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In the US, Rich Now Work Longer Hours Than the Poor

ananyo (2519492) writes "Overall working hours have fallen over the past century. But the rich have begun to work longer hours than the poor. In 1965 men with a college degree, who tend to be richer, had a bit more leisure time than men who had only completed high school. But by 2005 the college-educated had eight hours less of it a week than the high-school grads. Figures from the American Time Use Survey, released last year, show that Americans with a bachelor's degree or above work two hours more each day than those without a high-school diploma. Other research shows that the share of college-educated American men regularly working more than 50 hours a week rose from 24% in 1979 to 28% in 2006, but fell for high-school dropouts. The rich, it seems, are no longer the class of leisure. The reasons are complex but include rising income inequality but also the availability of more intellectually stimulating, well-remunerated work." (And, as the article points out, "Increasing leisure time [among less educated workers] probably reflects a deterioration in their employment prospects as low-skill and manual jobs have withered.")

311 comments

  1. By what definition of "rich"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Not starving to death on the street certainly, but most bachelors degree holders aren't tooling around on their private yachts either. Calling these sorts of people rich by the standards set it most developed countries is a load of crap.

    1. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by Enry · · Score: 5, Informative

      I consider myself middle class, but by income standards I'm in the top 10% of income earners in the US. And I don't have a mansion or yacht.

    2. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by BreakBad · · Score: 5, Funny

      Mansion / Yacht are status symbols of the 80's/90's. You probably have a 3 or 4 character twitter account name.

    3. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well, in a land full of poor people without as much as basic health insurance, being in the top income decile is hardly something that will guarantee you carefree life.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    4. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by Enry · · Score: 5, Funny

      Nope, just a 630 UID

    5. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by gweihir · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Indeed. Seems "rich" is now is you earn enough money to live decently. That is not the original definition.

      "Rich" usually means "has enough money to live pretty well without the need to be working at all".

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    6. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by danbob999 · · Score: 0

      The top 10% is definately rich. The middle class would be from say, 40 to 60%. You know, in the actual middle.

    7. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by Herder+Of+Code · · Score: 2

      Even the %1 are not "rich" by most people standard, just well off like you. In Quebec, Canada, last year if you made over a 100k annually you were in the top %1 earner. Here, a 100k is very much possible for good SE after a few years of work in the right industries. Welcome to the 1%!

    8. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      I'm super rich! Why? Because I'm not in debt.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    9. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by rdelsambuco · · Score: 0

      Do you understand what the word "middle" means?

      --
      I comment occasionally so that I can mod others -1 overrated or -1 offtopic.
    10. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by PortHaven · · Score: 1

      Do you understand what the word "class" means.

      We're not talking about the middle of Americans. We are talking about the "class" that falls into the middle of the working classes. There is a DIFFERENCE

    11. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you understand what the term "middle class" means?

      Upper class / Aristocracy
      Middle class <-- here it is, in the middle
      Lower class / Working class

    12. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by PortHaven · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Most of the poor and starving in Africa and India are not in debt either.... I will call them rich and see how they react.

    13. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by SJHillman · · Score: 2

      In the US, the top 1% starts somewhere just under $350,000 in 2009 (down from $380k in 2008) - I couldn't find a reliable source for more recent data. That's really not that high, considering the majority of people in the 1% are also in areas with the highest cost of livings. I'm not saying $350k isn't enough for a life of relative luxury, but they're also not the ones with private yachts, planes or a dozen vacation homes.

    14. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by oh_my_080980980 · · Score: 1

      That's great but it's not based on what you think, it's based on your income.

    15. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by rdelsambuco · · Score: 0

      Yeah? Please explain - how are these "working classes" ordered and what are the demarcation lines? Are you talking "middle" = median, or "middle" = mean? From my 48 years of experience, 99% in the USA thinks they're "middle class." B.S.

      --
      I comment occasionally so that I can mod others -1 overrated or -1 offtopic.
    16. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by Xaedalus · · Score: 1

      If you don't mind me asking, what part of the country do you live in, that your income bracket of 10% is considered middle class? I'm curious, because I believe that income standards and costs of living tend to be far more sticky than we as a society care to admit.

      --
      Here's to hot beer, cold women, and Glaswegian kisses for all.
    17. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by StripedCow · · Score: 1, Funny

      I have an iPhone!

      --
      If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
    18. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Upper class / Aristocracy
      Middle class <-- here it is, in the middle
      Lower class / Working class

    19. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by dpilot · · Score: 1

      You don't have to be rich for that, just early. Being at the right school at the right time and having an account with internet access would have been sufficient. What year did you get your 3-digit UID?

      --
      The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
    20. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by Lumpy · · Score: 2

      You are confusing Rich with "ultra rich"

      If you are one of the snobbish rich that say you are not rich but you have a nanny for your kids.... Oh sorry, an Au Pair, Nanny sounds so pompish... Then you are rich.

      The fact that your income each year can put 10 families into homes and feed them IN THE USA is another good example of you are actually rich.

      Yes, $25K a year is enough to put a small very poor family in a crackhouse apartment and feed them.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    21. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by Lumpy · · Score: 1

      Sitting at your desk all day is not working.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    22. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm just barely in the 90th percentile based on (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States#Household_income), but no yacht, no Ferrari, no mansion. I don't have a bachelors either, but did the community college route and left with no student debt. But I am lucky: I have no car payments, my mortgage will be paid off in three years, and I have close to $1M between pension, 401K and other investments. I think I'm a fairly typical 40-year-old who was lucky enough to get into the computer field early.

      The downside is that I don't have anywhere as much fun as my co-workers. I save most everything. Sometimes I wonder if it's worth it, but I'm fairly boring and perhaps don't miss the parties and cars and vacations that my co-workers seem to enjoy.

    23. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by Enry · · Score: 1

      Sure I do. But what's happened over the past 30 years is that the lower class has expanded by population and the upper class has expanded by wealth. What was middle class (which I see as owning one house, maybe two cars, reasonably comfortable, and salaried employment) is getting pushed at both ends. 100 years ago I'd probably be upper class. Now I'm upper middle, but that doesn't mean I'm upper class.

    24. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by kilfarsnar · · Score: 1

      Sitting at your desk all day is not working.

      That's a pretty narrow definition of work. But I guess I can now tell people that I don't work for a living!

      --
      "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
    25. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by ottothecow · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Overall in the US, 10% is something like a hair under $150k per household. So it can really depend on your situation.

      A single 25 year old earning 150k is probably feeling pretty good, even living somewhere like NYC.

      But a household with two earners in their 40s and kids that makes 150k definitely counts as middle class. Certainly not on the low side of middle class (and in cheap areas, definitely doing pretty well), but its not like they are going to be overflowing with disposable income. Life isn't bad--which it shouldn't be for the middle class--but you aren't going to be retiring early and spending lots of time at that vacation home in the south of France.

      --
      Bottles.
    26. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 3, Funny

      'Rich' = "anyone making more money than me".

    27. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then I would have to assume that your name isn't Elmer J. Fudd, then, correct?

    28. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by Lumpy · · Score: 1

      Correct.
      I dont either. I just sit here. but I have worked for a living in a foundry, THOSE people actually work, us in the offices just screw around all day.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    29. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by parkinglot777 · · Score: 1

      Are you talking "middle" = median, or "middle" = mean?

      To me, the word "middle" has a loose meaning as "in between." If you attempt to quantify it using maths, then it is neither "median" nor "mean" because you are not talking about normal bell curve! Those super rich will ruin your curve. I would use "mode" instead of those two.

      Upper class / Aristocracy
      Middle class >-- here it is, in the middle
      Lower class / Working class

      This gives a bit of the meaning but it is not clear. What is "working class"? Anyone who "work" is categorized in the lower class? Or anyone who mainly use labor in their job? So if a mechanic who earns $60k+ a year would be in the lower class? (just an example)

    30. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by FilmedInNoir · · Score: 1

      This article is by the Economist... it's for people that drink the Kool-aid.

      --
      Sig. Sig. Sputnik
    31. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mansion / Yacht are status symbols of the 80's/90's. You probably have a 3 or 4 character twitter account name.

      or a 3-letter dot-com domain

    32. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My liege.

    33. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 2

      In the US, the top 1% starts somewhere just under $350,000 in 2009 (down from $380k in 2008) - I couldn't find a reliable source for more recent data. That's really not that high, considering the majority of people in the 1% are also in areas with the highest cost of livings. I'm not saying $350k isn't enough for a life of relative luxury, but they're also not the ones with private yachts, planes or a dozen vacation homes.

      The "top 1%" is, by definition, 1 out of 100 people. Does anyone seriously think that 1 out of every 100 people would be rich enough to own private jets and a "dozen vacation homes"? Imagine the way the economy would have to work for that to happen -- every 99 people have to work hard enough to generate enough wealth to pay the other 1 guy enough to buy lots of vacation homes and private planes. Does that sound like the math would work out?

      Or, just think about your high school class. If you graduated with 300 people, do you really think 3 of them are rich enough (or will be rich enough) to own a private jet and/or a dozen vacation homes? (Just for the record, you're probably looking at $350k annual expenses just to maintain a private jet, and that's not for a large plane.) If you went to some elite private school, maybe (and certainly the numbers aren't too much higher than that even there)... but for the vast majority of schools, probably not.

      So, yeah, the "top 1%" just simply can't be that rich... at least not most of them. It doesn't make any sense. It's just a convenient simple statistic. The point is that, for most people, when you reach the "top 1%" bracket, you probably start having enough disposable income that you can do some of the things rich people do, like buy a couple luxury items or donate enough money to something that you might actually have some minor influence (rather than being "just another donor").

      The people with the private jets, etc. are a much smaller group... but that's pretty obvious if you take a moment and think about what "1%" means.

    34. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by Xaedalus · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Your points are well taken. By way of comparison, I make $70K, am single with no dependents, and I reside in the greater Seattle area. I can be counted as middle class for Seattle, but for everywhere else I'd be upper middle class (possibly upper class dependent on the area). When I look at my monthly costs & budget, then compare where I currently live versus a place with a lower cost of living, I realize that I've got to stay in the Seattle region. The cost of living is higher, but the pay is commensurately higher, which allows me to continue paying on my student loans. I feel that reinforces your point about the household with two earners in their 40's. Once I get my student loans paid off, then I can afford to move to a less expensive locale where my salary will decline, but the other costs should decline even more. I'll still be considered middle-to-upper-middle class due to spending & saving habits, plus education, even with the decline in salary.

      --
      Here's to hot beer, cold women, and Glaswegian kisses for all.
    35. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you paid attention to Obama's definition of middle class is what many of us would call barely working class around $40,000 a year. The reason the so called "poor" are working less is that all the government subsidies to people withing 50% of the fake poverty line make them not work harder to improve their place. They can live quite comfortable with there lower wages, $800 a month rent subsidy, subsidized food and earned income tax credit. The subsidies discourage harder work. These people would have to work much harder to make more than the money they loose in subsidies for being "low income".

    36. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by Curunir_wolf · · Score: 1

      That's great but it's not based on what you think, it's based on your income.

      It's really not. This is from the US Department of Commerce report titled "Middle Class in America".

      Income levels alone do not define the middle class. Many very high and very low income persons report themselves as middle class. Social scientists have explained this by defining “middle class” as a combination of values, expectations, and aspirations, as well as income levels. Middle class families and those aspiring to be part of the middle class want economic stability, a home and a secure retirement. They want to protect their children’s health and send them to college. They also want to own cars and take family vacations. However, aspirations alone are not enough; middle class families know that to achieve these goals they must work hard and save.

      --
      "Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
      --- Jerry Garcia
    37. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by Your.Master · · Score: 1

      You seem to be confusing "middle" with "average". These are not the same thing.

      A middle-aged human in Afghanistan is between 40 and 60. The average (median) age of a Afghani is about 18. The mean is probably a bit higher, but it won't be even close to 40 (I couldn't find stats on that).

      Middle does not typically imply average.

    38. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      the so called poor in this country have had free health insurance since medicaid came in many years ago. Plus children whose parents make 50% more than the poverty line have had free heal care under the child health plus program for nearly 20 years. The media and progressives have painted a very distorted picture of the so called "poor" in America. I have been a NYC teacher for nearly 15 years. Immigrant children who parents work low wage jobs work hard in school (if the teacher does their job and contacts parents) while subsidized american kids are lazy, lazy, lazy. Regardless of race. Their parents make nothing but excuses for their kids. I have been called a racist by African American parents and I am African American . These so called "poor" kids wear fancy sneakers, always drinking take out food and the worst have no concept of money at all. They want to turn the A/C unit on in the winter when the heat is coming on too high.
        HEALTH INSURANCE does not make healthy people. My wife did her medical residency in the Bronx NY. As a resident doctor, she treated many medicaid diabetic patients. These patients never followed doctors orders and every few months they would be back in the hospital for complications. The children of these people suffer at home.

    39. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by pitchpipe · · Score: 1

      And I don't have a mansion or yacht.

      Repeat after me: "My name is Enry J. Fudd. Miwyonaire. I own a mansion and a yacht."

      --
      Look where all this talking got us, baby.
    40. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by ravenshrike · · Score: 1

      Well, for the purposes of this study, how about in the category of people who actually still pay federal income tax once all their refunds come back.

    41. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think he's either gone to sleep or passed away. Either case is clue enough.

    42. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by rnturn · · Score: 1

      Not sure of the year but by the time the first Monday morning after UIDs started being assigned rolled around you got one in the lower 5 digits. I'd guess you had to sign up in the first couple of hours to get one in the three digit range.

      --
      CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
    43. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To wit: I make around $300,000/yr. We have two cars: a Honda minivan, and a Ford truck. We live in a 2,300 sf house. We spend about $5,000/yr on a modest family vacation. Our one "luxury" item is a small parcel of land (about 15 acres) that I intend to build a slightly larger, slightly nicer house on when we sell this one, so we can have a horse and a couple of milk goats and be rid of the stupid HOAs. Of course, I have big law school loans I am still paying off, so that takes a big chunk, and I'm self-employed, so the self-employment taxes are another big chunk, and I pay for my own insurance and fund my own HSA, so that's another big chunk, and I make my own IRA contributions, so that's a chunk there too. My lifestyle is practically indistinguishable from when I was making about $140,000/yr at a law firm, and not very much different from when I was making $50,000, except that I enjoy working for myself much, much more.

      We are quiet comfortable, and I would even say richly blessed, financially. But I have never considered myself "rich." I tend to think of myself as "upper middle class," but that may be largely a function of having always been raised middle class. I am near the 1% mark of wage earners, but I do not live some kind of exotic "1%" life style. Being in that coveted 1% really means that I make enough money that I don't have to stress about being able to pay my bills, and a few weeks ago, when I needed to pay $400 for a generator to run some power tools out on our land, it was not a financial hardship. I'm grateful to be where I am financially, but in terms of lifestyle, I have a lot more in common with the OWS protesters than with Mitt Romney or Donald Trump.

    44. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This. See my previous post.

    45. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by davydagger · · Score: 1

      the entire concept of "middle class" is bullshit, you still work for your money, the entire concept you can earn a living wage does not make you special, better, or an oppressor, because your no more in control than someone living pay check to pay check.

      Its also disingenious to lump people making $75k a year rich, even if they are comfortable. Its nothing more than a plot by the people who run the system to shift the blame.

    46. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by PortHaven · · Score: 1

      No, that's the whole point. "Middle Class" has NOTHING to do with being in the middle of income, etc.

      I personally consider myself to have just recently entered the lower middle class. I own a fixer upper house, and two mostly new vehicles (granted one is a Nissan Versa - cheapest car you could buy). That said, I have zero retirement or savings after 2008.

      Middle class is not just about income, but about security, staying power, etc. I would categorize another aspect of middle-class being that one in the middle class could retire at 50-55 if they had too. A working class folk could NOT do that.

