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Culture and mindset go as far as all that feel-good "positive thinking" stuff that managers and such like to talk about at company meetings.
Optimists can still starve to death, and a self-confident country can still bankrupt itself. But either one will feel good about getting to where they're going.
How does this actually jibe with reality? (The last sentence in particular doesn't make any sense).
I don't know how to better describe it.
Optimists can have all the positive mindset and outlook they want, but they can't magically convert that good feeling into food in their stomachs. A country can be confident that it's implementing good policies even as its economy crumbles.
But both can continue in their delusions right up to the point where they've either starved or collapsed.
If your nation is sitting on a bubble of oil, gold and diamonds, perfect climate for tourism etc., but your culture is all about 80% of the male population getting drunk all day, casting voodoo on the tribe next door, robbing and stealing and worshiping the idiot dictator who hordes all the nation's resources, then you're not going to prosper.
No argument there.
If your nation is an otherwise worthless strip of desert, but your culture is all about programming computers and being educated and successful in the modern world, then you likely will prosper.
You often need something of value in the first place just to act as a jump-start. It certainly helps. Other factors being equal, someone starting out with $50k in the bank is likely to have an easier time of things than someone starting out with $5, and that one starting out with $50k is more likely to have a substantial competitive advantage.
You can't redistribute the more successful culture or mindset to the less successful one. Sure, the amount of resources is a nice head start, but ultimately means nothing. Israel is a tiny little country with few natural resources, surrounded by giant nations with abundant natural resources. Israel is easily the more advanced and successful and most of its neighbors are utter shitholes. The difference is Israeli culture is more about belonging to the modern world; the mindset is a more educated one. Their neighbors' cultures are more backward and less educated. All the bullshit fantasies of 'redistributing' the world's wealth wouldn't change this balance one bit.
You can level the playing field, and take measures to reduce the chance of extreme concentration of wealth. Our species has repeatedly and consistently shown that it
cannot handle the concentration of power without leading to some manner of gross abuses of those who do not have power. Wealth grants power, because everyone has his price.
Measures can be taken to prevent this recurring problem. Part of the design intent of the US's system of government was to avoid concentrating power. They saw what that would lead to, and decided to attempt to curb the problem. Now we have extreme wealth serving as a fourth branch of government, which is capable of subverting the other three.
Except it's not that money has flowed out of the United States and into China, it's that money has flowed out of the poorest 99.9% of Americans into the hands of a few wealthy elite.
Six members of the Walton family have as much combined wealth as 48 million American families (source). We have more dollar billionaires than ever, even as the true purchasing power for middle class Americans diminishes. If you think that's helping to make the third world less poverty-stricken, you're delusional. I don't necessarily disagree that it's important to work towards eradicating poverty on a global scale, but the current economic model of American companies taking advantage of cheap foreign labor and pocketing the profits is not accomplishing that.
Wow.....that's olden-days-monarchy wealth right there.
How exactly is a different distribution of wealth supposed to create jobs and what would these jobs be?
Don't know. How exactly is the insane concentration of wealth supposed to help out the rest of the country? We've been told that they're going to use this money to create jobs and such. Do they need to obtain the wealth of
100 million families before they do that?
You do realize that the vast majority of wealth is re-invested back into the economy. They are not stuffing it into mattresses. When one of those greedy hoarders builds a mansion that means jobs for carpenters, plumbers, roofers, etc, etc. If they invest it into a company, that gives that company the funds to grow and expand. They buy furniture, cars, clothes, electronics, boats, jewelry, appliances.
How much as a portion of their income are they investing or spending? And how much is being sat on as cash? A lower-class or middle-class person will spend a large portion of their income simply because they need to. Some might invest some of what's left into the stock market or in bonds, so it's at least out there getting something done.
A $20M mansion for someone holding onto $2 billion in assets isn't helping much at all. A middle class family will likely go into
debt to secure a modest house. Many of them are then going to end up with that house being one of their most significant assets, with the other ones likely being an IRA and a 401k.
Hmm, maybe we could revive the middle class and their jobs. Just a guess.
Nothing will save the US but the rebuilding of manufacturing. Nothing.
The left nor the right are working for this..... before the hacks get in.
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