That cannot be help. Africa needs to undergo a slow and arduous process of development. Outside help will only lead to complacence.

"The "top 1%" for the most part worked to get there"

If by work you mean sit on their yachts collecting dividends while other people do all the actual labor and production, sure.

Women in Iran is a cultural, not economic issue.

ishirkmywork, I said that I do not support child labor. Children need time to educate themselves to get ahead. If they do not sufficiently utilize that time, then they will become blue collar laborers.

Putin, investors and prospectors are visionary men who saw what would succeed and put their money in to make sure it did.

Good thing those smart Europeans swooped into Africa a couple of centuries ago and took all those people and resources to make themselves and their culture richer. if those africans hadn't been so lazy and stupid they would have build mighty ships and guns and invented computers and shit before the superior cultures arrived. i guess they'll just have to be content with the slow and arduous process of development that they are stuck in now. lazy turds,

The wealthy need a strong government and law enforcement to protect their money. However Leon is right about something.

Take the example of Russia.
At one time there was this idea that the big problem with everything was that property and money were all being hoarded by the wealthy. So in the process of redistribution, you actually destroy innovation and the incentive of the skilled workers and laborers to keep bothering. They begin to feel apathetic and realize that hard work is not rewarded at all. This also is crushing to an economy.

A healthy economy requires both a wealthy class that hires workers, and spends money on a constant.
A shitty economy happens when money becomes static and stops moving between consumers.

Imagine if tomorrow every single human being on the planet adopted the philosophies of Suze Orman and everyone just stopped spending anything at all down to even the minutest penny.

"Putin, investors and prospectors are visionary men who saw what would succeed and put their money in to make sure it did."

You can give these parasites all the sycophantic odes you want, they still didn't do any work. They live off the backs of other people who toil for endless hours making their garbage products that are destroying the planet.

ishirkmywork, I do not support imperialism. I believe in fairness, and it is unfair to take the land of sovereign nations. That said, don't think that Africans were peaceful people that had no concept of war. They were constantly engaged in tribal warfare and even sold their enemies as slaves.

Lol Leon I love how you just put people into two categories:
White collar jobs = superior
Blue Collar Jobs = lower class inhabited by those who didn't try hard enough.

In RL I am a person with a white collar education who decided to pursue a blue collar career....am I lazy? an idiot? being consumed by superior economic forces?
ridiculous. how many white collar jobs do you think are available? if everyone worked really hard, could we all work in an air-conditioned office and do nothing but push papers around and "invest our money in smart things."
what an infantile argument

If it weren't for those "parasites", the workers wouldn't have jobs because their employers wouldn't have had the money to hire them.

ishirkmywork, If you decided to take on a blue collar job, that is your own choice. And no, not everyone can become investors because most don't have the money to do so. There will always be those that push themselves harder than others, and they will get better jobs than those who skip school and roamed the streets during their childhood.

If not for slavery and imperialism, there would have been no industrial capitalism, and thus no Randian knuckleheads running around talking about their non-existent utopian version of free enterprise.

My previous boss would have me hang out at his house, we would go out drinking, he even came over to my family's 4th of July Party and blew up a half stick of dynamite. I never thought of him as being some rich guy. He was actually a very normal guy who just happened to enjoy getting wasted and partying with other normal guys.

I appreciate people who dont act like they have tons of money.

Investors got their money from years of hard work or parents who worked hard and wanted to give their children a better future.

the workers would have jobs -- the same jobs. there just wouldn't be overpaid slobs at the top of an uneccessary corporate ladder. ever heard of an employee owned company? or democratic corporations?

"If it weren't for those "parasites", the workers wouldn't have jobs because their employers wouldn't have had the money to hire them."

Demand and human need creates jobs, not the investor class. The state could easily fulfill the role of these do-nothing leaches. Cut out the middle man.

Putin, industrialism happened far before the boom of imperialism. Moreover, the past is the past, and we can only look to the present and the future.

"Investors got their money from years of hard work or parents who worked hard and wanted to give their children a better future."

That's a nice fairy tale. Investors "earned" their money from ripping people off, breaking the rules, and exploiting people.

"Putin, industrialism happened far before the boom of imperialism"

No it didn't. The industrial revolution was built upon the textile industry, which was completely bound up in cotton production, which was entirely done by slave labor. Past is not the past. You can't claim capitalism is this nice cute thing that will make everyone's life better if it requires slavery or wage-slavery to exist.

The overpaid slobs earned their place at the top spot, or their parents did. Parents have full right to give their position to their children-- it's their money not yours.

Putin, the investors earned their money, and they deserve to live a leisurely life for it. Sure the state could take their money and replace the investors, but it isn't fair and is socialistic in nature.

man Econ students have really drank the coolaid the past few decades.

Fair? Someone who just exalted the virtues of social Darwinism is talking about fairness? Astounding.

First we get all these Protestant esq sermons about the virtues of hard work. Then when that all falls apart we get all these excuses about how the rich are entitled to be lazy. It's breathtaking.

If they ripped people off, then they will be in jail. If you're talking about overpricing like most liberals do, there must have been people willing to buy their products. It's not the rich person's fault that the public had a demand for the product at that inflated price.

Nice try changing the topic. Slavery in the US had nothing to do with imperialism in Africa. Independent African tribes were selling enemies as slaves to Europeans. There is no slave wage in today's society. One can easily feed oneself even at the minimum wage of $7.25. Moreover, they wouldn't be living on minimum wage if they had more skills to offer because they studied harder in their schoolyears.

Trickle-down "voodoo" economics was a failure.
Tax "investment" income the same as wages at all levels, at all times.

Yes, social Darwinism is fair. If you're lazy, you're poor. If you work hard or have innovative ideas, you excel. That is fairness. Not sitting at home eating potato chips and taking handouts.

And yes, the rich are entitled to be lazy because they or their ancestors worked to become that rich. The money of the rich doesn't come from nowhere.

Remember when Spain tried to deport all the Mariscoes and basically just sent them off to die at sea. Shortly after there was a massive economic downturn as they essentially killed 1/3 of their blue collar workforce.

Irony is when the rich lose their workers, it is not unheard of for the wealthy to take to eating human flesh.

you remember all those bankers who ripped people off in 2008 and are in jail? yeah that works.

"Slavery in the US had nothing to do with imperialism in Africa."
What?????

"One can easily feed oneself even at the minimum wage of $7.25. "

this actually just has to be trolling. i am retiring from this thread before i have a stroke.

You are making me want to go watch the movie Amistad over and over.