Wealth distribution

[HoreTore]

I see no ambiguity, sorry. I am not responsible for the behaviour of other people, and in thus I don't need to defend anything. I wouldn't treat people as badly as some do but that some do that isn't my doing. I am just not buying their products, I wouldn't feel comfortable in these clothes so I don't buy them. Some of you must want me to be a bad person, trying to corner me in some immorality, but I got what I think is moral perfectly outlined for myself. Going to blame me for the existance of the gammora or the panoza, how exactly.

I see no posts by others between your last post and this one, so I must assume it is directed at my post. So, my question to you, Frags, is simple:

.....how is your rant in any way relevant to what I wrote....?

[Fragony]

Mob mob mob

that's a whole lot of answer for a single point.

[HoreTore]

Mob mob mob

that's a whole lot of answer for a single point.

What's the mob got to do with you....? And what has my post to do with you personally...?

(except for the suggestion to read posts more carefully in the future, that is)

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Andres:

Wealth need not be acquired "at the expense" of others. The problem with a large wealth gap is not that some are filthy rich, but that it tends to stultify the "have-nots" ability to become "haves." Absent a credible -- if difficult -- means for changing your status, you get the kind of class rigidification that yields bloody revolution -- during which the "have-nots" victimize their own more than the "haves."

[HoreTore]

Wealth need not be acquired "at the expense" of others.

That belief can be traced back to the early, trade-centered economic theories from the early free market thinkers(especially Ricardo).

This belief assumes that economic wealth is finite. Contrary to that, wealth is dynamic and expansive. One man accumulating wealth will enable others to accumulate wealth as well.

But the inverse is true as well. Raising the wealth of the poor is not done at the expense of the wealthy. On the contrary, raising the level of the poor also raises the rich. We re of course talking about absolute levels of wealth here, ie. your actual number of stuff, not relative levels, ie. how much stuff you have in comparison to that other guy.

Henry Ford knew this well. It's a sad thing he also believed jews hoarded gold to to finance world wars...

[Fragony]

What's the mob got to do with you....? And what has my post to do with you personally...?

(except for the suggestion to read posts more carefully in the future, that is)

Nothing. But a good look at the mirror should be a good place to position yourselve. If you buy the stuff you should be able to get a good look at it no? Scumbags aren't getting rich on my account, so there's your answer.

[HoreTore]

Nothing. But a good look at the mirror should be a good place to position yourselve. If you buy the stuff you should be able to get a good look at it no? Scumbags aren't getting rich on my account, so there's your answer.

I have no idea what the relevance or meaning of this is supposed to be.

[Fragony]

I have no idea what the relevance or meaning of this is supposed to be.

Good, if I make any sense I am doing being mysterious all wrong.

[Rhyfelwyr]

I don't think that material inequality is nearly as important an issue as the social consequences of the current economic system are.

Rampant drug abuse, mental illness, family breakdown, community breakdown, moral breakdown - all these are not consequences of poverty, but rather a specific set of social conditions that have been created by the industrial and post-industrial world. The reduction of a person to a drone if they are lucky, idleness if they are not. The instability of irregular work. The many issues caused by unnatural work and unnatural hours. The indignity of never realising self-sufficiency, of being reduced to a burden for family or the state. The divorcement of wealth from labour. The inability to live a basic, fulfilling life with a family and your own home. To lose your life to the machine, to invisible faces and abstract forces. This is what I am surrounded by every day, increasingly I am coming to realise that this will be my life. When I see people who have been ruined like this, it makes me angry at the world. Those that suffer the most are demonised, only a tiny portion of the problem are scapegoated (see for example the moral outrage of the upper middle classes at bankers). Honesty life these days doesn't even feel real, it's like a bad dream.