Is it affordability or the economy?

Steven Moore said on Fox News the U.S. has 4% of the world's population and 1/2 of the wealth. So, I looked that up (separate sites) and it's true. It's called capitalism, ambition, hard work, entrepreneurship, and wealth accumulation through family networks (i.e. marriage). Other sites quibble. I looked back 20 years in my blog (Dec. 2005) and the Democrats were saying the same ugly things about the George W. Bush economy, only then we called it BDS. Democrats prefer Communism so 99% of us can be poor at the same time and they can acclaim a victory for equity and inclusion.

"The United States 2025 population is estimated at 347,275,807 people at mid-year, equivalent to 4.22% of the total world population." Worldometers.info

 
Aljazeera wants to quibble with Moore using a figure of "adults" but I'll take Moore's word for it. His books explore the impact of taxes, energy, and worker freedom on economic outcomes. The U.S. is the land people are dying to flee to for opportunity. Maybe people are sneaking into China or North Korea and the media just don't report it?

Some DNC humor--Michelle Obama

 

Pew Report January 2020 on incomes and prosperity

It must have hurt to have to say good things about the Trump economy or the nation in general in this Pew (left of center) Report, which came out in Jan 2020 before Trump halted some travel from China in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus. (In hindsight lab leaked viruses laughed at those regulations, just like Pelosi did.) The report does take the long view going back decades to find slow growth and little change. But I did notice that the report noted the shrinking middle class--because people were moving up, not down.

"The unemployment rate in November 2019 was 3.5%, a level not seen since the 1960s."
". . . household incomes, which have rebounded in recent years."

"In 2018, the median income of U.S. households stood at $74,600. This was 49% higher than its level in 1970, when the median income was $50,200." (Incomes are expressed in 2018 dollars.)

"On balance, there was more movement up the income ladder than down the income ladder. [since 1970]"

"Since 1980, incomes have increased faster for the most affluent families – those in the top 5% – than for families in the income strata below them." (If you look at the inflation adjusted charts, this doesn't seem to be so, but if wealth creates wealth and there's been a huge increase in dual income families in the last 40 years, I would agree. In the long run, wealth transfers from the government from the middle class to the lower class may help consumption, but it doesn't build wealth to be passed along by generations.)

Several paragraphs in the report note the rising incomes of the upper income, without noting the disparity in marriage rates. Obviously a three person household of a single mother and two children, is going to be less than a three person household of a married mother, father and child. Income gaps between white and Asian households can usually be adjusted for marriage and number of family members. Childhood poverty can almost all be explained by the difference in marriage rates.

https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/01/09/trends-in-income-and-wealth-inequality/?

How Black, Hispanic, Asian, White households compare in wealth | Pew Research Center

Cover of Architectural Digest--John Legend and Chrissy Teigen

The latest issue of AD (Architectural Digest) just dropped through the mail slot with the lovely cover photo of John Legend and Chrissy Teigen with 3 of their 4 beautiful children. I know nothing about him except lately he's been promoting abortion on demand for Ohio (they don't say that but there will be no limits if it is enshrined in our state Constitution, and I believe it includes rights for children thinking they were born in the wrong body). Something like $13 million by outside the state wealth has been poured into this campaign.

Legend and Teigen are certainly wealthy, although I assumed he was paid for grim advertising. The AD photos provide the brand names of the clothing they are wearing, the jewelry designers, the pendant above the dining room table, designer of the custom carpet, the slabs of custom marble in the kitchen (Calacatta Macchia Vecchia) are repeated in the bathrooms, names of the floor lamps, how the music room is wrapped in a de Gournay wallpaper, and the kids' room with full size stuffed giraffes with beds made to look like cars on a safari (a nod to an African heritage?). The sofa costs over $27,000 and who knows what that swimming pool cost them.

 
According to the CDC 39% of all women who had abortions in 2020 were non-Hispanic Black, while 33% were non-Hispanic White, 21% were Hispanic, and 7% were of other races or ethnicities. Yes, John and Chrissy are helping diminish the black race in the U.S. while choosing to raise 4 children in gob-smacking wealth. They are so wealthy, they could be providing for home care and parent training for many single moms, but how progressive would that be? It's not the Democrat way. 

Inside Chrissy Teigen and John Legend’s Loving Family Home | Architectural Digest

Who is funding the transgender movement? Follow the money

Who Is Funding the Transgender Movement?

