Posted on 12/05/2010 10:41:17 AM PST by SeekAndFind
“Today global wealth is more highly concentrated in the hands of the elite than it ever has been at any other point in modern history.”
False.
” Once upon a time, the vast majority of the people in the world knew how to grow their own food, raise their own animals and take care of themselves.”
Yeah, they were called peasants.
“There weren’t many that were fabulously wealthy, but there was a quiet dignity in having land you could call your own or in having a skill that you could turn into a business.”
Is there less ‘quiet dignity’ in having indoor plumbing, electricity and a nice home in suburbia?
“Nobody seems to know exactly how much the Rothschilds are worth today. They dominate the banking establishments of England, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and many other nations. It was estimated that they were worth billions back in the mid-1800s. What the total wealth of the family is today is surely an amount that is almost unimaginable, but nobody knows for sure.”
Baloney. The Forbes 400 list is a good estimate of the world’s richest. Who cares about the Rothchilds, there are hundreds of other billioniares out there.
“The following are 20 statistics that prove that the wealth of the world is increasingly being funneled into the hands of the global elite, leaving most of the rest of the world wretchedly poor and miserable.... “
More baloney. Wealthy people do not create poverty, in fact the opposite is true.
“#5 A study by the World Institute for Development Economics Research discovered that the bottom half of the world population owns approximately 1 percent of all global wealth. “
Actually, not very meaningful. A portion of the population has zero net savings and thus zero net wealth, so they have infinitely less saved than the rest of us. Only a few accumulate large wealth. This has not been different in the past.
And so it goes. Yes, there is a gap between rich and poor, but the increase in wealth does not by itself create poverty and so the amount of money Ted Turner or Bill Gates has is not very meaningful in discussions of the 2-3 billion in the world who are truly and abjectly in poverty.
And if it were true, what would we do about it? What HAVE we done yet?
One of the few things the author has to say that means anything worthwhile. So much of the article is the same class warfare the left engages in 100% of the time.
People are poor and starving and it's the fault of the wealthy elite - so much B.S. I don't owe the poor of the world a single cent except that which I choose to give of my own free will and I have a moral obligation to do that but I refuse to assign my moral obligations to any other living soul.
All part of the New World Order plan, our politicians make unfair trade agreements where the other countries can tax our products but we can’t tax theirs while making rules/regulations/taxes so bad companies want to leave and flood the country with illegal aliens. Next regulate the food/small farms. The middle class threat gets destroyed and it’s so much easier for them to bring about a global government.
I wonder if the unfair free trade globalist’s among us will one day regret the loss of our country for a few pieces of gold.
Wow.
Remember all this when you pay the new rate of 29.9% on your bank Visa card
a rate that used to be highly illegal
but is illegal no longer.
I wonder why ...
During the Reagan years, top CEO salaries were about 40 times that of their low level workers, and they were very comfortable. At the time of our recent collapse the ratio had skyrocketed to from 400 times to 1,000 times. Thus when Countrywide Financial collapsed, the CEO’s salary for 2007 and 2008 had been $142 million and $103 million. Lehman Brothers CEO in the same period was $52 million and increased to $72 million before being rejected for rescue. [Source: Forbes CEO Compensation, 5/3/07, and 4/30/08. If you go there check out what some of the others were earning, for example big Pharma companies.] McCain was right about greed.
And the #1 method being used to enable this is the whole “global warming” scam.
I believe that Al Gore was slated to become the first “Green” billionaire from “Cap and Trade.”
Mark
All I can think of is...God will take care of it...eventually.
Because in the 1980’s Democrats reinstated Usury that’s why.
RE: I don’t mean to be cavalier in saying this, but what you have posted describes an economic system called Capitalism.
Mark Levin, on his show last Friday, gave a distinction between Adam Smith’s description of MARKET BASED CAPITALISM and what we know today as CRONY CAPITALISM.
The latter is an allegedly capitalist economy in which success in business depends on close relationships between businesspeople and government officials. It may be exhibited by favoritism in the distribution of legal permits, government grants, special tax breaks, and so forth.
Crony capitalism is believed to arise when political cronyism spills over into the business world; self-serving friendships and family ties between businessmen and the government influence the economy and society to the extent that it corrupts public-serving economic and political ideals.
Which one of the two do you think we have that is the stronger force in the world today?
However, in at least one sense, some of the very wealthy ARE getting more wealthy at the expense of the poor and want to eliminate the middle class. Those people (liberals) are pushing cap and trade.
However, in at least one sense, some of the very wealthy ARE getting more wealthy at the expense of the poor and want to eliminate the middle class. Those people (liberals) are pushing cap and trade.
I hear what you are saying and I agree that the past couple years have been a huge blow to honest capitalism, but Bill Gates didn’t get rich off crony capitalism. He and most other very wealthy people (other than Al Gore) got rich off of innovation. Even GE, which is notorious for crony capitalism recently, completely retooled itself in the late 70s and 80s (remember “Neutron Jack”?).
Government meddling is causing crony capitalism. The answer is to get rid of government meddling and let the chips fall where they may.
Who was it who said, “There are lies, damned lies, and statistics”?
You’re right; let me give you a few examples:
(A) Joe listens to the Glen Beck program and is concerned about the future of certain financial institutions. He decides a wise investment would be to short these institutions.
Beck’s forcast comes true, but instead of allowing the stocks to drop, Joe to become wealth, and Fred the CEO who holds millions of these shares to be wiped out the laws are changed to restrict shorting.
(B) Jim is the CEO of Localbank X. He competes head to head with a branch of Bank of USSA in his town of 50,000. Unlike Bank of USSA, Jim has never made a practice of making 80/20, zero down, or interest only mortgage loans in the inner city or the suburbs of California. Bank of USSA has. The storm hits and instead of letting the Bank of USSA fail and Localbank X to prosper, the government bails out Bank of USSA thereby protecting the personal wealth of it’s well connected PAC contributing executives.
And the reason is? GOVERNMENT. Example: All the starving people in Zimbabwe, formerly a food-growing paradise, now with a starving population directly attributable to its socialist president.
Like PJ says, people don't just starve, people are starved.
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