Oxfam: the 62 richest people own as much as the poorer half of the world population (illegal, millionaire)
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So, essentially, you believe that anybody making just over $8 per hour is making enough to live on.
I'm glad we cleared that up.
Huh?! It depends a lot on where one lives, i.e. the cost of living etc. $8 in NYC is little, while it is enough in other regions. And of course it depends on how many hours you work.
From rags to riches is a myth, and a few examples to the contrary won't change that.
As I said, lots of people ARE working their butts off, without ever owning even a single house.
It largely depends on the situation you are born into, for instance your parents' socioeconomic and intellectual status, your city/region/country, etc. And probably also on one's luck in terms of genes.
I think a lot of one's fate is inherited so to speak.
right. a lot of people ARE working their butts off, but they are also making the WRONG choices as well. instead of investing their money where it does the most good, they spend, spend, spend on consumer goods and services, get into debt, and then make minimum payments and never get out of debt. they are constantly buying new cars, new tvs, etc. that is why they never get ahead.
poor assumption on your part about aid to africa. what you have there is greedy leaders that take the aid given to them, and pocket it in their swiss bank accounts, rather than do something to feed their people. robert mugabe is very bad for doing this very thing, so was idi amin, and just about every other leader of an african nation that you can name.
I was responding to the other poster who basically said that if they would rather help in their own ways rather than per taxes ultimately ending up in the elites pockets.
No, I earn much less than that, not even half, and it is enough. I could work more, but I would take work away from others that way without my needing more money. It is better for two people to have humble incomes than for one to have a big income and the other none at all.
This is interesting. Weird and barely credible, but interesting.
How do you feel about people who are more beautiful than others? How beautiful is too beautiful? Is there a point where society should say "You are too beautiful. It's not fair to other, less beautiful people."? And what would you do about it? Force the "too beautiful" people to wear bags over their heads? Bash their faces in? And what about really talented people. How talented is too talented? And what would you do to take away the excess talent? How would you redistribute that excess, undeserved talent to the inept? What about people you think are "too smart"? Why should the race to mediocrity be limited only to wealth? Why not just destroy everything and everyone that is better or more successful or happier than someone else?
You may choose to limit your opportunities and income and any other aspect of your life, but you have no right to tell anyone else they have to live like you do.
Things have gotten out of hand. I am not against a small gain from investment, but things have gone way too far. It would be possible to cap such gains, stop excessive speculation etc. if it happened on a global basis via one of those global trade or UN organizations.
Indeed, that is why I am saying there should be clear global laws without exception. Make companies pay full taxes locally wherever they earn money. No loopholes, no nationalist egoism, etc. So immoral acts would turn into crimes, which could be punished.
Cap gains. Really? In 1997 I would have loved to have invested in an online book seller with a stupid name. $1k then would be $380,212.74 (as of current price). It could be luck or it could be that investors saw a business model with potential and a CEO that had big ideas.
What's the UN going to do? Come in and take my excess dividends. Let them try.
You don't think the average "poor" person in America doesn't have money for a cell phone or own a car (Maybe they don't in cities where many including the middle class do not cars).
right. a lot of people ARE working their butts off, but they are also making the WRONG choices as well. instead of investing their money where it does the most good, they spend, spend, spend on consumer goods and services, get into debt, and then make minimum payments and never get out of debt. they are constantly buying new cars, new tvs, etc. that is why they never get ahead.
Unfortunately, we are being conditioned and pressured to do this in a "consumer economy". To the extent that we may just get negative interest rates in an attempt to force us to spend money, also saving is now being termed as hoarding. We are supposed to earn and spend, borrow, earn and spend or face some kind of punishing consequences.
once again that is bullcrap. anyone can change their lot in life, but they have to WORK for it, it wont be just given to them. too many people think that because they are poor now, means they will always be poor. too many others think they can spend their way into wealth, but they constantly buy the wrong products. they buy into the consumerism, and spend way too much on such products. the people that make themselves rich are the ones that buy the stuff they need to make themselves rich. for instance, my best friend was no better or worse off than i was in high school, but through hard work, and proper use of his assets, he has made himself quite comfortable over the years.
he now owns six houses, five of them paid off, thee of them he rents out, one he is working on to eventually sell, hopefully for enough to pretty well pay off the last mortgage he has. but it wasnt easy to get where he is today. he had to work for it, and instead of buying the latest and greatest car, computer, or other consumer product, he invested in spackle, tools like olfa knives, and other tools of the tinters trade, and put in a lot of hours daily doing tints for customers.
i have often said that is one is willing to put forth the effort, they can make themselves as rich as they want.
I agree with you in America anyone with normal intelligence and an able body can work themselves out of true poverty. If you happen to be born in a ghetto in Nigeria that may not be true.
oh so now suddenly someone that won a nobel prize knows more than everyone else? you do realize that the nobel prize is all about politics these days and not what people really know right?
It would stand to reason that someone who has been studying economics for the majority of his life knows more than you or I about economics. That would be a logical conclusion. The guy (if you looked him up) has been involved in economics quite heavily across the board. Even without the award it's clear that he's spent his adult life working in economics and studying to understand it better.
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as for your other point, it nicely addresses my point that our economy is dynamic and not static, like so many so called economists try to model. our economy expands and contracts, and if you know what you are doing, you can make money when either happens.
You have to have money to make money in this country. The idea that one can always get enough money to start on that path is completely unrealistic.
Look at it this way. Say you earn a quarter of a million a year, which is already super much, imagine about 20k every month! That makes a million every 4 years, i.e. 10m during a working life of 40 years, assuming you earn so much all the time. I suppose some doctors earn that much.
But more than 10m per life? What are the ways to do that? Stocks (i.e. earning from other people's work, I don't call that "deserving"), interest (same thing), etc. And of course by trying to avoid paying taxes.
Sorry, but you are a fool if you think it doesn't matter to society how much other people earn, and how they do it. It is a human society, not millions of independent planets.
Lol you can't even comprehend the amount of money those 62 top richest people have. 250k per year? That's upper middle class where I live, if that.
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