Was it agriculture, or hired labor, that made the rich-poor gap possible?

Question

Some say it was agriculture that made all this economic inequity possible. I think it was hired labor.
If the first job interviewee EVER in the history of man just stood up and said to the rich guy trying to hire him, "Oh, waaaaaah, so you have too much gold/food/pasture to keep track of it all yourself. Well you won't get ME to do it for minimum wage, no sir! You'll just have to unload some of it and make do with what YOU can handle!"
Then he would have picked up the rich man's excesses and become rich himself. But instead, he chose to work his *** off so some rich guy could laze around all day and pay him next to nothing.
I wish I had a time machine to go talk some sense into him. The bastard....

Ok that's my two cents. What do YOU think?

OK, two people have answered the question, and three people have blathered away about why rich people are better than poor people, which was NOT my question.

And the fifth guy -- there was no economic inequity in hunting-gathering societies. In fact, in pure foraging societies of today, there still isn't!

Answer 1

The ownership of the means of production whether it is land or factories has always allowed owners to profit from others labor as well as their own. What has changed over time is how one became a owner. In the good old day you just got a raiding party together and took it from your weaker neighbor and made your first job interviewee into a slave. Now we have governments to protect property rights. You may not like the current system but it is better than what proceeded it.

Answer 2

It all began with the ancient hunting and gathering societies.

At first every one took just that which s/he needed for their own consumption.

Then the first excess was created and kept for the leaner times of the year. Then some people saw that they could make a profit from what they had accumulated, by selling their store and they could make others work for them.

Since this dawn of time we have had an ever widening gap between the rich and the poor.

It will never go away.

Answer 3

ALways there will be a gap between the rich and poor. Every rich person will try to maintain his position in the higher level itself. But eventhough he gives his half share to poor, he wil not loose anything. But the poor will remain poor even if he receives because he doesn't have the capability of improving that and also not to preserve that.

Answer 4

Nope, not buying it. The gap is because some people see money as something to spend others see it as seed to make more money. The ones that see it as something to spend just look for the quickest way to get it (working for someone that has it). The ones that see it as seed invest it to make more money.

Bottomline is wealth has to be produced before it can be distributed looted or paid as wages.

Answer 5

hired labour, cuz managers make big bucks easily by education and doing work by other people, who are the hired labour who don't get paid like the managers