Quote:
Originally posted by Hwed
While your industrial workers are punching 40 hours a week on a clock, billionaires are working 100 hour weeks. Not only do they work their asses off, they put their own money on the line.
Thats' the crux of it. If I'm going to risk my money to start a business, I damn well expect a reasonable chance of profit. If I have to turn over 90% of what I make so the government can hand it over to people who do just enough to get by, do you think I'm going to risk MY neck? No way.
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I didn't actually think you were going to go that extreme in your claims--a 100 hours per week?!
There's not a chance that the top 1% wage earners are working 100 hours per week. That is ludicrous.
The top wage earners in this country don't and haven't worked a day in their lives. You're buying into some real false ideology to think that the richest people are at the top because of good ole fashioned hard work. Just research where their wealth stems from.
Your next point is that they invest their money and should reap the benefits. That would be true if they were willing to accept the risk, but they don't. When a venture capitalist fails in his or her endeavor, he or she writes it off. They play with public money. When a cronie sucks up a private family's money and squanders it on a hope and a prayer, the federal government steps in and picks up the pieces.
You've got some real adoration for the wealthiest people in this society. It's unfounded adulation, however. The richest don't float this economy--that's a laughable proposition. Their money dumps right back into the global market and spreads to the point of best return for investment. That means that while an insignificant portion of their wealth may buy a hummer (although I haven't seen too many elites cruising around in those; maybe entertainment stars who are caught up in commodity fetishism, though), they don't do it very often. Their wealth dumps into develoment in India and Taiwan, not Chicago, where they can buy capital for pennies on the dollar.
And the pie can only grow so much before it implodes when there aren't enough consumers to purchase the products that are made. Careful analysis goes into the production process to ensure commodities don't saturate the market. Those aren't market forces, to be sure, they are monopolizations of the means to sustain a living.
If you want to make an argument that shoes, television, and candy bars aren't birthrights, I can grant you that. You'll have a hard time extending that to food, healthcare, and an abode, though (we'll throw in reliable transpo since this country is determined not to invest in public mass transit and, by golly, we need the workers to get from home to work).