Response to Stoll's Why The Rich Are Angry

Reader comment on: Why the Rich Are Angry

Submitted by S. Lane (United States), Sep 27, 2010 15:34

Mr. Stoll your commentary in the Daily News ignores one very significant point about the wealthiest Americans--the vast majority of people in this group did not simply become wealthy by working hard, as you suggest. They amassed large sums of money by finding ways to exploit people who are less powerful or less fortunate than themselves. Theft is virtually legal on Wall Street and in the banking industry as long as the theft can be described as a complicated financial transaction. Insurance company owners and execs "earn" their millions by exploiting the sick and the poor in times of need. Pharmaceutical companies create wealthy executives by making money off the misery and desperation of the sick, and these are just a few examples of how wealth is gathered, not earned, in America. Washington is filled with lobbyists using the nation's political system to benefit the wealthy and the powerful. And the hedge fund managers you mention pay a mere 15% tax on their "management fees' while other Americans have their earnings taxed at much higher rates. While there are entreprenuers and creative people who earn large sums of money in an honest fashion, most of the money (old and new) gathered in America is gathered at the expense of others. No one can do enough work to "earn" the ridiculous salaries paid to today's top executives, especially those robbing the coffers of failing companies that are laying off people while paying millions to those at the top. And the contracts made with working class Americans are often broken by their wealthy bosses, so why should banker's bonuses be exempt from the practice? America's middle and working classes are justified in being disgusted by the dishonesty and larceny in the hearts of the richest Americans. We are sick of living with a two-tiered system. The rich have no right to be a protected class.

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