What presidential candidates need to understand about income inequality!
A re-write from the past!
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 someone 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 look 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 that 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!
