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Plain Meaning
Joined: 18 Oct 2014
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 Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2016 3:57 am Post subject: |
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http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/06/the-problem-with-inequality-according-to-adam-smith/486071/
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[Adam] Smith saw the widespread admiration of the rich as morally problematic because he did not believe that the rich in fact tend to be terribly admirable people. On the contrary, he portrayed the “superior stations” of society as suffused with “vice and folly,” “presumption and vanity,” “flattery and falsehood,” “proud ambition and ostentatious avidity.” In Smith’s view, the reason why the rich generally do not behave admirably is, ironically, that they are widely admired anyway (on account of their wealth). In other words, the rich are not somehow innately vicious people. Rather, their affluence puts them in a position in which they do not have to behave morally in order to earn the esteem of others, most of whom are dazzled and enchanted by their riches.
Thus, it is precisely the presence of economic inequality, and the distortion of people’s sympathies that attends it, that allows—perhaps even encourages—the rich to spurn the most basic standards of moral conduct. Smith goes so far as to proclaim that the “disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and the powerful, and to despise, or, at least, to neglect persons of poor and mean condition” is “the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments.” |
You can see this default admiration of the rich with conservatives. It can be the only ultimate reason they would support extremely low taxes on the rich. Almost all of the right-wingers on this board oppose the current free-for-all of campaign-financing and government-for-sale.
Heightened levels of hierarchy also make us less happy.
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Smith also believed that the tendency to sympathize with the rich more easily than the poor makes people less happy.
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Smith saw it as obvious that people do not work so hard in order “to supply the necessities of nature”—that is, to obtain food, clothing, and shelter—because “the wages of the meanest laborer can afford them.” Rather, they want great wealth because of the attention it brings them: “It is the vanity, not the ease, or the pleasure, which interests us.” In other words, it is the fact that people sympathize more easily with the rich that leads them to want to become rich themselves, and to (wrongly) assume that the rich must be supremely happy. “When we consider the condition of the great, in those delusive colors in which the imagination is apt to paint it, it seems to be almost the abstract idea of a perfect and happy state,” he writes. |
Luckily, we can legislate a baseline of material equality and significant hierarchy and distinctions of wealth will still make themselves very apparent. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 11:22 pm Post subject: |
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| Plain Meaning wrote: |
62 people hold as much wealth as 3,500,000,000 people
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[T]he 62 richest people in the world[;] Collectively, this ultra-wealthy group controls $1.76 trillion, which is about the cumulative worth of the poorer half of the world’s population, or around 3.5 billion people. And since 2010, wealth has become more and more concentrated in favor of the richest of the rich while those on the lower rungs of the economic ladder have seen their positions worsen, according to a new report (.pdf) from Oxfam International.
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Occupy Wall Street was right, y'all. |
Oxfam reports that matters are even worse.
The World’s 8 Richest Men Are Now as Wealthy as Half the World’s Population
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Just eight individuals, all men, own as much wealth as the poorest half of the world's population, Oxfam said on Monday in a report calling for action to curtail rewards for those at the top.
As decision makers and many of the super-rich gather for this week's World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, the charity's report suggests the wealth gap is wider than ever, with new data for China and India indicating that the poorest half of the world owns less than previously estimated.
Oxfam, which described the gap as "obscene," said if the new data had been available before, it would have shown that in 2016 nine people owned the same as the 3.6 billion who make up the poorest half of humanity, rather than 62 estimated at the time. |
Some discussion about Oxfam's methodology here.
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Critics of these figures point to two main issues. Firstly, the Credit Suisse figures calculate wealth as assets minus debts, so the bottom 1 per cent of the world wealth distribution actually have a negative net worth.
But people with negative net worth can include students, with student debts but who are about to enter a high paying job and people who have just purchased a house and whose equity is less than the mortgage outstanding. Should these people be counted as impoverished?
Oxfam directly addresses this issue, pointing out that if you take out net debt then the wealth of the bottom 50 per cent rises from around US$400 billion to US$1.5 trillion. This means the wealth of the bottom half is roughly equal to the richest 56 individuals in the world. |
So, either eight men or fifty-six individuals hold wealth equivalent to the bottom 50%. Whether it is as few as eight or as "many" as fifty-six depends on how one prefers to calculate debt.
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Who are the richest eight?
Bill Gates - $US75 billion
Amancio Ortega - $US67 billion
Warren Buffett - $US60.8 billion
Carlos Slim Helu - $US50 billion
Jeff Bezos - $US45.2 billion
Mark Zuckerberg - $US44.6 billion
Larry Ellison - $US43.6 billion
Michael Bloomberg - $US40 billion
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Look at those eight. These are not all conservatives. |
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sirius black
Joined: 04 Jun 2010
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| Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2017 4:26 am Post subject: |
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Its a combination of things including racism, gender inequality, conquer and divide among the same economic class (working poor, etc.).
There are specific government policies on all levels that target blacks specifically. Always were, always have and I'll love to know what year that stopped?
The working poor have always been pitted against each other based on all manner of things. Urban vs rural, on race, gender, Gen x and y vs. baby boomers, whatever they can find.
