[Vision2020] [Bulk] Re: The Nation, 6/30/08

[Paul Rumelhart]

It's not always that easy.  Some people actually learn, albeit the hard 
way.  So giving someone money and having them blow it sometimes teaches 
them a little bit about how to budget effectively.  If you've never had 
any, it's easy to lose track of it.  If you're not very good at math, 
it's easy to find out how little money that huge sum you thought you had 
actually was.

Granted, there are those who never seem to learn.  That's true 
everywhere.  I just don't think it's a natural law that wealthy people 
deserve their wealth and poor people deserve their debt.  How many 
wealthy people could climb their way back to the top if you took away 
the money?  How many of them inherited their wealth and have no idea how 
to gain it back?  The fact that some do doesn't mean they all could.

I need to rent Trading Places again.

Paul

Scott Dredge wrote:
> For the most part, hasn't this been proven over and over again such as 
> millionaires losing just about everything in the Great Depression only 
> to move on and become millionaires again or poor people who win the 
> lottery and then 20 years later are back to being poor again?
>
> Personally, I don't need to look much further than my own family and 
> extended family to site numerous examples of trying to help someone 
> out by lending them money or 'selling' them a car at about 10% of its 
> blue book value and finding out ultimately that in the long run you 
> haven't really done anything to help them out at all.
>
> -Scott
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: "Kai Eiselein, Editor" <editor at lataheagle.com>
> To: Andreas Schou <ophite at gmail.com>
> Cc: vision2020 at moscow.com
> Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2008 1:40:45 PM
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] The Nation, 6/30/08
>
> There is no moralizing in my st<tr><td valign="top"></td></tr>atement.
> 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.
>
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Andreas Schou" <ophite at gmail.com <mailto:ophite at gmail.com>>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2008 12:44 PM
> To: "Kai Eiselein, Editor" <editor at lataheagle.com 
> <mailto:editor at lataheagle.com>>
> Cc: "Saundra Lund" <sslund_2007 at verizon.net 
> <mailto:sslund_2007 at verizon.net>>; "lfalen"
> <lfalen at turbonet.com <mailto:lfalen at turbonet.com>>; "keely emerinemix" 
> <kjajmix1 at msn.com <mailto:kjajmix1 at msn.com>>;
> <vision2020 at moscow.com <mailto: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 <mailto: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
>
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