"I found exceedingly rich, white men with enormous cultural influence are funding the transgender lobby and various transgender organizations. These include but are not limited to Jennifer Pritzker (a male who identifies as transgender); George Soros; Martine Rothblatt (a male who identifies as transgender and transhumanist); Tim Gill (a gay man); Drummond Pike; Warren and Peter Buffett; Jon Stryker (a gay man); Mark Bonham (a gay man); and Ric Weiland (a deceased gay man whose philanthropy is still LGBT-oriented). Most of these billionaires fund the transgender lobby and organizations through their own organizations, including corporations."  (Jennifer Bilek) Who Are the Rich, White Men Institutionalizing Transgender Ideology? (thefederalist.com)  Billionaires funding Transgender movement for profit | The Standard SC

I recognize the Stryker name.  It was on all the beds and gurneys that supported our son during his struggle with glioblastoma. It's medical devices. Billions.   At the fitness center while Phil was still alive I met a man who worked for Stryker--he was in the operating room when he had the surgery.  Stryker family (forbes.com)  Many of the rich founders of the trans movement are gay men.  Don't know why. They are heavily invested in the medical and pharmaceutical fields. So, yes, money, but there must be more.  Is it self-hatred?  They were also big Obama supporters. So the movement, which came to light with the bathroom battles, goes back to that. Pritzker is on his third wife--all women, even after he came out as a very fat, large woman.

But Jon isn't the only Stryker supporting LGBTQ+ causes. The Billionaires Behind the LGBT Movement | Jennifer Bilek | First Things  His sisters are involved, too. Their foundation Arcus poisons the well for many organizations

Laying siege to the Institutions--Christopher Rufo

Christopher Rufo is the new "hate on him" guy that the Left loves to ridicule and demean. Why? Because he exposes Wokeism, CRT, trans-agenda, queer theory, intersectionality, etc. with the Sword of Truth, and a clear explanation of their own Leftist/Marxist history and direction. What looks like chaos to you, is well planned."The leftist dream of a working-class rebellion in America fizzled after the ’60s. By the mid-1970s, radical groups like the Black Liberation Army and the Weather Underground had faded from prominence. But the leftist dreamers didn’t give up. Abandoning hope of a Russian-style revolution, they settled on a more sophisticated strategy—waging a revolution not of the proletariat, but of the elites, and specifically of the knowledge elites. It would proceed not by taking over the means of production, but by taking control of education and culture—a strategy that German Marxist Rudi Dutschke, a student activist in the 1960s, called “the long march through the institutions.”

This idea is traceable to Italian communist Antonio Gramsci, who wrote in the 1930s of “capturing the culture via infiltration of schools, universities, churches, and the media by transforming the consciousness of society.”

This march through our institutions, begun a half-century ago, has now proved largely successful. Over the past two years, I’ve looked at the federal bureaucracy, the universities, K-12 schools, and big corporations. And what I’ve found is that the revolutionary ideas of the ’60s have been repackaged, repurposed, and injected into American life at the institutional level." https://christopherrufo.com/laying-siege-to-the-institutions/

Controlling K-12 of public and private education is essential. Why else have the DoJ attack parents? The younger the better. Perhaps the only Biblical principal the Left has learned well, is Proverbs 22:6--"Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it." In my opinion, the Leftists are the losers with old, tired ideas in contrast to our U.S. Constitution (which they hate) has the fresh, recent and revolutionary ideas. The only similarity might be that the 60s Weather Underground and the 2011 Occupy Movement were the white, young, wealthy and best educated; our Founders were also white, young, wealthy and well educated. The difference is the radicals of the 1960s and 21st century were spoiled brats and guilt ridden by their own abundance. Their only desire was/is to create chaos--and the plan now begins in the schools--even pre-K. To create confusion about family, marriage, sex, religion, purpose, meaning, ambition, merit, etc.

Democrats--the party of wealth and power

How often during the last year of wokeness have middle- and lower-class Americans listened to multimillionaires of all races and genders lecture them on their various pathologies and oppressions? . . .

 
Do we need another performance-art sermon on America’s innate unfairness from billionaire entertainers such as Beyonce, Jay-Z, or Oprah Winfrey, or from multimillionaire Delta or Coca-Cola CEOs? . . .

 
By 2018, Democratic representatives were in control of all 20 of the wealthiest congressional districts. In the recent presidential primaries and general election, 17 of the 20 wealthiest ZIP codes gave more money to Democratic candidates than to Republicans. . .

