Do the Rich Need the Rest of America?

http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2010/08/02/do-the-rich-even-need-the-rest-of-america-anymore/

by mechanician • 16 years ago

12 22 16 years ago

blogs.wsj.com

Atlas is shrugging.

EDIT: I meant this only as a connection to the work of literature not at all indicating that the Mega-Wealthy Class actually makes the world go round and is "a good thing"(tm)

api7• 16 years ago

Which "Atlas" are you referring to? If you mean that the American people are tired of supporting a billionaire welfare class, then yeah, maybe.

rdj• 16 years ago

While both remarks were somewhat snarky, I'd like to hear your evidence that "the American people" are supporting the "billionaire welfare class". It's the first time I've ever heard the table turned like that and would like to learn more.

rbranson• 16 years ago

Why do people even pay attention to this drivel? Who is going to dream up their fancy meals, drive their fancy cars, clean their fancy housing, and manage their financial empire? This just touches the surface. Who's going to educate the middle class they depend on for execution, protect their property and legal rights? The rich have more to gain through society, law, and government than any other class.

kd0amg• 16 years ago

The article's claim isn't that they don't need the middle and lower classes, just that they don't need the American middle and lower classes (instead, what they need from those classes can come from foreigners).

muhfuhkuh• 16 years ago

I would love to see an American (even a rich one) navigate (for example) China's business atmosphere and not end up stymied.

I'm often reminded, when someone claims to have the "secret" to some other country's vast "untapped" market, to an interview with Jack Welch when he was still at the helm of General Electric.

Much earlier on, he knew of China's burgeoning economy, and wanted GE to be at the forefront of it, marketing products bearing their service mark on all manner of product. They decided to start with light bulbs, and picked out a plot of land in an industrial area of Northern china and started making them. Within just a few years, China went from the typical 4-5 light bulb companies or factories (which Welch indicates is the norm for any market regardless of population) to 2,700. Every mayor of every town in the nearby area decided to poach one worker from GE's factory, replicate the manufacturing process, secured funding from Central Bank for machines to make bulbs from the US, and set to work competing directly against GE.

Somehow, I don't think China is any kind of market for anyone but the Chinese. Call me crazy.

protomyth• 16 years ago

"Some would argue this is a vast overstatement." - always nice when a link-bait-esque article has the counterpoint built right in.

Do the Rich Need the Rest of America?

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