Distribution of wealth

[Az]

Nature abhores a vaccum. The US has an unnatural accumulation of wealth. We are hording the wealth of the world. While some see this are morally reprehensible corporations care little for the effects of this on the people of the world. What they do care about is power and profit. The current conditions have created a situation where it is advantageous for the corporations to distribute the labor to cheaper locals.

The fact that the US has such a disproportionate amount of the worlds wealth means that any attempt to right this imbalance (whether for moral or profit motivation) is going to hurt us. Right now the corporations are sacrificing us to save themselves. They bail out and incorporate in the Bermudas to avoid paying taxes. They send labor over seas. They do whatever they can to keep their grasp of the wealth of the world. This is simply what they do. They do not serve us. They do not serve the world. They serve themselves.

The trouble right now is that it is the corporations that are calling the shots in how the power is going to be distributed. They are becoming the new Feudal Lords of the world. The people have to guide the process or the Corporations will set it such that the people are completely subserviant to their demands.

[wakfs]

1. One way to combat this trend

Unions.

It's the only protection that employees have traditionally had against tryannical corporations.

[sirshack]

2. Is there a limit to wealth?

How much wealth can be created? Is there a finite amount of it in the world? If so, what is it? 10 jillion? 100 ba-zillion?

It's hard to argue proportions when you don't have a total amount. For instance, you can argue that GDP is x.x% of the total economy, because we know what the total economy is here. Global wealth is a little bit tougher to pin a number on.

[Nederland]

3. Wealth is not Distributed

it is created.

That is the fundamental flaw in your argument. You believe somehow that the wealth of the world is somehow a fix number and the only issue is how it should be divided. Nothing is further from the truth. Wealth is not distributed, it is created. The key to a wealthy society is to ensure that the easiest place to create wealth is here in the US, not overseas.

[EAMcClure]

5. Wealth is both created and distributed.

The two ideas are not mutually exclusive, Nederland.

Wealth is generated, and then dispersed or saved.

Wealth has to be created in order to be distributed. Wealth has to be distributed in order to foster more creation. Energy does not move in a straight line in one direction... it ripples.

Eric

[Nederland]

6. Sure it is

But with the exception of taxes, the distribution of wealth is the result of a purely voluntary process. If you don't like how wealth is being distributed, stop giving rich people your money.

[EAMcClure]

9. That isn't what you said

You said wealth isn't distributed, it's created. I am telling you that you are engaging in reactionary doublethink.

And don't give me this "if you don't like it, don't do it," garbage. That is begging the question. More reactionary rhetoric.

How can one engage in life as a citizen of the United States without their wealth being distributed upwards. To be middle or lower income in this country is to consistently "invest" in the upper bracket with very little return. It is simply the bottom line. A racket.

That is distribution, not creation. Please quit being silly. I am not up to playing merry-go-round with a Randite.

Eric

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

4. Actually, we're hording debt.

[Clete]

7. I am against any corporation

incorporating in foreign countries and operating here without paying taxes. This loophole has to be closed and American companies need to pay American taxes no matter where they are incorporated. A long time ago American workers, earning wages, in foreign countries did not pay American income taxes. This loophole was closed when American citizenship was revoked for lack of paying taxes. I am sure our clever lawmaker can do something similar to make runaway American corporations pay their taxes.

I am less sure of outsourcing labor. Some of our lawmakers are attempting to get world treaties signed forcing those countries to have laws assuring that the workers in these countries are paid living wages according to the cost of living in those countries and adhere to safety and other laws similar to what we have here. This doesn't help American workers I know, but it can make these options less attractive to corporations to outsource.

[MassDem4Life]

8. the problem with this post is...

that it assumes that wealth is a static quantity.
You are assuming that when I make $1000 someone is losing $1000, and that is not true.

Wealth is CREATED, before it can be extorted by force or tears. If GM sells 10million cars this year and make a Billion dollars, it does not stop another car company from making money, here or anywhere else in the world.

[Tansy_Gold]

10. GM may not stop it, but can make it pretty damn difficult

By buying raw materials through exclusive contracts or at prices that prevent realistic competition.

by paying workers more than a small start-up car company can.

by lobbying governments to set safety standards unachievable by a small company

by holding patents and copyrights

by underselling the product

Any one of these (and others not named) reasons might not be enough to keep the start-up company from selling and making a profit, but combined, they make it pretty damned difficult.

Corporations attempt to achieve monopolistic (or even near monopolistic) status because elimination of competition (and control of both the market and the wealth) is the goal.