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Invisiblecarbonhoots
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Wealth Cap..."When the rich make too much money"
    #7440455 - 09/22/07 01:04 PM (16 years, 4 months ago)

Talk about legislating morality!

With no upper limits under greed-driven capitalism (as justified with Old Testament Roman religion), the doors remain entirely open for one person to, in effect, own the entire world, with all 6 billion of us presumably living happily in servitude

When the Rich Make Too Much Money
by Dr. Gerry Lower | Sep 22 2007 - 11:02am |
article tools: email | print | read more Dr. Gerry Lower

Sam Pizzigati has recently reported on the content of "Foreign Policy", claimed to be "the world's most prestigious global affairs journal" (1). In keeping with its objectives, Foreign Policy has recently devoted an issue to "21 Solutions to Save the World" (2).

Specifically, Dr. Howard Gardner, a Harvard-based psychologist, has addressed the weighty question "Is it time for a maximum wage"? Gardner argues persuasively that "one solution" to save the world "ought to be a cap on the income and wealth that any one individual can accumulate" (3).

Gardner points out that when one person can take home an income "reminiscent of the gross national product of a small country, something is askew". With no upper limits under greed-driven capitalism (as justified with Old Testament Roman religion), the doors remain entirely open for one person to, in effect, own the entire world, with all 6 billion of us presumably living happily in servitude. Gardner proposes a two point solution.

First, Gardner proposes an income cap that limits the amount of money a single individual can annually take home to no more than "100 times as much money as the average worker in a society earns in a year. If the average worker makes $40,000, the top compensated individual may keep $4 million a year."

Second, Gardner proposes that "no individual should be allowed to accumulate an estate more than 50 times the allowed annual income. Thus, no person would be permitted to pass on to his or her beneficiaries more than $200 million."

Actually, the average income of an American family, most with both parents working, is about $44,000 per year (4). Under Gardner's proposal, the top compensated individual may keep only $2 million a year if calculations are based on individual income. No person would be permitted to pass on to his or her beneficiaries more than $100 million.

In addition to establishing upper limits to income, Gardner might also have mentioned approaches to the redistribution of wealth in a manner that raises those peoplel on the bottom while lowering those on the top. The Cheney-Bush administration has redistributed wealth to the already-too-wealthy via tax breaks ever since its was appointed into office.

Here, we must come to appreciate Gardner's failure to propose meaningful change. His income ratio of 100:1 is largely to give one's blessings to the current status quo - which stands as something of a monument to unfairness and inequality. Gardner's proposal would eliminate only those who are determined to make several hundred times more than the average family makes.

In other words, Gardner is really playing it safe in defining a program providing no threat to those making up to $4 million per year. This is to blindly approve of the greed and overt white collar crime that has emerged in the U.S. since World War II, all in the name of producing and preserving an inherently corrupt capitalism. This isn't even close to what it will take to make the world fair and equitable.

How many people do you know whom you would happily claim to be worth 100 times what you are worth as a human and a citizen of a so-called "democracy"? How does the worth of people like Kenneth Lay and Warren Buffett stack up against the worth of people like Jefferson, Franklin and Lincoln? Have you ever considered the certainty that relative human worth does not have one damned thing to do with what you own or how much money you have accumulated?

Certainly, a range of incomes is required in order to reward people for their time at work, for their accumulation of experience at work, for their achievement of expertise at work, and for their creative contributions to their work. Some of us are just plain worth more recompense than others of us because some of us do make more effort and provide more contribution than others of us.

While Gardner proposes a relative worth ratio of 100:1 (so as to conform to current reality), Henry Ford proposed a relative worth ratio of only 40:1 half a century ago. It would prove ever so much more human to set a relative human worth ratio of 10:1. The argument is simple.

Rather than the "average" individual or family income as a base, it is more useful to use a minimal "living income" as a base. That would be about $20,000 per annum in the U.S. - and millions of families have both parents working to just reach this minimal level of living. The argument then takes the form that if you and your family cannot make it on $200,000 per year, it is certainly not a lack of money that is your problem. You have likely not given adequate thought to what it means to be human and why you are here on earth.

