Re: And this is suprising why? -

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bmn
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reply to pnh102

Re: And this is suprising why?

said by pnh102:

said by bmn:

And the number of people who become rich is only slightly more in capitalism that it is in other economies... The number of people in the upper income bracket isn't getting any larger in a big hurry.

Nope. For the longest time, the USA has had one of the highest per-capita GDPs in the world. We're also the 4th largest country population-wise. Given those factors, its only logical to conclude that there is a lot of money spread out amongst a lot of people in this country.

Once again, oversimplification... Per capita GDP is a measure not without its problems and if you use it without context, you end up with the picture you paint. The problem with per capita GDP is that it ignores the fact that wealth isn't even close to be evenly distributed. A majority of the wealth of the US is held by a small minority of the population. So while per capita GDP may be high, the amount each person actually holds of that pie is nowhere near that.

said by bmn:

And such a statement only matters to those people who think that wealth is a valid measure of worth.

Wealth is the only valid measure of worth. I'd be funny to see someone try paying the mortgage, rent, car payment, loan payments, grocery bills, utility bills or any other expense with something other than wealth.

So, by that assertion then, a person without little or no money is a worthless human being regardless of what they contribute? Your assertion is only true if your method of determining worth is so narrow as to only include ecomomic factors. However, it ignores contribution. For example, people who work very low paying jobs and have very little, are of great necessity in our modern society. Without them, you would have plugged drains and sewers, trash piling up in the streets, etc. Using wealth alone would mean that a lazy person like Paris Hilton, for example, is somehow worth more than someone who actually works their ass off purely by having had rich parents. Using wealth to determine worth by itself ignores other equally important factors.

Not to mention that "worth" is a purely subjective measure...
--
Too logical to be a conservative... Too practical to be a liberal... Too realistic to be a Libertarian.

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Re: And this is suprising why?