Lost In Space
Mustang Bobby, among many others, is gobsmacked by the Wall Street Journal’s concept of the ‘downtrodden’ in this society. With the median income for a household in the US stuck around $50,000, the Wall Street Journal wants to focus on the plight of households with six-figure incomes.
Avedon Carol features another space cadet – Matt Yglesias. It is hard to imagine the level of gall required by someone who writes a column for Salon to complain that retired people are “producing nothing of economic value”. Someone needs to explain the Law of Supply and Demand to Master Yglesias before he is allowed near another keyboard. The lad might want to have a discussion with Florida economic development officials before he derides the ‘economic value’ of retired people. [Sorry, if you think I’m being hard on him, but the ignorance on display is just unbearable.]
3 comments
Me and my fellow engineers at work looked at that graphic in stunned disbelief. Look, we’re pretty highly paid. An engineer with my experience is worth about $150K/year in the Silicon Valley, and that’s enough money for a lot of toys plus still shove a fair amount into savings each year. A single mother making $260K/year, and looking upset about paying a whole $3K/year more in taxes? For realz?! Dude. I shove about that much into savings per *month*. Granted I don’t have kids, just cats, but puh-LEEZE. Someone making almost twice what I’m making should be able to pay that additional tax out of spare change, for cryin’ out loud!
Makes the 99% look like spoiled brats, that graphic does. Just sayin’.
Oh yeah, as you mentioned, the retired *are* creating something of value: *DEMAND*. Because without demand, there’s no production. Duh.
– Badtux the “It’s called supply and demand, not just supply!” Penguin
As I live and breathe, the number of people who are allowed to pontificate on the economy and who have absolutely no idea how it really works is beyond understanding. Duncan keeps saying it, you keep saying it, I keep saying it – people need jobs so they have money to spend and put some demand back in the economy. Currently the retired people are just about the only large group who have money to spend, and they do spend it. If you reduce the amount of money they have, you reduce demand, and things get worse. It is a very simple concept.
Hell, a four-star general doesn’t make six-figures, and the lowest annual income stated in the graphic is more that Congresscritters are paid. WTF!? The WSJ has no connection to the real world.
That woman must have a hell of a portfolio to come up with that kind of return, and the financial sector could steal it all tomorrow, so her taxes would really drop. She can look forward to that, which a lot of people I know experienced just a few years ago.