Helping Americans understand just how rich we are

Being referred to as "The Richest Country in the World" makes it pretty clear, Robert.

Americans largely don't begin to understand how filthy rich we are as a nation,

perspective

that probably is because the bottom 80% of Americans have just 15% of the nations wealth. We dont understand how filthy rich we are as a nation because this wealth never touches our lives. It may as well be in Siberia for all the good it does us.

It could mean <gasp> raising taxes of the wealthy as a way of distributing a little more money for poor folk to live on, eoe.

Then you'll hear all the tired old arguments about how they (the poor) brought on themselves, how lazy they are, that they should have more incentive, that this will lead to <gasp again> creeping socialism in the USA, etc, etc, etc ...

Every argument under the sun, except acknowledge that a large number of families are living in dire circumstances in a wealthy country in 2010. Many through absolutely no fault of their own.

I would have a whole lot more sympathy for the notion of sending work off-shore, a totally free market in labour, IF there had been some genuine prior thought & planning about the impact on unskilled workers in the so-called "wealthy" countries.

In my own country, which is small fry in the grand economic global picture, the failure to protect some industries has meant that those (mainly manufacturing) industries have died out completely.

While I acknowledge that exporting those (footwear, clothing & various other manufacturing jobs) has been a boon to the poor workers of the countries who were the recipients of those jobs, I can also see that this has created a insignificant number of permanent unemployed, often living at, or below, the poverty line in Australia.

The fact is those workers & those dependent on their income, must now accept their significantly disadvantaged lot in life, in a country with a high cost of living. Their predicament has worsened since the global recession.

I also have significant concerns about businesses who send their jobs offshore, to countries like China, Indonesia, Taiwan, etc, with no concern for anything but but the the maximum profit margin. We constantly hear media accounts of exploitation of workers, working conditions that should not be tolerated anywhere, [...]

... little concern for the environmental impact of production process which would not be tolerated in "advanced" countries ...

So yes, there may be significant material improvement in the lives of these workers in the short term, but what about the bigger, long-term implications? That is what I am concerned about.

Robert, I appreciate your remarks, having spent a lot of time in Third World places of abject poverty. However, I think that you are taking things out of context when you say "Americans largely don't begin to understand how filthy rich we are as a nation."

To cast the terms in context one ought to recognize that 1% of Americans own 37% of the wealth and the top 10% of Americans own 72% of the wealth, while the lower 90% of Americans own 28% of the wealth... and things have only gotten worse lately for that 90%

So while you might think that Americans have it easy, nine out of ten of us don't.

Sweatshops are better than eating ****

Most of the world would love to live with the wealth of the lowest 90% of America. This is a complete lack of perspective. The poor in America are filthy rich compared to the middle class of the majority of the world.

Good idea. How do we justify protectionisn concurrently with foreign aid?

More exaggeration.

The definition of 'rich' has nothing to do with how much stuff you have; it's about security. And the poor in America are no more secure in their position then the poor in other countries.

You seem to be on a real tear on this issue... why can't you just agree that everyone has poor people?

Is this dude living in a mud hut and working 15 hours a day to make it, like poor people in other countries? No. Is he still poor? Yes.

Making a shitty wage in any country is poor.

5 dollars a week in a 3rd world country or minimum wage in the USA. The person in the USA has a greater wealth, but their cost of living is defined by a richer standard and does not go far.

Poor is poor.

When we non-dimentionalize the problem, it seems ridiculous to say that our poor are the kings and queens of the impoverished.

Nonsense. A shitty wage in America is the dream of college educated folks in many other countries.

Dude, we're never going to have perfect economic equality across the world. And I don't even see why this is a goal.

Yes, poor people in some countries are poorer then our poor people are in America. So ******* what?

That has nothing to do with our economic policies at all [...]

On a humanitarian level I want these people to achieve the levels that other countries have and I believe that over time most of them will as their societies catch up. But that's THEIR responsibility, not ours.

On an economic level, I couldn't give a ****. Outside of our traditional European allies (who are also rich) none of them ever did one ******* thing to help the US out of the goodness of their hearts.

You have an odd view of the world.

Sorry but this is more first-worlder bullshit. I'm sick of hearing about this too. Using the pretext of labor conditions to take away their jobs. Want to know why these people willingly work in those conditions? Because it's so much better than their daily alternative. They choose to work there because it's improving their lives and first worlders use the pretext of working conditions to justify their stinginess about them having the job in the first place.

I am all for sweatshops! Sweatshops bring people out of real poverty and real misery. Sweatshops are better than eating ****, sweatshops are better than living in the garbage dump.