Envious of the Rich?

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In response to my remark about someone paying $1,800 dollars for a single set of plumbing fixtures for one shower and that they must have "more dollars than sense," David (a fellow member of our cheap-shelter group on Yahoo) posted: "Envy is a sin, sounds to me like they have enough sense to know how to make lot's of money."
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David -- please don't take this personal -- it's really not meant to be. I had actually responded to the larger part of your post (defending the virtues of log construction) but it slipped into cyberspace when the library computer turned on me -- frustrating. (I'll try again "later.") You mentioned "envy" and it stuck in my frustrated craw triggering the following rant -- for what it's worth:
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When I was 17 or 18 -- and a fresh convert of "Think and Grow Rich" and "The Very, Very Rich and How They Got That Way" -- I believed personal wealth was a proportional yardstick -- a measure of one's contribution to the greater good of all mankind. If I've ever experienced any evidence in support of that belief -- and I doubt it -- it's been so long ago, I've forgotten what it might have been. It's been said that if the population of the world were reduced to 100 people -- with all our prevailing inequities intact -- the 6 wealthiest among them would all be white and all 6 of them would live in the U.S. Yet the average annual cash income of the poorest 20 percent of Americans is $5,226 dollars. That's an incredible disparity of wealth within our own borders and it's a problem. It grows into an even greater disparity of wealth internationally which will continue to cause us tidal waves of grief.
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Before I forget to ask: Will someone PLEASE summarize for me the cosmic levels of genius which our corporate CEOs must have stuffed in their shiny bald heads to earn or somehow justify the obscene amounts of money these clowns make every year? Every shareholder who allows their money to be leveraged to inflate these prima donna egos is a criminal accomplice to the ongoing crimes of these CEOs who lie and cheat and steal and do whatever it takes to prop up the value of their morally bankrupt stock.
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All indications are this shameful disparity will only continue to increase as our government mechanisms at all levels are increasingly owned and operated by the very profit-seeking business interests they are SUPPOSED to govern. Does this mean I'm envious of these gluttonous self-serving leaches while they build their heavens here on earth? Hardly.
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There was a time when I truly believed the wealthy were richly blessed because of their measurable contribution to the improvement in quality of life for all of us. Thanks to their insatiable appetites for MORE -- of everything -- I can no longer afford the intellectual laxative of such mealy-mouthed hogwash.
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sail4free
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