Les Leopold: Poverty Rises as Wall Street Billionaires Whine
Leopold raises some excellent questions in this article, especially:
"What do these guys actually do that earns them such wealth?", and "is what they do productive and useful for society? Is there any connection between what they earn and what they produce for society?"
When examining income inequality, it's important to ask if the labor of one person does is worth 400+% the labor of another, and why? What does someone who makes billions of dollars a year do that is that much more valuable than what someone does who only makes $25,000 a year? Why is it more valuable? Billionaire Wall Street bankers created financial products (credit default swaps, derivatives, etc), and made tons of money. What did they really do or make? It seems to me that they got to make these things up out of thin air, and sell it for a ridiculous amount of money. They practically created massive wealth for themselves from nothing, while the rest of us have to actually do something to make even a fraction as much money. It's hard to say that they're not calling the shots.
The Wall Street bourgeoisie shouldn't be whining. They made their wealth through exploitation of the working class and/or legerdemain, not through anything one could reasonably call labor or work.
very true.. it's hard to hear them whining about their money when so many people i know are getting their wages cut or their assistance cut.. i would like to see some of these people live in the lower earning people's shoes for 6 months and see what it's really like out there...
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