This is a bit of a misconception. Wealthy people don’t get that way by not working, and they tend not to stay that way if they don’t continue to do so. The difference is that the work they do isn’t the physically laborious kind.
Wealthy people often work 60+ hours a week. They are constantly traveling, making deals, finding new investments, researching, etc. That’s how they get wealthy in the first place, and that attitude doesn’t go away just because they hit a certain level of income. They are self-motivated to keep pushing.
The issue is not so much that wealthy people don’t do any work as it is that the value of hard labor has been devalued, while the benefits of labor have been siphoned to the top 1% for too long. Those benefits have to be redistributed throughout the system in a way that continues to encourage necessary production, without discouraging high performance individuals from creating value through high level trade and investment. Finding a better balance while taking that all into consideration is not an easy task.
You’re talking about wealthy/economically comfortable people, not rich people. There’s a HUGE difference.
Most actually RICH people are born into money and might increase their fortune if they want to, but don’t have to.
Over a certain threshold, a rich person has the option to not work at all or do essentially risk-free business because above a certain wealth, companies might go under, but it won’t cost a billionaire anything, certainly nothing that can’t be covered by an easy to obtain and usually low to no interest loan.
The “high performance individuals” that create a lot of wealth for themselves and others are the wealthy/comfortable ones who can’t stop working without, at least, having to cut back on luxuries.
They’re not the ones the laws benefit the most, though, the RICH are. Their income is mainly in undertaxed capital gains and the vast majority of their “high level trade and investments” don’t benefit anyone but themselves and other rich people, taking their wealth out of the general economy and thus making them a net expense for the general population.
I’m not jealous of them, I’m fucking pissed at them “earning” the entirety of my work life (35+ years) in a single month. The rich are fucking parasites
I remember when I graduated college in ‘09 and employers had that “You’re lucky to have a job!” attitude while they paid me $10 an hour. At that time, however, I was lucky to have a job.
if I somehow amassed a billion dollars it wouldn't last long. I'd figure out the bare minimum I needed to live comfortably without the need to work, maybe double it for safety, and then start improving the lives of people who are or have been important to me, or those I judge most in need (or perhaps who would benefit the most, if different)
Both of Taylor Swift’s parents are hedge fund managers. One of the most successful popstars of the current generation not only had access and training from a young age, she was able to fully commit to her passion. There is something to be said for natural talent and beauty, but how many other equally talented and beautiful people are out there just grinding at a dead end job instead of making music or art?
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops
This has been my reaction when anti abortion activists say things like, "What if Einstein was aborted??"
Cool hypothetical. We know for a fact that millions of people waste their potential because of the color of their skin, their caste, their access to education, preventable disease, etc.
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