Trump's tax plan is designed to help him while in the white house and after he leaves. Cruz's tax plan is whatever the Koch brothers, Adelson and the rest tells him it is. 2 sides of the same coin. |
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tophatcat
Joined: 09 Aug 2006
Location: under the hat
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| Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2017 4:58 am Post subject: |
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| I like rich people. The rich hired me when I was poor. The rich have provided a means for me to prosper. I aspire to be rich. If it wasn't for the rich, I would be just another dude living check to check. Instead, I'm semi-rich and working my way up. Rollin~ |
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sirius black
Joined: 04 Jun 2010
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| Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2017 9:24 am Post subject: |
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| I have no special affinity for rich people. I only wish for fairness and justice. Some of you excuse the excesses, even the illegality of the rich simply because they are rich. Its why they have been able to keep middle america as their cuck for a couple hundred years. |
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J.Q.A.
Joined: 09 Feb 2017
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 4:13 am Post subject: |
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| sirius black wrote: |
| I have no special affinity for rich people. I only wish for fairness and justice. Some of you excuse the excesses, even the illegality of the rich simply because they are rich. Its why they have been able to keep middle america as their cuck for a couple hundred years. |
Like who? Who is committing a crime against Sirius Black? |
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Biblethumper
Joined: 15 Dec 2007
Location: Busan, Korea
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| Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 4:44 am Post subject: |
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| Godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out. Therefore having food and raiment let us be therewith content. However they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil. |
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J.Q.A.
Joined: 09 Feb 2017
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 5:39 am Post subject: |
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| Biblethumper wrote: |
| Godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out. Therefore having food and raiment let us be therewith content. However they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil. |
Fair enough. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Thu May 04, 2017 9:03 pm Post subject: |
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| tophatcat wrote: |
| I like rich people. The rich hired me when I was poor. The rich have provided a means for me to prosper. I aspire to be rich. If it wasn't for the rich, I would be just another dude living check to check. Instead, I'm semi-rich and working my way up. Rollin~ |
The rich instructed their instruments of power to dump your health coverage mandates for a upper-class tax cut.
You're a peon like the rest of us. You're just far more deluded. |
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tophatcat
Joined: 09 Aug 2006
Location: under the hat
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| Posted: Sat May 06, 2017 3:43 am Post subject: |
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| Kuros wrote: |
| tophatcat wrote: |
| I like rich people. The rich hired me when I was poor. The rich have provided a means for me to prosper. I aspire to be rich. If it wasn't for the rich, I would be just another dude living check to check. Instead, I'm semi-rich and working my way up. Rollin~ |
The rich instructed their instruments of power to dump your health coverage mandates for a upper-class tax cut.
You're a peon like the rest of us. You're just far more deluded. |
I have great healthcare coverage. I couldn't be happier.
I don't consider myself a peon. Why on earth would I consider myself a peon? Tell me what makes me a peon in your view? I might be upper-class, or at least getting close to it, upper middle-class in USA home state; upper-class in South Korea. |
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Rteacher
Joined: 23 May 2005
Location: Western MA, USA
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| Posted: Sun May 07, 2017 7:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Since all wealth is derived from the original personal source of everything, and all of us are subordinate parts of the Complete Spirit Whole, it follows that everyone has an inherent right to share the wealth in a fair and just manner, according to one's needs and social responsibilities... |
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Rteacher
Joined: 23 May 2005
Location: Western MA, USA
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| Posted: Sun May 07, 2017 7:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Since all wealth is derived from the original personal source of everything, and all of us are subordinate parts of the Complete Spirit Whole, it follows that everyone has an inherent right to share the wealth in a fair and just manner - and according to one's needs and social responsibilities... |
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Rteacher
Joined: 23 May 2005
Location: Western MA, USA
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| Posted: Sun May 07, 2017 7:35 pm Post subject: |
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deleted (actually I was more than half-asleep when I posted ...)
Last edited by Rteacher on Mon May 08, 2017 9:00 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Rteacher
Joined: 23 May 2005
Location: Western MA, USA
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| Posted: Sun May 07, 2017 7:35 pm Post subject: |
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deleted
Last edited by Rteacher on Mon May 08, 2017 8:59 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Sun May 07, 2017 8:16 pm Post subject: |
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| tophatcat wrote: |
| Kuros wrote: |
| tophatcat wrote: |
| I like rich people. The rich hired me when I was poor. The rich have provided a means for me to prosper. I aspire to be rich. If it wasn't for the rich, I would be just another dude living check to check. Instead, I'm semi-rich and working my way up. Rollin~ |
The rich instructed their instruments of power to dump your health coverage mandates for a upper-class tax cut.
You're a peon like the rest of us. You're just far more deluded. |
I have great healthcare coverage. I couldn't be happier.
I don't consider myself a peon. Why on earth would I consider myself a peon? Tell me what makes me a peon in your view? I might be upper-class, or at least getting close to it, upper middle-class in USA home state; upper-class in South Korea. |
What makes you a peon? You make your wealth from labor rather than capital. In all but a few cases, this makes you a peon.
(Unless you're in the top one percent of the professional classes, you are a peon under this system. The only member of the management class who posted on this board is now gone. We all make our bread from labor. And no, your paltry retirement plan does not qualify you as a master and commander). |
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