    47. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by PortHaven · · Score: 1

      But you have to realize you're still focusing on "middle values" rather than a "middle class lifestyle".

      If 80% of middle-class Americans fall from the middle-class. The middle class has "shrunk".

      For instance, we could have a class break down like thus...

      1% = Wealthy Elites
      3% = Middle Class
      97% = Lower Working Class

      In fact one aspect of economic fascism was a two class system (vs 3 class in capitalism/socialism and 1 class in communism). A labor class and an aristocratic class.

      In fact, what we'd really like to have in America is about 70% of Americans in the "middle class" tier. Think of it more as the equivalent of the "mercantile tier" or "landowner class" hundreds of years ago.

    48. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by davydagger · · Score: 1

      the %1 should not be taken as a litteral definition, because its fucking terrible.

      the term One Percent has been an idiom in American English for a very long time. Its used to denote outliers which are exceptions to the rule.

      Its general context is that 99% of group X fit characteristic Y, and its pretty safe to assume that X ~= Y, and its just %1 of cases, which are considered rare, Y doesn't happen or isn't true ( X != Y) , and the %1 are outliers, and exceptions to a rule.

      The term is used by OWS, to say the Rich are outliers, who don't share the same troubles and burdens as us. Its a great term, but like the phrase "the one percent" in general, it should not be taken litterally.

      The real definition we should look is not how much money someone makes, but their control over the system, i.e. ownership, and how much policy they control via softpower.

    49. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by davydagger · · Score: 2

      well yes. The economist is a well written rag, but just remember its an opinion journal written by unabashed capitalists. Nothing more.

    50. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by NicBenjamin · · Score: 1

      I have literally never met an American who doesn't think they're Middle Class. Seriously. Somebody probably had to tell Mitt Romney that he shouldn't claim to be Upper-Middle Class. Class definitions are always difficult. On one hand, by a global standard pretty much everyone in America is rich, on the other if you make a half-mil and you work at a top-end bank in NYC you're probably spending all your income to keep up with your full-mil colleagues, and feel poor. Especially if you have a couple kids.

      The people doing the defining in this case are The Economist magazine. The definition they're using for this particular piece of click-bait is "has a college degree," whereas poor is "does not have a college degree." So there's no room for a Middle Class in this article. You're either a rich motherfucker with a Bachelors of Something, or you're poor. So which is it Mr. UID 630, are you a rich college-degree-holder, or an impoverished High School Grad?

      For the record I am officially rich according to the Economist, despite the fact that last year's income was only $14k.

    51. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I must be rich then as I was born with nothing and 50 years later I have still got most of it left.

    52. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

      mansions and yachts are vastly overrated.

      We used to own a private island, and spent summers yachting around. My aunt competed in the America's Cup.

      It's not that great. They didn't think they were rich, or my great aunt who lived on an entire floor next to the Louvre in Paris.

      Can't say I miss that.

      --
      -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    53. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

      Doesn't being at the right school at the right time make you Rich? Works for Legacies at the Yale/Princeton/Harvard.

      --
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    54. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Monocles have been popped! These "poor" people must be stopped!

    55. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Hehehe, while completely useless as a measure, I guess that actually is what people are doing....

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    56. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I make about $10k/year in a country where the average is closer to $50k/year.

    57. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's pretty fucking stupid. You should try my old job, with the 12-15 hour days and no breaks (plus no pay after 8 hours). After my ribs started cramping up from sitting still at a desk for 12 hours and I still had another 12-15 hour day of work to go, then had to come in for two hours on my day off, just to keep up with the basic level of work that required, in the CEO's mind, 40 hours.

      You want to keep insisting that 60-70 hours without a meal break isn't work just because it's seated at a desk, feel free. Just don't expect to not be called on it.

    58. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by dpilot · · Score: 1

      By "right school" I didn't mean Ivy or anything, I meant internet-connected. Though the likes of MIT or CMU aren't cheap, either. Since I don't remember the year, I don't remember how widespread internet acces was at that point.

      Or to put it another way, did Slashdot come before or after AOL let the unwashed masses onto the internet?

      --
      The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
    59. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by Stuarticus · · Score: 1

      Immigrant children who parents work

      What you teaching, champ? My guess is you are making this all up, but what do I know.

      --
      If you think someone isn't free to have a different definition of "freedom" you may be a tyrant.
    60. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      This. Plus it comes as little surprise than the unemployed and underemployed 'work less hours'.

    61. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by sumdumgai · · Score: 1

      HAHA.. My community college was Internet connected in 1975. What colleges were not connected in the early 90's?

      --
      âoeIn theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not." â Albert Einstein
    62. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I paid $110 K in income tax this year. Am I rich ? Hell no. I drive a 10 year old SUV, my wife's car is a 2007 model Subaru. My house is valued at $187,000.
      My clothes are nothing special. Our main luxury - we eat out nearly every meal.
      I would need to make at least twice what I make to feel like I am rich. Then I could buy a new car, a nicer house, and maybe a vacation home.

      I used to think making 6 figures would mean I was well off and comfortable. I'm not even sure I'll be able to retire, even though I now pay 6 figures in income tax.

    63. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      define "private yacht" A catalina 22 is cheaper then a motorcycle, and many "Middle Class" people run around in new Chargers and such, when the guys with the sailboat has an old Subaru.

      Now if you are talking about a brand new Benetau or Jenneau, that is a whole different level of wealth.

    64. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      Silly me, here I am thinking the article was about the US...

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    65. Re:By what definition of "rich"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      $25K a year is usually enough for people who don't waste all their money on useless bullshit and live the "consumer lifestyle." Consume, consume, consume!

  2. That's a strange definition of "rich" by gman003 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If all you need to be rich is a college degree, then hot damn I'm already rich! When do I get my mansion, limousine and trophy wife?

    It sounds more to me like "the educated now work longer hours", or maybe "the middle class now works longer hours" if you want to keep it related to income.

    1. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mod parent up.

    2. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by NIK282000 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      How about 'People with 60k in student loans work more hours.'

      --
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    3. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mod child down.

    4. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In the article (by the economist, which is usually pretty decent) it compares how currently the higher you go in the income scale, the more you work.

      The news is that it was not like that in the past, but actually reversed. It is also valid to remember that the proportion of people with degrees rises as income does.

      In my personal experience (which is as we all know statistically significant), people who are paid more per hour of work, work longer hours. I work more as an engineer than my psychologist gf, and my friends in finance work even more.

    5. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 3, Funny

      That would be me...

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    6. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Strange indeed. Wealth inequality in the U.S: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKKQnijnsM

    7. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by mrchaotica · · Score: 2

      In the article (by the economist, which is usually pretty decent) it compares how currently the higher you go in the income scale, the more you work.

      To a point, that is. The article talks a lot about college-educated knowledge workers (i.e., the upper-middle class), but it conspicuously fails to mention how many hours C-level executives etc. (i.e., the actual "rich") work.

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    8. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      How about 'People with 60k in student loans work more hours.'

      How'd you get it so cheap ?

    9. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by PIBM · · Score: 2

      He's been paying it up for the last 20 years..

    10. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by Bite+The+Pillow · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Economists tend to use proxy measurements instead of doing a new survey measuring exactly what they want to talk about. It saves time and money. In this case, college educated people do tend to make up more of the upper and upper middle classes, so it is not a terrible proxy measurement.

      Further, it avoids the immediate dismissal based on "author drew an arbitrary line that supports his idea." There is no argument about who is rich. Lots point out student debt, but miss the point that when it is paid off the educated have higher salaries and can catch up more quickly.

      That said, there are so many oversimplifications in the article it is nearly pointless. Most notably, few people earning in the "rich" bracket get paid hourly overtime and decide "to work the extra hour." In USA, they are exempt, and have to work a minimum of 40 hours, usually slightly more. Most hourly jobs do not pay well, and do not give you the option for overtime regularly, and frequently give 30 hours to avoid giving full time benefits.

      There is no mystery here that requires the input of an economist to solve. Obvious statistics answers it. The explanations apply to a very small percentage.

    11. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by phantomfive · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Maybe, but I know what it's like to live with dirt floors, without any running water or even a well in your yard. You can check it out, but in all likelihood you are probably already in the 1%, so yeah you are rich.

      Yeah, your rent is higher, but you are probably so rich you turn on the faucet and pour potable water down the drain waiting for it to heat up, without even thinking about it. Most likely you have carpet or wood floors, not concrete or dirt. If you live somewhere hot in the US, you probably have air conditioning. You probably have a car. You probably never worry about not having enough food. You can go on vacation in Hawaii if you feel like it.

      If you have a median US college degree income and you don't feel rich, it's only because you've gotten used to the feeling of being rich, just like we've all gotten used to the feeling of electric lighting, but that is magical.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    12. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by scamper_22 · · Score: 1

      Only the super super mega wealthy rich don't really work hard... and even that is purely based on my imagination of how they live.

      Every other person from executives down to managers down to the middle class workers works damn hard. It's one of the reasons I've often turned down the management path. I saw my old managers and I thought, that is not my life.

      It's one of the reasons it is very hard to say raise taxes. People are working so damn hard. 50+ hour week, deadlines, no security... and people want to take more of their money to give it to people who often work less. Then they're often pushed to even work harder to keep up their living or generate more profits...

      We could certainly become more leftist, but that has to start with the middle class/rich workers. More vacation time. More job security. Less overtime... This makes people more amenable to then providing other programs and higher taxes and what not.

      But the way things stand right now. It's pretty crazy.
      Automation, computing... should be having us working less, job sharing...
      We should not be having a smaller and smaller group of highly educated folks working harder and harder to support the welfare state. It's almost mathematically impossible at this point.

    13. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by NIK282000 · · Score: 1

      Actually I went right into trades as an electrician (the diagnostic and repair type, not the 'put a plug in your bathroom' type). No student loans for me!

      --
      Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all
    14. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by taiwanjohn · · Score: 3, Insightful

      This issue is far too complex to express in a single variable such as hours worked. The poor have less access to child care, for example, and are more likely to be in single-parent households. Recall the woman (Charlene Dill) who died in Florida a few weeks ago? Much has been said on the left and right about her case (because she fell into the insurance "donut hole" created by Florida's refusal to accept federal money to expand Medicare) but the fact remains she was working 3 part-time jobs trying to make ends meet, while trying to raise 3(?) kids on her own. That's a tough row to hoe, by any standard.

      And her story is hardly unique in these times. Real wages have been flat for three decades, while worker productivity has steadily risen over the same period. Meanwhile, CEO pay is through the roof, corporate earnings are better than ever, and effective tax rates on corporations and the wealthy elites are lower than ever. There is no longer any room for doubt that we are living in a plutocracy, not a democracy. And according to a recent NASA study, that is a prime indicator that we are a society on the brink of collapse.

      These factors can lead to collapse when they converge to generate two crucial social features: "the stretching of resources due to the strain placed on the ecological carrying capacity"; and "the economic stratification of society into Elites [rich] and Masses (or "Commoners") [poor]" These social phenomena have played "a central role in the character or in the process of the collapse," in all such cases over "the last five thousand years."

      ...

      Elite wealth monopolies mean that they are buffered from the most "detrimental effects of the environmental collapse until much later than the Commoners", allowing them to "continue 'business as usual' despite the impending catastrophe." The same mechanism, they argue, could explain how "historical collapses were allowed to occur by elites who appear to be oblivious to the catastrophic trajectory (most clearly apparent in the Roman and Mayan cases)."

      ...

      "While some members of society might raise the alarm that the system is moving towards an impending collapse and therefore advocate structural changes to society in order to avoid it, Elites and their supporters, who opposed making these changes, could point to the long sustainable trajectory 'so far' in support of doing nothing."

      --
      XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve your problem, you're not using enough of it. --AC
    15. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Maybe, but I know what it's like to live with dirt floors, without any running water or even a well in your yard.

      Good to know.

      You can check it out, but in all likelihood you are probably already in the 1% [globalrichlist.com], so yeah you are rich.

      The top 5% by dollar value...except that I'm 99% that the figure is way off. Why? Because if you include just the EU and USA populations, that amounts to ~11% of the world population and I know with great certainty I don't make above average wages for those groups. Beyond that, if I try going by wealth, I'm close to ~37% but again that's in dollar values. In a pragmatic sense, a person from Ghana making $0.08/hr who only buys locally and subsists off their wages...subsists off their wages. Their living conditions may be improvable in a number of ways and that would require higher wages, but a large part of the difference of the poorest in the US and a worker in Ghana as far as wages go is simple cost of living. Now, if you want to talk about improving the standard of living in Ghana to be on par with the poorest in the US, that's a whole other discussion.

      Yeah, your rent is higher, but you are probably so rich you turn on the faucet and pour potable water down the drain waiting for it to heat up, without even thinking about it.

      And we should have running water in every home in the world. That we don't has a lot more to do with a lack of governmental organization, often backed by societies which believes that potable water is a luxury that only "hard" workers deserve.

      Most likely you have carpet or wood floors, not concrete or dirt.

      True enough. Then again, I don't think it'd even be legal to have a dirt floor as per building codes. And if it were concrete, I'd do like most do and buy/make rugs to cover space as I could.

      If you live somewhere hot in the US, you probably have air conditioning.

      True enough, although electric fans are more often used. Meanwhile, in Japan there's much more consideration about energy conservation (even before the whole Fukushima thing) and hand fans, ice, etc to stay cool. I don't think it's a simple matter of a metric of poor. Oh, and a lot of the places that are poor are constantly hot, so consider how most the US would behave on having to leave their air conditions on near year round.

      You probably have a car.

      No car.

      You probably never worry about not having enough food.

      Due to government programs. I couldn't rely upon charity alone.

      You can go on vacation in Hawaii if you feel like it.

      Not entirely impossible, but it'd have to be during a scheduled shutdown of the company--so, only perhaps a weeks notice to plan the vacation--and it'd take up one or two years of savings.

      If you have a median US college degree income and you don't feel rich, it's only because you've gotten used to the feeling of being rich, just like we've all gotten used to the feeling of electric lighting, but that is magical.

      Well, I don't have a median US college degree income. Nor do I feel rich. Nor do I want to feel rich. You see, there's more than just "rich" and "poor". Or, at least, there used to be. There used to be various degrees of "well off". Median US college degree income is "well off". "Well off" are capable of saving for years of hardship. Rich never have to work (beyond perhaps a dozen years total). Rich can burn through money in the most opulent of ways and still live a comfortable retirement. Even the most "well off" could be wiped out through a serious of unlucky events. Most of all because "well off" need to keep working and hardship tends to interfere with work.

      The point, of course, is that when you frame the discussion about the poorest

    16. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by phantomfive · · Score: 2

      So, lets talk less about how rich Americans are and how we as a world should make everyone rich. Of course to that end, it'd probably help to figure out why Americans are so materially rich and so much of the world is so materially poor. A big hint is, it isn't because a person in the US making minimum wage works 90x as hard or smart or whatever as a worker in Ghana.

      Let me guess, your solution is that the 'rich' should be made 'poorer?'

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    17. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by s.petry · · Score: 1

      Exactly this!

      Strange to me how the middle class has become almost non-existent today, and the term rich has been changed to include the survivors of the destruction of the middle class. Sure, I'm rich to someone making 15,000/yr but I'm not 'rich' by any stretch of the imagination.

      I see this piece as an attempt to keep average people pitted against each other while ignoring the real problem. This link is from 2007, and disparity has been increasing for the last 40 years. In the 70s the US ranked 26th for fairness in wealth distribution. Today it's ranked the the worst of all the developed countries in the world, including Russia who we like to talk shit about. Another source just in case you are not sure what keywords to search for to find data.

      We are often falsely told that the top 1% pay most of the taxes in the US, and that is another piece of trash propaganda which is just another fabrication to keep people from looking at the real problem.