 
Class is fluid; race is immutable. So by fixating on race, the left believes that it can divide America into permanent victimizers and victims—at a time when race and class are increasingly disconnecting.

Victor Davis Hanson
https://www.dailysignal.com/2021/07/15/democratic-party-wont-admit-its-become-party-of-wealth/?

Great Reset: Housing Shortage EXPOSED (2021)

 Last year we sold our son's house in Canal Winchester, Ohio.  We noticed then the demand for housing, and I became aware of the large real estate groups (to whom we didn't sell, at least I don't think we did).  Then later I became aware of the vast amounts of wealth that was made during and because of the pandemic.  Is private property coming to and end?

https://youtu.be/-CESSiPk6qs  Video on real estate values, super wealth, "reset," and global economy by "Man in America."

What is Black Lives Matter about? Marxism.

What is BLM really about? It's not race, so stop thinking "civil rights," or even "equal rights." It's about POWER and MONEY. Simple. Clarity. No different than the Reformation, or the Crusades, or even our own 18th century revolution which wrested the power from England and enabled the richest nation in the world to develop. The little guys get hurt, and the power brokers walk off with the fat purse.

 
This video is a tiny introduction to BLM, so take 3 minutes to be informed, to see what's really going on. Then you can trash all the nonsense you see in the liberal media and social media about "white supremacy" being the problem of the unrest. A recent report on white supremacy by Washington Post couldn't locate any problems on the Left, even with cities burning all last summer and Portland having regular explosions and attacks on police and federal buildings. Do you really think all these corporations are suddenly as "woke" as the college administrators? Now there's your "white supremacy." 

• Coke, MLB, Delta trying to destroy millions of jobs in black Georgia and taking the power and money to white Colorado. 
• If there weren't a pot of gold at the end of the trans/gay/black rainbow do you think they would give a flying fig? 
• Do you really believe that 3 white teenagers with rifles driving around in a pick up are destroying thousands of small businesses and the livelihoods of their employees? 
• Why do you think the SC story of a black former athlete killing 6 whites, including 2 children, disappeared overnight, yet the Columbus story of a policeman saving the lives of two black girls when he shot a third continues to make the rounds of the news? One story doesn't sell, doesn't meet the narrative, and the other does. 

Stop believing a pack of lies by WaPo, NYT, LAT or the Columbus Dispatch; unhook from CNN and MSNBC. You've got the evidence; you have a brain. Find the independent journalist or reporter with a camera and a voice and dig in or lose your country.

https://youtu.be/8J68p5l-gjQ

Reasons for the latest hate crime fake memes

There are at least 8 reasons I can come up with causing the media and the Biden Administration to be focusing on "hate crimes against Asians" this past week. It even got Biden out of the house for a trip. Take your pick. All are true--the links aren't hard to find. You can add your on opinion. Let's see if they can squeeze as much angst and money out of this as they did the garage pull rope.

1. The media and co-conspirators in academe need to continue the white supremacy/white racism charges to demean all whites, even though in rate and number, most "hate crimes" against Asian Americans the aggressors are black.

2. President Trump called the SARS Cov 2 virus by the country, China and city of origin Wuhan. Although the media did also last Spring, it has become verboten now. The National media and Big Tech have to continue hateful attacks against him to please their base and earn back the money they lost when he left office. They truly need to call him xenophobic and racist, although the variants of Covid19 are being called the UK variant, the Brazilian variant, the Australian variant, and the media aren't calling themselves xenophobic. In fact, if you look up UK Variant, CNN is really whipping that fear pony.

3. Women from S.E. Asia are victims of human trafficking and frequently work in massage parlors and hair and manicure establishments. The media are not focusing on THAT real hate crime. They'll need to do more investigation or be called soft on slavery. Someone in government would appreciate less attention on illegal prostitution and trafficking. Much of it comes in through the porous border. An investigation could get a reporter in big trouble. The world wide slave trade is bigger than the 18th century trans-Atlantic slave trade. The source is still Africa, and to a lesser degree Asia. If Leftists were to concentrate on that tragedy, how would they have enough time to reinvent microaggressions in the U.S. by whites?

4. Lumped together in the artificial category of the U.S. census, Asian Americans are the most successful, most educated, and wealthiest demographic. They really reflect American values of family, education and hard work. Asian Americans (40 different ethnicities) do better than any other group, all the way from Indians ($101,591) to Chinese ($69,586) to Pakistani ($62,848) to Bangladeshi ($44,512). (Nielsen report on Asian Americans, 2017)

5. Asian Americans vote heavily Democrat, support liberal causes, but are small in number and generally not activists. Separated out, there are many new arrivals, particularly from southeast Asia who do not come close to the top earners--Indian, Chinese, Japanese and Filipino. So this group is ripe for pickin' by the Democrats. How better to achieve this than making them victims?

