The Rich Get Richer......

by VioletAnai 33 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  DakotaRed

  If someone really wants to change their economic status, then they have every right to get a job and work for it, like the rest of us. If you think you have a better mousetrap, then build it and sell it, we all have that freedom and right.

  Personally, money doesn't motivate me nearly as much as it used to, but this notion of spreading the wealth distubes me. Why should one who expends far less energy and time gaining a good education or working to invent or market a product, have what those who do, have? If someone stole your invention or unfairly blocks you from distibuting a better product, take them to court. It has been done.

  But, what disturbs me the most is when I hear the likes of Barbara Streisand complaining about Corporate salaries, yet when she was touring, she wouldn't do it for less that $14 million. Why don't the wealthy liberals who decry corproate salaries share their own wealth? Very few really have.

  Lew W

  Watchtower Decruit
• 

  Francois

  Bang - you're barking up the wrong tree. The country you want is about 180 degrees of longitude away from here. Perhaps you should get going before the train leaves without you. (A careful reading..., hell a superficial reading, of the words of Jesus discloses that his was not in any way, shape, or form an economic message, it was a spiritual one. Why don't you stick to the subject?)

  Bendrr - Right on good sir. And you remember when Bush got his tax cut through, the lefties decried it as a tax cut for the rich? Actually, it was a tax cut for those who actually paid taxes...and that is a number of people that is growing smaller and smaller. I guess the democrat socialist party thinks you're rich if you make over fifty-two large, huh? Try having a family of four on fifty-two. There's a lot of peanut butter sandwiches in that kind of income, isn't there?

  francois
• 

  Bendrr

  I think that was my point Bang.

  Too many of your beloved poor don't want to work and don't want the same society I do. I want a free-market representative republic (like what was set forth in our Constitution) not some socialist welfare state. Like Francois said, there are other countries that would be more to your preference. And if the socialist ones aren't enough, there's always the workers' paradises of Cuba, North Korea, and China.

  Mike.
• 

  Celia

  Medical science continues to improve the average health of everyone.

  Yes, but who can afford the treatments ? If you are one of thos 30 millions + Americans without health insurance, it's almost impossible to pay for your healthcare... You're rich, you live, you're poor or not so rich, well... tough luck !
• 

  larc

  For all you doom and gloomers, the economic conditions today are better than any time in human history. In just the last 100 years, there has been a vast improvement in medical conditions, average life span, and the standard of living. The average person today has a better life than the royalty of the past. A person at the 25th percentile today lives better than the average person just 30 years ago. On a personal note, how many of you here are poor, and by what standard do you say you are poor? If you are on the internet, you are not poor.
• 

  teenyuck

  Here we go again....let's start by bashing some people in the US and then turn it into a full bash US thread.

  What Francois, Bendrr and Dakota pointed out is my belief.

  My mother is a perfect example of what someone can do if they bust their ass.

  She had a HS dipolma, had not worked in years and was suddenly divorced 27 years ago.

  She got a secretarial job. She had ideas on how to improve her lot. She signed up for welfare, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, Medicaid and anything else. We used food stamps for about 1 year.

  Then she signed up at the community college. She took courses in running a small business. She started her own interior design firm. She was and has been the only employee.

  She is now painting faux finishes, restoring murals in churchs (still a faithful dub) and she learned AutoCad and does this full time. She is 64 and going strong. She has some money, paid off her home and just keeps working. She has never taken a vacation. Literally. Never.

  We went to free clinics for medical care. When she could drive us. We went to Loyola University for virtually free dental care, done by dental students. Very good care I might add. Made for poor people.

  She was an uneducated woman, was sexually harrassed at work, had no education, was a "subjection minded" JW and still tried.

  The point to this? You have to try. You are responsible for you and your families financial status. Not the government. My husband and I pay approximately 35-40% of our income in taxes. We still give 3% to the United Way, $20.00 per week to the local Catholic church, sponsor 2 girls in Guatamala for the last 5 years ($40.00 per month) and volunteer.

  What more do you want from someone like me? We are middleclass. We give and give and all you blather on about is why can't you get more.

  Get an education, get a job, work hard, expect no favors and you might get some, expect some breaks and you will get none. In other words, do what my husband and I did....BUST YOUR ASS AND TRY.
• 

  DakotaRed

  Well said, Puffs. Isn't it amazing how much you can accomplish with just a little effort?

  I have no problem with helping the truly needy, but some of these third and fourth generation welfare recipients irritate me a lot.

  When I remarried the last time, she was drawing welfare. Ince I actually work for a living, we decided there was no need for welfare to continue. She contacted Social Services to be taken off. Their response was to search for a way to add me! We finally had to just tell them to take her off, NOW! Then what do they do? Try to garnish my wages for repayment of about $600 of food stamps she had received earlier when she received some owed SSDI from her first husband for her kids. All from long before we were even married.

