2. The Industrial Revolution in America provided an opportunity for those with money to become far richer than the standards of the 19th century had ever allowed for before. It allowed a "middle management" to grow, in effect giving America it's first taste of an "Upper Middle Class" and perhaps a true "Middle Class " at all. At the same time, others were terribly exploited in the work force, and the sheer overwhelming nature of impoverished Americans is a huge part of what we study as we examine the "progress" that the Industrial Revolution wrought.
Consider the 21st century and the distribution of wealth in our own time. Are the wealthiest people of the world to be admired? Why or why not? Is our capitalist society "fair"--why or why not?
I personally think that the wealthiest people of the world should not be admired because some of them have too much money for the amount of work that they are doing and I also think that it should give you the energy to climb as high as they did. I think that the capitalist society we have today is fair because (generally) you get the amount of money in proportion of the work you have furnished. As long as you have the envy and as long as you work really hard, you can technically reach any really high job space in the world. People are recompensed of the good work they did whereas people who didn't do quite as a good job, they were not recompensed as much and if these two persons want the same higher job positions, it is obvious that the person who worked harder has it than the one who didn't work as hard.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the idea of more or less fair work-pay concept in today's democracy, but I have a different opinion on the admiration of the world's richest people. We can't generalize our view on the rich people without knowing what work they have done and how it affected our society. Every billionaire achieved his wealth in a different way. Whether it is Bill Gates or Michael Bloomberg, they have gained their wealth using the opportunities they could. After all, some of the richest people made our lives easier, for example we can now communicate all the time we want (Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook) or find all the information in the world not leaving the house (Sergey Brin, Google). Some of those billionaires actually had intention to make the world a better place, not only they wanted to get wealthy.
DeleteI think that sometimes there is a lot of prejudice against rich people because of the contrast between social classes. Some people would say they are greedy, however, suppose 1000 poor people became very rich, how many of them would actually be different? I think that money in general cause greediness and power tends to corrupt. I agree with you that there are lots of cases in which they should be admired. For example, those who donate, those who invest on education or health, those who see that all that money will not end with a few donations. Of course I think that is fair too for them to buy expensive cars and houses if their money is clean.
DeleteIsabela
Brasil
I don't know if they should be admired, but by some they definitely are. I think one should admire the wealthy elites if they want to follow in their footsteps, one could also take note from the wealthy as to what they did right along their journey. Many people became extremely wealthy from nothing, i think those are the people to admire, the ones who literally built their empire from the ground up (and didn't do so in a dishonorable way). I believe our capitalist society is pretty fair, their are barriers for many people in the country that should and could easily be removed in terms of getting jobs or just working with our government in general. Overall I think a capitalists society works as long as ethics are in play and everyone in the society is willing to work hard and earn their own way in life.
ReplyDeleteNo, they shouldn't be admired. Most people that are rich now are riding on the success of their parents. A lot of rich people inherited their wealth or are over paid actors. The bankers that are rich use their money to ensure that they stay rich even if it puts other people down. Capitalism is not a fair system. It takes a massive amount of effort to go from lower class to middle class and is completely impossible to go from lower class to upper class without a lot of luck. I see stories in the news sometimes of how the son of some executive inherited his father's company and runs it into the ground. Meanwhile, a very poor child manages to get to lower middle class because they work really hard in school and manage to get a decent job.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI think your ideas are pretty good, but flawed with some slight inconsistencies. You are completely right that many rich people don’t deserve their fortune. Most of which have never worked a day in their life but yet expect the world. Capitalism isn’t fair, but it can also do a few positive things for society. If there weren’t any form of economic competition, we would surely be less motivated to work hard. If you have an economy without capitalism, the market would not respond quickly for what the people need (because everything would have to be planned), there would be no variation and less productivity. A society needs at least a slight variation in class and income in order to function. And as we all know, communism turned out to be repressive, and in the end, failed (excluding in China). By no means am I saying that capitalism is perfect. It is a system that harnesses our imperfection to do many wonderful things (as well as a few not so wonderful things that you mentioned). The reality is, our greed fuels capitalism, and we are quite the hungry consumer.
DeleteYour writing became inconsistent in one aspect. You stated that it is far simpler for someone filthy rich to become poor, than for someone poor to become rich (which is obviously true) and then you wonder why the rich “use their money to ensure that they stay rich even if it puts other people down”…. that is a smidge of a contradiction. If the rich were to be generous with their money (as you want), they would most likely not stay rich so long (like you predicted). You both are saying that rich should give out their wealth and that they can easily become poor.
P.S. Despite my criticism, I really do think that your opinion is valid and I do agree with the main point of it. So please don’t be offended or anything.
-Molly Hercules USA
In some cases, yes, they should be admired. Some wealthy people do great deeds and use their money wisely, for example donate money to charity and give back to the community. Those are the type of wealthy people that should be admired. Other wealthy people are selfish and snobby. What I mean by that is that they think of themselves as superiors to the lower and middle classes. They waste their money and buy things that aren't a necessity to everyday needs and life, which people of the middle and lower classes are struggling to find. These type of wealthy people don't deserve to be admired.