      --

      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    18. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by 517714 · · Score: 1

      Not a recent NASA study, a NASA funded study. NASA, notably, didn't put their stamp of approval on it - in all likelihood because the authors did not reach their conclusions through proper methodology. A "thought experiment" is not suitable for reaching conclusions, only for developing a hypothesis. In other words, it is a complete fabrication presented as having some scientific basis and misrepresented as being the conclusions of a respected governmental and scientific body.

      --
      The US government have made it clear that we have no inalienable rights; any we do not defend vigorously will be taken.
    19. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by bayankaran · · Score: 2

      There is no longer any room for doubt that we are living in a plutocracy, not a democracy. And according to a recent NASA study, that is a prime indicator that we are a society on the brink of collapse.

      US might be a plutocracy, but not a society about to collapse.
      US has a great middle class, and even with the current crises, they are yet to get into lower class/poor. And even when you are poor, you don't starve.
      Unless a huge shift occurs and the current middle class starts starving the collapse you are worried about won't happen.
      The Arab spring occurred in countries where the middle class was not really strong - in numbers and social indicators. In Tunisia a man self immolated out of the tragic circumstances of not being able to feed his family. This seminal event kickstarted the uprising.
      Saudi Arabia for all purposes is ripe for spring cleaning, but the middle class gets a lot of handouts from the rulers and they get fat and lazy. So there will be a lot of diabetes and heart attacks, not society collapsing.

      --
      Tat Tvam Asi
    20. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by jc42 · · Score: 1

      If all you need to be rich is a college degree, then hot damn I'm already rich!

      Heh. My first reaction was "If you have to work at all, you're not rich."

      The "rich" they're talking about are what most of us call upper-middle class.

      I've read several explanations of why most of the US's truly rich pay no income tax. The reason can be summarized by merely observing that little or none of the money they have or receive legally qualifies as "income".

      --
      Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
    21. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by dontbgay · · Score: 1

      If it's to the detriment to society on the whole, why not? Honest question. None of that "slippery slope" nonsense.

      If your foot had inoperable cancer, would you let the cancer grow? Or would you cut it off?

      --
      Sig not found.
    22. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by taiwanjohn · · Score: 1

      Not a recent NASA study, a NASA funded study.

      I stand corrected. OTOH, pretty much any study in economics is not much more than a "thought experiment", no? But when you look at the observable facts, there's no doubt that inequality has been steadily rising for decades, alongside increasing influence of "big money" on politics (and not just in the USA). So I contend that the point about plutocracy stands. And if the NASA-funded findings about collapse are, perhaps, a bit sensational, they don't strike me as nonsensical or unexpected.

      --
      XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve your problem, you're not using enough of it. --AC
    23. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm doing pretty well for being in my mid 30s, and by income I'm in the top 0.08% but in wealth I'm only in the top 6.10%. Does that tell me I'm not doing enough saving of my income (which I highly doubt because I live on less than half of what I make), that there are super rich people in the world who's incomes aren't considered by the algorithm, or something else?

    24. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by nnull · · Score: 1

      As a business owner, I work longer hours than all my employees. They always complain about their 8 hour work day when I'm sitting in the office every day for more than 14 hours a day working to get clients for all of them to even have a job.

    25. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That is the only way unless the poor can start getting the skills needed to move up the ladder Obama and the progressives are interested in taking more from the successful and giving it to the not successful . I define it that way because people have low income for many reason. Some of it is laziness , sometimes they could not focus on school because they did not feel secure in their house(you will be surprised at the story of sexual abuse, mother not giving two craps about child etc), people who are sick with various issues, they live in an area with no economic activity or just that they are new to the country without the needed skills or language .

      the funny part of all this is that there are very few if any "starving people" in the USA. There are some that live day to day without the security of having a stock of food in the house but there is always a place to eat. This is especially true in the city. Those who make nice livings off running food programs for the poor greatly overstate the facts. You walk into the local supermarket near the projects in Brooklyn and you see people on food stamps buying tv dinners for $2 plus dollars for a little food when they can buy a dozen eggs for $1.69 and eat for days. The progressives in NYC rant on and on about how the "poor" should eat the same way as the "rich" Heck my dad paid for 3 kids through college (public but still good) by shopping for sales, not eating out and saving his money. My dad never made more than $45k in salary and my mom worked part time.

      The problem is from a political prospective is that the conservatives raise tons of cash with cut taxes at all cost message and the liberals want to paint a picture of the rich making everyone else poor. Both sides are missing the point that we already spend tons on education and support for out people and the problem sometimes is not one of money. The money we do spend is spent poorly without proper controls.

      In education in NYC, the teachers and administrators are powerless to place students in the proper classes without parent consent. Children learn at different rates. If we identify a student that is learning disabled(through testing, teacher observation and Psychologist recommendation) we can not place the child in the proper program. These children often stay in regular classes but are only required to learn 40% of the work to get promoted. They then cause major problems in the classroom. To make things more EQUAL they emptied all the special education schools into regular classes. The reason stated was that one 1 in 5 students in special education schools graduate high school. I had 3 kids in my class that had a hard time understanding the concept of halves and wholes even though I modeled it with real life objects(3rd grade understanding) . These children would repeatedly be a distraction to the class.Do you blame him he understood nothing of the algebra topics I was teaching. All the students in the class suffered.

    26. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by Ozymandias_KoK · · Score: 1

      An article saying that $100k+ earners pay 72% of federal taxes doesn't at all tell you what the top 1% pay, you know. They're in that same group and those numbers don't say if a subset of the $100k+ earners pays a higher fraction or not.

    27. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by s.petry · · Score: 1

      I realize that none of those articles state that exact verbiage, but if you read each you easily have enough information to back my claim.

      First, 100K earners are 'middle class' and have been for some time. This is not "new", 100K has been middle class since the 90s for family income. The extreme upper middle class in the 90s I'll agree, but not "rich" people.

      * The top 10% earners on average have seen a 346% income increase and at the same time a 48% income tax decrease since 2007 Those are the tax laws, not the offshore safe havens so we don't have actual numbers. In other words, at least a 48% tax reduction. The top 1% dwarfs the growth in income and corresponding tax reductions seen by the other 9% out of the top 10%.

      If the 100K plus earners (which includes middle class) pay 72% of the income tax yet the top 10% are paying 48% less income tax, where is the difference coming from? It sure as hell is not the million dollar club, but the upper middle class tax payers with the burden.

      --

      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    28. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In this case, college educated people do tend to make up more of the upper and upper middle classes, so it is not a terrible proxy measurement.

      How do you know this?

    29. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      I honestly have no idea what you just said. It seems rather rambling.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    30. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      You're probably too young to have saved much. Or yeah, maybe you aren't saving much, but a lot of people who are close to retirement have a ton saved up.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    31. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Well, now you are asking a question about a hypothetical situation.

      Why not? Because it's more productive to focus on making the poor richer. Build up, not tear down.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    32. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      By building up, you are tearing down. There's a name for it: "inflation." I'm sure I don't need to explain how, if you bring only the average up, those at the bottom are going to be far worse off, right? It's what's happening in my country - the averages are going up, those at the top are going up much, much faster than anyone else, and expenses are shooting up based on the averages, meaning the majority (60% are on part-time minimum wage in my town) are left freezing and starving for more than half the year.

    33. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe, but I know what it's like to live with dirt floors, without any running water or even a well in your yard.

      Well, it's illegal to have a house with dirt floors or running water in my country. I've never had the fortune to live in a house with a well in the yard.

      Yeah, your rent is higher, but you are probably so rich you turn on the faucet and pour potable water down the drain waiting for it to heat up, without even thinking about it.

      I do think about water heating up, because while I earn more than those living in Africa, I don't actually have enough to survive in my town. Literally, not figuratively. I get paid $120/week in a town where the average rent is about that, and the average winter temperature is 37.6-39.6. A few years ago, If I was really lucky I could choose between a little heat or a little food. Houses in this town have little insulation - a study about 10 years ago revealed that in the average house, 70% of heat is lost before a person is warmed. (Some Swedish researchers, who requested a copy of the data, thought it had been corrupted because the numbers were so outrageous.)

      Most likely you have carpet or wood floors, not concrete or dirt.

      Didn't you cover that one already? I did - it's illegal to have an earth floor in this country. People would die from the constant moisture dumped into their lungs.

      You probably have a car.

      Oh please! A few years ago, I couldn't even afford the bus. I had to walk everywhere. Now, I'm been fortunate enough to own a car, but keep reading and you'll see what a cock you're being.

      You probably never worry about not having enough food.

      In years gone by, when I had a higher income than I do now, I have gone through snow to sea level with shoes that have holes in the soles, jeans that have plenty of large holes, jackets that aren't waterproof. I've lived without food for days at a time, had a meal (and a warm house) due to the kindness of friends and family, then no more food for a few more days. At one point, I was eating maybe two meals a week. Right now, if I'm lucky I get two meals a day.

      You can go on vacation in Hawaii if you feel like it.

      Never, in my life, have I been able to dream of a holiday in Hawaii. Only once in my life (adult) have I been on a holiday out of my town, because of the kindness of some relatives - I saved for about a year to spend 36 hours in another city, and still couldn't afford it until my grandmother gifted me $400 (which was the cost of the flights, and half of the accomodation). That was ten years ago. These days, if I'm really lucky, I have the coins in my pocket for a can of drink from a vending machine.

      f you have a median US college degree income and you don't feel rich, it's only because you've gotten used to the feeling of being rich, just like we've all gotten used to the feeling of electric lighting, but that is magical.

      You self-righteous piece of shit.

      I have a university degree and, in spite of your pleadings, I don't feel rich, and that's most certainly not because I'm used to the feeling of it. My earnings place me in the bottom 1% of my nation, which is a poor nation compared with Australia.

      The bottom 1%. Say it out loud, cunt, say it out loud.

      I have had a couple of good years, here and there - at one point, I was earning about $2/hour less than minimum wage (the minimum amount legally allowed). Fortunatley, I managed to save a little bit. Right now, I am not as lucky as I was then, but I am much, much luckier than I have been on average. (I would be much better off if my brother and my ex hadn't stolen a few thousand dollars each, both of them now the exceedingly wealthy who think they are no, who you rant about. One of them spend most of his money on

    34. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      By building up, you are tearing down. There's a name for it: "inflation.",

      Not really, when people are capable of producing more, then there is more for everyone. It is the opposite of inflation.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    35. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      So you're poor and you suck at life? What exactly do you want me to tell you? It's not like making a living is hard in Sweden, it's a good country.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    36. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, lets talk less about how rich Americans are and how we as a world should make everyone rich.

      Let me guess, your solution is that the 'rich' should be made 'poorer?'

      The pie enlarges. But more people take a slice. Yet their slice in monetary value shrinks compared to the few as the few are the end point of consumption. Yet everyone's slice of pie is enough for a lifetime.

      That's the US. Even the poor may live in relative comfort. And the rich, by dollar figures, are massively richer than they were in the past.

      So, it all comes down to how you define 'rich' and 'poorer'.

    37. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by Murasaki+Skies · · Score: 0

      Do you think Sweden "is a poor nation compared with Australia", or did you not read his post well?

      --
      Waiiii!!!!!! I have bad karma!
    38. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Sweden is not a poor nation compared to Australia

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    39. Re:That's a strange definition of "rich" by airdweller · · Score: 1

      Do they get paid the same amount as you do? Will they be paid the same as you in the future? Do they have the same amount of control over the company? Can they fire you for no reason whatsoever and hire somebody else? Can they write off your business expenditures as their own?

      "I'm sitting in the office every day for more than 14 hours a day working to get clients for all of them to even have a job."
      So, you're in it just so that those people could have jobs? How noble and generous of you.

  3. The definition of work has changed too by Enry · · Score: 1

    If I reply to an e-mail or write code at night, is that considered work? It's not like I can serve McDonald's or sweep floors or tighten a bolt just after waking up and rolling out of bed. I had yesterday off (I'm in MA) but still put in a few hours of work because there was stuff I wanted to get done.

    1. Re:The definition of work has changed too by Katatsumuri · · Score: 1

      If you are a freelancer, or one of the company owners/founders, and you do that because that's how you prefer to spend your time, then it's up to you whether you count it as work.

      If you have to do this because of your manager's expectations or peer pressure, when you would prefer to do other things, then yes, I would say it counts as work.

      And yes, a lot of our modern "work" is not as physically straining as the jobs 100 years ago, but it is still work, and it may be hard and stressful sometimes.

      The troubling situation is when the top management expects from their employees the level of commitment that only makes sense for the owners with much higher stakes and potential pay-off.

  4. Hourly versus Salary by cgfsd · · Score: 1

    Most of the higher paying jobs tend to be salary, which 40 or 50 hours pays the same.
    Companies are cutting back on overtime, so the lower paying jobs are kept at 40 hours or less.

    1. Re:Hourly versus Salary by Andy+Dodd · · Score: 5, Informative

      Probably even better-correlated than this:
      Jobs which require college degrees are almost always salaried, which provides no reward for working extra hours (but it's expected of you)
      Jobs which do not require college degrees are almost always hourly - which provides significant reward for working extra hours (but it's discouraged because it costs the company money)

      There are hourly non-degree jobs that can pay quite well nowadays. (Construction can actually be quite lucrative...)

      --
      retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
    2. Re:Hourly versus Salary by sycodon · · Score: 1

      Obamacare says full time is 30 hours. Look for the average hours to shrink further as more and more employers seek to avoid Obamacare costs.

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    3. Re:Hourly versus Salary by Nidi62 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Probably even better-correlated than this: Jobs which require college degrees are almost always salaried, which provides no reward for working extra hours (but it's expected of you) Jobs which do not require college degrees are almost always hourly - which provides significant reward for working extra hours (but it's discouraged because it costs the company money)

      There are hourly non-degree jobs that can pay quite well nowadays. (Construction can actually be quite lucrative...)

      This. I actually have a graduate degree but am currently working an hourly job (working my way up through the company). Topped out hourly wage (10 years) is over $4k a month, with OT coming out to around $30 an hour. Salaried management jobs start around $50 a year. So a topped out hourly worker with no OT makes about as much as a new salaried supervisor. I knew people not topped out pulling in $70-75k a year with OT (same as a supervisor at topped pay, and working about the same amount of time each week), and there are some hourly people topped out pulling in over $100k. And this job requires only a high school degree. I am actually up for a job right now that several of my coworkers are more capable for than me, but because it comes with a minimal pay increase (and a lot more stress) and they are topped out, it isn't even worth it for them to take as they can make more in 8 hours of OT than the job gives monthly in extra pay.

      --
      The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
    4. Re:Hourly versus Salary by SJHillman · · Score: 1

      Obamacare really deviated from the standard in this respect. I don't know of anything else that considers full time less than 35 hours (most are 37.5 or 40 hours).

    5. Re:Hourly versus Salary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      In the Netherlands everyone considers 32 hours to be full time. I work 32 hours.

      A normal work week is 40 hours. Employers must allow employees to work slightly less, 36 hours with reduced pay (1 day extra off every two weeks). Many employers allow 32 hour work week.

      To government has been actively pushing for a 32-36 hour work week, because on average this allows for 20% more people to be employed reducing, unemployment. Therefore government agencies and banks (in case of giving out loans) must see a 32 hour work week as full time employee.

    6. Re:Hourly versus Salary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As part of a cost savings measure, my company allows staff to reduce their work hours (and pay) to as low as 28 hrs/week while retaining full time status... This works nicely for salaried employees, since what would have been unpaid overtime becomes comp time. Everyone wins: the company saves some money, staff are more relaxed, and those that really need the full 40 hours of pay can still get it (as opposed to random people getting let go).

