Top 1% of the population..

College Confidential Community
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Can you prove this assertion? Because from statistics I've seen I recall it looks like it's the other way around. That the United States, where the pharmaceutical industry has so much sway on healthcare reform, is lagging in the health care department. I will post the stats if I find them but I would like to see your proof of this.</p>

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The simple fact that your parents had the chance to pursue masters and doctorates meant yours is not the case of a typical improverished American. I will agree that if you have an MBA or a doctorate you have a great shot to rise from poverty. But how many of America's poor have postgraduate degrees?</p>

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Again - how is this a typical case of any kind? First, you had your own house - assets. That and the fact that you were not getting any government support shows that you were not nearly as poor as you pretend to be. Developing land outside a national park into a motel? Don't tell me that required capital. There is no way an actual impoverished family could possibly have the collateral to get a loan that big.</p>

<p>All you guys who claim everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed, I have a suggestion: how about a 100% estate tax on estates over $1M? Take away those huge inheritences that have people made before they do anything and let them achieve success through HARD WORK instead and use to fund public schools (or maybe pay off the national debt). Would you guys agree with that? I don't think so, you like having your advantages. I'm not saying give the poor an equal chance - I'm saying give them A chance. That means decent public schools and the opportunity to focus on those public schools by not having to work after school (or worse during school) to support their families. That way they have a fair chance to succeed if they work hard. This way you could make sure hard work actually does pay off in something instead of being just enough to keep them where they are.</p>

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<p>"And I see that America is prospering very nicely, what with our dwindling economy, unhealthy addiction to oil, and some of the worst education and high school drop-out rates of the developed world."</p>

<p>We do use to much oil, but dwindling economy? Are you joking? The US economy is quite strong and in very good shape. So strong in fact that a slowdown is welcomed by most economists. </p>

<p>"Yes, China is certainly a much better place than Europe to live in, considering all power resides with the wealthy while much of the rest of the population is incredibly poor. The average salary is about $3000, the government stomps out opposition groups, and much of the population works en masse in factories where they are underpaid to produce Wal-Mart products."</p>

<p>Do you relize that 7 years ago the Average salery in China was $800??? That sounds like one hell of a great success. Europe is going in the opposite direction, and their failure of a social system is starting to show.</p>

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<p>Seriously I can't stand the liberals on here. Your flat out losers. You have loser attitudes and you won't amount to **** in your lives because of it. </p>

<p>By the way I'm no NeoCon I don't like bush and I don't believe in god. So don't lump me in that group.</p>

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Seriously I can't stand the liberals on here. Your flat out losers. You have loser attitudes and you won't amount to **** in your lives because of it.

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<p>You lose credibility when your entire argument hinges on name calling. That's true for both sides of the issue.</p>

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<p>Swanson I agree with you. I visited Europe and was shocked by both the laziness and negativity of everyone living their. NO ONE WANTS TO MAKE ANY MONEY. Socialism has spolied everyone from France to UK. It is really sad what is going on over there. I got the opportunity to visit Taiwan for business and was shocked at how hard both China and Taiwan work. These countries will rival if not exceed the USA soon in both military and economic power. The only thing we can hope for is turmoil in China related to an uprising of some sort. Bush has set America back another 20 years in the world's eyes. I wish we had a better president, and I am a republican.</p>

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I visited Europe and was shocked by both the laziness and negativity of everyone living their.

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<p>Good way to stereotype an entire continent. You met every person in Europe?</p>

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NO ONE WANTS TO MAKE ANY MONEY.

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<p>Perhaps there are other goals to be met in life?</p>

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I got the opportunity to visit Taiwan for business and was shocked at how hard both China and Taiwan work. These countries will rival if not exceed the USA soon in both military and economic power.

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<p>The countries work? Who specifically works? 95% of the country sweats to make out a sad living in factories and sweatshops and the remaining five percent take advantage and live off the others.</p>

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Bush has set America back another 20 years in the world's eyes. I wish we had a better president

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<p>Agreed.</p>

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<p>What i mean by that is the Chinese work their ass off to move their country forward as a whole. If you speak to some of the workers, the national pride is huge. The wages they make may seem low to you, but for them those wages are normal if not high. Until you have seen what you can purchase for that money do not talk. Lunch meals are not $6 in China. More like $.85.</p>

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Yes that is exactly the kind of attitude that gets you places. Ever think that some of us here may have seen both sides of the coin and want to help the unfortunate because of it? Or that some of us actually understand that the opportunities we were provided are not the same opportunities everyone else gets and just want other people to have the same chances? I find it hypocritical that so many of the same people who are railing against affirmitive action on these boards because it gives people an advantage just because of the family they were born in are here saying "life's not fair, deal with it, work harder." What would you say if a college admissions committee told you they were giving a place at the college you could've had to a URM solely because of his race and then told you "life's not fair, deal with it, work twice as hard as he does and you'll be fine?"</p>

<p>Check out this article in the Washington Post Magazine:
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/01/AR2006080100825.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/01/AR2006080100825.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>By the way, going back to a previous post, let's compare health care systems (these are dated numbers - about 10 years - but unfortunately not much has changed in the US):
Hospital beds per capita: France 8.7 Germany 9.6 Sweden 5.6 USA 4.0
Physicians per capita: France 2.9 Germany 3.4 Sweden 3.1 USA 2.6
Nurses per capita: France 5.9 Germany 9.5 Sweden 10.2 USA 8.1</p>

<p>So what happened to the talk of the US having so much more access to healthcare because its not socialized and about people in nations with socialized healthcare not wanting to become doctors? There have also been credible studies finding that people in Europe are much healthier in general than in the United States.</p>

