Can everyone say duh...people with money spend...people with less money spend less.

Quick economics lesson though...when I tried to enter the adult job market in 1973 (a recession year) it became obvious that the educated had jobs and those with a high scholl education or less interviewed for the scarce jobs...this was 37 years ago.

Zoom forward to today...all of the above is even more true today. I own my business and was gainfully employed before that because I became better educated. My unemployment rate since 1974 has been ZERO because of education and a willingness to take some professional and personal risks..

Anyone in the bottom 90% increasingly CAN'T move into the top 10%. If you have parents who went to college and saved for your education, you have an opportunity to advance. If you are exceedingly intelligent or talented, you may be eligible for a limited number of available scholarships. If you have parents who barely scraped by, but kept a roof over your head and kept you in school, it it becoming increasingly more difficult to advance to the higher education necessary to ensure access to the next rung on the ladder. The last example would describe MOST people currently living in the US. Sure, student loans are available, but with less access to grants, and rising education costs, the climb is steep and continues to get steeper.

And as for the negative comments about labor unions, their hard work and sacrifices are responsible for your access to at least a minimum wage, health insurance benefits, and the standard 40-hour work week. Dependence on the good graces and nature of corporations, whose over-riding goal is to make a profit, is a risky venture. If increasing health care costs, or demands for more productivity become paramount, your needs as an employee are secondary to the needs of the corporation. If you decline to meet the needs, you find yourself job-less.

So the idea of hard work ensuring success is just a shiny-bright lie, created to ensure your continuing productivity and continual striving for the goal just out of reach.

Tax the rich. Use the money to make education accessible, and watch as all ships rise in the rising tide. Or continue to propagate the division between the haves and the have nots, watch crime and chaos continue to increase, make sure everyone is armed to the teeth, and lets all just rocket that much faster toward failure of the current way of being and eventual revolution.

Has allowing the wealthy to pay less in taxes resulted in any economic growth since the GOP pushed the tax cuts through during the DickBush years? Have the wealthy ever trickled down on working America, growing jobs? Has there ever been any indication that allowing the wealthy to pay lower taxes results in any benefit to America? (Other than travel agents and stock brokers.) We have run this experiment for a decade now and our economy in the toilet. Bring the tax rates back to the days of Eisenhower when America (all classes) prospered. This is not jealousy, folks, it is called reality.

Life is not fair.

I used to whine and be bitter (still am a little) but I have joined "You're broke because you want to be" group. It is a great book by Larry Winget. If you are poor and angry reading this then you need to get off your butt and better yourself. Realize the rich did not get rich over night and that they gave up a lot of comforts such as free time, nice cars, and TV at night, to earn where they are today. Get a masters degree, get a 2nd job, quit your first job, or start a business if all else fails. Look what the wealthy are doing in this article? They are in fact giving it away to retailers. They will share it with you too if you better yourselfs for a job with them or offer them a service with your own business.

Life is not fair but you are still expected to be successful and invest your time wisely. Also rich people fail too and many are broke where you are before they come back rich again. You need to take risks. Drop what you like to do that is not working and become a workaholic, go to school, and most importantly work smarter not harder. In 5 years you will be feeling much better.

