Should Being Rich Be A Crime Against Humanity?
Some folks live like this…
and some folk live like this! Does it seem fair to you?
Friends, while contributing to ICH this morning, the thought occurred to me that, in a world where more than a billion people are starving, being rich, I mean really rich, is perhaps a crime against humanity.
While you read this, across the world there are children crying, their stomachs bloated, their limbs skeletal, their eyes sunken. They live in mud huts or in the open. Their parents have a few cooking utensils, some torn clothing, a few beads. They have no chance of getting out of the grinding poverty which surrounds them.
Of course, even in affluent countries like America and in Europe, there are people who are hungry, who live in derelict accommodation or under bridges, who have no health care, no education, no way to escape the poverty trap either. Even among the middle class in affluent countries, there are many people who are now struggling to pay their mortgages, to afford their kid’s education, etc.
Elsewhere in the world, a very small minority of people are living in luxury, in castles, in mansions, in lavish apartments and penthouses that occupy a whole floor. Inside them are million dollar artworks, antiques, gold taps, expensive drapes, marble floors, huge kitchens, the best appliances. They have a fleet of cars, some which which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. They own immense motor yachts which they use a few weeks a year. They have cooks and butlers and gardeners…the list goes on and on!
Surely for a few to have so much and for so many to have so little is wrong. In fact, it could be seen as an obscenity.
Of course, those who are rich would argue against this idea. They, who may have inherited great wealth, would argue that there is nothing wrong with them enjoying the best that life has to offer. And those who have made great wealth, often by using or abusing the capitalist system and screwing lots and lots of people and paying little or no taxes, would argue that they are entitled to enjoy the fruits of their labor in whatever way they choose to. They would say that everyone has the opportunity to make it. What rubbish!
Friends, each human should have an equal right to enjoy what life and the world has to offer. Instead, what they are offered is a dog-eat-dog, survival of the fittest world where everyone is encouraged to grab what they can for themselves. The fittest of course are those who inherited great wealth or those who were born with cunning plus an insatiable greed for money and power and have spent their lives doing whatever it takes to satisfy it.
Friends, perhaps the only way to change this grossly unfair situation is to make being rich a crime against humanity. Perhaps we have to drive the moneychangers from the temple, destroy the view that the ultra-rich are icons, that they are to be envied. Perhaps we have to make being rich an obscenity and target those who are and change the system that allows them to proliferate and prosper.
Perhaps we should pelt their luxury cars with stones, trash their mansions, protest whenever they appear in public, refuse to doff our caps to them, treat them as the parasites that they are.
Perhaps they should also be taxed out of existence and the money used to right some of the terrible inequalities that exist in the world and reverse some of the environmental damage that the rich have caused.
And if the rich couldn’t make fortunes out of war, then war itself might become less frequent, perhaps cease.
I am convinced that being rich or seeking to be rich is not going to produce a world where there is peace and sharing and harmony. It does however produce a world where war, conflict and greed prevail and will continue to do so.
Surely then, being ultra-rich IS a crime against humanity!
UPDATE. Michael Bloomberg spent 100 million dollars of his own money getting himself re-elected as New York’s mayor this year. This is on top of the 84 million he spent in the 2005 election and 71 million in 2001. Surely such self-indulgence is…well, yuk!
I check ICH daily and would love to know which articles you write for them …
If you prefer to just email me a link or two please feel free to do so …
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Hello David -
It would be very, very difficult to get this point across to the American people. When polled in the past a surprising number of Americans stated that although they might not be rich now they expect to be. It goes along with the American propensity for MORE. We tend to see it (especially money) as always being better when the big pile is growing. The same attitude extends to cars and houses. 3,500 sq ft houses on 5 acre lots and the ubiquitous SUVs we lust for. Rarely, do you hear a truly different opinion such as that of Marxist historian Michael Parenti who said that he is not as concerned about HAVING things as DOING things. What a wonderful attitude in the face of the thundering horde who are starting their shopping binges today being egged on by endless “news” reports about people shopping for stuff.