We would serve ourselves well to reconsider the concepts of human needs versus human wants. Everyone has similar inherent needs for food and shelter, medical care and intellectual growth. It is the realm of what we want that creates trouble for everyone. We no longer recognize when "enough is enough".

As pointed out by Gardner, "Our standards of 'enough' have become irrationally greedy" (3). People with more money than anyone needs only use it to produce more money that they do not need, in something of a vicious cycle of increasing greed and enhancing the lies it takes to cover that greed.

It is important to recognize that greed-driven people are entirely unable to see greed in themselves. Any notions of greed are entirely washed away and negated with pure self-righteousness and the notion that everything they have accumulated for themselves is well deserved, no matter how that wealth was acquired.

This essentially means that under despotic capitalism, the rich will not give up their pursuit of wealth and power until they discredit and destroy the marketplace that makes them wealthy and powerful. Old Testament Roman capitalism under the Cheney-Bush administration has largely accomplished that end in the eyes of the world. It is simply true that what goes up must come down.

By "letting markets control our destinies, we've lost track of what it means to be 'rich enough'" (3).
By letting markets control our destinies, we've lost track of what it means to be human.
By letting markets control our destinies, we've lost all evidence of our being a democracy.

So much for Old Testament Roman "christianity". It has always been used to justify exploitation and conquest. It has never had anything to do with the Father of Human Rights, Jesus, and the Father of American Democracy, Jefferson.

If we in the U.S., as a people, are interested in preserving and promoting human rights and democracy in the world, we can no longer afford to dismiss the concepts of fairness and equality.

Added Note:

Many people will consider that any attempt to limit individual income is contrary to the precepts of democracy as we know it. Many people will ask how capitalism and democracy actually fit together. The answer is that they do not.

The reason that this essay seems contrary to democracy is that in latter day capitalistic America, we typically define freedom as being able to do whatever we want or whatever it takes to survive and thrive. This approach to freedom is synonymous with license and it constitutes a bottom line in the Cheney-Bush administration and corporate America.

This is a definition that comes out of the British crony capitalism of two centuries ago. Jefferson was thoroughly disappointed that the Constitution (written while Jefferson was in France) bore almost no relationship to his Declaration of human rights. In response, Jefferson and Franklin demanded a Bill of Rights so that the people could change what was obviously a piece of British capitalistic rot.

The man most responsible for the re-emergence of democracy as a viable political philosophy in the 17th century was Benedict Spinoza, the same man who placed God on the human inside, in the human mind. Spinoza argued that freedom has nothing to do with license and doing whatever one wants. He pointed out that all real freedoms flow entirely from human rights. In order to be free, we must honor human rights and have our human rights be honored.

Spinoza put it this way. "It follows, plainly, from the explanation given above, of the foundations of a state, that the ultimate aim of government is not to rule, or restrain, by fear, nor to exact obedience, but contrariwise, to free every man from fear, that he may live in all possible security; in other words, to strengthen his natural right to exist and work - without injury to himself or others." (5).

In other words, in order to be free, we must be firstly be free of fear for our own existence and survival. We must guarantee ourselves access to food, shelter, medical care and educational opportunities. When these rights are honored, when fear is eliminated from the earth, we will finally be free to think honestly on behalf of ourselves. We will finally be on the path to Heaven on Earth. Under the Cheney-Bush administration, we are clearly on the path to Hell on Earth.


--------------------
  -I'd rather have a frontal lobotomy than a bottle in front of me

CANADIAN CENTER FOR POLICY ALTERNATIVES


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Offline5150
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Re: Wealth Cap..."When the rich make too much money" [Re: carbonhoots]
    #7440502 - 09/22/07 01:20 PM (16 years, 4 months ago)

so many of these pompous people in academia come up with so much balderdash just for something to do, total dorks
what we need is a flat tax of 20% of income for everyone in every country in the world


--------------------
"the way of the warrior is the resolute acceptance of death"

Miyamoto Musashi


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OfflinePhred
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Re: Wealth Cap..."When the rich make too much money" [Re: carbonhoots]
    #7440574 - 09/22/07 01:45 PM (16 years, 4 months ago)

Yet another example (as if more are needed) that Lefties are driven not by any desire for justice, but by envy.

