Money is more a river than a mountain. So being rich is more about controlling the waterways.
No. They don’t “merely hoard” money, they exploit the working class for starters. That is an active and lasting effect of amassing wealth.
They also get a return on their investments, and the more they have the more they get, it’s very simple math: if you have $10000 and see an annual return of 10%, at the end of the year you earned $1000, which is nice, but would barely even cover any type of emergency expense.
If you instead have $1000000, at the end of the year you will have earned the equivalent of life-changing money for a struggling family of four.
That’s the difference. It’s not the relative increase, absolute numbers matter a lot. Also, if you have $10K, that money is not going to be invested, that’s barely enough money to survive on. If you have a million, you can live comfortably without working at all and still make enough money equivalent of having a top paying full time job.
It compounds over time, not just the interest, but so many factors like having the free time to pursue other things, take out loans, have doors open for you and connections with other rich people all helping each other out.
Money doesn’t fucking scale with democracy and justice.
Yeah I was missing ‘the money… Of others’
Wealth isn’t money, it’s stuff. It’s land, a home, stocks, gold, etc. Money is just the medium of exchange, so we price the stuff using money. There’s no real point in hoarding a fiat currency like the dollar, because the US government can create as much of it as they want. You don’t hoard something that is infinitely reproducible, you hoard the physical stuff that is inherently finite. For the physical stuff, ownership is definitely zero-sum; the more I own of a finite good, the less anyone else can own.
Then why do they hoard so much money
They do not; it’s just that their wealth is usually reported in monetary equivalent terms st. is e easier comparable.
Easier to say that a rich dude owns 10 billion than listing all of their assets.
They hold a lot of money in assets like stocks and real estate because they want to be rich. They want a lot of money so they can buy things, and the more money they have the more things and/or nicer things they can buy. I mean, you probably want the same thing, right? Who doesn’t.
Of course I want money to live well and get what I need and want. But they have more money than they could spend in a thousand lifetimes and still want more. I don’t want that.
Of course I want money to live well and get what I need and want.
How much money is that? $1 million? $1 billion? If you want a house that costs $500 thousand, that’s what you’ll need for that. Maybe you feel like you could live well on $100 thousand a year, buy some decent things, take some trips, etc. Well, $100 thousand a year over 50 years, is $5,000,000. That plus your $500,000 house and you’d have enough money to be in the top 1%.
Whatever the number is, it’s much less than a billion. That goes for anyone.
But what I’m saying is, if you had that much money you would be wealthy. You would be one of them, you’d be in the top 1% of wealth holders.
But, ok, let’s say wealthy really means everyone who has over $1 billion in wealth. Well, if we forced all the people who have more than $1 billion in wealth to liquidate all of their wealth above $999,999,999.00, and we redistributed that to every household in the US, each household would get about $36,000. And I’m not talking about $36,000 a year, I’m talking about a one time $36,000 check. Now, that’s not nothing, and for some folks that would definitely help a ton, but you also have to consider the inflationary implications. If all of the sudden every household in the US got an extra $36,000, a lot of those folks would want to spend it. And why not, right? Get a car maybe, take a trip, put a down payment on a house. But if everyone were suddenly looking to spend all that money at once, prices would go up, so your money wouldn’t go as far.
But I’m not saying we shouldn’t do it. I think there are a lot of good reasons to have a wealth tax over a certain amount. I’m just not sure it would make that much of a difference.
That’s why we don’t write checks to people and give that 5 trillion to the state where it belongs, to invest in education, public health, infrastructure, and other public goods. 5 trillion about 15% of our national debt.
They hold a lot of money because the more money they have the more they get as a return on investments, which becomes an exponential function of wealth and creates a fundamental disparity between those who have more and those who have less.
The only reason people “want the same thing” is because the system dictates that they should, and in fact must, there is no escaping it. Most rich psychopaths are gambling addicts, they get addicted to the money and the making of money, and it becomes an end in itself. Just like capitalism itself.
Money is just the medium of exchange
No, money is a representation of wealth, which can be used as a token for exchange.
No, money is a medium of exchange. Assets are worth what they can be exchanged for, that’s why wealth is measured in money.
You don’t get rich spending your money
They’re thieves, and the vast majority of them won’t see Heaven.
It’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than to provide compelling evidence for heaven.
Sorry couldn’t resist a bit of a jab but yes I feel like this is something a lot of believers seem to just forget when it comes to the rich people cynically exploiting their religion for selfish gain.
“Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.”
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James+5%3A1-6&version=NIV
How can I provide evidence for something outside of my realm of existence, man? And these people will definitely taste Hell, since at least some rich people are self-employed/honest heads of companies who give from what they earn… I did appreciate the call back though! 😅
Yessss bring back this format 🙌
Although I’m also fond of the Hazbin Hotel variation
Why is the book opening like that?
Yup, the parasite class
Wrong. Those who just hoard money don’t stay wealthy for long. Capital and treasure. The difference is very important.
You’re right, they just exchange it in circles to make themselves even richer.