When I see a photo of a child such as the one you have included and look at the obscene levels of wealth which manifest in a tiny minority in the United States owning or controlling most of our national wealth I can hardly contain my contempt. We claim to be a “Christian” nation and yet we have millions of homeless and a very high rate of childhood poverty. Something is very, very wrong.
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Charles, my contributions to ICH are in the form of comments! Sorry.
Bruce, contempt is a feeling I have as well. What has happened is that we have been indoctrinated to accept that economic inequality is acceptable and being obscenely rich is a sign of achievement rather than greed.
We, the masses, act much like the donkey that trots along trying to reach the carrot that dangles in front of it. Like the donkey, we will never get the carrot but a few people, those who control the capitalist system, get incredible rewards and amass money they can never spend.
At the same time, the Fat Cats pillage the world taking from the poor their labour and their resources and give them nothing in return.
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Just do this. Amass food stored for 6 months. and convince everybody poor to begin a global strike. stop paying any bill. stop using anything modern. I have shitty people poor who are so snobbish nowodays cannot even bother to wash a sock by hand. All by machine. Idiotic self submitting slaves.
Do that. Do a global strike. I for one stopped working already for the Corporation.
F them.
You would be amazed how long you can live with so little.
We would be able to change perception on need.
One other thing I find human paradoxically lacking. They are so so so sososososososososoo obsessed with gathering reaches. But take a good look at the Bilderberg.. and mostly you ll see UGLY people.
What I say.. is. I am an admirer of the Spartans myth/hystory?.
The most precious possesion ONE has for life is HIMSELF.
Body and spirit.
Compose, sing , create, write, paint.. and at the same time, train and sculpt your body, to match the strength of your spirit.
How many people you know do that?
Is it absurd or what that people so greedy have no greed to refine their priceless possession?
They are not happy I tell you. Imagine a life of a super rich mogul. what do you think? Do you think he has a minute of peace? Do you think he is happy? Do you think he and his kind busy to CONTROL every damn minute, leads an enjoyable life?
HE DOES NOT.
HE DOES NOT.
That is why, one of their mechanisms of coping with their unhappiness is constant comparison . the higher they go the more “satisfied” they feel. the more they stomp on others heads and show them how big they are, the better the little coward hidden inside feels. But their hole is never covered. The hole in them is bigger than in a humber poor child’s stomach.
THEY ARE DEEPLY UNHAPPY.
BELIEVE ME.
Actually, no. Do not believe me.
You know it already.
As does he/she.
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I agree with Bruce, many americans think that even if they aren’t rich now they might be someday so to tax or even speak badly of the rich is an attack on themselves. Here we idolize the rich and most of us want to be like them which is part of the reason so many of us get so deep in debt as we try to ape their life styles. Of course we never can.
Worse yet is when the rich give a tiny portion of their wealth away they are praised as if they had done some great deed. Yet poor people give a greater portion of their “wealth” to charity than the rich do and never receive credit.
Worldly values are seriously messed up!
I am not rich, don’t want to be rich and try to help when I can. What little I can do never seems to be much in the face of so much over whelming need. I simply cannot understand how the rich can live the lives they lead knowing such terrible needs exist in the world and do so little to offer help.
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YES David
No doubt.
To be (so?) rich (wealth) should be a crime – at least – as long as – there are people living in abject hunger.
In the same way as there’s a definition of what poverty is ($ to which it’s possible to survive in a decent way ), likewise should be determined a upper limit to what a work/contribution of a humanbeing can be worth.
The least individuals living in a ‘joint community’ should demand from a it.
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- what a life!
“” We, the masses, act much like the donkey that trots along trying to reach the carrot that dangles in front of it.”"
Exactly:!!! – - and who’s still claiming that ‘life’ is BLESS!
This (ever existing) problem, smoothing out the chasm between rich & poor is where the western media has had immensely success in PREVAILing in it’s frightening campaign against communism as a possible way for people to live together.
In a civilized world it should forever be stated by law that what you are able see around you of miseries (where ever you go), you have the duty to act upon. – ought to be a burden / matter of of course.
