85 richest people as wealthy as half of the world's population

reply to post by Visitor2012

Kali74
reply to post by Quadrivium

 

A better question is why aren't you concerned about what they are doing with their wealth? Because what they do with their wealth affects us all. I don't care about being that rich, I care about being able to survive. Billions of peoples ability to survive is at the economic desires of but a few.

And you believe all of these people to be evil?
What about the low end crooks stealing other's identities? Or those that actually make a living off of cheating the elderly and poor.
As I said before, I know that some of these people are scum bags but you don't need a lot of money to be a scum bag.
The fact of the matter is that many people need someone to blame. It makes them feel better to think that the situation they are in is someone else's fault.
But before we blame them for making our lives miserable and not trying to make the world a better place with their fortunes. We need to ask ourselves what we have done to make our lives and this world a better place.
It starts with each of us, not from the top, not from the bottom but from each and every one of us as individuals.
Quad

reply to post by NavyDoc

History shows that people revolt for a variety of reasons and "wanting your stuff" is one of them--at least on the surface.

How about wanting some stuff?

People want and need hope. A chance to better their lives - a future. Some measure of safety and stability

If people are denied these things, take away freedom, a sense that there is some kind of justice and order - leave them with nothing to hold on to, nothing to look forward to...and you've got yourself people who have nothing to lose

You don't have to care about people - but you shouldn't be surprised that under certain conditions people lose their respect, their trust and their fear

So what we are looking for is a few good shots and 170 bullets.

Ill volunteer

Quadrivium
reply to post by Visitor2012

 

Kali74
reply to post by Quadrivium

 

A better question is why aren't you concerned about what they are doing with their wealth? Because what they do with their wealth affects us all. I don't care about being that rich, I care about being able to survive. Billions of peoples ability to survive is at the economic desires of but a few.

And you believe all of these people to be evil?
What about the low end crooks stealing other's identities? Or those that actually make a living off of cheating the elderly and poor.
As I said before, I know that some of these people are scum bags but you don't need a lot of money to be a scum bag.
The fact of the matter is that many people need someone to blame. It makes them feel better to think that the situation they are in is someone else's fault.
But before we blame them for making our lives miserable and not trying to make the world a better place with their fortunes. We need to ask ourselves what we have done to make our lives and this world a better place.
It starts with each of us, not from the top, not from the bottom but from each and every one of us as individuals.
Quad

edit on 20-1-2014 by Quadrivium because: (no reason given)

Do you even know how these people got that rich?

Do you realize how much money that really is?

You mention people stealing others identities and while being a criminal act, what is the proportion of the monetary value compared to the amount stolen in the private banking Ponzi scheme?

Do you have any idea how much money has been funneled out of the economy to pay interest on the national debt to the federal reserves stockholders? Try $15,000,0000,000,000 and guess how much "money" they lent us? $0

So you're an idiot if you believe these richest Super elites (not hard working Joe millionaire) aren't to blame for half the world's problems at least. Combine the interest we pay on every dollar ever printed, with all the interest we have to pay banks to loan us money for cars, houses, credit cards, student debt etc, with irs taxing everyone's WAGES not INCOME at around 43% annually, with sales tax charged every time you buy something and then when that business buys something and so on and so forth for as long as that money is used, combined with the high cost of living vs wages, combined with the new obamacare tax, combined with outrageous court fines and licensing fees, the list goes on and on its a miracle we have crumbled into the dust as there is so much theft occurring daily due to fraud, investment schemes Artificially inflating prices on housing and commodities, manipulated stocks, taxation etc.

The tea partyers revolted over a teeny 1% tax on TEA! WE ARE BEING TAXED 60-70% THAT IS WHERE YOUR MONEY IS GOING AND IT IS BEING SPENT ON KEEPING YOU DUMB, QUIET, DOPED UP, GMO'D OUT, HATING ON YOUR NEIGHBORS, IN CONSTANT STATE OF FEAR, HOPELESS, SUPERFICIAL, AND STATE PROGRAMMED TO BE A SOCIALIST.

Imagine if there were real jobs that people wanted to do that helped their communities thrive, where small business could flourish, where identity theft and stealing in general would be unnecessary. Those people sucking up all the nutrients an economy needs to survive, receiving all the bailouts, writing checks for trillions from an account with $0, ya those people deserve whatever is coming to them and same with all their evil minions. There are 3.5 million homeless people, 100 million unemployed, and 1.8 million vacant inhabitable houses owned by banks and private investors. That is not real capitalism. That is economic warfare

Spiramirabilis

It's about accountability - and fairness

It's about all of us being treated equally under the law

Maybe it's also about fairness of opportunity - which isn't the same as wealth

There are a lot of good posts in this thread.
It is about power to me and the power they hold over the rest of us.
The balance of power has shifted to far in one direction, and needs to be corrected.

