Quote Originally Posted by JarodParker View Post
One of the things people find unfair is the disparity between income tax and capital gains tax. They don't understand why a professional investor (let's say Warren Buffett) enjoys a 10% capital gains tax for one year's work while his secretary is taxed something like 28-35%
His secretary is taxed in the 28 percent bracket. His long-term gains are taxed at 15 percent. That is income deferred for a year or more. Take income from said gains within the year they were acquired, and you get taxed at your earned income rate--35 percent. By the way, this is after government already takes 15 percent to 39 percent off all a company's taxable income (including capital gains).

So...bull.

The middle class got ripped off by the banks in at least three different ways.
1) The banks sold sub-prime mortgages like hot cakes (borrowers share the blame here).
You have a funny notion of ripped off. You get an adjustable-rate mortgage to buy a house you otherwise would've never been able to get, you default, and it's the bank's fault?

Then they created and sold the mortgage backed securities causing the financial collapse.
MBS's were the only thing supporting your quest for ever expanding home ownership. So the banks ripped you off by innovating a product that all the models agreed should hedge against an increased risk of default by tripling subprime lending?

But those at the top who orchestrated the whole mess took the money and ran.
And here we get to the rub. So people who lost money predicting the housing bubble collapse before 2008 are victims according to reasoning, right?

Do you understand there two sides to any trade?

People like Ken Lewis participated in one of the gnarliest transfers of wealth from the middle class to their own pockets and walked away scott free. There were no negative consequences for the banks or the bankers...
Yeah, I guess that's why there were zero bank failures over the past 3 years. Guess ACA made out like a bandit on ABACUS. Lehman Brothers is having a banner year in 2011. Once again, do you understand that their are two sides to every deal?

...in the end it's the tax payer who assumed all the risk...
That's not even remotely true. The taxpayer that assumes any risk is the 53 percent who pay federal taxes. Of that, 75 percent of the risk goes to the 20 percent making $100,000 or more. But even then, the principle risk is held by Treasury bond holders. So tell you what, let us worry about saving the quadrillions in credit you need to power this $13 trillion economy and you just sit back, relax, and enjoy making 20 percent more while working 200 hours a year less than you (or your daddy) did fifty years ago.