friends ask me sometimes," mel why is it that in bad times for the poor, the stock market always increases? " an intelligent question that's easy to answer. many fortunes were made in the 1930s when houses were being foreclosed right and left by rich people buying them for pennies on the dollar. so it is today, only more sophisticated. you see today aside from the fact that so much wealth is inherited, it's also done by hook or crook. by that i mean it's all legal and accounting shenanigans. i'll by this corporation, lay off half the employees, cut the wages of the rest, and send the layed off workers jobs to china. bingo, the stock increases 35% on the dow. i also cut myself a $20 million bonus because i am so smart. see the problem i have with the wealthy isn't some kind of communist wish list. it's they have been getting everything handed their way in the form of tax breaks for decades. a wealthy kid grows up thinking he's better than everyone else. he calls servants old enough to be his grandfather by their first name. he goes to an elite prep school and gets an ivy league education regardless of merit. he associates with people at the country club, the yacht club, and his dad sits on the board of directors of 20 corporations. so obviously he has no conception of how the desitute live nor would he care if he did know. the middle class isn't a hell of a lot better. you see them lining up in their suvs to get their starbucks every morning. they have their kids in all kinds of organized activities instead of just letting them play like they did 2 generations ago. i mean some of these dads take their kids baseball, football, basketball and soccer like they are in the pros when they are 8 or 10 years old. it's supposed to be fun for the kids, not some kind of athletic grind. they don't relate to the poor either. the poor, whether it's the reservation, the ghetto, the barrio or the trailer can be like a life sentence to a cruel life. i too have made a lot of money, but coming off the rez, and having alcoholic relatives and friends makes you stop and think no matter how well you've done. so when i run into other self-made people that say anyone can make it if they try hard enough, i think that's baloney. i relate much more to tribal elders, than fellow multi-millionaires, because they are much more humane and wise. there's one more thing, if you want someone to do the most dangerous thing imaginable in combat, we american indians will do it when everyone is afraid. i think it's because we love all things, humans, animals and mother nature.

Becoming wealthy is like losing weight: everybody knows how to do it, very few actually make the commitment that's required.

For the folks upset about inequity in the income tax there's a simple solution: The Fair Tax. If you tax consumption instead of income then all people pay in proportion to their lifestyle.

I think the government should put a flat tax percent for everybody,wealthy are not . Also if congress would make it worth while for American companies to come back from over seas, it should create more jobs here in the USA. Also congress should make it a law no more bonuses or rise increase for high payed government people for at lease 2 years,it would help the deficit,why does the rich have to be so greedy?.

OK, I'm going to try to explain why people are so angry when stories like this come out. I'm going to use my own story here since I feel that I'm fairly typical.

I'm a machinist. I'm at the top of the spectrum when it comes to blue collar jobs. For those of you who don't know what a machinist does, I make high precision parts. Pull a hair off your head and split it 3 times, that's the sizes i work to on a regular basis. If you hand me a drawing or a part to copy, or even a vague description scibbled on a napkin, I can make it for you.

Not only that but the niche I've put myself in is industrial repair. I'm not making 500 of the same parts everyday. I specialize in keeping plants running. If something breaks, I replace it. If their engineer comes up with a new machine or modification, I build it. If a shaft wrings in half and the plant is losing $1000 an hour, I get them running again.

And I'm good at it. I'm also one of the very few left that do it.

I knew going into this rather than heading for a four year degree that the return on my investment (yes putting in the time to master a craft is an investment, just the same as getting a degree) was backloaded. It would be at least 10 years before it really started paying off. I'm OK with that.

I've got quite a bit of money invested into this career. I've got a tool box with 20 grand in tools sitting in my shop. I've put together a small but respectable reference library. I've got countless hours of my personal time devoted to researching my field.

And I've got a good work history. I've got an extremely good reputation. I've got former employers trying to hire me back. I have a great working relationship with my customers.

I am valuable.

I should be solidly middle class by now. I followed all the rules, did everything I'm supposed to, but it doesn't seem to make a damn bit of difference. I'm just below the poverty line. 35 years ago I would be comfortably middle class, but the rules changed somewhere between then and now.

I know I'm not going to be making 100k as a machinist but that's ok, I don't need that much money to live comfortably. I just want to work and live comfortably.

And this is why people are mad. I'm not the only one who has set modest goals, worked to get there, and found the finish line moved. Then when I scroll down to read the comments they're full of a bunch of whining wealthy folks saying essentially that it was a lack of effort and discipline that set the boundary between them and the poor.

That's bull@!$%#.

The rest of the country doesn't want your money. They just want the opportunity to work honorably, and make a livable wage. That's gone. It's left a feeling of hoplessness.

I used to buy into what you guys are saying, but I've tried and tried, never able to get anywhere. At this point I'm jaded and disillusioned.