Everything seeks a balance in nature and humans being the catalyst for that is no different. Yin and Yang

It is also cyclical where it gets repeated throughout history and is happening again.
The top most powerful people can inact as many defenses, spying and police tactics as they wish but will still lose.
History is a testament to that.

The powerful do not want change from the status quo, but in earths history, change is one thing we can count on.
The fall of Civilizations, Nations and States, Wars and so on are the only constant on earth.

CIAGypsy

AthlonSavage
reply to post by stargatetravels

 

Is CiaGypsy on list?

Nope... My banks had a rather crappy week and I fell to #86.

Things are Tough all over

Spiramirabilis
reply to post by beezzer

 

I care not for the cause of the revolt. I'm only all too aware of the aftermath.

Well, I guess that makes things easier for you - and it explains some things for me. Our positions are so much easier to defend if they aren't all mussed up with facts I guess :-)

So, you actually do not care what led up to the revolution?

Do you have any idea what the Russian people were living through at the time?

Do you think they were spoiled? Lazy? Ingrates? An aimless mob of wanton losers out to kill the Tsar for his Xbox and some cash?

Do you think things were pretty cool in Russia before the Commies showed up?

edit on 1/20/2014 by Spiramirabilis because: (no reason given)

It must be nice to ignore the outcome, regardless of what precipitated it.

Spiramirabilis
reply to post by Logarock

 

Well now I beg to differ.

Differ - with what?

What were the conditions in Russia prior to Stalin getting to have his say or his way with anything?

You think the whole thing started in 1917?

Sometimes we have a tendency to turn history into some kind of simplistic cartoon - don't we?

Do you?

All one even needs to know at a glance is that Lenin's goal was the gain control of power, take control of all industrial and agricultural production.....in the name of the people naturally.

What ended up happening in time is that party officials and cronies became wealthy, the people starved by the millions, hardly anyone could even afford bread and they had to open up a massive prison system to deal with decenters. When some of the leaders of the revolution saw what was really going on the were murdered or had to flee the country..... and were hunted down and murdered anyway.

To even make their means of production work they had to import wealthy western industrial capitalist to help them out.

reply to post by stargatetravels


Off with their heads!

ImaFungi
reply to post by stargatetravels

 

Off with their heads!

Well i'm not advocating murder & decapitation, would much prefer a non-violent revolution.
There have been some amazing posts and posters in this thread and it's shown me that most people get it, they know the truth.

stargatetravels

ImaFungi
reply to post by stargatetravels

 

Off with their heads!

Well i'm not advocating murder & decapitation, would much prefer a non-violent revolution.
There have been some amazing posts and posters in this thread and it's shown me that most people get it, they know the truth.

What many of you are failing to realize, is that there is always going to be an "After the revolution".

Revolutions are fine, if you can anticipate what comes after.

But as indicated my many in this thread, the post-effects of a revolution create situations often worse than conditions prior to the revolution.

reply to post by beezzer


yes things have always been this way, don't rock the boat, must maintain the status quo, we get it.
For every bad overthrow or revolution, there's a good one.
And as I, and others have said, we don't need a revolution anyway, we just need to bring the wrong doers and criminals To account.
We need to stop the poor and most vulnerable having to pay for the riches' lifestyle and the mess created by the wealthy.

But you keep defending them, that's fine. You love the way it is and see it as the best way and change is bad.

reply to post by stargatetravels


No. Hyperbole'.

I'm just concerned that it won't stop at the 85.

It'll go towards anyone with anything more than what you have.

It's not about "justice".

It's about taking from someone who has more than you.

It is justifying theft.

Next there will be talk about "equal outcome". Then we'll see some people making sweeping determinations as to how much a person should earn, should keep.

How much have they stolen from you? Got a dollar amount?

Spiramirabilis
reply to post by NavyDoc

 

History shows that people revolt for a variety of reasons and "wanting your stuff" is one of them--at least on the surface.

How about wanting some stuff?

People want and need hope. A chance to better their lives - a future. Some measure of safety and stability

If people are denied these things, take away freedom, a sense that there is some kind of justice and order - leave them with nothing to hold on to, nothing to look forward to...and you've got yourself people who have nothing to lose

You don't have to care about people - but you shouldn't be surprised that under certain conditions people lose their respect, their trust and their fear

However, these desperate people are often manipulated by unscrupulous agitators from people who want equality under the law to people who just want stuff taken from those who seem to have more and given to them by force. The Kulaks were not the ruling elite, they were peasants who had a little bit of land all their own. Lenin, using the same rhetoric we see today, riled up the other peasants and made the Kulaks a class enemy and blamed them for the failings of his Marxism. As a result, the Kulaks were exterminated. For their stuff, what little they had. Now we see leftist politicians and pundits railing on the top wage earners, people who work just as hard or harder for what they have, and they are portrayed as a class enemy and they are blamed for the failed policies of the politicians.

