Without rich people, could America survive?

Question

If we took everyone that owned or ran a business and banished them to an island, would the American economy stay afloat?

Answer 1

A pastor, who works in inner-city Milwaukee, asked a banking CEO who makes $4.6 million/year when “enough was enough?” That’s a fair question to ask.
Eventually, it seemed to inspire this CEO to donate over a million dollars to scholarships for poor African-Americans so that they might achieve.
Yet, the same pastor could not see the irony when he lamented the woes of capitalism and recommended such socialist drivel as “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” or “Nickeled and Dimed.”
What was it that allowed the banker to donate the $1 million? Was it socialism? Communism? No, it was the capitalist system, and the prosperity that came as a result that allowed him to give away a third of his salary for a year.
He asked, “Why does this country so hate the rich?” I wondered when the last time he watched the news was. Has he not yet heard that we are the most generous nation in the history of the world? Americans per capita are more charitable than anyone else, is that not correct? I guess because the minimum wage is only $5.85, America must hate the poor. But what about the data that proves that the minimum wage has never statistically helped the poor, or the simple common sense that if it did, the first minimum wage would have licked poverty? Inflation, you say? What do you think causes it? Increases in wages leads to increased consumer prices, and so the cycle goes.

For those who bemoan capitalism, please do me the favor of not benefiting from its fruits. If money from capitalism is as good as “blood money,” please be happy running a commune. I realize there is corruption in capitalism like any other economic system, but given its voluntary nature, I will defend it as a more moral system than the systems Paulo Freire or Barbara Ehrenreich espouse. Meanwhile, I’ll be looking the moral capitalists in the eye at my church and thanking them for their generous donations, which we will use as best we can to help those in need.

Answer 2

Are you you talking about communism? If so, the U.S. would do well for a short time, with wages at least doubling, maybe tripling, but then the wheels would begin to fall off. In Cuba they've learned to jerry rig their 1950s automobiles, since they can't afford new cars. There's no innovation since it requires working capital to create anything, yet an entrepreneur will never recover their investment. It's not allowed. The government is no innovator.
If you're not talking about communism, yes we'd survive, though some means of turning over their enterprises would need to be worked out. Most rich people didn't "earn" it through innovation and good old fashioned hard work. They inherited it. Most importantly, creativity and leadership skills are not monopies of the rich. In fact, bureaucratic and anti-competitive practices serve as barriers to entry in many sectors. Eliminate those barriers and innovators would flourish to become the new rich.

Answer 3

Even Communist Russia had rich people. They were the Party officials. They had their own private food and department stores, their own city homes--not apartments, their own cars, and their own country homes as well. The Socialized masses could not partake of such stores and riches.

Kind of brings to mind the lifestyle of our Democrat senators, doesn't it?

At least in Capitalist USA, so far, anyone who strives for it, can become prosperous, unlike those in a Communist nation, where only the well-connected, Party officials can become rich.

***EDIT***

Yeah, under Democrats (=Socialism) there won't be any rich (other than themsleves). We'll all be poor together.

Answer 4

No. Rich people with businesses hire the middle class people to work... As much as Liberals dislike the "rich" of America they do make this country's economy tick so to speak. Also, don't assume that every person that owns a business is "rich". They probably do well, but they have bills too. They have to support families...

Answer 5

Actually not all people that run businesses are rich. Middle class America is what keeps this country going. The bigger the gap grows between the rich and the poor, the worse this country will get.

Answer 6

Well I hate to tell you that everyone that owns or runs a business is not rich so if that is the question, my answer would be no.

Rich people on the other hand, could just disappear and the world, and America would survive just fine.

Answer 7

The rich contribute nothing to society. In fact they are a leech upon the working class. All wealth is created by labor. The role of the rich is that of expropriating the wealth created by labor into their own coffers. All of the land and natural resources that is owned by the rich exists without them. The Soviet Union rose from third-world nation to global power after (and largely because) the capitalists had been banished from society.

Answer 8

It's the middle class that keeps a capitalistic system afloat. Without a middle class you have anarchy and lawlessness. The United States is not far off from realizing this firsthand.

Answer 9

News Flash, most business owners are not rich. not in it's present form, absurd question because in no case could you remove any large segment of any population without consequences. and sense it is purely hypothetical and any formula of computation could yield any result. Remove the Walton's, and Pritzgers, Buffets, Gates etc. would have less effect than removing the middle class.

Answer 10

What percentage of taxes do the rich pay--like 80-90 percent? You think policticians are screaming about the deficit and the debt now... What about all the people they employ also, who would be paying their salaries? Not the government, they already just lost their major source of income.

Oh and I forgot--how many of our politicians would be considered rich?