these chickenheads all blat about the rich like they will wind up with ALL the money like this is is a game of Monopoly or something... the USA prints money EVERYDAY!!!
it's up to YOU as to how much or how little you get of it.
The correct answer is: So?
Why does she have a problem with people getting rich? What you find out is that the think that the rich didn't earn their money and that they just take it from the poor.
But here's what really happens:
"the rich" are not the same people every year. There is in fact a huge amount of mobility between the classes, but that does not show up in the statistics. For example, some poor kid gets a basketball contract; that doesn't show up as the poor getting richer, because now the kid is rich, it shows up as the rich getting richer, when in fact it was the poor getting richer. Now, that is not a common scenario, but a small businessman making 60-75K per year jumping into the millionaires bracket for a few years is quite common.
Another thing to point out is that in a free society the gap between the richest and the poorest will always widen because there will always be bums at the bottom who will not work.
Well, it takes a lot of people to make, sell, install and repair these things. Take a yacht for example. A bunch of people get put to work making it. Then the salesperson sells it and more people are required to customize it for delivery. Then you need people to repair it and keep it in good working order. Not to mention a skipper to pilot it and depending on how large it is, a crew to sail with it.
Rich people also like to eat and dress well. Chefs and tailors are put to work. Upscale restaurants are opened creating even more jobs. Rich people like to build wine cellars so wineries thrive as well.
I'm just scratching the surface here. "Rich" people drive the economy. If our rich people ever stopped spending (or stopped being rich), our economy would collapse. Thousands and thousands of companies would be put out of business overnight.
I remember one family gathering years ago when a family member (one of those idealistic young people) went on a rampage about rich people who "flaunt their wealth" with their conspicuous consumption. Now ironically, she worked at one of those upscale clothing stores at the mall where even a pair of pre-ripped jeans cost over $100. I reminded her that if everybody decided to shop for their clothes at Wal-Mart or K-Mart so as not to flaunt it, that her store would be out of business. She didn't come around totally but she seemed to tone down the rhetoric a bit after that.
You’ve got a lot of good answers. You’re certainly right that it makes no difference how much someone else makes. In the US, people are very mobile in where they fall in the wealth range. Grow up in a poor neightborhood and you can still make it rich. Grow up in luxury and you can end up poor. Compare that with many socialist countries, where income mobility is almost nonexistent.
One of the biggest benefits of great wealth is the concept of concentrated capital. Let’s say you have a great idea. Everyone you meet thinks it is a great idea, and knows your idea will make billions of dollars. Only problem is, you need $20 million is startup costs. Where are you going to get that money? Rich people, that’s where. Investment bankers who manage the money of very rich people and run around looking exactly for people like you. Try piecing together that much money in a country where every last person makes $40,000 a year.
One thing to remember, the day the rich DON’T get richer is the day everyone starts to starve.
The rich pay most of the taxes, buy most of the goods, and hire most of workers in this country.
Poor people pay no income taxes, buy very few things, and hire no one. The poor drain the country of money and resources, the rich produce money and resources, which the government confiscates in part and redistributes to the poor.
Of course, the first thing to demand when someone brings up the rich is: Define rich. Teachers enjoy a higher retirement income than about 80% of the rest of the country. Government workers enjoy the best retirement of all for their income level. Teachers are rich retirees compared to most retired Americans.
You migtht point out to her that the most famous time the Rich got poorer, was October 1929.
Of course that led directly into the glory years of FDR, 1932 to 1939. Perhaps she would consider that a price well paid to take a step closer to her envisioned socialist nirvana.
Here’s a true story for you: quite a few years ago, when the huge fire happened in the hills above Berkeley, CA, there were comments made such as, “Who cares if a bunch of rich white people’s homes burned down”. Then, starting the very next week, there were articles about how “Juanita the housekeeper didn’t have work because the houses she cleaned had burned down, and Manuel, he didn’t have any gardens to take care of, and Jose the dry-cleaner delivery guy didn’t need to pick-up or deliver because there weren’t any houses or clothes left in the neighborhood, and gee, Freida the dog walker wasn’t needed, and Harriet the interior decorator could kiss those gigs goodby, and...well, you get the drift. Your teacher just doesn’t realize two things:
1. The ‘rich’ provide lots and lots of jobs
2. The ‘rich’ include folks that in her wildest dreams she wouldn’t recognize as ‘rich’. These include folks who live in small houses but happen to have stocks and bonds that they have slowly and steadily purchased over years, adding up to a tiddy sum
3. She herself is richer than anyone in her profession has ever been before, both in salary and benefits
The list is endless. And oh yes, by the way, does your teacher work year round? Does she read any self-help books about how to become ‘rich’ and does she, a teacher, educate herself on how to add to her wealth? Probably not. It’s always the ones who don’t make any effort to utter that ridiculous platitude. As you can tell, this hit a hot button with me. Tell your teacher to read the book “The Millionaire Next Door”. She might be surprised.
these chickenheads all blat about the rich like they will wind up with ALL the money like this is is a game of Monopoly or something... the USA prints money EVERYDAY!!!
it's up to YOU as to how much or how little you get of it.
If you want to see her apoplectic, tell her that you agree with Rush that the poor need to be taxed at a higher rate because they require more government services. After all, libs are supposed to believe in “fairness.”
In history, how many working class people have worked for poor people?
It has been my experience that working class people work for people who have money.
It is my experience that people work for people who have more money than themselves.
Ditto for the poor, but in reverse.
Your history teacher has a very narrow view of life. If you look at the whole world, all Americans are “rich”. Almost all of us have access to safe water and sewage systems. Our food problem is obesity, not starvation. Almost all of us have electricity, telephones, tvs and cars.
Even the American people who depend on the generosity of others have these things.
Ask your teacher why Americans who don’t work deserve these things while people in other countries can’t get them.
Think of all the wealth - meaning, to my mind anyway, the more convenient lifestyles we lead thanks to technological advances - that exists today. If economics is a zero-sum game, then why in the past were so many (actually, probably everyone) poor compared to so many today? If that were how an economy worked, wouldn't someone have to have been hiding away some great wealth, to balance out the poverty (as we'd call it today) of all the others?
Obviously, then, there is a general growth of wealth - and anyone who gets alarmed over one person or group getting wealthier at a faster rate than everyone else (esp. in the USA!) just doesn't seriously know or understand this fact.