Although I understand the complexity of, I’ve hard to understand how TV-camera crews on their coverings from e.g. Africa, is able to let down people, exhausted by lack of the most basic needs of food/drink when recording footage in fx. Africa.? and just that is another evidence that we live in fragmented world where the world of the ‘wealthy’ has passed into chrysalic stage.
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Adina, I like your reference to the Spartan philosophy. They realized there was more to life than chasing money.
Jeannie, the rich in the main are soulless, artificial, empty. They must also be very insecure because there is the constant fear that they may lose their ill gotten gains or that a more socialist society and government might turn against them.
John, I’ve visited many castles and mansions in Europe, ones that, reluctantly, are partly opened to the public by owners who are feeling the pinch. The opulence they enjoy is almost beyond belief.
I have also traveled extensively through India, Pakistan, Egypt and witnessed unbelievable poverty yet, amidst the poverty, there were smiles and generosity. The inequality in the world is immense but it doesn’t need to be this way. Such inequality is a major contributor to terrorism!
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Insist on a law that prohibits any trading on any stock exchange if any child anywhere is hungry and without proper shelter.
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Spike, the problems is that the Fat Cats have the game sewn up. They control the media and through the media they have turned money grubbing and greed into a virtue.
They have planted the idea in the minds of people that materialism and social climbing are what life should be about, that corporations are institutions that bring progress, that war is necessary to maintain and improve our standard of living, that getting a job is the only option that good humans have, that fighting for your country is wonderful and patriotic.
We have been massively conned so that a few can have it all!
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Wealth is capitilism gone crazy, there is no justification for this inequality. Celebrity is another bogus form of capitalism, if your famous you will be rich. Karl Marx and his story on how he came to write the doctrine that introduced the world to Marxism and communism is truly an economic restructure that works perfectly on paper, but the hearts of man are filled with hate, greed and domination so it failed. But here is a man who tried to address this inequality and wrote a manifesto to transform the way wealth is distributed, the reason he wrote this manifesto was that he was refused $5 extra on his allowance for writing articles for the Herlad Tribune.
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Maybe in a sense it should be a crime against humanity. That a person can find a way to make money honestly is not bad. But to be greedy with that money while others starve should be a crime against humanity. Going a little further with this thought though,,, what makes people want to hang onto money except for some deep fear? Since I don’t believe we are born with a fear of poverty, then I believe we are indoctrinated with it. And on that note I believe fear mongering should be considered a crime against humanity too.
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Kemosobi, you’re right – there is no justification for the inequality shown by the photographs.
The picture of that starving child is an indictment of the way our world is run. It shows clearly that the law of the jungle still prevails. It shows that people generally don’t have a conscience as long as they’re not the ones who are starving. It shows how cleverly the culture of greed has been indoctrinated into our minds. It shows that caring and compassion are in short supply, that our value system has been corrupted.
Kathy, Murdoch is an example of the horror of greed. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and has gone on to accumulate not only billions of dollars but immense power as well via his media empire. Does he stop to enjoy his wealth? No, he tries to increase it further.
Clearly he is sick. And yet people hang on his every word. To many he is an icon. They too are sick!
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Folks… I agree with everyone’s response and it profoundly saddens my heart when I see that innocent child in the picture with so much need. Should being rich be illegal? Yes… but unfortunately it is the rich who make the laws.
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David G Reply:
December 1st, 2009 at 1:16 pm
You’re right, LT! Either the rich or their political pawns. I believe the American Congress is full of multi-millionaires.
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I don’t even know who would have elected Bloomberg for any amount of money he spent. The elections must have been rigged?
I think the best we can do is to put them down and ignore them. Don’t pay to see their movies. Don’t do business at their banks. Don’t pay their taxes. Don’t vote for them. Don’t buy their products. DON’T BORROW MONEY FROM THEM! Don’t shop in their stores. What is money anyway but a means of exchange? It only has the value that we give it.
Can we ever have a society without money? Would be lovely I think.
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Somewhere around 92 million people belong to credit unions, instead of banks.
