Is all wealth truly "earned"?

[Nym90]

Agree is liberal, disagree is conservative.

[Nym90]

'Manipulating' money to make more of it takes intelligence, time, and effort - how is that not earning it? The people who make money will spend some of it, thusly contributing to the economy, which is part of society. So, therefore I disagree with the statement.

By that logic, robbing banks is a perfectly legitimate business, too. A successful bank robbery certainly takes intelligence, time, and effort, and they usually spend the money and pump it back into the economy.

To answer your question, it's not "earning" it if you are contributing nothing to society. It's always bad for the economy when people are able to get money for producing nothing of value, whether that be through social welfare, crime, or any other means.

The economy will always be most productive when the compensation that people receive for their work is in direct proportion with the amount of value they create for society through their work. The fundamental problem with a completely free market capitalistic economy is that the more money you have, the easier it is to make money. You don't have to be as intelligent, as creative, or as hard working as someone who is poor. So such a society places more value on past accomplishments (which may not even be yours; perhaps hard work, ingenuity, or creativeness that may have occured generations ago within your family) than it does on present day accomplishments. I don't begrudge the rich their wealth, and I believe that they have earned the right to remain rich without having to continue to work hard or be extremely smart; it is appropriate to have a certain degree of reward for past accomplishments, but I don't feel it is right that rich people can continue to get even wealthier and wealthier without the value that they are adding to society being of equal proportion to the amount of money that they earn.

[Nym90]

'Manipulating' money to make more of it takes intelligence, time, and effort - how is that not earning it? The people who make money will spend some of it, thusly contributing to the economy, which is part of society. So, therefore I disagree with the statement.

By that logic, robbing banks is a perfectly legitimate business, too. A successful bank robbery certainly takes intelligence, time, and effort, and they usually spend the money and pump it back into the economy.

Mikem responded to the rest pretty well, but I have to comment on this. You can't 'earn' something by stealing it, otherwise why would we sieze stolen goods? No, you can only earn something if you do it with your own resources - the bank does not belong to you, you can't just take the money, simply because IT IS NOT YOURS. If you manipulate money to gain more money, nobody disputes that that money belongs to you. If you rob a bank you take other people's money, most everyone will dispute that that money belongs to you. I didn't include robbery in the original logic since I though people would have enough common sense to assume that it applied only to legally earning it, and I'm sure you know that, so don't twist the logic to mean something that it is not.

I know, and I overstated my case for dramatic effect, I really don't think you support that.

I still feel that my point stands, however. I wouldn't go so far as to say that wealthy people who earn money strictly from investments contribute nothing, but I feel that the compensation that they get is still far out of proportion to the value that they contribute. I did acknowledge that I felt that they deserved to remain rich, but I still feel that it's fair that they should pay a higher rate of taxes to compensate for it.

[Nym90]

Money is the root of all evil

This is blind, moronic statement.

Personally I would change it to say "Love of money is the root of the majority of evil."

[Nym90]

Strongly agree, because the word used was 'many'.

If it said 'most', I would agree, but not strongly.

Good point. The world "many", to me, implies a reasonably high percentage, but could still definitely be less than a majority.

[Nym90]

... but I still feel that it's fair that they should pay a higher rate of taxes to compensate for it.

I could agree with this, if and only if the risks of investment could be offset by writing off losses for tax purposes to lower income.  This would level the playing field since the financial gain from labor has no innherent risk.  Unless your boss plays craps withthe payroll money

Personally I would change it to say "Love of money is the root of the majority of evil."

It depends on what you classify as evil, but I can agree with that, not all evil is caused by greed, some is simply because of the volatility of the human emotional and psychological state.  I don't think most serial killers or rapists do their evil for financial gain, they are simply psychotic.

That's true. Serial killers and rapists, however, usually feel power over their victims, and this is generally the cause for their crimes. So perhaps including power along with money as a root of most evil is even more accurate.

[Nym90]

Agree!  (of course some folks get rich by milking the system.)

I'd love to be able to figure out how to do that, wouldn't you?

I don't think it is so much as knowing how, it's having the liquidity to do so.  The second part is what's in my way.

Exactly. You have to have money to make money.

So while I would not say that people get money for contributing nothing to society, their contribution is still often times out of proportion to what they receive for it. The more money you have, the esaier it is to make more; you don't have to be as smart, as creative, or as hard-working.

A person who earns $1,000,000/year does not make a positive contribution to society that is equal to that of 100 full time minimum wage workers, even though they earn about 100 times as much; that's what I'm trying to say.

[Nym90]

Now that ain't workin', that's the way you do it
Lemme tell ya, them guys ain't dumb
Maybe get a blister on your little finger
Maybe get a blister on your thumb

Awesome song! I love 80s music; Dire Straits was especially good.