The growing wealth gap is a very visible symptom of a very disturbing problem. The wealth gap is inherently unfair. Few would deny that the world is an unfair place, and that some people should receive higher rewards for greater contributions. That means a wealth gap in itself, within reason, is healthy. But what about a constantly growing wealth gap, with the rich getting richer while the poor get poorer?
Milton Friedman, respected economist and one of the architects of the current economy (an economy that is clearly in the midst of self-destruction), says the poor are better off now than they would be otherwise. Absolute nonsense! The monetary numbers he would use to justify his statement are rigged. 2012 dollars are not the same as 1992 dollars, which are not the same as dollars from any other year! We can't even measure the difference accurately, because official figures for inflation and dollar devaluation are woefully low and dishonest. But if we could measure accurately, I suspect we would indeed find that the vast majority of people are worse off, and Milton Friedman is deluding himself and others because of the personal benefit he receives, which is a complete conflict of interest. That same conflict of interest is exactly why government inflation figures are so bogus. The wealthy profit at the expense of everyone else. Parasites rule. The rest of us are lunch.
Suppose the wealth gap was limited, so that the wealthiest among us could be no richer than 1000 times that of the poorest among us. When any one person hit the wealth limit, any additional income of his would be divided among all the people, effectively making the poor slightly wealthier and thereby raising the wealth limit. Under that simple system, a rising tide lifts all boats. The wealthy can still be wealthy, but now, everyone can benefit. The wealth gap remains fixed, and the only way to greater wealth for the wealthiest among us is to make everyone richer.
What if the wealth gap were limited to 100 times that of the poorest among us, or only 10 times? What if it were 1 times the poorest among us, and all of us contributed to the rising tide in order to enrich us all equally?
Is that the secret to highly-advanced extraterrestrial civilizations that make us look so primitive?
Hello there
ReplyDeleteinteresting, indeed..I introduce a criticism here , for me if you admit any value to someone for any reason, then whatever is happening will be the very same for billions of years...war ,violence and all of it , but why ?
because without a collective group no one does anything ,even survival is impossible.....remove what is collectively done from everything, nothing is left....some clever guys , mostly intellectuals are just stealing the collective work whether violently or violently + cunningly by cheating the competition organised and ruled by themselves...it is only when the wealthy guy goes over the top that the flock moves one hand to say : no more...and very soon the very same circus starts again..we are globally or a bunch of idiots or a bunch of bullies....in between are deep peaceful and intelligent people, so far they can do nothing about mankind insanity..the number using violence prevails so kill any opponent..
cheers..