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We believe that wealth would increase if we take in each other's washing. If I work for a lawn care company, and your wife has a child care center, how does it create wealth if I cut your grass while you care for my child, instead of me watching my own kid while you cut mow your own lawn? If you work for a convenience food processor, and take your wages and buy a frozen dinner and pop it in the microwave, because you job doesn't allow you time to cook, how have you "created new wealth" that wouldn't have existed if you had stayed home and cooked for yourself?
According to the prevailing theory, every time I hand you a dollar, the national wealth increases by a dollar. How does that work?
Consider another example. There is only one postage stamp in the world known as the British Guiana one-cent magenta, and you bought it at an auction for one million dollars. But I rummage through a trunk and I find another one. If I offer it for sale, the value of each of the two, now no longer unique, falls to $100K. Does that mean that our national wealth has decreased by $800K? To prevent this loss to your asset, you offer me a half a million, to burn my stamp. We just put $800K back into the national wealth, by destroying something of great value. The national wealth is simply what people think it is. The value of anything, including our aggregate GDP, is nothing more than what the marketplace is willing to pay for it. And that is purely imaginary and could evanesce in a moment..
Generally, wealth is created by turning natural resources into products. You take $10 worth of iron ore, turn it into $100 worth of steel, which in turn is turned into a $1000 machine. The selling of the final product is what funds the company and jobs of those who made the product, thus generating wealth. The exchange of services is more like bartering, exchanging things of equal value. The stamp is more like a storage of wealth. It has no function, but is agreed upon to have an arificial value which serves as a safe, compact place to retain excess wealth.
I think it's pretty dumb to hate the rich. Who else provides the products they make or who provides job opportunities? I understand some can engage in unethical behaviors, but not all of them.
I'm not rich if that's what you're implying. Not that I have to tell you, but I'm certainly nowhere near that top 400 in wealth!
You have said you are a millionaire in other threads. I remember you saying your portfolio is worth around 3 million dollars and you are only in your late 20's. You sir ARE rich, so don't come on here and lie about it. Sure, you are not a Warren Buffet, but that is beside the point. I will tell you what. I am a minimum wage worker who is barely surviving with a crappy apartment and car. However, I am not poor because there are people eating dirt in Haiti. That is just as ridiculous as what you said in the above quote.
I could fully understand hatred towards Wall Street, as the entire culture therein is morally bankrupt. Truthfully, I would love to have a 3 way breakdown of casualties on 9/11 amongst Humans, terrorists, and those who died and worked on Wall Street.
You have said you are a millionaire in other threads. I remember you saying your portfolio is worth around 3 million dollars and you are only in your late 20's. You sir ARE rich, so don't come on here and lie about it. Sure, you are not a Warren Buffet, but that is beside the point. I will tell you what. I am a minimum wage worker who is barely surviving with a crappy apartment and car. However, I am not poor because there are people eating dirt in Haiti. That is just as ridiculous as what you said in the above quote.
You don't know my entire financial situation. I am also loaded with business loan debt. In NJ/NYC, that's middle class, my friend.
Yes. If anything, capital and wealth in America continues to "bifurcate," with gains increasingly going to the extreme top end of the spectrum. Which means that those who were already wealthy are wealthier still, and are doing better than ever.
That hardly sounds like a country where people are "hating" on the wealthy. Apparently this "hatred" is so weak that it doesn't even affect their level of wealth. Which is to say, it's irrelevant at best.
I think it's pretty dumb to hate the rich. Who else provides the products they make or who provides job opportunities? I understand some can engage in unethical behaviors, but not all of them.
So you think there's nothing wrong with 1% of the country being as rich as 95% of the rest of the people combined? We should just be thankful for the low paying jobs they "create" for us? Nah, screw that. "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter Heaven" -- Jesus Christ
"Originally Posted by CancerianMoonPrincess I think it's pretty dumb to hate the rich. Who else provides the products they make or who provides job opportunities?"
Once a corp is started, they provide squat (on an incremantal basis). They have skin in the game, and while locations can be relocated, to close the corp would be suicide on their part. So quite frankly, this distinction is one that those who "fear offending them" seem never to notice. Its like a hostage situation, once the gunman releases the hostage, he lacks power. The same holds for the prospective investor starting a business. His power is reduced to virtually squat once he actually opens the facility and invests the money. The cost of closing it is too large. I formerly worked for a Fortune 500 where they have facilities open right now that are in the red, but those losses would be magnified manyfold by a shutdown. At some point, many, many years up the road, the book and tax values of the assets will be depleted significantly, and if they do not turn an operating profit, I am sure they will close them. But for now, their parent corp owns facilities that are like the hostage-taker who released his hostage. They have no power. In business parlance, dealing with them in such cases is like liars poker; the parent will not admit it has no power for many years to come!
$3 Mil new worth is NOT middle class (But then, I don't buy that that's it)
Las Vegas Drunk was talking about a portfolio of mine that I mentioned in a thread about what to do if the government increases taxes on long-term investors (capital gains tax). This particular portfolio is taxable so it would be affected.
That figure alone is not enough to determine my financial situation.
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