6. Indian-Americans and Chinese-Americans are increasingly being discriminated against by major, elite (Democrat run) universities. One of the top high schools in Fairfax, VA has a 73% enrollment by Asians (particularly Chinese-Americans). This is causing unhappiness, and law suits. So it's time for the Democrats to use yet another crisis and misfortune to shore up their soft side.

7. Until very recently, the U.S. Census considered people of South Asia and the Middle East--Indians, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Egyptians, Persians, etc.--white. With the waving of the Civil Rights flag and the government money by becoming a pan-Asia group they are now POC, People of Color. They became a "socially disadvantaged minority group," eligible for all sorts of government goodies, despite the facts and data like marriage rates, college enrollment, longevity, achievement in business, health statistics made that a lie.

8. Because Asian Americans are the wealthiest group, they pay a larger percentage of their income in taxes than whites, blacks, and Hispanics, and thus are more disadvantaged by our wealth transfer system. Asian Americans are more likely to be paying for non-tax payers to receive money from the government. Maybe the Democrats need to take the focus off their tax increases by creating a crisis?

Why do rich capitalists support Democrats?

People ask why Democrat billionaires, who are devoted capitalists, support Biden who says he'll be the most progressive president in our history. That's code for socialist/Marxist. Usually that's not good for capitalism. After all, the Soviets used to kill a peasant for owning one cow. Communism hasn't become kinder.

So here's the dirty little secret about capitalists. They want to make money. They can make more by getting the government to tie up other businesses in red tape or to shut them down completely with local, state and federal regulations. If they can make more buying off Union bosses, that will be done. It's part of overhead. If they can make more greasing the palms of senator XYZ in North Carolina than senator LMNOP of Illinois, they'll move the business south. It's the cost of doing business. Right now, many large corporations and entertainment venues (like sports) are really into "woke." One guy has the name of a rapist on his helmet. Kaepernick was encouraging the death of cops years ago. It's still about the money, and if it's blackmail, then it's just the cost of doing business.

The Warren Gap fallacy—or how she promotes envy and sows discord

For Example:

There are three married couples; all named The Bruces. White, 8th generation, college educated Americans.   Bruces A are 20+ years old; Bruces B are 50+ years old and Bruces C are 65+ years old. From top to bottom, Bruces A, B, and C.

Bruces C are much wealthier than Bruces A and Bruces B. They have pensions, 403-b, 401-K, Social Security,  investments  and 2 homes. Bruces B have some savings, no investments, and 2 homes.  Bruces A have one house, no savings or investments.  There’s a wealth gap.

Bruces B have a much higher income than Bruces A and Bruces C.  There is an income gap.

Bruces A are much healthier than Bruces B and Bruces C.  There is a health gap.

Bruces A have minimal health insurance, some hospitalization coverage never used; Bruces B have great health insurance from large self insured employer—OSU; Bruces C have Medicare A & B, plus supplemental. Good, but not as great as Bruces B.  There is an insurance gap.

Bruces A take no medications at all.  Bruces B have minor conditions requiring little medication.  Bruces C have had heart, blood pressure, cancer, asthma, cholesterol problems, all treatable.  There is a health consumption gap.

Bruces A are usually employed or under employed—they are students or lower level employees; Bruces B are fully employed, or self-employed and are DINKS; Bruces C are not employed even irregularly.  There is an employment gap.

Bruces A rarely ever have a vacation or travel; Bruces B occasionally travel to visit relatives or vacation close to home; Bruces C travel to many countries and enjoy cruises, they eat out frequently, attend art events, pursue hobbies.  There is a leisure gap.

Which of the Bruces, A, B, or C, does Elizabeth Warren want to tax to "help" the other two?