    7. Re:Hourly versus Salary by Shadow99_1 · · Score: 1

      For Pennsylvania (the state I live in) Full Time is 30-40 hours with overtime required after 40 as an hourly employee. However for benefit purposes benefits are rarely paid for less than 35 hours per week of work. This means most jobs will be 35-40 hours/week (full time) or sub 30 hours/week (part time) with nothing really in between.

      I have worked full time with benefits in my state quite extensively, as well as multiple times below thirty hours a week without benefits. Part time has always sucked and my state is one that has not increased medicare to match the minimum federal aid levels for 'obamacare'. So I know several people working part time now that cannot get health care form the state and also do not meet the minimum for help from the federal government. It's a horrible position to be in.

      --
      we are all invisible unless we choose otherwise
    8. Re:Hourly versus Salary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I consider 30 full time, as at that point you can not reasonably take two jobs and expect to stay within standard business hours. If the feds start adopting 30 hours as the standard, and start doing 2 shifts to get a 12 hour spread over a day (which is more reasonable nowadays), it would filter out into the economy at large. Couple this with the states putting a crackdown on Salaried overtime, it would close the loophole that is eating alot of the middle class. If the Germans and the Japanese can do this (the gold standard for productive, hard working countries), then why can't Americans?

  5. The rich? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So people with degrees are classified as "the rich" now? Akin to the aristocracy featured in Downton Abbey. What a load of garbage.

  6. It makes sense by wjcofkc · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Often part of being poor means having your hours cut on top of already low pay.

    --
    Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
    1. Re:It makes sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wouldn't want those useless takers getting heath insurance, overtime, sick time, vacation time, or anything approaching a regular schedule. It just makes them uppity...

  7. "Working" by Dancindan84 · · Score: 4, Funny

    This submission brought to you by someone who's probably reading /. when they're supposed to be working.

    --
    "Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." - Oscar Wilde
  8. Most people considered Poor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    80 Percent Of U.S. Adults Face Near-Poverty, Unemployment: Survey
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/28/poverty-unemployment-rates_n_3666594.html

    Its not that the "rich" (college educated) are working longer, it that they are now "poor" and don't have a choice.

  9. College degree != rich by BitZtream · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Anyone who thinks it does is pretty ignorant. I don't really care what your definition of rich is.

    --
    Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
    1. Re:College degree != rich by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...I don't really care what your definition of rich is.

      Unless my definition of rich is having a college degree.

  10. Never was the class of Leisure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Aside from pissant children who inherit their parent's fortunes, the people who made themselves rich (lottery aside) through working never were the class of leisure, working less hours. I don't care where the author of this article got their facts, but I know it takes work to make money. And the rich typically DO work more, and always HAVE worked more than the lazy people who don't.

    1. Re:Never was the class of Leisure by Sarten-X · · Score: 1

      In a previous job, I've worked directly with and for multi-millionaires, and this is pretty close to right. Perhaps it was just my employer's clientele, but I've rarely seen anyone as dedicated to their professions. It was not uncommon for our office to get calls from 7AM to 11PM from a single client working on a project. For many of our richest clients, the idea of "off the clock" was something that everyone else cared about.

      It helps that most of our clients had enough money to choose their profession, so their work was usually their passion. Interestingly, that was partly what led me to quit that job, and move my career closer to the kind of work I would do for fun.

      --
      You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
    2. Re:Never was the class of Leisure by PortHaven · · Score: 1

      It takes three things to make money:

      1. Work
      2. Ability/Skill
      3. Luck

      Without all three, you do NOT get rich.

    3. Re:Never was the class of Leisure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      More accurately it's:
      1. Work/drive
      2. Ability/skill
      3. Opportunity

      It is possible to make your own opportunities, but it'a a lot easier to luck your way into them by being born to a wealthy family or befriending someone who was (most of why college was correlated with success historically was because if you got in and weren't already rich hanging out with a bunch of rich people gave you a chance to befriend them). Also a lot of what people call "luck" in business is recognizing opportunity when you see it, and looking for opportunities in unexpected places.

    4. Re:Never was the class of Leisure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've seen something like the opposite at several places that I've worked.

      At my last job, I remember getting into work an hour before most of the people in my timezone because they needed someone to support my area while my boss would come in an hour later than most of the people in his timezone (which was one timezone over from mine, so he would come in 2 hours after I would). And in the summer, most of the time if I was looking for an approval for something at 4PM (my time), he was usually found on the baseball field (I did not work for any kind of baseball team).

      So even if I was working normal hours, he was working about half the time that I was unless you consider that he was "on-call" when others were actually working. And I'm 90% sure he would've been considered rich and I would generally not be.

    5. Re:Never was the class of Leisure by PortHaven · · Score: 1

      It is also possible to have 1 & 2, and never succeed in opportunity. In fact, some of the greatest folks. Likely would not have been anything if not for #3.

      Steve Jobs is a great example, without #3 (Steve Wozniak), it is unlikely Steve Jobs would have gotten anywhere beyond mediocrity. The pairing of the two enabled success.

  11. "rich" jobs can be done from anywhere by alen · · Score: 1

    with telecommuting you can work from anywhere, including home

    VPN, Citrix, web apps all make it easy to work at home. plus side is you can pick your kids up from school and not pay for after school child care

  12. When you have 3 jobs by jmd · · Score: 1

    And have to ride the bus it's kind of hard to get those extra hours in the rich people do.

    1. Re:When you have 3 jobs by Stonent1 · · Score: 1

      Wait... If I understand this correctly you're saying "It's hard to get extra hours when you're busy working all the time" ?

    2. Re:When you have 3 jobs by PortHaven · · Score: 1

      Well the rich do it by including their commuting time as part of their "hours worked"

  13. Bye Slashdot by SoupGuru · · Score: 3, Funny

    Fuck you and your political baiting, libertarian fantasy world, clickbait, NON-TECH bullshit this last year.

    Where are the smart techies hanging out these days? I enjoy hearing them talk shop.

    --
    What doesn't kill you only delays the inevitable
    1. Re:Bye Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I find it hilarious that you believe slashdot is "libertarian". Sure you have a few people advocating smaller government here and there, and you will tend to notice them more if you don't believe in individual freedom yourself, but slashdot as a whole is OVERWHELMINGLY in favor of bigger government, not smaller government.

    2. Re:Bye Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But, Elon has an opinion, and wants his lackey's to share it. He pays them well.

      Tesla, bitcoin, 3d printing and Ron Paul! What else do you need peasant?

    3. Re:Bye Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They hang out on Beta /.?

      Develop it? Working long hours?!

    4. Re:Bye Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      SuperUser and StackOverflow chat.

    5. Re:Bye Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We are hanging out over at http://soylentnews.org/ Please feel welcome to join.

    6. Re:Bye Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All of the major political ideologies are wrong. That is the problem. Some aspects of all of them are very valid . A long as we argue ideology and not apply pragmatic proven approaches we will never see improvement just more decline

      Yes, we need to drastically cut the corporate tax rate and stop handing out special tax cuts to companies who pay the right person. The shale gas revolution that drastically cut energy costs is fact proven that lowering operating costs will being manufacturing jobs back big time. There is one chemical company who move a fully operational plant piece by piece and rebuilt in in the middle of shale gas country. Lowering US corporate tax rate to 15% from 35% would flood the use market with new jobs.

      Yes, the more money the gvt collects, the more it spends and spends Inefficiently. Look how much money the GVT spent on the many Obamacare websites alone

      Yes, we need to spend money on education to allow all Americans to move up in the world. And we need to have common standards throughout the nation.

      Yes we need to spend money on the social safety net programs

      We are spending a fortune fighting the race wars as if the only two races are black and white. A justice department funded study last money proclaimed that the NYC school system is the most segregated school system in the country. That is so laughable it is not funny. I teach a rainbow of kids. All races date and hang out with each other.

    7. Re:Bye Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      AC clearly meant Timothy, our glorious libertardian editor.

    8. Re:Bye Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      after the diaspora from R/Technology, R/Tech is doing pretty nice, though you run into your standard Meta stuff like all social media (slashdot is social media now, no way to sugar coat it). Just need to make sure it doesn't run into the R/Gaming and R/PCMasterRace issues of Meta warfare.

  14. Those lazy bums! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nah it just means that the 99% are a bunch of lazy bums who get what they deserve. Now if you don't mind, let me get back to my working vacation.

  15. What's that got to do with "rich"? by Opportunist · · Score: 2

    That article has more holes than my old socks, and it even smells way worse.

    Determining "rich" and "poor" by education is, well, rich. One could also say that the workload on college educated people went through the roof, while low skilled labour was laid off (which is one of the reasons why college boy gets to work overtime since he now has to write his own letters, clean his own desk and empty his own basket).

    Of course that results in way more leisure time for the uneducated. Hey, if you have no job, you have 24 hours of leisure time a day, beat that when you're employed!

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  16. Everything about this is garbage by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The summary is terrible, the article is even worse, and the quality of the article's citations is bottom of the barrel. It looks like it started off as an attempt to examine why people still work full-time in a post industrial era where machines have replaced a sizable portion of the workforce. Then they noticed that people who made more money tended to work more unpaid hours.

    Do not even think for a second that "the rich" (an undefined term in the summary and in the article) work longer hours than the poor. By the very definition of a rich man, it is implied he has the money to pay people to do the work for him.

  17. dog bites man by fche · · Score: 0

    Common sense alert: people who are well rewarded work hard for their rewards.

    1. Re:dog bites man by PortHaven · · Score: 1

      Realize the average blue collar worker picking up an extra 10-20 hours a week in the 70's, likely made $35,000 a year, equivalent today to $100,000.

      So actually no, the real thing is that when adjusted for inflation, we are likely making far less than yesteryear for the amoun of work we do.

    2. Re:dog bites man by oh_my_080980980 · · Score: 1

      Like the CFO for Yahoo? I think not....

    3. Re:dog bites man by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wages have remained nearly stagnant for 30+ years, while productivity continued to increase. The rich get richer, and the working class scum lose ground every day. The only saving grace is that this is a self-limiting transfer of all the wealth to the top 1%. At some point, there will be no middle class to continuously spend money (they don't have any to spare) to buy products to keep the economy going. It will be a nation of poor people picking over the bones of a carcass, long dead and rotted. At that point, the rich had better have a good security state in place to protect them. Oh, wait, they've already got that...

  18. In Other News by sycodon · · Score: 0, Troll
    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
  19. Work? lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Anybody who knows anything know that the rich don't work - they live off of the interest and dividends from their investments. The working class, that is people who work to survive, will never be able to save enough money to be able to stop working.

    The poor will always be poor and the rich will always be rich.

  20. Obamacare as a cause? by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 4, Informative

    I have more than a few friends on the low end of the pay scale who've been pushed down below 30 hours a week by their employers so their employers stay clear of Obamacare insurance mandates. (e.g., http://www.theguardian.com/wor... ) It usually comes across as a double-whammy: now they have less money in their pockets, and they're still up a creek in terms of health insurance.

    1. Re:Obamacare as a cause? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, the employer is freely choosing to cut hours out of their own motivation, they aren't being forced.

      Your friends should use their freedom to contract to demand higher pay to go with the reduced hours. That's the Lochner era solution, and if it was good enough for anybody but Oliver Wendell Holmes, then it's good enough for everybody.

    2. Re:Obamacare as a cause? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your friends should use their freedom to contract to demand higher pay to go with the reduced hours.

      Given how many people I know who are without any job and looking this solution is worthless. There is nowhere else to go and if they did leave then the company limiting their hours can simply hire the next person who desperately needs a job. I know plenty of people hurt by Obamacare. I know very few helped. It was a poorly put together law. It isn't socialized medicine at all: it's forced capitalism. Really: Who outside the US even knows what the term "open enrollment" means? We took a broken system and made it law.

    3. Re:Obamacare as a cause? by Jahta · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I doubt it. In the UK (where there is a well established public health system) employers have been getting increasingly fond of zero-hours contracts over the last few years. If you want to talk "double whammy", these contracts not only do not guarantee you any hours in any given week (hence the name) but you are usually contractually forbidden from working for anybody else; you are supposed to be always "on call". So you aren't working many hours, and you're poor. Oh brave new world!

    4. Re:Obamacare as a cause? by Xaedalus · · Score: 1

      Then support single payer. Or, support the move to divest health insurance from employment completely.

      --
      Here's to hot beer, cold women, and Glaswegian kisses for all.
    5. Re:Obamacare as a cause? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As I said, that's the Lochner era solution, and if it was good enough for anybody but Oliver Wendell Holmes, then it's good enough for everybody.

      I wouldn't know who you know, but there are millions of people who not have health insurance that didn't. But you're right, the ACA it's not socialized medicine at all, have you told the Republican party about this? Apparently much of their rhetoric is invalid!

    6. Re:Obamacare as a cause? by Person147 · · Score: 1

      And they still get free healthcare at point of delivery.

    7. Re:Obamacare as a cause? by mjwx · · Score: 1

      Then support single payer. Or, support the move to divest health insurance from employment completely.

      This,

      It's not rocket science, as long as employers have power over their employees health insurance, they'll find ways to avoid their commitments. Especially when the employees are poor (cant afford lawyers) and unionism is demonised.

      Other countries have managed to create working health care systems which involve both public and private sources but don't depend on an employer. Giving your employer power over something as important as health care is tantamount to indentured servitude.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    8. Re:Obamacare as a cause? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And previous to the ACA, they were likely kept below a 35 hour work week so the corporate welfare collecting company could offload the cost of their employees' health care onto the state and federal governments. The problem isn't health care, it's the corporations and the subhuman filth that run them.

  21. im seriously supposed to believe this?! by nimbius · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Poor people may only work 20 hours per week, but i assure you its not fucking apathetic leisure they revel in. These hours have been intentionally redacted by large multinational corporations so as to create a permanent underclass of part time workers that is forced to take on two or three jobs in order to create a normal work week capable of sustaining basic rent and food. their total time spent at different jobs can easily total more than 50 hours per week. They spend long, odd hours standing at bus terminals waiting on neutered public transit systems to get them to starbucks after they work their walmart shift and then later, hopefully, back to mcdonalds to their fry cook job. their 'downtime' is sometimes spent figuring out how to balance getting their kids clothed and their bills paid without taking food off the table.

    The economist is so detatched from the concept of poverty and the culture of indentured servitude in the service sector of the United States as to be bad comedy.

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
    1. Re:im seriously supposed to believe this?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Or Obamacare made the cost of a working doing 31 hours a week twice as much as one working 29 hours a week.

      Now who is it again forcing a permanent underclass reliant on food stamps and welfare?

    2. Re:im seriously supposed to believe this?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I work 32 hours a week (by choice), barely make 32,000/year gross, and yet I still manage to save about 25% of my net take-home pay each year. Sure, I could work "harder" so that I could afford a monthly car payment, a big-screen TV (plus cable), daily take-out lunch, and countless other "neccessities" like the rest of the lower-middle class, but by now you probably understand that I'm not the typical American. Why not? Because I've decided, directly against the American culture, that my time is worth more to me than any of those luxuries.

    3. Re:im seriously supposed to believe this?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're attributing something to Obamacare that was true before the ACA was ever put into law. Full time employees get benefits, benefits cost money, no full time employees, no benefits.

    4. Re:im seriously supposed to believe this?! by sribe · · Score: 3, Informative

      These hours have been intentionally redacted by large multinational corporations so as to create a permanent underclass of part time workers that is forced to take on two or three jobs in order to create a normal work week capable of sustaining basic rent and food. their total time spent at different jobs can easily total more than 50 hours per week.

      While that used to be the case, it's not any more. Now most of those low-paying low-hour jobs are in retail, and schedules change weekly based on projected customer traffic, so workers are told with only a few days' notice which hours they will be expected to work in the coming week, and if they don't show up for those hours, they are fired. In other words, the large multinationals have now succeeded in rigging the game such that these people CANNOT hold multiple jobs any more. Working your ass off at 3 jobs in order to improve your financial position is now literally impossible for many people.

