[quote=pri_dk][quote=CA renter]Just a cursory look at the top 20 shows quite a few are heirs to fortunes, not self-made…[/quote]
Sam Walton had a few kids.
Some trivia: Sam opened his first Wal Mart when he was 44 years old. There’s still plenty of time for many of us to make it to the top!
[quote]We have to decide if we want to continue rewarding gambling and speculation over productive labor. […] pushing everyone into “investing,” rather than working. This is not sustainable over the long run.[/quote]
Have you been reading Marx? That’s pretty much a summary of his main argument.
The fundamental flaw in his verbose ramblings is that he essentially valued labor for labor’s sake, and neglected the value of investment choices that continually makes labor more productive.
The foundation of economic progress is not work, it is choices.[/quote]
Not just the Waltons…from the top 20: Koch, Johnson, Mars, Cox, Kaiser, etc. are all rich because of family money or businesses. Basically, the majority of the top 20 most wealthy people inherited their positions or were helped to a very large degree by their families.
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Yes, I’ve read Marx, and think he was right on many more points than the “trickle-down, free-trade, capitalists” who couldn’t see this financial crisis coming. Marx certainly saw it coming. Who do you give more weight to, the one who clearly understood the eventual outcome of “capitalism” as we know it, or the “trickle down/pro-capitalism” theoists who (claim that they) didn’t see the financial crisis coming?