Baby Boomers exceed all other generations in wealth

Where are you in distribution of wealth--born before 1946, or baby boomer, or gen-x, or millennials? The Boomers after 2005 began pulling ahead of the "silents" in wealth accumulation, and never looked back. Even with a little back sliding by boomers during the recession, I see no way the millennials will ever catch up--have they been given too much or just taken on too much debt.

https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/dfa/distribute/table/?fbclid=IwAR3xXjxcnVsekzvw3DtdeeJeDKhOXFec1sCugV2kGGbdGMu6cjoBcY0jpGE#quarter:
119;series:Net worth;demographic:generation;population:all;units:levels

Elizabeth Warren wants your wealth

The Democrat candidates are "monkey say monkey do" and they climb on the socialism clown wagon daily. O'Rouke wants your 2nd amendment rights destroyed, Elizabeth Warren wants your retirement savings destroyed with her "Accountable Capitalism Act." They all have a blood lust for the unborn and fragile. You need to speak up. Old people don't have income, they have wealth. . . to support them in their old age. Our progressive tax system already takes huge amounts of our money. Congress is profligate spenders and once they get ahold of your pensions, they won't let go.

Seventy-two percent of the value of all domestically held stocks is owned by pension plans, 401(k)s and individual retirement accounts, or held by life insurance companies to fund annuities and death benefits. This wealth accumulated over a lifetime and benefits all Americans. . . 
Socialism always destroys wealth; it doesn’t redistribute it. Unfortunately, this great truth is far from self-evident. Whether current and near-retirees will stand up and fight for their retirement savings will effectively gauge the survival instinct of our country, and our willingness to preserve the economic system that built it.  Phil Gramm, Wall St. Journal. Sept. 10, 2019

Elizabeth Warren and her wealth, as reported in Wall St. Journal

“Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) likes to talk a lot about an affordability crisis in higher education. Fortunately for Ms. Warren and her husband, there’s no crisis at all for the people who work there.

This week Forbes magazine estimates the net worth of various 2020 presidential candidates. While it’s no surprise that a number of former business and finance executives come to the campaign with sizable fortunes, what’s remarkable is how much wealth is now attainable for those in the allegedly non-profit sector of the U.S economy.

Dan Alexander, Chase Peterson-Withorn and Michela Tindera of Forbes estimate that Sen. Warren and her husband enjoy a net worth of $12 million. According to Forbes:

Teachers aren’t paid so poorly after all—at least not Harvard professors. Warren and her husband, Bruce Mann, both longtime instructors at the university, have built up a small fortune through years of teaching, writing and consulting. Their largest holdings include TIAA and CREF accounts—available to educators and nonprofit employees—worth more than $4 million. One of their best investments has been their home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, purchased in 1995 for $447,000. It’s now worth an estimated $3 million.

The couple purchased the home around the time that Ms. Warren stopped listing herself as a “minority” in the Association of American Law Schools directory. By that time she had won a contested tenure vote from the Harvard Law School faculty and as far as this column can tell she never again called herself “American Indian” in registering with a state bar association. In the years that followed Ms. Warren and her husband achieved healthy levels of wealth and income. According to Forbes, it’s possible that the Warren/Mann household is now worth even more than $12 million:

No one, not even the Democrats who spend the most time bashing Trump for his financial dealings, were willing to release full tax returns, file financial disclosures and answer all of Forbes’ questions about their personal finances. Elizabeth Warren, for example... wouldn’t give guidance on the true value of her husband’s investments, listed on her disclosures with a vague value of “over $1 million.” “

Whiney rich people

"There are 585 billionaires in the US. The press is making a huge deal out of Soros saying billionaires are willing to pay more taxes. There were only 19 out of 585 (CNBC was so anxious to play this up they said “almost 20”) , and if they want to pay more they can just write a check to the treasury, or they can spend that cash on homeless shelters, improving schools, or whatever other good deeds they make believe they support. Once again the press is trying to paint a false rhetoric in support of Soros and his far left ideology." Ross Rant, June 27, 2019

I would toss football player Colin Kaepernick into that pile, although he's not a billionaire—only a millionaire. Instead of maligning Betsy Ross, a female seamstress who actually worked with her hands, he could fund homeless shelters or support soup kitchens for those who can't or won't work. He’ll even get a tax deduction.

It’s not your mother’s Democratic Party

"Today, the survival of the liberal establishment depends upon hyper-moralized political correctness and the relentless search for racist transgressions and crimes of exclusion. Over the last generation, rich voters have shifted to the Democratic party. After the 2018 midterms, the Democratic party holds the ten richest congressional districts and 41 of the fifty richest. Whatever remains of the New Deal rationale for the Democratic party has evaporated. It used to be the party of the working man. Now it's the party of Silicon Valley. This necessitates shifting political energy toward anti-discrimination imperatives, all of which REQUIRE discrimination in order to maintain their salience."

