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The Rich Do Not Get Rich at Expense of the PoorSo where does the myth come from, if the numbers don’t support it?
The idea sounds almost noble on the surface. Somewhere out there, a billionaire got rich, and somewhere else, a poor family stayed poor, and the two are connected. One man’s fortune, the theory goes, is proof of someone else’s misfortune. Thomas Sowell spent much of his career taking that theory apart piece by piece, and one comparison in particular tends to stop people cold. There are more billionaires in the United States than in all of Africa and the Middle East combined. And yet the poor in America live better, by almost any measurable standard, than the poor in either of those regions. If wealth at the top really did drain resources from the bottom, that shouldn’t be possible. The math should run the other way. It doesn’t. And Sowell built an entire body of work explaining why. Here’s the question worth sitting with for a second. If billionaires were the reason for poverty, wouldn’t the places with the fewest billionaires have the least poverty? They don’t. Not even close. Sowell has pointed out that even America’s officially poor households today have things middle class families a generation ago could only imagine. Color televisions. Microwaves. Air conditioning in most of them. Cars. None of that came from redistributing money downward. It came from an economy that kept producing more. That’s the piece the rich-get-richer narrative always skips over. Wealth isn’t a pizza sitting on a table, sliced into a fixed number of pieces where a bigger slice for one person means a smaller slice for everyone else. Wealth gets created. It didn’t exist yesterday and it exists today because somebody built something, invented something, or figured out how to do something more efficiently than it had ever been done before. Every time new income statistics come out, Sowell noticed the same two claims resurface almost on schedule. The rich are getting richer. The poor are falling further behind. And almost every time, the actual data tells a messier story. People move between income brackets constantly. The family in the bottom twenty percent this decade is often the family in the top twenty percent a decade later. Most Americans don’t stay in one place long enough for the labels to mean much. So where does the myth come from, if the numbers don’t support it? Politics, mostly. Sowell has argued that no government program built on redistribution has ever lifted the poor the way free markets have, even though redistribution is what gets talked about in speeches. The people who actually solved poverty on a mass scale weren’t the ones giving speeches about compassion. They were the ones who figured out how to make electricity affordable, how to mass produce automobiles, how to get food and goods to more people for less money. None of that required taking anything away from anyone. It required making more of it. The billionaire and the poor family aren’t opposite ends of the same rope, one side winning because the other side loses. In a functioning economy, they’re often standing on the same ground, benefiting from the same growth, even if one benefits a lot more visibly than the other. That doesn’t mean inequality doesn’t exist. It clearly does. What it means is that inequality and exploitation are not the same thing, no matter how often the two get treated as synonyms. Sowell spent decades daring people to check the numbers instead of trusting the slogan. Most never do. |
Good point but as long as we have crooked politicians getting in by needing to import votes or cheat who produce nothing, they will create shortages, housing being one of them. On the other end if some of the producers could replace humans with robots they would.
Ipso 10:07
Maybe it was supposed to fall on them. Better luck next time.
Poor Engineering
Pat Kiernan
@patkiernan
I wanted to actually understand where the old Pfizer Building failed. After a couple of hours of matching photos and maps this is my understanding.
Spain on the S list
Fox News
@FoxNews
NEW: President Trump orders an immediate halt to all U.S. trade and official visits with Spain, blasting the European nation as a “hopeless” and “terrible” partner in NATO.
Trump directed officials to cut ties instantly without further negotiation, predicting the sudden economic freeze will force the country to come “running back” to the United States.
“Spain is a wasted cause. We don’t want to do any trade business with Spain anymore, by the way.”
“Spain is a terrible partner in NATO. They don’t participate, they don’t pay. I don’t want anything to do with Spain. Cut off all trade with Spain.”
Hi Buygold
Maybe it will take longer. I asked the AI where the aglos are going. There moving to defensive but still focused on digital, like energy companies that support the needs of data centers. If they claim the computers can start thinking for themselves maybe they are lol.
Morning Goldie
Let’s hope that Armstrong’s computer calls it right. So far it’s looking good for the oil call. Now we need the gold call to turn out.
Armstrong
This one’s pretty good, stayed on what’s going on the here and now pretty much if you have the time if not listen to the last minutes starting at around 17:40 ;minutes on turning points and war.
The answer to Ipso question yesterday
appears to be yes!
The war is finally going to crash the markets.
Course, our little market has been crashing for nearly 5 months already. Just hope it’s leading the SM and finally turns up well before everything else because the SM has a long way to fall.
Dollar is not up that much today, but rates are kicking into high gear.
Were doing OK
then London opened. Down immediately.
Must be the war premium. Oil now up $3, as the war is just getting started.
Sng
With inflation and everything else going on that would make it even more important to plan our inheritance for their children.
I disagree with their ignorance that PMs not paying interest. Banks or even treasuries can’t keep up with real inflation but as you mentioned the cost now of Gold and even silver when a gallon of gas cost a quarter even a pre 65 quarter today will buy even more than a gallon. Depending where your at quite a few gallons.
Ipso and Goldie
Ipso, I think you are probably right, they have gone to a better place….but why have new younger investors not stepped up to the plate to take their place?
