Wealth gap

I've seen some local jobs that just want the applicant to be able to lift 50 lbs. repetitively. No fork lift involved. And they were willing to pay that money but then they're paying that to overcome the tedium.

whynot_31 said:

Yes, the better your friends, family, education, work ethic, physical health, behaviors, and positive outlook, the more money you tend to make.

Sweetie if that were the case Buffet would be coming to me for a loan.

For a nation that calls itself "Christian" there's no excuse for such a wealth gap. There's a certain legend about a camel having an easier time fitting thru the eye of a needle as opposed to the wealthy entering the Kingdom above. Defo a tale that is rather inconvenient for the elites.

How the Super-Rich Are Abandoning America

https://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/11/04-1

As they accumulate more and more wealth, the very rich have less need for society. At the same time, they've convinced themselves that they made it on their own, and that contributing to societal needs is unfair to them. There is ample evidence that this small group of takers is giving up on the country that made it possible for them to build huge fortunes.

... more ...

This thread is comical in that many of the same people who are worried about the poor are also the ones that can't wait for the neighborhood to be gentrified so they can live the lifestyle they want, the poor be damned. And they're only worried about the rents they can afford to pay even if they're much higher than what they previously were. Who cares if the people who lived there before had to move. Many of the people on here are as much a part of the problem though they refuse to think they are.

I see - from your post it appeared that you were thinking of a group of people when it was just one person.

Thanx.

@Prodigalson-Not at all. The fact is, many people on here came to this area because it was becoming more upscale. You just refuse to face the facts. If this area was the crime ridden area it was 15 years ago, many of the people moving in would choose to go elsewhere.

My point and as you so eloquently expressed....we all want to live with people in our socio-economic class. If it was any worse, we would have a caste system as in India. As for "sharing our wealth" I think most of us feel we worked hard for and earned what we have and we'd like to keep it. It's not that we're against those who don't have as much as we have it's that we feel they have to do SOMETHING. Handouts are not the way to redistribute wealth. We have to get people into the mentality that if they want something they have to have some sweat equity to get where they're going. Not just a free ride.

Of course, the biggest "handouts" in our society is corporate welfare. Once that is stopped society will be far better off for it.

One of the key differences between the current 1% and the robber barons of the past, is that the barons understood clearly that jealously and the desperation of the poor could result in their harm. As a result, they decided to spend a good portion of their wealth funding services for the poor. These included libraries, hospitals, museums, orphanages, and schools. They wanted their names associated with good things by the lower classes and some also saw this as part of their religious obligations. Some of NY's most well known institutions were created this way including Carnegie Hall, MOMA, the Frick, etc.

Contrast that with today's wealthy. They spend their money on toys and constantly deride the poor as being too stupid and lazy to get ahead. When they do invest in social programs the programs often follow their business models and if they don't provide a "return on investment" they take the money back. In the meantime, they have convinced everyone that we live in a meritocracy where you can achieve and overcome rising costs of living if you are smart, and where if you can't you deserve whatever happens to you.

Man does not live by bread alone. I have known millionaires starving for lack of the nutriment which alone can sustain all that is human in man, and I know workmen, and many so-called poor men, who revel in luxuries beyond the power of those millionaires to reach. It is the mind that makes the body rich. There is no class so pitiably wretched as that which possesses money and nothing else. Money can only be the useful drudge of things immeasurably higher than itself. Exalted beyond this, as it sometimes is, it remains Caliban still and still plays the beast. My aspirations take a higher flight. Mine be it to have contributed to the enlightenment and the joys of the mind, to the things of the spirit, to all that tends to bring into the lives of the toilers of Pittsburgh sweetness and light. I hold this the noblest possible use of wealth - Andrew Carnegie

The old rich also created those foundations as a means of limiting tax liability. Today the new rich have the luxury of overseas tax free shelters which exceed $30 trillion. Thus, while the USA incurs massive debts due to foreign wars and corporate welfarism, they escape paying taxes for these things and we are stuck with the bill.

whynot_31 said:

And, the rich do not gather in the the same way they once did. I have the sense that the norms used to be enforced in conversations that occurred in super exclusive clubs. Now, they seem to interact with each other less.

...the 1% has grown in size.

Yes, there is some evidence that some of their charity, was actually based upon challenges of manhood/wealth. It's amazing how "mine is bigger than yours" can be turned to good use.