rich people get rich from other people's work. so if the rich "work" it's to pretend that that isn't the arrangement; to maintain the illusion that they work for their money rather that owning the surplus value created by their workers.
>if the rich "work" it's to pretend that that isn't the arrangement; to maintain the illusion that they work for their money rather that owning the surplus value created by their workers.
no, i don't actually have access to their psyches. no one does, so what are you asking for? and what are you asking me for? have you asked others in this thread for evidence why they say rich people are competitive, for instance?
seems to me i made a clear statement about how rich people are rich that is pretty hard to argue with, and it made you feel a way.
i have no evidence for that either, just a human being considering the motivations of another human being given a set of facts.
>so what are you asking for? and what are you asking me for
anything to substantiate your claim (eg. some rich guy's autobiography that says "yep, I work otherwise I feel bad about leeching off people's work"), otherwise it's an unfalsifiable statement and should be dismissed as such.
Your statement was only true prior to the invention of capitalism. After capitalism, its possible to gain wealth without stealing it from workers. Capitalism is more nuanced than many say it is---see the Rerum Noveram by Pope Leo XIII for an intro to the nuance of the issue: he warned owners not to abuse worker, but also called workers not to destroy property of owners or other individuals.
Oppression and wage-theft still occur, bit they are not necessary parts of capitalism per se, but rather abuses of the system. If workers are truly free to choose their jobs, they can leave a bad situation, and that puts market pressure on businesses to do better.
you can't pay a worker as much money as they make for you, because then the business would have no profit. the profits are distributed to the owners; their ownership comes from paying for it, not from working for it, that's what the word capitalist means.
