The “haves” and the “have nots”

Pop quiz time….

Which of the individuals listed below is a “have” and which is a “have not?”

“Have” or “Have Not?”
Individual #1 Individual #2
Lives in a $350,000 house with granite kitchen countertops and an in-ground pool Lives in a $128,000 house with no granite countertops and no pool at all
Has a shiny Harley-Davidson motorcycle in the garage Doesn’t have a Harley, but does drive a 7 year-old Ford
Has a six-figure salary Has a salary that’s less than $50,000


Jim Arndt has his own take over at Pretty Important Politics.

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35 thoughts on “The “haves” and the “have nots”

  1. I know some in similar circumstances on both sides who are haves and are have nots in that the haves could live for six months on their savings if they had to. There are many with high incomes who still spend beyond their means while there are also many of modest incomes who are very good at being fiscally responsible.

  2. Another pop quiz…
    Which individual has the ambition to put forth the effort to better himself and earn more to able to afford the nice toys and house?

    Which individual needs to have a his life negotiated for him/her and would rather sit around and complain and demonize the guy/gal who has the ambition to better themselves to buy the nice toys and house?

    1. Are you kidding?? Have you seen the reports on the MHC? Or the financial situation in MC? Walker hasn’t lifted a finger to better himself or MC. The PEOPLE are the one who gave him what he has…and it’s a real shame. They were taken for a ride…big time! You have some nerve to suggest Walker has done anything but taken advantage of the taxpayers.

    2. Since we’re going by stereotypes how about this:

      Which individual is so far in debt for paying for said new toys and refuses to send their wife and three children to work despite them all being teenagers?

  3. What does it say about a person who equates buying toys and big houses with bettering yourself?

    1. I guess I have a different definition of “bettering yourself;” a definition that doesn’t include material possessions.

  4. And the unions don’t take advantage of taxpayers??? Scott Walker won an election to become governor of Wisconsin. All you can do is whine about it and say he hasn’t made something of himself… Talk about self loathing… SHEESH. And I believe it was Zach who posted about the house and motorcycle….. not me.

    1. How does a union take advantage of taxpayers? by collective bargaining? By having standards that arent there in the private sector?

      Why do people think that the more money someone has the harder they work?

      1. Yes… That’s exactly how unions take advantage of taxpayers….. their employers…. Negotiating with Doyle is not a negotiation, it’s pay back.

        1. Uh-huh, so they don’t deserve safety at work if an accident happens like neglect as I always seem to read in the Right-to-work states … ?

          Good to know.

            1. You’d be surprised honestly, the problems skyrocket. Just look at the rankings, the accidents, the illnesses that they receive. While not to the same level as 1908 it’s still higher than a place with unions. It’s kind of saying “Eh this chemical is causing cancer, but it’s not at the same level as before. Let’s not fix it.”

              I’m not even sure if you’ve been to other states have you? I travel a bit across the country on business so I think I’m a little aware of how some “right to work laws” actually suck a big dead moose’s cock.

            2. All right, seems I said the last wrong word with the first comment so!

              You’d be surprised honestly, the problems skyrocket. Just look at the rankings, the accidents, the illnesses that they receive. While not to the same level as 1908 it’s still higher than a place with unions. It’s like we shouldn’t find a cure for cancer because we did ‘as much as we could do.’ or something along those lines.

              I’m not even sure if you’ve been to other states have you? I travel a bit across the country on business so I think I’m a little aware of how some “right to work laws” actually suck. Super hard. My uncle works in the Paper Mill Industry and speaks to me about these issues all the time and how the deaths, problems, and so on only sky rocket in say Georgia which is a Right to Work State.

              But considering your posts so far on this blog, your lack of acknowledgment of a simple concept like facts? I figure I’m talking to a brick wall.

              Furthermore, since this recession to begin with is brought on by unchecked corporate greed and scandal? Diminishing health benefits, less retirement security, and stagnant wages? I think we should be encouraging said worker unions, not busting them and making their voices nullified.

              Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could ever have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital and deserves the much higher consideration. The Republicans sadly now days instead of working for the people are now working for their own benefit of greed and avarice instead of the people as it should be.

              You are confused and bewildered and have lost your way and been brainwashed, all at simultaneously. Quite a remarkable feat.

              1. Speaking of brainwashed, which is common in a collective, capital is not the fruit of labor but quite the converse. Capitalism starts with an idea… a dream… an invention… a way for an individual to provide for his/her family. That person then sets the ball in motion by taking certain risks to make their dream a reality. If successful, the community benefits by this persons hard work and efforts by way of jobs and tax payments. When a union is entered into the equation, the employees start to feel that the owner of the idea that provided them with jobs is in business simply to provide those jobs. There’s the disconnect. A person goes into business to make money, not provide jobs. The jobs are simply just another product of the owners idea and when the union starts getting a superiority complex, as all unions do, that business owner will move those jobs to a place that allows them to proceed with their dream….. The American Dream.
                Unions had their place many years ago but now have become so self serving and blind to what it takes to actually run a business that they have lost their usefulness and have become more of a detriment…..

                1. How far do you think all these business owners would get if they didn’t get any workers to make their products and make them their millions? Millions compared to $40000 plus benefits. Yeah…someone is brainwashed alright.

                2. You have an idealistic view of capitalism it’s almost laughable.

                  I love capitalism, but I don’t justify my greed or make it into a romanticized dream. ♥ There’s no ‘risk’ if you do the right research which many companies always seem to fail to do. A reason why a lot of people who run their own businesses fail and flat on their faces is because they don’t know how to manage, they’re too impatient and want money right away, are not willing to realize it’s a 25/8 hour job, they put their company in the wrong place or district or got unreliable partners.

                  But I have to say one thing?

                  A person goes into business to make money, not provide jobs. The jobs are simply just another product of the owners idea.

                  This is exactly why nobody trusts business owners my friend. 🙂 This mentality that they justify themselves to be superior and don’t have to do anything for their workers. And by technicalities, they don’t have to.

                  It’s a growing problem is this detachment of just seeing workers as just a small ‘detail’ where as the very workers decide whether you sink or fall. Yes you could always get more, but in that community rumors will spread, they will tell you how poorly they are treated there and the company itself will slowly fall apart. It’s like how people refer that use their products as consumers and only that.

                  If you don’t treat them as human, they leave you even if they get lower pay but more benefits at another company. You can argue a business doesn’t have to give jobs, but good luck with that my friend on trying to stay afloat against the giants with that logic while you get swallowed up by the cut throat industry of capitalism and business.

                  A simple reason why businesses fail is because they don’t treat their workers or their customers like intelligent human beings.

                  1. Spoken like a true union lubber.. In comments on another post I was told about a whole bunch of manufacturers that were gone. Do you know why that is? It’s because smart business men and women could make things cheaper elsewhere. Keep telling yourself that you’re not being treated like a human being while you’re screaming about your 99 weeks of unemployment running out and feeling sorry for yourself. Meanwhile, some evil rich guy is smoking a bigger fatter cigar because you didn’t want to chip in for your own retirement….

                    1. You know, that’d be awesome if I wasn’t in a job making over a hundred dollars an hour – full time. Thanks for trying though. 🙂

                      However just because something is cheaper does not mean it’s better, in fact why do you think that California’s cheeses are slowly dropping and Wisconsin’s quality cheeses are rising in sales? Simple, care, quality, and more money that is in making them.

                      There’s no convincing you my friend, I’ll see you at the top. ♥

                    2. If you need a precise number, it’s 115.00 dollars, I make 920.00 dollars a day and I work 40 hours a week. 4,600 dollars in a week. 🙂

                      Also: Read over the Reconstruction Era and it’s impact my friend. They didn’t properly even recover until after World War II and still are lagging behind us. It fucked over the South so no one had jobs for years.

                      Of course it’s going to be cheaper down there, but that still doesn’t explain the good the Unions have done here by keeping companies like Mercury Marine here when it was going to move to Oklahoma.

