Just a reminder to the rich, when statistics state that the average American makes $50,000 a year, many of us make less than that. About half the country is struggling to make ends meet.
Please watch this video to get a better understanding of the wealth gap. Leon Cooperman is wrong when he claims the 99% could join the 1%. He clearly doesn't comprehend how this works.
https://youtu.be/6GWzpq1Ff78
Here's the article that got me started on Cooperman: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/01/30/moral-calculations-billionaire/
If 9 people make $10/hour ($20,800 per year) and one makes a billion a year, and you average the income among the 10 people, you get an average of a hundred million a year. The average skews high becauae the billionaire breaks the curve, so suddenly the billionaire thinks the other people actually have enough to get by. I wonder how much the average American would make if the 1% weren't factored in to the average. For example, what is the average income of workers on the bottom half of the economic ladder? I'm going to guess the average is closer to $20,000 a year, and that doesn't include people who are disabled.
I live on about $12,000 a year; my housing is subsidized. My artwork/jewelry doesn't sell, and I can't handle the stress of work these days. My social awkwardness makes coworkers hate me. (Why do people hate on neurodivergent people so much?) That's more stress than I can handle on its own. Add in how the CIA has taken over my life, and there's no way I can work with neurotypical people who expect me to be normal like them. Trying to be normal takes more energy than I have to give. And even if I do work, I'm not qualified for any job that makes a living wage, so it's not worth the stress. When I get stressed, I get Crohn's disease symptoms. When I worked in the food industry, it meant missing a lot of work due to being required to call in sick over diarrhea.
I actually want to work. I have lots of ideas that would make money, but don't have the resources or skills required for success. But I'm more driven to work because I want to make the world a better place. When life improves for people at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder, it improves for everyone. I get a lot of satisfaction when people see the cake I decorated for them and are happy. I'm motivated to work to find solutions to problems in the world because I value the future. Cooperman says that without capitalism there's no reward, but my question is, what are we really rewarding him for? What does he do that makes the world better for the rest of us? He hasn't solved world hunger or the climate crisis. I don't think we'd notice much if he didn't do the work he does. He deals with money for the sake of money. He's siphoning off resources from those who do real work, and he thinks he deserves to be rewarded by the world, for what?
Capitalism will always leave behind people like me; it's a system that simply doesn't work for everyone because it's inherently competitive. Those without the ability to compete are often better at what they do than those out to make a quick buck, but we get left behind.
Vincint Van Gogh was a perfect example of a talented person for whom capitalism did not work. Nicola Tesla was another example. They were exploited by those with money. Cooperman doesn't seem to comprehend how capitalism doesn't work for everyone, so he would do well to learn about Van Gogh and Tesla.
Cooperman probably also realizes that his skills in making money would be useless in a non-capitalist society. He's not a Tesla or a Van Gogh, so his work won't be remembered. It sounds like making money is the only thing he's good at. Why does our society reward people like him? I bet I worked far harder as a baker than he ever has in his cushy office.
He's completely out of touch with society. I don't know if he's just trying so hard to justify his billions that he's turned a blind eye to how the world really works, but there's actually something missing from his thought processes at this point.
I recently read that parts of Portland don't have sidewalks, and they're in the more poor parts of town. Maybe Cooperman should build those sidewalks for people who can't afford them.
