Forum Post: Choice Head

Anyone is permitted to get rich. But what are the odds? I can imagine a world tomorrow in which everyone has what the rich have today. I guess you could say they're all rich. We could say that about many people today who have orders of magnitude more material wealth in our possession than the average person 150 years ago. That's rich. However, only if rich is redefined. So, what does wealthy mean in the here and now?

Ok. We could quibble all day about an exact definition. So let's be arbitrary and say rich is the ownership of ten times the average material wealth and money. We can also agree that on any given day there is a finite amount of material goods, services and the money that represents them. Then the question is: If ten percent of the population have 90% of the wealth, what percentage of goods is, on average left for 9 out 10 people?

An other interesting question is what quantity of material goods and services can one individual produce by their own hard work? Is it twice the average? Three times? It's certainly not ten times the mean! So, obviously, in order to be rich, others must do much of the work for you.

I say that there's no material difference between an employee and a slave. We tell ourselves that we have a choice to work for someone. But that's all in our heads. The rich have all the property, power and money. If we choose not to work for them, most of us will starve or live miserably.

Yes, Marx expected us to rise up and seize their property and power, which he called the means of production, rather than perish in service to the rich. But Marx didn't live in America, where the slaves of the rich believe we are free.

https://youtu.be/ugHCnzHKEA4