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The impossibility of everyone being rich
Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 8:21 am
by _MeDotOrg
You hear it from pulpits, both spiritual and temporal: We want everyone to be rich. I don't understand how this would work. Wealth is predicated on inequality. If everyone is rich, who snakes your drain when it's clogged? Who paints your house? Who braids the mane of your dressage horse?
It seems to me what is needed is not a society where everyone is wealthy (impossible) or everyone wants to be wealthy (going to make for a lot of unhappy people). What is needed is a society where all labor is valued and respected, and where each occupation earns a decent wage.
Besides, if everyone is wealthy does the camel get smaller or the eye of the needle get bigger?
Re: The impossibility of everyone being rich
Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2012 6:35 am
by _bcspace
and where each occupation earns a decent wage
How about just what the market is willing to pay? Anything added or subtracted from the market skews supply and demand creating shortages or reduced quality.
Re: The impossibility of everyone being rich
Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2012 6:56 am
by _ludwigm
bcspace wrote:and where each occupation earns a decent wage
How about just what the market is willing to pay? Anything added or subtracted from the market skews supply and demand creating shortages or reduced quality.
Re: The impossibility of everyone being rich
Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2012 1:36 pm
by _MeDotOrg
bcspace wrote:and where each occupation earns a decent wage
How about just what the market is willing to pay? Anything added or subtracted from the market skews supply and demand creating shortages or reduced quality.
Well to get back to the original point, it was that some people feel that everyone can be rich. I don't see how a free market would guarantee that.
As far as the free market goes, where hippies used to say "if it feels good, do it" conservatives say "let the market decide." Both statements are an abdication of personal responsibility. If our economic system is a reflection of our values, free market system is stating the 'what the buyer will pay' is our highest value.
Re: The impossibility of everyone being rich
Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2012 5:14 pm
by _Eric
I've never seen/heard/read someone say that "everyone should be rich."
Re: The impossibility of everyone being rich
Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 3:52 pm
by _MeDotOrg
Eric wrote:I've never seen/heard/read someone say that "everyone should be rich."
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/0 ... olf-courseMitt Romney at a private fundraiser last month at the house of Papa John's founder John Schnatter:
"What a welcome, what a place this is. My goodness. Who would have imagined pizza could build this, you know that? This is really something. Don’t you love this country? What a home this is, what grounds these are, the pool, the golf course. You know if a Democrat were here he’d look around and say no one should live like this, you know? Republicans come here and say everyone should live like this, all right. This is a real tribute to America, to entrepreneurship."
At a Republican debate in Orlando:
"I want everybody in America to be rich," the former governor of Massachusetts told debate moderator Bret Baier of Fox News
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162- ... 03544.html
Re: The impossibility of everyone being rich
Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 7:24 pm
by _krose
Most (if not all) of the Republican candidates have said something like that this cycle.
Of course they are outright lying, and they know it. There is no way they believe everyone can be rich. There are very few paths to wealth that do not take utilize many lower-wage people. If everyone were magically rich, essential but low-skill jobs would either go undone, or those jobs would have to pay rich-man wages.
You think the wealthy would be willing to pay their help the same money they make? For Romney, that would be around $10,000 per hour he would have to pay the people who clean his houses, mow his lawns, wash his cars, clean his pools, and train his ballet horses.
Even just paying the help enough to make a paltry $1 million per year, that's still $480 per hour.
Re: The impossibility of everyone being rich
Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 9:29 pm
by _Eric
krose wrote:Most (if not all) of the Republican candidates have said something like that this cycle.
Of course they are outright lying, and they know it. There is no way they believe everyone can be rich.
Yes, I failed to account for outright lies and dishonest pandering to the poorer ranks in the Republican party.
krose wrote:For Romney, that would be around $10,000 per hour he would have to pay the people who clean his houses, mow his lawns, wash his cars, clean his pools, and train his ballet horses.
lol
Re: The impossibility of everyone being rich
Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2012 12:07 am
by _moksha
If I were a mouse, I would vote for Cheese, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Doesn't matter if the sound bite is benighted, Mitt has his finger on our tiny pulse.
Re: The impossibility of everyone being rich
Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2012 12:37 am
by _krose
Eric wrote:Yes, I failed to account for outright lies and dishonest pandering to the poorer ranks in the Republican party.
Perhaps the greatest political feat of all time has been the success of the Republican party in convincing so many poor people to vote against their own self interests, even to the point of getting them to defend the right of rich people and corporations to avoid paying taxes.