Does the Royal family really need to be so rich?

[Darth Vader]

There's no need to keep the poor poor.

 

If you run out, you can always import some more. Just keep them coming and there will be no shortage of cheap labour. Or labour voters.

 

(Wasn't that a Labour policy which was leaked about a year ago?)

 

I'm talking globally, Ruprecht.

[Rupert_Baehr]

Do you [not you specifically] think that if there weren't rich people, there wouldn't be poor people?

 

Well, there would probably be far fewer poor people.

 

Then again, there would probably be far fewer people full stop.

 

I've heard it argued (often, on this forum) that 'the rich got rich by exploiting the workers'.

 

If you stop the rich from exploiting the workers (by giving them jobs to do) the rich won't stay rich - or at least, there won't be many new rich people.

 

The workers won't have jobs, so they'll all have to be self-employed.

 

Those who can't feed themselves will starve. - There won't be any rich people to pay taxes to feed them.

 

North Korea doesn't have a lot of fat-cat capitalists. Does it have any poor people?

[Darth Vader]

If you stop the rich from exploiting the workers (by giving them jobs to do) the rich won't stay rich - or at least, there won't be many new rich people.

 

The workers won't have jobs, so they'll all have to be self-employed.

 

 

That depends on ones definition of the word exploitation.

 

If your definition of exploitation is giving people jobs to do, then, you're correct.

 

If your definition of exploitation is paying the lowest you can get away with to workers whilst maximising the profit for yourself, then, they won't be making the same profits, but they'd still be pretty rich, just not as rich as they wish to be.

[*_ash_*]

I think there's enough to go round comfortably, if people weren't so greedy.

 

I agree (in principle). It's too easy though. And things just don't work that way.

 

Isn't [our] greed based on wanting 'more for less'? We're now conditioned this way [westerners]... with the way that our society has progressed. When other societies progress as we have (i.e China), and catch up, they will want the same.

 

-

 

Greed on a simple scale, is wanting one or two more things than we already have/need (though some people push this to extremes - with real greed).

 

Should a person who seeks water for his family feel greedy when they find it, and shower their family with it? No.

 

What when they have water, will they seek? ... food for themselves and their families. Are they greedy then? No, because this is basic human need.

 

What happens when the whole community is watered and fed, the next stage in how our society was formed. A few years down the line, electricity; communications; health care etc... all become the norm, it is at this point when materialism joins in, and we need people to care for our own new-found 'norms'. Norms become accepted. And then expected. And so the circle starts again with some more poor people who are just 100 years behind.

[Vague_Boy]

Why does the Royal Family need to be so rich?

 

Somebody in the Third-World earning $2 a day might say the same about you.