In a free market, how do the rich take advantage of the poor?

Question

The rich can't force them to buy their products.
They can't force them to work for their companies.
They can't force them to accept a pay cut.
They can't force them to work for them with no health benefits.
If they try to charge too much, someone will come in and offer the same service for less money.

So how is it that the "greedy rich" are always taking advantage of the poor???

So what would the people do if the "rent to own centers" didn't exist? You said that people can't wait for a fridge, and that there are no other options. So...aren't they providing a service to someone who needs and wants it?

Answer 1

In a true free market you have a point, sort of. Although within the investment and loan framework of a free market economy, once you are rich it is much easier to remain that way, while it is always difficult to elevate oneself to a higher class.

But it should be pointed out that we don't technically live in a free market economy. Tarriffs, tax laws, subsidies, and laws that keep certain commodities and investments protected from "free market" pressures do give an advantage to those who already have money while making it more difficult for those who do not. So before you go getting down on the poor man for being poor and lazy, realize that the rich have twisted the rules of our "free market" economy in thier favor.

Answer 2

There are rich that are greedy and rich that are not. I think we need to keep in mind that our market is a system. That system has become almost an entity of its own.

While it is true that the rich cannot force the poor to buy their products, the poor need to buy them anyway in order to survive. And if they don't need it, the media convinces them they do.

While it is true the poor cannot be forced to work in the rich's companies, they must work in order to survive.

While the poor cannot be forced to accept pay cuts, they have to do it in order to keep a job.

The poor may not be forced to work without health benefits, but they have to work somewhere, otherwise they will not have anything.

My point is that, although the poor are not forced to do anything, there are things they are obligated to do in given situations and circumstances. Some rich folks take advantage of that. Some do not. In either case, the disadvantage will always be on the poor and some changes need to be made in the "free" market to alleviate them.

To clarify my answer, I do not believe that the market is free. There are more complexities than we think. The market is just not a system of buying, selling and trading. It is not just the exchange of currency or the writing of regulations. It is a culture with a belief system that teaches us how to live out our roles as rich or poor peoples.

Read up on this. There are many sources out there dealing with socioeconomics, which will probably answer your question in a much clearer and accurate manner.

Answer 3

Selling $3 nikes for $150 is not fraud, think about it. As a buyer do you have to buy Nikes? The buyer and seller together determine what a product is worth. If a seller wants too much for a product THEN BUYERS DON'T BUY IT!!! Its called supply and demand. Yes, monopolies can take advantage of people but monopolies occur more in the public sector than the private. Whenever there is a company in the private sector making tons of money there will be many others that will want to start a business and get a piece of that market share. Economics is not your strong-suit

Answer 4

The main cause for the poverty is the income distribution. Whatever money the rich people earn, they invest it in their own business. Thus they earn more money. They do not force the poor to buy the products, but they keep the prices so high that the poor cannot afford to buy it. Then they don't force them to work in their companies, but they allow people of foreign county to work in the company. Thus the deserving but poor are not given the chance. They can't force to pay cut, because no pay is left to be cut. The can't force poor to work with no health benefits, but they do give money for such facilities, but it does not prove to be adequate. Though there is overall increase in the national income of the country, how many rich people have how much share in that income. See the proportion of the income of the poor people and that of the rich. It is not that the rich are taking advantage of the poor, but it is that they are taking advantage of the situation, and the poor suffer, because they do not have enough resources.

Answer 5

The reason the poor are poor is because they either:
1) Want to be poor OR dont want to do what it takes to be rich
2) Nobody in their family has ever wanted to be rich
3) They just dont have what it takes in a survival of the fittest society.

There is no reason that somebody poor cant get wealthy other than they dont want to.

I grew up not much above poverty, I left the nest at 18 without much choice in the matter, and while I am not rich, I am getting there slowly, which is more than I can say for most poor people because they wont get up and do what it takes to get their share, they would rather sit there and complain they don't have anything.

If you know a kid that dropped out of school and started working at McDonalds, try this: Go have a talk with him about the benefits of joining the armed services, tell him they teach him life skills, they give him a job he cant be fired from, they give him money for college, and they teach him a trade which he chooses, all he has to do is sign on the dotted line.