Far too much crap in there to bother addressing it all, but here's a few examples. I'm sure rational readers can identify many more on their own.

Quote:

Gardner points out that when one person can take home an income "reminiscent of the gross national product of a small country, something is askew".




Yeah. Askew with some small countries.

Quote:

With no upper limits under greed-driven capitalism (as justified with Old Testament Roman religion), the doors remain entirely open for one person to, in effect, own the entire world, with all 6 billion of us presumably living happily in servitude.




Own the entire world? Yeah, right.

Why do Lefties suffer from the compulsion to discredit their own arguments through absurd hyperbole from the very beginning of their rants?

Quote:

First, Gardner proposes an income cap that limits the amount of money a single individual can annually take home to no more than "100 times as much money as the average worker in a society earns in a year. If the average worker makes $40,000, the top compensated individual may keep $4 million a year.




Why? How does limiting the amount of money Bill Gates (for example) makes in a year improve my chances of buying a new car? Or the chances of some goatherd in Burkina Faso from building an extension to his hut?

Quote:

Second, Gardner proposes that "no individual should be allowed to accumulate an estate more than 50 times the allowed annual income. Thus, no person would be permitted to pass on to his or her beneficiaries more than $200 million."




What if the beneficiaries are goatherds in Burkina Faso? People don't always will their stuff to family members.

Quote:

The Cheney-Bush administration has redistributed wealth to the already-too-wealthy via tax breaks ever since its was appointed into office.




Tax breaks aren't redistribution. The government didn't make the money, those being taxed did. All that happened was that the government seized less of their stuff than they used to.

Quote:

Have you ever considered the certainty that relative human worth does not have one damned thing to do with what you own or how much money you have accumulated?




This is true. So why is it necessary to seize stuff from people against their will?

Quote:

Spinoza argued that freedom has nothing to do with license and doing whatever one wants. He pointed out that all real freedoms flow entirely from human rights. In order to be free, we must honor human rights and have our human rights be honored.




And that of course necessarily means honoring the right of people to make (and keep) money in a peaceful and moral and legal manner if that is what they wish to do.

Quote:

We must guarantee ourselves access to food, shelter, medical care and educational opportunities.




I ask again -- how does the fact that Bill Gates has tens of billions of dollars prevent me or you from acquiring access to food, shelter, medical care and educational opportunities? If Bill Gates (and Barry Bonds and Roy Kroc and JK Rowling and Henry Ford) had never been born, would you have more access to these things?

Quote:

Under the Cheney-Bush administration, we are clearly on the path to Hell on Earth.




Hell on Earth. Yeah, right, Poindexter.

Why do Lefties suffer from the compulsion to discredit their own arguments through absurd hyperbole not just at the beginning of their rants, but at the end as well? It's not enough to establish themselves as barking moonbats at the opening of some laughable screed, they have to make sure the last impression we take away at the end of the whole tiresome procedure is of their dementia.



Phred


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OfflineBrAiN
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Re: Wealth Cap..."When the rich make too much money" [Re: Phred]
    #7440751 - 09/22/07 02:53 PM (16 years, 4 months ago)

If people werent able to get stinky rich, no one would start any business and there'd me no engenuity (did I spell that right?).


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InvisibleLuddite
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Re: Wealth Cap..."When the rich make too much money" [Re: carbonhoots]
    #7441113 - 09/22/07 05:01 PM (16 years, 4 months ago)

Buy stocks and vote to get higher dividends.


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InvisibleLucidDream
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Re: Wealth Cap..."When the rich make too much money" [Re: Phred]
    #7441125 - 09/22/07 05:04 PM (16 years, 4 months ago)

Quote:

Phred said:
Yet another example (as if more are needed) that Lefties are driven not by any desire for justice, but by envy.




