Bill Maher: Your Interests Aren’t The Same As The Rich
A transcript of my favorite part:
America’s rich aren’t giving you money, they’re taking your money. Between the years 1980 and 2005 80% of all new income generated in this country went to the richest 1%. Let me put that in terms that even you fat-ass teabaggers, I’m sorry, can understand.
Say 100 Americans get together and order a 100 slice pizza. The pizza arrives and the first guy takes 80 slices. And if someone suggests, why don’t you just take 79 slices, that’s socialism! I know, I know. I know, I know, it’s just a TV show. But it does reinforce the stupid idea people have that rich people would love us and share with us if only they got to walk a mile in our cheap plastic shoes.But they’re the reason the shoe factory moved to China. We have this fantasy that our interests and the interests of the super rich are the same. Like somehow the rich will eventually get so full that they’ll explode. And the candy will rain down on the rest of us.
Like there’s some kind of pinata of benevolence. But here’s the thing about a pinata. It doesn’t open on its own. You have to beat it with a stick.
For more information about wealth inequality in America, see this great article by Business Insider with statistics and graphs like this:
Isn’t Bill Maher one of the richest 1%? Just saying…
doubt it
Would that render, what he just said, any less true? Just asking..
I wasn’t aware that 80% of the income gains since 1980 were gobble up by the richest 1%. That’s a shocking statistic.
Nice pie chart. I love art. The good news is things are pretty much the same as they’ve always been. Except that now days everyone has a cell phone and twenty pairs of shoes. And they’re to good to work in the fields.
http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html
@J. R. G.
Exactly.
There is one little thing I’d like to add – the poor in our country are not so well off because of the generosity or trickle-down effect of the rich, but rather because the same system that makes them rich produces a huge amount of abundance for the poor as well.
everybody is going after the rich….just one question. When was the last time you got a job from a poor person?
I’m not rich by any means, I’m just saying that every job I got has come from a greedy, rich, evil business owner…Thanks Boss for teaching me to fish rather than just feeding me for a day.
i think he meant 1 guy EARNS eighty slices. this concept that the rich are taking things drives me crazy. they either earn it or receive it from their position in life, which they may not have worked for but it is theirs none the less. if you don’t liker the food manufacturers making millions don’t buy their food! if you don’t like what they charge for something…..start up a competing company and run them out! it’s capitalism at it’s finest.l
the rich *don’t earn* their 80 slices, that’s precisely the problem. we do not live in a meritocracy.
let’s not confuse the meaning of taking with earning here – in the capitalist system the two terms in fact become synonymous.
The concept of social justice is thrown out the window to promote a survival of the fittest narrative, so that the ends justify the means, whereby the end result (Taking of the 80 slices) is viewed as ‘earning’.
It’s a matter of justice, the question you have to ask is: is the current system fair? Does anyone, who can find any which way to get their hands on 80 slices, deserve all that pizza while the 90% of people starve? In fact, is there any universe in which, in which taking 80 slices would be just (even if it was deserved) if the rest of humanity go to the dogs?
Earning is a tricky concept.
We cannot view earning outside of the framework in which we exist. In the capitalist framework, earning and taking are the same thing. But, is it just? Is it moral? Does anyone deserve/need that much pizza???
There’s also the whole issue with who owns the means of production and who is simply a labor unit. The inequality arises because those who own the means of production (Factories), exploit their workers because they’re a replaceable part of the machine. Those who own the means of production SHOULD be payed more, however, the separation in pay between the worker and the owner is ridiculous. They still probably put similar amount of hours into the business, however the owner makes more than tenfold what the workers make. Pretending that you can go against the great cooperations and “run them out” is ridiculous. I suppose it’s possible, but you’d need a fuckload of money. Capitalism left unregulated is monopoly.
His net worth is $23 million. He is part of the “takers”.
Wow, I like Maher using ‘them’ to refer to the rich people and “us” to refer to poor people as if he isn’t a millionaire himself. The hypocrisy of him judging the rich and pretending not to be one of them is just disgusting. If he really is so upset by the wealth disparity in this country, I’d like to see him donate all his money to charity, move out of his mansion and live on $185 a week.
thoughts like these are killing the US. If you want to be in the upper groups get a job and work. keep in mind that the bottom 50% are composed of 14% welfare, 9% unemployed, 21% on social security. and 6% mentally, physically disturbed. If you some how blame the people that earned their money, the problem lies with you.
Mr. Anonymous, there are a lot of people working their asses off and still earn nothing while other people live the high life and hardly work and “earn” in a day what hard-working Americans (or Canadians, Europeans, etc.) make in a year. That’s what’s unfair.
It’s like 100 Americans together make a 100 slice pizza but then the first guy gets to take 80 slices and everyone thinks that’s quite alright.
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