"We've been talking about people that just had the bad taste to be wealthy."

##### Sorry but being wealthy isnt what its about it all. It is about how you got wealthy.

Class warfare is about hating them and punishing them not because they did anything wrong, but just because you're pissed."

###### So if they sold various financial products knowing that they really were not "A" rated but that they "appeared" as such due to careful marketing and less than truthful depictions of their risk levels (the equivilent of selling used cars with known defects) you would tell me they did nothing wrong-it was all legal. Except that there is no lemon law in the financial industry.

"How do I know that? Because you and others are talking about making policy that applies to salaries, not behavior."

##### Im not a legislator so Im not making these laws, but I do believe that certain high compensation should be justified to the board and the AVERAGE stockholders and not just the majority stockholders. If I hire my buddy and give him a massive compensation package not tied to anything but our friendship and I use my position as majority shareholder to push it through then why shouldnt other shareholders have some means of fighting it? Sure, they could sell their shares but if they must do so at a loss then it seems to me they got snaked.

"Like I said, if you favor a more redistributionist financial and social policy, just say so and defend those ideas."

##### And as I said I dont "favor" wealth redistribution per se, but I do believe that the government is often the only means of defending ourselves against a system which places all major financial and industrial/business power in the hands of the wealthies minority. For example if it were not for government who would assure me that the local factory cannot dump toxic waste into the water table? Who would assure me my wife cannot be forced to have sex with her boss to keep her job or get a raise? There is always a need for government to regulate business and to protect the common good.....excessive compensation itself is not a crime, but historically it can be shown to be a tool to make people more maleable and flexible and accomodating to less than ethical decision making processes. My point being that my "anger" isnt with wealth itself but rather in many cases the process that achieved it.

"But there's no need to demonize someone just because they earn a lot of money."

###### Nor is there a reason to demonize someone for not making a lot of money--but people do it every day. OJ Simpson proved a point--justice is for sale. Most Americans would be in jail based on the evidence but not OJ......he bought the best lawyers possible and they accomplished a win for wealth in America. And that is just one of MANY examples. As I said I dont demonize anyone for being wealthy-but my experience is that they rarely got that money with hard work and sound investment.