View Single Post
Old 12-02-2005, 10:48 PM   #46 (permalink)
flstf
Easy Rider
 
flstf's Avatar
 
Location: Moscow on the Ohio
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ustwo
Influence will never go away in any society, so yes you can rig the system, be it with political power directly, or bribes. Despite this most of the wealthy are honest because there is no need to be dishonest about it. If I buy a house at $40k and sell it a week later for $60k was I dishonest? You won’t find to many self made rich men running because we have been taught to revile the rich in this country rather than respect them. We allow our own jealousies to take over and assume they must have cheated to get where they are.
I would like to believe that most of the wealthy are honest. I am always amazed at how corrupt many are no matter how much they already have. I don't like to use her as an example but I think she is typical of this. What gets into someone like Martha Stewart to cheat on stock trades to make a paltry $150K (from our pension funds) when she is worth over a billion already. It seems like they do it because they can and feel entitled or something. I can imagine this sort of thing happening thousands of times when no one gets caught. They are no different than someone who picks our pocket. I would say that I am more disgusted and puzzled rather than jealous.

If you buy a house for $40K and sell it for $60K a week later you are not dishonest, unless of course you have inside information from your political friends that the land will soon be rezoned. I fear the rich may get richer not just from their superior economic understanding. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to buy low and sell high when the game is fixed.

Last edited by flstf; 12-03-2005 at 01:41 AM..
flstf is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360