What do you think of this quote?

Question

"When the rich wage war, it's the poor who die"

For me it raises the question:

If democracy is about equality, then why does this quote still ring true?

My own take to answer that?
What we have is not democracy. It is a situation where our countries are run by money. The richer you are, the more say you have and the more rights you have. Is that equality?

Capekicks: I'm with you 100% there, mate.

So add my best wishes in there too.

Answer 1

I don't think that democracy is about equality. That's the ideal of communism.

Democracy is about freedom. We got capitalism as a by-product.

Answer 2

I fear the quote has some degree of accuracy.

The first war this country waged was to gain independence from an imposing Monarchy. As best I know even the wealthy participated in that war. Those who signed the declaration of independence could have been hanged for treason and their property seized by the crown. So that might have been the only war where the quote did not apply.

But, after that things went downhill. Perhaps because as the quote implies, the wealthy have too much influence on affairs.

I have long believed the Civil War of 1861 this country suffered through was the work of the wealthy who feared their grip on commerce would be lost if slavery was abolished. They stirred up the public into thinking the Northern States were dictating how they should live. The truth of the matter is that slaves had become so expensive the average family could not afford one, they did their own work. So, the only people who stood to lose anything was the wealthy.

(If the issue had not been pressed when it was, it would only have been 5 -10 more years before slavery became too expensive to continue. The slave owners would have granted freedom to the slaves and the plantations would have been forced to allow share cropping to the former slaves in order to maintain some degree of commerce as they knew it in the past. After slavery was abolished and the war ended, many former slaves stayed on and worked as before.)

The wealthy knew they were too few in number to win a war so they had to incite the poor and the average people into believing they were being offended by abolition.

There are many who believe that all wars since then have been the product of the wealthy or influential who stood to make money from a war.

WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War, Iraqi War.
There were always people who made a great deal of money from those campaigns. And it was the average people who sacrificed the most in lives and dollars.

Equality is there to be grasped but it is human nature to want to have things, "My way". The only way to truly have equality is for the average citizen to exert enough influence to outweigh the wealthy and influential. Petitioning and protesting are the most powerful tools available to the average worker. Even more powerful than the ballot box. Government will yield to the people when the leaders realize they can no longer deceive the public. But the people are reluctant to create a public disturbance until they are inflamed by the governments missteps.

Answer 3

Some weeks ago I answered a question saying armies rule the world but I was mistaken and corrected by a friend who told me it was rich people who truly ruled the world. She is absolutely right and it's always been that way, who go to war the son of a president, the prince, Bill gates nephew? They may but they be safe and they'll return home untouched while the ones really doing all the fighting are regular men and women. The worst part is that they are not fighting because of a flag, no rich person believes in those strips of cloth, they are fighting for money, power and resources for those who sent them. What is this war but a war to sell Iraq in little piece among Bush and his cronies. they put us against each other, they divide and conquer, that's what they've always done. Who pays the consequences? Poor, regular people.
It's always been the same people, they have laws now to make us believe things have changed but nothing has really changed they still hold their positions and we live in an even more unfair world, where we are constantly exploited and live in constant fear,chaos and decadence.
This is not democracy, democracy died with Ancient Greece and maybe Rome too. Equality my pants I say. This is an undercover legitimised tyranny.

Answer 4

There is no such thing as an extant democracy. Every 'democratic' nation on this Earth is, in fact, a Republic. True democracy cannot work.
America is both a classism -and- a land of opportunity at the same time. The rich do have preferential treatment, the poor do die in wars, and the poor can become the rich.

Answer 5

Democracy isn't about equality. It's about equal chances to basically make the most money, but then after that you're not equal. Communism however is about equality no matter what, not just with chances. Which is is hypocritical since they're dictatorships usually. So it is democracy technically.

The greediest people are on top.

Answer 6

The United States was never set up to be a "warm body" democracy. It was set up as a democratic Republic.

What we are NOW is a country being run by a wealthy, capitalistic, imperialistic, moralistic, white heterosexual corporate oligarchy

And the poor will continue to be either used as cannon fodder serving the agenda of our "leaders" or as an underpaid underclass to serve that agenda.

Answer 7

Take a look at who comprises any American combat outfit. There may be a few exeptions to the rule but most will be from poorer families. The ratio will exeed the ratio of poor to rich in the US.

Best wishes to the guys overseas. Come home safe.

Answer 8

Whatever gave you the idea that Political equality equated with Social equality? We are equal ONLY on voting day where one person's vote counts just as much as any other person's vote. At ALL other times, it's the SIZE of your bank account that determines how "equal" one is. Those with the MOST, GET the most. Those with the least get to make those with the most acquire MORE.

BB,
Raji the Greenwitch

Answer 9

because the rich and the poor get equally angry about circumstances to create a war, but the rich have enough money to keep from having to lay their lives on the line. Money may not buy love, but it can buy damn near anything else.

Answer 10

The US has NEVER been a democracy. It's a federal republic. Unfortunately, after the Civil War, it went bankrupt, and has ever since been controlled by rich bankers.

You are a slave. Get used to it or rebel.