The problem is that so many are asking for their freedom to be taken away from them in exchange for the hope of safety and stability. Rather than just wanting economic freedom so that they can achieve too, they want redistribution which always gives us nice places like the Soviet Union, Cambodia, and Zimbabwe.

reply to post by stargatetravels


I didnt mean to imply you were, I said it in my perspective. Im not actually advocating that either, but it is nearly impossible to deny that if those individuals did not exist, and their wealth was it 10 trillion or something, was split amongst the people of the earth, in various means, sciences, education, the world would be better for it. The reason people dont care about this, and why those people get away with it, and why beezer is skeptical of revolution and post revolution, is because there is no design or goals or plans for a perfect world, noone is trying to, nor really wants everyone to be living nicely and happy and satisfied, that is not even considered as a possibility, and if they think about it for but a second or minute they only come up with negatives for that scenario, so its deal with the way things are or complain about them. They believe it cant possibly cant any better for them by changing the system, they are satisfied with life, they only think it can get worse for them, at least thats what the billionaires who own fox news tell them.

reply to post by ImaFungi


So we get the money.

To whom do we give it to?

How is the money distributed?

We can trust all the other governments to evenly hand it out?

No-one will try to pocket that extra cash?

Face it, there will always be the haves and the have-nots.

Look at many 3rd world countries as an example. They receive billions in foreign aid. Does it actually get to the people who need it?

No.

What does help them is people actually going over there. It's like the American public school system. Many think that spending MORE money on the department of education will better our schools. Hell, that's been going on for decades. And the American school system still stinks.

reply to post by beezzer

It must be nice to ignore the outcome, regardless of what precipitated it.

Beezzer - why would you say that? Why do you do that?

Think

Where have I ever once said I ignore what came after? That it was unimportant? Or, more to the point - that I support it? This is how these arguments tend to go - don't they? You want to assume that anyone you think is standing to the left of you supports what happened then - and after

I understand it

The Soviet Union couldn't have happened if things had been different under the Tsar

Nazi Germany wouldn't have happened if things had been different after the first World War

How many other examples from history are there do you suppose? How many similar situations are happening in the news right now that are painfully obvious?

Understanding that events and conditions drive human behavior is not the same as ideological support

Poverty is what this thread is about. Scarcity. Desperation - a lack of mobility. A lack of hope. Just because things are peachy keen for some doesn't mean everyone else is doing fine. Funny how the poor get painted in situations like this - isn't it? Funny how the natural first reaction of some is to start demonizing

The outcome doesn't have to be inevitably Stalinesque - but there are always opportunists waiting in the wings

reply to post by Logarock

What ended up happening in time is that party officials and cronies became wealthy, the people starved by the millions, hardly anyone could even afford bread and they had to open up a massive prison system to deal with decenters.

People were starving in Russia when Socialism was just a twinkle in Stalin's father's eye - and they were worked like slaves

This is the part of history you're obviously unwilling to examine or incorporate into your well worn script

And anyway - your argument seems to imply that you think I think what came after the revolution was a good thing - and that I support Stalin?

This is what I mean about cartoon history - history becomes something simple, broken down into easily explained bits and pieces

Good guys - bad guys

Road Runner - Wile E Coyote

reply to post by NavyDoc

However, these desperate people are often manipulated by unscrupulous agitators from people who want equality under the law to people who just want stuff taken from those who seem to have more and given to them by force.

This current war that's being waged on the poor is obviously a complete fantasy cooked up by coniving leftists

It does my heart good and gives me some peace of mind knowing that people leaning more to the right are immune to rhetoric and unscrupulous agitators

:-)

reply to post by Spiramirabilis


As long as we live in a free society, their will always be poverty.

The human condition drives poverty. The human condition creates poverty.

Want to eliminate poverty?

Eliminate ambition. We don't want people working harder than others.
Eliminate drive. We don't want people who want more than others.
Eliminate a work ethic. We don't want people who may be better at a job than others.
Eliminate freedom. Because if you're free to excel, then you might make more than someone else.
Eliminate greed. Because we don't want people coveting what others have.
Eliminate vices. Because they cause people to steal, they cause people to lose jobs.

Because once you redistribute wealth, you'll have to do it all over again, unless you eliminate all of the above.