". . . Aggressive, minute, and punitive political correctness . . .serves a political need. The Democratic party is the party of the rich. That fact must be disguised, and thus the public square echoes with dog whistles warning of discrimination. White nationalism! Toxic masculinity! This serves to keep immigrants, women, and minorities in a state of constant fear, calling them to come under the protection of the liberal establishment."

". . . Our ruling liberal elite NEEDS racism, sexism, homophobia, and the rest. As a result, the institutions they dominate--mainstream media, universities, the art world, large corporations, and the Democratic party--devise theories, imagery, and rhetoric to ensure that bigotry and "hate" endure forever." R.R. Reno, First Things, April 2019, p. 62

10 steps to ending poverty–Jay Richards

Guess what—it isn’t socialism!

This is a Christian solution.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XyJd4w5f1g

He’s a little long winded, but when he gets to the point, this is it.

1. Rule of law.  Like the 10 commandments.

2. Limited government.  Methods in place to limit jurisdiction of the state.

3.  Formal property.  In Haiti, if you wanted to lease land from the gov’t it would take 19 years and 100’s of forms.

4. Economic freedom. Hong Kong is #1.

5. Strong mediating institutions.

6.  Purpose driven universe.

7.  Right cultural mores. Respect for rights of others.

8.  Understand wealth and poverty.  Set up win/win situations.

9.  Focus on your comparative advantage.

10. Work hard.  This works in the U.S., but not in all countries if you don’t have access to property or freedom.

Symphony season ends at Lakeside

It was the final performance of the symphony last night. Fabulous. It’s been so wonderful with all the guest conductors. But it made me think of Jordan Peterson's comments that the top 1% of the 1% doesn't just apply in the financial field (richest 85 people have as much as the bottom 3.5 billion). It's also at your work place, scientific papers,  it's in book publication, and popularity of composers. It's called Price's law, after Derek Price (sometimes known as the Matthew Principle, Matt 25:30) also called the Pareto principle.
"Just 4 classical composers (Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and Tchaikovsky) wrote almost all the music played by modern orchestras. Bach, for his part, composed so prolifically that it would take decades of work merely to hand-copy his scores, yet only a small fraction of this prodigious output is commonly performed. The same thing applies to the output of the other 3 members of this group of hyper-dominant composers: only a small fraction of their work is still widely played. Thus, a small fraction of the music composed by a small fraction of all the classical composers who have ever composed makes up almost all the classical music that the world knows and loves." p. 8, 12 rules for life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0iL0ixoZYo  YouTube of Peterson explaining the Pareto Principle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QAY0qc0u-4

Guest blogger Mike on who is actually wealthy (New York Times opinion)

Commenting on https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/10/opinion/sunday/stop-pretending-youre-not-rich.html?

"I love being controversial when it leads to healthy dialogue, so here's an opinion to really stir the pot.

The overwhelming majority of wealthy and successful people obtained their assets through innovation, hard work, and strategic decisions, despite the claims to the contrary. Yes, there are a very small number of people who became powerful through unscrupulous methods, but this is not the majority that's often illustrated in an effort to mobilize mobs of people who think that something someone else has should be theirs, because after all, it's much easier to take something from someone else than to work for it yourself.

It is well known that once wealth is acquired, the excess obviously transcends future generations, so looking at an heir of their predecessor's wealth and begrudging them of what they have is nonsense because someone, at some point, worked for what they have.

The problem now is that there's this implied guilt and shaming with being successful, nefariously manufactured with its roots firmly originating in envy, and it's all nonsense. Envy is an emotion that destroys the holder, not the target. Getting over the "what's mine is mine and what's yours is mine" mentality is the first step towards a person's own success.

Intelligent people understand that by surrounding yourself with people more successful than yourself, it's a motivational catalyst to do more, and to do better. People who sit and stew in their own juices of jealousy condemn themselves to remain in place, rather than improve their situation, because they've diverted all of their energy into negative emotions and actions that intend to tear others down, rather than elevate their own situation.

Believing that equipoise is achieved by bringing those at the top into the gutter is equal distribution of misery, not success. I know a lot of people across the entire spectrum of income, intelligence, ambition, and overall success. I can say with confidence, that people create their own ceilings through the way they think, behave, and ultimately respond to situations.

Personal responsibility is the genesis of success and a happy life. As long as people continue to believe they can make poor life decisions and it's the responsibility of society to clean up the mess, we'll continue circling the drain as we have since this philosophy gained traction the late 1960's."