Trickle Up Economics
The problem with money is that it's being siphoned off and hoarded by the super wealthy.
I'm not talking about millionaires or people that worked hard and made a "good life" for themselves; I'm talking about the kind of stat like how the 8 richest people in the world have more money than 50% of the people on the planet COMBINED.
Every time we make a purchase, the money trickles up and stays there.
Money is just energy...
If we lived in an equitable world, it would flow freely among the people as we produce goods and provide services for each other. We would have enough to invest in each other, and to continue to create and produce for ourselves and each other.
Instead, when we make a purchase, usually through a large corporation or benefiting a large corporation through their stranglehold on precious Earth materials (smartphones anyone?), the money we pay bypasses the workers doing the actual labor and straight into the pockets of the super-rich.
Or it goes to the war machine through our taxes, furthering exploitation of people and resources from faraway lands, and to the banks that finance all of the operations that happen below.
Let me repeat again...we live in a world in which the richest EIGHT people have more wealth than 50% of the population COMBINED. That's 3.8 Billion people.
Our power is in what we choose support. They have power over us through our dependence on them. That goes for pretty much any system of control...police, laws, our stomachs, etc
We all depend on them to some extent and we're all doing what we can with the resources we have. But I think it's seriously time to consider a large-scale boycott that targets most of the things we currently buy.
There are no easy answers, but there are obvious things we can cut out or substitute for (sigh) lesser evils. We need to figure out in-roads to supporting moral choices that are accessible to all people.
Humans are innovative as fuck, and I am blessed to know many of these people who are building the roads to a more equitable and just future for all. Nothing good comes easy, so let us fight for it and attain it!!
"we live in a world in which the richest EIGHT people have more wealth than 50% of the population COMBINED."
That's exactly what happens and what you expect if you let money flow freely. Those who can make good trades secure a higher share of wealth which they can invest again to make even more money. As a result of this process, more and better paying jobs are created and the wealth generated by a growing economy is passed down to the workforce. Stating that there is anything wrong with free-market capitalism, just because there's rich people out there is nothing but marxist sophistry.
That chart defines poverty as living with either $1-$2 per day. Is this the new standard for poverty...sounds like this figure came straight out of an Orwell novel or something.
And there is no evidence that wealth actually trickles down. In fact, everything has shown that "trickle-up" is what happens in reality. Look at You even agreed with me in your first sentence...right? These people are for the most part not reinvesting in the welfare or actual prosperity for the masses.
Look at the largest corporations and how they pay the majority of their workers, both in the USA and oversees.
I'm fine with "free-market" whatever, but what you described doesn't actually happen in reality. It's a nice dream and vision to be fed, but guess who are the ones feeding it to us...that's right, the elites who are laughing their way to the bank with all of our money and paying shit wages to the majority of workers.
It's crazy how they convince people that their are public benefactors. Trickle down economics has been proven to be bullshit over and over again...
It's also crazy how people are convinced that neoliberal, fascist corporate takeover and control is "free-market" anything. And then they call people "Marxists" for pointing that shit out.
Is creating jobs not investing in public welfare? And yes, the neoliberal entanglement between financial and political elites does not comply to with free-market principles (aka capitalism). This is called cronyism and should be frowned upon.
Creating jobs CAN be investing in public welfare, but not creating minimum-wage jobs (say in the USA), poverty wages and slave labor oversees, or dumping pollutants into the environment.
Walmart, the largest employer in the United States, does not provide a livable wage, which ends up costing taxpayers $6.2B in government assistance that they needed.
https://theintercept.com/2017/06/13/theres-a-new-way-to-make-walmart-pay-for-the-food-stamps-employees-rely-on/
We subsidize shit wages, while corporations make Billions off exploiting their workers. Anyone who works 40 hours a week should make a live-able wage. And there are too many shit-paying jobs and not enough jobs that people can support their families on.