There are farmer’s markets, food coops and CSA in many places.
If you shop at thrift stores, it’s cheaper, and you aren’t contributing to sweat shop labor.
I only go to see movies with a message, like Capitalism, Food, Inc., and Collapse, when it comes to my town. That way I send a message to the theatre owners that they should show movies like that.
Buy from local people whenever you can, don’t use credit cards, put your money in a credit union instead of a bank.
As for living without the artificial medium of exchange called money, visit my blog to see my thoughts on that.
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adina Reply:
December 3rd, 2009 at 5:36 am
Wagelaborer,
Went to your site, and looooved your idea about the real value of work.
Why should one get paid more than another ? Exactly!!!!!!
One hour of a human’s life should be worth exactly an hour of a human’s life!!!!
And that should be equal to all humans.
I so so much agree with you.
Congratulations.
Amazing point.
We risk being labelled communists he he he
but who cares?
if it s not that, it is terrorist.
or anti-semite.
or….
name it.
On a funny note, Imagine.
An hour of digging dirt paid precisely the same amount as an hour sitting in an tv anchorman’s chair, or sitting on a wallstreet “broker”‘s ass.
I still believe such rule would be unfair, to the disadvantage to the guy digging physical dirt!!! as the profiteering pigs will still get more money than they deserve, even with this equal rule..
but I sooooo salute this idea.
If only we could apply it, tell me where to sign, I ll be the first.
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The problems with the equal pay for everyone idea is that someone who dropped out at school and works flipping hamburgers would earn the same as someone who say studied for years and became a doctor, trained more years to become a specialist, and then earns his living putting parts in peoples’ hearts or treating cancer.
If this were the case, no one would have any incentive and the idea of pursuing excellence or developing one’s potential would disappear. Humans without incentive become apathetic but on the other side of the coin, the reward that one gets must be kept within reason. This can be done by adjusting the tax system to take lots from the rich and redistribute to the poor.
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$100 an hour, that should be the most that any citizen of the USA is allowed to make. Pass a maximum income law.
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David G Reply:
December 3rd, 2009 at 9:28 am
That’s a good idea, Therese, especially if it was coupled with the closing of all tax loopholes which the high income earners exploited to the hilt!
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David, I would disagree.
I would think people interested in pursuing their passion (e.g. studying to become doctors, artists, whatever) would still study to do what they enjoy doing. Of course the number of scientists and doctors would decrease… as today most of them became so out of pecuniary reasons. I therefore agree with you that there would be much more hamburger flippers.. but if you think about it, when they ll fall sick cause of the idiotic diet that they prefer and go to hospitals.. they wouldn t be treated, cause not enough doctors hehehehhehehehehe so.. then… the natural selection would really be allowed to work, both in PURSUING ONE REAL PASSION AS A PROFESSION, and in Natural Selection applied for real. Now … it isn t working. idiots FLIP NUMBERS ON SCREENS (not hamburgers) not on the street, but on the Wall Street,and at the volume of fake money they are rolling they do not even need other than a cold-steel-limited ntelligence, which is not necessarily the intelligence this earth needs. The idiots ..BUSH is a graduate I believe.. so again.. graduate, study.. to me means almost nothing these days. I frankly speeking also talked to a lot of intellectuals who, for the simple reasons that they read a lot of books and graduated in some fancy school believe that they are somehow.. something like a nobility, blue blood of humanity and they deserve more money than someone else for that.
I sitll say. Equal pay, although obviously,k unrealistic and not feasible, would be a wonderful thing.
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Adina, I think it would expect something from humans that they just aren’t capable of. Peace is another of those things! Take care.
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Well, thanks, Adina. I did address the issue of schooling in my blogpost.
If people are paid for their schooltime, same as the person who drops out and digs ditches, then they are not losing any time from their lives, which is what we are told entitles them to endless riches later.
Some people really want to be doctors. They want to save lives, or medicine fascinates them, whatever. I work with some kids who really want to be doctors. They work as EMTs, or med techs, or nurses, because they can’t afford to pay for medical school. Plus, the AMA limits the supply of doctors in the US, to increase salaries.
