Well AL --

Here's a real life example of that!

Three years ago I lost half a million in an investment. It was a company, started by friends - that is called ReKlaim (you can Google it). The "idea" - which started 7 or 8 years ago (and my first 50K investment was in the idea only stage) was to take USED TIRES - grind them up - "cook them" - and recover the oil - steel - and carbon that was the byproduct of the process. There are 290,000,000 (two hundred ninety million) used tires created per year. Currently they're a big problem because they're hard to get rid of. Our "idea" would have been pollution free - and would have recycled them into useful products and gotten rid of the problem entirely. Sadly - because the original guy went cuckoo during the building of the plant.... and a couple of assholes stepped in at precisely the wrong time - and lied - and flew around in jets (at our expense) and went on hunting trips etc.... I lost 100% of my investment and we lost control of the company to the company that was commissioned to build the plant. They're still trying to make a go of it but the plant is built and running. NO I couldn't "write it off" -- that is such a stupid uneducated statement! You can't just "write stuff off"... there's RULES for all that kind of stuff... and like most things -- it just ain't that f'n simple.

Like many of these things -- the success would have created 1000's of job all over the world... would have fixed a problem -- and would have made a lot of people paying a lot of taxes - it would have built plants - and used truck drivers and plant managers and employees. So again -- the "big money" would have trickled down to EVERYBODY.

Here's another thing that "my money" allows me to do... and I'm not pointing this out for kudos... I'm just saying that if I was just barely paying my bills and trying to save to buy car parts - I WOULD NOT be able to do this kind of stuff....

Note under my screen name - "SUPPORTING MEMBER" - I actually PAY to support this website. I don't have a business paying that - it's just out of pocket. I do that because I LOVE this site and the friends that are here. It takes real money to run this place.. and hard work that you never see that goes on in the background. I'm willing to pay a little bit so that I can continue to enjoy it. And that helps everyone else to be able to continue to enjoy it too!

Nobody asked me to do this - I don't get a bill - just every once in a while I PayPal some dough... It's not much (to me)... but I know it's appreciated and I'm certain that it goes to a good 'cause and I know it goes to a good guy!:lateral: :cheers:


Everyones view of the "rich guy" is some big fat guy sitting around smoking cigars and he's surrounded by piles of gold bars and jewels and he's busy lining the pockets of the politicians. I'm sure that's true for some people... maybe the one tenth of the one percent... but if you read the book - "The millionaire next door" you'd see that most of "us" are pretty simple folks that own small businesses or are farmers... or just own a couple small buildings we rent out etc. You take "us" out of the picture and you'll see an economy that REALLY gets wiped out.

If it wasn't for the "rich guys" bidding up cars on Barrett Jackass.... none of our "regular" cars would be worth nearly as much. A rising tide floats all boats. Some DB pays 225K for a '55 post car -- and the POS in your garage just went up 10K... and it justifies building a "clone/copy/phony" hemi 'cuda for someone to drive and enjoy. If there wasn't one just sold on BJ for 185K - nobody would build 'em!

Just sayin' -- it's just not all that simple.

Having just said all I said.... my neighbor (and friend) lost 250 MILLION GAMBLING on real estate... I told him to his face that he was a greedy Pdangler... and that he deserved to lose it. He violated the first rule of investing. DIVERSIFY. Okay -- that's a different guy different story. Here's ANOTHER local asswipe that is the person EVERYONE (including me) is so angry about! This is the .0000001% of the 1%. But he gives everyone a bad taste!

This was in the paper today. The "story" has been going on for much longer than that.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...nicole06m.html

This guy is nothing but a CROOK -- and he doesn't represent "the norm". This guy was nothing more than a thief... he got away with it for years - but he's still just a common thief. And you CAN BET that he cheated on his income taxes! Prison is too good for him. I'd do a public stockade. Let the people stone the bastard. Tar and feather and leave him to be eaten by ants... :rofl: :wow:

Id be happy if they would just fix the freaking stock market and stop the algorithm trading.

no need for me to add any comments, just watch these.

http://youtu.be/0NwEFVUb-u0

http://youtu.be/r-udsIV4Hmc

That is a very good book! I found the book to be rather insightful. Everyone should pick of a copy.

The issue is the trends over the past 30 years, which, if it continues, will most certainly destroy American society.

Here's an excerpt from the non-partisan CBO Report on income growth over the past 30 years:

The share of income going to higher-income households rose, while the share going to lower-income households fell.

The top fifth of the population saw a 10-percentage-point increase in their share of after-tax income.

Most of that growth went to the top 1 percent of the population.

All other groups saw their shares decline by 2 to 3 percentage points.

This can't continue indefinitely or eventually we'll all be serfs in the fields of the Lords and Ladies of America.

The question is: what should be done to ensure that Americans share more equally in the growth of the economy over the next 30 years?

Here's the whole report:

http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=12485

REAL SIMPLE -- QUIT BUYING CHINESE CRAP.

Greg, you mean like this? :D

I gotta say, I've not heard that as a policy proposal from anybody. :lol: