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Redistribute the wealth. (originally posted on MartialTalk 09-30-2008)
People look at things like the following, decide that wealth in the US is unfairly distributed, and look for more ways to take money from the top 10% and pass it out to the bottom 10%, usually without the bottom having to actually earn it.
A reply to the above was this
A statement I agree with.
Having worked retail in supermarkets, convenience stores and the like, I can say that simply giving people money won't make them suddenly know how to manage it, or even appreciate it. Many arguments occur over people trying to use welfare and food stamps for beer, lotto and cigarettes.
A discussion I had on the idea of taking money from the top earners and passing it out included comments like "they owe it to us", and "they have plenty" and similar. Bill Gates, who isn't one of my favorite people, earned his money. He already gives plenty to charity. The Walton's inherited theirs from their father Sam, who earned it. Sam you may recall drove a pickup truck and not a Caddie because "you can't put hunting dogs in a Cadillac.".
People rarely appreciate something that is given to them unearned. The gift is usually squandered, and all that has happened is they have been trained to expect a handout.
One comment is that if you evened out the bank acounts so that everyone had the same amount, within a short period of time, the previously rich will be so again, and the previously poor will be so again. One only has to look at the bankrupsty rate of lottery winners (80%) to see that wealth without understanding causes wealth to vanish.
Rather than taking cash from the wealthy, a better system would be to encourage a voluntary system that would teach people how to manage their money, and become self sufficient. As someone once wrote, teaching someone to fish sustains them for life, giving the a fish only feeds them for today.
Quote:
| Here are some published numbers, taken fom Forbes magazine. This would be the top 10 on their 400 list....1. Bill Gates Net Worth $57.0 billion 2. Warren Buffett Net Worth $50.0 billion 3. Lawrence Ellison Net Worth $27.0 billion 4. Jim Walton Net Worth $23.4 billion 5. S Robson Walton Net Worth $23.3 billion 6. Alice Walton Net Worth $23.2 billion 7. Christy Walton Net Worth $23.2 billion 8. Michael Bloomberg Net Worth $20.0 billion 9. Charles Koch Net Worth $19.0 billion 10. David Koch Net Worth $19.0 billion 'The rich haven't gotten richer--or poorer--this year. The price of admission to this, the 27th edition of The Forbes 400, is $1.3 billion for the second year in a row. The assembled net worth of America's wealthiest rose by $30 billion--only 2%--to $1.57 trillion.' (quoted from Forbes) Now, take that in perspective. The 400 richest americans have a net worth of 1.57 trillion dollars. The entire GDP of Canada from a 2007 estimate, as found in teh CIA world factbook (correct or not?) https://www.cia.gov/library/publicat.../print/ca.html is listed as being 1.432 trillion dollars. Really... stop and think about that. The accrued wealth of 400 people essentially exceeds the annual value of the national economy of 33 million people. You would really have us believe that there is NOT an uneven distribution of wealth? Whether it's right or wrong is an entire other debate, but I don't think the numbers or the fact of the matter is a subject of much informed debate. Rod |
Quote:
| How about, it's their money, and you don't have any right to it. You want more money, go work for it. |
Having worked retail in supermarkets, convenience stores and the like, I can say that simply giving people money won't make them suddenly know how to manage it, or even appreciate it. Many arguments occur over people trying to use welfare and food stamps for beer, lotto and cigarettes.
A discussion I had on the idea of taking money from the top earners and passing it out included comments like "they owe it to us", and "they have plenty" and similar. Bill Gates, who isn't one of my favorite people, earned his money. He already gives plenty to charity. The Walton's inherited theirs from their father Sam, who earned it. Sam you may recall drove a pickup truck and not a Caddie because "you can't put hunting dogs in a Cadillac.".
People rarely appreciate something that is given to them unearned. The gift is usually squandered, and all that has happened is they have been trained to expect a handout.
One comment is that if you evened out the bank acounts so that everyone had the same amount, within a short period of time, the previously rich will be so again, and the previously poor will be so again. One only has to look at the bankrupsty rate of lottery winners (80%) to see that wealth without understanding causes wealth to vanish.
Rather than taking cash from the wealthy, a better system would be to encourage a voluntary system that would teach people how to manage their money, and become self sufficient. As someone once wrote, teaching someone to fish sustains them for life, giving the a fish only feeds them for today.
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