Come on, can we, should we, ALL be billionaires??

Sir, pardon me please, re your reply in the "100 Wealthiest" thread, but I assert that we cannot ALL be billionaires. If we all struck it rich today, and retired, we'd all starve!

Our system requires losers, even if they weren't a natural outcome of competiton. They are needed to serve drinks and otherwise labor for the rich and/or retired! This is understood by the wealthy, who lobby and make the rules which perpetuate it. Even so, power accumulates.

Not to mention the inflation! If we all become billionaires only gradually, a loaf of bread would be a million dollars. Somehow, some way, the powerful will control a larger basket of goods than the weak. You can see this simple truth in history.

As long as there remain inherent differences amongst people, both in their native abilities, and how much of a head start their country and family give them relative to others, there will always be, must always be, winners and losers.

Resources are in fact limited at any given point in time, and while they can be increased, giving the illusion of infinitude, population growth and consumption has a way of absorbing the extra. Not to mention the unintended, unwanted consequences of rising consumption.

Doesn't mean anyone shouldn't try to improve their lot in life, of course. I merely caution against sugar-covering your success, if you achieve it, with "resources are infinite, we can all have it all" talk. Acknowlege and appreciate the less fortunate, the younger who have not had time, the older whose powers are on the decline, they who do not command your wealth and are resigned, at least for now, to cutting your hair. : )

In practice I have found this way of belief makes me very kind and considerate, and often forgiving, to the clerks, cab drivers, shopkeepers and bellhops I encounter. Not that you aren't, sir!

But I digress. Now, where was that post with the tricks for driving thousands, no millions, of people to my website, and only my website... ; )