World's richest woman: 'Drink less, work more'

SYDNEY — The world's richest woman, Australian mining tycoon Gina Rinehart, urged those "jealous" of the wealthy to "spend less time drinking" in a piece the government described as "insulting" on Thursday.

Rinehart, whose family iron ore prospecting fortune of Aus$29.2 billion (US$30.1 billion) also makes her Australia's wealthiest person, hit out at those who she said were envious of the rich.

"There is no monopoly on becoming a millionaire," she wrote in an industry magazine column.

"If you're jealous of those with more money, don't just sit there and complain. Do something to make more money yourself -- spend less time drinking or smoking and socialising, and more time working.

"Become one of those people who work hard, invest and build, and at the same time create employment and opportunities for others."

Rinehart blamed what she described as "socialist", anti-business policies for the plight of Australia's poor, urging the government to lower the minimum wage, as well as taxes, unless it wanted to end up like Greece.

"The terrible millionaires and billionaires can often invest in other countries... maybe their teenagers don't get the cars they wanted, or a better beach house or or maybe the holiday to Europe is cut short, but otherwise life goes on," she wrote.

"The millionaires and billionaires who choose to invest in Australia are actually those who most help the poor and our young. This secret needs to be spread widely."

But senior ministers including Treasurer Wayne Swan -- an outspoken critic of Australia's mining billionaires and their deep-pocketed anti-tax campaigns -- slammed the remarks...

“His mother had the luxury of working for non-profits and NGOs” Well...let’s not go too far. haha. Not exactly a luxury. I worked for an NGO in Afghanistan for awhile, it was definitely not luxurious and paid almost nothing. Fortunately I did it for the fun of it but if I had to live on that money I would have starved.

Okay, now I'm all but sure that “Conservative Sympathizer” was a fake. Not 100 percent, but about 95 percent.

Jim, thank you again for zotting this guy before he had the chance to give Free Republic a bad name as a bigoted “hate site.”

Look at this post by him from August on an article entitled, “World's richest woman: ‘Drink less, work more’”

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2924693/posts

“Stupid thing for her to say. True, she's not to blame for the struggles of the middle class, but she also has no idea just what the solution to the problem is. ‘Just work harder’ is a bullcrap answer. What about government subsidies that drive up the costs of goods and services (like subsidies for medical care)? What about social insurance taxes? What about stifling regulations? When was the last time a group of people got together to form their own town and main street? Increased federal power to tax and spend has helped kill small, but otherwise economically efficient small towns.”

This is not the sort of thing that either a libertarian or a traditional conservative would say.

It sounds much more like the mentality of “You didn't build that” (Barack Obama) and “It takes a village to raise a child” (Hillary Clinton).

I may be wrong, but I don't think I am.

If I am, I'm sure “Conservative Sympathizer” will want to clear his name and contact Jim Robinson via private email to apologize.

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