                      Either way, I have enough money to ride out this with no problem – the question is do you and many others who suck the Republican’s sagging teat?

                3. You know, there is one good role you play for me?

                  🙂 People that make businesses like you, are so easy to wipe out.

        2. If you’re joining a company that has a union contract, you have to sign on and be aware of that. Simple as that.

          Otherwise, if they join a company that has a union contract they become nothing but free riders. The same people you’re criticizing in this post. And benefit from collective bargaining without paying union dues.

    2. He didn’t make himself. The idiot voters *gave* him his job. He didn’t have to do a thing to get it…except ride around the state and tell lies. It’s stunning someone like Walker gets such accolades from people like you…when serious hard working folks get no credit.

    3. The point of this was to illustrate the idiocy of Scott Walker talking about how state employees – the vast majority of whom are solidly middle class – are “haves” while everyone else is a “have not.”

      The reality here is that the vast majority of state workers are far from being “haves” if we look at dollars and cents and material stuff…the real “haves” are the folks that Scott Walker wants to give big fat tax cuts to.

  5. This is a fool’s question…who got what and how? Did the “rich” person work harder? More hours? Did the “poor” person decide to not apply themselves?

    And for God’s sake…WHO CARES??? Do I REALLY care if my neighbor makes more money? Has a Harley?

    Yes, greed is one of the 7 Deadly sins, but so is lust and envy.

    1. This is a fool’s question…who got what and how? Did the “rich” person work harder? More hours? Did the “poor” person decide to not apply themselves?

      And for God’s sake…WHO CARES??? Do I REALLY care if my neighbor makes more money? Has a Harley?

      Agree on both parts. Drawing conclusions based on this info is not at all unlike thinking you know a person based on the color of their skin. There are tons of “rich” people with everything you list and more who have a mountain of debt and negative net worth. Conversely, there are the millionaires next door who live well below their means.

      If anything the whole concept of this post is emblematic of a root cause of many of the problems we have. Certainly a contributing factor to the housing bubble and recession. And ironically, it’s better behavior – not being such materialistic consumers who buy, buy, buy and tie their happiness to things – that may be contributing to a slow recovery. But thankfully (as tends to be the case during recessions) the personal savings rate has climbed. When we as a country have a personal savings rate of under 1%, like it was for awhile, THAT causes poverty like nothing else.

  6. Has the American Dream been reduced to the extent where owning a $350,000 house makes us a “have”? Talk about a race to the bottom.

  7. I blame Scott Walker! He should volunteer as much of his salary as he can to make them both even…maybe even throw in the pool.

  8. Both individuals appear to have food, shelter, clothing, and transportation. Is success in life measured by the lack of misery or by the purchase price of food, shelter, clothing , and transportation that we can afford or by self fulfillment?

    The pursuit of happiness may be the single largest difference between the rich and the poor. Meaning that the ability to pursue one’s happiness is certainly more possible with money in the bank but it is not necessary. If one can be happy with one’s condition at whatever wealth level, isn’t that a HAVE? And isn’t unhappiness at whatever wealth level a HAVE NOT?

    The struggle for better huts, better skins, and better chariots makes life interesting but isn’t happiness the end goal and isn’t having an abundance of heavenly treasures more important?

    Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, where have we heard those words before? It wasn’t huts, skins, and chariots, was it?

    1. Hmmm… what on earth are heavenly treasures? That is a funny line, but just in case you were serious:

      Treasures that don’t require storehouses. Integrity, honesty, reputation, and virtues, for example.

      1. Yes, my question was a serious one.

        I would have to say…integrity, honesty, reputation, and virtues do not feed children. How happy can a person be if they cannot support their family?

        1. I can understand from the logic of people who had little all their lives figure that is enough to survive and it’s a way they keep their sanity.

          Pretty much even if they die, they still have each other as sappy as that sounds.

  9. Thanks for the link buddy. So when is your union going to do something for you and negotiate you up to a shiny new Harley?

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