Rich vs. Poor in the US

The question should be; "Why are the rich, rich? And why are the poor, poor?" And you can't use the excuse that the rich are rich because of inheritance! Because someone along the line had to make the money for there to be an inheritance! Also this could also be said about the poor! They have inherited how to be poor! I think we need to looks at how all this happens! Our country is driven at this time by “Capitalism” which is based on competition that rewards people like Bill Gates (Microsoft), Warren Buffet (Berkshire Hathaway), Larry Ellison (Oracle), The Walton Family (Wal-Mart), Michael Bloomberg (Bloomberg LP), Jeff Bezos (Amazon.com) and so on and so on! If you look at the wealthiest people in our country you’ll see they generally are owners of large or small companies that they were able to create because we live in a capitalist country! Russia is finding out by allowing capitalism to operate within its borders billionaires are being created such as Alisher Usmanov who is worth 17 billion dollars (Steel and Telcom)!  Hurrah for capitalism you say! It allows for people to reach for the gold ring and get it! And some would argue that these individuals are distributing their wealth by creating thousands/millions of jobs with good salaries that in turn pays taxes and spends money that creates even more jobs and taxes! You could look at our system like a football team! Let’s not talk about the owner that’s a whole different story, just the team! These teams are built on competition and those who are talented enough make the team! Even then there are disparities on the team. The quarterback will probably make $100 million dollars while the guy who only plays on the kickoff teams may make $750 thousand! Now the people who didn’t make the team have to find a way to make a living in a highly competitive job market into which he doesn’t have the skills to compete! Even though the players made the team this year doesn’t mean they will have a job next year! So what does all of this mean? Capitalism rewards those who can compete and let’s many people fall by the wayside because they can’t! So you have the rich and the poor! If your society is built on “capitalism” this will always be true. We could try socialism but any country who has been a socialist country just makes everyone equal by making everyone “POOR!” Let’s also realize that the so called POOR in the USA are millionaires compared to other countries! The POOR in this country generally have food to eat and shelter for their families! Some even have HD televisions and cable TV. They also generally have cars to drive! The so called poverty level for 4 people is $23,550. There are some people in this world who actually try to get by on $1.00 a day! I think we need to step back and look at poverty vs. inequality of income in a country! There are different levels of poverty around the globe. There is Absolute Poverty where you don’t have the means to have access to clean water, edible food, appropriate clothing and housing. These are the individuals who you see living in garbage dumps! Then there is Extreme Poverty where these individuals do have access to food, water and shelter but not education or health facilities like doctors or hospitals. These are the people you may see living in the slums in Brazil! Then there is Relative Poverty that we have here in the US. This means that someone is in poverty as measured by their relative situation compared to the society in which they live. People who are in Relative Poverty have all of their basic needs being met, food, water, clothes, and shelter! Generally in countries that have Relative Poverty is where the issue of inequality becomes an issue! It’s not that there is no food or water; it’s why they don’t have the big house with a swimming pool as opposed to living in a housing project! I hate to say but as long as we live in a “Capitalistic” society we will always have “Relative Poverty” as measured by some entity! It’s just a byproduct!  When I was living in a tenement as child with my family, my mother and father always told us to be happy with what we had and not always complain about what the rich people had right up the street from us! They also insisted that we get an education and training so we wouldn’t have to live in a tenement when we grew up. So we took advantage of the free education we got all the way through high school. After that some of us joined the military and received training as mechanics or Law Enforcement! Some of us went on to local community colleges accredited to be able to transfer our credits to major universities on academic scholarships earned through the community colleges! We are all now out of the tenements and live in nice suburbs driving nice cars! We are very happy with what we have and our children are now working toward being Doctors and Lawyers, and an Airline Pilot! I guess they will become part of the 5% that will be hated for what reason I don’t know, because the haters could be where they are!