    5. Re:im seriously supposed to believe this?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Companies have been doing this for decades, the ACA (while shitty) has almost nothing to do with it other than as a bullshit excuse Republicans like to spew.

    6. Re:im seriously supposed to believe this?! by asylumx · · Score: 1

      Given the numbers you provided, you make over $19/hr. You are working class, not lower class.

    7. Re:im seriously supposed to believe this?! by ausekilis · · Score: 1

      Exactly this. I've known more than one person struggling to make ends meet and have heard a number of stories of places like Wal-Mart intentionally limiting a persons hours to avoid having to pay health care or benefits for their employees. Regardless of that employees needs or desires, they may only get 15-20 hours a week. I take it the Economist hasn't looked at other news lately and seen mothers shoplifting school supplies and clothing for their kids.

    8. Re:im seriously supposed to believe this?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The point is that I am only earning 32,000 gross per year, regardless of how many hours I work per week, and yet I still manage to save 25% of my take-home pay each year. The overwhelming majority of singles at the same income level are spending MORE than their take-home pay each year, which of course means they have saddled themselves with debt, which of course means they have decided to place material possessions at the highest priority.

    9. Re:im seriously supposed to believe this?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The people not supporting a single-payer tax system, namely, the Republicans,

    10. Re:im seriously supposed to believe this?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Good troll, off topic though.
      Whether it is International Corporations, Obamacare, or the Illuminati, nimbus was talking about how the non-work hours of the poor are *not* the same as the leisure time of the rich.

    11. Re:im seriously supposed to believe this?! by meta-monkey · · Score: 2

      I wouldn't necessarily say "succeeded at rigging the game." More likely, they've made better use of data they have available to optimally schedule workers. I can't blame them...it's not Wal-Mart's responsibility to make sure you can work a second job.

      The game is indeed rigged, but in this one instance I don't think it was intentional.

      --
      We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
    12. Re:im seriously supposed to believe this?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Very true but what led them to only being able to work these crummy jobs!! That is the questions we must address going forward..

      It is not all corporate America's fault. Blame goes many places

      high taxes and unreasonable union demands. The UAW goes on strike every time GM has a hot model coming out. IN NYC a cookie factory paying $23 an hour was loosing money due to new competition that offered better quality cookies at the same price . They asked the union to change work rules that would save money and reduce the pay to $20 an hour. The union went on strike and now 600 low skilled workers are out of work and working a McD's
      Save the planet laws that go too far - I think coal is not good but where are all the coal miners going to work.

      lack of proper skill set
      lack of knowledge of better job prospects in other parts of the country
      lack of a supportive family framework that works together
      Education system with it's priorities mixed up (I am a teacher and yes there are bad teachers)

      If you live in an area where there is no jobs you must be willing to move where the jobs are. And you don't have to always like your job. My friend is unemployed collecting unemployment insurance because he only want to take the perfect job.

    13. Re:im seriously supposed to believe this?! by asylumx · · Score: 1

      No, the point is that you think $32k is not a lot of money, and I know plenty of people who would feel rich if they were making a solid $32k right now. Your anecdote falls short. In 2004, I was married, my wife didn't work, and yet we were able to afford our own house, two cars, food, and student loans on only about $27k/yr gross and still had room for extra things like a decent TV or upgrades to the house. $32k income for a single person may not be rich, but it's not even close to poverty. The top of this thread is talking about the poor. You are not poor.

      In addition to all that, many people in these situations were not as fortunate as you and I were to be taught how to manage our money. When they do get a little bit ahead, you see them blow the extra money on something stupid instead of socking it away in case something happens, or trying to eliminate a debt (and therefore a payment).

    14. Re:im seriously supposed to believe this?! by sribe · · Score: 1

      The game is indeed rigged, but in this one instance I don't think it was intentional.

      I agree that particular outcome was probably not a goal, at least not a primary one. But it was predictable and they certainly do not care about the effect on workers.

    15. Re:im seriously supposed to believe this?! by strikethree · · Score: 1

      These hours have been intentionally redacted by large multinational corporations so as to create a permanent underclass of part time workers that is forced to take on two or three jobs in order to create a normal work week capable of sustaining basic rent and food.

      And it shows that YOU are out of touch as well... but at least you appear to care. The long and short of it is that they CAN'T work 3 jobs because each 20 hour employer varies the schedule wildly from week to week in an attempt to keep the 20 hour employee from working any other jobs.

      Why does an employer care if you have another job outside of your 20 hours? I would assume it is to ensure that your other commitments do not interfere with the job they hired you for. I really do not know... but it is absolutely fucking evil. Either pay enough for a person to live or schedule them reliably so they can work another job too.

      --
      "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
  22. Educated =/= rich by bravecanadian · · Score: 1

    Being educated doesn't make you rich.

    It is not news that people are being required to do more so that the real rich people don't have to hire more workers --- this way they can keep more for themselves!

    The actual rich people that I know do very little if any productive work. They do spend a lot of time talking, delegating all actual work, and pretending they are very smart, though.

  23. Working 62 hours a week, still in debt by nucrash · · Score: 2

    Currently I work around 62 hours a week with a 45 minute a day commute. Presently I consume more than 72 hours of my week either working, traveling to or from work.

    So... when do I get the money? I suppose I could get an extra job on the weekends and see if I could get a full 80 hours a week, but for right now, from 6:30AM to 11:30PM, Monday through Thursday and 6:30AM to 4:00PM on Friday, I am pretty damned busy.

    Not rich by any standard. Have a used car, 60 year old 800 sq ft home, no wife, no kids.

    How others do it on less, I don't know.

    --
    Place something witty here
    1. Re:Working 62 hours a week, still in debt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How others do it on less, I don't know.

      They don't. The article seems like complete bullshit. The description of your situation matches what I know from most of the people I know. The ones who aren't looking for work. The situation for almost all workers has gotten worse in recent history, not better. There are simply less jobs (and natural resources) to go around to an ever increasing population with highly concentrated wealth.

      I don't see how the current trend can extrapolate much longer.

    2. Re:Working 62 hours a week, still in debt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They buy less Oxy

    3. Re:Working 62 hours a week, still in debt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You have a 45 minute commute and live in an 800sq ft home? What the heck do you do for a living that is paying you so poorly?

    4. Re:Working 62 hours a week, still in debt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      An 800 square foot home here in Los Angeles starts (fixer-upper) around $700-800k. So, it might not be how much his salary is, but what the cost of living is.

    5. Re:Working 62 hours a week, still in debt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So you are an idiot? I'm not sure what your point is.

  24. In the US, Rich Now Work Longer Hours Than the Poo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Rubbish

  25. Article is utter garbage. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is an incredibly bad article. The middle class work more than the poor, and the rich work far less than either. The poor would be working more, except for lack of employment options.

    I was going to write a long post, but that's really it.

    1. Re:Article is utter garbage. by PortHaven · · Score: 1

      Mod Up

  26. Middle Class != Rich by PortHaven · · Score: 1

    Okay, first off, if we're talking college educated salaried middle-class workers. We are NOT talking the RICH.

    We're talking about those who basically, live near the same quality of life as the working class, except they receive no government assistance, and basically have more assurances and insurances (ie: have newer cars, have basic life insurance policies, have health insurance, etc). And get to take a vacation once a year.

    That's NOT rich...

    ***

    The rich, are working less and less. I remember reading an account of a wealthy 1% lambasting how many hours he had to work and how that was why he was rich.

    He logged as time worked: his commute, his time at the gym (must look professional folks), business lunches, dinners, and cocktails (that's right, eating and drinking on company dime is so so so much work - mind you, even when an average joe worker has a company dinner such as a retirement party. That time is on your dime, no pay, deducted from your hours.) By the time I extracted all the lame and weird add-ons, the guy basically was working 35 hours a week at best.

    That is the "rich"...

    1. Re:Middle Class != Rich by bigpat · · Score: 1

      Heck it isn't even true anymore that getting a bachelor's degree guarantee's that you will receive a middle income salary. At least not a salary that will allow you to live a middle class lifestyle unless your parents were already rich.

    2. Re:Middle Class != Rich by PortHaven · · Score: 1

      I have a friend who graduated with a social work degree. Discovered, there are lots of jobs, but none that pay. (Wife and I shook our heads seeing an ad for a social work position requiring a masters, it offered $35K salary - how do you live on that, let alone pay off a masters?)

      So my friend went back to school for nursing. Senior year she failed a class for a second time. *boop* Out of the program. Now stuck with a ton of student loans she'll never be able to pay.

      Colleges are protected their from bad business practices. They might as well rape and pillage the young.

  27. A few reasons for this... by erp_consultant · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Many of the people I work with might be called "high achievers". Whether it is work or school or sports, these people tend to work the hardest and get the best results. Being the best at something requires a commitment - not only of effort but of time. So they work overtime. Not because they are expected to but because they want to. For them the reward is not the overtime pay but the satisfaction in knowing that they have put forth their best effort.

    As others have mentioned, non-degree jobs are often hourly. So any overtime has to be approved. There is a direct link between pay and performance. So you may tend to see fewer people working "off the clock" in these sorts of occupations.

    Personally, I'm in a college educated job but with an hourly rate rather than salary. I have been salaried before and I prefer hourly. Why? Because it is my observation that many companies take advantage of salaried by asking them to work overtime without any compensation. You might get some vague promise of "we'll take care of you down the road" but that rarely pans out.

    To the high achievers I would say this: If you want to work all kinds of overtime because it makes you feel better then knock yourself out. Just don't expect everyone else to follow the same path. Some of us have other priorities.

    1. Re:A few reasons for this... by PortHaven · · Score: 1

      Please note this guy is a consultant, so take his claims with a grain of salt. ;-)

  28. No, That's incorrect... by PortHaven · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You're evaluating the middle income as equivalent as the middle class. This is incorrect thinking.

    Middle Class is not the middle of average income, it is the class level in the middle of the working/incomed classes. To explain further, what you are saying is like stating the top 33% of of Americans are the rich, the middle 33% the middle class, the bottom 33% the working poor class.

    With that logic, the income gap between someone in the working poor and the rich class is a few tens of thousands. Clearly something is inaccurate with your logic. You're essentially saying a $75,000 income puts you into the rich category that includes folks earning $500K - $500 million a year.

    Classes are not defined by quantity, in other words, a feudal system had 3 classes. Peasants, Lords, and field lords (knights and such middle-class). In the break down, 95% or more fell into the peasantry.

    Likewise today,...

    Working Class is by far one of the largest.

    Middle Class is also large, but shrinking. Middle class is defined by a quality of life factor. Usually defined by owning home, reasonably functional somewhat newer vehicles, being able to take a moderate vacation (Disneyworld, international travel, cruise, etc, periodically), having a safety net, retirement accounts, etc. Upper end may have a small vacation home.

    Wealthy Class, usually has multiple homes, travels first class, may own private air or yachts, or other high end expensive recreational items in the $100K+ mark. Often do not have to do work, simply manage investments and resources. Often pays a low margin on taxes due to ability to maximize loopholes, capital gains, etc.

    1. Re:No, That's incorrect... by gx5000 · · Score: 2

      Thanks for saving me the time to express what SHOULD be common knowledge but, as we know, isn't for some strange reason.

      --
      End of Line.
    2. Re:No, That's incorrect... by aaarrrgggh · · Score: 1

      Moreover, Rich is defined by wealth/assets, not income. When people focus on income disparity they miss the real issue which is concentration of wealth. A smart wealthy person only has income to offset costs, and everything else just accumulates.

    3. Re:No, That's incorrect... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're essentially saying a $75,000 income puts you into the rich category that includes folks earning $500K - $500 million a year.

      And I would completely agree with that. My 5 bedroom 2 bath house will be paid off in about 6 more years (16 total). My wife and I have 4 kids, I'm the sole breadwinner, and make about $32,000 a year as a government employee.
      We're middle class. $75,000 is rich.

    4. Re:No, That's incorrect... by i+kan+reed · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Throughout history, the defining characteristic of the powerful versus the powerless has always been "works to earn a living" versus "Has others work to earn a living for them." I'm always hesitant to bring up that distinction in political discussions, because some disingenuous asshat will be inclined to pretend the meager(and temporary) social safety net the US provides is a living, which makes it impossible to actually discuss that separation.

      The key is, once your lifestyle is secure, you can fully focus your efforts on expansion, rather than maintenance, letting you play social climber, investor, or entrepreneur with much greater freedom. And that last one is a good thing, as long as the first two don't represent a rent-seeking upper class that threatens to topple the entire social structure of the nation.

    5. Re:No, That's incorrect... by Sarius64 · · Score: 2

      You must be living in Arkansas. $75,000 would barely pay the needs of a single person in southern California. You certainly wouldn't be able to afford that 5 bedroom house anywhere around here on that salary. $75K is nowhere near rich.

    6. Re:No, That's incorrect... by AlphaWolf_HK · · Score: 1

      Middle Class is also large, but shrinking. Middle class is defined by a quality of life factor. Usually defined by owning home, reasonably functional somewhat newer vehicles, being able to take a moderate vacation (Disneyworld, international travel, cruise, etc, periodically), having a safety net, retirement accounts, etc. Upper end may have a small vacation home.

      That's a very broad definition. I make less than $10,000 per year right now, yet all of that applies to me. No rich parents gave it to me either; rather I'm just VERY good at money management.

      For example, I drive in a 2005 Buick Regal that I got for some trivial amount some 5 years ago (I think $1,500?) It's a pretty damn nice car too. Sure it doesn't have an infotainment system, but I've never found myself needing one (my tablets and smartphones seem to do a better job at those tasks.) It's a salvage title car, but you'd never know that without looking at the paperwork, and I've never had to make any serious repairs to it. Once when I was in a fender bender, I had to drive a 2011 (or 2010? don't recall exact year) Dodge Sebring. Compared to my car, it was a piece of shit, yet it had a bluebook value some 8 times of what my car was. Strangely enough, people pay this money for those turds.

      Things like the above are all about money management; I spend very effectively.

      Often do not have to do work, simply manage investments and resources.

      That's not a very reasonable distinction. The jobs I've had rarely involve any physical work as they generally involve not much more than me simply making decisions and executing them. In the end, what's the difference?

      --
      Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK
    7. Re:No, That's incorrect... by Carewolf · · Score: 1

      That's not a very reasonable distinction. The jobs I've had rarely involve any physical work as they generally involve not much more than me simply making decisions and executing them. In the end, what's the difference?

      The difference is that you need a job. If your personal wealth were 20x your current income, you could earn that income in interest alone and never need to work (plus the tax would be much lower).

    8. Re:No, That's incorrect... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We also have to break out income levels by where you live. My friend and her spouse live in the Tampa Area. They make a combined salary between them of nearly $70k. They have two cars, a 2500 square foot house . I live in NYC. (before i got married) I made $75,000 as a teacher and had a junkie car and a crummy apartment . I live far worse they my friends in Florida do.

      Income does not make you who you are. It is the quality of your family relationships. Many people today want it all. What they want is much more than what so called middle class people did 30 years ago. 30 years ago people got married in their early to mid 20's. Saved for a down payment on a house. Bought a starter house. Drove Chevy's, Fords, Toyota's and Honda's. Today people spend as much as they can get away with. Save very little and many are participating in irresponsible behavior such as having kids with people who they are not in committed relationships with.

      If you removed all the non-married single parent mothers(never married) from the poverty rolls you will see that there is not as large a drop in the number of middle class people.