I did that with one of my friends once, I signed up and did my 4 years and got all the associated benefits, and one of my woman friends was begging me for money because she got pregnant by a guy when neither of them could support the baby, she was still living at home with her mother, the whole works. I told her she should sign up for the military and told her the benefits associated with it and what would be required of her. She got all pissed off that I didnt just hand over a couple G's and quit being my friend. As far as I know she is still in the same situation if not worse.

The last thing I am going to be doing is supporting other people who wont support themselves. I told her she could have the cash free if she would just take my advice and sign up, she chose to decline the $ and decline to make her life better.

Impressario Raiddinn the Beatdropper

Answer 6

In a true capitalistic system, people of various economic wealth freely enter into contracts with each other for the exchange of goods and services (including employment services). While we have an imperfect system, the rich DO NOT take advantage of the poor. As you point out, the poor freely and voluntarily enter into employment agreements and other agreements. The fact that they have to work and have limited skills is no one's problem but their own. Sounds heartless, but the fact that the "poor" haven't improved their own situation is not a reason to take the wealth away from others who have worked hard for it.

In fact, with unionized labour, often the workers take advantage of the owners of the companies. When the strike, they take control of the entire enterprise, which they do not own, to feed their own desires and wants.

Answer 7

Example- all these rent to own companies that have furniture and appliances. A lot of poorer people do not have credit. So if they need an appliance or a couch they run right out to a rent to own center and pay three times as much for the product then if they saved the money and bought it at a later time. But then again you cant wait for a refrigerator you need one right now.........................

And I am digusted with Walmart. They are pushing out the small business man, and do not want anyone in this world to make money but THEM. We lost 4 family owned operated businesses here in the last 3 years since walmart came in. These businesses have been in this city for over 50 years. And poof they closed right up because of walmart.

Answer 8

The rich do not take advantage of the poor. Taking advantage of someone is doing something against there will. Most people who get taken advantage of want to be, except in the case of sex.
Poor people are capable of being rich. They just do not want it bad enough. It takes work and determination. Most poor people have no work ethic and are determined to be poor. SUCK it up get a job and be what you are capable of....RICH
Quit treating rich as if it were a dirty word. People who are rich worked for what they have, or there family did.

Answer 9

Outsourcing
"Unknowingly" hiring illegal aliens.
Only offer 'Part time' Jobs
Setting up companies in foriegn countries.
'Cooking the Books'
Mergers

By outsourcing work to other countries they get cheap labor and don't have to worry about benefits, overtime, while at the same time selling these services in the US at a higher price than that item would sell for in the originating country. Therefore making profits at the cost of our own society. Take computer programers for example. Our guys used to make 35 to 50 bucks an hour. Laid off all our workers and outsouced to a nation that threatens to take down our internet for 9 to 12 buck an hour. (China, and you wonder why we have hackers?)

By hiring people without green cards they pay them less, they are not going to complain and cheating them out of benefits. Some are hired as 'day labor' and they don't even go on the books for taxes or S.S. By doing so denying legal green card holders and citizens a job.

A lot of corporations are going to part time labor. Jobs that used to be full time are now classed as part time. They just employ more people, but no one gets vacation time, sick leave, medical or dental benefits and no retirement accounts. Makes a lot of people poor quick. Without this over head companies make it hand over fist.

By setting up companies in foriegn countries they get humongus tax breaks. They can hire cheap labor and by having headquarters here they don't have to pay import taxes, save all the way around and US citizens stay unemployed. Unemployment used to cover 26 weeks, now it's down to 18 and the rumor mill has it those 18 weeks may be cut even smaller.

'Cooking the books' like Enron did. Cheating hundreds and thousands of people out of jobs, retirement, dividends

Giving the top guys OBSCENE pay raises and bonuses and leaving the general workforce zip, zilch, nada.

Mergers combine companies and organizations under one umbrella. Corportations take great care in keeping the public from finding out how many corps and orgs and companies are owned. There are't many more independents out there anymore.
When you own the town, city, franchise, business you can set your own prices. It is a monopoly, though a lot of people don't know it. Take a look at the oil biz, and banking industry.

Answer 10

The rich can own land. By keeping land unavailable for productive use the poor cannot "pull themselves up by the bootstraps". Land is the bootstrap. You need it to do any sort of economic activity. This is not, by the way, a fault of the rich but simply a fault of our taxation system. The solution to which is very simple. Tax land - not income. The understanding of this principle takes a whole course in economics but you can get a pretty good start by following the links in the sources.