Re: Latest News

From: John Larkin (jjlarkin_at_highSNIPlandTHIStechPLEASEnology.com)
Date: 11/19/04 

Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 14:08:20 -0800

On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 21:15:24 GMT, Rich The Philosophizer
<null@example.net> wrote:

>> They are absolute slaves to their "wealth acquisition"
>> behaviors, with no time at all to spare for "nonproductive"
>> pursuits. Have you never noticed what abysmal morons rich
>> people tend to be on any subject other than acquiring money?
>>

Not slaves; they mostly do it because they enjoy it.
 
>> Have you never noticed that once a wealthy person
>> acquires interests other than acquiring wealth, the first
>> thing they do is start giving away as much of it as possible
>> so they aren't enslaved by it any more?
>>

Most of the really rich people, at least Americans, got that way by
working at something real (Bill, Sam) and kept doing it most of their
lives. And sure, the only really big charitable donors are people who
have a lot of money; they had to acquire it before they could give it
away, for pete's sake.

 
>> Get a grip Steve, and yank your political thinking out of
>> the 19th century. The rest of the world is passing you by.
>
>I've just figured out what the real bone of contention is
>between those who "have money" and those who "don't".
>
>The problem isn't how much money you "have" - although the
>immediacy of that one obscures the _real_ problem - it's
>that most people have to spend _their own_ money, and the
>"rich" have a license to spend _other people's_ money. And
>just to twist the knife far enough to rub salt into it,
>the _other people's_ money usually belongs to the people
>who already don't have enough of _their own_ to spend on
>stuff in the first place.
>

But spending isn't primarily what rich people do. Poor people think
about all the things they would buy if they were rich. But the essence
of being rich is *not* spending. A billionaire may have three houses
and ten cars, but not 3000 houses and 10,000 cars. The money that they
don't spend is invested, and *somebody* has to defer consumption in
favor of investment or everything would fall apart.

We in the West live in historically and globally unprecendented health
and luxury for practically everyone, and some people are always
whining about how terrible things are because somebody has more than
them.

John

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