Hi All;) ..Why do "the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer"? ;)?

Question

Thanks, for answering, in advance!;)

Answer 1

The rule is that the richer is driven by greed but the most humble of man is the one that will give his last dime if someone else need it.

Answer 2

It seems like a lot of people's answers are blaming the victim (the poor), which is easy to assume if those poor in question already have some advantage. Their answers seem to focus on those of us the United States; however, we live in a global community. Many of the things that make us rich in this country are due to the exploits of other countries. We are the largest importer in the world. We pay those workers wages that would be far below our minimum wages, so we can buy those items here at low prices and yet still give a high profit margin to the manufacturing company.

Additionally, there are many poor and war-torn countries in this world (Sudan - particularly the Darfur region) where the majority of those people are born into poverty, thus already disadvantaged. They are not poor because they are genetically predisposed to be that way, they are poor because they have continual guerilla warfare and genocidal conditions. It would be tough to rise against poverty when you have to concern yourself with where you are going to hide your children so they don't get shot in the middle of the night.

On another note, if we go beyond the monetary question, we can think of this in terms of richness in life. Some people who are finanically poor, may have other factors in their lives that enrich them such as their family, faith, or occupation.

Answer 3

There are many answers to this question. One can take a socialist approach and explain that wealth comes from control of the means of production (factories, shops, businesses, land, etc), and appropriation of labour surplus. That is a very simplistic formulation of Marxist theory of capitalism, and it is essentially correct.

However, this proverbial question begs a deeper level explanation. A previous response quoted "education" as the key of wealth, and explained that "the more you know, the more you're worth". But that is only half true.

In post WW2 era, education was the key for poor and middle class people to overcome poverrty by getting a good degree, claimbing the corporate ladder, and retire with a generous pension.

That system has collapsed. Employers downsize, and getting an education/degree alone does not secure wealth any longer. PH D often means "Poor, Hungry and Desperate".

There is another type of education that people need nowadays: financial education.

I believe the lack of financial intelligence makes the poor poorer, and mastering financial intelligence makes the rich richer.

It is very easy to blame Bush, the system, the socioeconomic conditions one grows up with/under, and other external factors. These factors do play a role, but I believe individuals have choices, and the more financial education they acquire and apply, the more choices they are able to see and take advantage of.

By the way, I'm no Bush supporter. ;-)

But obtaining financial education is not easy if a person has negative connotations about money: "money is the root of all evil", "we don't discuss money at the table", "money does not make you happy", and all this type of moral high-ground rubbish are examples of how poor people think of money.

Once a person allows a shift of psychological paradigm about money, wealth, abundance, etc, that person can take positive steps to improve his/her financial situation.

"How can you do that when you're in a pension?" I hear someone say. Well, there are countries (for instance, most of Latin America), where there are no pensions, social security and the like. Those who want to succeed, do suceed by learning and applying that knowledge.

People ask the wrong questions most of the time, and they get the answers that justify the spirit of their questions:

"why does this happen to me?"
"why am I always broke?"
"why can't I make ends meet?"

These and similar questions are very disempowering, and your brain works in overdrive to give you an answer.

But what if you shift your thinking to:

"How can I improve my life?"
"How could I increase my income?"
"Where could I learn to make more money without killing myself working?"
"What could I do to improve other people's lives and benefit myself in the process?"
"What problem could I find a solution for, and get paid for it?"

Get the vibes? Get the idea?

It is up to you, and you alone to get richer... or poorer. Believe it or not, the choice is yours.

As Henry Ford said: "Whether you believe you can, or you cannot, you're absolutely right!"

Now go out there, and start thinking in empowering ways.

Get rid of negative connotations about money, and consider: do you deserve to live a better life? How would you go about it?

Go out there and make some money!

But if you think this way of thinking is wrong, well... the poor will continue being poorer, and the rich will continue becoming richer/wealthier.

It is still up to you to choose where you wish to stand, and if you're happy being poor, or "making an honest living by working hard for every penny you earn", well, you deserve to be there, and good ridance to you.

Regards,


Skinny Jeff

Answer 4

The rich have enough money to invest some of it in the stock market and buying houses and fixing them up and a little gambling. That makes them get richer. The poor only have enough money to pay their bills and don't have enough money to put into those things. They end up getting behind on their bills and get poorer just because they didn't have the money to start with.

Answer 5

Because if the rich get richer the money has to come from somewhere so the poor get poorer.

Answer 6

Now days the rich is getting poorer and the poor is still surviving.

Answer 7

It has been noted that if all of the worlds wealth were redistributed evenly every man woman and child would be left with roughly what would amount to 4.2 million dollars. Also noted is that within approximately 10yrs that same wealth would find itself back into the hands of those who had it before. That said the answer lies in the ability or disability thereof to maintain and accumulate wealth. That is why a majority of lottery winners wind up bankrupt. If someone cannot successfully manage say 30k a year what would they do with millions? Not much differently.

Answer 8

Don't take every tired old cliche you hear as gospel.
But one reason the rich tend to get richer is because money can be used to make more money.
And many rich people get that way because they are willing to work hard and sacrifice immediate gratification for future security.
There are many other reasons I'm sure.

Answer 9

Its like a reversed Robin Hood story"
The rich take from the poor (Use the poor) to become rich
only to say "They once were poor!)
(Yet they sure wont tell you how they laugh at those ppl who are poor!
then poor idiolise the rich because they envy how they live everything they would want to be.

Answer 10

Because a lot of times people are too lazy to try and change things, so they settle for their fate. This applies mostly to the poor, because they just accept it and manage their money poorly (not to generalize, but it's often true)
And rich people are given so many opportunities and have money more available to them, plus they can walk all over people and exploit them for work (again, not to generalize, but you see it a lot)


*And I would definitely not say that ALL rich people are greedy and ALL poor people are generous. Do you think if poor people were given money, they'd donate it or keep it for themselves?

Answer 11

Because we think in terms of competitive living, rather than cooperative behavior. The former is animal behavior, the latter comes from purposeful thought. As long as the rich have all of the advantages for competition (resources, advertising, politicians in their pocket), then the more money they have, the more they will take from as many people as they can. As long as we keep buying their junk, working for their companies, and waiting for someone to give us a life, we will be under their thumb.