You need money to make money.

The tool for measuring “fairness” of the distribution of wealth is the “Gini coefficient“. This tool can point out how the wealth is divided by the general population. A coefficient of 100 would describe a situation in which one individual holds all the income of the country. Although this is only a theoretical value, there are some countries, especially monarchies and dictatorships that have high “Gini coefficients” such as Sierra Leone with a coefficient of 62.9. In the United States the “Gini coefficient” is 45.2 (2006); this is high compared to Great Britain, which has a coefficient of 34 (2005). While capitalistic, democratic countries are mostly in the middle of the range, the communist countries mostly get the lowest values possible. For example, the Czech Republic has a value of 26 due in part to the influence of the former communist regimes. This measurement tool reveals a high correlation between the form of government and fairness.

One major ingredient that helps the rich get richer is capital. You need money and a lot of it in order to invest in the stock market or in new projects. Most of the people lack the critical amount of money to invest or the proper motivation and vision which are required in order to invest their money and gain more than the normal interest rate over a long period of time. If we look at the cost of the human work force over the years, we will see that it is getting very expensive. But we will not stop consuming products just because they are expensive. If the human cost in production will get too high we will have to find new ways to lower the cost, especially by technological improvements. So in the future, robots and computer algorithms will take care of the production line and services. This progression may lead to a more equal society and a better distribution of wealth, but in order to keep human advancement we must reward individual that creates innovation and new technological improvements, or otherwise our society will look more and more like Communism, and Communism paralyzes any desire to innovate because people do not earn much from their hard work.
In conclusion, in my opinion the gap between poor and rich will keep growing, but at a slowing rate as more and more people invest their time in developing new frontiers.

Omri.

The CEO Game.

A New Religious Icon?

“Religion is the opiate of the people“, is one of the most famous and well-known sayings of Karl Marx, a German philosopher and political economist. To his opinion, religion is but a mere deception and a one which through the entire history had misled the weak and prevented them from uprising in order to improve their financial situation. Thus, it’s no wonder that for the last 150 years his books and theories were “banned” from the church. On the contrary, what does sound surprising is the fact that this week the Vatican published an article who praises the Marxism, his doctrine which advocates communist and socialist ideas.

The article appeared in L’Osservatore Romano, the official newspaper of the spiritual capital of a billion Catholics, thus giving it papal endorsement. It claimed that Marx’s criticism on the western capitalism “succeeds in protruding the social alienation that is felt by a large part of humanity” and that remained excluded, even now, from economic and political decision-making. The article also claimed that today, his criticism is more relevant than ever, since mankind is now looking forward to a new harmony between its needs and the natural environment. In addition, the paper argued that Marx’s theories may help to explain the persisting subject of income inequality within capitalist societies.

This sudden approval adds to a constantly growing list of “qualification” actions taken by the Vatican regarding historical figures that underwent an unlikely reappraisal by the church. The first example (is related to the maybe oldest religion-science clash in history) is the legitimization of Galileo, who was on a constant run, playing hide and seek with church only because he cleverly and bravely claimed that the earth is the one who spins around the sun and not the opposite. Likewise, a senior Vatican spokesman argued that Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution can go hand in hand and be compatible with the belief of the church in the tale of Genesis. Moreover, in July the same paper also cherished the Irish playwright Oscar Wilde, which if you Google him you will find out why he and his outtakes against the church’s conservatism don’t exactly go single handedly.

And the alibi? Although the article did criticize some of Marx’s theories, it conveniently said that Marx’s intellectual legacy was abandoned over the years because of the misappropriation of his work by communist regimes and their manipulations of his words. In the end it seems that everything is “kosher” for the Vatican when battling with capitalism. It’s just another means to an end. Even though these are times of change, it’s not so clear how a man who once said that religion “is the heart of a heartless world” can now be endorsed by the church, but maybe we are just politically in-correct.

Omer Shachnai

The CEO Game.