      The world has changed. As a teacher I can attest that many parents are still in dream land. They still think their kids can float through school and earn a good living when they graduate. Up until the implementation of the new Common Core Standards, we were teaching baby math to many middle school students. Combine that with the fact that many students would come into my class not knowing how to multiply (which i fixed by pulling them up out of lunch on my own time and have them write the multiplication tables 5 times each the correct way. 2* 5= 10 . Some professor thinks writing multiplication tables is punishment fyi) This has created 6 classes of people
        1) the silver spoons trust fund types
      2) The government elite. Either elected officials or political consultants
      3) College educated or small business owner who live responsible and save for the future.
      4) Overpaid protected union class with above market salaries. Many good people such as myself but the attitude of many is that they are more important than private sector workers
      5) The up and coming immigrant class who sometimes need advice on climbing the ladder. Many are very successful.
      6) The government subsidized class who are falling further and further behind. Their leaders are more interested in getting them more government subsidies then raising them up to productive members of society. Many of these people participate in high risk activities. 50% of these children in NYC schools have moderate to severe special education issues ranging from anger to developmental issues due to their parents poor habits during pregnancy and after birth(drug + alcohol, poor diet, beating etc.) very sad

    9. Re:No, That's incorrect... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "The key is, once your lifestyle is secure, you can fully focus your efforts on expansion, rather than maintenance, letting you play social climber, investor, or entrepreneur with much greater freedom. And that last one is a good thing, as long as the first two don't represent a rent-seeking upper class that threatens to topple the entire social structure of the nation."

      I agree without feeling secure you can not focus your efforts on climbing the latter. It is my perspective through working as a teacher for nearly 15 years is that many children(which carries onto to their adult life) don't feel secure due to the lack of love and support in their family structure. In my community, the African American Community, you can directly trace back the destruction of the family to the generous introduction of great society subsidies. Before, you needed to get married to start raising a family. Now if you are 16 and you get knocked up, you are now going to get showered with government money, next to free apartment, food stamps, free health care etc. I consider myself a somewhat liberal person but through my direct observation of what these unconditional direct government subsidies has done to the social fabric of many communities, it is the largest cause of American societal decline.. The problem is that the social safety net is NOT TEMPORARY .

      What the upper class Donald Trumps of the world have a very small impact on the rest of us. There is always a cheaper place to live. If you work to get yourself the correct skills there is always a job out their. It may not be around the corner from where you live. In NYC Asian immigrants who don't know the language and work in low wage jobs manage to buy ridiculously expensive houses(in brooklyn average cost of home $500,000 regardless of area) . How do they do it. They work together as a family . They live double and tripled up. SAVE their money and over time they have enough to move up the ladder. Contrast that with the average pubic housing project or section 8 person. They work the minimum to get buy. You see very few African Americans driving NYC cabs or working as waiters or looking for day labor work. You do see Asians, mexicans and African born blacks .

    10. Re:No, That's incorrect... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just to add to this. If a young mother needs free child care and free rent while she works towards a better life, we should 100% support her. But as a condition to the tax payer help that person should have to prove that she is
      1) drug free
      2) Actually have a plan to make herself self sufficient for which we should as a society help her with
      3) Providing the proper support for her child
      4) She will need to take a job that will make her secure upon graduation even if it means moving to a different state

      You are right, people can do their best when they feel secure. Endless subsidies does not make someone feel secure. The current system encourages behavior which does not lead to secure lives. Political types just want to debate ideologies. Ideologies do not help people, hard work and the understanding of the human mind does. Most humans will be lazy if you let them be.

      In NYC the average person pays $300 plus a month in rent just to cover the social safety net and many of the people despite all the money spent on them are not health or happy. The working class gets squeezed out and has to work harder just to get by

    11. Re:No, That's incorrect... by rezme · · Score: 3, Informative

      I'd have to say that the whole "drug using welfare junkie" meme is a fallacy. They tried to do the drug testing for welfare checks thing here in Florida, and the program essentially lost significantly more than it would have saved. In the article I read, only 2.3% failed the drug tests, which seriously undermines the assertion that everyone who collects a welfare check is a junkie.

    12. Re:No, That's incorrect... by ohnocitizen · · Score: 2

      What amazes me is that anyone considers it ethical to impose restrictions upon the poor the wealthy do not have to deal with. Want society's support? You better be willing to uproot yourself and move or you are out of luck. Surely we can do better.

      "Most humans will be lazy if you let them be." Citation Needed.

      "In NYC the average person pays $300 plus a month in rent just to cover the social safety net" - I don't believe you. Source?

    13. Re:No, That's incorrect... by i+kan+reed · · Score: 1

      In NYC, $300 of rent will get you 1/6th of a studio apartment. I will believe literally any statement about New York rent, no matter how extreme or contrary to my political views.

    14. Re:No, That's incorrect... by ohnocitizen · · Score: 1

      I live here. $300 won't even get you a shared room unless you are very far from the city. Rent is crazy expensive, even in previously less expensive areas in Brooklyn and Queens. Plus there is little connection between what we pay in rent and the "social safety net", unless you want to stretch the impact of low rent housing on surrounding rents. No wonder the original post was as AC.

    15. Re:No, That's incorrect... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Middle class is:

      *You own the dwelling in which they reside and don't refinance it every 5 years or live paycheck to paycheck in an apartment. If you do live in an apartment, it's because it's cheaper than a house or dwelling which you would like to own.

      *1-4K\year of age in net worth.

      *Take Vacations regularly and don't work slave-hours. Meaning you travel, go to Disney world, go to the water park, go do something recreational other than watch TV.

      *Have some say over your income or career. If you don't have a career providing a highly skilled service, you are a part of a company that does not exist to fuck you.

      Really, do I need to spell it out?

      Also, every government official and 1%-er manager is trying to fuck you for that. They want you to be a wage slave with no career mobility, living in a dwelling you rent, and they want you for cheap.

    16. Re:No, That's incorrect... by PortHaven · · Score: 2

      Must be Ar-Kansas...

      Cause for many of us, even once we pay off our mortgages. We still owe about $4K-$8K in taxes, and home insurance. And I guess not every person, not even in IT, needs internet or a cell phone.

      $2,500/month
      -$1,000/month house
      (that's for a $100K home ($500 mortgage, $500 taxes + insurance), maybe there are low taxes so $750 where you live.)

      -$300/month Utilities (and I'm being rather kind, that's electric, heat, water, etc)

      - $25/month Phone

      - $25/month Internet (can anyone find even DSL at this price? for me its closer to $60)

      - $300/month Food for 6, lots of rice and beans.

      - $50/month Gas

      Okay, we're at $1,700 of the $2,500. We've gone with excessively low dreamy estimates (about half of what most of us would actually pay). We have left out health insurance, you got the free ride on Obamacare, right? And we left off cars. Cause you bought a Honda 15 years ago and it still hasn't died. Unlike many of us, who've done ALL the required and recommended maintenance, and still had our cars die or need major repairs.
       

    17. Re:No, That's incorrect... by PortHaven · · Score: 2

      "rather I'm just VERY good at money management"

      No you're not...perhaps you're just living a simple life, that may be.

      You make less than $10,000/year.

      I'd like to know how you afford a somewhat new vehicle. (3 years old is considered somewhat new btw). But for even most cheap new or nused vehicles, you're looking at around $250+ easy.

      So of your $850. We've dropped it to $600.

      "I drive in a 2005 Buick Regal that I got for some trivial amount some 5 years ago (I think $1,500?)"

      Let's see, so 5 years ago, 2009. You got a 4 year old Buick Regal for $1,500. Okay, so in other words, someone handed you a gift horse? or you bought a stolen/damaged vehicle. Because you'd be hard pressed to buy that car for $1,500 today. Ah...salvage title, now the truth comes out. Not every state allows those to be easily registered btw. Nor are they always safe, all appearances aside.
      And individuals with children should be extremely cautious about taking such risks.

      "my tablets and smartphones seem to do a better job at those tasks."

      You've admitted to having tablets and smart phone.

      Let's knock off another $50/month for those.

      $800

      Okay, so you now have $800/month. This has to go to rent, food, etc.

      How much is your rent? Are you freeloading off a friend/roomate who covers most of the burden (mortgage, heat, utilities) and is just look for a roomate to ease that burden and drop some spending cash in his pocket?

      Let's say you're frugal on food...$75/month?

      And you still do some major travels, internationally? Disney? etc? We're not talking about freeloading with friends or camping.

      ****

      Sorry, I'm calling BS on this. That doesn't mean you don't have an excellent life, one that likely brings you far more happiness than most. Nor that you don't manage the small amount of money you have very well.

      That's cool that it works for you. And simple = good. But you don't really fall into the middle class.

    18. Re:No, That's incorrect... by i+kan+reed · · Score: 2

      That number, of course, lacks the context that 1/5 of Americans admit to using illegal drugs. That's a tiny number.

    19. Re:No, That's incorrect... by sumdumgai · · Score: 1

      And you would completely disagree with mathematics and statistics.

      --
      âoeIn theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not." â Albert Einstein
    20. Re:No, That's incorrect... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wealthy Class, usually has multiple homes, travels first class, may own private air or yachts, or other high end expensive recreational items in the $100K+ mark. Often do not have to do work, simply manage investments and resources. Often pays a low margin on taxes due to ability to maximize loopholes, capital gains, etc.

      This fantasy picture of the Wealthy class is what the socialists use to whip up class warfare. The truth is that most rich people have worked extremely hard their entire lives, and continue to work harder than most folks, that's why they are successful. Sure, there are a few who inherited their wealth, and are living the life of the idle rich, but they are the exception.

      Taxes are lower on investment income because the original money was already taxed.

      Everybody tries to take advantage of every "loophole" (The Left's name for "legitimate deductions") whenever they can.

      Using emotional class arguments, where the "have nots" revolt against the "haves" is a way to get power and control over people, it has zero basis in reality. What you ought to be doing is celebrating people who became wealthy, they are the real hero's. If you actually met a number of these folks, you'd be stunned to learn that they are exceptionally bright, for the most part very honest, hard working people who care very deeply for everyone around them. A lot of these folks started their own business at a very young age, and worked eighty hour weeks for ten, twenty, thirty years or more.

    21. Re:No, That's incorrect... by rezme · · Score: 1

      How many of that 1/5 collect welfare checks?

    22. Re:No, That's incorrect... by i+kan+reed · · Score: 1

      I don't know, how about we use my magic objective data-wand and find out... ...

      Why didn't that work?

    23. Re:No, That's incorrect... by rezme · · Score: 1

      I dunno, but if you keep playing with it, you'll go blind ;)

    24. Re:No, That's incorrect... by cwsumner · · Score: 1

      If you have a TV and a refrigerator, indoor plumbing and a roof over your head, then you are rich by the standards of most of the world !

  29. double theft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They not only stole your money, DEY TUK AR JERBS.

  30. Rich only have one job with benefits by ToasterTester · · Score: 1

    The non-rich the artcle refer to typically can't get full time so companies don't have to pay for health benefits. Most the poor have more than one job, so add up the hours. This article is the fantasy the rich tell themselves.

    1. Re:Rich only have one job with benefits by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The middle class have more than one job. The poor have no jobs, hence less hours.

  31. Work or watch TV? by tomhath · · Score: 1

    A study in 2006 revealed that Americans with a household income of more than $100,000 indulged in 40% less “passive leisure” (such as watching TV) than those earning less than $20,000.

    I'd rather work for free rather than sit on a couch watching television.

    1. Re:Work or watch TV? by Katatsumuri · · Score: 1

      I guess higher income also opens more options for entertainment.

    2. Re:Work or watch TV? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Tennis rackets and golf clubs and course fees cost more than watching TV. So it's not exactly unexpected.

  32. having a bachelor's degree is "rich"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Bogus story to take attention off one percent vultures like The Walton family whose only claim to fame is inheriting their dad's money. The Walton heirs make about $300k A DAY in dividend income. Are you tilling me they do three times more work in a day than programmers do in a year? Cool story, bro.

  33. This statement is true... by PortHaven · · Score: 2

    "A study in 2006 revealed that Americans with a household income of more than $100,000 indulged in 40% less “passive leisure” (such as watching TV) than those earning less than $20,000."

    I can attest, that I work 40, commute 2+ hours a day. While those under $20K receive Section-8, Food Stamps, etc. And yes, they often have more free time to watch TV than I do. I get to watch Game of Thrones & maybe one other weekly show.

    Heck, we had friends who fell on rough times stay in our guest bedroom the past year. And I can personally attest that they've probably watched as much TV in a week or two as I have all year.

    1. Re:This statement is true... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      With your observation, would you trade places with the people in your guestroom? Would you trade places with anyone on the public assistance you've listed?

      There are a lot of people who say folks on welfare have it easy. I'd rather work 70 hour weeks until retirement (if that's even coming) than go back to public assistance. Here's to hoping.

    2. Re:This statement is true... by Shados · · Score: 2

      reminds me of something "funny" that happened to be recently.

      I was on the market to buy a house. As it is in many areas, all new developments must have a percentage of section 8 housing.

      There's this new townhouse development walking distance from a main subway line, yet still far enough to be totally quiet, in a prestine neighborhood. The townhouses were between 700 and 850k each. One of them, a 800k single family attached with an indoor garage, an additional off street spot, and a yard....was one of the section 8s.

      Made me want to tear my school papers and make a few kids so I could live there. It was a dream house by the area's standards...and a lot of high end professionals would not be able to afford -renting- it, nevermind buying it.

  34. Missing definition by LoRdTAW · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Define "rich". Lets get the definition strait here. The only number they threw out in over $100,000 which is pretty vague. Anyone making under 200k/year is not rich. They are in my opinion, comfortable. You are only really rich when you have true wealth such as owning/running a profitable business or real estate that generates income. You are not rich if you are a low level employee who depends on a wage to survive, even if you are making 100k to 200k/year.

    You think my boss works? Of course not. He comes in when he pleases maybe 4 or 5 hours a day. Takes whatever day off he pleases. Takes multiple vacations per year for one or two weeks at a time. His business is firmly rooted in the industry and will continue to make money. He is *RICH*. Not the poor schlubs (like me) working 50+ hours a week and certainly not the low wage help getting 10-12 an hour. He is like one of those wealthy English aristocrats they speak of. A top dog calling the shots who's hard working underlings produce his wealth for him. I believe he makes around 500-800k/year and has over a million in the bank (accidently saw his bank statement when I worked on his PC).

    And the reality is those living comfortably are working their asses off as in order to justify their 100k+ salary. No employer wants to pay big money unless they feel they are getting their moneys worth. That may mean large work loads, 50+ hour work weeks, unpaid overtime and coming in on weekends to finish up backlogged work. At 100k+ you aren't hourly unless you are union or very lucky. Salary demands a certain number of hours per week to justify your pay grade and some of that includes unpaid overtime. Its not the same for everyone but everyone I know working in tech put in long hours for their 100k plus salaries.

    The "poor" people they speak of have social safety nets in the form of health care, food stamps and rent subsidy and/or low income housing. But I believe they are being unfair as I know plenty of "poor" people who are struggling just to buy food and pay rent. A friend of mine had a tough life growing up, mother threw him out when he was 16, father doesn't give a damn about him, etc. No college and not the sharpest tool in the shed but he is an honest, good hearted person who is a hard worker. He works two minimum wage part time jobs for 60 hours a week with no days off as the two shifts overlap each other. He rents and shares a room at a "frat house". Place is more like a flophouse complete with drug dealer and rowdy parties which he winds up playing bouncer so the cops don't raid the place. Its a rough life for him but he works and doesn't give up. Many others are in the same boat making shit pay and having to work multiple jobs because employers don't want to pay benefits to full timers.

    1. Re:Missing definition by gurps_npc · · Score: 4, Informative
      You have made a bad definition of wealth. The major problem is you have fallen for the common mistake fo measuring wealth by income. A single, healthy childless 21 year old women making $100,000/year is wealthy. A married 50 year old women, with 1 grand child, 4 children, 2 in college, and a husband with dementia is not wealthy.

      The real way to measure wealth is how Forbes does it - not income, but by net worth.

      If your net worth is over 2 million, you are wealthy. If your net worth is more than your age in thousands, you are middle class. Otherwise, you are poor. I don't care if you make $300,000 a year, if your net worth is negative,you are poor.

