A little while ago, I read yet another off hand comment about how lazy everyone nowadays is. Condemning the Occupy Wall Street movement as a bunch of worthless vagabonds who just want a "free lunch" and that they are waiting to see someone hold up a sign to say they wanted a new New Deal where jobs would be created so that those lazy homeless people could work 10 hours of back-breaking labour a day for six days a week and get paid good money.
I'd hold up that sign. Not that I think this is the most important aspect of an economy in the modern sense but having jobs would be the step we need. And I think everyone agrees with that.
I'll comment from a psychological point of view: almost no one wants a "free lunch" really. I don't know anyone who does and I think if I did I would chalk it up as some sort of disorder on their part. Most people do not like to feel like they are in debt to someone. It makes them feel subservient and like they owe. I, for a long time, lived in such poverty (because all my income went to education) that I wouldn't spend anything on myself. I would go out to eat with friends and order water. I didn't want anyone to pay for me, I didn't get food stamps, I didn't get any welfare. I just contented myself with a jar of peanut butter a week and a bag of bread every day.
Not the most healthy time of my life. I do not think that I am atypical in this regard. There are so many people I meet living on meager means but refuse any help extended to them. Some bizarre American Pride. But it isn't bizarre because no one wants a hand out. I makes you feel the poverty you have.
And yet we are so afraid of anyone getting something that they didn't earn. As if that means they deserve it.
Right now, I have the highest paying job of my life. A whole $10.70 with a $0.50 bonus if I work all the way to March - so $11.20 per hour. This is the easiest job I have ever had. Previous to this, I have worked with some of the poorest people in the world. Not just in wealth but in self-esteem. Mostly in custodial positions, these people work very, very, very hard doing something many people couldn't imagine doing. And most of them don't even feel gratitude.
Yet there are those who cheat the system. They don't feel remorse for just taking from the work of others. The vast majority of these people are very poor themselves and haven't seen a way out of poverty. Some of them seem to enjoy it because they've got their leisure time while the working stiffs do not. A slim proportion of these people are massively wealthy. They are the ones who suck the majority of the actual wealth out of the system. They sort of work hard, making sure that they keep their position, no one starts paying attention to the fact that they have sucked the money out of your wallet. But I have a hard time imagining that they are working harder than the proud single mother who works 60 hours a week at 3 different jobs just so her children can keep playing soccer and eating.
Somehow we don't care that they get enough free lunches to feed Africa. All to their lonesome little greedy selves.
For a while now I have been interested in doing a little bit of research. We talk about the inflation of a dollar. How the value of that dollar has changed though time. Now-a-days, people make 20,000 dollars which would look like a helluva lot to an old miner in 1824. But it isn't much now. But what does inflation really mean? I suspect it changes quite a lot based on what you used to compare. How much did a loaf of bread cost in 1824? How much did a copper statue cost? How much did a horse and carriage cost and how much is a car now? I suspect that the cost in bread has not changed quite as much as all this other stuff. Even the poor now can afford iPods. But still they can't afford to eat. In the 1960s, my grandparents supported a family of six kids off of one college professors salary. They must not have been saddled with the PhD debt that they would have been now, but even without that, do you think one college professor could support eight mouths and the house to hold them all in?
I sort of doubt it.
The reason I really support the Occupy Wall Street movement isn't just for the poor and homeless, if is for everyone who is working and cannot make what the richest can toss out of their pockets on accident. There is no amount of work in the world that justifies one human being having that much wealth. The distribution of wealth in any community should not look like a backwards L.
Think about it this way:
The richest person on the planet right now is Carlos Slim (and his family). As of November, he was worth 68.3 Billion dollars. Write it out: $68,300,000,000.
Right now, I'll inflate my worth to 68,300. That's actually about 683 times more than I actually am worth.
A penny to me is 1/68,300,00 or .01/68,300
That same amount of money to Carlos is (.01/68,300)*68.3E9 = $10,000. As easy as it is for me to crush a penny into a commemorative plate in an amusement park, Carlos could pay off my college debt. The cost of renting a movie from my local movie store ($1.62 -> 1,620,000) could buy me more house than I would ever want. What I spend on groceries in a month (~$300 -> 300,000,000) could pay off all the debt accrued by all of the graduates from my small college in a year and have enough left over to get a few more another degree.
What could they possibly want with that?
Warren Buffett wants his taxes raised and he is in the top tier. The 3rd richest person in the world right now. Thank god.
What I think a lot of people are missing is that taxes really are a wealth re-distribution process and that there is nothing wrong with that. Every culture with wealth has had a re-distrubution system. In the northwest of this country they had the Pot-Latch. Where the rich gave everything they had away and got status in return. Few people want a free lunch, and most would like to give them. If we had sane people in as the rich, they would want to redistribute. They would want to give back to society.
But then they wouldn't be billionaires. That is what greed means.
I'd hold up that sign. Not that I think this is the most important aspect of an economy in the modern sense but having jobs would be the step we need. And I think everyone agrees with that.
I'll comment from a psychological point of view: almost no one wants a "free lunch" really. I don't know anyone who does and I think if I did I would chalk it up as some sort of disorder on their part. Most people do not like to feel like they are in debt to someone. It makes them feel subservient and like they owe. I, for a long time, lived in such poverty (because all my income went to education) that I wouldn't spend anything on myself. I would go out to eat with friends and order water. I didn't want anyone to pay for me, I didn't get food stamps, I didn't get any welfare. I just contented myself with a jar of peanut butter a week and a bag of bread every day.
Not the most healthy time of my life. I do not think that I am atypical in this regard. There are so many people I meet living on meager means but refuse any help extended to them. Some bizarre American Pride. But it isn't bizarre because no one wants a hand out. I makes you feel the poverty you have.
