The American Dream was bought with credit. It was bought with resources borrowed (or taken) from ecosystems, non-renewable energy, indigenous peoples, etc., not just money borrowed from banks. This borrowing was wreckless. A lot of consumption more than investing. Externalities not included in the prices of that consumption. — WISDOMfromPO-MO
Well, you were just making statements like:there are 540 plunderers and extortionists worth more than s billion dollars--$2.399 trillion in all--in the United States. Whether they were self made, crawled out of a sewer, or were suckled on a 24 caret gold teat is of no concern to me. There is no reason for us proles to stare in wonder, jaws agape, at Mark Zuckerberg or Andrew Carnegie. — Bitter Crank
Working people were kept at the bottom of the class structure--not just relatively poor, but absolutely poor. Not until "disruptive" industrialism got underway, and created more routes to advancement, were working people able to make some advances -- not into the classes above them, but at least greater financial well-being within their own class of workers. — Bitter Crank
These statements are false, and categorically so if it's possible for working class people to become rich themselves. The wealthy are not hoarding anything - if they were, then we would see that most fortunes out there were inherited, not self-made.The resistance from the upper classes was fierce, and has remained fierce to the present. — Bitter Crank
Middle class (maybe middle-upper class depending on what geographical area you take as your reference)Let me ask you what Socio-economic class you would consider yourself? — René Descartes
You do have equal opportunities, if you start a business and do the things that you should be doing if you are interested in becoming wealthy. You won't become wealthy just by working for someone else :s - it's silly to expect that to happen in the first place.It promises equal opportunities but those are lies which are concealed by a dream of a better future. — René Descartes
If things are so bad, why are 62% of American billionaires self-made? Clearly the evidence shows that most of the new rich were much poorer people at one point. — Agustino
So, more than half of the self-made fortunes are from lower-class backgrounds. (35%/62%).35% of the Forbes 400 list were from lower class backgrounds. — Pseudonym
Do you have anywhere to cite that figure? I thought the 35% represented working class people, not middle-class.Only 35% of the Forbes 400 were from middle class-working class backgrounds so I would say the remaining two thirds actually did inherit their wealth. — René Descartes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_billionairesWould you also like to know how many African Americans made that list... 1 — René Descartes
Who said it's supposed to achieve 95%? :s — Agustino
I see no problem with 1% owning even 99% of the wealth, so long as the other 99% have what they need to survive, take care of health, education, food, shelter, and the necessities. — Agustino
Then the American dream is a lie.The American dream says that if you want to get rich all you have to do is work hard. — Pseudonym
Sure, because just working hard is not enough to get rich. You must also work smart.Therefore, statistically, the two subsets are unrelated. Ergo being in the subset 'people who want to be rich and are willing to work hard to achieve it' does not have any statistically significant relationship to being in the group 'people who actually are rich'. — Pseudonym
Yes, I think unfortunately that would be the case, because the 99% are barbarians.I think it would instead lead to widespread resentment of that 1%, even if the basic needs of the other 99% were met, and this would consequently increase the likelihood of the breakdown of democracy. — Erik
These statements are false — Agustino
The American dream says that if you want to get rich all you have to do is work hard. — Pseudonym
Get involved in philosophical discussions about knowledge, truth, language, consciousness, science, politics, religion, logic and mathematics, art, history, and lots more. No ads, no clutter, and very little agreement — just fascinating conversations.