The Wealth Gap Widens

A recent article on the BBC discusses the global concentration of wealth and how it is increasingly separating the wealthy of the world from the poor. And make no mistake: if a flirtation with a dread disease would wipe out your income and savings at a stroke, you are poor. You are not rich unless you could still make millions while dead.

Which probably explains the exuberance with which today’s crop of super-rich individuals work at looting the world. They do not yet have that stable, old money revenue stream. They are dependent on work. One heart attack, and their cash flow goes to zero. They take jobs at major banks, run spreadsheets constantly, and innovate ways of fleecing the world in order to line their pockets.

So what happens when the rich are too rich and the poor are too poor? The article concludes that the rich either have to spread the wealth or crack down harder. If they choose the latter course, they invite the day when, as the Lakota described it, the world will roll to and fro like a tired, angry old dog, trying to shake off the fleas sucking its blood.

So what do you want to do when you grow up? My recommendation: be virtuous. Live with dignity and bear up under hardships. You’ll keep your soul and you’ll need that for when capitalism is no more.

3 thoughts on “The Wealth Gap Widens

  1. Stephanie Myers

    Although it is quite scary that so few people have so much money, I do understand that some of them actually deserve to have that money. For instance, those that create green technologies; I personally believe we need people like them to be innovative enough to create something that will actually help the world. Their work is invaluable.
    I just wish these people and the few other rich guys would actually donate it back to those that need it more than them. No one needs that much money.

  2. John Chang

    You know what? I completely agree with people keeping their virtues and their values. I am a Falun Gong practitioner and to those who do now know that that is, Falun Gong is a cultivation practice based on the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance. Since money and materialism are all objects molded into the minds of contemporary human society, it is hard to NOT want something. Who doesnt want free money or free things? But in the world we live in, there really isn’t such things as a “free lunch.” While one receives a free “meal,” someone else on the other side of the world sufferes and works for it. I believe in keeping your virtue is the only thing that follows you after death. “De” which is chinese for virtue and “karma.” Even though people have loads of money and beds padded with it, people are still prone to birth, old age, sickness, and death. We as humans are all subject to these types of human-like qualities. So I strongly believe when the writer of this article (Presumably Mr. Webb?) says that “My recommendation: be virtuous. Live with dignity and bear up under hardships. You’ll keep your soul and you’ll need that for when capitalism is no more.” We cannot bring materilistic wants and needs after death. But I beleive that our virtue and karma accumulates with us over lifetimes. But then again…what do I know? From what I know as of science…I haven’t died yet. But these are just my beliefs that I strongly beleive in. So thanks for reading!

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