Image by Tommy Ironic via FlickrVery informative. I think at the end of the day it's similar to what happened 100 plus years ago. You had guys with mines, or oil wells, or whatnot, and they had the valuable item, so they got to decide who they allowed to work there and how much they got paid. And it comes down to this: do I pay my lowest paid 10,000 workers $15 an hour, or do I pay them $7 an hour and make an extra $80,000 dollars per hour. That comes out to 166.4 million dollars per year that the guy can either keep for himself, or pay the working man.
Image by eamoncurry123 via FlickrExcept now it's not a guy, it's a small group of guys, with a whole ton of shareholders watching their every move, and both the leaders and the shareholders want the money, and either they get it or the working man gets it, and it's the decision of the people with the power and the money. Except it's not a decision. They decision has been made. Over and over again. All the extra money to those with the power and the money.
Image via WikipediaAnd the people with the power and the money are saying 'give us the tax breaks, and the power, and the money, and we'll make more power and money, and this will grow the economy, and then we'll all have more power and money. But somehow only the people with the power and money end up with more power and money.
And the people with the power and the money say 'of course I help the poor. I have large houses built, and I consume many goods, and I visit the world all over, and these things provide work for others, so they can get power and money. But the people that get the power and the money are not the people that build the houses or the cashiers that they pay for their prodigious consumption or those that fly them around in luxury, but those that own the companies, who are themselves other people with the power and the money.
Image by lipjin via FlickrAnd the people with the power and the money say 'I invest my money in new and smart businesses, which grow and provide more work for the working man. In this way I give back to those less fortunate, and act for the greater good of all. But the riches earned by these investments return again to the hands of those with the power and the money, and the working man is helped only with one more option of work.
Image via WikipediaAnd the people with the power and the money say 'I have done well because of my good choices' and ignore that their choices where much less important than their social network and the opportunities that were given them by others. And they ignore that they did not work harder, or help others more, or do anything of merit to obtain so much more than their fellow man.
Image by epSos.de via FlickrAnd the people with the power and the money say 'You give a man a fish, but we should teach the man to fish, and he will never go hungry again,' but they neither give fish or teach to fish. And they say that competition for resources is a natural state for man, and 'It's not my fault that I am better at it than you are.'
And the people with the power and the money say that giving money and power to the working man is wasteful, as they will squander it on such poor investments as food, clothing and shelter.
Image by Shreyans Bhansali via FlickrAll of these things are said by the people with the power and the money. The rest of us are too busy working to say anything. ;)
I agree.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I feel like I overdid it with the stereotyping and whatnot. But when people tell you that the richest 1% is getting richer even faster, and there are so many good people that work harder and die sooner because of poverty... it frustrates me that some people won't even talk about ways to make this world a more fair, better place.
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