What's with the double standard? This video points out some great stuff. Business owners are greedy and it's cool for Michael Jordan to make a million a week because he tried? Didn't the business owners try just as hard?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0VHiONkot8

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Frrrrrt!

My issue is when people get rich by stepping on others and then demand to pay a lower percentage in taxes than other people. My issue is when greedy people make life miserable for others. In the business world, stepping on others is often just part of the game.

And to me there's a big difference between wanting lavish everything, and wanting to win at a sport or wanting to create a beautiful painting. It's preposterous and offensive to make it sound like they're the same thing.

If a sports star gets into the sport (or artist gets into his craft) purely for the money and not for the sport (or craft), *that* is doing it for greed.

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Political Buddies

Quite frankly, that video pretty much tries to paint corporate greed as coming from the same place as someone trying to achieve something great. It's one of the most offensive video clips I've seen. It's pure and utter trash.

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Political Buddies

Ok, so maybe I overstated things--but I do feel strongly that the video states some fundamentally wrong things.

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Political Buddies

Lol. I thought that was coming. Kudos for annulling the stereotypical Liberal response on your own. I'll respond when I have more time, I've been really busy with work lately.

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Frrrrrt!

I look forward to your response.

What drives an artist to pursue their craft is not in ANY way shape or form the same thing as what drives a businessperson to become rich. It's like saying that murdering someone is the same thing as eating a slice of bread.

The argument the video is sneakily trying to convey is that if we stop rich people from becoming as rich, it is "effectively" the same thing as stopping artists from making their art, stopping athletes from doing their thing--it's total and absolute bullshit.

A businessperson wants to get rich because of greed--and if it was at all like the video suggests and wanting to get more rich is like wanting to be at the top of some list, there are lists that require less scandalous behavior to get up on the top. Let's take Paul Allen for instance with his recent patent war so he can extort even more money. Money can change who people are, and once someone is rich, it becomes easier and easier to loosen on morals and ethics, or at the very least, eventually have a disconnect of what it was like to be poor.

Money isn't the way to greatness. Wanting to make a beautiful song isn't greedy. Wanting to touch people emotionally and inspire others to do great things and create beautiful things, that is NOT a greedy thing. Where does that in any way shape or form compare to some guy occasionally or often stepping on others to get rich? The people who get rich at any cost are NOT the heroes, they are NOT the people we should be looking up to, they are not the people we should be trying to emulate--in fact they are actually the villains in the scenario.

Now, when someone gets rich by being amazingly talented in some area, THAT is something to look up to, but it is not the making of money that we look up to, it is the amazing talent that we look up to, it is why that kind of person can be so inspiring, and it's a beautiful thing.

Wanting to be able to touch a lot of people's lives is coming from a different place than doing anything to get rich.

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Political Buddies

When you "get rich", you accumulate things.

It's not creating anything, it's not accomplishing anything other than "look how much I've accumulated, aren't you impressed?"

Money is generally not the motivator of people doing great and unselfish things. It certainly isn't the motivator of people that do ungreedy things.

An artist usually creates things to share with other people, and the more it gets shared, the better for that artist--it isn't the money usually, it's the notoriety, although it's nice to be able to sustain one's self. But it's all about sharing their works with others. A rich person doesn't get rich by sharing with others, a rich person gets rich by keeping it all to him or herself.

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Political Buddies

Just to clarify: There ARE rich people out there who DO keep in touch with what it was like to be poor, there are rich people who give a lot to charities, there are really good rich people out there in general. Unfortunately they do not make up the majority.

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Political Buddies

I agree with a lot of what you say about money, and I'd hope that not many people would need to be told that money is not the way to greatness. I for one, don't think acquiring wealth is a worthy goal, as a main drive. I didn't post the video because I love rich people, I posted it because they get such a bad beat in PC America. It's like the harder you try, the more you are punished. You can't say that it's okay for Angelina Jolie to get 20 million for a movie, but it's not okay for the head of a business to make 20 million for something. It can't be okay for Madonna to make 110 million in 09' because you decide she made it for being artsy.

My thing with your posts is that you don't get to decide why an artist makes a song, or why anyone sets goals. You don't get to say why someone tries to get rich either. This whacked out view that anyone with money got it by stabbing people in the back is silly. Yes, there is generally corruption in wealth.

Amazing talent? So Justin Bieber shouldn't have his money?

There is a general hatred and bias towards wealthy people, especially from poor people on the left. It's a trend I've noticed. I'm not saying that it's cool to hire Chinese factory workers for Wal Mart, and I'm not saying that heartless people are the same as the artist who finally made it big. More later.

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Frrrrrt!

I've never said that I don't think they should be able to make that much money--I just think they should pay their fair percentage like everyone else, they shouldn't be able to find huge loopholes to get out of paying. Right now we're paying some of the lowest taxes that we've had in 50 years (just google it, or look here http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3151 ), yet we have this tea party stuff going on. Things just don't add up.

Actually, I DO find it outrageous the amounts that some actors and artists make--it started becoming ridiculous in the early 90s.

Well, I did make that "just to clarify" post...


That's what makes this so hard. There has gotten to be so much corruption in large businesses in the U.S. that it has actually become "the standard". Once a couple big guys get away with something, the others will follow because they want more money too--and eventually if they don't, they'll fall under. Just take outsourcing for example. Even small businesses are often forced to outsource just to keep up. The corruption has overtaken our way of doing business. Left wingers want to regulate things so it's harder for the corruption to take hold. Right wingers want to just open things up so some magical "trickle down" force will cut down on the corruption, that whole "let the free market decide"--well we've tried that and look where it has gotten us.

Our government has not been doing its job in the anti-trust (anti-monopoly) areas, particularly since the Reagan administration that so many right wingers put up on a pedestal. Our government has not been enforcing the regulations that already exist. Lack of regulations is what got us into the whole bailout mess.

The best scenario is where it is very easy to make a decent living and hard to get filthy rich.

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Political Buddies