Are rich people just legal thieves?

Answer 1

depending on how rich is rich, yes, they are thieves

i see most people are answering that rich people are not thieves - that they work hard, a smart with money, etc - that the poor are lazy - that to call the rich thieves is just hatred, envy

so there is still a feeling that wealth is proportional to work

although the range of pay PER UNIT OF TIME is very very very extreme - from $1 to $1 billion a fortnight's work - from 1000th to a million times average

bill gates increase of fortune US$18 billion in 1998 - in 2006 dollars, $27 billion - a billion per fortnight - a million times world average fortnightly pay - can anyone say that bill gates worked a million times harder per fortnight?

average per capita income burundi US$100 - ie, per worker US$200 a year, US$8 a fortnight - and that is the average, where the percentage of people below average in every country is above 90% - $1 a fortnight, $25 a year, $1000 a lifetime

can anyone say that that is equal pay for equal work?

from a third of a second to a lifetime to get paid $1000

obviously figures have little impact on people

obviously rich people want to feel justified - but what degree of rationalisation and selfdeception is involved? - what degree of selfdestruction, of masochism is involved?

so the rich make a lot of money - sorry, GET a lot of money - get a lot of money they dont earn, cant earn, unless you think gates can work a million times harder per unit of time

so what if they get a lot of money? - who are they hurting? - good luck to them, eh? -

but what if their overpay means underpay for others?

1% of people get 90% of world income - and do less than 1% of the work [because the rich dont have to work, and many dont] - they get US$70 trillion a year - which is US$70,000 per family -

that is, every family would be getting US$70,000 more a year if 1% were not getting 90% of world income while doing less than 1% of the work - ie, 99% of people are doing 99% of the work and getting 10% of income

90% of people get 10th-1000th of world average hourly income - while doing over 90% of the work

so what? - so 90% of people are slaves, producing stuff for others, having to give 90-99.9% of the fruit of their labour to others

so money is the most important thing in life - when you are not in nature, when all land is owned, when you cant go out and hunt and gather as you could before society, by natural right - money is all necessities and millions of wants, major and minor - money is a joker good

so what? - so such theft, such slavery means war and crime - justice is the purpose of govt, as james madison said, and the people are the govt, so the people have to be just in a democracy - why? - because the cost of injustice is war, crime, and the end of the state - the cost of injustice is no peace, no happiness, endless conflict, such as you see on your tv, and such as invades the lives of everyone at some point [the draft to vietnam, ww2, plus crime]

justice is a virtue because it delivers happiness, which is the aim of everyone all the time - when you scratch your butt, it is to be happy - when you work all day, it is to be happy

injustice is selfdestruction - injustice is theft is anger is violence

people have chosen injustice ['as much as i can get, and to hell with everyone else'] for millenia, and for millenia, war and weaponry have been escalating - fists and stones to gunpowder and cannon to ICBMs and nuclear winter - the power to end all life 60 times over - and the rising extreme tension to do it, in the next 100 years - maybe no one will let go all the bombs at once, but we face a future in which an atom bomb here, an atom bomb there - slowly the smoke [above the rainwashout level, ie permanent] builds up - world temperature falls, less plant growth, less food, more fighting

why have we been trying to prove the obviously wrong for 6000 years? - obviously underpay makes anger makes violence

200 years after america was founded on liberty, equality [=justice] and fraternity [=friendliness], on limitation of fortunes to just maximum, as the bulwarks of peace, safety, happiness, freedom, democracy, we humans have the worst imaginable injustice, with consequent worst possible violence and weaponry

i dont say: care about others - i say: care for yourself - is injustice compatible with democracy, freedom, peace, happiness? - or, if you dont concede injustice yet, is pay from $1 to $1 billion compatible with democracy freedom peace happiness survival of life on this planet?

is our happiness strategy good? - or are we victims of tunnel vision, predator vision, hunter-gatherer vision, which is good at focussing on some thing, but hates focussing on the whole, the big picture, everything? - can you move your tunnel vision from the upside of wealth to the downside? - can you move your mental vision from the downside of justice to the far greater upside?

are you hurting yourself by not looking at the consequences of just going for all the market system will give you? [in 99% of cases, it gives less money than justice does]

you say you work harder - but what is your hourly pay rate? - how many time the average hourly payrate is it? - and how many times harder than the average can you work per hour?