      A prime example of this is Donald Trump. The man has never been poor, even when his income was negative. Why? Because his assets always far exceeded his debt, even when he was losing money hand over fist.

      By my definition, quite a few people are poor that think they are wealthy - particularly musicians and sports stars that make millions but save nothing.

      --
      excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
    2. Re:Missing definition by tomhath · · Score: 1

      If your net worth is over 2 million, you are wealthy. If your net worth is more than your age in thousands, you are middle class. Otherwise, you are poor. I don't care if you make $300,000 a year, if your net worth is negative,you are poor.

      That is a reasonable definition of wealth. But I suggest that a person with a $300K/yr income will (usually) have a better lifestyle than someone sitting on $2M with no other income.

    3. Re:Missing definition by avandesande · · Score: 1

      Donald Trump never lost his own money he lost other investor's money.

      --
      love is just extroverted narcissism
    4. Re:Missing definition by LoRdTAW · · Score: 1

      wealth
      noun
      1. an abundance of valuable possessions or money

      Maybe I worded it bad. In my first paragraph I stated you are wealthy if you have assets, bought and paid for, that generate income ( a business or real estate were my examples). That is real net worth as the assets have value.

      So single people can save and avoid debt, big deal. That single woman may be able to save her pennies but what happens when she starts a family? Will she continue to work or become a stay-at-home mother? Of course she can stay single or simply not have children. What if she has an injury which causes a disability and is unable to work? There goes her wealth as her net worth is based on her income producing ability. The only asset she has is herself. There is nothing external to her that makes money.

      Musicians who became wealthy are those who took their money and invested it. Look at wealthy rappers like Sean Combs (Diddy), Jay-Z and Dr. Dre. They put their money into businesses and reaped the rewards. They are wealthy as they not only have a ton of money, but have assets to back it up (record labels, clothing lines, liquor brands etc.) Investment is key.

      My family has commercial property that was bought and paid for and generating income through rentals. As long as people need commercial real estate, we will be making money. Its not millions, not even hundreds of thousands. But its plenty of money for my mother to live on quite comfortably and still be able to put money in the bank. Are we rich? Well not me directly but my mother is. Though I do help out a lot and get paid for it. It's my side job. Even if she can no longer walk, she will still have rent checks coming in every month. That is true wealth. And she plans to invest in even more real estate further down the line. That is how you become rich.

    5. Re:Missing definition by argStyopa · · Score: 1

      "You think my boss works? Of course not. He comes in when he pleases maybe 4 or 5 hours a day. Takes whatever day off he pleases. Takes multiple vacations per year for one or two weeks at a time. "
      Typical bitching from the cheap seats.

      I run a business. I'm THERE maybe 4-5 hours a day...because I can work from my home when I get up at 6 am, eat breakfast while I do emails until a lull at perhaps 9-10 (when Europe stops working) and THEN waste minimal time commuting since the wage-drones have all gotten off the road. Then I'm out at 3pm, to go pick up the kids (since my wife works), home, and doing emails/work until probably 7pm.
      Oh yeah, and when I have a pissed off customer or emergency? They call me at 9pm, 11pm, 3 am - not the fucking desk-drones who don't answer before 8 or after 5. When the government raises healthcare requirement or there are tax issues, it's *me* laying awake at night, agonizing over how we can cut corners to keep production running, and not lay anyone off, despite costs suddenly climbing 20% in a year. I'm the one sitting at a 6th grade band concert (if I'm able to go) sweating mentally over balance sheets and payroll, not chugging beers at Bennigans with my poor oppressed comrades.
      I "get" to travel all over the world, because that's where my customers are. Which means I've missed all the important 'firsts' of my kids, and make enough to allow my wife to be part-time and be the true parent. I'll remember how awesome I have it next time I'm driving some shitty rental car in the rain at 2am because my flight was late, trying to navigate the Escher-like streets of urban NJ trying to find a hotel so I can get up at 6 to *hopefully* have enough time to cover the emergency emails overnight, to make it to customer meetings at 0730.

      Oh, and if wage-drone makes a mistake, it might cost us a few $00 or at worst couple $000 on a transaction. I make a mistake? It could cost the company 00's of 000's and the whole branch closes, costing me and worse, 16 of those poor buggers their jobs.

      Look, I'm not going to lie; it's hella better to be doing this making $150k than to be slaving away in some shitty clerk job as a $30k wage-slave. But just because he doesn't break a sweat in front of you doesn't mean your boss isn't working.

      --
      -Styopa
    6. Re:Missing definition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Parent didn't say his boss went on business travel; he said vacation. I'm sure the difference would be made clear to the workers if it was business.

      Also, your use of terms like "wage-drone" and "fucking desk-drones" betrays your contempt for your employees. Not a sound management policy, I would imagine.

    7. Re:Missing definition by nnull · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately, non-business owners will never understand. They think if we're not sitting in our office, that we're on vacation or sitting at home having a blast watching movies and playing games. Then when I come back from my business trip, I have to listen to these people complain about their long 8 hour work day. I work non-stop everyday trying to keep the business running, finding clients, answering late night phone calls and you've pretty much summed up all my employees. When one of my employees makes a mistake, it's me who has to fix it, mistakes that could be costly to the company. They all think I'm getting massive profits for myself and sailing on a yacht on the high seas with porn stars.

    8. Re:Missing definition by nnull · · Score: 1

      How do we know he's on vacation? My guys always say I'm on vacation when I'm not in the office.

    9. Re:Missing definition by LoRdTAW · · Score: 1

      Look, I'm not going to lie; it's hella better to be doing this making $150k than to be slaving away in some shitty clerk job as a $30k wage-slave. But just because he doesn't break a sweat in front of you doesn't mean your boss isn't working.

      Oh he was breaking a sweat all right, but it wasn't work that had him all sweaty. My boss inherited his business after his father passed. It was fully established and while he did grow it a bit, 99% of the work was done by us, his employees. He never spoke to customers, handled major problems, or brought in new business. He simply signed the checks and did his own thing. Up until 2 years ago he was a playboy who lived in a different state (yes he didn't live anywhere near work) and came in once, MAYBE twice a month to raise hell just to remind us who signs our checks. Then his wife caught him cheating and it all blew up in his face. We also found out he had to go to rehab for drug abuse, probably in a last ditch effort to save his marriage. That explained his mood swings when he came in for his visits. Now that he is divorced and lives close to work (wife got the house) he is in almost every day. I'll give him credit. Must have been tough to go from playboy to being responsible. He even brought in his cousin to bring in some big jobs and really wants to grow the company. So kudos on his recovery. But for years he was a spoiled child, not a boss.

      And yes, I know what its like to be in your shoes. I ran the family business with my mother for 15 years after my father got sick. I was only in high school at the time. I worked my ass off all those years putting in long hours, working weekends while my friends partied. I even lost a steady long time girlfriend after she had enough of me cancelling plans last minute because someone fucked up.

      And I will agree with you 100% its better to be employed than to employ. We sold our manufacturing portion of the business and it was like a huge burden was removed. And it was just in time as competitors were going to China and it was getting harder and harder to turn a profit while the cost of business went up and up. We still have a business but we are selling it as I type this. I cant wait until the deal is finalized and we get our lives back.

    10. Re:Missing definition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And then got his government handouts by claiming bankruptcy multiple times. He's far worse than any right-wing ultra-conservative welfare recipient stereotype, he's the real deal: being chauffered around in expensive cars, eating seafood(!), wearing his fur coat and standing in line waiting for that sweet, sweet government cheese... only he gets a lot more cheese than some poor kid from the projects with no prospects ever could in a few thousand lifetimes.

    11. Re:Missing definition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A single, healthy childless 21 year old women making $100,000/year is wealthy. A married 50 year old women, with 1 grand child, 4 children, 2 in college, and a husband with dementia is not wealthy. The real way to measure wealth is how Forbes does it - not income, but by net worth.

      I disagree. I think the 50 year old woman is "wealthier" than the 21 year old depending on what you place value on. Wealth can be tangible or intangible. Ask any major software company how much value the place in goodwill (an intangible asset) on the accounting balance sheet ... hint: it's in the billions for some companies.

      We need standard definition to define wealth to have a meaningful discussion, which as most commenter have already pointed out, TFA does a lousy job of doing. Surprising for The Economist of all publications.

    12. Re:Missing definition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      From what you posted, neither of them are wealthy.

      The childless 21 year old making 100k a year is WELL OFF, but not wealthy. Now, if she had another zero on her income, she would be rich. Add another 2 zeroes onto it and she would be wealthy. See the difference?

      The 50 year old supporting 6 people and putting 2 of them is probably just getting by or hurting.

      Neither of them are rich.
      0-10,000 a year == Homeless
      10,000 - 40,000 a year == Working Poor
      40,000 - 300,000 a year == Well Off
      300,000 - 2,000,000 a year == Rich
      2,000,000 a year + == Wealthy

      This varies some due to locations, but general gist of it. Calling someone making $100,000 a year rich because they are supporting themselves without help is about like calling a pinto a luxury car because it has a working engine.

    13. Re:Missing definition by airdweller · · Score: 1

      Why don't you just get rid of those "buggers"? You don't need those "fucking desk-drones". Just fire them all and pocket the money you have to spend on "wage-drones". You obviously do all the work anyway. Good luck!

  35. Stop the presses! by the+computer+guy+nex · · Score: 0

    People who work hard (in school and in their job) get promoted and make more money! People who think they are entitled and do the bare minimum make less!

    There are plenty of opportunities out there for those willing to put in the time and effort.

    1. Re:Stop the presses! by yup2000 · · Score: 1

      mod parent up!

    2. Re:Stop the presses! by Neutronix · · Score: 1

      You are so wrong at so many levels.... I sincerily hope that you might never find how wrong you are.

      What you describe is the ideal society based in merit and where everyone gets a chance.
      The reality is completely different. The reality will show you that some people are more equal than others. That sometimes it is better to "sell" your achievements than actually work to achieve something.

      --
      Long live TUX!
    3. Re:Stop the presses! by tomhath · · Score: 1

      That sometimes it is better to "sell" your achievements than actually work to achieve something.

      Brown nosing the boss has been around forever. But the concept of working hard to get ahead isn't "wrong at so many levels".

    4. Re:Stop the presses! by LDAPMAN · · Score: 1

      Does everyone get a chance..no. Life is not fair. Do most people get a chance, absolutely. Success usually comes from working hard to make yourself valuable to other people. Often, such hard work is not rewarded. But if you keep it up and look for opportunities it can pay off. Saying that getting ahead is impossible is just wrong. It is possible. I know this because I came from nothing and now make well into six figures. I work 70-80 hours a week and always have. Even when I was making minimum wage. I'm not alone.

  36. employee overhead approaching 100% by peter303 · · Score: 1

    Benefits are about a third of that. Office space, management and computers the rest.Then you make existing employees work more instead of hiring additional ones.

  37. Nope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    False. Before the ACA, there was NO requirement to provide benefits to people working 40 hours, much less 30. Now there is. Hence companies cutting people to below 30 hours.

    1. Re:Nope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      False.
      There are various state and federal mandated benefits that must be provided to workers who work 35+ hours a week, with the threshold varying by benefit type and state/federal law. Each of these predated the ACA.

      Walmart, and any other company you care to name, didnt all of a sudden start cutting PT employers hours to below 30 after the ACA...they had already been doing it for years. For that reason: to avoid mandated benefits.

    2. Re:Nope by tsqr · · Score: 2

      There are various state and federal mandated benefits that must be provided to workers who work 35+ hours a week

      The only federally mandated benefits I'm aware of, aside from the impending ACA regulations, are social security, medicare, COBRA, unemployment insurance, and workers compensation insurance and those have nothing to do with the number of hours worked. Some states require disability insurance, and that is not dependent on hours worked. Of course, the only ones that cost the employee nothing are workers comp and unemployment. The astute reader may have noticed that none of these benefits actually do anything for the employee until the employee either retires, loses his job, gets injured, or works past Social Security "full retirement" age.

      The federal government does not require employers to provide vacation time, holidays, sick time, or any other form of paid leave regardless of the number of hours worked. The only federally mandated leave is Family and Medical Leave, which is unpaid.

      On the other hand, there are long-standing requirements for health care benefits, ACA aside. Basically, this means that if an employer chooses to offer health insurance, that insurance must cover certain specific conditions. But until the ACA employer mandate takes effect, employers are not required to offer insurance at all, and if they do offer insurance, they can make up any eligibility rules they want, including minimum hours/week.

    3. Re:Nope by itsenrique · · Score: 1

      Yes there was, if not by country, by state in many states.

    4. Re:Nope by jareth-0205 · · Score: 1

      False. Before the ACA, there was NO requirement to provide benefits to people working 40 hours, much less 30. Now there is. Hence companies cutting people to below 30 hours.

      So they got no healthcare at all? You think that's a good situation?

  38. Obviously it's a salary vs. hourly issue, no? by Rick+in+China · · Score: 1

    There may be correlation with salary employees earning less than hourly employees overall or something, and relating that to education or whatever, but clearly salary employees are, in general, expected to put in overtime without extra pay when they need to - or need to do that with hopes of getting better pay in the future / better performance reviews...whereas wage employees are scheduled for 8 hours and put in 8, employers are less likely to ask them to work overtime due to time and a half or whatever. Not sure why the other correlations even matter.

  39. This Slashvertisement brought to you by the Koch by tekrat · · Score: 1, Troll

    This Slashvertisement brought to you by the Koch Brothers. Remember to watch Fox News tonight and be reminded again that the poor live a life of luxury and leisure on your dime! Yeah, the poor are the reason you have to work 75 hours a week. Because the government takes all your money and gives it to the poor, so they can live high on the hog.

    Meanwhile, please ignore the fact that the 1 percent are robbing not only you, but the government, and the rest of the world. While you're arguing with your co-workers over foodstamps, the filthy rich are stealing billions every day and pocketing it, and the best part is, they have bought the government so what they are doing is legal -- by the letter of the law anyhow.

    --
    If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
  40. Reverse headline by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 1

    "People that don't make a lot of money slack off a lot."

    1. Re:Reverse headline by JustNiz · · Score: 1

      So "slacking off" is anything under 50 hours/week now? Thats retarded.

  41. My heart bleeds for them by Atrox666 · · Score: 1

    The poor are under/unemployed and the rich are trying harder and harder to make more of them under/unemployed.

    1. Re:My heart bleeds for them by nnull · · Score: 1

      Blame your politicians for creating such a situation where we're forced to try other methods of doing business which are less costly. Poor or rich, doesn't matter, we all make the same decisions regarding costs.

    2. Re:My heart bleeds for them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The politicians work for the rich not the poor.

  42. One misused word spoils the whole discussion. by Katatsumuri · · Score: 1

    Agreed. It's a shame; if the submitter did not use the word "rich" so inappropriately, we could have a meaningful discussion about why people with a degree used to work less and now have to work more, and maybe what could be done about that.

    I think the reasons are the consumerism (also in regards to homes and college degrees) and unpaid overtime, and the solution is to actively run away from both if your time is valuable to you. Buy what you can afford, don't waste money excessively only because credit is available, and switch jobs until you find one with suitable time balance.

    1. Re:One misused word spoils the whole discussion. by xclr8r · · Score: 2

      A lot of people (in the U.S.) in middle class are classified as exempt (from overtime) as they are in management. There are FSLA rules that regulate the hours exempts work but since they are management they are project driven and no one who wants to climb the ladder is going to report working extra hours all the time.

      --
      Beware of those who profit off the docile and persecute the unbelievers.
  43. Let's hope that happens... by Sanians · · Score: 1

    Look for the average hours to shrink further as more and more employers seek to avoid Obamacare costs.

