Billionaire admits that the rich gets rich through luck

[mediumaevum]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/3 ... 82039.html

Finally, some billionaire admits the obvious: The wealthy people gets rich at the expense of the working poor and the rich people are just lucky.
Few of them have worked hard to obtain their wealthy positions.

I think we should now finally bury that ridiculous idea that wealthy people have worked hard and should be rewarded at the expense of the poor people on unemployment benefits.

Let's dramatically increase the Welfare state through HEAVY taxation of the rich!

[josephpalazzo]

In the 1970's, the average worker had to work 40 years to earn the same as those in the top .1%. Today, the same worker has to work 250 years to earn the same as a top .1%. The facts are overwhelmingly showing that disparity is the worst ever since we have started keeping track of income earnings in different quintiles. And the picture is ugly.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

The 1% believe those words at the gates of Aushwitz.. In my life I've worked as hard as anyone could reasonably be expected to work.. I barely made it to the 99% much less the 1%..

[aileron]

But... but... but... Cut taxes and the wealth will trickle down.

[mediumaevum]

I think we should now finally bury that ridiculous idea that wealthy people have worked hard and...

I don't think anybody ever believed in that.  

I assure you, in Scandinavia, at least in Denmark, people are often saying:

"We can't tax the rich. That is unfair, they've worked hard for their money".

I just hate that sentence, even more now after I've read that the rich people don't work hard to get to the top of society.

[SilentFutility]

The problem with taxing the rich very heavily is that they will simply leave, which will have the effect of lower tax revenues overall and it removes the stimulus of their large spending from the economy. They have the means to leave and set up an extremely good and comfortable life elsewhere with ease, so forcing them to share their wealth more than they already do is actually very difficult unfortunately.

[Plu]

I doubt they'd "just leave", they are where they are for a reason. They can already live anywhere. I don't remember any mass exodus of the rich from the Netherlands to the US, and taxes here are something like 50% for rich people.

[mediumaevum]

I doubt they'd "just leave", they are where they are for a reason. They can already live anywhere. I don't remember any mass exodus of the rich from the Netherlands to the US, and taxes here are something like 50% for rich people.

True, the usual saying that the rich will leave is merely right wing propaganda!

[LikelyToBreak]

It isn't just luck the wealthy have used to get ahead, more often than not they have used legal but what most of us would consider unethical means to grow their wealth.  For instance lobbying:

Finally, a 2009 study found that lobbying brought a substantial return on investment, as much as 22,000% in some cases.[22]

//http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobbying

Many in government use their positions to make money, not serve the people they were elected to serve.  Both of the major parties have members which have become rich while "serving" the people.  It is all legal, because they write the loopholes in the laws which they pass.  And a small number of people control the 90% of the mass media, //http://www.corporations.org/media/ which has no interest in exposing the criminal and unethical acts of their owners.  

It may have been luck for some of the rich, but all too often it was because of their "work" at abusing the political system and illegal activities which got them their riches.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

I've never had good luck being poor. I had to work hard to be penniless. :roll:

[josephpalazzo]

I doubt they'd "just leave", they are where they are for a reason. They can already live anywhere. I don't remember any mass exodus of the rich from the Netherlands to the US, and taxes here are something like 50% for rich people.

True, the usual saying that the rich will leave is merely right wing propaganda!

Those rich people love the power they have in buying the politicians. And if they want to leave, good riddance. But they never do. Power is the ultimate drug.

[Minimalist]

But... but... but... Cut taxes and the wealth will trickle down.

Most republicunt voters are incredibly gullible.

[Jason78]

I doubt they'd "just leave", they are where they are for a reason. They can already live anywhere. I don't remember any mass exodus of the rich from the Netherlands to the US, and taxes here are something like 50% for rich people.

True, the usual saying that the rich will leave is merely right wing propaganda!

I say let them leave and make sure they pay an exit tax on the way out!

[mediumaevum]

*delete*

[SGOS]

I think some wealthy people do work hard, but it's hard to imagine how anyone is worth $5000/hour no matter what they do.  But that's not the way capitalism works in practice.  Economic gain is not reflected in hard work.  It can be, but quite often it's not.  For example, Wall Street Bankers have clearly demonstrated that the accumulation of wealth can be a simple a matter of performing acts of fraudulent disregard and holding positions in government that result in handouts at the expense of the middle class.