[JU_88]

Originally Posted by tater

The rich do not get richer on the backs of the poor or less fortunate.

Would you care to enlighten me as how you think capitalsim works then? Specifically how maximum profit is achieved?

Two, and this is critical, IMHO, "wealth" is very hard to measure in a way that is meaningful for comparing people's lives, particularly compared across time.

Its impossible to messure it precisley down to each individual set of circumstances, buts easy enough to build an overall picture: http://www.economist.com/blogs/daily...uality-america
if you dont like the source of that chart, let me know ill see if I can post one from the source of your choosing.

Guess what, the poor are richer in many ways than the richest people in 1920 looked at in other ways.

So, if you asked me to sell you a 'fast car' and I sold you the slowest car made in 2011 with the argument that: "well, look at is this way, its still faster than the fastest car in 1920"
you would say, "thats a fair comparrison" and continue to buy it from me - would you?

Let's take the lower middle class, not dirt poor, homeless types. In the US they live in large homes compared to the earlier history of the US. They have cars (how do you monetize the ability to drive instead of walk comparing wealth over time?). They have television. They likely have instant communications everywhere they are (cell phones). They more and more carry more computing power in their pockets than the entire darpanet combined 30-40 years ago (even a freebie smart phone). They have better healthcare (US rates of death per incidence for potentially deadly diseases is as good as it gets, and that includes all the un/under-insured in the stats).

And they often afford these things how?
Their homes they pay for via a morgage that takes a life time to pay off. (if they can afford to get one foot on to the property ladder at all)
Cars & fancy flat screen televisions etc are often paid for in installments , or on credit cards and personal loans. Money they\we dont yet have, borrowing does not make you wealthier, nor do 'buy now pay later' scemes.
Freebie smart phone? wheres mine then? they are not 'free' we pay for them over a period of 12 months or more!

if everyone in America - and indeed the developed world spent within their means and did not rack up debts, you would see alot less people owning these luxury goods..... abit more like 1920
Why do banks let people borrow beyond their means so much? two reasons; 1) they make a killing out of the intreast 2) In the short term it helps pump more money back in to our econemy though consumer spending - but with potentially catatstrophic consquences, such as the ones we are seeing er....since 2008.
Just to remind you, the world is now in a debt crisis for a reason.

We can fight a war for a decade and lose less in 10 years than a week in ww2.

Yeah - because we fight vastly inferior forces who are no match for us.
In WW2 we fought an equal and in some respects 'superior' enermy. You'd be wise to remember that.