idiggory, King of Bards wrote:
No, you're the only one who thinks the EXACT amount matters.
I don't think the exact amount matters at all. I'm responding to others who seem to either think $10k is too high because it's out of touch with the finances of average people, or it's too low because it's so little money relative to his own finances.
WTF thread have you been reading? Here's a bunch of people basically saying that the $10k figure is somehow "out of touch" with the average person's finances:
Jophiel wrote:
Fair or not, candidates have to tread a line between having the money and still being relatable to those without millions of dollars. After someone says they feel your working class pain, you don't want to hear about them forgetting how many houses they own or their million dollar credit line at Tiffany's or about them casually making $10,000 bets.
Lubriderm wrote:
None of them can actually relate. On either side, that's part of the problem. Our election system is currently only allows people with money enough to not work while campaigning to even have a chance. I don't know the solution, but to me, it's a problem.
rdmcandie wrote:
pretty much but when the majority of consumers live paycheck to paycheck and can't go around wining 10K bets off people for quotes from a book.
Quote:
And who besides you has even suggested that he should have used a larger bet?
Joph? Well, he didn't comment himself, just kinda quoted something, which he apparently thought was relevant:
Quote:
For most Americans, $10,000 is a lot of money. Apparently. for Romney it is not. His estimated net worth is said to be at least $200 million. Thus for him, $10,000 represents 1/200 of 1% of his net worth. For the median family, whose net worth is about $100,000 (including home equity), 1/200 of 1% is $5. So for Romney, making a $10,000 bet takes about as much forethought as for the average person to make a $5 bet. Put in another light, $10,000 is 2-3 months income for the average family.
What do you think the point of bringing this up was?
And here's Cat making *both* points:
Catwho wrote:
Someone crunched some numbers and showed that in terms of net worth, Romney making a casual 10K bet is like someone with the median household income making a $5 bet.
Most people don't even have $10,000 lying around in liquid cash form. We do, but that's the "emergency fund" for when one of us gets into a car accident or something.
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Nice straw man, I guess.
Um... Might want to learn what a straw man is. I responded directly to Joph's quote making the point that the bet was an insignificant amount to Romney but tons for average people, presumably to show that Romney was "out of touch" by saying that he picked a dollar amount that said exactly what he intended. Ten thousand dollars it not an amount the average person would bet on a whim, right? That's the point. He was not out of touch, he knew exactly the amount that would convey the point he was trying to make to the audience he was trying to make it too.
WTF?