what is wrong with having a high income?

[Grave_n_idle]

It has a lot to do with 2 of the last 7 replies.

Pointing out that - for example, the rich don't 'make jobs' does not mean anyone hates anyone.

[Grave_n_idle]

Not high house prices, but rising house prices. In common sense, if your house is worth more than what you've paid for it originally after a period of time, you're better off.

Not even vaguely true.

First - because the value of the house is irrelevant and arbitrary. What it is ACTUALLY 'worth' is what it realizes when you liquidate the asset - and that's why rising house prices are actually BAD for the middle and lower classes - because you can't AFFORD to buy the increased cost properties, and thus the theoretical value is not realized - and everyone actually comes out WORSE off, not better.

And second - because other costs rise quicker. It's entirely possible to have a house that's worth a lot more than you paid for it, and STILL be underwater on it in real terms.

[Neu Leonstein]

Is it really surprising that the middle class now hates the rich? After all, it was the rich who crashed the economy in 2008. And while they got bailed out, we lost first our jobs, then our homes.

It's not surprising. It is a bit misinformed though. There's no such thing as 'the rich' as you describe it - some sort of hive mind that created and then crashed the real estate economy of the 2000s and then got bailed out. I realise these stories sell papers, but they are quite dangerous.

What is really happening is part of some sort of huge global megacycle, propagated through greater international interconnectedness and the fact that several billion extra people are escaping poverty. That requires good policy and a fair bit of foresight. The kind of wannabe class warfare displayed here is a distraction, and not one anyone in the western world can afford, really. We should be having a kind of fundamental debate about how we want our societies to be organised over the next hundred years or so. As a society we're not only not having that debate, but we are refusing to even engage in the kind of discourse that would allow the average person grasp the issues.

[Britannic Realms]

Nothing. It's just that some rich people are idiots/dicks.