  My exfather-in-law was another prime example, too. Although a very accomplished house painter and very good at it, he preferred to sit on his duff and draw welfare. He raised 5 kids at the expense of the state. All but one have grown up and continue to utilize public facilities and all are i good health. At the time of his death, he was in Texas and attempting to qualify as an American Indian for Native American welfare. Dressed the part, right out of a John Wayne movie, had his name changed to Deerborn and all.

  Our system seems to reward those who don't wish to work. That was tried in the Soviet States and failed. I, for one, don't want the Government "rewarding" me with they say I should have or an entitled to. If I truly want something bad enough, then I work to get it. Often, after saving enough for it, I find that I really didn't want it all that much or even need it, current 1998 Dodge Dakota excluded

  Sorry, but I just can't whine about somebody having more than me when they worked harder than me.

  Lew W

  Watchtower Decruit
• 

  Analysis

  One can always prove that the rich are in fact getting richer. But, consider for a moment what the poor can have in todays industrialized world.

  Air Conditioning

  Color TV

  Inside plumbing

  Most have all the food they could want

  An opportunity to own land and a home

  To have family and friends

  Equal access to some basic level of education

  In fact they have more comforts then Royalty had just a couple hundred years ago. And for the most part the work is easier then it was even 50 years ago.

  So why is most of the world still in poverty? The same reason that Jehovahs Witnesses are in the situation they are in, the leaders. Their lust for power and control is not conducive to the well being of those they claim leadership over. They plan dont get it that the better the common people have life, the more they can collect in taxes (or contributions) to improve the leaders position in life. Just plan stupid greed.

  All of us must reflect on what we have done to get to the place we are today. I know some are truly disadvantaged, because of the location and time they were born. But, too many people rise above their birth in this day and age to continue to blame our circumstances. Some of the posts in this thread point this out. While the leaders to deprive many of their right to enjoy life, we can not give up, if we do, what we get is only what others are willing to give us.
• 

  Dismembered

  My Opinion, America is still the land of opportunity! One must ask oneself am I an achiever, or am I a taker?
• 

  Derrick

  Hi Violet,
  My own theory is that technology and specifically robotics and nanotech will soon account for most of the productivity in the United States. The need for employment is thus eliminated for the most part, except for very small low-paying businesses and start-ups that cannot initially afford the tech. At this point, Congress and the Administration is likely to step in to stave off massive poverty. Afterall, the United States Government is determined to prop up America as the modern equivalent of ancient Egypt -- and maintain "superpower" status -- even if the rest of the world is economically enslaved in off-shore factories and sweat-shops.

  When America's corporations finally can produce most goods and services in robotic factories, and smaller companies can farm their production to China and India, lack of a "plan" for the U.S. once-working now-unemployed population could stain the reputation of the U.S. as a rich enclave of the world community.

  Therefore, a "plan" is likely to get enacted that gives born-U.S. citizens and perhaps long-term immigrant U.S. citizens with "shares" in the United States similar to owning shares in a U.S. corporation. These shares would have a value but not be sellable or transferrable, and would pay dividends, food and housing vouchers to each U.S. citizen holding the shares. Some might consider this as the enactment of a massive welfare state.

  However, a solution is necessary for giving large populations of people around the globe "justification" for each and every one living comfortably after human productivity is no longer a means to obtain a dignified existence. The labor-freeing technologies that taxpayers helped to fund in large part (often starting at major Universities around the world on government grants) must ultimately enrich the world. Once the momentum roll begins in the United States, other countries will want to mimic America's success and eventually adopt these technologies.

  Many JWs might wonder how could such global prosperity factor into the prophecies of the Bible? Well, for one thing, the Bible warns that the end would come as a thief in the night, suddenly upon a world where all the trappings of success such as elaborate marriages and seemingly "secure" lifestyles are present. In fact, we are warned that when mankind finally believes that "peace and security" has been achieved, sudden destruction will be instantly upon them. The feelings of panic and distress experienced by a woman in labor is used to describe this "sudden destruction." Growing panic will spread globally that although the battle for prosperity was won, the WAR FOR WORLD PEACE WAS LOST (perhaps to newly developed factions of terrorists with nuclear and biological weapons of mass destruction)!

  Yes, according to the Bible, the rich world to rival and dwarf illustrious civilizations such as Egypt -- a world where technology finally gives the promise of freeing humans from our imperfect condition and giving us lasting security -- will suddenly self-destruct. It is not Jehovah who will suddenly destroy the world for being "too rich," but the failure of mankind to suppress the evil that breeds the hatred that causes terrorism. One biological weapon unleashed upon a rich world could leave the wealthy dead in their tracks, because their government could give them only the material trappings that create an illusion of world peace and security.

  Derrick

  Edited by - Derrick on 25 July 2002 14:35:25