manolo wrote:Folks,
In the world today, the richest 85 people own the same amount of wealth as the bottom half of the entire world’s population. That is “85” people as against “3.5 billion people”.
This was discussed on the beeb world service last night and I was interested and amused by a contributor (former Bush admin advisor) saying that “inequality is not the problem”. She trotted out the familiar right wing argument: Capitalism can make everyone wealthy.
This argument relies on a false premise: that there is no upper limit to the world’s wealth and it is there for the taking if we only work hard enough. On this false premise the 85 richest people have no negative affect on 3.5 billion as there is always more wealth available for capitalism to unlock for the poor.
There are some problems with this view.
1. We have capitalism and it hasn’t happened. Inequality in wealth is getting rapidly greater in recent decades.
2. The world’s wealth is not limitless. Based as it is on land and property ownership, production from the biosphere and mineral resources, the ground of wealth is limited on this planet.
Where I would agree with the contributor is that wealth is there for the taking; it can be found in the hands of those who already have it.
Alex.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/201 ... -the-world
Thank You Very Much for your post, Alex Manolo Ethinker
In the world today, the richest 85 people own the same amount of wealth as the bottom half of the entire world’s population. That is “85” people as against “3.5 billion people”.
I don't carry a torch with enthusiasm for the Richest 85 and similar unless like Elon Musk* of SpaceX they are engaged in activities aimed at human survival &/or providing jobs for working stiffs....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk#SpaceX
That said when I read something like this.....
Where I would agree with the contributor is that wealth is there for the taking; it can be found in the hands of those who already have it.
The
Red Alert Alarm Bells go off full force.......
The Socialist Devil
is in the details of how you propose to take that wealth...
If you are talking about gently persuading some of the Richest 85 & similar to go Andrew Carnegie and donate some of their money to worthy causes like Carnegie did, then have at it.....
Andrew Carnegie (/kɑrˈneɪɡi/ kar-NAY-gee, but commonly /ˈkɑrnɨɡi/ KAR-nə-gee or /kɑrˈnɛɡi/ kar-NEG-ee;[1] November 25, 1835 – August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century. He was also one of the highest profile philanthropists of his era; his 1889 article proclaiming "The Gospel of Wealth" called on the rich to use their wealth to improve society, and stimulated a wave of philanthropy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Carnegie
But if you are talking about taking it by force, then I am against that.......
Not likely to come easy.......
Might end up with another Civil or World War......
And while Down in the Black Gang Kulaks like me know not to trust the Bosses because they like us are Depraved Sinful Egotistical Chaos Monkeys
............
We know that the Socialist/Communist/Progressives/Revolutionaries are
even worse as they are Especially Depraved Egotistical Hypocritical Chaos Monkey Killer Apes & Thieves....
That applies whether....
Talking about Revolution/Civil War where the EVIL Socialist Thugs are going to come loot & murder us after they shoot the czar like happened in the Ukraine and other places.....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor
Or 'merely'
taxing the Bosses to the point that the Bosses automate even more & lay us off before finally shutting down the businesses & factories down or moving them somewhere else...
The taxing will also fall on us and we probably won't have the assets to move somewhere else in style like the bosses or have the tax lawyers to dodge the taxes if the situation doesn't go quite that far.......
With much of the tax money going to support Upper Class Lifestyles for the Socialist Government Bureaucrats & Public Employee Union Officials and the like.......
Give me a capitalist adventurer like Elon Musk any day over some Arrogant LYING Socialist Son of a Bitch Eating Community Organizer/Bureaucrat
who wants to rob the rich & spread the wealth
2. The world’s wealth is not limitless. Based as it is on land and property ownership, production from the biosphere and mineral resources, the ground of wealth is limited on this planet.
Maybe.....
But if we can get out into Space with Elon Musk & similar, perhaps it is pretty limitless for practical purposes .....
Many worlds.......
Surface & Hollow..........
And Orbitals.......
And the energy to make better use of this world.......
AqC_Gma221M
*Musk co-founded his third company with rocket propulsion engineer Tom Mueller.[37] Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) was founded in June 2002.[38] Musk is CEO and CTO of the Hawthorne, California-based company. SpaceX develops and manufactures space launch vehicles with a focus on advancing the state of rocket technology. The company's first two launch vehicles are the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 rockets, and its first spacecraft is the Dragon.[39]
Musk and President Barack Obama at the Falcon 9 launch site in 2010
SpaceX was awarded a $1.6 billion NASA contract on December 23, 2008, for 12 flights of its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station, replacing the Space Shuttle after it retired in 2011. Falcon 9/Dragon is designed to replace the cargo transport function of the Space Shuttle and astronaut transport will be handled by the Soyuz. SpaceX designed Falcon 9/Dragon with astronaut transport in mind and the Augustine commission recommended that astronaut transport be handled by commercial companies like SpaceX.[40]
Musk revealed that he was influenced by Isaac Asimov's Foundation series[41] and views space exploration as an important step in expanding—if not preserving—the consciousness of human life.[42]
Musk has said that multiplanetary life may serve as a hedge against threats to the survival of the human species. "An asteroid or a super volcano could destroy us, and we face risks the dinosaurs never saw: an engineered virus, inadvertent creation of a micro black hole, catastrophic global warming or some as-yet-unknown technology could spell the end of us. Humankind evolved over millions of years, but in the last sixty years atomic weaponry created the potential to extinguish ourselves. Sooner or later, we must expand life beyond this green and blue ball—or go extinct." His goal is to reduce the cost of human spaceflight by a factor of 10.[43] He founded SpaceX with $100 million of his early fortune. In seven years, SpaceX designed the family of Falcon launch vehicles and the Dragon multi-purpose spacecraft from the ground up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk#SpaceX