Tag Archives: class warfare

Psychology 101:

people are lazy. They’re not going to engage in an activity unless it’s:
a) enjoyable
and/or
b) they believe it will benefit them personally.

Can we agree that unless a person actually happens to like their job, then work is not enjoyable? Yet we engage in it because we believe it benefits us to doing so.

Sometimes even if the only benefit is a pay check.

If you could find a way to get paid without having to work for it, would you do it?

I know that a certain percentage of the population wouldn’t. They find satisfaction in the work they do – it’s physically, artistically, or intellectually stimulating for them.

Moocher Class

But there’s another portion of the population that has no desire to achieve, no drive to engage or contribute, and no willingness to learn marketable skills. Oh, they have desires, drives, and skills, but none for which society would be willing to compensate them for using. We’ll call them the moocher class.

“Disabled”

Then there’s a small percentage of the population that truly lacks the ability to care for themselves. Even if they possess desire, drive and skills, there are valid reasons which prevent them from being able to support themselves. Or their bodies cannot handle the demands that would be required to engage in a skill or trade for the amount of time required to earn such a wage. We’ll call them the Able Yet Un-Able class.

Middle Class

The largest portion of the population we’ll call the middle class. These I tend to think of as “worker bees.” They go about their day-to-day routine: do their job, go home, eat, sit in front of the TV or play with the family, and are pretty much content to live life as it comes to them. And there’s nothing wrong with being a worker bee. Indeed society needs worker bees – not everyone can be the queen. There’s a quiet nobility in the middle class. They, for the most part, are the heart of America. They bring up their children to know right from wrong, teaching them a good work ethic, and eventually how to find a mate and raise a family of their own.

Two Percenters

There’s another percentage of the population, commonly called “The Two Percent,” who has Desire and Drive, and are willing to learn whatever Skills are needed to Achieve and Earn more than most. In their efforts to benefit themselves, they end up benefiting society.

How? First, because the marketplace will not compensate the Two Percenters for their efforts unless they provide a product or service that the market place really wants or needs. Therefore, they’ve fulfilled a need that benefits the marketplace (society).

Second, if their product or service is in great demand, they eventually have to hire others to help. Now, they’ve provided jobs.

Now let’s look at how much “compensation” these Two Percenters are going to earn for their products or services. Well, that depends on how much the marketplace is willing to compensate them. If a hypothetical Mr. Two Percent decides to charge too much, nobody will buy. (And if it’s a really good product, someone else will figure out how to provide it for less.) But if he charges too little, then he’s unable to even recoup his costs. Therfore, he’s going to charge an amount which the marketplace tells him is reasonable, as long as he’s able to recoup costs AND make a large enough profit to support himself while he either improves this one product/service or begins work on a new one.

Let’s talk about the costs that Mr. Two Percent has to cover: materials and utilities used in production, wages of any employees and/or contractors, and space needed to manufacture and warehouse the product (if required) are all pretty standard. Some of these are “static” costs and others are “fluid.”

For instance materials and utilities tend to be pretty static. The charges that Mr. Two Percent must pay for these don’t fluctuate very much, unless there’s some kind of supply and demand, or even seasonal effect on price. Space can be a pretty static cost, although rent will rise annually depending on the economy and the area, but cost of ownership of a space will remain constant.

It’s the wages paid that will fluctuate the most. Wage or other compensation will depend on an employee’s or contractor’s position within the company and their particular value to the company (how easy it would be to replace them, their skills, and their knowledge). Although we don’t normally think of Mr. Two Percent actually earning less than anyone else that he would employ, I’ve known many businesses in which the owners made a point of making sure that their staff was paid before they were – even if it meant they DIDN’T get paid at all. That was a choice they made between letting someone go & doing more of the work themselves (when they were already working 80 hours per week), or living on less in order to remain sane.

The Bitter Class

Now! Let’s talk about another portion of our population. We’re going to call them the Bitter Class. You’ll find them among the 98% of the population outside the Two Percenters. How much of that 98% is actually a member of the bitter class is unknown. Definitely 100% of the moocher class belongs in this portion of the population, some of the Able Yet Un-Able are in this class, and there seems to be a growing portion of the middle class within them (thanks to the class warfare that’s being pushed by leaders within the Bitter Class and politicians who would use them). Although we can’t know how many there actually are, here are some was to recognize them:

• They’re envious of anyone who’s a member of the Two Percent class. More than that, they’re jealous.
• They seem to think that the Two Percenters shouldn’t make more than anyone else. And if they do, they should give it all away to “those less fortunate.” And if the Two Percenters aren’t willing to do that, they want the government to play Robin Hood by forcibly taking what the Two Percenters have worked for and EARNED, and redistribute it to those who didn’t work for it nor earn it.
• They seem to think that businesses shouldn’t make profits. I guess they expect the owners and stockholders to work and invest their time, energy, and capital without thought to compensation. Yet they don’t seem to think it wrong for entertainers and artists to be compensated for their work or uniquely created material.
• Some go so far as to think that companies shouldn’t charge for their products or services. I suppose they expect all the company employees to work for free, too. What would they think if someone were to suggest the same to their employer?

Remember our first point of agreement: people are lazy and will not engage in activity they find either unenjoyable or does not benefit them in some way? You see, the Two Percenters are the same. They either enjoy what they do, or expect a benefit (compensation) for engaging in that activity, or both.

And the Bitter Class will always enjoy and/or see the benefit in buying into the socialist agenda of class warfare and the concept of “from everyone according to their means, to everyone according to their needs.” They’ll always blame everyone and everything else but themselves for their standard of living. They’ll always point fingers, shake fists, and shout to anyone who’ll listen that somehow they’re a part of “those in need” and are not only owed some of those means, but that it’s those with the means that have held them back and kept them down, and that’s why their standard of living isn’t to the level that they’d like. To them, there’s always a conspiracy of “the rich” to keep others “poor.”

Some members of the Bitter Class will NEVER leave it. But there are some who can be educated enough to realize that:

• There really is no benefit to “the rich” to keep others poor.
• There really is not a limited amount of wealth in the world – it can be created.
• They can improve their standard of living simply by learning to make themselves more valuable to the marketplace.

I can tell you from personal experience that the Bitter Class mindset will never make you valuable to the marketplace. You’re the kind of person that the marketplace “smiles when you walk out of the room” instead of when you enter it.

Grow Up!

So stop ranting about the rich not paying their fair share. (And when you hear someone else spout such dribble, remember that they’re just being a crab in your bucket – yeah, go look that one up.) The “evil rich” have paid more than their fair share through blood, sweat, and tears in order to reach the status that they’ve achieved. And they still contribute to society in more ways than you can ever comprehend with your limited understanding and your limited viewpoint – that refuses to even look in order to begin to understand. You don’t know how much they make nor how much of it they give away. And they’ll never give it to you because they choose to give where they see fruit – and you ain’t producing it. As a matter of fact, you’re most likely the poison that’s killing the fruit of others.

If you want to increase your value to the marketplace, start first by closing your mouth and start looking at the fact that everyone (including “the rich”) has the same problems and issues as you, yet some are somehow able to overcome them. Then figure out how they overcame them. If you want to do the same, then take the same steps they did.

Everyone is human and shares the same frailties. Why don’t you stop asking, “What can I get for free?” And start asking, “What can I do in order to EARN what I really want?”