http://www.faireconomy.org/press/archive/Pre_1999/forbes_400_study.html Ptah! 43.35% of those rich bastards were wealthy enough to qualify to be on that list at birth.
That is the reality of Capitalism. Regulation of the market can only go so far and makes little change any way. Market economies have failed human needs.
Damn. No one needs that kinda money. Just shows the inadequacies of the system we employ. Claiming we operate free market economies in the west when the reality is far from that. No one would be able to amass that fortune in a true free market, there would be far too much competition.
It is pretty sad but this is what happens when the economy crashes...in any country. The less money the country has, the greater the divide in class usually gets... With that said, the USA is still very well off. We are just extremely selfish. We may have had to cut out our big mac meal lunch or our grande mocha with whip everyday but at least we still have all the necessary comforts ffs. Most of the world lives in faaar worse conditions.
Well the rich and the government have always been one in the same. As long as money = power, than this will never change.
I should say money = monetary power...which becomes straight up power due to the way we have structured society. Power obviously holds different meaning with everyone. Generally today, power is in reference to the control one person has over another. The more money you have, the more control you generally gain. Even if this control isn't as straight-forward as "I make the laws and tell you what to do" but rather as hidden as "I pay the salaries of those who make the laws and tell you what to do"... Money controls the masses. People want it and they don't want it taken from them--they will do pretty much anything to make sure that this is the way it is. Like go into a frenzy other the economy taking a plunge...without taking a look around and realizing their lives haven't hardly changed in the least. Then make dumb drastic decisions, like supporting government funded bailouts. Then again, I don't believe in the system--at all. So this is probably a very cynical viewpoint haha.
no, this is actually what happens with a free market, multiple companies compete and the one that provides the best service for the cheapest price will expand to accomidate for increased revenue due to providing the best service. i love how the creator of this thread is complaining about the rich getting richer, to him it doesn't matter weather or not the poor are getting richer as a result, they are just jelous and want to bring success down. this is why communism doesn't work, it is based on spiteful unsuccessful peoples thoughts.
The rich are getting richer because they keep doing the same things that make them rich. The poor are getting poorer because THEY keep doing the same things that make them poor. Any other questions
Money = power because money buys you a voice. And the more money you have, the louder voice you can buy. You have $10 you can buy a soapbox and stand on it in the middle of a public square all day and maybe actually communicate your ideas to 2 people. You have $100 you can buy yourself some presentable clothes, you can spend all day knock on your neighbor's doors and talking to them, you might influence 5 people. You have $1000 you can buy yourself a computer and spend all day spouting off on internet forums, you might influence 100 people. Maybe. You have $10,000 you can buy yourself some local radio air time. You might reach 10,000 people. You have $100,000 you can buy yourself a pickup and take a year off work and drive around and shake people's hands. You might influence 200,000 people. You have $10,000,000 you can buy yourself a Super Bowl ad and you might influence 10,000,000 people. You have $100,000,000 you can buy yourself a cable news network and you might influence 100,000,000 people. Money = the ability to communicate your ideas to people. And if you can't communicate your ideas, then you don't have any power.
You seem to be suggesting that a free market tends towards a monopoly. Right? I think you're confusing a true free market with that of the 'free' market we employ today. One stifled by regulations and bureaucratic red tape. A true free market has very few barriers to entry or exit and therefore competition is always going to be present. Monopolies would be much harder (if not impossible) to form in a true free market than they are today. Heard of the trickle down effect? I think it's fair enough that people are pissed that this trickle seems to get proportionally less and less year by year. Yes the poor are getting richer. But not by the same proportion that the rich are getting richer by.
the rich getting richer, and the poor getting poorer are not two mutually exclusive things, in fact when the rich get richer the poor usually get richer too. take poverty in the united states for example, poor people 30 years ago had no television, could not afford pre-made food, shopped at the goodwill and had no phones. now look at todays "poor" americans who own cellphones, have a tv, wear 100 dollar jackets and eat out regularly. sure the rich have gotten richer, but so have everyone else so is it really as terrible as you make it out to be? or are you just jelous that they have so much more than you?