Inequality of wealth means inequality of opportunity

[Galraedia]

[phantom power]

1. Them that has, gets.

Or: it takes money to make money.

There is a reason those sayings exist, our mythology about classless capitalism notwithstanding.

[jtuck004]

2. The priest that founded the Mondragon cooperatives addressed this by

Last edited Wed Jun 13, 2012, 05:55 PM - Edit history (1)

educating a few people about cooperative ideals (and some religion stuff) for about a decade. They then tried changing the existing economy - no joy.

So they fanned out among the villagers, asked for donations - got the equivalent of $2 million today. Bought a paraffin factory, and have built that into many global cooperatives. They have not been without their problems, but they weathers financial crisis far better than the traditional corp held by a few people for profit.

Part of their success is that they get their capital from themselves - cooperatives funding cooperatives. Not beholden to others, and that makes a huge difference. Not classless, but certainly more egalitarian that most of what we are used to (there are 48,000 cooperatives in the U.S. , iirc).

It takes work to make money, and money can enable that work to make more, Wall Street notwithstanding (money can also be stolen via fraud, it appears). Smart, well-educated people can gather money to use it. Mi$$ Rmoney, the junk bond dealer and his ilk in the banks and mortgage houses use it for evil. Mondragon's members, in a capitalist world, uses it to effect a world in which their work provides for them. As opposed to what we have built, a place where we provide for work.

[obiden20122008]

3. Excelle post

Really sums up the whole problem.