Goldie, Looks like most people can no longer even afford proper groceries, let along save and invest for their future. Credit card defaults are setting all time records.
When I first became interested in PM’s I was able to buy physical gold for $350 per Troy Ounce in year 2000 at CDN par with the US, and for an ounce of silver I paid $5.50 at Northwest Territorial Mint, again at par.
Now in Canada, after this terrible “beating” PM’s have taken, I would have to pay a 40% currency premium over the US price to buy PM’s in Canada…so an ounce of gold would cost me about $6000 CDN, and and ounce of silver about $90 CDN.
The mantra is that PM’s don’t pay any interest so it’s stupid to buy phyz. Better to buy the Miner shares instead. That may have been true before on-line Brokers and Personal Computers and ETF’s and Derivatives took over the stock market. IMO that big change took place between 2008 and 2011 when I took out over a $million of OPM and added to my original Phyz “stash”.
But I never relied on my investments to support me. I’ve had success in Real Estate, Consumer Finance, and Life Insurance. I “retired” at age 33 when I made a total lifestyle change; Moved to Canada, built log homes, then built a large cattle ranch, contracted for the Regional Districts and Forestry….and mainly just enjoyed a stress-free life. My most used sayings are “Anything works if you do, but nothing works if you don’t”. ….and “The harder I work, the luckier I get”. and “Don’t just think about it, do it, do it , do it!”
Now my wife and I volunteer our time helping at an Organic mixed farm of fruits and vegetables, and I also help on a friends cattle ranch….just to stay productive and active.
That’s why my life and success have been Silver and Gold! Best Wishes to All! Life has been BEAUTIFUL! SNG
aufever
LOL 🙂
Ipso
Some have passed away.
Some have passed out.
Some of us are in a coma
Ipso
Yep, don’t leave them guessing or not knowing what to do because you never told them. Plus when you dob you know what’s best for your family better than what others might tell you and give them full reciprocity without regrets. Also in the US anyways when you sign those medical papers be careful what you sign. Promise to pay in short write down something to the effect you stipulate only what medically covered under your insurance. That way you protect yourself from out of network or pocket surprises and have things broken down checked.
Attacks on Kharg Island … that would be a threat!
‘Renewed explosions’ reported on Iran’s Qeshm
Iran’s state-owned Press TV reports renewed explosions on Qeshm Island, adding that several blasts were also heard on Kharg Island in the Strait of Hormuz.
goldielocks
That’s a good idea, make things easier for your heirs.
Ipso 19:05
That’s true, I’m currently getting everything I see as important enough that I haven’t already given to who I want it to go or fairly and minor custodial trusts in my Trust as possible right now. Should of already been done but since things can change that’s okay too. In the US one thing you have to watch out for a protect assets is the possibility of long term care to protect a spouse or heirs.
Two never put no CPR on directives. Too many including medical can become confused between when they’re dying and some sudden acute event like a stroke, heart attack, illness, or injury. To instruct those you chose only in the act of dying when beyond medical help but also comfort care to address pain, oxygen, hydration whatever you would help prevent suffering and distress. To also know the difference between brain injury, stroke, illness that can be helped with good care or even recover and brain dead. That saying some injury does not mean theyre dead.
silverngold
I think about half the posters who used to post here have passed away. Sad, but that’s the way it is.
The Hormuz Letter
@HormuzLetter
·
27m
BREAKING: The US strikes on Iran are “four or five times bigger in scope and power” than the previous strikes 10 days ago and are “the most intense US attacks on Iran since the April ceasefire,” per US officials.
The strikes are expected to continue “for some time tonight, perhaps hours.”
Sng
Of course you can put your money in fiat and unless you invest in something that keeps up with inflation or buy tangibles at a discount in the fall your in the same situation with even less control.
PS with the phyzz when it drops your less likely going to sell it and if you do that quarter and now silver dime will still buy you a dollars or gallon of gas either way.
ipso facto @ 16:58…Thanks!….But the past few days or weeks I can count the number of posters with the fingers on one hand
What I see is called the definition of INSANITY. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results! That’s like going to the Casino and dropping silver dollars into the rigged slot machine, one by one, until they’re all gone! Then going out and getting another pocket full of silver dollars, coming back and doing the same thing over and over again. “Yeah, but the glitter and glamor and excitement are so much fun…They’re addictive!….and one of these days we’re gonna WIN!” (or run out of money or become discouraged and quit).
I’ve posted this several times before and it has not been met with any belief or acceptance ..but this is what I believe is happening: You have a portfolio of stocks, ETF’s, etc, that your on-line Broker is holding in his account for you….and you buy the dips and keep adding to your PM holdings, expecting the shares to go up when you’ll cash out and become zillionaire! The shorts, who are controlling the markets, just borrow your own shares from your Broker (for a modest fee), so they are not naked short (so it’s legal), and they then use your own shares to suppress the price. Then the shorts return your shares to your Broker, and the share price goes nowhere. All legal, no short covering, Rinse and repeat! All FWIW and WTHDIK! SNG