Let's not conflate this looney with the Left, mmkay? Just like we don't equate you with, say, Timothy McVeigh. Deal? There are fringe elements in any movement, and yours are far more embarrassing than ours.


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Sarcasm just one of my many talents.



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InvisibleAnnapurna1
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Re: Wealth Cap..."When the rich make too much money" [Re: carbonhoots]
    #7441172 - 09/22/07 05:17 PM (16 years, 4 months ago)

a liberal moonbat named teddy roosevelt once said ..

Quote:

Of all the forms of tyranny, the least attractive and the most vulgar is the tyranny of wealth




and this is corroborated by so many unabashedly fascist rants in the inverstors business daily...

if what teddy roosevelt called tyranny of wealth is your idea of "justice"..then i guess the left is all about envy rather than justice...


--------------------


"anchor blocks counteract the process of pontiprobation..while omalean globes regulize the pressure"...


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OfflineArcofaJourney
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Re: Wealth Cap..."When the rich make too much money" [Re: LucidDream]
    #7441972 - 09/22/07 09:59 PM (16 years, 4 months ago)

Quote:

LucidDream said:
Quote:

Phred said:
Yet another example (as if more are needed) that Lefties are driven not by any desire for justice, but by envy.




Let's not conflate this looney with the Left, mmkay? Just like we don't equate you with, say, Timothy McVeigh. Deal? There are fringe elements in any movement, and yours are far more embarrassing than ours.




what he said. as if all "lefties" agree with this.


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OfflinePhred
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Re: Wealth Cap..."When the rich make too much money" [Re: LucidDream]
    #7441989 - 09/22/07 10:05 PM (16 years, 4 months ago)

There's a difference between "Lefties" and "Libbies". A review of my prior posting history will show I don't use the two terms interchangeably.

Most of the left-leaning posters on this board are of the Libbie persuasion. There are a few Lefties remaining, but less than there used to be.




Phred


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OfflineBasilides
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Re: Wealth Cap..."When the rich make too much money" [Re: Annapurna1]
    #7442861 - 09/23/07 04:12 AM (16 years, 4 months ago)

Quote:

a liberal moonbat named teddy roosevelt once said ..




Roosevelt might have spoken of the workers' plight, but he still maintained the institutions that systematically oppress the working class to this day. Such is bourgeois liberalism anyway.


--------------------


"Have you found the beginning, then, that you are looking for the end? You see, the end will be where the beginning is. Congratulations to the one who stands at the beginning: that one will know the end and will not taste death."


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OfflineBasilides
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Re: Wealth Cap..."When the rich make too much money" [Re: Annapurna1]
    #7442862 - 09/23/07 04:14 AM (16 years, 4 months ago)

double post


--------------------


"Have you found the beginning, then, that you are looking for the end? You see, the end will be where the beginning is. Congratulations to the one who stands at the beginning: that one will know the end and will not taste death."


Edited by Basilides (09/23/07 04:18 AM)


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InvisibleAnnapurna1
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Re: Wealth Cap..."When the rich make too much money" [Re: Phred]
    #7446447 - 09/24/07 01:34 AM (16 years, 4 months ago)

Quote:

Phred said:

Quote:

With no upper limits under greed-driven capitalism (as justified with Old Testament Roman religion), the doors remain entirely open for one person to, in effect, own the entire world, with all 6 billion of us presumably living happily in servitude.




Own the entire world? Yeah, right.

Why do Lefties suffer from the compulsion to discredit their own arguments through absurd hyperbole from the very beginning of their rants?




thats not really as looney as sounds..since the right is all about inequality as an end to itself...


--------------------


"anchor blocks counteract the process of pontiprobation..while omalean globes regulize the pressure"...


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Offlineallreadyused
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Re: Wealth Cap..."When the rich make too much money" [Re: Annapurna1]
    #7451496 - 09/25/07 11:35 AM (16 years, 4 months ago)

My goal is to be the first person in history to have a net worth of over $1,000,000,000,000.

Shit, had to add 3 more zeros to that.



--------------------
Everything I say is for entertainment.

Fuck the ASPCA


Edited by allreadyused (09/25/07 11:41 AM)


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