Quote (Skinned @ Sep 8 2014 08:35pm)

I'm doing pretty good, but many people played by the rules, worked their ass off for a couple decades, and seen their savings and 401ks vanish into thin air due to moral hazards in banking.

People who are highly educated (and current) will be able to rebound fine, but people who worked their ass off at manufacturing jobs that have been outsourced and aren't coming back and they don't have very good future prospects, plus one of the dominant political parties are hostile to them, doing things like slashing employment insurance that workers have paid into, working around the clock to prevent working folks from being able to have health insurance, or even for us to have a minimum wage that doesn't ignore economic realities like inflation and rising cost of living.

Of course there will be people who make the claim you just made, stating that being poor is strictly a moral failing and one just has to be good and play by the rules and everything will just fall into place regardless of historical circumstances and structural inequality.

Quote (EndlessSky @ Sep 8 2014 08:01pm)

Others invested differently, made different choices, and got different results. Your case sounds like they were unaware of the consequences and as a result had to deal with the long term effects of bad choices.

Its frustrating to hear the words "play by the rules/same rules," because its distracting people from the real problem that's happening.
If you invest into a particular system out of a false sense of duty and not a logical planning sense then you're asking for trouble down the line.

Quote (Skinned @ Sep 8 2014 08:19pm)

What you say is true.  The vast majority of people bought houses, invested in 401ks, and put money into savings accounts and they lost.  People who own banks or have claims over large amounts of resources did other things. And there are winners and losers.

Pictured:  winners and losers

http://inequality.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/average-after-tax-income-by-income-group.png

Quote (Skinned @ 8 Sep 2014 20:19)

What you say is true.  The vast majority of people bought houses, invested in 401ks, and put money into savings accounts and they lost.  People who own banks or have claims over large amounts of resources did other things. And there are winners and losers.

Pictured:  winners and losers

http://inequality.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/average-after-tax-income-by-income-group.png

Quote (Cellmat @ Sep 18 2014 12:17pm)

Is this picture meant to show how useful logarithmic graphs are or..?

Quote (Skinned @ Sep 8 2014 04:35pm)

I'm doing pretty good, but many people played by the rules, worked their ass off for a couple decades, and seen their savings and 401ks vanish into thin air due to moral hazards in banking.

People who are highly educated (and current) will be able to rebound fine, but people who worked their ass off at manufacturing jobs that have been outsourced and aren't coming back and they don't have very good future prospects, plus one of the dominant political parties are hostile to them, doing things like slashing employment insurance that workers have paid into, working around the clock to prevent working folks from being able to have health insurance, or even for us to have a minimum wage that doesn't ignore economic realities like inflation and rising cost of living.

Of course there will be people who make the claim you just made, stating that being poor is strictly a moral failing and one just has to be good and play by the rules and everything will just fall into place regardless of historical circumstances and structural inequality.