Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Poor Get Richer
Townhall.com ^ | June 16, 2021 | John Stossel

Posted on 06/16/2021 4:28:54 AM PDT by Kaslin

Everywhere, people trash capitalism.

But what they think they know about capitalism is usually wrong.

My new video debunks some myths about capitalism.

"No one ever makes a billion dollars," complains Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. "You take a billion dollars." In other words, capitalists get rich by taking money from others.

That's nonsense, and Myth No. 1.

People believe that myth if they think that when one person wins, someone else must lose. It's natural to believe that if you think there is a finite amount of money in the world. But there isn't.

Free markets increase total wealth. Competition encourages entrepreneurs to find new ways to release more value from both people and resources.

Because capitalism is voluntary and consumers have choices, the only way capitalists can get rich is to offer us something that we believe is better than we had before.

That creates new wealth.

Steve Jobs became a billionaire. But by creating Apple, he gave us more: millions of jobs and billions of dollars added to our economy.

Research shows that entrepreneurs only keep 2.2% of the additional wealth they generate. "In other words, the rest of us captured almost 98% of the benefits," says economist Dan Mitchell of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity.

"I hope that we get 100 new super billionaires," he adds, "Because that means 100 new people have figured out ways to make the rest of our lives better off."

But former Labor Secretary Robert Reich says we should "abolish billionaires." He wants some form of wealth tax to hold their wealth down. "Entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos would be just as motivated by $100 million or even $50 million," Reich claims.

But Mitchell points out that if their income is limited, "Maybe they just take it easy ... retire ... sail a yacht around the world ... consuming instead of saving and producing."

I want them saving and producing! Billionaires have shown that they're good at cutting prices or improving products or both.

As Michell puts it, "I'm not giving Jeff Bezos any money unless he's selling me something that I value more than that money."

Even if they don't -- even if they run out of ideas -- their wealth is useful.

One reader called me "a complete moron" for saying that. He argues that "more money in the richest hands means money sitting in the bank doing nothing."

But that's an ignorant view of banks. Because banks loan that money out, they enable other people to buy homes, start new businesses and get educated.

Still, I hear that "the rich are getting richer, while the poor get poorer!"

That's Myth No. 2. Yes, the rich got lots richer, but the poor and middle class got richer, too.

"I hope that we get 100 new super billionaires," he adds, "Because that means 100 new people have figured out ways to make the rest of our lives better off."

But former Labor Secretary Robert Reich says we should "abolish billionaires." He wants some form of wealth tax to hold their wealth down. "Entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos would be just as motivated by $100 million or even $50 million," Reich claims.

But Mitchell points out that if their income is limited, "Maybe they just take it easy ... retire ... sail a yacht around the world ... consuming instead of saving and producing."

I want them saving and producing! Billionaires have shown that they're good at cutting prices or improving products or both.

As Michell puts it, "I'm not giving Jeff Bezos any money unless he's selling me something that I value more than that money."

Even if they don't -- even if they run out of ideas -- their wealth is useful.

One reader called me "a complete moron" for saying that. He argues that "more money in the richest hands means money sitting in the bank doing nothing."

But that's an ignorant view of banks. Because banks loan that money out, they enable other people to buy homes, start new businesses and get educated.

Still, I hear that "the rich are getting richer, while the poor get poorer!"

That's Myth No. 2. Yes, the rich got lots richer, but the poor and middle class got richer,


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: capitalism; poorpeople; rich
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021 next last

1 posted on 06/16/2021 4:28:54 AM PDT by Kaslin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

I’d be happier if the extremely wealthy weren’t trying to depopulate the planet and establish a global government based on tyranny.

I don’t begrudge people money. But rule by the rich is a bad thing.


2 posted on 06/16/2021 4:34:14 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy ("I see you did something -- why you so racist?")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ClearCase_guy

um... its no fun to be rich if everyone else is rich too, its only nice when you are richer than others. It’s all in your head.

The chief with a bead necklace in a primative society thought he was pretty cool because he had something others didn’t and everyone envied him... until the Europeans arrived and suddenly, instantly, he felt poor, even though before he felt rich.


3 posted on 06/16/2021 4:39:30 AM PDT by TexasFreeper2009
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

The Builderburgers are very real.

Global aspirations are anti capitalist.

Simply because of the draconian authority AND DEMOGRAPHIC WARFARE used by the builder-berger One wORLD ASS HATS LIKE Bill Gates and Fow Xi.

Donald Trump is my type of rich man.

And you non America First plicks?

NO FREEDOM?

NO PEACE.


4 posted on 06/16/2021 4:42:02 AM PDT by Candor7 ((Obama Fascism:http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html) )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ClearCase_guy

I’d be happier if FReepers knew how to post articles without embedding repetitive text that makes them exhausting to read. I have up on this one about halfway through it.


