Artful Dodger:

> They can afford to work on their golf swing.

Of course, you realize I am being silly. I am sure the rich do more than work on their golf swing. Some work on their tennis forehand too!

> They employ 100s of people who otherwise might not have a job were it not for that
> rich person who took risks and started a business.

Some rich people also took risks, opened a business and got rich by exploiting hundreds of people in their companies. It is not all about idealizing capitalism. Reality is never quite as nice as ideology paints it.

> I know people who work for such rich bosses. They make a decent living wage plus
> benefits. I know at least one multi millionaire who started a trucking business here,
> and a landscaping business, and a coffee shop. He employs over 50 people. He
> doesn't golf. He does take frequent trips to Honduras and uses his money to help
> build churches and homes and wells.

I know another businessman like that. He owns a paving company here. He employs hundreds, runs a professional soccer team, and also finds the time to help others. Not everyone is a ruthless predator. The truth is that it is a mixed bag because the rich are as prone to the failings of human nature as the poor are.

Many poor people work very hard. They take care of their families, help others, do what is right, etc. Some poor people fall through the cracks. They fall into crime, drugs, and other terrible things. There are good and bad people among the poor.

Likewise, there are good and bad people among the rich. Some create jobs, help others with their money, take care of their families and do good things for their community.

Then there are those who would do anything to make more money. Ponzi schemes, big organized crime, exploiting and abusing others. subverting governments, corrupting politicians and law enforcement personnel, etc.

We hear of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet spending billions in charitable work. Then we hear of Bernie Madoff and other crooks.

Some rich people go so far as to resort to murder to make a profit. For example, there is now big problems with a Canadian-owned gold mine in Guatemala where the company sent armed crooks to force peasants out of their land so that he mine could extract the gold. They killed several local activists that wanted the mine to stop polluting the local river water because people in nearby villages are developing cancer and other diseases. We have cases like the Bopal disaster in India. It has been 27 years and people in India are still trying to get compensation from Union Carbide.

> You have stereotyped people with money, lumped them all into the same pot, made a
> caricature of them, and then made fun of the invention in your small mind.

The truth is that both views are caricature. The rich penny-pincher miser who cares only about profit and has no regard for other is a caricature. So is the godly rich man who opens his purse and showers the poor with money.

Reality is somewhere in between because we as human beings are full of contradictions. The best example is John D. Rockefeller. He became the world's first billionaire and gave millions to charity. He helped many poor people with all the money he made through his Standard Oil Company (today's Exxon). At the same time, he gave millions of dollars to the Nazis and supplied the Nazis with the fuel and patents to power their war planes. Rockefeller also gave a lot of money to Franco, the fascist dictator of Spain. Rockefeller did these things because he hated communism and believed in eugenics. Rockefeller had a reputation for honesty and kindness, and also a reputation as a fascist.

Of course, this is an extreme example. The point is, the rich do good sometimes, and they do terrible things for money too. Unfortunately, capitalism has done more harm than good around the world. Capitalists don't like to admit it because admitting wrongdoing implies that something has to be done to fix things. It is always easier to hide behind ideology than to admit that profitting though human suffering is wrong.