<p>Source: <a href="http://www.who.int/docstore/bulletin/pdf/2000/issue6/bu0585.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.who.int/docstore/bulletin/pdf/2000/issue6/bu0585.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>Well, if chinese workers don't compliment the country or work hard, they might get shot and their family would get the bill for the bullet.</p>

<p>There is one major political flaw with communism. Under Marx's true vision for communism, the world would be a free, stateless society where everyone worked together. Yet in order to achieve that, the workers would have to set up a temporary dictatorship.</p>

<p>Only thing is, once the select worker leaders become the managers, they won't want to give up their dictatorship. And what do you know, they don't.</p>

<p>And imagine if Bill Gates lived in a country that taxed him for 90% of his income. Well, there would be no Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and rather than that money going to fight the world's deadliest sicknesses, it would go into government contracts, free postage for government officials, and political conventions</p>

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<p>^^ When has the subject of communism ever come up in this discussion????? There are more political parties than those of capitalism and communism! Learn to read man!</p>

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<p>^Wow that was fast. And rather wacked out. Note the overly-used punctuation, a tell-tale sign of wack-outians (just made that word up).</p>

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<p>Some people work extremely hard and STILL can't make it up the socioeconomic ladder. People get into top schools but can't go to them because of financial reasons. People are deprived of the opportunity to get a top-notch education because they can't afford one. I've met friends who have 3 siblings, does not have a mother and have a father who can't support her and she has to live with her aunt (and this means that she has to babysit all three of her siblings), and is stuck in a crappy school in inner city Philadelphia because of some legal mumbo jumbo. She won't be able to go to college outside of Pennsylvania because she simply can't afford it. You still think all poor people are lazy?</p>

<p>If you do, well, you are a heartless, incompassionate bastard.</p>

<p>I believe that if and when I get rich I have a certain obligation to give back to charity (not because of the tax deduction) because to a certain extent, I had to step on those people to amass my wealth.</p>

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<p>Yes. People with money should give to charity. After all, Carnage died penniless. It just shouldn't be forced out of them by the government, because we all know how well government officials, republican and democrat, handle money.</p>

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All you guys who claim everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed, I have a suggestion: how about a 100% estate tax on estates over $1M? Take away those huge inheritences that have people made before they do anything and let them achieve success through HARD WORK instead and use to fund public schools (or maybe pay off the national debt). Would you guys agree with that? I don't think so, you like having your advantages. I'm not saying give the poor an equal chance - I'm saying give them A chance. That means decent public schools and the opportunity to focus on those public schools by not having to work after school (or worse during school) to support their families. That way they have a fair chance to succeed if they work hard. This way you could make sure hard work actually does pay off in something instead of being just enough to keep them where they are.

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<p>You're right Dima - I would absolutely hate the real estate tax. Want to know why? Because my parents worked to be where they got to today. They got minimum wage jobs, struggled in college, and then got themselves to mortage a house that put them in a 30 year mortage contract. You know what they did then?</p>

<p>They worked harder. They paid off the 30 year mortage in ten years. A house that we bought for 200k is now worth well over 800k. Because of that, they should then pay an increase in estate tax? We're paying 6000 a year for mortage right now. My mom makes about 40k before taxes. After taxes she makes around 28k. Take away 6000 from that, and you have almost HALF of her income in a year taken away. </p>

<p>I admire your sympathy - but graduating from high school, I don't have much of it. You know what I see in the halls? Students just strolling, smoking, arguing at teachers, ridiculing others, and other meaningless time-wasters. The government should not be a net to support those who were not willing to spend the time themselves to work when it was the MOST important! </p>

<p>I absolutely don't care how hard you care to work when you're 40 or 50, because the real question is how hard were you willing to work when you were 14-18? Almost everyone at 40/50 realizes their mistakes of their own sloth - but for a good many of us, life doesn't give second chances.</p>

<p>If the government was willing to spend not ONE, but FIVE percent of it's GDP to world poverty - to actual areas that DO have poverty, then by all means, I would agree to the estate tax. But it's not. It's stuck with politicians who merely stay in office by keeping Populist voters who want more medicare, more aid, more help.</p>

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<p>Tufts, the estate tax is not a tax on your real estate, it is an inheritence tax. What I was saying is that when your parents died and left that their estate to you, everything over $1million would go to the government. (Note I'm not actually suggesting this be done - I'm glad you noticed that) That would even out the playing field. The estate tax takes nothing away from a person that they earned while the person is still living.</p>

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<p>What about familly farms? They have alot of land, hence they are very valuable.</p>

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<p>While I wish I had caught that - instead of swearing I saw a "real" before the estate tax - I must say I'm absolutely shocked at that theory of sending that much to the government. </p>

<p>To make it clear - I'm a libertarian - which makes it almost impossible for me to conceive the notion of the thought. The notion of this estate tax would never pass, taking along with it, the political career of any politician who even mentioned it.</p>

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<p>Wow bman, that is exactly what the GOP says whenever the estate tax is mentioned. Glad to see you keep up with the party line.</p>

<p>Note again that I did not actually say I wanted a 100% estate tax on estates worth over a million dollars (doing so would put you well on the road to Communism and having been born in the USSR - with my parents living most of their lives there - communism is the very last thing I want), I just said that it would give people the same opportunities, which is what you guys have been claiming people have. If this were a debate on the estate tax, I would gladly argue about your $5 million dollar so-called family farms but I don't want to hijack this thread so I will leave it at that.</p>

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<p>But as for the OP, it may be shocking at first, but of course the top 1% will have more than 1% of the money.</p>

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<p>Dima, the arguements that me and bmanbs2 keep bringing is that the poor do have chances! Many of them have plently of opportunities. Even in poorer areas provide libraries and high schools may have horrendous textbooks but neverthless the chances are there.</p>

<p>Of course, the rich do maximize their chances, however it really is always up to the individual how they want to shape their entire life.</p>