The rich get richer and . . .

Bill Gates
Oprera Winfree

There are hundreds of examples of people who had nothing and now have alot.

 

I am the working class.

Please quote me where I made fun of the working class.

 

There you go I added myself into the group that I always considerd myself in. And it does not change a thing.

I was stating a fact not making fun of anybody.

 

And your post is still wishing me ill.

 

For Opra I said "The exception is those with a rare gift/talent like professional sports or actors."

How many Bill Gates are there? Would you say one could work to be a Bill Gates or was Bill in the right place at the right time with the right idea and the right skillset? Can a software developer equal to Bill do what he did today?

 

You should watch recent shows of Donnie Deutsch's The Big Idea on CNBC. (He is embarrassingly liberal, and interrupts his guests way too much, but is sometimes interesting.) He has been running interviews of people who made obscene amounts of money from simple ideas. When you hear some of the ideas, you think "Why didn't I think of that?" These aren't people who already had loadds of money. They got an idea, took a risk, and worked hard.

The guy who started Paypal (an amazingly simple idea) sold it to Ebay for 1.5 billion I think it said.

So yes, there are a lot of Bill Gates' and they are all over the place.

Anyone living in America is rich by the world's standards. Our materialistic values and lifestyles have grossly distorted our view of wealth and poverty. It is shameful.

 

Opera used her talent and added alot of hard work. Tallent is rewarded, it should not be discounted.

How many started from nothing and made billions, not many. How many made multi-millions quite a few. How many made one million a lot. How many started from nothing and made very very comfortable livings thousands and thousands.

A guy from my home town started a tire store in a small town. He now has a huge house. Probably worth a million.

A guy I met a few years back was a state trooper while at work he had the idea for the spikes that flatten tires he is now worth millions. Makes them in a small warehouse in his back yard.

All of the above. Right idea, right time right skillset, hard work = Bill Gates

I say absolutly somebody could work to be a Bill Gates and absolutly a software developer could do what Gates did. I think it will happen, somebody will invent something better and it will catch on.

 

Jonathan Coon was going to college when he had the idea to sell contact lenses to other students. He ordered the lenses from a discount club and resold them out of his dorm room. In 1996 he bought the phone number 1-800-CONTACTS and started selling by phone.

Jonathan Coon is now a multi-millionare and 1-800-CONTACTS has 1135 employees.

 

Nobody is disputing that a person can start their own company and end up a millionaire in America. America is still the land where dreams can come true.

But the thread is about CEOs in big business being paid outrageous sums just for being CEOs of companies they didn't start. They usually land those positions because they were CEOs elsewhere and before that, they either knew the right people or trampled on people to get to the top.

 

Bill Gates' Old Man is a founding partner in the largest law firm in Seattle. He attended private schools.

On the other hand, there is no excuse (except mental inability) for not having a decent standard of living in The USofA.

 

There you go. So he wasn't dirt poor, after all.

 

That may be true, but then the real issue now is not so much "rich vs poor", but the fact that even if we are "rich" compared to some other country, things still cost too much for many of us, and then we are called "materialistic" by many of the same people who defend the super rich as "deserving", and unfairly labeled "greedy", and many then go along with it and focus all the blame on "welfare slugs", and illegal immigrants sneaking in (as if that's really where all the money is going, and they're the only ones getting more than they deserve).

 

People can make however much they want as far as I am concerned. BEing the CEO of a major company isn't a walk in the park. How much is it worth? Whatever the company says it's worth. A company always pays what it thinks its labor is worth. Rarely more and rarely less.

Welfare slugs and illegal immigrants are also a problem. Personally, I don't care what anyone makes. But it would be foolish to deny that we, as a society, are very materialistic.

 

Yeah Right
Actually you are only half right, it is rarely more but mostly less.
American Companies have delighted in the cheap labor force from across the border and they get exactly what they pay for. What they don't understand is by hiring experienced and dedicated workers and paying more it would run the cost of waste caused by cheap labor way down.
Not to worry Mr. American businessman,Chinese business people will soon take over and you'll just have to join the rest of the welfare slugs to get your handout.

