Patterico's Pontifications

8/22/2008

Who’s Rich?

Filed under: 2008 Election — DRJ @ 11:31 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Obama ripped McCain
for jokingly saying it took $5M to make someone rich.

Experts say wealth is in the eye of the beholder but “most people in finance use the $5M mark” and 45% of a January telephone survey of “253 people with at least $500,000” agreed.

Heh.

— DRJ

34 Responses to “Who’s Rich?”

  1. He’s like the counter-attack gift that keeps on giving…

    Scott Jacobs (d3a6ec)

  2. Obama is just bemoaning his own dearth of a soul.

    Icy Truth (9e8038)

  3. Why everyone seems to think income defines wealth is beyond me. Money in the bank defines wealth. And currently $5 million in assets, not counting the primary residence, is “rich.”

    One can have a momentarily huge income and not be rich. The pity is that we tax folks who get a windfall as if they got the same windfall every year. Almost as if we didn’t want them to BE rich.

    Kevin Murphy (0b2493)

  4. Wait…Obama is mocking McCain for saying multi-millionaires are rich?

    So Obama thinks multi-millionaires are NOT rich?

    *eyecross*

    Foxfier (15ac79)

  5. I’d be pleased with a job like Michelle’s that pays a mere pittance with little actual work, from what I see. She did get that huge raise. Is it typical of hospital non-profits to pay a dozen or so vice presidents over $300 k to circle jerk?

    Great that Urkel wrote those best sellers to pull in $4 million so that his kids can at least have fresh fruit and the college loans were finally paid off. And great to have good buddies like Rezko to assist in finding a mansion and finagling extra property out of the deals. Nothing happening here, just keep on moving. Racist Amerikkka has done pretty well by Obalamadingdong.

    madmax333 (0c6cfc)

  6. I have never understood why people describe Baracky’s house as a mansion. His whole place would nearly fit in my basement.

    JD (5f0e11)

  7. Wait…Obama is mocking McCain for saying multi-millionaires are rich?

    So Obama thinks multi-millionaires are NOT rich?

    I suspect Obama’s threshold of “rich” is lower than multi-millionaires. Didn’t Gore define “millionaires” as anyone who made $50,000 a year, on the theory that their earnings would total a million over the course of 20 years?

    Rob Crawford (b5d1c2)

  8. Kevin @ 12:33…
    Well, all I can say is that with the elimination of “income averaging” in the 1986(?) tax reform (thank you, Bill Bradley), the Dems institutionalized the “Windfall Profits Tax” against individuals.

    Another Drew (11dd7a)

  9. The McCain houses story and the “rich” definition are tiny little stories to fill time while Obama’s VP pick was percolating. The lefties are saying “he could have done worse” and that is faint praise if I ever heard it. I look forward to Biden stepping on his d**k at least three times this fall.

    Mike K (2cf494)

  10. With only one VP debate, that would be a low end guess Mike.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  11. McCain’s Saddleback answer was not about accumulated wealth or personal holdings.

    “I think if you’re just talking about income, how about $5 million?”

    That level of annual income is enjoyed by fewer than one tenth of one percent of U.S. households.

    I supposed he was brushing off the question with a comically exaggerated sum.

    steve (51788a)

  12. The McCain media are showing a huge improvement this summer.This ad is already up.

    What happened to the instant preview ?

    Mike K (2cf494)

  13. So now much is Biden worth? How many senators are not filthy rich and couldn’t afford their own medical coverage? And regardless of tenure, I think they receive exhorbitant federal pensions too. The point being that Senators, Reps and others clean up at the public tax trough and afterwards as lobbyists if they ever retire.

    So McCain married a fabulously wealthy woman? Didn’t Lurch manage that twice? I don’t get, what is the attraction with some of these dickwads? Ok, you’ll say power and power is an aphrodisiac? Been told most pols have the ladies throwing themselves at the man meat. If The Breck Girl was carrying on in public with another woman in DC for five years, where’s the beef?

    Comments closed on the Biden thing @75?
    Rick Moran’s take on Biden/Hope and Change thingee:
    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/08/its-biden-so-much-for-hope-and.html

    madmax333 (0c6cfc)

  14. don’t know why link failed.
    Same story first thing at http://rightwingnuthouse.com

    madmax333 (0c6cfc)

  15. #3, Kevin, “Almost as if we didn’t want them to BE rich.”

    Bingo. Leftists don’t want you to be rich, that’s their exclusive preserve. You know, all pigs are equal, but socialist pigs are more equal.

    BTY, it’s one of the reasons the Left pushes so hard for socialized medicine, to keep those upstart physicians out of their private country clubs.

    Ropelight (4a83c9)

  16. A.Drew (#8): Income averaging was pretty much a fraud anyway — it didn’t fix windfalls like you might think given the then-current tax rates. At best it would move you from the 70% bracket to the 50% bracket. The real dodges were in the tax shelters; of course you had to have constant income to use them.

    The thing that really hurt was not being able to write off multi-year expenses against the single-year income that resulted from them (e.g. ten years to research a book, one year of income, unusable expenses the other 9 years).

    Kevin Murphy (0b2493)

  17. Kevin @ 11:50…
    Income averaging wasn’t everything, but it sure went a long way to amerliorate some of the problems you bring up. The current tax code, even though the rates are lower, is a penalty in many of these areas.
    There are two IMHO interesting things in comparing the current with the pre-86 codes:
    The actual tax-rate paid has not changed all that much what with the changes in allowable deductions;
    The tax-code has become MORE progressive in that the top 10% of income-earners now pay much more of the total received by the gov’t.