On the other hand, some doctors I know only want to be doctors to make a lot of money.
This is backwards.
If you want people who really enjoy their professions, make it so any profession is open, but none pays more than anymore. Then you choose your job according to what appeals to you, not what pays more.
I still believe that electric line workers and trash collectors make our lives every bit as pleasurable and healthy as doctors and lawyers, and should be paid equally.
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Hi David,
It already is a crime against humanity, but I don’t think anyone will ever be punished.
Greed and power are also crimes against humanity, but it’s the same – no one will ever be punished.
I think most leaders of the world are sociopathic and/or pychopathic. They have to be, to allow the horrendous disparity illustrated in the 2 photos you posted. I think greed and power are 2 of the worst symptoms of these diseases, and I believe they are the root of all or at least most the problems of this world. I also believe that these diseases have been around since the dawn of civilization. Maybe they aren’t really diseases, but choices on how how to behave, I really don’t know.
It gnaws at me that after all these millenia that humans haven’t been able to over come these basic evils. We are capable of so much more. For all the so-called advances humans have made technologically, we are still so primitive in our behavior.
Thanks for providing a place to share thoughts and ideas.
Betsy
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Those photos speak for themselves. Their very mutual co-existence displays crime against fellow humanity! In an abundant as well as generous human world, this is unthinkable. Humans have made it all about the Haves and the have-nots. There is poverty of spirit that afflicts the wealthy. (money cannot buy love, but it can buy food) Wagelaborer has it right on about many things, but specifically how the wealthy get to be philanthropists when they donate their spare change. Whereas, poor people are statistically more generous; giving a greater percentage of their overall “wealth” to those with less and receive in exchange for no accolades. If our tax dollars went directly to feed hungry bodies and hungry minds and fixing that thing that used to be known a social Safety Net… we would be a wealthy society again..and all that goodness could ripple out into the world again..and everyone will love US again.. : (
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I love the post about the Spartans. I really identify with what you wrote there Adina.
I never want to leave anyone out when I apprecialte one person becasue it is ALL of the posts that are interesting to me. Because I am very important.
I, too, buy an extra canned or jarred good or two or three whenever i can. I am not a Mormon or a Survivalist (yet), but if a World Strike happened, we could still eat for a while. Would Love to stick it to the ‘Too Big To Fail’ Dinosaurs, where they WILL notice it!!
I have taught my 7 yr old son about the one billion people on this planet that are very hungry, right now, as we speak. I don’t make him eat things he doesn’t want, but I help to make him aware and grateful of what he does get and realize: it is this way for too many plenty nice people. It is a fine line in allowing kids to be kids, yet being like a ship Captain, steering them in the right direction, as they grow into awareness. You want them to be aware and yet not burdened. I see in him, the desire to problem solve. He is always inventing new ways to fix big problems. Most of them are Very 7 yr oldish, but hey they are refreshing that someone is thinking about this stuff and that he feels hopeful in the face of looming disasters. Yikes.
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ps I have lots of time today, obvs!, but this is the last thing, the line about being important was my attempt at humor. Peace out Peeps :
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It is amazing to me that those who cant afford a tool shed or a pair of dentures defend the rich by waving the flag and sending there children off to these imperialist wars
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Does anyone know what country that poor child is in? Do Care packages or Christian Children’s Fund help feed these kids? It’s truly heartbreaking that some people dine on exquisite, extravagant meals and others struggle to stay alive. If I were one of the wealthy elite, I think I’d choke on my food if I gave it some thought. They say that if 10% of the world’s population ate vegetarian, world hunger would end. I’m a vegetarian, and I wouldn’t dream of eating opulent meals while others go hungry. It’s just plain wrong.
David, once again thank you for the pictures, and good luck and best wishes for the coming new year
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Kristen, that child could come from any number of poor countries. Those who are well-off and live in first world countries don’t want to know where these children are to be found. It makes them feel uncomfortable (for a few moments)!
Cheers.
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