But looking at it as a pie that needs to be divided is wrong. One of the core tenets of capitalism (well, in theory) is that wealth is created literally from nothing. It's not a zero-sum game. In practice, unfortunately, one needs certain prerequisites to be able to do this. So in my view, the problem is not that something is unequally divided, but that a class of people systematically aren't able to create enough wealth and so are stuck in a vicious cycle of poverty.
Most of the real wealth I see being created has ultimately come from the exploitation of natural resources. Far from being 'nothing', most of these limited resources (which in another theory belong to all life on Earth) require underpaid 'human resources' to turn them into the highly-profitable 'nothing' of which you speak.
Much of which winds up in the garbage. (E.g., here in the U.S. we build housing to last for maybe two generations.) If anything, much real wealth comes from turning valuable resources into nothing.
Primary extraction (mining, farming, forestry, fishing) is something like 6% of the global economy.
On average, the things you or I use consist of 6% exploitation of natural resources and 94% of labor after that. Natural resources are important, but now (as opposed to 19th century) they are a tiny part of what we make and use, they are not the main part of wealth.
I'm not talking about equality, but rather equitablity - the system should be fairer than it is, meaning people ought to be compensated fairly for the value they contribute to the system, the issue is, they're not.
My beliefs on sharing the pie are summed up by the following quote "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement" the issue is, we've systematically deprived those of lower ability of paths to opportunity, and deprived those who do succeed of their fair share of the pie.
The older I get the more I realise resources are limited in some ways but not in others. Running out of petroleum isn't as bad as it sounds. Other candidates have already appeared. Reclamation will occur.
That said, polluting the air and water is still not a good idea. Burning coal is still stupid.
Humanity had more than enough food to feed everyone but we are too greedy at the top to actually do so. We dump food in stupid ways for stupid reasons.
This is a very reasonable comment I completely agree with. Even if you don't agree, it's a valid point of view that contributes to the discussion, it doesn't deserve to be downvoted.
