

Difference Between the Ideal Disparity of Wealth, and the Reality - enraged_camel
http://billmoyers.com/2013/03/06/income-inequality-goes-viral/

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enraged_camel
OP here. The most common argument against this type of thing is what Paul
Graham calls "The Pie Fallacy" [1]. But I think that argument is fundamentally
flawed. While wealth can be created from nothing, one typically requires a
certain amount of wealth to get to the level where they can start creating
wealth.

[1]<http://www.paulgraham.com/wealth.html>

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grn
I think that you confused wealth with money. pg's article you quoted makes
this distinction pretty clearly:

 _If you want to create wealth, it will help to understand what it is. Wealth
is not the same thing as money. [3] Wealth is as old as human history. Far
older, in fact; ants have wealth. Money is a comparatively recent invention._

 _Wealth is the fundamental thing. Wealth is stuff we want: food, clothes,
houses, cars, gadgets, travel to interesting places, and so on. You can have
wealth without having money. If you had a magic machine that could on command
make you a car or cook you dinner or do your laundry, or do anything else you
wanted, you wouldn't need money. Whereas if you were in the middle of
Antarctica, where there is nothing to buy, it wouldn't matter how much money
you had._

Later there's an example of creating wealth:

 _Suppose you own a beat-up old car. Instead of sitting on your butt next
summer, you could spend the time restoring your car to pristine condition. In
doing so you create wealth. The world is-- and you specifically are-- one
pristine old car the richer. And not just in some metaphorical way. If you
sell your car, you'll get more for it._

