[Vision2020] The Nation, 6/30/08

[Kai Eiselein, Editor]

There is no moralizing in my statement.
I believe that, for whatever reason, some people are better at gaining 
wealth than others. Those people will always find a way to become wealthy.
There are also those who would spend their last nickel on a whim. They will 
always wind up broke.
Most of us wind up between those two.



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From: "Andreas Schou" <ophite at gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2008 12:44 PM
To: "Kai Eiselein, Editor" <editor at lataheagle.com>
Cc: "Saundra Lund" <sslund_2007 at verizon.net>; "lfalen" 
<lfalen at turbonet.com>; "keely emerinemix" <kjajmix1 at msn.com>; 
<vision2020 at moscow.com>
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] The Nation, 6/30/08

> On Tue, Jul 29, 2008 at 12:26 PM, Kai Eiselein, Editor
> <editor at lataheagle.com> wrote:
>> Human nature is human nature.
>> Chances are, most of the "have nots" would blow their windfall purchasing
>> things they could have never afforded before.
>> Without thinking of the future, many people would blow right through it.
>> Once gone, they would wind up selling many of the things they purchased
>> because they didn't save any of it for neccesities.
>> Many of the "haves" would see opportunities and try to make the most of
>> their windfall, gaining wealth.
>
> A great deal of this is a reflection of the way in which the economy
> rewards labor and capital. The high transportation and communication
> costs of the postwar economy (combined with the decimated industrial
> capacity in Europe) rewarded local production and local consumption.
> This allowed the unprecedented development of a blue-collar middle
> class. The economy, in other words, was structured to reward labor
> over capital.
>
> The modern has low transportation and communication costs and spare
> industrial capacity even in third-world nations. Manufacturing
> capacity, except for high-value items, has essentially been rendered
> fungible. Consequently, the bottom has dropped entirely out of the
> blue-collar middle class: even skilled workers have been forced to get
> jobs in the service economy.
>
> At the same time, conservative reforms have lowered capital-gains
> taxes and stripped away the estate tax -- both important mechanisms to
> reduce the concentration of wealth and reduce the self-rewarding
> nature of capital. Efficiency gains caused by the changes in the
> modern economy have sent corporate profits through the roof. CEO
> compensation, which is largely denominated in corporate stock, has
> consequently risen.
>
> The US is in a perverse economy where work doesn't make you money;
> money makes you money. This has nothing to do with your ass-backward
> moralizing about budgeting and more to do with corporate kleptocracy.
>
> -- ACS
>
Kai Eiselein
Editor, Latah Eagle