Do you feel the economy and the way it works is weak and unfair?

Do you feel the economy and the way it works is weak and unfair?

...if you add up all of the money that the top 10% of the world population owns, 90% of all the money in the world is gone.

The gap between the middle class and the upper class is widening. Did you know that the top 1% of the world population owns 39% of the global wealth? Doing the math for the top 2% of the world population, half of all the money is reserved. One step further, if you add up all of the money that the top 10% of the world population owns, 90% of all the money in the world is gone. That means for the other remaining 90% of the population, we only have 10% of all the money to earn, save and spend. If these numbers are confusing, let’s break it down. If the world had only $1,000 of cash and there were 50 people, 5 people would own $900 (collectively) and the other 45 people would only have $100 to split between all of them (about $2.22 each).

Now entertainers like sports players, television and movie actors, movie directors, famous musicians, etc, are the super wealthy…over $101k dollars per hour

It used to be that entertainers would entertain the wealthy and make a comfortable salary. Now entertainers like sports players, television and movie actors, movie directors, famous musicians, etc, are the super wealthy. Just one example, take Kobe Bryant – a very qualified NBA player – he makes roughly $25 million per year. At the maximum, he would play 82 games per season, if the team gets to and through the playoffs. At the maximum number of games, he would get paid almost $305k per game – which may take about 3 hours of playing time, or in other words just over $101k dollars per hour. Wow, what other kind of job can you get that pays a salary like that? An average American making $100k per YEAR makes relatively nice money…but per HOUR? That’s quite insane.

We fuel this kind of behavior, by going to the NBA games, buying team memorabilia, and tuning into the game. We also fuel the continuance and advancement of these kinds of salaries. In some cases, the entertainers get so big headed, they honestly believe they deserve MORE money, take the case of Charlie Sheen. Where can the average American find a job that doesn’t care if you are there for meetings (rehearsals in his case), openly know and don’t care about your drug and alcohol problems and where you can embarrass your superior for more than a minute and not get fired?
On one hand, entertainers do fill the pockets of many other industries – airlines, hotels, restaurants, retail stores, car rental agencies – which all feed into their respective state in the form of taxes. On the other hand, there is no way you can legitimately think you are worth $101k an hour, for example.

…most people have to PAY to get a good job

Unlike a lot of actors, musicians and sports players, most people have to PAY to get a good job. We have to pay for a college education that will, hopefully, help land a decent paying job. Even that decent paying job and merit raises are negligible compared to celebrity salaries. Too much rides on publicizing and hype that help the celebrities cash in as much as they do. Also, it’s too expensive and difficult to reach a decent channel or resource to try to build your own hype, if you were building your own company or product.

These enormous payouts for celebrities ultimately fall on the little guy. By going to the game or watching the comedian or going to the concert, you are directly paying for the event. But there are also indirect costs…higher taxes to expand roads because the convention center cannot currently handle the traffic and maybe house values and property taxes increase because more people want to move there. Although these are typically positive indicators of economic activity, it becomes very difficult when the company you work for gives you nominal raises (if any) that are lower than the inflation around you. Basically, if everything if your area inflates 5% in cost and you receive a 2% merit increase at work, you are in reality making 3% less each year than the previous that this rate continues.

It wasn’t until the 18th century that inflation appears to have taken place. Before then, it has been said that not much changed through generations of families. Today, inflation is commonplace, just like taxes. Have you ever looked at your pay stub? You are told you will get paid $X dollars, but you come home with $¾X dollars. Fine, you are supporting your federal and state tax systems to fund some jobs like the military, police and firemen, and programs such as child welfare programs and schools. With schools in thought, you may drive your child to school. That vehicle you drove them in was taxed from the payroll for the engineers to make the plans and design of the vehicle, the metals to make the parts, parts that may be outsourced and shipped and taxed, assembly (payroll taxes for workers), selling (payroll for the salesman and the cut the state feels is theirs because of the sale), registration (typically annually, because the state needs money for roads that you drive on), repairs and other operating costs such as toll fees, tires and gas. Say you stop to pick up breakfast and make another stop for your Starbucks fix – the tax chain starts all over again. All while you are still paying a school tax that factor in the cost of buses. (Taxes are another subject that could easily be discussed…we are taxed to death and the federal and local governments always want more. They don’t need more, they just need to be better with the money they have and spend it more efficiently. If we have to do it, why doesn’t a group of people representing a certain part of government have to?)

Exxon Mobile, for instance, announced its 1st quarter 2011 profit of nearly $11 billion dollars, while the prices at the pump are once again at or over $4/gallon.

Some items that you almost have to purchase, such as gas, increase well beyond any budget you may have created. Most of the increase is based on speculation – which seems like it should be illegal. Speculation, in part, controls what is legal betting; bets of a company’s value, or in other words, the prices on the stock market. Exxon Mobile, for instance, announced its 1st quarter 2011 profit of nearly $11 billion dollars, while the prices at the pump are once again at or over $4/gallon. This has a huge effect on the economy and could easily put us into a further recession. The price of everything increases when gas prices go up. A simple HVAC house call goes up, home renovations, food at the grocery store, that cool new TV you wanted, all increase in price because it cost more throughout the whole production and sales cycle to move the item around or the minimum cost to have a service worker come to your residence. In 3 months, Exxon made 11,000 million dollars or $5.1 million dollars per hour, every hour, for the 90 days in the 1st quarter – all which was surplus after all operating expenses, salaries, etc were paid. Can you explain to me why this is acceptable and allowed by the government and why Exxon believes this is OK? I understand America is about working hard and making money, capitalism, but this is ridiculous. Simply stated, the gas prices do not have to be the price they are at the pump, not even close.

…if I sold brownies, it would never be a hit because, well…you can get brownies anywhere. If Lil Jon endorsed my brownies, then they would be a hit.

The ‘big’ people, rich, wealthy, people with status – whatever you may call them usually pay less percentage in taxes than the average American – money they don’t necessarily ‘need’. Again, some of these people, the ones that weren’t born into wealth, fall into the American way and what capitalism is about, making money…but after a certain amount, you could live without it. Chances are these people wouldn’t notice a little more of it gone. These same people also seem to have so much power. For example, if I sold brownies, it would never be a hit because, well…you can get brownies anywhere. If Lil Jon endorsed my brownies, then they would be a hit. Charlie Sheen wanted to sell t-shirts with phrases and start a webcast. Within hours he was up and running and we all knew about it, online, television and written news articles talked about these topics. The royal wedding is an old tradition in England, but it doesn’t really matter, especially for people in America…it doesn’t have any effect on us or our future – so why did we hear about it for at least a month straight?

Maybe we care about the wealthy because it is a name we know and have heard of in the past. It’s nice to hear a familiar name, know a certain amount of history, maybe be slightly envious of their life, but it’s just gossip. Obviously, not all rich, wealthy people are in the news, there are a lot of extremely wealthy people my dad tends bar at the resort he works, 1 out of many resorts of the same out there. I find it very silly and frustrating that someone such as myself, who works a full time job, goes to school, is very hands on with home and vehicle projects to save money and learn, has a good family and friend life and also work on website projects that I really enjoy. In a very entrepreneurial manner, I think of an idea, write it out on paper and make it into a website with graphics, code (front end and back end), database set up, advertising, social networking and everything else that needs to happen. On top of all this, I buy and read many, many magazines and books to grow my knowledge of something I truly enjoy. Of course, I can do better than I am if I had more time. This is where it gets extremely frustrating. I have written to investors, either they are not interested or I am ignored. I hardly make enough of a living at my job to pay for my normal life, let alone saving to fund my business. Who knows how much that w

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