And this is exactly what I believe alot of folks here are feeling.

Cut the class warfare baloney.

On out way to 3rd world country.

The is no end to the wealth gap people. The government and corporations work together to maintain wealth and power. The system needs to change. Here is a good start. www.theefficiencytheory.com

But the rich need the "tax brake".

While I agree education is certainly important in where one wishes to be on the "social ladder", equality is important as a means to success also.

A high school graduate should be able to attain social status also.

This holiday shopping season points up the increasing gap between low, middle and upper income levels. A service orientated economy is the prime cause of the disparity. Lower income jobs associated with low to middle income positions owned by the upper income levels will keep a cap on income levels.

When manufacturing increases income will rise accordingly. A continued lack of a skilled work force will hold manufacturing to current levels.

Increase education, increase income.

The difference between a recession and depression is this. When your neighbor is laid off its a recession. When you are laid off its a depression.

Unless both last several years, the upper income levels are not as affected.

The republicans need to stop this stupid parroting about how wonderful the rich are because they are educated and worked hard and deserve their riches. Or inherited it or whatever.

The problem is not that the rich have the money that they richly deserve. The problem is that right at this instant, the country is in TROUBLE. This is not a trouble invented by the political class. This is a solid real to goodness kind of trouble. The country is at war and in the midst of a huge economic crisis. Its debts are piling. It is at the verge of becoming financially insolvent.

At this juncture this is what the president wants to do - he wants to give a tax break to the working poor or the not so rich middle class, so that they can afford to provide medical benefits to their family and put food on the table for their family.

He wants the rich to shoulder a mere 4 % higher tax in order narrow the budget gap and tide the country over in the worst economic crisis in its history.

But no - the republicans are making it sound as if the proletariat are marching to snatch wealth out of the hands of those who have it. They make it sound as if some foreign ruler has suddenly increased the taxes and the ruled must rise up against this unfairness.

Please realize that this is your own country and this is your own people. Spare me the usual conservative bull@!$%# whining about how those who don't have it should work for it etc etc. Because they really are working for it. It's not under their control. The current economic mess you see, was created by the rich boys playing monopoly with the money that belonged to the middle class.

I wish it were as easy as get a degree and be rich or don't get a degree and be poor. Maybe twenty years ago when you were in school. It's a hell of a lot more complicated than that now.

I have plenty of skills, I have a college degree, I teach the children who will one day become the CEOs of the big businesses. I work 65 hours a week and bring in less than $15,000 a year. How about that, Joe?

While the poor will have what will probably turn out to be a "meek," Christmas, the mega-rich, "their" politicans, and lobbiyist, are spending their upcoming tax windfall.

hey sfilutze. i totally agree with you and i'm white. i have paid into the system all my life, i'm 62 and had a better job than most without being a lawyer, doctor or health care professionals. i've just retired to do a terrible accident i had and cannot work anymore. i had my first ssi check last february. i'm totally frightened that the GOP is going to screw us out of our money. they are evil horrible people and i pray every day that i will not suffer from their greed before it's time for me to leave the planet.

"Capital gains taxes are much lower for a reason - the money invested has ALREADY been taxed! What you are telling me is that after I pay my 35% federal income tax, 6.5% social security tax, state and local taxes, and I have some left to invest (which means putting money into companies which can be used to create jobs - but that is another argument entirely), that whatever profit I earn on my after tax dollars should be taxed at regular rates again? Are you insane? Why is that alright when 47% of this country already pays NO taxes? Your policy would cripple investment. When you take the incentive away for people to do something, they will stop doing it. In case you forgot, slavery was outlawed. I do not work to be a slave to the government."

But you're willing to enslave others. If you are among the top 2% and you actually PAY 35% income tax, you cannot be very smart. Most of those at the top don't pay out that much. Instead, they find tax shelters, loopholes and offshore banks in which to hide it.