 

I'm not denying that; it's just that I find it ironic to call the average struggling person "materialistic" at the same time as saying the super rich are "worth" everything they have because the company (or the "market" says so). So all the little people be content because you already have too much, while only the rich have a right to demand more? But we forget, the companies are apart of this "materialistic" society! We always divorce that from our assessments of society. Like they are above it, or really are God's favored or something.
And all of these "welfare slugs" and illegal immigrants may be somewhat of a "problem", but not what the Right makes it out to be, as if that's where all the money is going, and not the "deserving" CEO's. Those are just scapegoats to point the blame elsewhere, and never at the top.

 

Good post! :thumbs:

 

But again, note what was actually said. Companies pay what they believe something is worth. That is the market. For them, right or wrong, they do not believe that the "bang for the buck" is worth it for them in American labor. So they pay less somewhere else.

I am not saying that's right (though it's hard to argue with). I am saying that is the way the market works.

I have yet to see any legitimate argument against it, particularly from a biblical point of view, which is the main concern.

Why should we keep people around the world in poverty so Americans can make more?

We complain about CEOs getting raises while the "rank and file" don't. And we say that the rank and file should get a "fair wage." So their 40K a year isn't enough for them; they want more. All the while they are driving two or three cars, having 4 or 5 cell phones in their family, with cable or satellite TV, traveling vacations, and the like. While there are families around the world who make less than $1000 a year, don't have any cars, no phones, no running water, no electricity, no vacations, no healthcare of any sort.

And we act like it is a problem to give them a job. That is, IMO, bordering on sinful. It is a gross act of violence against another human being to deny them a job so someone here can make more money. We are essentially telling these images of God that we don't care about them because they are not Americans.

I don't understand that mentality. It is very troublesome because it doesn't match the care and concern for the image of God in man that I see in Scripture.

 

I find that ironic too. I also find it wierd, because I never saw anyone say that. The market does determine value. Look at your house. What's it worth? Whatever someone will pay for it. Labor is the same way.

Why shouldn't a company shop the same way you do? You don't buy at the most expensive store usually. You will buy at a cheaper store. One grocery store has milk at 3.50 a gallon, the one across the street has milk at 1.99 a gallon. Which will you buy? In most cases, you will buy the 1.99 milk, and with good reason.

But then you turn around and want to deny companies the right to do the same thing. And when you shop at the 1.99 store, you are threatening the jobs of the people at the 3.50 store.

Who do you think pays the wages of the workers? It isn't the company. They have no money. It is you, the consumer, who pays the wages. And so when wage cost goes up, the company passes that right on down to you so your cost of living goes up.

A company is not materialistic. It cannot be, by definition. It is people who are materialistic.

Perhaps so.

After reading this stuff again, it seems to me that we have very different ideas about how humanity should be treated. My belief that all men are in teh image of God, no matter whether they are Americans or not, drives me to a very different position on this. My belief that money is not that important drives me to a very different position on this.

But in all this, I have yet to see anyone from your side give a biblical basis for why Americans should keep getting richer while the rest of the world doesn't even have basic living conditions such as electricity, running water, refrigeration, etc.

 

Smart ? Maybe? Certainly questionable.
Wise? Wisdom maybe lacking for the most part.

Greed and competition go hand in hand in most cases.

Maybe the golden rule would apply in this case. (Doing unto others as you would have them do unto you.)

Yet despite our best charitable efforts, people around the world are still in poverty.

I don't know any families that live in that much luxury if they do it is because the kids are working to have these cars and cell phones.
For those who are in that 40K range in some areas of the U.S. that is reasonable but in most cases you won't see the working class making that much. As for myself I am looking forward to the day when my wife and I can get down to one car and chuck the cell phones. Unless we take care of our own working class we will be like those in third world countries who are getting by without the basics of running water, health care (Our health care system is certainly far from being perfect.), cars, electricity or vacations(sounds kind of like Gilligan's Isle doesn't it.)

It is sinful, remember the parable about the prosperous farmer who had so much that he laid it all in his barns and chose to live out the remaing days as to eat, drink and be merry? That cost him his soul, not very good trade off.
We are capable of doing more for our fellow man for those who have less, do what you are caple of doing and for those who have more in abundance , much more will be required.

No, I don't understand it either.

 

A person making 40k gross pay can't buy a house in the Seattle area.
Maybe a one bedroom condo.