    Another Drew (11dd7a)

  18. Aplogies for posting this here, but the earlier thread was closed.

    “Chris Dodd has tar all over him from the Countrywide meltdown…”

    Yes, but Mr. Motormouth has his own problems with being tarred for giving favors to large financial entities while in office. He gave favorable treatment via legislation to MBNIA, a large Delaware financial concern, back in the 80’s.

    Dmac (874677)

  19. Dmac – I thought that you, nk, and Scott J would be down in Springfield today.

    JD (5f0e11)

  20. Ah, just couldn’t get away, and I so wanted to make it this time, since I missed it earlier when he announced his candidacy. I still remember that hackneyed event, covered breathlessly by his media enablers. Made me want to throw up in my mouth.

    BTW, where are the Obamatrons lately? Cat got their tongues, all of a sudden? Awww, don’t worry, little disciples – it will all be over soon. Your messiah has more pressing business here that he’ll need to attend to – like Rezko’s sentencing, now scheduled for late October. And here I thought Patrick Fitzgerald was the hero prosecutor for all liberals.

    Dmac (874677)

  21. This is a freaking injustice is what it is. With all the praise that Bambi showered on Biden and the pretend joy that the lefty blogs are writing about the choice, how could such a towering polital figure have been overlooked for so long. Why oh why did he drop out of the race in 1988. He should have been torching the competition in this year’s primaries.

    Given the testimonials, Biden is an absolute stud. I mean 9,500 primary votes can’t all be wrong, can they?

    Let’s hear it for the Comb Back Kid!

    daleyrocks (d9ec17)

  22. dmac @ 1:29…
    I just wanted to address what I thought were the major hurdles that Dodd & Richardson bumped up against in any vp selection process;
    I felt confident that you, JD, nk, and others would do a good Benihana on Biden.
    daley @ 2:03…
    I told you Joe would cement the hair-plug set.

    Another Drew (11dd7a)

  23. Hair Club for Men, that is.

    Dmac (874677)

  24. In my town maybe $5,000,000 in tax free municipal bonds and the mortgage paid off.
    Then you could retire if you were careful….

    If you move here with only $5M good luck on staying rich long.

    SteveG (71dc6f)

  25. “BTW, where are the Obamatrons lately? Cat got their tongues, all of a sudden? Awww, don’t worry, little disciples – it will all be over soon.”

    – Dmac

    Sooner than is good for your boy, but we won’t rub it in… much. In the mean time, we’ll let you guys sit in an ever-sniping circle and talk about how an awkward, grumpy 70-some year old is going to beat a young, charismatic orator with a huge warchest, on a stage where Money AND Bullshit Talk, and the only thing that Walks are those sad saps who realize the rules of the game just in time to embarrass themselves by being way too obvious about their revelation.

    Leviticus (19520b)

  26. Someone opened the pet door.

    Another Drew (11dd7a)

  27. Just to be clear: your rebuttal is that other super rich people consider 5MM the cut-off. I think you’d understand why the McCain campaign won’t take that route. And, it doesn’t mention that he wasn’t a POW, so it’s a non-starter for the campaign.

    jpe (bd88bc)

  28. “doesn’t mention that he wasn’t a POW” s/b “doesn’t mention that he was a POW.”

    We regret the error.

    jpe (bd88bc)

  29. “Someone opened the pet door.”

    – Another Drew

    To be fair, you’re the one that follows me around. Maybe it’s a Pavlovian thing: Liberal Dinner Bell, Conservative Drool.

    Leviticus (9bd57a)

  30. Leviticus, you mean the Double-gaffe boys?

    ROFL.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  31. “sad saps”? Good eggcorn, Leviticus.
    [for the non-geeky among us: eggcorn – an idiosyncratic substitution of a word or phrase for a word or words that sound similar or identical. ex. “sad saps” instead of “sad sacks” (“eggcorn” instead of “acorn”)]

    Maybe it’s a Pavlovian thing: Liberal Dinner Bell, Conservative Drool.
    — Government blank check, Liberal drool.

    The all-time greatest eggcorn:
    Obama nation = abomination

    Icy Truth (784175)

  32. daleyrocks WROTE:

    This is a freaking injustice is what it is. With all the praise that Bambi showered on Biden and the pretend joy that the lefty blogs are writing about the choice, how could such a towering polital figure have been overlooked for so long. Why oh why did he drop out of the race in 1988. He should have been torching the competition in this year’s primaries.

    Given the testimonials, Biden is an absolute stud. I mean 9,500 primary votes can’t all be wrong, can they?

    Let’s hear it for the Comb Back Kid!

    Abso#uckinlutely. Biden just got overlooked because the Wingnuts drowned him out with their EncyclopediaDramatics Rovian strategies. But, Biden is a good man, goes to bat for disabled Americans. Not like that Drumwaster loon who called the Rochesterian a “goat”-something, made him leave the blog, taking me with him, and ruined the party just as I was beginning to have some fun.

    I had to sneak back to participate in the ‘what is rich’ game. Who could resist. Here’s one:

    You know you’re rich when … you can’t count to the number 7 to figure out how many houses you own. How LULZY. Better than some of that stuff that Cyrus snoop found on Judge K’s server!

    (Wait until our illustrious Commander wannabe: loses count of the # of accounted for nukes … The Fall of the Soviet Union Problem; loses count of the # of dollars it takes to service the U.S. debt … The POTUS 43 ‘The Money Comes From Where The Money Comes From Problem, or loses count of the category # of the next Katrina to demolish a major portion of the United States … The I Didn’t Know It Was Really A Hurricane Problem).

    MKDP (12e333)

  33. . . . Speaking of an ObamaNation.^

    Icy Truth (394169)


Powered by WordPress.

Page loaded in: 0.0901 secs.