ReplyDeleteI believe that to admire a person or a group of people they have to posses qualities that are outstanding and morally correct. The fact that a person has a lot of money does not say anything about their character. Therefore, should not be judged solely based on the amount that is in their bank accounts. If such wealthy people are admirable than they posses the qualities of an upstanding human being. However, some would say that the wealthiest people are to be admired. Those rich people have what many do not possess. Wealthy people are able to afford luxuries that the general population is not able to afford. This in turn can cause people to admire the wealthiest people of our world because they can get the things no one else can get. I believe our capitalistic society is as fair as it can be. Since we do not live in an ideal world nothing is all that fair. There is pretty much always someone who is given the short end of the stick. So yes our society is as fair as it can be due to the circumstances that we are presented with.
ReplyDeleteI believe that some wealthy people can be admired, not just because they have loads of money but because of what they do. For example, I admire Bill Gates because with his creation of Microsoft he has provided jobs for thousands of people. Also he has so much money yet he is not greedy, he provides generous donations to charities. On the other hand Carlos Slim is not quite the same, at least what I've heard about him. He runs a monopoly in the Mexican economy limiting other peoples chance to compete with him so he is working against others for his own benefit. Also I think he is wealthier then Bill Gates but as far as I have heard he is not as generous with donations. This is an example of someone who I personally don't admire. Also I think in America's economy you can become wealthy if you truly desire to do so.
ReplyDeleteI mostly agree with your ideas. I do believe that some wealthy people deserve complete appreciation and some deserve admonishment. Those who deserve appreciation are the ones who have gained their prosperity through hard work and determination. Some of these wealthy people also show acts of philanthropy by donating money to the charity. However, some wealthy people also deserve admonishment for they have achieved prosperity only through their parents' success and haven't done anything that would contribute to their job. Some of these wealthy people also ignore charity and don't want to illustrate acts of philanthropy. Instead, they just want their money to stay in their family. Although I agree with most of your ideas, I do not believe that everybody could be wealthy if they truly desired to be so in the existing American economy. What about the one's who are born into poverty? With some exceptions, it is nearly impossible to be one of the wealthiest people on earth if that person has suffered from extreme poverty prior in his/her life.
DeleteI agree with you. Some of the wealthiest people should be admired because of the way they use their money. Millionaires like Bill Gates should be admired for their massive donations and contributions in charities and many organizations. Not everyone inherits their money from their family; some people simply have to be diligent and persistent in order to be successful. So it is understandable that not everyone wants to grant their money for others. Not many of those who have millions chose to use their money for the purpose of improving the living conditions the mankind. In fact, many of the wealthiest people prefer leaving the money inside of the family so that it won’t diminish. They leave it inside of the family for reasons like increasing their profit even more, investing on it or holding on it. Inspite of that, I have to admit that even though some of the wealthiest people don’t donate their money, they still provide thousands of people with jobs. If we look at the world’s richest people’s list, we can say that these people combined control almost all of the world economy and provide jobs for millions of people.
DeleteI agree with you Grant. I also believe that wealthy people should be admired for what they have done to reach to their success. I also agree that we should admire Bill Gates, since despite on all of the money he has, he has done great things to those who need it the most. He has donated millions of dollars to charities, and he doesn't act like if he is above everyone just because he is the richest man in the world. I believe that Bill Gates is someone to admire because he has worked very hard to move on with his company and he should be admired for Microsoft, which is something who has helped many of us and many of us use it. This is why wealthy people like Bill Gates do deserve to be admired.
DeleteI think the wealthiest people should be admired or not depends on if they make their money morally. The ones who make money in dirty ways do not deserve to be admired(no matter how rich they are), these people might even bring up the hatred between upper class and the lower class. However, many of the top 50 of the wealthiest people in the world are Americans. The reason of that is mainly that US government provides good access of educations, so it gives poor people a great chance to become successful by working hard. Unfortunately, not every countries has good education system to help people extricate poverty which causes the unfairness of the society. To sum up, I think it is reasonable to say whether a capitalist society is fair or not build is upon a thoughtful education systems.
ReplyDeleteWill we all measure "dirty ways" the same way, do you think? What an excellent exchange of ideas here!
ReplyDeleteTo me wealth is not something to be admired but more something to aspire to. I think in certain cases it is a good thing to have a goal of wealth because if done in a proper and legal way it helps the economy and specific living standards. I as well believe that the emphasis of wealth in America and all over that world is too highly admired. Money is a part daily life but the distribution is so substandard, the rich continue to get richer and the poor stay poor. It is not impossible for someone to work incredibly hard and gain wealth or someone to easily loose it but that is for specific situations not the majority. Capitalism focus's on the class system and division of the large working class and the small wealthy capitalist class. Classes are what cause the Capitalist system to work and it would be very hard to change that fact. Realistically I don't think that this system will change much but I don't see it as a 'fair system'. I think there should be more focus on creating well paying jobs so that people can life a satisfying life. I think the real problem in society is idolizing entertainers (even though I understand and appreciate the work they do and the affect they have on the happiness of a society) and less money should be given to such people even if some of them do great things with them. Money for charities or lower class living situations are often given by people with large amounts of money but in an ideal world those people would not so direly need the money.
ReplyDelete