And yet we are so afraid of anyone getting something that they didn't earn. As if that means they deserve it.
Right now, I have the highest paying job of my life. A whole $10.70 with a $0.50 bonus if I work all the way to March - so $11.20 per hour. This is the easiest job I have ever had. Previous to this, I have worked with some of the poorest people in the world. Not just in wealth but in self-esteem. Mostly in custodial positions, these people work very, very, very hard doing something many people couldn't imagine doing. And most of them don't even feel gratitude.
Yet there are those who cheat the system. They don't feel remorse for just taking from the work of others. The vast majority of these people are very poor themselves and haven't seen a way out of poverty. Some of them seem to enjoy it because they've got their leisure time while the working stiffs do not. A slim proportion of these people are massively wealthy. They are the ones who suck the majority of the actual wealth out of the system. They sort of work hard, making sure that they keep their position, no one starts paying attention to the fact that they have sucked the money out of your wallet. But I have a hard time imagining that they are working harder than the proud single mother who works 60 hours a week at 3 different jobs just so her children can keep playing soccer and eating.
Somehow we don't care that they get enough free lunches to feed Africa. All to their lonesome little greedy selves.
For a while now I have been interested in doing a little bit of research. We talk about the inflation of a dollar. How the value of that dollar has changed though time. Now-a-days, people make 20,000 dollars which would look like a helluva lot to an old miner in 1824. But it isn't much now. But what does inflation really mean? I suspect it changes quite a lot based on what you used to compare. How much did a loaf of bread cost in 1824? How much did a copper statue cost? How much did a horse and carriage cost and how much is a car now? I suspect that the cost in bread has not changed quite as much as all this other stuff. Even the poor now can afford iPods. But still they can't afford to eat. In the 1960s, my grandparents supported a family of six kids off of one college professors salary. They must not have been saddled with the PhD debt that they would have been now, but even without that, do you think one college professor could support eight mouths and the house to hold them all in?
I sort of doubt it.
The reason I really support the Occupy Wall Street movement isn't just for the poor and homeless, if is for everyone who is working and cannot make what the richest can toss out of their pockets on accident. There is no amount of work in the world that justifies one human being having that much wealth. The distribution of wealth in any community should not look like a backwards L.
Think about it this way:
The richest person on the planet right now is Carlos Slim (and his family). As of November, he was worth 68.3 Billion dollars. Write it out: $68,300,000,000.
Right now, I'll inflate my worth to 68,300. That's actually about 683 times more than I actually am worth.
A penny to me is 1/68,300,00 or .01/68,300
That same amount of money to Carlos is (.01/68,300)*68.3E9 = $10,000. As easy as it is for me to crush a penny into a commemorative plate in an amusement park, Carlos could pay off my college debt. The cost of renting a movie from my local movie store ($1.62 -> 1,620,000) could buy me more house than I would ever want. What I spend on groceries in a month (~$300 -> 300,000,000) could pay off all the debt accrued by all of the graduates from my small college in a year and have enough left over to get a few more another degree.
What could they possibly want with that?
Warren Buffett wants his taxes raised and he is in the top tier. The 3rd richest person in the world right now. Thank god.
What I think a lot of people are missing is that taxes really are a wealth re-distribution process and that there is nothing wrong with that. Every culture with wealth has had a re-distrubution system. In the northwest of this country they had the Pot-Latch. Where the rich gave everything they had away and got status in return. Few people want a free lunch, and most would like to give them. If we had sane people in as the rich, they would want to redistribute. They would want to give back to society.
But then they wouldn't be billionaires. That is what greed means.
Interesting read.
ReplyDeleteWhat I find offensive, is the title "religious right". I identify myself as a christian but I don't see any christian qualities in the Republican party.
For one, when a rich man asked Jesus "hey what can i do?" Jesus said, "sell are your stuff and give it to the poor".
Um...yeah, I don't see the rich doing this at all.
As far as paying taxes, Jesus said "give to Ceasar what is due to Ceasar" meaning, pay your freakin taxes.
The republican party wants to throw around fear of the democrats being socialist while ignoring the fact that Jesus was one of the biggest advocates of socialism! Give to the poor, share your wealth, help the needy--all very liberal concepts and Christian concepts.
Isn't that crazy?
It is very ironic.
ReplyDeleteReligions have an amazing amount of wisdom in them if you're looking correctly. They condemn things like usury for a very good reason.
I think more people need to study Anthropology to get a good grip on what people are really like and what culture is. I think people don't like the idea of "wealth redistribution" for some reason...
But people have always had wealth redistribution. Some are luckier than others and they can give that luck to those who have helped them along the way...
One thing that always bugged me is how we don't look at other countries for solutions. There are places around the world where aspects such as healthcare and education are top notch. Why reinvent the wheel? Some sort of cocky American pride?
ReplyDeleteI found it juvenile when I heard that some of the 1% were gonna go on strike and quit if we raise their taxes (Bill O'Reilly included). Aren't they forgetting that they are there because of the 99% that helped them achieve their wealth?
It is annoying that we seem to think that we have all the wisdom that there is in the world. As if looking to others is a sign of weakness or something.
ReplyDeleteI am becoming curious as to the division between ideal and real culture in our country. Because... I haven't met very many people who are as throughly unenlightened as the media would have us believe the American people are (or an unenlightened the power holders apparently are). Americans Elect is definitely far from a random sample, but for the most part I like the answers given (except for some of the environmental ones).
That top 1% is a very juvenile population. I once heard that the psychology of an ivy-league graduate and a serial killer were actually pretty similar: they both push others down to get ahead. And that would also characterize a billionaire. With the possible exception of Warren Buffet.