How does income inequality hurt ANYONE

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by Nebe

Jim. Where to the billionaires reap the billions from? One way it happens is from paying workers as little as possible to skim all that cream from the profits and goes right to the top. Wages have stagnated.. Profits have risen and the rich keep getting richer. If you want to see this country prosper greatly, support any cause that will help the middle class. A strong middle class is the key to a thriving economy.
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Nebe, unless we own our own business, we all work for someone who presumably pays us less than we wish we were getting paid. Lots of those billionaitres (Bill gates, Michael Dell) made an awful lot of people rich along the way.

My employer pays me as little as possible to keep me here. That's called "real life". It's not unfair, not in the slightest.

"skim all that cream from the profits and goes right to the top"

If I want access to more of the cream, I can work my way higher up the ladder, or I am free to start my own company. There is absolutely nothing unfair about it.

Nebe, when you buy a new car, do you just pay sticker price so that the salesman can get a nice commission, or do you try to get the best deal you possibly can?

You are confusing "what you want", with "what you are entitled to". i would love to have my CEOs pay. If I want it bad enough, I am free to do what I need to do, in order to be qualified to have his job.

If my compensation is unfair, I am free to leave and work for a competitor.

i just don't get this attitude of always, always, always blaming the swells (more accurately, blaming the conservative swells...liberal swells are acceptable) for the shrinking middle class. It just doesn't pass the commn sense test.

Would the world be better off if more rich people spread their wealth around? Certainly. The less poverty, the better. But just because the wealthy have the ability to alleviate some poverty, that doesn't mean they caused said poverty, not by a long shot.

Also, the rich keep getting richer, because they have more disposable income to invest. There is nothing bad about the rich getting richer. Would it be better if no one got richer?

[Jim in CT]

Nebe, put it this way...

Bill Gates founded Microsoft. h ehas tons of employees, and to please his stockhoders, he doesn't pay them more than he needs to. Agreed so far?

You say that's bad. Let's pretend Gates was never born. Microsoft no longer exists. What reason is there to believe, that the majority of current Microsoft employees would be better off, if Gates hadn't founded Microsoft?

If someone starts a new company, that means he mght need employees, and that means more jobs, which means salaries increase due to increased competition for employes.

You also say those at the top keep most of the cream, or something like that. I don't think so. The favorite liberal symbol of corporate evil is Walmart. The Walmart CEO made $35M last year, and there are 2.1 million Walmatrt employees worldwide. Do the math. If teh CEO works for free, and gives every cent of that to rhose employees, it works out to $16.67 each. Whoop-dee-doo.

Do you see? We cannot put any menaingful dent in poverty my confiscating more from the rich. There aren't enough rich people, and they aren't rich enough.

It's SO EASY to blame the wealthy. But the math, and common sense, suggest it's not logical.

[JohnR]

If Gates had not created M$, my life would certainly be different - better? Probably not (though maybe less stress )

If it were not for rich people, Democrats would have no pockets to explore