. Maybe we need another civil war ...although there's nothing civil about war.

Maybe these dumb fucks think they are going to win the lotto.

[JVS]

38. WTF do you expect from the WSJ assholes and the trogs at USA-Today?

[dana_b]

39. how will these folks feel when

the roads are falling apart, when they can't afford to send their kids to grammar school, when the unemployment rate goes into the 20th percentiles, when their only choice to send a package is FedEx or UPS and it costs way more than the package is worth, when there just simply are no opportunities for themselves or their kids? Will they still be kissing the asses of the the oh-so-talented, superior and deserving rich overlords?

[SoCalDem]

40. Most people know NOTHING about economics

If they ever even had a class in it, it was probably in the 10th grade.
Most people do not graduate from college, and many never even go for a short time.
How many people even take economics classes in college, unless they plan to become an economist?

After having worked at a bank for 7 years, I can tell you that LOTS of people do not even understand how reconciling a checking account statement is even accomplished.,

Should we be surprised that people have no idea how this all works?