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I will openly admit that the super rich don't need that much money and it would be immoral to hoard it for themselves. But, I also agree with CPG. Those people or their ancestors made their money through hard work, risk, and a bit of proper timing. Literally anyone could have done the same exact thing at one point and been a billionaire too. We all obviously know that they just happened to hit astronomical odds of everything coming together in the right way at the right time.
A majority of the super wealthy DO give away a majority of their wealth. Keeping the rest for some lavish purchases and some for the families future stability. Anyone who doesn't give away at least a size-able portion of their wealth is greedy IMO. I never judge a book by its cover and assume that all super wealthy people are greedy people who should be made "equal" to the rest of us.
I think you miss my point. In any case, you need to inform Gates and Buffet how they got into that club, because they tell a significantly different story than you. I'm sure you and your wife have done just fine, and good on you. I have as well, believe it or not. As I said, a lot of Americans believe exactly as you do. It's likely what keeps them from feeling like schnooks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cpg35223
Oh. So Bill Gates didn't write code? Bill Gates just schmoozed his way into being a billionaire? Bill Gates just kind of stumbled into his business models and kind of met his core team down at the local bar and said, "Hey, let's start a computer company"? What color is the sky in your world?
Yes, these guys had the advantage of college degrees and a host of things. So? I see a lot of college graduates who are working as barristas at coffee shops because they either didn't bother to apply themselves in college or didn't take advantage of opportunities. I have one of those as a client right now. She had a world-beater of an idea that she just was either too lazy or too afraid to put it into motion. She took a swat at it, decided it was too hard to do on her own, and didn't call the several contacts I provided who could have given her the funding and the expertise she needed to make it work. So she'll spend the rest of her days wondering why she's not wealthy, when the truth is that the world gave her an opportunity she failed to take.
What's more, if you're railing at Bill Gates because of his immense fortune, then you really don't understand money in the first place. Bill Gates couldn't write a check for billions of dollars right now, because that's what his assets are worth. It's not as if he has stacks of money sitting in his bank account. Instead, that fortune is counted in the form of his ownership in MicroSoft, his real estate, and whatever other investments he might have. Of course, none of this means squat to someone intent on whining about their station in life. Because people who complain aren't really interested in addressing their own lives. Rather they'd prefer to envy others and strip those people of what they rightfully earned.
I mean, hey, my first job out of college had a salary that was below the poverty line. You heard right. Below the poverty line. I had to work a second job just to keep the wolf at the door. But rather than whine about it, I learned everything I could in my business. I attended industry meetings even though I was a nobody. Asked questions relentlessly. Put in extra hours. Today, I'm semi-retired at 51 with clients around the country. My wife has followed a similar path, busting her ass to become a VP of Finance at a very large real estate company. We didn't have our path to success by backstabbing or taking ethical shortcuts or neglecting our personal lives. We just worked really hard and gained the trust of people in the industry. That's how you succeed.
I think we often like to pretend we've come a long way from the world of royal Pharaohs who were catered to by the masses with pyramids constructed for their burials, and maybe our technology and ethics have, but when it comes down to greed and wealth distribution I feel we really have not.
I think you miss my point. In any case, you need to inform Gates and Buffet how they got into that club, because they tell a significantly different story than you. I'm sure you and your wife have done just fine, and good on you. I have as well, believe it or not. As I said, a lot of Americans believe exactly as you do. It's likely what keeps them from feeling like schnooks.
Oh, Stout. The only schnook here is the one who wants to be generous with the money of other people.
Even the people like Warren Buffett say nice pious things but do whatever they can in reality to protect their assets. Even while Buffett was talking about upping taxes a couple of years back, he was in the middle of fighting the IRS tooth and nail over a paltry billion in back taxes that he claimed he didn't owe from the early part of last decade. And he and Bill Gates have gigantic tax shelters to prevent them doing what they think the mildly wealthy should do. Ah, well, how does it feel for your idols to have feet of clay?
This is actually a good thing, because the potential for all of that wealth to eventually find it's way into the hands of the 3.5 billion poorest can occur through the power of trickle down economics.
And it is inspiring for the 3.5 billion poorest, because it shows that someday, if they all just work hard enough and start saving and investing wisely that they too can join the ranks of the richest 85 people.
Since it would be virtually impossible to give all 3.5 billion people a single fish everyday, it is the job of those that control all of that wealth to teach them how to fish so they can take care of themselves. (Not literally since that would deplete the oceans of all of the remaining fish on the planet) But the point is, if the poorest and of course laziest 3.5 billion of the world would just all start working harder, maybe 'go to college' and start spending their money more wisely, then they can become like the top 85 richest too.
And, like. . . .Shouldn't the 3.5 billion start investing and saving their money instead of wasting it all on things like food, shelter and medical care. Come on people! That 3.5 billion is half of the world's population. They can do better than only having about as much combined wealth as 85 people.
Sarcasm is best when it is only a short sentence.
A LENGTHY sarcastic post loses its effectiveness !
You strengthen my argument. In case it's lost upon you, the fact that Buffet, Gates and the like take advantage of the very financial and accounting structures their wealth, power and influence created to exponentially enhance their share of national wealth at levels unheard of since the pre-Great Depression Gilded Age, does not diminish the truth when they point out that reality to us. We were warned. And do nothing. In fact, many people seem perfectly ok with it. Hence that giant sucking sound as we circle the drain.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cpg35223
Oh, Stout. The only schnook here is the one who wants to be generous with the money of other people.
Even the people like Warren Buffett say nice pious things but do whatever they can in reality to protect their assets. Even while Buffett was talking about upping taxes a couple of years back, he was in the middle of fighting the IRS tooth and nail over a paltry billion in back taxes that he claimed he didn't owe from the early part of last decade. And he and Bill Gates have gigantic tax shelters to prevent them doing what they think the mildly wealthy should do. Ah, well, how does it feel for your idols to have feet of clay?
I was reading recently that in 1960 South Korea and Egypt had roughly the same per capita GDP. Today
South Korea has a per capita GDP of over $22,000 US v Egypt having a per capita GDP of $3,200 US.
In 50 years S. Korea is now 9 times richer per capita than Egypt.
Is Egypt poor because South Korea got rich?
Are those 3.5 biilion poor because Bill Gates got rich?
I think those desperately poor people are held back by their own greedy incompetent leaders and failing governments, not because some people are wealthy in the west.
Yep; the super wealth have a history of endowments just as gates family does now in planning what to do with their e wealth. If gates and other were to not have gotten rich its does mean others would created the welath that gates did; certainly not thep resent poor.
I think we often like to pretend we've come a long way from the world of royal Pharaohs who were catered to by the masses with pyramids constructed for their burials, and maybe our technology and ethics have, but when it comes down to greed and wealth distribution I feel we really have not.
It's the same worn-out Leftist rant; Wealth that someone created through honest entrepreneurship isn't always in that person's direct possession and control; it's held by the enterprise that person built, and until he either converts it to his own use through salary, dividends, etc, or dies and passes it on through his estate, no government has the right to confiscate (tax) it, because it's working -- for its owners and its customers.
The imagined "right" to confiscate and redistribute wealth is nothing more than an excuse to destroy it via the coercive power of a government which answers (directly, at least) to no one -- the petty jealousy of the undisciplined and the dysfunctional, harnessed by the power-hungry and the unscrupulous.
And as long as economic illiterates are conditioned by those same power-hungry individuals to think of wealth as hidden in a vault, rather than utilized for productive enterprise in an advancing economy, no one who can rub a sufficient number of coins, brain cells, or scruples together is truly safe.
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 01-20-2014 at 11:30 PM..
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