for me, i cannot see that a person can work more than 10% harder per hour than the average - and the hourly payrate goes up to a million times - 100 million % - is the reluctance to be equal with others selfdestructive? - equal pay for equal work: equal length of time, equal hardness of work per unit of time: is it NECESSARY, ESSENTIAL to everything good for you?

the pooling of fruits of labour became essential once we had specialised in jobs - to get a mix of products for everyone - but hat made it possible to go nuts: look, a huge pool of wealth, all for me! - and for 6000 years we have just been diving in and grabbing all we could - and 99% have come out with less than we would have in nature, or with justice - and 100% of us are heading for extinction soon, 'thanks' to e=mc2 - and the overpaid 1% have danger proportional to the size of the overpay - the injustice is too obvious today for people not to get angry, and to fight back against the theft of their quality of life, their earnings, their very lives

an objective look could never say the benefits of injustice are greater than the benefits of justice - the downside of injustice is total now, thanks to e=mc2, and even if you prefer to go into denial about nuclear winter, the downside of injustice, to any objective looking, is far greater

you teach your children to share - but do you really understand that every child gets more with sharing? - that the alternative is constant fighting till tillthe cake is ruined

that ego thrill of having more than others - ask yourself: is it costing you everything? - the loss of democracy, the loss freedom from tyranny and corruption, the loss of peace, the loss of safety, the loss of freedom from fighting everyone all the time to keep your overshare, the loss of fraternity [friendliness] throughout the world, the loss of the lives of every human in the next 100 years or less?

injustice = fighting = escalation = death

justice = peace, happiness, survival - everything

every empire has died - history is littered with dead empires - the state built on injustice cannot live - you are being ground up into paste by injustice, by the fighting over the cake till it is all ruined

justice is your friend - objectively, impartially, dispassionately, determine what is just - and be happy, free, capitalist, democratic, free from a million hassles

with injustice, you get people less powerful than you, yes, and you can exploit them - but they fight back - they cost you time and money fighting them off - and the death of every empire proves you will fail in the end - mafias rise from bottom to top - the poor are tougher -

and you get people more powerful than you, who you have to fight, and lose to, and bow to and accept as your tyrants - open the gates to having every child grab as much cake as they can, and everyone has to fight all the time, and every cake is ruined - is that happiness? is that peace? is that high quality of life? is that selfesteem? justifiable pride? is that sense? is that intelligence? is that love of self? or is it selfhate?

because we have: just go for what you can get and whoever doesnt do well is a loser - because 1% get 90% of world income, because 99% get 10% of world income, we have war and crime, escalation and extinction rising like a sun

if the present range of pays were just, it would make no sense to persist with it when the consequences are so dire - injustice, theft, is breaking with good sense - people fight back - mankind is generally no more sensible than hitler, who thought plundering europe would make him happy, and which made him very unhappy, and dead - humanity is generally no more sensible than stalin, who spent every second of his life fighting to stay on top, who spent not one second relaxing, free, easy - the more you have, the more you attract thieves -

see my other answers for more

Answer 2

Some probably are, as there are a lot of businesses which thrive on the misfortune of others by charging high rates of interest and other charges. I don't believe that about wealthy people in general. Some people just have a magnetism for money and earn it honestly. People have differing motives at what they do.

Answer 3

No, rich ppl have earned the money though their education or extraordinary skills/gifts or maybe a very bright idea. If u are talking about ppl who illegally became rich then yes they are thieves.

Answer 4

No, I think that's just a standard "class envy" type of term. Most rich folks have worked for what they have. We as citizens voted in the politicians who make the tax laws that might help the rich so really we should look in the mirror for the advantages the rich have are our own fault. The answer is vote them out of office.

Answer 5

1

Answer 6

Some are, but most are just really good a working the system and having things go in their favor.

Answer 7

Some are. Most earned their money thru hard work and smart savings & investments, like I did.

Answer 8

no most are working people who don't mind working 12-16 hrs a day to get were they are

Answer 9

Let's put it this way, Show me a rich person and I'll show you someone that has walked/stood/hammered on someone else to get where they are today.

Answer 10

Some of them are. Some of them aren't. Most of them are at the least, opportunists.

Answer 11

Are poor people just lazy do-nothings?

Dumbass.