That 47% that pays no tax?? That's absolutely a laughable argument. If those 47% were to pay tax on what? Their puny little minimum wage job? How much of a difference would that be? Would it cover your tax write-off for the yacht? Would it pay for your trip to the Bahamas? Would it even come close to paying the interest on your "investments" for a single day??

But you know, the poor DO pay tax on top of tax, too. Oh, yeah, that's true! The poor buy gasoline to go to work, and pay tax on the already-taxed income they're spending. They pay taxes on every retail transaction (including food in some states). They buy work clothes and get taxed, and cannot even deduct the cost of it from their income taxes. They pay medical bills and cannot deduct that either, because they don't make enough to file a 1040. They must use the 1040EZ form.

Your argument holds no water. You didn't accomplish anything on your own. Behind every fortuitous "decision" you made, there were people who already paved the way. People who made your lifestyle possible, who built the school you went to, who taught at that school, there were people who drove you to school, or someone who sold you a car you could drive... and behind him or her, there were people building that car, there were people paving the street, doctors who cared for your health, and before the immunizations ever got to you, there was Madam Curie, Edward Jenner and so many others (poor, humble souls) who devoted their lives to the betterment of humanity. UNLIKE you, who display such despicable arrogance toward those who don't have what you do, whose toils you exploit for your own gain, leaving precious little in return, and giving NOTHING back to the common good.

Yes, I know the story of the rich man and the poor man. It's found in one of Jesus' sermons. Luke 16:19-31 specifically. Maybe you should read it.

Gee, some retailers aren't doing so well this Christmas? What a shame. People aren't out going crazy looking for stuff to buy? After all, Christmas IS all about spending money and gettin' stuff, right? Lots of people are having a tough financial time this Christmas. But it's really not about the greediness and junk. Maybe we'll all appreciate Christmas a little more this year.

Look for stories about "the true meaning" of Christmas... "It's Wonderful Life" stories.

 How ironic! The left screams and squawks that we should take money from the wealthy and give it to the poor because the poor will spend the money and the rich will just hoard it. Clearly, as usual, the left is wrong.

Think about how many people are suffering due to losing their jobs on Wall St, etc and how those left may very well be getting bigger bonuses....

Someone out there is having a hard time surviving, and because he lost his job, someone else is moving ahead.

This is a constant.

My husband had a supervisor who asked that his stock profit be divided up amongst his crew, it was denied and he was fired. He lost his job only because he wanted to do something for the "regular" guys. Millions went around and he lost his job, for wanting to share.

This is the "new" USA we live in. The "land of opportunity" is a severe misstatement.

The taxes must be raised against the ultra wealthy for that is really all we can do to fight them and the Corps which now run the show. I'm a well educated person, bachelors in accounting, masters in tax, CPA licence, Controller of a publicly traded Nasdaq company and I'm pretty much living pay check to pay check because of the high cost of living. I've read many intelligent posts here and I thank you good people for that. Anyone that uses the argument that the poor and downtrodden have not worked hard enough are for the most part wrong. Ever heard of barriers to entry? Well the rich have built up walls and they are laughing behind them at the common man. We're not buying the BS arguments about not working hard enough or being educated enough, etc. In a perfect capitalistic scenario, yeah maybe that would hold some truth. The effect current taxes have on us commoners when compared to effect on the ultra wealthy is astronomical in proportion. They still live in fabulous wealth made off the backs of the other 99% of the Country. If it were not for us, they would not have their wealth. I don't believe in being a lazy uneducated slob either and do believe in capitalism done ethically. However, the greedy bastards have never been ethical since the dawn of time and the commoner has always had to suffer for it. By just a little change, so many lives could be improved and maybe we could all just enjoy each other and our lives more if the ultra wealthy would just share a bit of their mostly ill gotten unethical gains. Of course this will never happen and the rich can burn in hell for all I care. We're not asking for much and I won't get fooled again. This is class war fools. Chaos Will Come. I wrote a song about it, check it out if you can http://www.myspace.com/wyattscottpunk

SHAME, America!