5 posted on 06/16/2021 4:42:24 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("And once in a night I dreamed you were there; I canceled my flight from going nowhere.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Alberta's Child

Ditto


6 posted on 06/16/2021 4:49:36 AM PDT by Nateman (If the Left Is not screaming , you are doing it wrong..)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Correct. You become a billionaire because you create something that millions of people find useful. Gates, Bezos, and Zuckerberg for all their faults did this.

The problem in the modern world is you can do all this and never leave a desk in Seattle or San Francisco. You no longer need to interact with common people. They are all nerds with utopian visions and little real world experience, and they use their money to inflict utopian experiments on the rest of America.


7 posted on 06/16/2021 4:53:34 AM PDT by Renfrew
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
(from the article):" "No one ever makes a billion dollars," complains Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
"You take a billion dollars."
In other words, capitalists get rich by taking money from others."

All this gobbledygook from a congressitter with a degree in Economics ?
This statement is enough evidence of what passes for the modern education system, and graduation.
Her university must be so proud .. ? ../s

8 posted on 06/16/2021 5:08:56 AM PDT by Tilted Irish Kilt
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

“Still, I hear that “the rich are getting richer, while the poor get poorer!””

And the middle class pays for it.


9 posted on 06/16/2021 5:09:37 AM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (I got the shot. Not because I wanted to. Because I had to, in violation of my civil rights.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

The poor are richer than they are said to be. When someone is “poor” he gets generous benefits: money, home, telephone, food, internet. The value of those benefits is not counted, and he is nevertheless called “poor.”

The “rich” person earns a high salary, but around half of it is taken by the government and given to the “poor.” The “rich” person is still listed as being rich and is eligible for no benefits, but rather higher taxes.

Someone estimated the sum total of benefits available at around $40,000. Pretty good, for not working. Meanwhile, the person “earning” $80,000 has about $40,000 stolen in taxes, and so dresses up in the morning and goes out to work, while the “poor” person smokes who-knows-what, engages in indiscriminate sex, drinks himself drunk and watches Oprah.

Both get about $40,000. One is hated, the other is worshiped by the left.


10 posted on 06/16/2021 5:21:18 AM PDT by I want the USA back (I fear my government more than the virus. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Money is data, which is why most of it can be stored and processed by computers. At its root, money is data about energy. All economic activity requires the consumption of energy. Prices are proportional to the cost of that energy. Economies are powered by energy. Make energy more expensive or harder to access and everyone’s quality of life is reduced. Free markets are extremely energy efficient. The way to get rich in a free market is figure out how to use less energy than your competitors. Rewards go to those that consume our limited supply of energy the most wisely. Economics and energy consumption is the same thing.


11 posted on 06/16/2021 5:25:05 AM PDT by Reeses
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: I want the USA back

We have the richest poor people in the world. And yet they complain that the rich don’t pay their fair share. Pathetic.


12 posted on 06/16/2021 5:39:22 AM PDT by unixfox (Abolish Slavery, Repeal the 16th Amendment)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

John, its called free enterprise


13 posted on 06/16/2021 6:07:36 AM PDT by joshua c (Dump the LEFT. Cable tv, Big tech, national name brands)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

I started a full time job after graduating high school at 17.

I am now 81 & I still have an accounting client.

I NEVER had a poor man sign my paycheck-—HOWEVER—I did have a number of very hard working self-employer people sign it.

NO BILLIONAIRES either.


14 posted on 06/16/2021 6:21:43 AM PDT by ridesthemiles ( )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

The problem is that when you get to a billion, pride and vanity do the devil’s work. All of a sudden, you stop focusing on serving people and start becoming a Bond villain. You lose touch with people and just listen to elitist pap that is thinly disguised eugenics. And these guys LOVE socialism because they get to use their wealth and power over others without their consent.


15 posted on 06/16/2021 8:14:27 AM PDT by jimmygrace
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ClearCase_guy
But rule by the rich is a bad thing.

Surely, CCG, you aren't suggesting that 'rule by the poor' would be better?

16 posted on 06/16/2021 9:21:27 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Candor7

Then I can assume you have nothing in your home that BG has ever had a hand in; right?


17 posted on 06/16/2021 9:23:11 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Tilted Irish Kilt
All this gobbledygook from a congressitter with a degree in Economics ?

No; from a critter that was VOTED into office by folks with barely a grasp of economics.

18 posted on 06/16/2021 9:24:38 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Read later.


19 posted on 06/16/2021 11:02:27 AM PDT by NetAddicted ( Just looking)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Elsie

Then I can assume you have nothing in your home that BG has ever had a hand in; right?>>>>>>>>>>>

That’s right.

What I have is in spite of big government and their whore lawyers.

I have been pursued most of my life civilly and so far they got bumpkiss.

And so I rest in the near wilderness. Life is great.


20 posted on 06/16/2021 1:52:01 PM PDT by Candor7 ((Obama Fascism:http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html) )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson