About this poll : Majorities say income gap too wide Why do people care about what other people make?

Question

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070706/ap_on_re_us/income_gap_poll

I mean who cares what he neighbor down the street is making? Why do people lose sleep over this? If i see a rich person. I say good for them! this notion that there is a finite amount of wealth out there is just stupid. Don't rich people hire people and create jobs? I've never been hired by a poor person.

libby, home ownership is at an all time high.

Married. I've been poor all my life. It wasn't until I turned 30 that I got fed up with working my butt off for minimum wage when i said, "you know what, I'm going to learn how to do something that just any dummy can do." I learned a skill. My employer pays me what I'm worth. I don't need a stupid union. If my boss fires me, I can litterally make ten phone calls and get hired ten times, over the phone without so much as a face to face meeting.
My point is anyone can do well in America. Get over what other people make and go grab your share of the pie. It's out there waiting for you.

Answer 1

Human nature is contrarian at best.

If something bad happens to you, it is because your character is faulty and you deserve bad things. If something bad happens to me, it is because of the environment I am in, and I am not personally at fault or to blame.

If something good happens to you (like your income), it is because you are lucky and just fell into it. If something good happens to me, I earned it and deserve it and it should have come to me sooner.


Since posting on YA I have been disgusted with the number of socialist leaning individuals I have seen. You have, I want, gimme, I deserve, you don't blah blah blah.

Answer 2

Reason number one is that the wider the gap between the rich and the poor become the greater the social unrest there is. Social unrest is bad. It creates an unstable business climate. It also reduces any feeling of national or common identity. Look at parts of Latin America and the problems with kidnapping and crime. Or think France before the French Revolution.

Reason number two is that people care less about what their level of wealth is than what their relative level of wealth is. Research has shown that people are happier when they live some place where the difference between the top and bottom is not as great.

Answer 3

You obviously care why other people care... I think that your statement shows that you are only trying to be a tough guy. You have read your history about labor unions and why they were created? When there is an abundance of labor and people do not own enough land to subsist on then they have to work for somebody to be able to purchase what they need to survive. When the labor market is overflowing the land owner or corporation owner needs only to pay the most minimal wages while the owners profit is enormous. This owner has not really labored to make a product. He has only used excessive laborers to create wealth for himself. Less than one percent of the worlds population will ever own a piece of land or a home. It is funny sort of to think that our forefathers fought wars to be allowed to own land and to make their own profits, but the only people who really made out are very few when taking the whole of the population into consideration. Those who were able to take advantage of free or almost free land taken by the American indigenous(enormous amounts) are those families who also have wealth today. Look at last names and track their genealogy. Sure there are stories of lucky people being in the right place at the right time, but the reason their are stories about them is because it is a rare story! Good luck to you and may you be blessed with a bit of your own land someday!

Answer 4

You are right. Why should we worry about it? The only thing is we need peopleto earn a living wage and have a disposable income. If people don't earn enough they can't spend to keepthe economy growing. The economy relies on people spending money. If they don't then the whole thing goes **** up!

Answer 5

You must never have been on the poor end to make such a statement. Yes, rich people create jobs... not great paying jobs, and mostly crappy insurance goes with those jobs...but yes, they do create jobs.

Answer 6

Clueless.

Answer 7

to see where they stand, as simple as that.

Answer 8

dumbest question ever!