    If everyone stopped working 40 hours and instead worked only 32, we'd need 25% more employees to make up the difference. That would eliminate unemployment overnight. With unemployment eliminated, employers would have to compete for employees, which would drive up wages and result in more benefits like health insurance.

    We already did it once during the great depression, when the standard 40 hour work week was invented. Before that, everyone worked 80 hour weeks, and they had no choice due to a mountain of people desperate for a job. If you didn't like it, you were immediately replaced by someone in the line of people literally sitting outside your employer's front door.

    With automation continuing to reduce the amount of work that needs to be done, we're slowly returning to that situation. Obviously we need to reduce the standard work week yet again to get things back to where we want them.

    Labor prices don't respond to the free market. If you pay people less, all that happens is that their spouses enter the work force as well, and now there are even more people competing for the job you're offering, and so you can reduce wages yet again.

  44. Naturally. Software is doing 80% of the brainwork. by Qbertino · · Score: 1

    Naturally.

    We're fast moving into a post-scarcity economy with practially finished software doing all the work nowadays, running on hardware that has a cost approaching near-zero as we speak. A computer that can be bought for 20 hours of work at a fast-food joint today is the size of a book, can run on solar power and has enough processing power to do all the billing and taxes for an entire city. What's left to do for suits beside sitting in parlaments and passing stupid laws or selling the customers we service bloated shit that no one can operate with the sole purpose of producing more pointless work and billable hours?

    Social contacts, knowledge and information are increasing in value, simple manual work beyond a certain threshold is decreasing in value, repetetive "knowledgework" is bascially disappearing entirely, unless required due to bad human planing (hence IT experts jobs are becoming increasingly tedious and boring).

    That's all basically a Good thing(TM) I'd say. The problem is getting there will be a pain and yield the one or other new great depression along the way.

    I personally rather would have a cheap all-in-one computer sitting in the corner of my room doing all the work for me my clients while I cook for friends, dance tango all night, sleep late and help the occasional customer update their content on a Joomla installation for 50$ and hour because they couldn't be bothered clickling their way through that luxurious web interface than build yet another Web CMS or hassling with other stuff that can be done orders of magnitudes cheaper by computers or service providers. Point in case:I recently set up the entire IT infrastructure for a client using only Google Drive, GMail and Squarespace in roughly 7 hours, 3 of which were taking photos and talking strategy and workflow. Even with potential downtime of the Intarweb and/or Google, that environment is orders of magnitude more productive than any MS PC, with all her shit automatically backed up and available from any PC around the world hooked to the internet. I don't expect her to get back to me until she wants to update her portfolio in a year or two and needs some handholding when clicking through squarespaces gallery options. Which I will gladly provide and ask 35 Euros per hour for.

    With "knowledgeworkers" being put out of business by Google, Huawei and Co., no wonder they're working longer hours than the guy at the filling-station down the street. He's actually doing something usefull - until Teslas battery replacing robots come that is.

    Our job as IT and software people is to make ourselves superflous. And we're getting good at it.

    My 2 cents.

    --
    We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
  45. Re:This Slashvertisement brought to you by the Koc by tomhath · · Score: 1

    This is an article in The Economist. That publication is one of the very few that can honestly claim to be Progressive.

  46. Define "work" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Rich person work means, meeting another rich person for golf at an exclusive lush location where interruptions are non-existent. Includes 3-digit priced meal with wine. A lackey produces a few sheets of paper, a handshake & a quick unreadable pen stroke later they celebrate success.

    Hardly what the rest of us experience as "work".

  47. Golf! by PvtVoid · · Score: 1

    This could solve the other crucial problem of the day: declining interest in golfing. All we have to do is subsidize country club memberships for the poor under the Affordable Care Act. The rich are now too busy to golf.

  48. US "Middle Class" is falling behind fast by mspohr · · Score: 1

    An article in today's NYTimes (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/upshot/the-american-middle-class-is-no-longer-the-worlds-richest.html) documents the dismal status of the middle class in the US. It looks like all of the gains in productivity in the past 20 years have gone to the "elites" whose income has increase dramatically while the middle class in the US has stagnated.
    In the US, median income has only increased by 0.3% since 2000 while other countries (Britain, Canada, Ireland, Netherlands, for example) have increased 15% to 20%.
    This is the problem with capitalism which Piketty documents in his book "Capital in the Twenty-First Century". The US is getting there first as Krugman points out: http://www.nybooks.com/article...

    --
    I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
  49. marginal income tax rates by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    ...also have an impact here, at least for the business owners or others in a position to hire help (aka the vaunted Job Creators) vs. doing that extra work themselves. With lower marginal income tax rates, folks at the margins are more likely to "hoard" the available work. The higher their marginal income tax, the more they'd value (relatively speaking) their free/leisure time.

    That's why it's not necessarily the case that lowering the tax burden on Job Creators actually creates jobs (and could actually destroy jobs).

  50. Re:Reply by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow. What a dick!

  51. blame Obama care. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Obama care requires company to pay for the healthcare of any employees that work over a certain number of hours. The poor are working less because about every company that pays at the minimum wage level has cut there hours to part time so they don't have to pay full benefits.

    1. Re:blame Obama care. by crunchygranola · · Score: 2

      ...The poor are working less because about every company that pays at the minimum wage level has cut there hours to part time so they don't have to pay full benefits.

      Blame Obamacare?!

      Only if you are a moron.

      If you bothered to read TFA you would see that The Economist is using data from 2006. I don't think Obamacare is so powerful that it changed working hours for the poor 3 years before it was written, and 7 years before it went into effect.

      --
      Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age
    2. Re:blame Obama care. by frank_adrian314159 · · Score: 1

      I don't think Obamacare is so powerful that it changed working hours for the poor 3 years before it was written, and 7 years before it went into effect.

      Ahh, but you do not see what is obvious to conservatives - that Obamacare is so awful that it's awfulness warps the space-time continuum allowing it to go back in time as far as centuries back to make the world a horrible place. Especially for those horrible people who might use Medicare expansion services (or, as conservatives call them, freeloaders) or might be able to stay on their parent's policy or might not be denied coverage due to pre-existing conditions by fine, upstanding insurance companies (aka "job creators"). Yes, they've made the world a horribly awful place for conservatives. And you don't want to know what the Libertarians think.

      No, really, you don't want to know.

      --
      That is all.
  52. Relevance? You KNOW 2006 is 8 years ago, right? by randombilly · · Score: 1

    Not that I think the trend has reversed in the last 8 years, but still.. I haven't seen a present day Slashdot post citing info that was nearly a decade old in a way that makes it sound recent in a while!

  53. Missing the real reason 35 hour benefits required by Fallen+Kell · · Score: 1

    Not sure if it is in the article as I didn't read it like every good /. does and just read the summary. Hours are being cut on almost all low paying jobs because once they breach the 35hour mark, the employers are required to provide benefits, such as healthcare...

    --
    We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
  54. Reverse logic, as usual by cb_abq · · Score: 0

    The rich are rich because they work longer hours, and the poor are poor because they don't.

  55. The real definition of wealthy... by ebunga · · Score: 1

    You are wealthy when you can live comfortably off the income of your income.

  56. If you have to work by Ralph+Spoilsport · · Score: 1

    You're not really rich.

    --
    Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
  57. Truly "rich" don't work for their money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The truly "rich"'s money works for them. Get THAT straight folks.

  58. Re:This Slashvertisement brought to you by the Koc by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is an article in The Economist. That publication is one of the very few that can honestly claim to be Progressive.

    You're kidding, right? Have you read their editorial pages?

  59. nebulus definition of rich by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How much work are the wal-mart heirs doing? Guess what, if your income comes from a salary, instead of simply accruing capital gains, you probably are not actually rich.

  60. false question by davydagger · · Score: 1

    having a 4 year degree does not make one "rich". This is more contempt at furthering the "middle class" concept, which is bogus.

    middle class *is* working class.

  61. Re:This Slashvertisement brought to you by the Koc by tomhath · · Score: 1

    I'd be very surprised if they didn't publish opinions from both sides of a topic. So sure, you'll see plenty of opinions on the editorial pages that you'll disagree with no matter where you stand. This isn't the Daily Kos.

  62. Not useful. by scribble73 · · Score: 1

    Last week, CNN found a new issue they hoped would distract from criticism of their relentless Maylasian air crash coverage. CNN newsreaders took to the air to ask, "... what could the KKK do, to improve its approval rating? They actually had guests who discussed the question with straight faces.

    This pretended study is another one of those strange, invented approaches on an ongoing tragic issue... an angle that sounds intelligent on its face until you think about it for just two or three seconds. Then you realize how perfectly insulting this phoney approach to a real issue really is.

    Go ahead -- tell the maids down at your local Best Western Motel that rich people work more than they do. Then drive a few blocks down to your nearest Home Depot parking lot. Tell those unemployed men waiting at the nearest corner hoping to find a casual, sub-minimum wage job from you, that they are on "recreational" time.

    The editors of the Economist magazine ought to be horsewhipped for printing this story. SlashDot ought to be purple with shame for reprinting it. Seriously. I don't come here to read quasi-Libertarian krap like this.

  63. So Bachelor's degree == Rich now? by EmagGeek · · Score: 1

    Wow, I must be part of the 1% with my Master's degree.

    1. Re:So Bachelor's degree == Rich now? by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

      Half of all assets are owned by the 0.01 percent. You're working for them.

      --
      -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  64. Re:Naturally. Software is doing 80% of the brainwo by nnull · · Score: 1

    Not just software, machines as well. Gone are the days where we needed 50,000 people working in a manufacturing plant. Machines have replaced the vast majority of those jobs or it's been outsourced to Asia for the low skilled labor job such as the textile industry, which is changing soon as well with robotics.

  65. I call BS by synapse7 · · Score: 1

    The president of the company gets infinite vacation time, I think I'm approaching 3 weeks.

    1. Re:I call BS by MooseMiester · · Score: 1

      Really? I run a small business, I've taken one week off in five years.

      --
      Murphy was an optimist
  66. RICH MAKE PHONE CALLS, PUSH BUTTONS by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 2

    Join "WebEx".

    The poor actually WORK. You know. Cook, clean, build, drill, pour, dig, etc.

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
    1. Re:RICH MAKE PHONE CALLS, PUSH BUTTONS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And "rich" people tell them where and how to do it, which is much more important.

      Six retards with shovels digging a hole in my yard is worthless when my neighbor wanted the pool.

    2. Re:RICH MAKE PHONE CALLS, PUSH BUTTONS by gzuckier · · Score: 1

      Join "WebEx".

      The poor actually WORK. You know. Cook, clean, build, drill, pour, dig, etc.

      “what is work? Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth's surface relatively to other such matter; second, telling other people to do so. The first one is unpleasant and ill paid; the second is pleasant and highly paid.” -Bertrand Russell

      --
      Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
  67. As it should be by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's how it should be, otherwise it negates the argument that the poor are only poor because they're lazy.

  68. Legal requirement to provide benefits by Tony+Isaac · · Score: 1

    Uncle Sam has seen fit to stipulate that all full-time employees must be provided benefits such as health insurance. Full-time is defined as "over 30 hours per week." So guess what? Companies that hire low wage workers limit their hours to less than 30 per week. So now they are WORSE off than they would have been without the law, because they can't make more money by working more hours!

  69. hmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Since they employ almost 2 million other people, I'd say yes they are doing more valuable work than programmers will do in year ( or for that matter in a lifetime ).

  70. Honestly, by PortHaven · · Score: 1

    If I could do so with some semblance of security for my family. Maybe, cause well, working 70 hours and not seeing your family rather sucks.

  71. Bet you... by PortHaven · · Score: 1

    It gets trashed within 3 years.

  72. Except by PortHaven · · Score: 1

    That has died for the common man. The middle class has no where to invest his wealth. One used to be able to put one's meager wealth into a bank or a bond and accue an easy 5% interest. Now, it's 0.02%

    1. Re:Except by i+kan+reed · · Score: 1

      Oh, you misunderstand, I think the social climbers and rich investors are crowding out an genuine, functioning capitalist economy.

  73. ILLUMINATI ELDER by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    JOIN THE NEW WORLD OF ILLUMINATI TODAY: Are you a politician, student, business man, or woman,if you desire WEALTH, POWER, INFLUENCE,want TO be A STAR, and to be an influential celebrity and you want your dreams to come through,you have the chance to do that.join the great illuminati today to get $15000 every 3 days and $200000 membership blessing for doing and joining what you love to do best.Contact: illuminatiworldmembership@hotmail.com,and be rich forever.

  74. 25k a year is enough. . . if you're not in a big c by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Heck, probably not even in that city's burbs.
    Cost of living where you're living has to be taken into account. $75k isn't going to get you a lot in the bay area. You may not need roomies, but with a median rent of nearly $3000 per month for a one bedroom, and $4000 for a 2 bedroom making that much money in the bay area doesn't make one rich.

  75. Depends on what you mean by Rich by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 2

    Rich can be defined either by assets (wealth) or by income (cash flow).

    While it may be true that the rich, by reported income, work longer, it is not necessarily true that the rich, by assets or actual wealth, work longer.

    Also, what do you mean by work? Some of my friends "work" by producing music, or by running a charitable foundation their parents created that has them doing what they want to do.

    Other people might call that play. Especially the 20 hours spent on the golf course in Scotland, or the conference on their yacht in the Mediterranean, that looks like a giant pool party when you see it up close.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  76. nope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the poor people have free medical care courtesy of the government. It's the people who don't work at medium to large corporations who are the ones really don't have care or are getting shafted courtesy of the health exchanges.

  77. We all consider ourselves middle class by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    that's the problem with America. I think it was John Steinbeck that made the point. In America, there is no poor, we're all just temporarily inconvenienced millionaires...

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  78. Mod Parent up by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    I saw a CNN article about hard workin' CEO types. One guy spent 4 hours a day hanging out minding his kids chatting up sales prospects on the phone. This is a damn sight different than 4 hours waiting tables.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  79. The same amount of work..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ....fewer people to do it. Seems simple to me. Employment is down, productivity is up, and it all comes from somewhere.

  80. Heh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Over here those are also called zero effort contracts. WTF, the employer isn't really doing any contract with you, just screw them over. Steal as much as you can if you get to work for an hour. It's not your company, fuck em. Also, just work elsewhere. If the call comes you can just state "sorry, no can do" maybe they call again, maybe not. Make up a good excuse if you care enough.

  81. What? by shadowfaxcrx · · Score: 1

    Why are we assuming that a bachelor's degree means the holder is rich? Why are we assuming that the rich work longer hours than the poor out of some devotion to the job or income?

    Today's bachelor's degree is worth a bit less than a high school diploma in the 60's was. It is not a guarantee of riches, or even breaking into the middle class. Hell, even advanced degrees are no guarantee - there are plenty of PhD's out there making less than a store manager at McDonalds.

    Today's rich person is rich because he actually *has* a job and is able to command a decent salary. Today's poor is working fewer hours because the rich assholes that employ him keep him at part-time status so they don't have to pay for benefits.

    --
    "I disagree with you" does not equal "flamebait."
  82. How to Get Ahead by brunnegd · · Score: 1

    1. The boss is your father 2. Marry the boss's daughter 3. Work your butt off, especially in your early years. Nothing hard to understand about this.

  83. Most "Poor" work Part time. by EricTheO · · Score: 0

    Most "Poor" work part-time due to the trend of employers not wanting to pay benefits as required for full-time employees, therefore they work less hours. This obviously skews this stories observation. Also most higher income jobs are salaried with no overtime pay therefore they like salaried employees to work overtime and employers of part-time or full-time employees try to avoid OT pay whenever possible.

    --
    -Eric
  84. middle class by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Middle class is a fictional term used by politicians. Since it isn't defined and every one seems to want to be part of it it is easy to pander to.

    Rich on the other hand is defined as anyone making more than me and I need to take stuff from them because obliviously they never worked for it and don't deserve it.